Wings Fun Club announced

WINGS FUN CLUB TAKES OFF

WINGS have now formed a fan club to be known as the Official Wings Fun Club. Its address is P.O. Box 3, Wirral, Cheshire L60 8QH. If you want to be a member write there with a stamped addressed envelope and the secretary, Lucy, will send you a form.

Cost per year is 75p, for which you get a Fun Club wallet complete with pictures, biographies, etc. and a regular newsletter and up-to-date details of touring, recording, etc. Cheques and postal orders should be made payable simply to Lucy, and at the moment the Fun Club is for people in the ‘British Isles only’ – an international one will be set up later.

From Disc magazine – November 18, 1972

THE OFFICIAL WINGS FUN CLUB

Wings are a band that like to have a good time. They think it important that their fans have a good time as well. Which is why their official fan club is known as THE OFFICIAL WINGS FUN CLUB.

Fans of Paul and Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, Henry McCulloch and Denny Seiwell can now write to the band at the official fan club address:

THE SECRETARY,
THE OFFICIAL WINGS FUN CLUB
P.O. BOX 3,
WIRRAL,
CHESHIRE.
L60 8QH

For an annual subscription of 75p, fans of Wings will receive an OFFICIAL WINGS FUN CLUB wallet – complete with pics, biographies and full info on the band – and the regular OFFICIAL WINGS FUN CLUB newsletter. They’ll also receive touring, recording and general news as it happens.

From CLUB SANDWICH THE PAUL MCCARTNEY & WINGS FUN CLUB | Facebook – From Michael Ayre: “I have a letter from Tony brainsby promotion which must date prior to Lucy’s letter from 1972.it gives details of the address to write to Lucy at.”

[…] Club Sandwich grew out of the plain, typewritten newsletters issued by the Wings Fun Club in the early 70s, which itself developed from an unofficial fan club run by a long-forgotten McCartney devotee known only as Lucy. A girl called Claire took over the Wings newsletter in 1973, and with the blessing of McCartney’s MPL company, she launched the Paul McCartney and Wings Fan Club via MPL’s Soho Square address that year. The inaugural issue coincided with the release of “Red Rose Speedway”, and the initial membership fee was just 50p, for which fans were promised a newsletter every four to six weeks.

The first despatches were foolscap-sized, mimeographed affairs. Back in ’73, the innovation of photographs had yet to be adopted, but members were kept informed about such subjects as the James Paul McCartney TV special (the report on which suggested that “The Long And Winding Road” was edited from the final version), the recording of “Red Rose Speedway”, Wings’ first tour, the group’s visit to Marrakesh, plus a candid report on Paul’s bust for growing marijuana plants for which, revealed Claire, the ex-Beatie was fined £100. Early club offers included an exclusive Wings badge, which featured a red bird on a white background. Yours for just 12p.

For the second issue of the newsletter, MPL’s address was replaced with a more discreet P.O. box number, and the title of the organisation was amended on McCartney’s recommendation to Wings Fun Club. Official news was bolstered by fans’ letters and comments, plus a personal ads section in which eager readers requested back issues of The Beatles Book (“will pay 8p per copy”), and McCartney’s soundtrack LP for The Family Way (“will give £1”). Bootleg tapes of Wings’ 1972 university tour were also avidly sought after, and adverts soliciting them were frequently published.

By issue five, the newsletter had become an A5-sized magazine, edited by a surname-free girl called Nicky. It was still produced on the cheap, and although photographs had started to creep in, the magazine remained black-and-white. The editorial content too continued to be frank: after the unexpected departure of Wings’ members, Denny Seiwell and Henry McCulloch, Linda McCartney revealed that there had been “no row” between them and the rest of the group. “We didn’t really know Henry,” she observed, “and he didn’t know us.” The mag proved its point by reporting with some dignity on the deserters’ post-Wings activities. Among the new Club offers was a selection of Wings biros available in red, green, blue, mauve and pink – priced at 6p each.

In 1974, the Fun Club magazine turned more professional-looking, with a glossy, black-and-white cover, and generous offers to buy 10″ x 8″s of Wings’ floating line-up. At this stage, editor Nicky was joined by American MPL employee, Sue Cavanaugh, and to this day, Sue remains – notionally at least – in charge of Club Sandwich.

The last A5 Wings magazine was produced in December 1976, and was stuffed with reports of that year’s American tour, plus a multitude of club offers including a “Helen Wheels” poster at 55p, T-shirts at £1.70, and a trio of tour programmes: Europe 1972 at 30p (now worth £10), U.K. 1975 at 50p (now £25) and U.S.A. 1976 at £1.50 (£30). […]

From Record Collector – June 1997