About the British Beatles Fan Club

The BBFC was formed in 2000, when it evolved from the London Beatles Fanclub. The LBFC ran from 1988 and published its own magazine, Off the Beatle Track. We currently have over 800 members and bring together Beatles enthusiasts from the UK and across the world. As a member, you will receive 4 magazines a year, a badge and a membership card, as well as discounts and special offers. Join us in our celebration of the Fab Four!

The British Beatles Fan Club team

Pete Nash - Chairman and magazine editor

The BBFC magazine is edited by Pete Nash, a former Beatles Monthly news columist. He is a leading authority on Beatles memorabilia and keeps us all up to date with Fab Four developments.

Pete is a 'second generation' Beatles Fan (since 1975), former staff writer for The Beatles Book Monthly and contributor to magazines such as Record Collector, Mojo, Q, NME and various music journals, as well as contributing to The Beatles Anthology book and film. He is an expert on worldwide Beatles releases.

Pete is a Beatles memorabilia specialist. He has an online shop on eBay under the username horizontalman. Why not visit Pete's shop right away to see his Beatles 'For Sale' list?

Craig Smith - Publisher/Designer

Craig Smith, a lifelong Beatles fan and collector, once guided the BBFC through troubled waters and took over the reins as Designer/Publisher of the BBFC magazine in 2000. Previous writings have appeared in the fanzines Revolver, London Beatles Fan Club Magazine, Tokyo Beatles Fan Club Magazine and Beatlefan.

Now relocated in the good old USofA, Craig is still active in the club. His writings grace the pages of our magazine, which he still designs. Recently made poorer by purchasing tickets for Macca's upcoming tour in the US. "It killed me paying those prices, but what can you do if you wanna see your hero in concert, eh? He won't be around forever".

Richard Porter - London events co-ordinator and regular correspondent

Richard Porter is a professional Beatles tour guide in London and internationally recognised authority on the Beatles.

He won the Beatles Brain of Britain titles at the 1991 and 1992 Liverpool Conventions.

Richard used to write regularly for Revolver magazine and became the founder and President of the London Beatles Fanclub. As editor of the LBFC magazine Off the Beatle Track he interviewed Kenny Everett, Alan Parsons, Alistair Taylor, The Rutles and many others.

Richard has been guiding Beatles tours in London for over 15 years. His tours have been featured on Newsnight, Sky News, BBC Breakfast News, BBC London and London Tonight in the UK, CNN, CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, and ABC News in the US. They have also featured in newspapers around the world, including the London Evening Standard, the Guardian and the Independent in the UK; the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Examiner and many others in the US. He was a consultant on the A Hard Day's Night DVD and The Long and Winding Road DVD.

Richard has written The Official Abbey Road Cafe Guide to The Beatles London, now in its second edition.

As well as writing for the BBFC magazine, he presents a monthly report from London for Breakfast with the Beatles on 104.7 WTUE, runs the Beatles News website and consults TV and radio stations on the Beatles.

Irina Porter - London events assistant co-ordinator and club secretary

[Irina Porter at the Abbey Road crossing]

Irina is a professional London tour guide and a web designer.

She has been a passionate Beatles fan for over 20 years and used to run a Beatles Fan Club in Moscow in 1980s.

Having moving to London in 1991 she was Secretary of the London Beatles Fan Club and together with Richard was involved in the day to day running of the club and publishing of the Off The Beatle Track magazine.

Irina does London Beatles walks in Russian and English.

Richard and Irina got married in June 2004 and went to see Paul McCartney's concert in St.Petersburg for their honeymoon!

Ernie Sutton - Treasurer

Ernie works for his Local Council in the finance department and is responsible for the running of the BBFC's finances as treasurer of the club.

He has been a Beatles fan since Love Me Do in 1962 and has amassed a large collection of records and memorabilia ever since.

His first concert was to see Wings in 1976 and he saw them again in 1979, as well as Paul in concert 1990, 1993 (including the Docklands Arena rehearsal and 2003, and took part in the Take It Away video with Paul, Ringo and George Martin in 1982. He has seen Ringo live at Hammersmith in 1992 and Shepherds Bush Empire in 1998.

