The ARK Appreciation Pages

ark . eology . org

   

Newsletters

In the very beginning ARK never really had a Fan Club, more a gathering of local fans, but as their gigs started to extend beyond the Black Country more and more fans started writing to the band, at this point Richard "Raps" Stone offered to start up an ARK Fan Club, known as The Family. The initial newsletters, called The Teller after the early ARK song, helped to advertise gigs and keep fans in touch with what the band were doing. If you have copies of these early newsletters, please get in touch as I would like to include these too in the future.

By 1989 the mailing list had grown to a few hundred fans across the UK and mainland Europe. At this point the band took over writing the newsletter themsleves, renaming it The Family after the Fan Club itself. However, they soon realised what a task it was, and Dan The Youth, and later Barbie, took to editing the newsletter. Initially this contained a brief announcement of all things ARK, but eventually grew into a neat little info booklet.

The final newsletter (issue #10) was released in June 1994, with an incomplete interview with the band. When time permits the full transcription of the interview will be included once I upload the final newsletter.

I shall upload the newsletters periodically (with additional liner notes, where appropriate). In addition, where appropriate, I'll aim to provide both an original graphic version and a textual version of newsletters.