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The Event in 1995 was once again held at the Forte Crest Hotel in Regents Park. Michael had arranged a
concert in aid of ROC the following day at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.
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Plans had been underway for many months for our second fan club Event, so when the day finally arrived we were armed
with lots of good video clips and quizzes. Keith Harris from Arena Travel was our compere for the day again, Keith is now
an old friend of the fan club (although he probably wouldn’t like us using the word ‘old!’), having hosted
our first fan club Event and been very much involved in organising the Jersey trip.
The day got off to a good start with a lovely three course meal which was served up very efficiently by hotel staff.
Once lunch was finished it was down to business. The convention-style activities commenced with the premiere screening of
Michael’s video for ‘The Rose’, and a pet video message from the man himself. This got everyone in the right
mood to enjoy themselves, and the next 3 hours just whizzed by, with competitions, videos and lots of fun.
One of the highlights of the day was once again the home video footage supplied by Ruth and Tony Ball. The film consisted
of Michael aged about 2, having lots of fun with brother Kevin and his mum. We must once again thank Ruth and Tony for sharing
these very special moments with us all.
During the course of the day, raffle tickets were sold, with the proceeds going to ROC. We were very excited about the
prizes in the raffle because Michael had suggested that the prizes should include two backstage passes to meet him at the
ROC concert the following day. There was also a weekend for two at the Forte Crest Regents Park (kindly donated by the hotel),
a ‘Rose’ cross stitch picture which had been donated by fan club member Shirley Sutcliffe (many thanks also go
to her), as well as various CDs etc. The two winners of the prizes to meet Michael backstage at the ROC concert were Eileen
Robinson and Liz Bailey. There is more about the meeting with Michael in the article about the ROC concert.
Unbeknown to us, a collection had been organised by some of our fan club members (we won’t mention individual names
here - just in case we miss anyone out - but thank you very much!) for a gift for the two of us, and at the end of the afternoon
we were presented with two beautiful bouquets of flowers, two ‘Rose’ glass plates which had been engraved with
Michael Ball Fan Club Event - 24 November 1995, two champagne flutes, plus two cut glass tankards for ‘The Boys’
i.e. our husbands Colin and Roy. We really do appreciate these gifts and once again thanks to the people who organised the
collection.
Anyway, the money left over from the collection, plus the money raised by the raffle, came to a grand total of £1,200,
so we were able to hand over a cheque to Michael for that amount. He was absolutely delighted
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