WSM TRIBUTE to BILL SHIPTON It was a huge shock to the WAM community when Bill Shipton of Splosh fame suddenly passed away on 5th July 2013 at the age of 57. His original Forum site has now been replaced by www.sploshuk.co.uk. But very few contribute and it is a pale shadow of what went before. WSM will continue to remember Bill each year even if most forget. Andy from Manchester continues to update regularly on the www.sploshuk.co.uk website. WSM last contributed on 29th Sept 2019 but I will now try to update regularly commencing with this Tribute posting. Follow us on https://wsmprod.com to check forward movie updates.
I (Mike Ellison) first met Bill under his true name of Clive Harris (Clive William Harris) about 1978. He was the presenter of a custard pie caper held at a venue near Hammersmith, London. I next remember meeting him a year or two later, this time hosting a mud wrestling event on the 1st floor of a pub also down London's West End (cameras banned!) I met him at the Mayfair magazine office on 26th May 1982 and I will show his letter next year.
As a freelance writer, he had many fingers in many pies, but was a dynamic, yet irreverent, innovator. Here are a couple of shots of Bill in typical pose!
I later met Clive (now renamed as Bill Shipton ) 11th March 1989 at the 1st Aquantics Convention held at the Harbour Heights Hotel (now converted to flats!) in Tenby. Bill had decided to launch a wet and messy magazine under the name of 'Splosh'. WSM girls Carol and Debbie provided the 'splosh' entertainment that time (see image set S058 which is posted on the WSM Subscription Images site and has 89 pics). Bill formed a good working relationship with Shaun Kendall (the WSM film editor) and they went on to make the 'Buff' range of videos.
Bill's writing and comic skills were well apparent, so WSM signed him up as our script-writer and Bill produced the scripts for the WSM Vintage Films numbers 3 to 9. In fact, it was better than that, as Bill was only too happy to show his versatility by taking a number of roles in the videos. So Bill had real 'hands-on' experience in the 90's. Now we will surprise you! Those of you who follow WSM weekly will be amazed to see that WSM are adding a FREEDOWNLOAD of our VINTAGE FILM 7 with the full Download of STREAM 7 featuring Bill hosting Plastermind with 5 girls (and questions dreamt up by Bill). This runs 5 mins 37 secs
Go to Home Page, then Downloads Online Store, then VINTAGE FILMS. Opening Film 7 Stream 7 The Wheel of Misfortune the write-up is shown.
Bill's 1st issue of Splosh magazine was shot in the basement of the Harbour Heights Hotel in Tenby in April 1989. WSM assisted Bill by supplying much material for issues 2 through to 11. There were 40 issues of Splosh. But Bill realized at the end of the 90's that a new phenomena was changing the world. So the internet made magazine production too costly as sales fell away.
The introduction of a studio and a devoted 'Splosh' website changed Bill's direction. But new technology is a curse and Bill struggled to master all the aspects of video/DVD production.
I last met Bill in 1999 when we completed Vintage Film 9. Since then we had many a phone conversation which always ended in the same manner.laughter! We ended up as two captains in the worldwide sea of WAM, me on the container ship WSM with weekly drop-offs. Bill had his cruise ship 'SPLOSH'. Everyone was welcome to sit at the Captain's table and Bill was recognized as the talented, witty comic genius he was and great company to be with!
The magazine and latterly website, brought many different people together as a community. Bill had a huge influence on many lives and his term 'Splosh' entered our language. I would think the NHS owe him a huge thanks for reducing their therapy costs! Latterly, life was a struggle for him as he showed devoted care to his elderly parents. But we all know that he cared very deeply for his Splosh family. He was the kindly, caring, compassionate, yet always willing to be amusing, face of WAM.
So a legend departed! Few people had such a legacy to have been loved by all.
But the greatest sadness is that his work does not live on as a single body. This is a great warning for all WAM producers. I have duly taken heed and ensured that the movies and images of WSM will live on. Why the big man in the sky takes some people far too early yet allows others (me) to fester on for many more years, is just a mystery. But let us enjoy Bill for what he was!
At the time of Bill's sad passing his Mum Molly was aged 88 and his Dad Bert was 91. It seems more than preposterous that these two old folks have suppressed all the fine WAM work Bill achieved! Within the last decade there has been a witch hunt against adult material culminating in the vainly crazy Digital Economy Bill. This wished to verify that only adults were subscribing to adult websites, but because of the enormous costs involved and the possible privacy implications, it did not proceed. So how many cases do you read about of minors being exposed and being harmed by adult and porn material? Quite ridiculous. when kids watch at least 10,000 murders on screen during childhood! And now the spotlight has swung to Gay Pride and Transgenders. And good fun-loving Bill Shipton videos should be praised to the skies! It is great and eccentric WAM material presented in a cheap yet very cheerful way! It is about time that Bill's video's and DVD's are available to all who wish to see them!
