Thomas Anders Fan-party (Jauary 03, 1998)
Text:  Bolafik featuring Elena Koshkina
especially for www.thomas-anders.ru
Photos: Bolafik, Elena Koshkina, Inge

Thomas Anders Fanclub Party 1997

We came to the famous "Extra-club" at 11 o’clock. At that time we saw a few German fans with fan club letters. Russian fans visited these meetings at random (as usual, we got to know about the date and the venue of the party at the last moment from the Thomas’ answering machine (in English and in German). We received the fan club letters at the end of January, exactly after the party.

In the afternoon Guido Carp appeared in the doors, babbled something and disappeared. At 12 o’clock Guido appeared again and admitted the fans to enter.

In spite of the crowd we received EXTRA-cards (for the entrance, drinks and snack from the bar). Thomas drank the champagne during the whole party, and finally he received a huge check – almost a few meters!

Then we rushed for the place of the party. At the entrance the guards checked our bags in order to find and take off the recording equipment.

There were the tables with different fan-business for sale. We saw the first edition of "Every word you said" single and the jazz album. On the right there was a small hall with a bar, a dance floor and a small stage, prepared for the party. The sound producer’s place was decorated like a front part of the Cadillac.

It was not much people at that time, and it created a very free and domestic atmosphere. As a background we had Thomas’ unreleased songs, including "Everlasting love".

I took the line in order to receive the membership card for 1998. A girl with a computer checked the names and gave us the cards. She faced many difficulties with odd Russian names! My card was not ready yet, and she promised me to send it later. I disagreed, and she just took an empty paper and signed my name with a marker! And then she marked the database "the card is given." Oh, that Germans!

At 15 o’clock Thomas entered the room (some of fans rushed to meet him outside). The greetings turned into the scream! Everyone applauded and screamed, and there was a tremendous amount of flash bulbs! Thomas was accompanied by a nice blonde (it was Claudia).

Thomas greeted everyone and started to speak German. We asked him not to forget his foreign fans and to speak English as well. (We were lucky, because all the English-speaking fans were sitting together and repeating our suggestion every 15 minutes: "English, please!"). That’s why Thomas paid attention to us and translated everything into English.

Thomas made a declaration about the newly-appeared Internet sites that usually place Guido’s pictures of Thomas without permission. One of the first Russian site makers attended at this party. All Thomas’ and Guido’s righteous indignation befallen on his head! There’s no site anymore, and this guy is not Thomas’ fan anymore…

Then Thomas said why his new album of the solo-project "Chain Reaction" is late. Anyway, he sang 6 new songs from this album with an instrumental phonogram.
1. Thanks God, It’s You. Everyone liked it best. Thomas sang it an encore. Many couldn’t stand and started to dance.
2. Out Of The Blue
3. Love Is In My Heart – a fiery disco!
4. Reason Of Passion – a very beautiful ballad.
5. Babe
6. Every Word You Said.

After the performance we had a famous "question-answer." Thomas had a very playful mood and he was joking a lot. There was a suggestion of one fan to meet at the railway station and to walk on foot together in order to sightseeing around the Koblenz. Thomas laughed much and started to dream up: "Maybe, we could also play a bit?"

I was lucky to ask my question, too – why his black car number was "666," while he considered himself as a Christian. He said something "I don’t believe in omens, and I use the car of my recording company". There were some questions about Russia, and Thomas said that he likes Russian Orthodox churches – "very beautiful!"

Later we had an auction. A simple box appeared on the stage. Thomas took some things out of it, one by one. As usual, Thomas sold his old clothes and collected money for the charity. I tried to buy the leather jacket from the clip "One thing", started from 200DM. But there were much more reach fans…

Still, my fellow could buy some jacket…

At the end of the party there was a taking-picture procedure. Everyone stood in line in order to take a picture with Thomas. I didn’t put 5DM in the Claudia’s basket (a cool perquisite, isn’t it?) I didn’t want to use Guido’s Polaroid; I wanted to do it with my Kodak.

Finally I settled near Thomas and said to him: "Hi, Thomas!" He replied, Guido took a picture, and Thomas signed the jazz album-CD. I asked, if Axel Breitung from the "Chain Reaction" single was the same Axel Breitung from the "Silent Circle". He said "Yes". I thanked him for his creative work and wanted to ask something more, but Guido said, that the time was out.

After taking pictures all Germans hurried to return back home. But our "Russian Diaspora" asked Thomas and Claudia to have our picture taken together. When Thomas was ready to leave, we asked him one more question: did he have a plan to record an album of cover versions, for example, of Barry Manilow’s songs or ABBA’s songs. No! Thomas explained something about the author’s rights and its price…

We were so happy to listen to the 6 new and wonderful Thomas’ songs from his album under the recording! With such up-lifted mood we returned back to the hotel…