There are times in life when a story arrives at the desk – well, inbox in this case – and you immediately feel compelled to write it up. This is one of those occasions, and the kind person who sent the tip off to my emails has really made my day!

As you might know, the story goes that house music was first brought to British shores after Danny Rampling, Paul Oakenfold, Nicky Holloway and Johnny Walker attended Amnesia in 1987. Upon returning to Blighty, Rampling wanted to bring this music to a British audience, so he set up Shoom.

Now, memorabilia from this era is incredibly rare. Not a lot of it was created in the first place and even less of it survives in any kind of condition. So when an item arrives on the market – such as this Shoom fanzine from 1988, with a note by Danny and then wife Jennie Rampling inside – it’s going to get a lot of attention.

So what’s it worth? A lot is the answer. Indeed, a flyer for a night from the same club sold on eBay for £921 only recently. An estimate from the specialists in rave flyers at Phatmedia is around £1000. Proceeds from the sale go to Vaccinaid, a charity helping vaccinate people in some of the poorest counties in the world.

This includes a current drive to deliver two billion vaccines against Covid-19. Now why do I get the feeling you won’t like that, Danny?

By The Editor

Editor-in-chief at Amateur’s House.