I had several friends who worked at EMI Records and one of them, John Schroeder (assistant at that time to Norrie Paramor) of Columbia Records asked me whether I would be prepared to organise a fan club for Helen as her first record "Don't Treat Me Like A Child" had been released and entered the Hit Parade (as it was referred to back in the 60's) in April, 1961 at No 18 and the following month it went to No 3 and stayed in the charts for some 11 weeks. Not a bad achievement at that time for a 14 year old girl ! I said, yes of course and the rest is history.
I could not believe what I had taken on in running the fan club as I was sometimes on average receiving 30 - 60 letters a day. I believe I produced the first newsletter in July/August 1961 and can recall having to obtain the services of friends to hand write the envelopes to send the newsletters to the fan club members. I cannot now recall the overall membership of the club but it was quite considerable. The initial membership fee was 3/6d and then rose to 5/- and for this you received a membership card, signed photograph of Helen and a monthly newsletter.
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