Member for 15 years ...

by Alexander Alberts

A cassette tape of my uncle’s introduced me (b. 1977) to the music of Genesis. The combination of songs from the Genesis and Invisible Touch albums quickly captivated me. My first LP from the Genesis camp was Phil Collins’ ...But Seriously and then Serious Hits... Live. In 1991 (when I was 14) I added Genesis’ We Can’t Dance.  Soon after I entered the age of the CD, and my first silver disc was a Genesis album, Selling England By The Pound! Now I was also hooked on the ‘old Genesis’, and I became a serious fan.

When I had all the albums in my CD rack I finally noticed the Genesis fanclub in 1996. I joined and have been a member of it for 15 years. For this jubilee I have looked through my old documents (I come from a family where everything is carefully filed and stored away) and I actually found the letter of acceptance from Helmut, Peter and Bernd: A small green welcome letter! In my files I also found the first order I placed with Peter; that was how I got the issues 6 to 8 of the magazine in March 1996. In the years that followed I soaked up everything that the Fanclub offered. I think I bought literally everything Peter ever offered in the it shop. It was the magazines that gave me the biggest pleasure. I could hardly wait for the new issues, and the regular delays tried my patience. These magazines were my only source of Genesis information in the 1990s, which made them priceless. I cannot thank Helmut, Peter and Bernd enough for this. It would not make sense to point out particular items from the magazines because, as a fan, I found everything in them interesting and relevant. I would like to mention, however, that the magazines became more professional and better in quality with every issue. The final issues in particular were superior in terms of the print quality to all the music magazines with all their professional and financial possibilities.

At the turn of the millennium the internet era began for the Fanclub and therefore, by force, also for me. I have to admit that I was deeply disappointed at first. Not that the first steps the club took in the internet had been bad, but I had a hankering for the printed magazines. To this day I remain convinced that a yearbook with reviews of new albums from the Genesis camp, a summary of the year in terms of Genesis, introduction of rarities and other topics would be popular with many members of the Fanclub.

But back to the internet. The homepage has grown immensely in recent years and it is managed very professionally. It is the flagship of the fanclub. Apart from the well-arranged basic information for new fans and other interested sides the start page and the regular e-mail newsletters keep offering new information even to ‘old hands’. Occasional competitions and various polls are also popular, and rightly so. The biggest trump of the homepage, in my eyes, is the forum. In it, the Fanclub offers the perfect place for an exchange between us fans – and the German one is quite unique. Thank you, Christian in particular, for this. I access the homepage regularly and join in the discussions in the forum every now and then. Quite frequently I am happy just to read the opinions of others and to (perhaps) revise my own views and opinions.

The absolute highpoint of the fanclub are the conventions. It is simply incredible what they have achieved in recent years. They have put together amazing exhibitions of rarities and prepared most amusing quiz games. We are regularly treated to interesting and rare video footage, and again and again they have managed to lure interesting people from the Genesis camp to Germany. And once they are there everybody get the unique opportunity to ask the questions they have been dying to ask of them. The Wilson Event 2004 and the Hackett Event 2009 were absolute highlights in that way. Just incredible! The fanclub meetings have become larger and more professional every year. It may be a long way from southwest Germany to Welkers (near Fulda) but it has never been an obstacle for me. I had almost arrived at one event when I realized I had forgotten my ticket at home, but that was no problem at all. I could not have gone back home anyway.

I hope that our four “chiefs” retain the fun and pleasure they get from the fanclub and keep working for it for a long time to come. It would be great if the high level the fanclub has reached could be maintained or even raised further by expanding the homepage (e.g. with tour dates, session activities of the musicans).