The Fanzine: a Time To Remind

First issue was published in June 1988. “For some of the headlines, we simply cut out words and letters from newspapers and magazines and put them together in a new order” explained Stephan Heimbecher, the Hercules coordinator, “Issue number 5 was the first to be prepared with the aid of a computer”. The different items of merchandise they produced: the calendars, coats, umbrellas, shirts and even a very special collection of 50 copies of switch watch, constitute a valuable collectors items now because they are sold out. And the fans get-together, like the one they planned for this weekend, a chance to meet other eltonites aroud the world while they all come to see an Elton concert, among others activities.

Tell me romantic, but the times when I receive the Hercules fanzine or East End Lights fanzine are sadly gone. That was the only way to get information about Elton, in the pre-internet-era. Now our access to the information about Elton is much easier and instantanely. That’s an advantage, of course. But those little pieces of art, the printed pages and the have-to-arrive-now envelope is part of our collective memories. I guess that should be sadly for the team and everything has to evolve, but let me today pay my little homage to all of them:

to Stephan, who met Elton at his house in London in April 1997

to last Hercules editor Tammi Law, who met Elton during an after-show party at Wembley Stadium, after the Summer Of 84 concert, while Elton was very drunk and took her to see his car parked.

to Holger Wagner, then contact with the German record company, and met Elton in 1994 when he asked him to play “Live Like Horses” live on his Royal Albert Hall shows, what he finally did.