Star One (1980 Blake's 7 convention)

You may be looking for Star One, another Blake's 7 con.

Convention
Name:	Star One
Dates:	July 26, 1980
Frequency:	once
Location:	Wembley Conference Centre in London
Type:	fan-run
Focus:	Blake's 7
Organization:	Avon: The Paul Darrow Society, Mike Parry
Founder:
Founding Date:
URL:
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Star One was the first Blake's 7 convention.

There were 169 attendees.

From Judith Proctor's Blake's 7 site: "Star One Convention, England, the first Blake's 7 convention. Gareth showed up at the auction at the end."

Con Reports

The registration desk was well organised but having to pay a further 50p for the programme booklet - on top of £5, £7.50 or even £10 already forked out - was adding insult to injury. Nevertheless, most people paid up and eagerly scanned it for news of the days events. There were messages from various people connected with the series - all of them polite, interested and wishing the organisers luck. But there were various points in the booklet which struck me as either very odd or incorrect. I mean, what is the point of having a map of all the routes to Wembley when you can only buy the booklet after getting there?! There was a list of all 39 Blake's Seven episodes to date but 1 The Sguad1 was surely 'Time Squad' and when did the BBC show 'The City on the Edge of Forever' in a B7 season. (For those of you who don't know, it is a 'Star Trek' episode!) Lesson One for all convention organisers is surely 'Get your facts right!'

There were even selections from the guide to the series provided to so many fans by the BBC production office - unfortunately without any acknowledgement of source, a little breach of copyright. In addition, photographs which had originally appeared in the magazine Starburst were reproduced, again without any acknowledgement.

An extra slip of paper inserted in the booklet listed all the film and TV extracts to be provided by PM Films Ltd. - a useful list and in fact perhaps the most interesting part of the programme. This firm had apparently stepped in at the last minute to fill the breach left by the video cassettes of B7 which could not be shown because of the Musicians' Union strike at the BBC.

Onto the main part of the programme itself - firstly an introduction by Mike Parry, the chief organiser of this extravaganza, on video cassette started the proceedings. Since the man himself was present throughout the convention, it seemed a little odd that he could not spare a few minutes to welcome fans in person instead of providing one of the most boring interludes of the day - long- winded would be too polite a way of describing it.

At last the first guest arrived - actor Peter Tuddenham. After an interview on stage in the Severn Suite (and no I haven't spelt it wrong) Peter very kindly signed autographs for just about everybody at the convention. Also present for tlie first part of the programme was actor Brett Forest. For those of you who don't remember the name, cast your minds back to 'Spacefall' - episode 2 of Series One. Brett played a character called Krell who had the unfortunate experience of having to board the Liberator from the London and so of meeting the hallucinatory device. Now for anyone expecting the guests to mingle, came the next disappointment. After signinq autographs both actors were whisked away and in the case of Rrett Forest were never seen again. Peter Tuddenham turned up at the banquet - yes, the banquet! but more of that later.

By now you may well be wondering what kind of convention was this which offered so little for so much. But wait - by four o'clock, when everyone had viewed some short films, seen the cassette interview with Steven Pacey and walked once round the so-called dealers' room, the arrival of the stars was announced. (Funny, that, I always thought that Peter Tuddenham was a star of the series too. But not according to Mr Parry.) Onto the stage came Paul Harrow, Jacqueline Pearce and Josette Simon and I can assure all of you unable (or unwilling) to attend that all three looked fit and well if a little confused by having to share a microphone and by the manner in which they were being ushered around. I discovered later that they had been jammed into a tiny hospitality room, which bore a distinct resemblance to the black hole - of Calcutta, not the Disney one! After their interviews, which were extremely funny if not all that enlightening, they too were whisked away to sign autographs. But what happened to Dudley Simpson, Steve Drewett, Jim Francis and all the other supporting artists promised in the programme booklet and earlier reports.

Now for it folks, the moment you have all been waiting for - the banquet! Your on-the-spot reporter can now bring you the intimate details of what it is like to eat with the stars (and Peter Tuddenham). In fact, I have only this to say - £10 for a salad and a piece of cake and half a glass of wine - it was no banquet. The artists were charming and showed great interest in their fans and their love of the series.

Afterwards, there was another interview, this time with Jan Chappell, who had arrived late and she was joined on stage by Jacqueline Pearce, who seemed to be enjoying herself immensely. I didn't see any of the other artists but apparently they had another autograph signing session before leaving.

Then, in the middle of the 'Star Wars’ excerpts, came what was for many people the highlight of the evening. Gareth Thomas turned up - totally unexpectedly and proceeded to answer questions, sign autographs and help auction B7 jigsaw puzzles for amazing sums of money. He certainly put paid to an earlier comment by Mr Parry that he had refused to play ball and do a video cassette interview.

