I can't believe that its 12 years since the untimely passing of Clive Harris. To many in the Wonderful Wobbly World of WAM, you would have known him a Bill Shipton. However, this was a nom-de-plume that he used mainly to save his parents' blushes. He went under a few different names, calling himself "De Forest Hill" when he contributed with softcore porn magazine, Mayfair. He always said he got the names from the places he lived. However, I don't think he ever lived at Shipton. He did however, live at Forest Hill before moving to St. Leonards on Sea.

While at Mayfair he had the idea for Splush, but after a few tweaks, the name was changed to Splosh! I could say that the rest is history, oh hang i just have. Going from this initial idea, it was Splosh! that dominated the last 25 years of Bill's (short) life. With the magazine, the videos, photoshoots and briefly going into the digital age with video downloads.

Of course, there were many ups and downs. Including getting an injunction from (a then) well known high street chain when he released his foot fetish "Toes R Us" video, which even made the national newspapers. He was back in national newspapers again, when he was evicted from a hotel, an incident involving a film crew, some scantly-clad lingerie wearing women and a few gallons of custard.

Despite his long associate with all things Messy and Splosh in general, it was actually comedy that was Bill's great love, (but isn't WAM the most comedic and fun of fetishes?). His sketches that he wrote/and sold to The Two Ronnie's, and his humour books he also published, comedy was his real passion, and this can definitely be seen in his videos and magazines. He made an impression on everyone who met him, his unconventional looks, genuine wit, sense of humour, and amazing ad-libbing,he was impossible to ignore.

Settled in St. Leonards, this is where the Splosh studio was housed, and many a classic photoshoot and video was filmed, and afterwards, a laugh, banter and a pint in The Marina Fountain.

To the many models who appeared in the magazines or on video and delighted us Wammers, it was because of this great man and to quote Gandalf in The Lord of Rings : 'You're all part of History.'

12 years since his passing, but he presence will be felt forever. Rest in Peace Bill/Clive/De Forest.

A nice tribute. Bill was a pioneer. And those wonderful images should be an inspiration to the next generation of the community.

Pie On Ear. Pie On Boobs. Pie to the face or pussy. Bill pied the girls everywhere.


Thanks Le Rex for your really lovely tribute (and Chiassed for your great reply) . Some amazing photos there.

I'd be interested to hear which photo or photos the community (and the O.P) thinks are the definitive Splosh images. The ones that still resonate.

Here are my faves from those you have posted, but I also absolutely love the Pied & Prejudiced pho shoot so one from that would definitely be in my choice too.

Yes indeed. Bill/Clive was a wam legend.

For those who enjoy a walk down memory lane I just uploaded 29 mins of behind the scenes footage of Bill along with 2 other legends, Rob Blaine and Louise Hodges shot 33 years ago and I upscaled it now to HD for better enjoyment. You can watch this free footage by taking a sneak peak at my new Topwam 2.0 streaming site here. Ah Yes, those were the days ....

https://topwam.com/videos/374

The membership system is not open yet because we are still waiting for our processor to complete their audit of our site. I have loaded 1500 videos so far, with over 400 free videos so if you wish to browse around the new site take a sneak peak. The Messy wam streams are here ...

https://topwam.com/tag/messy

Yes! Although I had seen a few, other magazines, for all practical purposes, SPLOSH was my introduction to the world of WAM.

What a nice post thanks for sharing. Bill and Splosh are a legend! I found an article in Mayfair or similar about Splosh, and the address. I ordered a copy and wow was i happy lol!
Its a shame the videos are no longer available to download.
I never knew Bill wrote sketches for The Two Ronnies! What a great achievement.

A great summary of Bills life/ contributions.

I had a very pleasant email conversation with him . Can't recall what about but he struck me as a real genuine gent.

They broke the mold.....

Theres a fairly good-sized Aussie company called "Splosh!", formed years after the magazine. I wonder if the trademark is still registered to the estate?

A great post to a great man bringing a great deal to the WAM community sadly missed

The short answer is no.

The longer answer is that trademarks are either specific to a country or international. In the UK, they can be linked to various categories (e.g. sporting goods); the more categories you want to include, the more expensive it gets. The trademark will last for 10 years unless you renew it, so anything registered prior to Bill's death will have expired by now, assuming that his family didn't want to be involved. (Even if they did want to preserve the trademark, and were willing to pay for it, they'd still need to claim that they're actively using it.)

