Carmen Vazquez

September 27th 1997 will always be a very special memory on my mind. Previous to this OMD convention I had heard about other OMD trips Organized with the thought of getting fans together to have a brill Time, but for one reason or another, I never went to any of those trips. but earlier this year when I heard that Neil was thinking of the Possibility of organizing a special OMD convention I just got excited About it all, from the very beginning I started sending letters - hundreds! - to all the people interested in the band and who I had been in touch with for the past 15 years. I had a strong feeling that this time was going to be even more special. It s difficult to mention all the highlights on September 27th but If I d to make a choice, I would definitely mention about the following...

Andy at the pink museum: no one had expected that, I can tell you. we all had hopes but didn't want to put them high just in case we didn't get to see him. There s no need to say that Andy was, as Usual, so nice to all of us. he dedicated us nearly two hours, answering to all of our questions, accepting being bombarded with photographs, autographing all type of stuff, etc he made us feel so welcome and comfy. a big thank you Andy!!

Jose, the owner of the Pandora s box pub in reus, near Barcelona, and Juan Carlos, Juan and I asked Andy to accept a special present we had brought from the pub, especially for him. It consisted of a stone of the pub, which is dedicated to the band - you should come over and visit it! - with a plate with a dedication to Andy. I think he liked it a lot. It was different, and most of all very special.

Kevin and Ian: they organized a slide show about collecting OMD records which was quite interesting and funny. There you could see from an ultra-rare Bolivian 7" to a rare Japanese import.

The Messerchsmitt twins: both Chris and Chi were brill. I still reckon that chi s wig was so cool and Chris playing was outstanding. It was the perfect start for a great night.

The stalls : even if I couldn't see a lot of them, I finally managed to buy some rare and interesting stuff. I had little money left, but I got the wonderful T-shirts pat designed specially for The convention, as well as some rare stuff from kV and Ian.

The disco : we all went mad dancing to OMD's music. Pat and Ged were doing a lot of the filming, so hopefully you will get to see all of the gang dancing the night away!! Lawrence, Rowena and Barry should have been nominated as the best dancers of the night!! I will always remember the song heaven is, cos when it was being played, Pat kneeled and was singing it in front of me. we were singing to it together. It was so sweet of you Pat!!

Last but not least, I would like to mention both Neil, Paul and Pat hard work during the past months. without them we wouldn't have met up and wouldn't have spent such a wonderful day and night together.

I know I haven t mentioned a lot of things, but this was supposed to be a short review and look at all these lines I've just written!!!! I just got carried away!!!