Oh, I almost forgot. Mr Parry closed the convention - but on a video cassette obviously made earlier in the week. He thanked everyone for attending, especially all those who didn’t turn up and omitting some of those who did! Well., perhaps he couldn't do it in person because of the abcess on his gum which was troubling him so much that he had to mention it during the course of each interview and at various other points during the day! everyone eventually left the Conference Centre at around half past ten. A lot of people I spoke with were totally dissatisfied with the day but many added that since they had expected a lot less they had been pleasantly surprised that so many of the artists did turn up. No-one had offered any explanation for the non-appearance of promised guests, for the lack of a bar (gasp, shock, horror - a convention without a bar!), for the late start of the banquet, etc.

So what did you miss if you didn’t attend. I’m afraid that the answer must be - not a lot. Maybe you could have got Paul Darrow’s autograph, but you certainly wouldn’t have had an opportunity to talk with him or any of the other guests. You could join a fan club - but neither of the two largest clubs were represented (and I certainly don’t think the presidents of small provincial fan clubs qualify as Blake's Seven's most devoted fans' as introduced by Mr Parry). You could have touched a cassette explaining ISTRA’s organisation - it didn't make me want to join. You could have wandered around the Wembley Conference Centre and got lost (less than 200 people in that place rattle around like peas in a bucket!) As I said earlier, PM Films were good but couldn't make up for the loss of the series cassettes, which most people had hoped to see. The one bookshop dealer who had me along couldn’t even be bothered to display the books properly.

I am sorry to have had to present such a negative view of the whole venture. For the sake of B7 fans everywhere it would have been wonderful to report an outstanding success. Perhaps if I hadn't already known what a proper convention was like, I could have been satisfied but I could just be trying to find an excuse for a badly organised, incompetent set-up and I just hope and pray that if further B7 conventions are organised, then they are organised by people who know what they are doing. To all those people who were disappointed, I would just like to offer one small piece of consolation - 5F and media fans do not organise 'cons', they organise conventions and I'm afraid that Star One just wasn't up to Standard never mind Maximum Speed.}}

"STIR WHEN" -- A B7 ’CON

LONDON 1980 Once upon a time there was a little man called Mick Prairie and an organisation called 'Ostrich' who decided to play the Big Con. B7 fans from near and far began to hear of this event. Gossip was rife - was someone actually going to hold the first B7 'Con'.

THE SETUP From deep within the bowels of the earch (!) a small voice was heard saying "Write to Ostrich and you too can learn the Big Con". Recruits began to pour in to fill the various organisational roles within Ostrich and then it was time to fill the 500 vacancies for the Marks and the Stars.

THE HOOK The Progress Report was born - cute little leaflets began to appear bearing news of the galaxy of stars who would definitely be appearing (even before they knew themselves - obviously this little leaflet was a product of some amazing time warp). Life was rosy in the Progress Report - everything was going fine, everything was under control, there were to be Stars,' video recordings, sales tables, a sumptuous banquet - the Marks were hooked and now for

THE STING The Marks arrived (reduced from 500 to 170 odd) to be greeted by.,., a red carpet, fanfares... NO - a sign saying 'PROGRAMMES 50pf. It had begun. The Marks wandered around the almost deserted Wombling Conference Centre searching for such diverse elements as food, drink and the promised surfeit of sales tables (well, there were a few scattered about and even a bar if you had your walking shoes on and a good map!) After a while, Peter Tuddenham appeared (according to Mick Prairie a minor artist although he plays not one but TWO of the main characters) with Brett Forest - a supporting player. However, after more Stars arrived the original attractions became somewhat surplus and Ostriches came to lock them away (in solitary confinement), although Mr Tuddenham was allowed to surface later to tuck in to the sumptuous banquet (of salad and cake). Meanwhile, Mick Prairie noticed that his other Stars had been afflicted with some form of leprosy and in order to safeguard the Marks from catching this disease the Stars were frog-marched back and forth - and prevented from speaking to anyone for more than 15 seconds) obviously to reduce the infection risk. To punish these Stars further for daring to appear at the Wombling Conference Centre in such a condition they were despatched to their homes in unpaid for taxis (although they had been promised return gratis transport) There was no mention of some of the other Stars who had been so well promoted in the Progress Reports - perhaps the contagious disease had already claimed them and Mick Prairie didn't want to upset the rest of the "Con" by informing all and sundry of their sad demise.

EPILOGUE Unfortuneatly, Mick Prairie and co. live to fight another day and the moral of this story must surely be "Do not feed the Ostriches" or if you prefer "when you are 'stung -- it is very painful" (with apologies to Paul Newman and Robert Redford...)

