Star One (1980 Blake's 7 convention)

You may be looking for Star One, another Blake's 7 con. 
Star One was the first Blake's 7 convention. 
There were 169 attendees.
From Judith Proctor's Blake's 7 site: "Star One Convention, England, the first Blake's 7 convention. Gareth showed up at the auction at the end." Gareth Thomas 
 
==Con Reports==
An extra slip of paper inserted in the booklet listed all the film and TV extracts
to be provided by PM Films Ltd. - a useful list and in fact perhaps the most
interesting part of the programme. This firm had apparently stepped in at the
last minute to fill the breach left by the video cassettes of B7 which could not be shown because of the Musicians' Union strike at the BBC.
Onto the main part of the programme itself - firstly an introduction by Mike Parry, the chief organiser of this extravaganza, on video cassette started the proceedings. Since the man himself was present throughout the convention, it seemed a little odd that he could not spare a few minutes to welcome fans in person instead of providing one of the most boring interludes of the day - long- winded would be too polite a way of describing it.
At last the first guest arrived - actor Peter Tuddenham. After an interview on stage in the Severn Suite (and no I haven't spelt it wrong) Peter very kindly signed autographs for just about everybody at the convention. Also present for tlie first part of the programme was actor Brett Forest. For those of you who don't remember the name, cast your minds back to 'Spacefall' - episode 2 of Series One. Brett played a character called Krell who had the unfortunate experience of having to board the Liberator from the London and so of meeting the hallucinatory device. Now for anyone expecting the guests to mingle, came the next disappointment. After signinq autographs both actors were whisked away and in the case of Rrett Forest were never seen again. Peter Tuddenham turned up at the banquet - yes, the banquet! but more of that later.
By now you may well be wondering what kind of convention was this which offered so little for so much. But wait - by four o'clock, when everyone had viewed some short films, seen the cassette interview with Steven Pacey and walked once round the so-called dealers' room, the arrival of the stars was announced. (Funny, that, I always thought that Peter Tuddenham was a star of the series too. But not according to Mr Parry.) Onto the stage came Paul Harrow, Jacqueline Pearce and Josette Simon and I can assure all of you unable (or unwilling) to attend that all three looked fit and well if a little confused by having to share a microphone and by the manner in which they were being ushered around. I discovered later that they had been jammed into a tiny hospitality room, which bore a distinct resemblance to the black hole - of Calcutta, not the Disney one! After their interviews, which were extremely funny if not all that enlightening, they too were whisked away to sign autographs. But what happened to Dudley Simpson, Steve Drewett, Jim Francis and all the other supporting artists promised in the programme booklet and earlier reports.
Now for it folks, the moment you have all been waiting for - the banquet! Your on-the-spot reporter can now bring you the intimate details of what it is like to eat with the stars (and Peter Tuddenham). In fact, I have only this to say - £10 for a salad and a piece of cake and half a glass of wine - it was no banquet. The artists were charming and showed great interest in their fans and their love of the series.
Afterwards, there was another interview, this time with Jan Chappell, who had arrived late and she was joined on stage by Jacqueline Pearce, who seemed to be enjoying herself immensely. I didn't see any of the other artists but apparently they had another autograph signing session before leaving.
 
Then, in the middle of the 'Star Wars’ excerpts, came what was for many people the highlight of the evening. Gareth Thomas turned up - totally unexpectedly and proceeded to answer questions, sign autographs and help auction B7 jigsaw puzzles for amazing sums of money. He certainly put paid to an earlier comment by Mr Parry that he had refused to play ball and do a video cassette interview.
Oh, I almost forgot. Mr Parry closed the convention - but on a video cassette obviously made earlier in the week. He thanked everyone for attending, especially all those who didn’t turn up and omitting some of those who did! Well., perhaps he couldn't do it in person because of the abcess on his gum which was troubling him so much that he had to mention it during the course of each interview and at various other points during the day!
everyone eventually left the Conference Centre at around half past ten. A lot of people I spoke with were totally dissatisfied with the day but many added that since they had expected a lot less they had been pleasantly surprised that so many of the artists did turn up. No-one had offered any explanation for the non-appearance of promised guests, for the lack of a bar (gasp, shock, horror - a convention without a bar!), for the late start of the banquet, etc.
So what did you miss if you didn’t attend. I’m afraid that the answer must be - not a lot. Maybe you could have got Paul Darrow’s autograph, but you certainly wouldn’t have had an opportunity to talk with him or any of the other guests. You could join a fan club - but neither of the two largest clubs were represented (and I certainly don’t think the presidents of small provincial fan clubs qualify as Blake's Seven's most devoted fans' as introduced by Mr Parry). You could have touched a cassette explaining ISTRA’s organisation - it didn't make me want to join. You could have wandered around the Wembley Conference Centre and got lost (less than 200 people in that place rattle around like peas in a bucket!) As I said earlier, PM Films were good but couldn't make up for the loss of the series cassettes, which most people had hoped to see. The one bookshop dealer who had me along couldn’t even be bothered to display the books properly.
I am sorry to have had to present such a negative view of the whole venture. For the sake of B7 fans everywhere it would have been wonderful to report an outstanding success. Perhaps if I hadn't already known what a proper convention was like, I could have been satisfied but I could just be trying to find an excuse for a badly organised, incompetent set-up and I just hope and pray that if further B7 conventions are organised, then they are organised by people who know what they are doing. To all those people who were disappointed, I would just like to offer one small piece of consolation - 5F and media fans do not organise 'cons', they organise conventions and I'm afraid that Star One just wasn't up to Standard never mind Maximum Speed. from Horizon Newsletter #2 (July 1980) }}
==References==
Category:Blake's 7 Conventions
Category:1980 Conventions
Category:Conventions in United Kingdom