WINGS FUN CLUB - recollections?
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How did you all find out about the Fun Club/Club Sandwich? I first found out about the Beatles and Paul McCartney back in 1993, but I never even heard of the club until after it had gone defunct.
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I think the address of the Fun Club was on the back of one of the albums, Red Rose Speedway I think and I must have written from that. I know when I first started listening to Paul it was not long before I started collecting the albums so guess maybe that was one of the first ones I bought, and then I joined the Fun Club
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I joined in January 1974 and i guess it was the Red Rose Speedway cover address that inspired me to join. If memory serves me rightly,I bought 'Live And Let Die' first having seen the James Bond film.That was my very first McCartney related purchase. Then it was the 'Helen Wheels 'single.Then I found a second hand copy of 'Back Seat In My Car'. Then it was the 'Band On The Run' album,followed quickly by 'Red Rose Speedway' With the official Fun Club still less than a year old, luckily it wasn't too difficult to get hold of the missing newsletters.
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Fiona and Kestrel, thanks very much for your replies. The first McCartney album I ever bought (I think) was "Flaming Pie" on CD...no Fun Club address or advertisement on it, from what I can recall!
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One person who was unimpressed by the fun club address on Red Rose Speedway was a certain Mr. George Harrison, who (instead of joining)subsequently took the wee wee by flagging up the Jim Keltner fan club on his 'Living In The Material World' album.
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I remember going to Paul's in-laws law office with a friend to get Linda's calendar for free! We became friends with one of the older women that had worked for Lee & John Eastman for yonks & she'd always give us a coupla calendars & send us on our way with a warm smile!
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I became a member in '75 and some of the great stuff that came from it - well the BEST was being chosen as one of 5 NY area Fun Club members to meet with Paul at The Plaza hotel in 1984 to help promote Broadstreet!! Getting free tkt (given to NY tri-state area club members) to attend Paul's '89 tour rehearsal at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway. Getting free pass (given again to NY tri-state area club members) to attend the taping of MTV's "An Evening with Paul McC." at the Ed Sullivan Theatre in 'Dec 92. The last membership renewal price I paid in 1997 (before Paul closed it the following year) was $16!!! And I got a refund check for $10 for the remaining amount left on my membership since it wasn't a full year before Paul closed it. I told the fun club to keep the money and put it toward one of Linda's animal charities. On a separate note, I still have the refund check I got from The Beatles USA Limited Club in 1971 - I never cashed it since it had The Beatles logo, etc on it and it was only for 75 cents of left over dues I had.
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Sneaking in to not one but both of Paul's MTV tapings in NY, courtesy of one of my long-time Beatles guy pals in '92!
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Gypsy, I also used to go to Eastman's office on my lunch hour every January to get Linda's calendars. I would call from my office first to see if I could come over and then I'd walk over on my lunch hour and they'd buzz me in. The woman that I got to know there was Helena and she gave once also a London Town press kit. With the calendars, once John Eastman saw me take two and told me to take as many as I wanted. Their lobby was always full of boxes of the calendars, more than they could ever use. Helena also helped my friends & I to be able to buy concert tickets for other cities for '89 '90 and '93 shows - cities that weren't on our ticket order form (they sent forms with cities you could buy according to your region.) Sue, the Club Sandwich editor even went beyond duties to enable me to buy a ticket to Paul's Hamburg Germany '89 show when it had already been sold out. The Fun Club was truly a gem to belong to. It WAS fun. I'm sure other members also got some good favors from Sue and the Club, as well - they were very good to members. Thank you a million times, Linda, for starting and running that for us!
