Fanclub Meeting 1997 – report

The venue, Bürgerhaus Welkers, and the date, Pentecost weekend, had already become something of a tradition with this meeting. The advantages were obvious: the long weekend made it easier for visitors from further afield to decide to make the trip to the Fulda region. And for us, it was also a great advantage to already be familiar with the venue, to prevent any problems from arising next time, and to further improve processes and technical details. Even after five events of this kind, there was still room for improvement.

For the 1997 meeting, we fell back on tried-and-tested methods, but also tried out some new ideas. Among other things, we introduced the "Come Talk To Me" sticker, which visitors could write their name on and wear openly. Since many club members did not know each other personally, but may have heard one or two names or read them in the magazine, we wanted to make it easier for them to make contact, which obviously worked well.

Admission began at 11 a.m., and after all visitors had been provided with program booklets, admission passes, and "Come Talk To Me"-stickers, the official welcome followed. Immediately afterwards, the first live act began.

After the acclaimed performance of "The Way We Folk" last year, we asked Bernd Vormwald to perform live music again in 1997, and he couldn't refuse our request. This time, his duo partner was club member Steffen Gerlach on drums/percussion. The two are long-time friends and also played together in a band. For the project, the duo once again chose a band name with a Genesis reference: The Brazilians. They played a colorful mix of songs by Genesis & Co.: Come Talk To Me, Am I Very Wrong, Silver Song, White Mountain, The Roof Is Leaking, How Can I?, The Living Years, Medley: Biko/Hand In Hand, Come Home To Me Now, and Blood Of Eden. The audience was thrilled.

After a lunch break, it was time for the quiz. This time, we had come up with something new. Unlike in previous years, each candidate was allowed/required to determine the category (Genesis, solo projects, discography, and "hearing test") for the next question by throwing a dart at a dartboard marked with the corresponding areas. This did not always work as we had imagined, and therefore the dart concept, as well as this form of quiz in general, was not continued later on.

A lengthy video presentation of interesting footage from the Genesis universe was followed by another premiere: the "Rudis" quiz, based on a quiz format from Rudi Carrell's "Rudis Urlaubsshow" [German TV-Show] in the mid-1990s. All Meeting Day visitors were able to actively participate, and it worked as follows: At the beginning of each round, everyone stood up from their seats and held up a red and a green card, which we had distributed on the chairs beforehand. Then Oliver Schlapp read out a statement about Genesis & Co. that could be either true or false. Example: "John Silver was the first drummer of Genesis."

Everyone in the audience then had to evaluate this statement and indicate their opinion by holding up the appropriate card (red for wrong, green for right). This had to be done spontaneously and simultaneously. Oliver then announced whether the statement was true or not. Anyone who guessed wrong was out of that round and had to sit down. Any cheating was punished with elimination. Ideally, at the end, there would be one visitor left standing, who would win a prize. We played several rounds of this quiz and it was very well received. So well, in fact, that we have played it again with the audience at almost every event since then.

This was followed by a second live act. Club member Eddy Pachali had already taken his guitar out of his car late at night after the end of the regular program at previous club days and performed songs from the Genesis/Gabriel repertoire. So it was only natural that we asked him to perform officially at the club day. It was an entertaining performance in which he sang and played the guitar. Two flower pots with artificial flowers and a face on them, which Eddy placed on the table in front of him during his performance, provided some amusement. They reacted to acoustic signals and therefore moved more or less rhythmically to the music. Bernd Vormwald sang and played together with Eddy as a duo for one song.

After another short break, there was an auction of Genesis rarities, and the traditional collectors' market brought the day to a close. Ralf Schudt was also there with his stand for the first time, including a "wall" several meters wide, completely filled with rare vinyl records.

It is perhaps worth mentioning that on this club day, we were able to exclusively display an early draft of the first Genesis Archive box set in the exhibition. This was from 1995, and the box set was not actually released until 1998.

Fun fact: This time, the program booklet was visually based on the program for Genesis' Mama tour. The logo for the meeting—a collage of motifs from various Genesis album covers—was not created by us this time, but by club member Ian Maugherman.

Author: Helmut Janisch (2025)
Photos: Helmut Janisch, Peter Schütz

---

Gallery