Note: This event took place two weeks after Eastcon, the 1990 Eastercon, which had been held in Liverpool from April 13th to 16th. Iain Banks was the Guest of Honour.
VINCE CLARKE: The one-off mini-Con to pay tribute to the memory of Arthur (Atom) Thomson in London was a huge success. When I first arrived there was this long line of people winding around the base of the building, a sort of high-class caff near Tottenham Court Road, and for a few seconds I thought that Greg Pickersgill and Dave Hodson's publicity had succeeded beyond all expectations. Firms like Forbidden Planet had promised to carry leaflets in their shops, Eastcon had given publicity, and CRITICAL WAVE had blown the bugles loud and long, but this was something extra. I'll confess I hesitated, putting down the suitcase in which I'd lugged some copies of ATOM: A TRIBUTE, and wondered what the hell I was getting into. Then a gent in motor-cycling leathers who'd been lounging on the pavement stepped forward, said "You after the Atom do?" (a nice bit of colloquial English), and swiftly explained that the queue was for autographs from Doctor Who, who was expected in the basement. I now noticed that the crowd was composed almost entirely of young male teenagers (or below), and seemed very well behaved, unlike your average fan crowd. I was still trying to decide if I was disappointed or relieved when Greg Pickersgill came along and let a small group of us into the building and upstairs. MARK PLUMMER: The 'gent in motor-cycling leathers who'd been lounging on the pavement' was me, even though I've never owned anything remotely resembling motor-cycling leathers...
VINCE CLARKE: Now this was definitely a fan event, because the first thing that we discovered was that the cafe wasn't expecting us until noon; they let us stay, however, and we spent an hour or so arranging two or three tables and gossiping, and watching a Dalek being ushered in downstairs. There was a growing pile of stuff on one of the tables for an auction or two, and I was selling Atoms on behalf of the fund. After that, things became just a teeny bit blurry. (What were you expecting -- reporting a la the London Times? This is sub-Sun.) ROB HANSEN: Avedon and I got there 12.30ish. Present by that time were Vince Clarke, Greg Pickersgill, Katie Hoare, Martin Tudor, Dave Hodson, Ted Tubb, Iain Banks, Barry Bayley, and others - about 30 in all. Biggest surprise when we first arrived was seeing X-MEN writer Chris Claremont sitting at a table by himself, but he left soon after. He was in the country to among other things promote his debut novel 'First Flight', which features in Pan Books' new SF line. He was interviewed by Liz Holliday for CRITICAL WAVE #17 while on the Pan promotional tour, which concluded with a party in Liverpool at Eastcon. Since he was still in the country it's possible the signing session downstairs was for this as well as for Doctor Who, particularly as also there was Pan representative Kathy Gale (who despite her name never worked with John Steed.) MARTIN TUDOR: Greg Pickersgill, who organised the event with Dave Hodson, launched the affair by delivering a short speech explaining how Atom, through his work and personality, had influenced the lives of so many people in fandom. Greg went on to introduce Vince Clarke, a friend of Atom for over 30 years, who had produced a limited edition anthology of Atom's work to raise money for the fund. Dave Hodson then outlined the schedule and introduced Rog Peyton of Birmingham's Andromeda Bookshop, who conducted the auction. This comprised material donated by a wide variety of people, including fanzines, books, limited editions, original artwork (donated by Jim Burns and Dave Mooring) and original manuscripts.
VINCE CLARKE: I was designated as auction treasurer, and spent most of my time thereafter gathering in the proceeds and giving change. The prices were simply fantastic; Ted Tubb, who used to be the main auctioneer for all our conventions through the '50s, was sitting there with his eyes bulging as bids went through the roof. ROB HANSEN: I tried for FANCYCLOPEDIA, but soon dropped out of the bidding. It went to Tudor for £35, while I scored HYPHEN #34 for £8. VINCE CLARKE: Mike Moorcock arrived and started bidding for an early '60s LES SPINGE with one of his own articles in it -- rumour has it that he's collecting and destroying them, tho' I wouldn't think him capable of such a foul act -- and ran the bidding up to £12 for the fanzine, which had been duplicated by our own fellow-pirate Ken Cheslin. Barry Bayley joined in, bidding for an Operation Fantast from the '50s by Ken Slater which had a story of his in it. That was also run up to £12. Some major items were Jim Burns-donated works of art; Rog Peyton, the auctioneer, went up in £10s. I didn't really have time to take notes (written, not Treasury), but I do know that one gent, having bid a total of £280 for two items, gave me a cheque for £300 on a sort of "it's a good cause, keep the odd change" basis. Martin Tudor, who'd donated a pile of CRITICAL WAVEs, was suddenly struck by an inspiration, paid me the full asking price for them, gathered them up, went downstairs and flogged them to the waiting queue of Doctor Who fans, apparently on the strength of one small paragraph relating to that well-known GP. Incidentally, those patient Who fans were standing for at least two hours before anything (except Martin Tudor) happened to them. ROB HANSEN: Maureen Porter and Paul Kincaid were there from the start - he drank too much and looked unwell, while she told me she liked my fanzine ETA #5 but hadn't been at the party at our place described therein. Whoops! VINCE CLARKE: The first auction over, Mike Moorcock and Colin Greenland sat down in front of the audience and MM patiently answered questions for an hour. He disappeared fairly soon thereafter -- ironically, considering the way Atom went, there were smokers present and MM is allergic to cigarette smoke -- which was a pity as I'd have liked to have exchanged a few "do you remember" remarks with him. However, this last week I received an enormous cheque from him for the Atom fund -- about five times what he actually owed on his bidding.
MARTIN TUDOR: Sales of Vince Clarke's anthology raised £129.50 on the day, the raffle a further £113 (the first prize of a voucher for any six paperbacks from Forbidden Planet was won by Gerry Webb. VINCE CLARKE: There was another auction, a donation of £100 from EastCon, a raffle (550 tickets sold to the 80 or so attendees), and altogether an on-the-day total of over £1500 was actually raised, with various people owing the auction around £200 more. ROB HANSEN: Later John Harvey, Abi Frost, Martin Smith and others turned up. Soon after 6pm Avedon, Martin and I went for a Chinese meal, then home. MARTIN TUDOR: Items yet to be auctioned include three Doctor Who t-shirts autographed by Sophie Aldred and Sylvester McCoy (who, along with a few thousand 'Whoies', were at the Doctor Who signing session on the floor below), the tie worn by Sean Penn in the movie SHANGHAI SURPRISE (donated by Robert Rankin, who had received it from George Harrison) and several other items of interest, such as limited edition Clive Barker novels etc. These will be auctioned at conventions later this year. VINCE CLARKE: Avedon Carol and Rob Hansen picked up five Atoms and took them across to Corflu, the US equivalent of our Mexicon; four of them were sold normally, the fifth raised $40 in an auction. There was then a collection, which raised £450. It looks as though the total will exceed £2300, which is breathtaking. Olive Thomson, Arthur's widow, is overwhelmed. She's not only had to cope with Arthur's increasing illness over the last year or so, but she lost her father in November, Arthur this February, and her mother in April. She's got enough to do in trying to make a new life without having to be worried by petty money problems, and of course the evident regard with which Atom was held is comforting in a way. She's very, very grateful. I'm here to tell you that fans are good people. Known attendees:
Sources: K #3 (June 1990, ed. Vince Clarke) More Atom artwork, and other links:
| |||||||
|