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Oh to answer another question put of where did we find out about the the club. From the back of Red Rose Speedway, but I didn't join it right away because I was still a member of a Paul McCartney club that used to be a chapter in the Official Beatles Fan Club, and I got the latest news from there. When that club folded, then I joined the Fun Club in '75. I remember money was a consideration. I laugh now when I re-read old pen pal letters that I've kept from the 60's - when the Authorized Hunter Davies book came out in '68, we wrote back & forth of how we would wait for the paperback because $6.95 was too expensive for us for the hardcover! We'd have to babysit to get the money for it. lol When the White Album came out and cost $8.98, OMG that was so expensive in our minds then! shock
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Sue at the Fun Club HQ was always very helpful but not always very friendly. She was too business-like 97% of the time. Paz, I also remember saving up for a variety of Beatles memorabilia, And when the very first Lapidos fest was held, I remember having $100 to spend (not counting my share of the hotel) was a fortune to have for 2 days! then in '76, we all complained at the "high" cost of $10.50 a ticket to see Paul in concert! Compare the "big" $3.50 to see The Beatles perform at Shea along with Paul's "expensive" ticket prices in 76 & we are all longing for YESTERDAAAAY!
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Oh my best friend down the block and I sprung for the "real expensive" $5.50 seats to both Shea's. We pooled our allowances saved to mail order - (MAIL ORDER!!) - 3 tickets because we knew that at 11 in '65 there was no way we would be able to go alone. Her older brother took us and needless to say he wasn't too happy. The second year we bought only 2 tkts because at 12 we could sit inside alone, but her dad drove us there, and my dad picked us up and we had to right inside and when we came out wait right at the gate with my dad's warning Don't move from there!" LOL
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Mail Order was always nerve wracking. Concerns of not getting tix in time or having them get lost or stolen in the mail. And my mother, trying to block her ears at Shea with tissues to in a futile attempt to block out the screaming! Attempting to take photos at Shea with a little Kodak box camera & just having little specs turn up in the b/w photos.... Waiting each month for the newsletters from the Fun Club & savoring each issue before very carefully putting them away. And calling other Beatles/Paul friends to discuss everything in great detail. And even tho' we complained to Sue that those of us in the States didn't get much of anything at all when it came to the perks the UK members got, we got the very rare bone thrown now & then.
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I much prefer having The Fun Club, to the way it is now.
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I kinda miss some aspects of the former Fun Club. Waiting to get the newsletters, even the membership cards. In the famous words of George Carlin: Sending away? was a, a magical phrase. ?What are you doing?? ?I?m sending away. Sending away for something, and they?re going to send it back.? You picture Battle Creek, Michigan in your mind. ?Say, this is for Master George Carlin?get that in the mail right away!? And no matter how old we are, ordering anything be it snail mail or online, waiting for that package is still exciting. Esp if it's Beatles/Paul stuff of any kind.
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GYPSYGIRL:
Sue at the Fun Club HQ was always very helpful but not always very friendly. She was too business-like 97% of the time. Paz, I also remember saving up for a variety of Beatles memorabilia, And when the very first Lapidos fest was held, I remember having $100 to spend (not counting my share of the hotel) was a fortune to have for 2 days! then in '76, we all complained at the "high" cost of $10.50 a ticket to see Paul in concert! Compare the "big" $3.50 to see The Beatles perform at Shea along with Paul's "expensive" ticket prices in 76 & we are all longing for YESTERDAAAAY!
I wonder where Sue is these days?
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For all we know, Sue is either retired or perhaps Paul has given her a different type of office position - office manager maybe.
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Sue was always really helpful. When I wrote and told her of my change of address because I was getting married, she sent me a really nice handwritten message on the back of one of the MPL postcards saying for me to have a lovely wedding day. That was 23 years ago and I've still got it
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Back then I lived In Jordan, not much news about Paul there, and Wings Fun Club Magazine (Club Sandwiche) was my connection to everything Paul, I received lots of fun stuff from them and all the magazine offers , still have them in a treasure box.. ...now of course it's all online...not the same...
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Paul's BIL, John Eastman, when I went to E&E looking for calendars, telling me to "take as many as you want, we've got plenty of them!"