Charlie is good tonight

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Datei:charlie.gif Charlie is Good Tonight was a Switzerland based Rolling Stones fanzine in 1985 that actually folded after four issues due to lack of time... I was just 18 when I started the fanzine and maybe should have used my time for school but I didn't. Fuck school however. Eventually I dropped out, had to serve for my country in 1986 and everything got a little puzzled after that.

1985 magazine Charlie is Good Tonight Nr. 1
1985 magazine Charlie is Good Tonight Nr. 1

1985 magazine Charlie is Good Tonight Nr. 1

mailed 4 February 1985

This issue was just waiting for the Mick Jagger solo album and included various other news. It started compiling new released Stones records as well as listing cover versions of Stones songs. Most promising was perhaps the "Bootleg news" compiled by Jean Haristoy (later "Tumbling Dice") who presented nine new bootlegs, describing them with an accuracy that wasn't seen before in the Stones collectors scene. Myself I started compiling Rolling Stones collectors info in the vein of the famous "Collectors File" by Wilfried Stember - this eventually led to the publication of "Eat It (The Well Well Book)" in autumn 1985. Also included was a letter by Bill German who apologized about the delays of his "Beggars Banquet" fanzine plus some promo for the forthcoming book "Heart of Stone" by Felix Aeppli (which, in fact, was first to be called "Charlie Is Good Tonight"!). The picture quality in this first issue was especially bad.

1985 magazine Charlie is Good Tonight Nr. 2

1985 magazine Charlie is Good Tonight Nr. 2

mailed 16 April 1985

This second issue was full of reviews about Mick Jagger's first solo album SHE'S THE BOSS, most of them taken from official music mags, but also some by fans:

Then I began compiling "News & Gossip & Miscellanous" in a column which became very popular among the fanzine subscribers. There was more info on cover versions of Stones songs and I also started collecting info about the Rolling Stones in the press. "Tumbling Dice" presented 25 new bootlegs this time! Plus I did a page to promote other fan clubs of the era: "Chantilly Lace" from Austria (by Gregor Semrad)), "The Stones" from the USA (by Robert Furrer) and the still existing "It's Only Rock'n'Roll" from Norway (by Bjornulf Vik).

  • Michael Kuhn: He was a Rolling Stone - on Swiss Jagger lookalike Claude O'Brecht
  • Walter Schäppi: [[Text "STILL LIFE and LOVE YOU LIVE: Maybe it's live..."|STILL LIFE and LOVE YOU LIVE: Maybe it's live...]] - summary about the recording sources of these two live albums, revealing every little overdub
  • Walter Schäppi: Back in 72 - summary about the sources of the famous 1972 live recordings (Fort Worth, Houston, Philadelphia)

Some people sent me some photos which I reprinted but the quality hadn't become better since the first issue (remember all this was made on a Xerox machine). As a special gimmick the first 20 copies of this issue came with a Mick Jagger fold-out poster inside.

1985 magazine Charlie is Good Tonight Nr. 3

1985 magazine Charlie is Good Tonight Nr. 3

mailed 12 June 1985

This issue had Charlie "Well Well" Watts on the cover again (Jean Haristoy who had been present outside the recording studio when the Stones recorded in Paris in spring 1985 had shown the fanzine to Charlie Watts and the guy reportedly uttered "Well well...")

Then there were some reviews about the just released WILLIE AND THE POOR BOYS album and of course more new releases, more Stones cover versions, more collectors info, more gossip, and still more reviews about Mick Jaggers album SHE'S THE BOSS.

Besides Jean presented 18 new bootlegs in this issue and announced another nine, while Monika "Möneli" Zimmermann allowed me to reprint three of her Stones drawings.

1985 magazine Charlie is Good Tonight Nr. 4

1985 magazine Charlie is Good Tonight Nr. 4

mailed 2 October 1985

In the meantime the fanzine had about 60 or 70 subscribers and more people offerd their help, among them Gary Robertson who sent in all the latest news from the UK gossip papers. Again new releases were reviewed, there were more Stones cover versions, and then there was Live Aid:

Furthermore there was again "Gossip gossip gossip (for the fans!)", more info about Willie & The Poor Boys (including a translation of an interview with Bill Wyman), another music press review, the announcement of "Eat It (The Well Well Book)" which was published in autumn 1986 and talk about the forthcoming Rolling Stones album (rumored working titles were SUNDAYS and BACK TO ZERO).

  • Riccardo d'Ancona: Why not? - on Mick Taylor rejoining the Stones

Jean Haristoy reviewed another 16 bootlegs and I remember he had sent me some amazing fat files about his bootleg collection - what a man!

Also included was some promotion for Felix Aeppli's book "Heart of Stone" and first rumours appeared, Bill Wyman would publish the first (1960-1969) of three volumes about the Stones in summer 1986!

The famous lost No. 5 / 1986

Never finished, never mailed

As I was thrown out of school and then had to do some service in the Swiss army, this issue never saw the day of light - what a shame! Because now suddenly more and more people started sending in their contributions - it was just me who couldn't get finished after all, partly due to my insatiable perfectionism which prevented me from finishing this issue. Meanwhile it was summer 1986 and DIRTY WORK had been released (I had my first listening of "Harlem Shuffle" in the barracks) and quite some reviews arrived:

But this issue would also have covered all the things that had happened since the autumn of 1985:

But the contents of the fanzine were expanding in various other directions as well as you can see in the following articles:

Of course, more "Bootleg News" would have been included, but also a report about the sessions of the Andrew Oldham Orchestra in the mid-1960s, a report about the John Lennon-produced Mick Jagger song "Too many cooks" from 1974 plus a discography of the famous Polish sound postcards that were appearing at the time. Sadly enough, in 1986 two subscribers and contributors of the fanzine left the building, leaving only memories:

Regular content

Since then I have never stopped being a Stones fan and kept up collecting what I could get. Many plans were made to publish the definitive Stones collector's file (this was the reason why I bought my first computer in 1987, and for a long time the work on this project was my main activity on the computer). Then finally I saw my first Stones concert ever, Frankfurt 1990, and some weeks later I was even caught for trying to steal a Stones bonus CD from the shelves in London (they called me a shoplifter! hehe), but the fanzine however never came to life again. Around 1993 I was planning to compile a Charlie is Good Tonight scrapbook and to start a new fanzine, Tramp's Mushup - as you see, nothing has come out of this either. Only in 1997 when I entered the internet community, I designed a little homepage about Charlie is Good Tonight - but I haven't added much since then, and it's 2000 now. Instead I designed homepages for Serge Gainsbourg, Stiller Has, TRIO, Klaus Kinski and Screamin' Jay Hawkins to learn how this HTML works... and meanwhile I started downloading all the fine Stones stuff I never had the money to buy in the 1980s! What a wonderful world!


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