hi -- I just finished reading Angee's new book about Rolling Stones' fans and the fan community, You Get What You Need (it's super fun!).

In it, she mentions what she considers to be one of the four major Rolling Stones fan communities---a thriving, private Rolling Stones listserv or email list called "Undercover" (or UC). And apparently it's based here, in the Bay Area.

It's like finding out there's an after hours club down the back alleyway next to where you live in an outbuilding of what you thought was just a shed.

Dang! Am I the last to know? Who here's a member of this rarified klatch?

- swiss



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-12-31 14:49 by swiss.

It's listed here: [www.iorr.org] But it seems inactive now.

IORR Editor's (IORR/Bjornulf) note:
I changed the link. UC is still around.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-12-31 21:21 by bv.

I occasionally used to look at their message board years ago but it was already seriously clunky even back then and needed a radical overhaul, which I guess never happened.

UC is still active and the list can be joined at:
[under-cover.net]

I used to be on Undercover from around 1994, but as I started IORR in 1996 I was too busy with that. I stopped receiving the daily digest e-mail a few years ago. In addition to the current UC digest still running, you may find some old historic UC contents around on the net:

[www.faqs.org]

[groups.google.com]

[www.isacs.org]

Undercover was made by Steve Portigal.

Bjornulf



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2014-12-31 18:39 by bv.

Well, it's still online (since 1994) and active and has quite a few members. It might be clunky, as it is emailbased and not like Facebook or Messengerbased or whatever. So it doesn't need an overhaul, email is email. If you can do with that, give it a try. :-)

As mentioned earlier, it was e-mail based and predates widespread use of the WWW. I used to look forward to getting the digest every day back in college (all emails compiled into one).

It was indeed clunky (and cliquey--the amount of cheese jokes was borderline intolerable at times), but it did have to clout to get @#$%& played (internet vote) in Fort Worth Nov. 1, 1997. So the Stones (in effect) played my request.

Edit: try and guess what @#$%& is. Begins with Star.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-12-31 18:14 by SharksWillCry.

Very clunky and occasionally profound like me.

Best to BV and IORR.

Martin.

I remember UC had named a bar in San Jose for a glimmer party during the delayed Stones No Security shows in San Jose 1999. It was near the Fairmont. I recommended the same bar in IORR and it sort of got crowded. And they did not like it... After that I did not do any recommendations about pre-show meetings for a while.

Somehow things changed from the glimmer meeting in Chicago Sept 22, 1997 Sterch's Bar with 30 or so fans into the more crowded No Security tour April 1999. May be it was due to the growing number of visitors on IORR, as internet got more into a commodity late 90's. Anyway, the UC guys are nice, many friends, and I have met most of them in person, actually I am one of them, sort of, but it could get a bit cheesy at times.

Also, remember we all got 20+ years older since internet started early 1990's...

Bjornulf



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-12-31 21:23 by bv.

Quote
bv



Also, remember we all got 20+ years older since internet started early 1990's...

Sigh.

The Internet started in the 1970s (arguably earlier).

The World Wide Web started in (about) 1991.

Think of the Internet as a road system that carries all sorts of vehicles - cars, taxis, buses, trucks. Those are things like email, text, files etc.

The World Wide Web is equivalent to a wildly popular make of car.

There is a difference.

Sigh.

--
Captain Corella
60 Years a Fan

Quote
CaptainCorella

Quote
bv

Also, remember we all got 20+ years older since internet started early 1990's...

Sigh.

The Internet started in the 1970s (arguably earlier).

The World Wide Web started in (about) 1991.

Sigh.

Well may be that is why I am not that often on UC anymore... Sure I ment to say the WORLD WIDE WEB, as we know it. Sure I had my BV e-mail address also in the 80's, on the INTERNET, at the University of Oslo, but back then I could talk to people in the academia and defense only. A handful or so. Not millions across the world. It is a matter of speaking, right? I ment Internet publishing, to be more precise. Everything, except some internet nerds at the Universities, were offline until the web arred early 1990's, I am sure we can all agree on that. Still I have friends that are not online...

Bjornulf

Well I'm happy to learn this about some strong Stones interest in the Bay Area.
It never struck me as being a hardcore Stones community when compared to many other
cities/countries.

Thanks all for the info -- seems like a great bunch over there!

Quote
bv
I remember UC had named a bar in San Jose for a glimmer party during the delayed Stones No Security shows in San Jose 1999. It was near the Fairmont. I recommended the same bar in IORR and it sort of got crowded. And they did not like it... After that I did not do any recommendations about pre-show meetings for a while.

Somehow things changed from the glimmer meeting in Chicago Sept 22, 1997 Sterch's Bar with 30 or so fans into the more crowded No Security tour April 1999. May be it was due to the growing number of visitors on IORR, as internet got more into a commodity late 90's. Anyway, the UC guys are nice, many friends, and I have met most of them in person, actually I am one of them, sort of, but it could get a bit cheesy at times.

Also, remember we all got 20+ years older since internet started early 1990's...

in all fairness, i think what happened is that people were supposed to RSVP and many [most?] did not. as a result, the staff at the bar was not properly prepared for and overwholmed by the number of people who showed up.

Quote
bv
it could get a bit cheesy at times.

As a cheese lover myself I was disheartened to find out on Undercover that Keith does not like cheese at all. On the bright side, Brian came from a town with a cheese wheel rolling competition. How those two facts could support years' worth of cheese jokes, I will never know. But the archives are there, and swiss, you might dig it the most.

