freedom
20th May 2009, 07:36 PM
The History Of The Dawn Experience
CONTROVERSY (1986-1993) – A well respected UK based Prince fanzine founded by Eileen Murton and Chris Dawson – had ceased publication after so many years and was no more. Other fanzines had come and gone (Crystal Ball, Dream Nation, New Power Nation, The Revolution, The Crystal Ball, The Continental, 7 magazine, Prince Thang, Funky Design, Interactive and so on) – but nothing comparable to the quality high standards of its news and information (with the exception of ‘Uptown Magazine’ which was a different type of fanzine altogether). It rarely if ever missed a publication date and more importantly, had a strong sense of community that bought Prince fans together from all over the world before the age of the internet. At its peak it had a print run of 12,000.
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/contro.jpgControversy evolved from its humble beginnings of photocopied, hand stapled sheets of A4 paper -into a slick, professionally produced, colourful glossy magazine. It became so successful that it received the “officially acknowledged” stamp of approval by Paisley Park with its 16th issue (April 1989) and took over from the poorly run, disorganised The New Breed as Prince’s Official Fan Club. They organised fan parties, get-togethers and even trips to MPLS/ Paisley Park for people from all over the world. An incredible achievement - no other fan organisation was doing this.
Things began to sour for Controversy when (reportedly) Prince wanted total editorial control of the fanzine. Eileen was even offered an office at Paisley Park. Not wanting to give up editorial control, let alone uproot herself from Croydon UK to Minneapolis USA Eileen refused. There was a falling out which led to the fanzine's subsequent demise.
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/npg.jpgPrince tried and failed with his own replacement in the form of the short lived (4 issues) NPG magazine (1994/1995). Edited by Mark Petracca and Steve Holtje based in New York.
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/uptown.jpghttp://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/crystalb.jpghttp://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/7mag.jpg
It was at this time that I felt there was a vacant hole that needed filling following the death of Controversy. The other fanzines that were around at the time generally lacked the quality, reliability, regularity, attention to detail and (most importantly) the community spirit that was at the core of Controversy.
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/pthang.jpghttp://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/funky.jpg
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/rev.jpghttp://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/dream.jpg
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/conti.jpg
The question was how to go about producing something on my own (tried to involve other people but they were not as enthusiastic), with practically near-zero budget?
This incidentally was just at the very beginnings of the internet age – relatively few households (Prince fans) in the UK at the time had internet access and still relied on hardcopy (newspapers and magazines) to get the latest Prince news which was sometimes months old.
I was fortunate enough to own a PC (that often crashed) on old fashioned dial-up and a cranky old printer. There was all this Prince info at hand online which I wanted to share offline.
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/pfam.jpgAt the time there was an American newsletter called The Prince Family (later renamed The 0+> Family). Published fortnightly by Diane Dawkins (1993-1999), it was simply 4 sheets of A4 paper folded in half (to make it easy to mail out) crammed packed with the latest up-to-date Prince news. I thought it was very clever, cheap and easy to produce. That was my answer - something I thought would be cheap and simple for one person to replicate.
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/dawn2.jpgIt inspired me to try and attempt to do a UK version of the newsletter. I wrote a letter to Diane asking her for permission to copy the idea and produce a UK version. Permission granted I set about creating my own monthly version. On the 1st January 1996 The Dawn Newsletter was born. It was named after Prince’s very 1st (now defunct) website and his fascination with “The Dawn”. [Look on the liner notes of his 80’s – 90’s albums].
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/dawn.jpgPrince news was gathered from the internet and various sources, re-printed on 5 sheets of A4 paper, photocopied, stapled, stuffed into an envelope, stamped and posted by hand. As soon as one edition had finished, work immediately started on the next one. Our very own Unique and Richard Dower contributed a few columns.
Producing the newsletter turned out to be incredible hard work, a lot harder than I anticipated. Working to a tight monthly deadline to get each issue out on time whilst at the same time holding down a full time job as an engineer proved to be a near impossible task. All of my spare time (sometimes working through the night without any sleep) was swallowed up, my mental/physical health and social life was starting to suffer.
The Dawn Newsletter lasted a year (12 glorious issues). It started with a print run of 100 issues per month and ended up with over 200 subscribers – purely by word of mouth.
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/interactive.jpgA few months earlier Peter Bryant, editor of UK Prince fanzine called The Interactive Experience (1994-1999), contacted me expressing an interest in my newsletter. Amongst the things we discussed was a possible merger of fanzines (with The Funky Design). We also talked about doing another newsletter similar to The Dawn newsletter as a ‘supplement’ to be published in-between issues of his fanzine which was published (approx) once every 2 months. I wasn’t too keen on doing another newsletter but I suggested the idea of doing an online version of his fanzine. He loved the idea, I stopped publishing The Dawn Newsletter and the following year launched ‘The Interactive Experience Online’ and became co-editor of the fanzine in 1997.
This was a great partnership until Prince’s lawyers started their second round of ‘cease & desist’ letters against fan organisations (which included Uptown, The 0+> Family and Interactive Experience). The first attack by Prince’s lawyers against fan organisation happened just before the launch of the “Love 4 One Another” website in 1997 – déjà vu. Uptown hired a lawyer to fight their corner, but Peter Bryant was unwilling and unable to fight his, he had enough at this point and decided to call it a day ending publication in 1999.
With the fanzine no longer being published I later closed down the website. Months later re-launching and re-naming it to ‘The Dawn Experience’ in the year 2000. Back then it was a relatively simple HTML site.
The Dawn Experience was re-launched and reconstructed again in 2007 into this dynamic, interactive, PHP forum you see before you. Many fan parties, fan gatherings and boat parties later we are still here ever changing and evolving – and intend to stick around for a long while yet.