Ernie has visited the inside of Studio 2 at Abbey Road and has travelled to see Beatles sites across the world, including Hamburg and New York.

In 2004 he visited the Tate in London to see Yoko Ono perform Whispering Piece and in 2005 met Cynthia Lennon for the second time at her book signing in Foyles London.

Lucy Carter - Yahoo Group Moderator and correspondent

The The BBFC's busy and friendly Yahoo Group is moderated by Lucy Carter, she also has her own column in our magazine, aptly named Lucy In The Sky which brings you up to date with Beatles Liverpool, also contributing articles, interviews and reviews.

Lucy Carter has been a Beatles fan as long as she can remember. Currently touring Liverpool on her quest for Beatle fixes, she has maintained healthy Beatle contacts Mersey-side wide and promotes bands, gigs and events throughout the UK. Lucy is also chairperson of the Fab4Fundraisers, who organise a Christmas charity party in Liverpool, funding cancer charities.

Lucy nearly made it as the Mendips custodian and she was interviewed by Channel 5 for the National Trust documentary, alas she was pipped at the post due to her dulcet northern tones!

Lucy writes for other fanzines and websites as well as running the official BBFC Forum E-Group.

You can contact Lucy regarding fan club matters bbfcpublishing@fsmail.net. Other queries can be directed to lucy.lennon@btopenworld.com

David Bedford - Our Man in Liddypool

David writes: "I was brought up in the Dingle in Liverpool, and from the age of 4 lived at a house that, when you opened the back gate, you came into Madryn Street, where Ringo was born. In 1969 I joined St. Silas School - Ringo's school - so I came across the Beatles from a very young age. I lived in the Dingle until I was 24 and married, when I moved to Mossley Hill - half a mile from Penny Lane. My children have gone to Dovedale School - where John Lennon, George Harrison and Ivan Vaughan went - and I am a parent/ governor there now. I drive down Penny Lane every day, and never get sick of it. I'm currently researching my book on the Beatles and Liverpool, and have met some great people in the process. I wrote for the London Beatles Fan Club mag."

Terry Bloxham - Membership secretary

Terry grew up in Italy and Germany and travelled all over Europe thanks to her Army dad. And Here, There and Everywhere they went there was the sound of Beatles coming out of radios, jukeboxes (remember those?) and television sets. In fact, the only thing 'stable' about Terry's upbringing was the Beatles!

Terry can remember having a crush on George Harrison when she was a mere four-year old. As she grew up she wavered in her affections between George, Paul, John and Ringo but has since come to her senses and returned to her first love.

Aside from the Beatles, Terry has little interest in the modern world and prefers to hide away in dingy old archives, galleries and museums studying things from ye olde Medieval worlde. This bizarre practice has paid off richly in Beatles' related things as she has been accumulating information on the Fabs from the most unusual sources! She promises to tell her tales of unknown Beatles facts in upcoming issues of the BBFC magazine.

poppy - Internet officer/webmaster

[poppy with Rory Best outside the Casbah club]

poppy is a qualified musician and has performed on flute and piano in venues including the Royal Festival Hall, Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall, as part of an orchestra in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and as part of a choir in the church on Marylebone Road in which Ringo Starr married Barbara Bach and Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman. These days, however, she works as an Internet Engineer, doing complicated things with Unix to keep web servers working.

poppy has been a Beatles fan for around 16 years and, as a keen fan of live music, has traveled all around the UK and Europe to find the perfect Beatles tribute band. She has been interviewed by the Observer Music Monthly magazine as a Beatles mega-fan.

'I have really enjoyed reading your fan club magazines and I am proud to wear the fan club pin' - Terje Solbakken, Norway.

Join the British Beatles Fan Club!

'I spent a wonderful year reading your magazine, which I find very interesting and I hope you'll carry on the good job.' - Dimitris Tacticos, Greece.

'Thanks for the badge and membership card. I wear the badge on my school uniform blazer, which is breaking the school dress code slightly as badges aren't allowed. I don't think the teachers mind much though as it's a band they like as well!' - Roisin Mulligan, age 15.