L'hommage: Nina Simone | Magazine Rack

RECORD MIRROR (NO. 412) 2/1969

"WHERE'S ALL THE FANS?" ASKS NINA (AT 6:30 IN THE MORNING)
by Ian Middleton

   This year could quite easily be Nina Simone’s year in Britain. Last week she had no fewer
than THREE singles in our charts which is not a bad start to the year. Part of Nina’s chart
success must surely be due to the efforts of her Fan Club in this country.
   The Nina Simone Fan Club is run by David Nathan with assistance from his sister Sylvia.
David is not a star-struck fan. He knows where it’s at. In fact, David works in Soul City
record shop and therefore is in touch with the current trends. As the president of the Fan Club,
David is in a unique position in that he suggests to the record company which records they
should release by Nina Simone.
   I saw David and Sylvia (it sounds like a singing duo, doesn’t it?) together with RCA boss
Terry Oates and they told me how this came to pass.
   “I’ve been running the Fan Club for four years now,” David said. “After a while I had to get
my sister in to help with the work. Nina, of course, has always had a following. But things have
really started to happen for her since “Ain’t Got No – I Got Life” went into the charts. She will
be coming to Britain in March for concerts with her own group and singers and I’m sure she
will knock everybody out.
   “When I first wanted to form the Fan Club, I got her permission. Then when she came over
that, I met her at London Airport at 6:30 in the morning. She asked me where all the fans were
and I had to tell her that 6:30 in the morning was a bit early for most people.”
   Terry Oates was very pleased that a Fan Club showed such constructive reasoning about
one of RCA’s artistes. “When David first started writing to us, we took notice,” Terry
mentioned. “We knew that the writer knew what he was doing. We respected his judgment. In
fact it was David who suggested we should issue ‘To Love Somebody’ as a follow-up to ‘Ain’
t Got No – I Got Life’.”
   Obviously David and Sylvia help Nina Simone a great deal, and in return Nina helps them.
   “We receive newsletter and all sorts of information from Nina,” David informed me. “Also
RCA keeps us up to date with material. So one way or the other, we know everything that
Nina is doing.”
   It is a refreshing thought to know that there is at least one fan club in this country which has
got the ear of a record company.