2019 marks 30 years since Bill Shipton published the first print edition of Splosh! back in 1989.

Please feel free to share your memories, pics and thoughts on the legacy of what became - and still is - a WAM institution.

(Below is a facsimile of the first edition sporting Mike Ellison's cover photo and my own commemorative 'tribute' edition!)

Firstly, that is an amazing tribute cover. It looks amazing and makes me wish it was the real magazine making a comeback.

I was a huge fan..I read the magazine from issue 2 onwards and still have my copies.

My absolute favourite thread was the 'Pied And Predjudiced' photo set which I just loved as I couldn't quite believe they would trash such expensive looking ballgowns.

Favourite model was Robyn...I definitely was smitten!

It was a wonderful magazine and helped so many of us of my generation on our journey to realising we were not alone in our fetish.

Happy Anniversary Splosh (and thanks again Richard for the thread and the truly fantastic mock cover pic)

Ah Bill. I so wish he was still here and wish we'd got to finish the project we had been planning. He'd have loved Maria and Penny Banks.

From Queen Of Tarts (one of the Alice in Gungerland series) with the amazing DecadentDoll

I started with issue two I never did get to see the inaurgural production. I always liked reading the "letters" especially those from "Richard of Brighton.

BTW Trouso, I'll er.. bet I know who your model is for your excellent mock up.

Seconded, and yes, he would have adored Maria and Penny! I only got to meet him once, at that now-legendary Birmingham splunch where our group took over the entire end section of the Wetherspoons pub, but he was fascinating to chat with. RIP and sadly missed.

A wonderful tribute Richard and so many happy memories from attending the first Aquantics event in Tenby back in 1989 when Bill announced he would be producing SPLOSH magazines, many boozy nights with the great man in pubs in Forest Hill and St Leonards, numerous lengthy phone conversations( listening mainly).and of course the excitement of looking at the magazines.
Long may the memory of SPLOSH continue.

Malc.

I never met Bill, but his work has influenced my life. In 1989 I was a year under the legal age for buying porn but back then as I looked a lot older and there were relativity few checks, (it was also an open secret as to which shops were less strict than the others!) I was getting the likes of Razzele, Fiestas, Escort etc. and liking the relatively tame messy sets they had, I remember a jelly wrestling one with particular fondness, anyway I digress. It was probably about a year after when I turned 18, when I picked the courage up to go into a local sex shop and found Splosh magazines and knew it was something great!

This led not only to buying future magazines, but messy videos as well! Check out the £28 price tag from the sex shop and a £10.79 price tag on one of the ones I bought from HMV!

Without Splosh Magaziee there would have been no photoset entilled Splosh Virgin Mia K Wallace 22/12/18. Full set on my profile (link below) and some photos added to this post.

https://umd.net/profile/i/whitestar/section/photos/album/splosh-virgin-mia-k-wallace-2212

I did see Bill on TV a couple times and I like his sense of humour and love of puns which also translated well into the magazine.

Hopefully a little bit of Bill's influence comes through in my work.

Thank you Splosh Magazine!

Splosh magazine was one of the first 'institutions' (as it were) that got me into WAM, as a bigger picture and not just something I watched on television (even as a little girl, dreaming of having Sally James' job on Tiswas!) and I still have a really nice note from Bill Shipton when he sent me a free copy of issue 25 (which has an AMAZING cover!), as well as a number of email exchanges. From there I went on to get all issues from #12 onwards.. and a #1 from the PDF that was sold on the Splosh website for a time.. I sneakily printed off a copy at a previous job!

Sadly I never got to meet him, but from talking online, we had the same love of dumb comedy and bad puns. My biggest, biggest regret is never taking him up on the offer of modelling for him, given I lived like 15 miles from Splosh Studios at one time...

For me, I first heard about Splosh in the early 90s when I stumbled onto an interview with Bill in an Australian magazine. Been a fan ever since but getting hold of issues in the antipodes, especially in the primordial days of early internet, was an issue as well (managed to locate about a dozen issues which I still possess). Favourite photoshoots?...."A Messy Business" in Issue 18 and "Housewives' Mass Debate" in Issue 40. Something about smartly suited women I guess! Thanks Bill.

Read every edition of Splosh and met Bill at a London meet-up. He had worked in the UK adult industry and produced a series of messy sets in Razzle & similar before branching out with the magazine. Publicity consisted of an ad in the back pages of these lad mags. Whether anyone would buy the product must have been guess work. Postal sales and sales through private book shops was all there was. At the time, the Splosh models were unique: Mirrel, Debbie, Carol, Emma, Sammy-Jane, Louise l'Amor (what a line-up). The reviews section was hugely influential. Rob Blaine and Neil Edwards had a platform to break into the UK. Aquantics sold their slide sets (I kid you not). Crazy girls started out many selling loose photos. All of this advertised through Splosh. Videos and eventually the website followed some time after.

