TRIBUTE TO BILL SHIPTON

I can't believe that it's been 10 years since his passing. It would be interesting to see how the WAM community would be if he were still around. He embraced new media and advancement, hence the end of the printed magazine, Bill knew at that early stage that magazines were getting old school as the new technology in spreading information was evolving.

40 issues of the magazine were produced, but each one was a piece of WAM history. Aside from Splosh, Bill was an excellent writer, working for other magazines, and producing scripts. And writing a sketch for The Two Ronnie's. In my opinion, I believe his water sketch for them is equally as good, if not better, than the iconic four candles sketch.

If you read the letters in Splosh magazine, there are frequently letters telling Bill to stop doing his bad puns. Which, thank goodness he never did, as this was Bill. This is how he was. A wordsmith at name changing to incorporate a WAM element, he would apologise for them while laughing at them at the same time.
The nature of his writing made Splosh magazine and video what it was, a unique style that's impossible to recreate the way he did. The way his videos weren't all polished, but natural to show that the people in them were having fun and at ease.
A true gentleman, funny and intelligent, who liked a nice pint down his beloved Marina Fountain.
For all the models/people that worked with Bill, they have moved on, changed careers, had families, but they all have one thing in common, working with a great man and being part of (WAM) history, that they should be proud of.

To sum up, here's a quote from Elizabeth Coldwell, former editor of Forum magazine (who was actually sploshed in issue 22).

Nothing has ever made me laugh as much as Bill Shipton, who edited Splosh! magazine and was a fund of endlessly hilarious anecdotes. The fact he's not around to share them anymore makes me cry


R.I. P Bill, you'll never be forgotten.

Yes great man and really helped to get the WAM community going in the UK almost 35 years ago! I had the pleasure to meet him at a WAM get together in South Wales in the early 90s brilliant man with fantastic sense of humour.

Echo all above comments and I too met him for the first time in Tenby which then developed into many enjoyable social meets and a significant number of sessionsi which he arranged for me in Sussex.

Mike (WSM) in the past has posted an eloquent tribute each year since Bill's (Clive) premature passing,and I'm sure he will contribute to this thread at some point.

Never met him, but would like to have done. I exchanged messages with him a few times on the old Splosh forum and he came across as a good bloke

He came up to one of the splunches that I used to organise up here in the north-west and we absolutely 'got on like a house on fire'. Hadn't laughed so much in ages. I dropped him back to his hotel after a splendid evening meal and that was the only time I saw him in person.

It's certainly true that nobody was able to string together so many puns into WAM like he did, nor is his style of sploshing session - combined with complex but very silly and hilarious stories - really being replicated in the same way anywhere else these days.

That is, perhaps, not surprising, as the amount of preparation compared with just pelting someone with a load of pies or pouring a load of gunge over them is, by comparison, *relatively* simple.

Like many others, I never met him, but spoke several times on the telephone with him. He was an inspiration and indeed an enthusiast, which always makes a difference. There was a rumour,never specifically denied, that some of the 'letters' in the early issues of Splosh! (I came in at issue 2) were his own work. Great bloke, a great advocate of WAM.

I will never forget the first SPLOSH! magazines I found in a adult store in Germany.
They were expensive but worth every D-Mark.
That was before the WWW was so common and a big push for me to get WWW access.
I also learned a lot of new English words....
Also Hayley was a big helper with her "Handy Hint's"

Thanks for all Bill and rest in peace

Mister K

Spoke to him on-line many times, met him once, at the legendary Birmingham splunch where our group took over the entire end of the Wetherspoons pub. Fascinating man to talk to and I only wish I'd got to meet him again. An absolute powerhouse of the early sploshing scene. Go in power. Long will you be remembered.

I'll never forget the excitement of that A4 brown envelope arriving four times each year with another issue of Splosh! Then carefully opened somewhere quiet to see which beauties were trashed in this episode - sometimes in colour. And Bill's writing to accompany the sketches gave you a hard-on and made you laugh at the same time. Superb! RIP Bill.