Card Carrying Member....

great question. I'm not in any fan club but I get news updates from the RFTC website. The funny thing is I don't even remember signing up for it.

when I was a kid
I looked down on my friend Dave
in the Kiss Army

now I'm so jealous!
there was no ELO club
in farm Oregon

I'm a member of two online lists (mail groups...forums wherein each missive is forwarded to every member of the list). The Gathering (regarding Killing Joke.... http://www.misera.net/gathering/ ) and the Firewatercircus (regarding -- wait for it -- Firewater... http://groups.yahoo.com/group/firewatercircus/ ).

The second group is "officially sanctioned" and we did get some promotional shit earlier than it was released. Raven, erstwhile Killing Joke bassist, is an on and off member of the Gathering and posts updates pretty regularly.

I did have a membership card from the Plasmatics' Secret Service, but I believe the organization wasn't an entirely efficient one, and I didn't receive much else beyond the card.

i think our daft punk credit cards have finally expired. we had hoped that the expiry date was the street date for the third daft punk album. oh well.

I was a member of the INXS fan club for one year when I was in high school. They sent a newsletter and a 1" pin, with promises of regular newsletters to come and secret special fan club only stickers/shirts/etc -- none of which ever materialized.

By the end of my membership, the band had released X and I wasn't too hip to being associated with that garbage anyway.

Belonged to the Ride fanbase for a while, I loved Andy Bell's photocopied handwritten updates. Fun stuff! Have been a Suede fanclub member since 1995 or so, but I need to renew.

I think I joined the KISS Army in junior high (1977-8)

that's right, the Armoury Show! And Del Amitri. (I'm old.)

I was in the Pearl Jam fan club in high school. I have to say, it was very nice... they sent out a free 7" every year around Christmas time.

Those 7" singles are hot sellers on eBay, Ben. Get to it!

Is that true?! Alright! I made a small mint selling off a bunch of that sort of stuff from that era (Smashing Pumpkins sub pop single on pink vinyl? Do I hear $60?!) and ended up with a nice big iPod as a result.

I'm in the Strokes fan club - I think it cost $20, and there've been a few (lame) newsletters (full of, mostly, in-jokes and information about the management staff) - but also a poster signed by all five young rakes; shoelaces and fridge magnets and stuff like that; plus a fanclub-only presale for the upcoming tour (just today, I bought 3rd-row seats for one of the L.A. shows); and the promise (so far unrealized) of special recordings.

Considering what a huge fan I was of R.E.M. back in high school, it's kind of funny that I never joined the famed fan club. I think it seemed a little too dorky even for me.

< shuffles feet nervously > I was a member of the Gary Glitter fan club back some time in the early '70's. As I recall they sent me a badge, a shitty 854th-generation copy of a photo The Leader had signed the original of and a quarterly (IIRC) newsletter in which I was invited to spend huge (to me) amounts of money for other "exclusive" memorabilia and given advanced warning of forthcoming record releases and tour dates and (again IIRC) the opportunity to attend special fan-club-only events.

I think I must have been a member of The Damned's fan club, "The Flashman Society" (I certainy didn't actually join - the very concept of a "Damned Fan Club" is quite clearly completely absurd - I think their record label / management must have just signed me up) because I got invited along to a "fan club only" event at Shepperton when they recorded the live side of The Black Album (the recordings were later released complete as an album in their own right).

I'm also a member of the Captain Beefheart discussion list "The Fire Party" http://www.beefheart.com/fireparty/index.html the membership of which includes former Magic Band alumni Gary "Magic" Marker, Gary Lucas, Rick "Midnight Hatsize" Snyder and other members who are in touch with and pass on messages from John "Drumbo" French and Bill "Zoot Horn Rollo" Harkleroad.

I'm only a member of the Smashing Pumpkins discussion list, Listessa (which, since the demise of the band, has almost disappeared). Never felt the urge to join any kind of club, as the band/artist's music sufficed me, and info was all throughout the net...