The amount of cubic space a Splosh collection took up was substantial. Every time I moved flats I was terrified someone would discover it and had to devise ways of camouflaging the material. The really good thing about Splosh and the meets was an assurance that others were into this. Otherwise it was a case of waiting for messy scenes to appear on tv or waiting for rare slapstick material to be featured in the porn mags. Splosh took what had been marginalised and put it centre stage. Bill also highlighted individuals who were manifestly 'real' people - Julie the Clown and the amazing Nurse who appeared in a memorable video after writing to him. There was a genuineness about the models as well - as I have to say there is with your work, Trouso.

Some of the collaborators were eccentric as well. There were hilarious stories about getting kicked out of Liverpool hotels midway through shoots and nightmarish disposal of treacle and pie waste.

I'll pretty much second that Whitestar - though I'm a year or two older than you by the sound of it Fiesta Summer Special - 'Willy Wanker's Jelly Factory' by any chance? Probably one of Bill's shoots too!

It was originally Fiesta or Razzle that had a small ad for Splosh! magazine if I remember rightly and when issue 1 arrived, in the customary brown envelope, it was a fucking revelation. From then on, the arrival of the magazine each quarter, often late, was always a highpoint of the year It was all superb!

Thanks very much for the tribute thread Richard. Great memories

Bill would have loved your wonderful Splosh tribute cover with Isla's gorgeous gloopy picture Richard. He'll be smiling somewhere up there in that great custard pie in the sky.

Candy, how am I supposed to click the heart button on all those photos?

I think I mentioned on another thread the slightly erratic distribution of Splosh! You could never be quite sure when - or where! - it would turn up. My favourite Splosh model was probably Emma, she was gorgeous.

You may recall that Bill was best friends with Alex Lester, who used to do the magnificent overnight show on Radio 2. Now in semi-radio retirement, he has started a brief daily podcast with stories from his life (the Best Time of Day Show). At least one tale of Bill has figured in this, anonymously, in a story about revenge on a magazine editor.

Atomic Books, an alt bookstore in Baltimore, used to sell it. Which is interesting because director John Waters uses the bookstore as a home base to connect with his fans. He also included Sploshing in one of his films, something I don't think would have happened if his magazines weren't there. Bill was a Hollywood influencer!

Love reading all this WAM history!

Felt inclined to Google and found this video. What an awesome guy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dcC1TZYHSE

It was a good magazine.

The first I saw of it was in my early teens, sneaking a furtive look at done FHM magazines with some mates in my local WH Smith. FHM was in its pomp, boosted by pictures of Gillian Anderson, Jennifer Aniston and other mainstream, familiar, beautiful women in sexy racy photoshoots. It was a cool thing to be seen with at my high school. This one edition had an article about Splosh!, with pictures. I nearly died. I shut the mag in a fit of terror - what if my mates saw me ogling this?! But also I had a feeling of... 'fuck, I'm not the only one.'

Next few years were spent looking in the back of dirty magazines like Forum hoping to see Splosh! advertised... But never been able to order. Then, one miraculous day I spotted a copy on the top shelf of a newsagents in town. I had to run home, get cash, run back.

Before being online any chance to connect with fellow gunge fetishism seemed crazily the stuff of fantasies. I actually rang the number at the back of the mag a few times, and a few times spoke to Bill under the premise of asking about sploshing for my Uni newspaper. He knew it was bullshit, but gave a kind ear and some time to a terrified kid discovering his sexuality and fetishism. For this, as well as got his contribution to this crazy world of slop, I'm grateful to a lovely bloke.

Splosh! died along with its founder, Bill Shipton. There is no legal way to obtain downloads. You might, however, be able to buy the original manufacture certified VHS and DVD titles - and indeed the magazines on the second hand market.

Been 6 years since you've been gone Bill.

Still miss you loads on the 30th anniversary of the infamous fetish Splosh magazines you created and made me (and many others worldwide) not feel alone for having a kinky, sexy fetish that we love - no matter how different it was.

A top bloke and also a very talented comedy writer who wrote for the legendary Two Ronnies on UK TV in the 70/80s.

Rest in paradise Bill. Was a pleasure to of met you a few times at Splosh HQ and the Splunch meets.

Your Splosh fetish legacy lives on!!.

#RIPBILLSHIPTON #SPLOSH #SPLOSHMAGAZINE

Wow, I can't believe it's been that long. I bought him a pint in a birmingham about a decade ago and was so excited to talk to him. He was kinda like the Stan Lee to us. No one knows I'm into this in my real life so I had to celebrate him on my own.

Splosh was pretty instrumental, along with Messy Fun, in helping me realise I wasn't alone in the world.
Most lasting and pleasant memory - two words : Amanda Hughes.

So many stories to tell. I first discovered Mr Shipton's fist splosh vid in Our Price. (I was late for my first day at my job trying to pluck up the courage to buy it) It was totally worth it.

It's a huge shame that Bill's legacy has almost disappeared from the internet. Bill/Clive put so much effort into his magazines and videos yet they're not available anywhere any more. I lost my collection of Bill's stuff in a hard drive crash a while back, and it seems it's irreplaceable now. RIP Bill.

Wow way back when(early 90's) I remember getting up the nerve to call Atomic Books for 4 back issues of Splosh, and hoping a guy answered. Of course it was a woman and I felt self conscious, as if she cared what kind of kink I was into. . At the time these mags were an oasis in the desert(or dessert?) so to speak.