It all started in 1988, on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Being bored, nothing to do and like any other 16 year old kid, I started zapping around on the TV. Our little Dutch village didn't have cable for that long and at that time there was a broadcaster called Super Channel which was English and showed quite some videoclips.
I have to admit, I wasn't really into any kind of music in particular. Owned only a few records (Billy Joel, Talk Talk, Village People) when a catchy tune and even catchier video caught my eye&ear.
It was Elton's "I don't wanna go on with you like that". I was triggered by this song but, believe it or not, I was hardly aware of who this Elton John was. I knew Nikita (at that point his only #1 in Holland) but nothing much more than that and for all I know that was his only achievement.
I'd never been so enthusiastic about a song before, so I just had to have that record. So, not much later when we were in Friesland, visiting my grandmother, I bought "Reg Strikes back" for 25 guilders (can still remember it). I took it home to my grandmother's place and played it on her forty year old recordplayer. It dazzled me. I loved the record from start to end and played it over and over again. I guess you know the feeling...
Not really knowing much about Elton, my interest was awakened and I started borrowing some Elton records from friends&family and there were so many! And so I kept building up this big admiration for the man, because he seemed to fill up this musical emptiness in my life and made the music that perfectly summed up my musical taste.

It all started from there and went uphill all the time. My first concert in 1992 (Rotterdam), the collecting (haunting all the record fairs), making Elton friends around the world, seeing Elton & Ray live in Paris, meeting friends, seeing 10 consecutive elton concerts in the USA in 1997, getting invited backstage by Elton in 1997, shopping the Out of the Closet sale in London 1997, The Face2Face concerts in the Summer of 1998, seeing Elton at Madison Square Garden in 1998. It's been a rollercoaster.
I was involved with Hercules (Elton John fanclub) and runned the Benelux 'division'. I did some Dutch radio & TV interviews, was interviewed by American and British TV stations (though I never saw those....) and still try to be the lighthouse for wandering (Dutch) fans out there.

But at all things comes an end. At the end of 1999 I bought a house and moved out, which meant financial responsibility (say goodbye to travelling and collecting) and moreover in 2000 I met Diana, now my wife. She took Elton's place for getting all the attention (not to mention money, haha) and though of course, being an Eltonfan never stops, the fanatism did.

I'm now one of those millions who just silently enjoy the Master's music and am still proud of the man. Full of admiration, for what he has done, musically, but also for me as a fan, for what he is doing now and that what is still to come.