JAMES LAST APPRECIATION SOCIETY - 1999

JLAS 25TH BIRTHDAY PARTY

HANSI & CHRISTINE FLY IN FROM FLORIDA TO BE WITH US

BRISTOL MARRIOTT HOTEL: AUGUST 1999

  Christine & Hansi: Dinner Saturday night

Our 25th Birthday Party celebrations commenced on Friday, August 27th, but Hansi & Christine started their journey from Florida, twenty four hours earlier.They arrived at Heathrow, via Frankfurt,Friday morning at 8.10 am.

We travelled to Bristol, arriving around 10.00 am. Next on the agenda was Dinner at eight. One hundred and ten members joined us for dinner, on Friday, another two hundred or so arriving Saturday, to swell our numbers to almost three hundred and fifty.

So to Saturday evening, we started the evening with pre dinner drinks, a little chaotic as it appeared all three hundred and fifty guests arrived at the same time. Dinner was served at seven, concluding just after nine. Hansi then decided to go on a walk about, to meet as many guests as possible.Did any of our guests not claim a photograph? Or autograph? I doubt it, but it didn't really matter. Hansi was on top form, it was our night, he revelled in the atmosphere, he enjoyed just being there with his fans.

Christine, Our 'Viv' & Hansi

When the dancing started the floor was absolutely packed, even though the queue for autographs at Hansi's table, never seemed to shorten. Those sitting close to Hansi reported back to me, how he listened to every piece of music played. Many numbers he was hearing for the first time in years. At times, full of emotion, particually when hearing Andy Williams sing, Happy Heart. We played one track by Ray Conniff, One, from Chorus line, Hansi asked my wife Norma, if that was one of ours, I hope she said no.

We stopped for a raffle, we seeked thirty winners to select a CD, Video, Book or Shirt as a prize. Upon completion, Hansi comes to the stage, asks me to draw one one ticket, he promptly donates an extra prize for a holiday, two weeks in Florida.

The winners, Mike & Pauline Barltrop, from Waltham Cross in Herts, jetted out to Florida in May, 2000.

We took a late break for three short speeches, yours truly, Hansi and Jan Demin from the Benelux Club. I rambled on a bit, trying to express what we had achieved in the last twenty five years. Hansi came to the stage, and said what he had said many times before, he is a musician, not a speaker, but he promised to come back to our next birthday party.

Jan Demin added many kind words, in particular, he commented on the friendship that exsists, between the three fan clubs, ours, the Benelux Club and the French Club, and how through the music, we are just one big happy family, here's to the next twenty five years.

Hansi and Christine retired around midnight, as their car was picking them up at four o'clocl Sunday morning. Simon Bell, from the James Last choir was with us, he sang four or five numbers for us. He later returned to the stage to close our evening, joining in with Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now, Everybody Have Fun Tonight and Reach Out I'll Be There. This closing session was absolutely electric,

Norma and I, Eric and Sylvia Iveson, somehow stayed awake until four Sunday morning to say goodbye to Hansi and Christine. They departed, we went to bed, and at seven o'clock Sunday night, we were doing it all again. And we enjoyed it.