Bob Bardsley, your editor!
Okay, it's been five years, I guess I should come out of hiding. Not that I was
hiding before, I just always wanted this site to be about Donna, and not all
like "Hi, this is me, and this is my cat" etc etc. Besides, I don't own a cat.
T
hat
is me, as it happens, in a rather nice sepia effect. Well, it goes well with
the blue background, doesn't it? At the time of writing (April 2004) I'm 20
years old and a student at Manchester University in England. Yeah, I'm a
student. Get used to it. At least I have fast internet and plenty of free time
for updating this site, even if I don't really have the money to keep it
running.
Enough about me, more about Donna... I was never a fan of Byker Grove, and somehow missed the Crush phenomenon (I get the feeling it wasn't difficult). So it was that when MTV UK launched, while I was still lamenting the loss of Ray Cokes' Most Wanted (the only thing I ever watched on MTV Europe), a blonde Geordie lass with crayzee curls and sea-green eyes (and a rather fetching beige power-suit) happened upon my TV screen one weekday afternoon between 4 and 6pm. I must have been... fifteen. That explains a lot. But I watched, and the live format seemed to open Donna up to the world. Her family waving through the window overlooking Leicester Square, my Christmas card to Donna in the background, and a million pieces of information you just wouldn't get anywhere else. Those were the golden days.
And pretty soon I started DACU. Yep, even back then, when all there was to write about was Select MTV, Crush, Byker Grove and the Nissan advert she did when she was two. What's more, we got the hits. About 20,000 a year, to be precise. The early Maxim and FHM shoots probably drew in the crowds, but I still like to think that maybe one or two of those early visitors hung around for the articles. Most of the text of the site hasn't changed since the day it was written over five years ago, I've just added to it here and there.
There were letters, of course... to Donna, I mean. Partly in the hope of a reply, partly to find an address which worked so I could add it to the site. The first reply was nice enough, a simple signed photo returned in the SAE I enclosed with my letter; it's nice that Donna acknowledges her fans. The second reply I received a few months ago, a new signed photo with a handwritten letter attached. That was - and is - pretty amazing. To know that Donna is aware of the site, and even supports it, is all I could have dreamed for.
But I'm ambitious, of course. So a new dream must be found. Not that I don't have dreams... I write poetry (don't hate me for it) and would love to be published, even though there's no money in poetry. Take a look at http://anthill.port5.com/ if you're interested. It's a site of my own poems, I'm updating it as soon as I've finished here for the night. But the new DACU dream is, I suppose, the same-old DACU dream. To get you involved. We've always tried to have interactive pages, but the Yahoo Group brings them all together in one easy-to-reach place. Don't be afraid to post to the mailing list, it's unmoderated because we trust you. And because we can boot you out of the club if you offend anybody! But really, without you there'd be no point in the site even existing, so sign the guestbook on your way out?
Your editor and friend, Bob Bardsley.
Contact me:
By email: bobble@donnaair.org.uk
On Yahoo: clivesbignight
On MSN: clivesbignight@hotmail.com