Although the event is now in the fairly distant past, nothing - it appears - invites more discussion than a disaster and surely tile greatest disaster to befall Blake's Seven fans (apart from the destruction of Zen and the Liberator) was the Star One Convention. It seems that speculation is still rife in the light of new ventures planned and it was decided that we would contribute a further few pages to this debate for POSITIVELY THE LAST TIME....

Arriving with difficulty at the Wembley Conference Centre after a journey through flood and torrent, I was presented with a bright green badge and ushered into the Severn Theatre with ill-concealed haste for the opening ceremony of the STAR ONE CON hoping that, after shelling out a tenner, my first convention would be worth the money. Incidentally, for. those who wondered how many people attended - I was the last person in and my badge number was 169.

2.00 pm brought the opening video address, primarily concerning Organiser Mike Parry's abscessed tooth, accompanied by unsympathetic laughter from a small group at the back of the theatre. Then, informed of some of the let-downs (no videos, for example) the assembled conventioneers were pleased to be introduced to Peter Tuddenham. Another disappointment - a flashing lights 'special' was scrapped; and with Mike Parry on distinctly unfirm ground as to a) Peter's position in the cast and b) the fate of Orac in TERMINAL, the interview looked doomed. It was only Peter himself who save it from disaster, inserting an ad-lib 'CONFIRMED' and a tetchy Orac demand for more questions from the floor.

Not wishing to see incomplete films (which I intend to see anyway) I went to the dealers' room in the Avon Suite, only to be disappointed by the layout -- there seemed to be only a few tables with negligible merchandise, and a haphazard model display. Having met Paul Wood and Judith Cross, I spotted a Dr Who, standing guard with an apprehensive Leela and K9, outside the TARDIS which was menaced by a Dalek and a Cyberman. I then availed myself of an advance warning and rushed to be at the head of the queue for Peter Tuddenham's autograph. Brett Forrest (Krell of SPACEFALL) was also there, and I remembered his "interview" of earlier which consisted of a story about THE FACE OF EVIL, the art of 'dying well', SPACEFALL and poofy hairdressers all in the space of ten minutes. Despite the kindness of Peter and Brett in signing autographs they were not allowed to chat to their assembled fans, but were rushed off, (verb in passive sense). I met my friends and we ate, before haring off back to the Severn Theatre for the Steven Pacey Interview (on video).

The quality of the video left a lot to be desired, and editing had obviously been disregarded. However, what we saw was interesting and amusing, including a veiled ’dig' at Paul Darrow and the question "why do (particularly female) viewers find a cruel and nasty character (unlike the nice chap that I am) so appealing?" The fans at the back once again laughed loudly. Suddenly the video ended abruptly (much to our disappointment) and Mike Parry's excuse came out almost as badly as his previous video appearance. Then later we were all surprised to find the three appearing guests wanting to see the video. Thus the tape was replayed to Jacqueline Pearce, Josette Simon and Paul Darrow. Throughout, Jacqueline Pearce demonstrated enthusiastic interest by throwing her arms in the air and laughing uproariously. Paul Darrow rose at the end and announced to everyone in general "a distinctly mediocre Pacey interview" and left to applause and laughter.

Later we were allowed to see the stars for a brief while in an interview which was lamentably mishandled, with only one tiny microphone and a 'questions in rota' system. The humour of the session was high, however, and general good humour seemed to save the show.

The interview was pleasantly dominated by the effervescent Jacqueline Pearce, despite efforts to involve the altogether more quiet Josette Simon. The eclipse was partly caused by Paul Darrow’s proximity, and several references were made to the Servalan-Avon relationship with Jacqueline and Paul swapping compliments like second-hand paperbacks. All three stars admitted interest in Season 4. On the announcement that Jan Chappell had been delayed, Paul Darrow put a hand to his head: "Hold on... (pause)... yes, she's coming." The maenads at the back demonstrated their approval. A shy questioner asked Jacqueline Pearce what she believed was the Cally-Avon relationship (a la SARCOPHAGUS). "It's all in her mind," came the arch reply.

Despite the better organisation of the second signing session, the few fans who were present were not allowed to chat with the stars, who were rushed off and locked in safety in the Shakespeare Room,(some 'hospitality' room - it looked like a broom cupboard). However, signing time was fun, and I rushed to the head of the queue to obtain Jacqueline Pearce's autograph (her short haircut is even more amazing when she inclines her head to sign); then I dutifully supplied a FRONTIER WORLDS cover for Paul Darrow to autograph ("I know it looks like Prat Avon," he said of his scrawl). I then made my way across to where Josette Simon and the newly-arrived Jan Chappell were signing; so far, I congratulated myself, I hadn't fallen into the very fannish trap of mumbling 'gosh! or 'it's a privilege and an honour to meet you.' I always asked myself how people could bring themselves to say such things. With only 169 people there, everyone could have an autograph, but I nearly caused a minor crisis by offending Josette Simone Simon and proffering a photograph of Jan! With a suitable reprimand for my mistake, and a comment between the amused guests, I was induced to offer a different item, which was dutifully signed. Jan Chappell left-handedly signed the offending photo and a copy of FRONTIER WORLDS, in which I was pleased to see she took interest. I was delighted that all the stars to whom I had (briefly) spoken were so charming and polite - they showed genuine interest in the fans. Returning to my friends, it was with some satisfaction that I received the news that one had said 'gosh5 to Paul Darrow twice within the space of 30 seconds.

