2nd Queen Fan Club Convention — Southport, April 24-26th, 1987

by Mendousutera

Following the 1986 fan convention in the Netherlands, this was a much bigger affair in the band's home country. Around 2,000 self-described crazed Queen fans gathered in Southport, a rundown resort town about an hour from Liverpool, to compete in the most ridiculous and insane way possible. May people attended from America and across Europe, but I don't think there were any other Japanese participants so I was proud of myself for being the sole representative. It was a three-day, two-night event so I was weary of being quite lonely. But it was a place where I could interact with Queen fans from all over the world, and in fact, I was treated quite kindly by so many people that I didn't feel lonely at all in the end. I met a Brian-freak kid studying Japanese, a German kid who had moved to London where Freddie lived, and people who had come from America and the Netherlands to socialize. The sense of unity amongst Queen fans is truly unique, but I can be proud of this uniqueness, no matter how much the rest of the world might make fun of us.

The event included a video concert, a Queen disco, a Queen live concert, a spits competition (I don't know what that means!), a Queen costume party, a Queen item-buying competition (the winner won a gold disc, although I forget which album it was!), and a charity auction of the band members' belongings (this was the first time I'd seen anything like this). It was a very exciting event! There were also many other Queen-themed events for 72 hours straight! The TVs at the accommodations were also set up with a Queen channel, and Queen footage was broadcast 24 hours a day, showing the all-encompassing attention to detail this event had. Each member also sent a message to the convention, apologizing for not being able to attend. (Did they really mean that...?)

My only regret is the auction, where some amazing items were offered at incredibly low prices. Here's a partial list of winning bids:

Freddie's pants (from I Was Born To Love You): ¥110,000 [$901 in 2025 USD]
Roger's T-shirt (The Works): ¥40,000 [$328]
A Kind of Magic platinum disc: ¥160,000 [$1,310]
John's jacket (Japan tour '82): ¥40,000 [$328]
Brian's leather jacket: ¥70,000 [$573]
Roger's drum skin (Works Tour): ¥110,000 [$901]
Freddie life-size doll (The Great Pretender): ¥50,000 [$410]
Crystal's tour shirt: ¥1,200 [$9.84]

The biggest prize was Freddie's black leotard, which was still a bargain at ¥120,000 [$983]! Apparently, items worth about three times this amount were auctioned and generated a considerable profit, but if all of these items were auctioned today, they'd easily fetch ten times the price. At the time, I was so engrossed in the atmosphere of the auction that I could barely listen to the bids flying back and forth, and had no energy to participate in the bidding at all.

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