Quote
swiss
In it, she mentions what she considers to be one of the four major Rolling Stones fan communities---a thriving, private Rolling Stones listserv or email list called "Undercover" (or UC). And apparently it's based here, in the Bay Area.

Out of curiosity what were the other three? And what was the publication date? I thought Undercover had been dead as a dodo (doorknob?) for years.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-01-01 08:22 by SharksWillCry.

I was a member for a while but found it an unwelcoming and hyper-negative bunch, so I backed out.

Been there too for some years.Can't say anything bad.Always thought they shot down some years ago. Another list was Sticky Fingers journal.

And I always thought IORR started in 95 cause I seem to remember the 95 tour reviews here. Maybe I mix up some of those lists . .?!

Quote
SharksWillCry

Quote
bv
it could get a bit cheesy at times.

As a cheese lover myself I was disheartened to find out on Undercover that Keith does not like cheese at all. On the bright side, Brian came from a town with a cheese wheel rolling competition. How those two facts could support years' worth of cheese jokes, I will never know. But the archives are there, and swiss, you might dig it the most.

Quote
swiss
In it, she mentions what she considers to be one of the four major Rolling Stones fan communities---a thriving, private Rolling Stones listserv or email list called "Undercover" (or UC). And apparently it's based here, in the Bay Area.

Out of curiosity what were the other three? And what was the publication date? I thought Undercover had been dead as a dodo (doorknob?) for years.

Angee's book just came out, a couple of weeks ago--the 4 groups are: UC, IORR, Rocks Off, and Shidoobee. UC seems to be alive and well!

Yep, 20 years ago, nearly is when I joined UC, when I got my 28.8k modem (or was it 14.4k ?) for my work laptop and subscribed to an ISP.

My best memories from the UC list :
- reading ChrisM's reviews of the Voodoo Brew/Stew boxsets
- getting great seats for the Oakland Show in 1997 thanks to Chelskeith
- not really a good memory, but a memory all the same, the massive arguing with the "Disarranging Mime" (wonder if he ever made it here?) who kept defending Karnbach's 1997 book in spite of its very obvious and annoying flaws (i.e. lots of inaccurate information, zero insight on new outtakes listed, etc...).

--------------
IORR Links : Essential Studio Outtakes CDs : Audio - History of Rarest Outtakes : Audio

Oh man, now we're going way back. Reminds me of Sticky Fingers Journal.

UC isn't clunky, it's old school, there is a difference. If I remember, UC was born in 1992 when a hand full of Stones fans on a guitar tab message board wondered if a mailing list devoted to the Rolling Stones would have any interest to anyone other than them. A young grad. student in Ontario became the listmaster. Twenty-three years later there is still an interest. I think UC had a thousand members in the late 90's.

While UC prefers email as a communication tool instead of today's current forums with avatars and all the whistles, along with being the first internet Rolling Stones fan created community, they have created many firsts:

1. Gatherings of Rolling Stones fans from around the world who met on the Internet that date back to 1993/94.

2. Invented Wood v. Taylor Internet flame wars.

3. Manipulating the Stones song vote on Bridges to Babylon, the only time UC's choice would lose was when the Stones substituted the song they wanted.

4. Using text messaging during the No Security opener in 1999 to text the set list to UC.

5. Using the mailing list to campaign for Get Off Of My Cloud to be played on the B Stage in Philadelphia. It had yet to be played on No Security and did debut on the small stage in Philly.

6. Creating calling lists and buying circles to help each other purchase Licks theatre gig tickets.

7. The first Internet Stones fan club t-shirt.

8. Creating the first badges in 1999 that looked very similar to the crew's passes, they worked to get UCers onto the floor for the b stage during the No Security and Licks tours.

Undercover is old school, innovative, has a thing for cheese, Who's on First and 1960's sitcoms and after 23 years, is more family than a community. Tweedy it is, clunky it is not.

I haven't read Andee's book yet, but I think the four she refers to are: IORR, Rocks Off, Shidoobee and Undercover.

Doug began Shidoobee during Bridges in an AOL chat room on Monday nights, it was a mixture of AOL subscribers, IORR and UCers. He launched the board probably three years later.

When I joined UC in 1997, Rocks Off was pretty new, Shidoobee didn't exist, IORR was still young, there was the Sticky Fingers Journal (another mailing list), Voodoo Lounge that was a forum with a chat room, if I remember. I remember meeting people from all of them at a combined Stones Internet gathering at the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas for the November, 1997 Bridges to Babylon concert.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-01-03 06:41 by Tiger.

Thanks, Tiger. Hope you get a chance to read the book and that I did justice to UC, not as deeply as your portrayal would be, of course!

Steve P, UC founder wrote a nice blurb for the back of the book.

~"Love is Strong"~

Andee, your book is currently in my Amazon cart - waiting for me to hit $35 for free shipping. I'm looking forward to reading it.

Some great people on this UC list. Steve a wonderful listmaster. I met many people through UC I still count as good friends from all over the world. I threw a big party at my house just before Stones opened in Chicago with Bridges tour, and left it wide open. A true international event I will never forget.Deb White helping big time to get Sterch's Glimmer mettings together were fantastic. It was a revelation to find UC on the net back in the early 90's. Stones fans from all over. I don't post there these days, but it doesn't mean I will ever forget some great people on UC!