Another warm, glowing, tribute to the great man Mike. Thank you for continuing to remind us of what we miss with his sad early departure. As you know Mike I was at the epic convention you mentioned at Tenby in 1989 and had the pleasure of driving Bill (Clive) back to London during which he talked almost incessantly and passionately about Splosh. Great memories and happy times.
The sad passings of Clive and then Lenny Sorge a few years later (neither of which had clear instructions in their wills regarding the dispensation of their copyrights) is what prompted us at The Mothership to create our Estate Directives system. This allows producers to give us an idea of what we should do in the event of their death.
Happily, no one has passed in the last couple of years, so we haven't had to rely on it yet.
Bill was a leading light for sure in this fetish for sure. Would always try and sneak it in to the 'top shelf'
To be honest, I thought the Splosh site had shut down. Was always a good place to visit. Some of those early scenes and vhs releases are still bench marks. Also the models he worked with are still in my top ten models. Karen, Rachel x2,Louise, Sammy, Emma and the rest.
I only met him in person once when he kindly came up to Warrington, where we were then holding our early North-west splunches. We got on like a house on fire - very much on the same wavelength in so many fields - and guided him back to his hotel after an excellent meal in the evening. Such a sad loss.
Incidentally, it had been the hope that we'd be able to take over the URL as it had stood. MuckyPup (from this area and who looked after the forum etc. for Bill) was all ready to move the day it expired but someone had obviously paid to reserve it. Please don't go to the original URL as it now seems to be populated by scammers who are trying to suggest that there are still items for sale. My guess is that money will disappear to them and the person losing it will be too embarrassed to ever go to the authorities over it, which is what they rely on. I did some detective work once the scammers took over and managed to trace them via various websites that looked legit until you dug further, ending up at a house in Australia which had just been sold ... and then the trail ran cold.
This is why the forum (which was separately administered and under MuckyPup's control) has had a slightly different URL applied. (http://www.sploshuk.co.uk/forum/)
Mike NoMic had hoped to rescue some of the original site while Bill's dad was dealing with the winding up of the estate but it all dragged on so long and then the scammers set-up what looks like the old site at the old address, that everything had long gone off the boil and it became evident that it was just too late to be able to do anything fresh and of significance with any of it. The forum is largely there now for archive but, as you say, it is still available for people to post on. There are 3 or 4 of us who have admin access to the forum to try to keep it clear of scammers posting gibberish and dodgy links etc.
The ethos was always that it should be primarily for discussions/suggestions etc. and so Bill always had a rule that if people wanted to promote their own commercial stuff, that was ok, so long as there were pictures for people to enjoy and so long as it didn't keep getting artificially bumped to stop the forum turning into nothing more than a series of sales ads.
All were welcome there, especially those of us who like to dress up, once the Wamdrogeny site closed. This was at a time when we were being shunted off amongst the 'blokes only' ghetto in here, despite the fact that we wanted to see ourselves amongst other women (at least in appearance) enjoying our messy fun.
The loss of Bill and Splosh was such a great shame. I was only thinking about it recently ... and about the loss of the incredibly popular Wamdrogeny site too.
I used to love going down to St. Leonard's to shoot at Bill's studio. He was always great company and I tried to make at least one trip a year. Once I took three models down there and Bill was a bit concerned at the lack of shower space, but it all worked out. Only Lily S had to wait as Charley took ages in the shower It was also Sarah's first time messy. It was awesome!
Seeing Splosh! mentioned in FHM...the n randomly finding a copy on the heavily loaded top shelf in a newsagents was the first whisper I had that I was not alone in this fetish and that there were other people into it. It's hard to explain to someone who grew up online how important this was.
For reasons I'd gone into previously on here, I engineered a conversation with Bill by ringing the magazine in the number at the back. I was purportedly a uni student writing a piece...i think he knew I was a terrified and lonely kid really. He was warm, kind, silly, fun and patient and appropriate to someone who was probably a bit of a pest.
Thought I would add my twopence worth to this wonderful thread in remembrance of good old Bill. What a great pioneer for us messy folk or would that be better as pie in ear. I too use to buy the Splosh Magazine and the VHS films...great reading and a brilliant night's viewing so R.I.P. Bill we all still love you and miss you immensely, changed our lives for the better.
Wrote this last year for Bill on the anniversary of his passing on my Facebook page.
He was always a lovely chap to talk to and very friendly.
I had to the pleasure of going to Splosh studios to do my first ever Wam session with my then soon to be girlfriend in the early 00's which was a great experience.
I miss him dearly as he made me not feel so alone in this world with the beautiful fetish we have and it's down to him that I have made quite a lot of friends here on this forum.