QueenZone discussion #871910

Mike Van wrote: I heard the husband and wife team got into debt over sellling a Queenopoly game. I think the husband's name was Sandy (and he won the UK mastermind trivia in 95 or 96. I am surprised that you lost money over a convention. I do not believe that they announced a Queenvention in 1997 ... at least I did not register and I tended to register early.

Deacons 1st Choice wrote: Feel a need to pipe in here.... Royal Vision folded under debious reasons...reasons someone touched on above ( the Queenopoly game, and many other things) and it took me YEARS to finally hear the truth about what happened. Whenever i would ask about it, everyone involved gummed up and would'nt give me a clue...so i totally understand your curiousity. I'm sorry to hear about you losing a lot of your money. I'm not going to go into the details here out of respect for those that were involved as i am sure they would rather not have this all brought up again and plastered about publically on QZ. In a nutshell: Money coming into the Club was misshandled. I think that's the best way of putting it.... Royal Vision had a long and glorious history until it's sad demise in 95' if a remember right. The "Nan" mentioned above was involved in RV for many years but was NOT involved in what happened that spelled the end of the Club. I feel a need to state this. Nan did many great things for RV back in the day and a lot of US Fans have a great respect for this. Kara and Sandy ran the Club up until the end, and the last QueenVention was held in 1995. I remember it well as the title for the "final" Queen Album ( Made in Heaven) was announced for the first time that night at the Event. I also have a great videotape of it. There were no further US Conventions for a while afterwards as RV ceased to exsist almost immediately afterwards. I remember attending the UK Con in May of 1997 and part of my time there was spent meeting up with old RV Members trying to figure out a way to put together our own Convention for people. That never happened, but a few years later some ex-RV Members DID make it happen...thus "Breakthru" was born. It took me many years to finally get the whole story about what happened exactly, as it was strange how all of a sudden RV folds up after reaching such hieghts at that time ( even with Offical FC support! Holy Crap...even John Deacon wrote us a personalized message on QPL letterhead to be read at what was the last QV!). Suddenly Kara and Sandy dissapeared off the face of the Earth ( literally ..) and everyone was left scratching there heads wondering what was up. Sadly, sometimes when you become successful it leads you to temptations.....and this i think had a lot to do with what became of RV. I loved Royal Vision. I was a huge supporter back in the day, contributing to the Newsletters and also various things for the QueenVentions. It was awesome, and it's hard for people today to realise just how GREAT and incredibly IMPORTANT it was to the US Fan base who were "cut-off" over here in the States from the world of Queen. This was long before the Internet took off and Queen were pretty much forgotten here in mainstream America. The only news or info we could get about the Band was thru the OIQFC, or locally through Royal Vision. This Club started in 1985/6 if a remember right, and the goal was to bring Queen back to the States to tour. Who would have known that 20 years later it would finally happen? In the meantime they held many Events including the fabulous QueenVentions ( still the best conventions i have been to to date) and X-mas parties and other get togethers. In later years RV helped fans secure tickets when Brian May brought his Band to tour here a couple of times and organized meet and greets with him. Also it must be said that the appearence of the BM Band on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno they had a hand in....expecially literally as several RV Club Members were in the audience that night when the show was taped for broadcast! All those yelps and screams were bonified RV Members! So yeah, RV was a great club and it was a terrible pity that such a neat organization fell by the wayside.

Daniel Nester wrote: Royal Vision was a lifeline for a lot of us back in the 80s and 90s. Always wondered what happened at the end. Just thought it fizzled out. Still have the old RV newsletters....

*goodco* wrote: 97-99....I know there was one in Cleveland, as they toured the RnR HOF. 2000 did take place. It was my first one. A hilarious moment occurred when Hector (dressed as Freddie during the SHA era) was doing his bit with a fog machine, and someone in the hotel called the fire department on us, thinking that it was smoke!