Thomas Anders Fan-party (January 03, 2004)
Text and photos: Zane Runge (Latvia) 
(especially for www.thomas-anders.ru)
Translated by beilie

Thomas Anders Fanclub Party 2003

I’ve been in Thomas Anders Fan club party last year (it was for the first time), and this time I could compare both parties. I concluded that this year’ party was truly successful.

We (2 Latvian fans – Zane (me) and Andrei) decided to take a walk with sightseeing before the beginning. The city was veeeery beautiful! We walked along the Cassino Street and reached the Residenz Club. Amazingly it was quite thick crowd there comparatively to the previous Fan club party (28.12.2002). People were standing near the doors and on the stairs. Seeing this we quickened our steps in order to get to the hotel quickly and leave things there. After that we queued to the crowd of the fans, which were discussing something very exciting.

The queue grew very fast, and it grew three times more by the time when the doors were opened.

Then the queue began to move inside, holding Party Pass and 10 euro in their hands. It took a long time for the queue to disappear inside completely. Actually, I forgot everything stepping inside. We had to give a Pass and money and to receive a ticket with number; then we had to show our bags to the guard near the entrance and to assure him that we’re not terrorists having no guns or arbalests… (of course, there should be the order).

Then a pretty jam occurred because two flows of fans crossed each other. One tried to get to the checkroom, while another – to the sale of fans’ business. Getting to the checkroom and leaving our coats there (it costs 1 euro), we entered the hall and took our seats in the 4th row (everyone sprawled as he wished).

Then we had to wait. Guido Carp tried to amuse audience. I could understand around 40-50% of his words, because my German wishes to be better. Guido realized, that there’re some who couldn’t understand German, and he promised to repeat his words on English time after time. At first he did so, but then we had to wait for it more and more. Around 14.00 Guido received an SMS from Claudia. (I think, she informed him about their arrival time). Later Guido himself called Thomas and asked, how long his fans would have to wait. He announced that the moment is near. And the number of fans grew bigger and bigger. Some were holding T-shirts and fan-calendars.

The last minutes of waiting – and smiling and happy Thomas jumped on the stage! This time he wore dark jacket with T-shirt and grey jeans (instead of the black suit).


It was a very interesting moment when Thomas noticed a lot of people taking pictures. He suggested taking a pose in order to be depicted after his counting "Eins, Zwei, Drei". He asked to blow out the lights and to leave him in twilight on the stage. After the signal he took an interesting and even funny pose and a few seconds was covered by the dazzling flashes. It was very interesting! He liked it, too, and he repeated it again after changing the pose.

Thomas was the main speaker of the party, that’s why he emptied his glass of mineral water very quickly. And he was so happy when Claudia brought him another one, saving him from thirst! Thomas received it and thanked her: "Danke, mein Schatz!" (Thank you, my dear!)

Thomas told us about all events that have happened last year (sometimes Guido added few words). Then we had something like: "fans ask – Thomas answers". I also lifted my hand. Thomas noticed it and asked me. I said that I didn’t have any question, but I had a gift for him on my birthday. I was invited to the stage. Moving carefully (because of fans’ hands and legs), I found myself near Thomas. He said he was surprised that on my birthday I present a gift to him instead of receiving it from him.I replied that the best gift for me was to be here and to present him collected poems of mine on English. It was especially pleasant when he unexpectedly started to read aloud one of my poems (you can read three poems here). I was even happier when he sang "Happy Birthday" for me and two more fans who had their birthday on that day. THANK YOU!

In order to take pictures with fans Thomas had to steel himself even more than at the last Fan Club party, because there were 750 fans instead of 570!

It was a small mess because of the queue for taking Thomas’ pictures. At the beginning Guido announced the proper order of this process – according to the ticket number. A few fans were hanging around not knowing, where to go and what to do. Then we made a conclusion that this system didn’t work and we made an arbitrary queue, waiting for a possibility to enter the stage, take picture with Thomas and ask for signature (on a newly bought fan’s business, on a bag or a hand). Some said a few words to him. Some presented him their gifts. A heap of gifts grew bigger and bigger. I suppose that if Thomas would receive gifts from everyone, he would need a truck to carry it home! But it seemed to me that this time a simple car was enough.

After an hour’s pressing the button of camera Guido made a break, and Thomas also could take off his “Hollywood smile” and relax his face. He was sitting on a bar chair, rocking his foot as a little boy and whistling a song. After 2-minute break Thomas continued to smile and pose, to give his signatures and to listen to the nice words.

This time Claudia also was in the centre of fans’ attention. She was standing on the edge of a stage, and almost everyone who took picture with his idol leaved the stage with smile and happiness, greeted Claudia and devoted a few pleasant words to her. She was also surrounded by a group of fans who wished to be depicted with Schatzy (darling) of their idol. Of course, she agreed and posed with a smile! Later she leaved the club hall with her mom.

I and Andrei could also get a picture with Thomas and Claudia. The photo session lasted for almost 2, 5 hours. I was sitting not far away from the stage and looked at the queue, which was moving very slowly. Thomas behaved as a hero till the end, till the last fan. Then he leaved the stage, said goodbye to everyone and disappeared behind the back door.