Fanclub Meeting 1993 – report

At the beginning of 1993, our fan club had been in existence for a good year, and many new members had joined, especially during and after the We Can't Dance tour. Seconds Out, the cover band from Aschaffenburg, had just been formed, and someone suggested organizing our first fan club meeting, perhaps in conjunction with a Seconds Out concert. We talked to the band and they suggested using the concert already scheduled for May 30, 1993, in Aschaffenburg for this purpose. This was particularly suitable because right next to the venue, the Colos-Saal, there was a small pub called Gambrinusbräu, which was an ideal venue for such an event.

The meeting was well received by the club members, even though we had no experience in this area and things were quite unstructured and hectic. But we got a first impression of what we could do differently/better at future meetings, which we then endeavored to do year after year.

Unfortunately, we neglected to take photographs during the club day, and none of our acquaintances did so either. Only two subpar photographs reached us years later (see below). Perhaps one day we will find someone who took pictures during the meeting. There were no tickets or posters either—just a "backstage" pass for the editorial team. At least we wrote a short report about this first club day in Club Magazine #8, so that a few nostalgic memories can come to mind…

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Aschaffenburg, Pentecost 1993

The first "Invisible Touch" club meeting took place in Aschaffenburg on May 30. We announced the date in the March issue of the club magazine, followed by a news telegram in early May with information about the planned schedule and directions. Unfortunately, very few members had specifically expressed what they wanted us to do on that day, and this was almost always a request for a flea market and rare video material.

We had been thinking for a long time about how the day should go and what interesting things we could take with us to Aschaffenburg. None of us had any experience in organizing such an event, so we focused mainly on the flea market and the video screenings. Peter contributed the bulk of our sales/exchange offerings. Since his second hobby besides the club is a mail-order business for CD singles, he was able to find some rare items (often in large quantities) for you. Bernd and Helmut's contributions were relatively modest because they could only offer a few items that they had duplicates of.

The range was then supplemented by stickers and buttons from the I.T. fan shop. We borrowed a projector for the video show. The rest of the musical equipment (video recorder, amplifier, CD player, speakers, etc.) came from Helmut. To complement the flea market and videos, we had the idea of exhibiting some of the most beautiful things related to Genesis. So we "threw" our three collections "into one pot" and created folders with old tickets, backstage passes, tour books, buttons, etc.

On the eve of the event, the IT editorial team met at Helmut's place, and the next morning we picked up a rented minibus at 8 a.m. After stowing away mountains of flea market items, folders, and countless boxes of hi-fi equipment and various odds and ends, we set off south. Helmut's wife Silvia and two acquaintances, who would later act as "security," also came along.

We arrived in Aschaffenburg at 10 a.m. Now we saw the meeting venue for the first time, which we had only heard about before. After figuring out what should be placed where, we set to work bringing the huge amounts of stuff from the bus to the restaurant. Gradually, order was restored to the chaos, and by lunchtime, everything was organized. In one corner of the hall, which was raised on a platform, we had set up a "backstage" area for ourselves. The audio and video equipment was also located there.

A screen measuring approximately 3 by 5 meters was hung on one wall of this corner so that the projected image could be seen from as many places as possible. To the left of it, the flea market items and the folders with the rarities from our collections were spread out on four tables. Then came the shock: during a test run, the video projector kept switching to "malfunction" mode and only projected the first images onto the screen shortly before the event began.

We were now very excited to see what would happen in the next four hours and thought that interesting conversations would arise between everyone present and that one of us could take turns helping Helmut's wife at the flea market stall. For our safety, "security" was to keep an eye on the items on display. "Perfectly planned," we thought…

At 2 p.m., the doors opened and we were ready to welcome you and take things slowly. But after the approximately 50 club members present at that time had briefly oriented themselves, the big "run" on the flea market began. Within a very short time, the small area in front of the tables had filled up and people were busily looking for missing items. Our exhibition caused some misunderstandings, as it was often mistakenly thought to be for sale. Unfortunately, our "security" was also missing for the first 40 minutes, which made things quite stressful.

Prices were haggled over, information about individual items was requested, and money and records were passed back and forth. Some members picked up the club magazine #7, fresh from the printer. Others began pulling tour books, etc. out of the folders to take a closer look, which we unfortunately could not allow under these chaotic circumstances.

In short, even long after security arrived, the situation did not calm down significantly, so that practically none of us had the opportunity to talk to any of you in peace. The planned welcome speech also fell victim to the stress and was given much too late and was completely improvised.

The video material shown was certainly very interesting for most of those present. It included past concerts such as The Musical Box (closing section), live in Paris '73, Genesis in Concert '76, Three Dates With Genesis, and Steve Hackett live in Nottingham '81, as well as the current rarities All About US and No Admittance about the creation of US and We Can't Dance.

The event ended at 6 p.m., and as we packed up our belongings to take home, the crowd slowly dispersed. Once all the work was finally done, there was little sign of the meeting left in the restaurant. Only a few familiar faces remained, sitting together for a while. The day ended with a concert by Seconds Out, who gave their best performance yet in the neighboring Colos-Saal.

In summary, the meeting can be described as quite successful, even though things got a little chaotic at times and the desired dialogue between the fans, or with us, often failed to materialize. We learned a lot from the event and will certainly incorporate these experiences into the next club meeting in 1994. Any suggestions or help you can offer are always welcome.

Meeting staff:

Planning/organization: Helmut Janisch, Peter Schütz, Bernd Zindler, Uwe Brehmer
Crew: Silvia Janisch, Susanne Schütz
Security: Arno Harth, Michael Schneider

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Author (review and article from it magazine 8, September 1993): Helmut Janisch