SPLOSH! 20th Anniversary

[malc]

I know Bill has plans for celebrating in his own unique style the anniversary of the first issue of Splosh and its launch at the first Aquantics weekend also 20 years ago. This event was held at Tenby for those who weren't old enough to remember, and the news item over the weekend of the Tenby lifesaving story bought the memory of that special weekend back.
Not sure if any other contributors to the forum were there; it would be great to hear from you if you were.
Perhaps this might start a few memories of that or following Aquantics activites! I was there at the first one and had the pleasure of driving Bill back to Forest Hill (south London) at the end having only met him during the weekend. Suffice to say the conversation flowed continuously, at least from my passenger.
I also attended one other event there a couple of years later(I think), featuring the famous painting of the wall at the property next door which took the guy 2 days as he seemed more interested in what happened poolside rather than his proper job!

[Sidi]

20years? Its been that long?

I remember getting my first mag, issue 5, been hooked and a big fan ever since

Here's to the next 20 years.

[BillShipton]

Yes, it is 20 years this year. Or to put it another way, 21 years ago I was sane! I remember that first Aquantics weekend quite well (though I must admit that I'd forgotten Malc drove me home). It was held in Colin Twyford's small hotel which we completely took over. Colin is one of several people (along with his wife) who sadly are no longer with us from those very first days. We also completely destroyed one of the ground floor rooms filming Carol and Debbie's restaurant scene which appeared much later in WSM'll Fix It (available on DVD!) where Colin plays the waiter.

The stories about that weekend from my perspective are probably too long and tedious to go into right now, but one thing impressed me from the start. The 12 people who went had exactly the same idea of what worked and what didn't as I did. To my amazement, they shared the same cartoon slapstick sense of humour, many of the same likes when it came to the clothing the girls should wear and the sort of stuff they should be deluged with and how. It was my Road to Damascas moment. God, there are others as mad as me! In fact, I seem to remember giving a speech at the final dinner thanking the organisers on behalf of the guests (whether they wanted me too or not!) for showing me exactly that.

These days, there are one or two people who love to imply that setting up Splosh! was a purely business proposition for me. Nothing could be further from the truth. From a business point of view, it was a big, expensive, self-indulgent whim! But that weekend I had seen that pleasant, not remotely creepy and highly entertaining people from many different walks of life shared the same love of female slapstick that I did, and that confirmed my desire to set up a magazine so that others might come to find the same thing, feel okay about themselves and enjoy the subject (it still didn't have a name then!) as much as I did.

All I had to do then was discuss with the people at the weekend what they wanted in such a magazine, put it together (I had been the editor and deputy editor of several mags by then so that was fairly simple though hard work) and pay for it (less simple!). Amazingly it came out just a few weeks after that meeting.

In a few weeks we hope you will be able to relive those early days when we open a special download store for our favourite old material, material you can't get any more Including that first issue in PDF form) and even material that hasn't been seen cos it got edited out or just never used! We'll keep you informed as to it's opening date.

So, yes, it was certainly a life changing weekend for me!

[eden]

Congrats! Lots of birthday cake! Hooray!

[Sploshman]

Congrats on 20 years Bill and Hayley!! .

LONG MAY IT CONTINUE!!

[Essexgungefan]

Heres to keeping this great site going!

[BillShipton]

Oh, we aren't going anywhere! Too much to add to it!

[Goodwrench]

A few weeks you'll be putting up old stuff!!! That is a GREAT birthday present! I have been patiently waiting for this day for about 2 years, and will probably have to put in some extra hours at work to pay for all the "classics" that I've been dying to see!

[snake]

CONGRATULATIONS BILL & CO!!

I've always appreciated your quality approach to Splosh material.... looking forward to the next 20 years!

In a few weeks we hope you will be able to relive those early days when we open a special download store for our favourite old material, material you can't get any more Including that first issue in PDF form) and even material that hasn't been seen cos it got edited out or just never used! We'll keep you informed as to it's opening date.!

now that will be a good day!
looking forward to reliving some classic moments!

[MessClub]

Many Happy Returns - May You Long Continue

[matt2matt2002]

I was there............
Well, I bought issue 1 and like Bill had a Paul on the road kinda experience.
I was amazed that someone liked the same kinda stuff as me.
1,000 thanks to Bill and his assistants / models.