For those who could afford £10, the banquet awaited, and the stars vanished to their pateki cake and vitazade/somav Peter Lovelady, Anthony Murray and I finished our sandwiches and, in investigating the Conference Centre further, discovered the place where Servalan had appeared so dramatically at the end of VOICE FROM THE PAST. Annoyingly missing the showing of the nice family film BARBARELLA, I went to the now-emptying dealers' room; looking again, I saw the models, only now Dr Who had his arm around Leela, and K9 was balanced precariously on top of the TARDIS, into which the Dalek was being pushed by the Cyberman. With a sigh, I returned to the Severn Theatre to hear the delayed Jan Chappell interview, with added attractions Paul, Josette and Jacqueline.

This was even briefer than before (although Jan was a lot quieter than the others) In all, the interviews could have been a) longer and b) better handled, although we did hear some interesting anecdotes, including one about Josette and Steven in the 'performance' in ULTRAWORLD and the audience of production staff.

After this, the fan-club heads were asked why they watched B7. Before the stars they all neatly avoided the issue: "It has to be Avon," said Stephanie Monteath of 'Avon'; "Cally of course," said the representative of 'Children of Auron'. Spying Mark Slade's 'Oracle President' T-shirt, Paul Darrow groaned "He'll say Paul Wood (B7AF - pretty general), who had something to say about believability. After a very short chat with Mrs Paul Darrow, Mike Parry allowed the stars to provide more autographs. I would have liked to buy a LIBERATOR jigsaw, but they were reserved for the Auction ("I have to have something to auction," Mike Parry told me before whisking them away), and I had to leave at 10.00 to make my train connection. I thus missed Gareth Thomas' appearance, and have now got bruised legs after kicking myself.

However, before leaving I helped to obtain some final autographs for Anthony's young brother Andrew. Paul Darrow, as pleasant as ever despite the late hour, obliged: "I'll write it clearly so that he can read it," he said and added, "my neatest autograph of the night." Having spoken to Pat Thomas and Judith Cross (who must have thought we were pursuing her), there was only one signature to obtain. I walked up to Jacqueline Pearce before leaving what had been, despite disappointments, an enjoyable first convention.

"Thank you for coming," I said in an unashamed creep.

"Thank you," she replied warmly, and squeezed my hand.

I held it before me in awe: "A touch from the President," I stammered.

"Absolutely," said Servalan, and smiled that smile.

...it was all a bit of a "con" and very overpriced. I was lucky enough to share a table with Paul and Jacqueline at the "banquet" which went a long way towards making up for the rest of it!!! I'm only sorry that due to having to get back to Paddington I missed seeing Gareth - that was maddening.

As for the banquette well, words fail me. I don't like salad, was too mesmerised by Paul to get up and collect my sweet and wasn't offered any wine, so I paid £10 for a few slices of cold meat and a small cup of coffee... inflation gone mad!!

...the whole thing ought to have been postponed until the videos were available and until Terry Nation could have either attended or sent a videotaped message. The "progress reports" were misleading, half the people listed didn't turn up. It would also have been nice if the auction could have taken place during the afternoon in order to give those who like myself had to leave early to catch trains a chance to bid.

I'm not surprised that [fans] thought there wasn't a bar. Quite frankly, I'd have liked a drink before the meal but got lost looking for the bar and finally gave it up as a bad job... after the meal (I refuse to call it a banquet) I was parched, the cafeteria was closed so in desperation I asked where the bar was and eventually found it. Apart from a couple of elderly gents who had probably strayed in from the medical conference going on elsewhere in the Centre, I had the place to myself!! Just as I was leaving, three more intrepid explorers found their way there, Mark, Rita and Gladys. Rita bought me a drink which I was unable to return as the bar closed at 9.30!!!!!!!!

No way will I go to the next Star One, especially as it is being held in July again... so far as people from the provinces are concerned that's a stupid time to hold a convention. British .Rail don't do cheap day returns during the peak holiday period, so I had to pay the full monthly return fare plus 50p reservation fee, a total of £29.30. I haven't dared tot up what the day cost me altogether!

The Teal-Vandor one sounds more interesting.