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MAUREEN AND GILL
We're Gill and Maureen and we founded the official worldwide Michael Ball Fan Club in April 1992. We
started off as fans of Michael's ourselves and got to know him when he was appearing in Phantom of the Opera in London.
Since the fan club started over thirteen years ago it has gone from strength to strength, with over 4500 members
in total. Our membership spans the world with members from all over Europe, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Hong
Kong and South Africa to name but a few.
Our aim is to keep fan club members up to date with information concerning Michael's activities as well as providing
a means for fans to keep in contact with each other. We are always being asked about what is involved in running the
fan club so we have written a diary of "A Week In The Life" - click here to read it.
We have also organised fan club Events, which are an opportunity for members to get together and
talk about their favourite subject. On 27 June 2002 we held a big 40th birthday party for Michael at Equinox discothèque in
Leicester Square in London. It was attended by 700 fans and Michael came along to a rapturous welcome before most of
us headed off to see him in Chitty that evening.
The next two Events were held at the London Ibis Hotel in Earls Court, where hundreds of fans enjoyed a day out participating
in quizzes, competitions etc. The day was rounded off by a wonderful question and answer session with Michael. One question we're frequently asked is "How did you come to be running the fan club?" Well, it's a simple story
really. Having followed Michael's career from Phantom, through Aspects in London and Broadway, on his return from New
York we found it difficult to keep track of what he was doing, relying on Michael's father keeping us informed. Eventually
we suggested running a fan club and our timing was perfect as unbeknown to us, Michael had just agreed to do the Eurovision
Song Contest and undertake a UK tour, which would launch him into much greater fame. After some negotiations with Michael
and his management team at the time, agreement was reached and we contacted fans that we knew. In the first six months over
a thousand people joined the club - we had no idea there were so many fans at that time! Nearly 16 years on
and we're still here, going strong, having taken on many changes along the way. Oh yes - in case you hadn't guessed
- we are sisters!
CHRIS
Chris is our Webmaster and deals with all aspects of administration relating to the internet.
He helped to design our very first web page in 1995 at the tender age of 12! Since then he has learned a lot about website
design and has enjoyed coming up with new ideas for the site. Chris's favourite food is Chinese, KFC and McDonalds,
although not necessarily in that order!
IVY AND HARRY
We can't leave out our dear parents who have now both passed away. They were an inspiration
to us and without their encouragement for us to believe in ourselves, we wouldn't have achieved nearly as much as we have
in our lives, including running this wonderful fan club.
COLIN AND ROY
As most of you know these are our long suffering husbands - not really, they enjoy it all as much
as we do. They are unpaid chauffeurs, tea/coffee makers, errand boys, envelope stuffers, label stickers etc etc.
Aren't we lucky to have such a pair?!
They both have diverse hobbies - Roy will collect anything and everything, from petrol cans to watches and many examples
of his collecting can be found in Maureen's home!
Colin's hobby is doing radio programmes for the internet radio station Offshore Music Radio
PAT WEBB
A few years ago Pat agreed to take on the task of representing our USA fan club members, who make
up the largest proportion of overseas members. Her role is to co-ordinate the USA members database and deal with queries
specific to US membership. US members who prefer to send payment in dollar checks can do so via Pat - full details given
on our "Join MBFC" page. Luckily Pat took early retirement at the same time as taking on this work which is
just as well, as Michael definitely takes priority in her life!
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