WSM TRIBUTE to BILL SHIPTON after 10 Years

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 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!)
Then I met him at the Mayfair magazine office on 26th May 1982.

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, South Wales.
Bill had decided to launch a wet and messy magazine under the name of 'Splosh'.
He had for many years been associated with adult magazines
Bill's 1st issue of Splosh magazine was shot in the basement of the Harbour Heights Hotel in Tenby.
WSM assisted Bill by supplying content for Splosh issues 2 through to 11.
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 and sales fell away.
But what a remarkable talent Bill had to put together a new magazine and manage to produce 40 issues.

Bill formed a good working relationship with Shaun Kendall (the WSM film cameraman/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 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

>>>>> SEE CLIP


Bill started his Splosh website as a haven for many WAM inclined people who had lived uncertain and lonely lives. He was the accepted reassuring face of WAM and a means of connecting like minded peoples. This was successful but sadly there was no inbuilt legacy as to who was to pick up the torch.

So 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 passing has been deeply felt in the UK community as he was one of the very few full time WAM activists, working as producer, director, film editor for his website, plus being a writer and Forum host.
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 poses!




Bill was the cheery face of UK WAM and a friend to all.
So the WAM community lost an icon.
Such a much loved chap and an inspirational man!
He gave us the term Splosh!
He taught us to try Splosh with our partners and not be afraid and not to be ashamed of yourself for being you!
So Bill was a man of many talents who made a huge impact on so many lives a wonderful legacy!
Pre-Internet many people thought they were alone until they came across Bill with his saucy, cheery movies plus his Splosh magazine.
Bill became the kind and funny public face of WAM.
It is a rare individual that influences so many.
Despite his long association with Splosh, it was comedy writing that was Bill's true love.
He was extremely proud of the sketches he sold to the Two Ronnies.

Bill had a deep sense of obligation and a genuine affection for his parents.
They had the misfortune to outlast their two sons!
But despite suffering poor health, Bill was more concerned in providing the help required for his elderly parents and the WAM community than attending to the future welfare of his WAM enterprise.
Not only did he perish but so did his movies, magazines, sketches and his website became defunct.
His parents very resolutely suppressed all the WAM material.
The Splosh Forum does remain under www.sploshuk.co.uk, an enduring shadow to a remarkable man.
But without 'the founder of the feast' it has lapsed into disuse.
His rather forelorn Splosh Forum awaits the coming of another WAM innovator.
So although we celebrate his achievements there is distinct nostalgia for what there could have been!
Bill is missed along with his talents, but new wammers now have no grasp of what he did achieve with no access to his movies, sketches, images, his Forum and the remarkable Splosh magazines.
Hopefully no other major WAM producer will meet the same fate!
So a legend departed 10 years ago and his is a hard act to follow!
Few people have such a legacy to have been loved by all.
WSM put together a 9 minute Download Tribute so some of you can see the real Bill Shipton.
This movie tribute has been published over the past 9 years, but for new WAM devotees, then do take a look at this FREE tribute to Bill Shipton compiled by WSM.
Do watch genius at work!

>>>>> SEE CLIP HERE


2 years ago I took a personal look at the first 10 issues of the 'Splosh' magazine, many of which included WSM content.
Last year I looked at Splosh issues numbers 11 to 26.
As WSM were not involved in Splosh magazine issues 27 to 40 we have no reason to comment on these issues.
Imagine the work that went into planning, preparing then publishing such magazines.
So Bill Shipton holds a unique niche in WAM history.

WAM may roughly be divided into 2 groups, Voyeurs and Participators.
WSM have catered adequately for the Voyeur, but Bill and his website opened the window to many a tortured soul, who believed that they were alone and were very odd people.
Bill welcomed all and opened studio facilities for participators.

So it was appropriate in 2022 that Candy Custard received the 1st 'Bill Shipton Award for Lifetime Achievement'. Providing facilities for participators is a noble purpose and has saved huge mental anguish for some.

Sadly WAM is a minority fetish.
So no-one has stepped forward to continue Bill's paternal role on counseling all on the joys of Splosh.
But anyone would be cowed by the sheer brilliance, application and output of Bill Shipton.
My Tributes now end after 10 years but never my admiration and respect for the number 1 WAM man in the UK.
People of the world do pause and salute Mr. Splosh alias Bill Shipton, alias Clive William Harris.

Mike Ellison
1st July 2023

Wonderful words Mike and a fitting tribute. Thank you for reminding everyone of Bill's unique talent and personality for the last 10 years.

Seconded.

There's also a tribute thread started a few days ago, here:
https://umd.net/forums/tribute-to-a-great-man

Such wonderful words, Mike
I put up my own tribute thread yesterday, but your eulogy truly highlights the greatest of the man.

I wholeheartedly join you in saluting him.

Such heartfelt words and a fitting tribute to a great man.

I had never seen the Plastermind clip before but Wow!

Well done Mike.

Well said, Mike. Very sadly missed indeed.

I hadn't seen that tribute before. (Btw, that was quite a good impression of David Bellamy, not Bill Oddie!)

And he wrote this classic bit of TV comedy:

https://youtu.be/mkwzN-AdIEY

I hadn't realised we were at the anniversary of his passing. During lockdown I managed to get the complete set of the Splosh magazines, and having recently acquired a scanner I finally digitised them all. You can definitely tell in the final few issues he was aware of the direction things were going, even if email addresses were still weird number combinations@compuserve

We're lucky so much of the content he produced or was tangentily involved in is still around.

A wonderful piece of writing, Mike. Thank you.

No figure has quite touched our lives and entertained us the way Bill did, has and continues to do.

I do like to think the legacy is not lost. I, and many others continue to cherish and enjoy the films and issues of the magazines in our personal collections. In addition, the archive threads and pictures are still available for reading on SploshUK! On the positive side, hard copy published media is still perfectly legal to privately buy and sell in its original form. Splosh! Magazines are regularly sold on eBay and a number of fans have been known to put up for sale their old original VHS tapes.

It is, of course, extremely frustrating that we have a situation whereby the publishing rights to the Splosh! name and catalogue were left without such a beneficent legal owner that they are effectively 'lost'. As you intimate, Mike, we (especially content producers) might learn from this too.

Be very careful! The original Splosh site is still up, in parts - but was grabbed by scammers before we were able to get it. I did manage to trace it a few years ago to an address in Australia but the property had just been sold and the trail ran dry. (There were links to some other legitimate-looking sites, until digging deeper into those - just fronts for data harvesting, as I recall.)

We were able to save the Splosh UK *forum* as that was under the separate control of muckypup, who was administrating it on behalf of Bill at the time and that is at its separate URL of http://www.sploshuk.co.uk/forum/