© 2009 Freedom - The Dawn Experience
CONTROVERSY (1986-1993) – A well respected UK based Prince fanzine founded by Eileen Murton and Chris Dawson – had ceased publication after so many years and was no more. Other fanzines had come and gone (Crystal Ball, Dream Nation, New Power Nation, The Revolution, The Crystal Ball, The Continental, 7 magazine, Prince Thang, Funky Design, Interactive and so on) – but nothing comparable to the quality high standards of its news and information (with the exception of ‘Uptown Magazine’ which was a different type of fanzine altogether). It rarely if ever missed a publication date and more importantly, had a strong sense of community that bought Prince fans together from all over the world before the age of the internet. At its peak it had a print run of 12,000.
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/contro.jpgControversy evolved from its humble beginnings of photocopied, hand stapled sheets of A4 paper -into a slick, professionally produced, colourful glossy magazine. It became so successful that it received the “officially acknowledged” stamp of approval by Paisley Park with its 16th issue (April 1989) and took over from the poorly run, disorganised The New Breed as Prince’s Official Fan Club. They organised fan parties, get-togethers and even trips to MPLS/ Paisley Park for people from all over the world. An incredible achievement - no other fan organisation was doing this.
Things began to sour for Controversy when (reportedly) Prince wanted total editorial control of the fanzine. Eileen was even offered an office at Paisley Park. Not wanting to give up editorial control, let alone uproot herself from Croydon UK to Minneapolis USA Eileen refused. There was a falling out which led to the fanzine's subsequent demise.
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/npg.jpgPrince tried and failed with his own replacement in the form of the short lived (4 issues) NPG magazine (1994/1995). Edited by Mark Petracca and Steve Holtje based in New York.
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/uptown.jpghttp://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/crystalb.jpghttp://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/7mag.jpg
It was at this time that I felt there was a vacant hole that needed filling following the death of Controversy. The other fanzines that were around at the time generally lacked the quality, reliability, regularity, attention to detail and (most importantly) the community spirit that was at the core of Controversy.
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/pthang.jpghttp://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/funky.jpg
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/rev.jpghttp://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/dream.jpg
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/conti.jpg
The question was how to go about producing something on my own (tried to involve other people but they were not as enthusiastic), with practically near-zero budget?
This incidentally was just at the very beginnings of the internet age – relatively few households (Prince fans) in the UK at the time had internet access and still relied on hardcopy (newspapers and magazines) to get the latest Prince news which was sometimes months old.
I was fortunate enough to own a PC (that often crashed) on old fashioned dial-up and a cranky old printer. There was all this Prince info at hand online which I wanted to share offline.
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/pfam.jpgAt the time there was an American newsletter called The Prince Family (later renamed The 0+> Family). Published fortnightly by Diane Dawkins (1993-1999), it was simply 4 sheets of A4 paper folded in half (to make it easy to mail out) crammed packed with the latest up-to-date Prince news. I thought it was very clever, cheap and easy to produce. That was my answer - something I thought would be cheap and simple for one person to replicate.
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/dawn2.jpgIt inspired me to try and attempt to do a UK version of the newsletter. I wrote a letter to Diane asking her for permission to copy the idea and produce a UK version. Permission granted I set about creating my own monthly version. On the 1st January 1996 The Dawn Newsletter was born. It was named after Prince’s very 1st (now defunct) website and his fascination with “The Dawn”. [Look on the liner notes of his 80’s – 90’s albums].
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/dawn.jpgPrince news was gathered from the internet and various sources, re-printed on 5 sheets of A4 paper, photocopied, stapled, stuffed into an envelope, stamped and posted by hand. As soon as one edition had finished, work immediately started on the next one. Our very own Unique and Richard Dower contributed a few columns.
Producing the newsletter turned out to be incredible hard work, a lot harder than I anticipated. Working to a tight monthly deadline to get each issue out on time whilst at the same time holding down a full time job as an engineer proved to be a near impossible task. All of my spare time (sometimes working through the night without any sleep) was swallowed up, my mental/physical health and social life was starting to suffer.
The Dawn Newsletter lasted a year (12 glorious issues). It started with a print run of 100 issues per month and ended up with over 200 subscribers – purely by word of mouth.
http://www.thedawnexperience.co.uk/images/interactive.jpgA few months earlier Peter Bryant, editor of UK Prince fanzine called The Interactive Experience (1994-1999), contacted me expressing an interest in my newsletter. Amongst the things we discussed was a possible merger of fanzines (with The Funky Design). We also talked about doing another newsletter similar to The Dawn newsletter as a ‘supplement’ to be published in-between issues of his fanzine which was published (approx) once every 2 months. I wasn’t too keen on doing another newsletter but I suggested the idea of doing an online version of his fanzine. He loved the idea, I stopped publishing The Dawn Newsletter and the following year launched ‘The Interactive Experience Online’ and became co-editor of the fanzine in 1997.
This was a great partnership until Prince’s lawyers started their second round of ‘cease & desist’ letters against fan organisations (which included Uptown, The 0+> Family and Interactive Experience). The first attack by Prince’s lawyers against fan organisation happened just before the launch of the “Love 4 One Another” website in 1997 – déjà vu. Uptown hired a lawyer to fight their corner, but Peter Bryant was unwilling and unable to fight his, he had enough at this point and decided to call it a day ending publication in 1999.
With the fanzine no longer being published I later closed down the website. Months later re-launching and re-naming it to ‘The Dawn Experience’ in the year 2000. Back then it was a relatively simple HTML site.
The Dawn Experience was re-launched and reconstructed again in 2007 into this dynamic, interactive, PHP forum you see before you. Many fan parties, fan gatherings and boat parties later we are still here ever changing and evolving – and intend to stick around for a long while yet.
© 2009 Freedom - The Dawn Experience