When US singing star Belinda Carlisle makes her return to the UK this year with a trip to Wrexham’s William Aston Hall, there will be a special part of her glory days in attendance.

And he would not have had far to travel too, as Martin Wild from Whitchurch, who used to live in Bangor-on-Dee has a link to the singer of ‘Heaven is a place on Earth’ and ‘Leave a light on’.

Martin, now a media officer at Whitchurch Alport Football Club, was once the founder and organiser of the UK Belinda Carlisle fan club and fanzine, which had the seal of approval from the star herself as a phone call in London following her appearances on the biggest chat shows of the time.

And for Martin, who takes pride in the high standard of programme he produces at the club, it’s a look back at some brilliant times, but always with a professional eye on the content.

“I liked her music first and foremost and we’d seen her live on her tour in 1987 in Manchester,” said Martin, who is recovering from a serious fall last year.

“Then in 1990 after her 1989 Runaway Horses album came out, the fan club came about. I was already doing the fanzine.

“I do the Whitchurch Alport programme and this year’s, I have to say, is stellar. So when I compare that to what I was knocking out 27 years ago, it was so amateur, it’s unbelievable.

“I did that and then one year, we went away on holiday and when we got back, there was a letter on my mat in Bangor-on-Dee where I lived at the time. I saw the stamp mark was from Los Angeles and then I saw BJM in monogram, for Belinda Jo Mason (her married name) and it said thank you for sending her the fanzine, it’s great and I thought ‘blimey, some acknowledgement’.

“I always had pretty good information, for example, when she had her son, I had a telephone call to say she was on her way to the hospital where all the stars go and she was having her baby later that day.

“Then I got a second letter from her, which was far more detailed than the one before it, and eventually myself and the guy who helped me produce it, we went to London.

“She was on The Terry Wogan Show on the Friday night, and her PA asked us would it be ok to hook us all up then? We watched the show live and then we gave it the half hour they asked for, for her to be back in the suite and then I rang a number, asked to be put through and it was like talking to a friend, really.

“She’d seen the work I was doing and knew we were big fans. I suggested the fan club to her there and then and she said ‘why not?’ She told me to get in touch with Virgin and tell them what we wanted to do.

“I got in touch with a guy there and went down to see him in London and went into his office, all the walls were festooned with CDs; there were thousands of them and such an amazing array of music.

“He was receptive to it, we told them our ideas but basically he said that they would get my PO Box number, which at the time was my house, listed on Belinda’s albums and singles. So I set up a PO Box in Wrexham and got all these things printed by Bentley’s Printers there – Ron Bentley and his son who I think are still going.

“We did all the fan club packs and updated fans every quarter, we had exclusive photographs that we used to send out but again, when I look back it now, it’s cringe time. It wasn’t up to the standard of now, even though we only charged £10 for it.

“It only ran for 12 months. But it was great to say that my claim to fame is running her fan club – that said, when I say it now, all my carers are young and the ask ‘who’s Belinda Carlisle?’”

When Martin looks back at his time, he admits he is proud of it and is looking forward to her perfomance at the William Aston Hall on September 29.

“To have a CD of an album that went to number one in the UK charts and it has my address on the back, knowing full well that fan club is run by you and endorsed by her, then I would I say then I was of proud of it then,” he said.

“But it was a bit bonkers to have even come up with it when I had my own things to run at the same. It was never going to have the same longevity that say a Tina Turner fan club might – it had a short shelf life and I might have been crazy to think I could make a good living from that from how ever many years.

“I got to meet her once in a London hotel room. My daughter Annie was just around six at the time and we met her in Kensington. It was a boiling hot day and we were last people up there, and we went up to the suite to see her. It was a nice, amicable day.”