You can also do a search for UK trademarks here:
https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmtext?reset
There have only ever been 7 which use the exact word "Splosh" (5 live, 2 dead), and none of them look relevant to us.

Another brilliant tribute to Bill and Splosh! Thank you Le Rex. And a fantastic collection of Splosh images - haven't seen some of those for many many years. They still look as good today as they did originally

What he said.

Slight digression; did Bill ever work with Clown Julie?

Oh yes, Bill worked a few times eith Clown Julie. Both as part of Splosh! and as part of Gilly's Silly House.

Thanx LeRex
i knew Clown Julie worked with Miss Jones. nice to know she knew Bill. ( a great pair )

Yeah the scenes that Clown did with Miss Jones were amazing.

This scene was a Splosh scene (as oppose to a Gilly's Silly House scene). It featured Clown Julie and Samantha Jane and was called "Well, that certainly taught me a lesson".
It starts mild with eggs on the head, but the the pies and buckets of slosh come out, until both are completely covered. The clothes come off and more boob pieing and sloshing. Before it gets really naughty eith face sitting and a 69 (oooooo matron).

I do wish Bill was around to work with Bri and Lottie Lalay as they would have been absolutely perfect for the Splosh style. Both absolutely stunning while being naturally funny.

These would be my choices. Iconic, resonant and influential.

What a lovely tribute, thank you for sharing.

Wow.....that long. Damn!!! Sorry missed it back in the day when wam was born.l always wonder what the Splosh ladies are up too. These days. But anyway . Absolutely.....amazing what Bill did.

Thanks so much for picking up on this and taking part.

Great choices all of them, especially (for my tastes) the Carol and Debbie one, and the one with th treacle.

Hopefully some more people will share their faves

Nice post Rev, and in fact rather a difficult one to answer as there are so many wonderful pictures and scenes.

I do like Trouso's choices as the picture with Emma covered in paint is an amazing picture. As is the one of Rachel Stevens in thick treacle, and Carol and Debbie showing even back at the start the pictures were superb.

I did really struggle to pick, but I'm picking these (though I could have picked a lot more).

First, the cover of issue 25, with Rachel Stevens covered in all sorts of mess. Its from the video 'Return to Gunge Hill' and it was actually the first issue I bought. And so glad I did.There's just something about this pic I find stunning. As a side note issue 25 was the first issue when the new Splosh! logo was used.

2nd, Rachel Stevens again, and again covered in lots of mess. The cover of Gooey Girlies. The newsreader scene in this video (from which the cover is from), is just epic and is still one of my all time favorite WAM scenes.

3rd is Louise Hodges (L'Amour), from issue 33. I really love this photo set, especially being a real lover of custard. I just love the way the custard is running down her and into her knickers, makes me tingle.

4th, Robyn Dare from the 21st Birthday Bunfight. Not just an amazing photoset (in issue 21), but also an amazing scene (again part of Gooey Girlies). I always loved Robyn, and you can really see the fun and laughter in this photoset.

Of course as stated there are many many more I could have chosen.

Beautiful tribute!!!

I reckon it would be (and my copies are buried, so I can't go and check the issue numbers or find images online) the covers that

1) featured the model portraying a teacher doused in custard
2) Graham Norton thought looked like Sue Pollard

Wonderful tribute to "The father of Sploshing" Splosh magazine was my intro to realizing that I was not alone in liking WAM. At one point I had all 40 issues of the magazine.

Many favorites, a lot in this thread but one stands out in my mind...a model i recall called Luna...may have only done 1 shoot but....she was absolutely drenched head to toe in syrup. Looked amazing. If my mind is not playing tricks and it does exist,if someone has a photo of that set, be great to see it again.

I would be fascinated to know what those models in the first set of photos are doing now. Just weird to think that they could be innocently unaware of their infamy. Like people do all sorts in early life so I would suspect a lot forgot and don't even realise.

No your mind isn't playing tricks. The Luna set was in issue 16. It was with Louise L'Amour (Hodges) in a set called Flanderella. Which was also a video of the shoot (The Making of Flanderalla). Incidentally Luna was also the woman that Bill messes up with eggs, pies, beans and spaghetti in the secret film scene in Gooey Girlies. She did appear in other photosets as well but mostly wetlook ones.

That would be the lovely, cute (and nutty heheh) Mouse

Bill.
Very special photo set for me.

Bill was a good man. Maybe consider not using his real name in the post; just like he didn't publicize it (as you acknowledge), even later, it'd be nice to respect his wishes vis-a-vis his family.