Fanboy alert

These days, the superfan has many ways of getting involved in promoting their beloved band to anyone who'll listen. Joining "street teams", setting up YouTube channels or (as in my case) creating a blog, there are many ways to help others to share the joy and reach a worldwide audience in a matter of seconds.

Back in the early 80s, when the Sisters were the hip and happening band but no-one south of Sheffield seemed to have noticed, the desperate uber-fan could merely plague the various media outlets who might listen. Being (then as now) funded by the UK taxpayer, the BBC kind of had a duty to listen to its audience, which sad and deluded fanboys like myself took advantage of, sending letter after letter to the DJs most likely to be interested in my inarticulate ramblings. A recent rummage through my (ahem) "archive" unearthed this letter from October 1983, referring to one of my many missives which had apparently been broadcast during the short-lived "Write Now" slot, a sort of Points of View for Radio One listeners. As this would have been the month that Temple of Love was released, I was probably suggesting (as I often did) that Top of the Pops and/or The Top Forty should also showcase the number one single in the Indie Charts, on the grounds that many of the most creative and successful British artists of that time (eg Adam and The Ants, The Human League) had started out there, and that this would help financially struggling but talented young bands to reach their audience sooner, with the Beeb able to take some of the credit. Or something like that. I don't think I actually heard the show in question, so it could have been the suggestion that Eldritch's head should replace the Queen's on UK stamps in order to get "the young folk of today" interested in the noble art of philately, or something equally subversive. Looking back, I think I just had too much time on my hands, and as I believe that this post is the fortieth on this blog, some would argue that I probably still do !