Whatever happened to... John Minson

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5MinuteRetro
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Whatever happened to... John Minson

Post by 5MinuteRetro »

I'm sure I've wondered this before. Perhaps I've even asked somewhere and forgotten the replies but... does anyone have any idea what became of Crash magazine's Hunter S Thompson wannabe John Minson? He doesn't Google terribly well but one of the hits let me here:

https://flexiblehead.blog/2014/02/16/st-brides-school/

...which is a truly fascinating read in itself.

But yeah, the careers of many Crash alumni are documented online but Minson? Minson seems right up/down there with Hannah Smith.
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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I wrote that - thanks for sharing. Glad people are finding it. I wondered where the extra traffic to my blog was coming from, which is how I find myself here. I can't for the life of me remember how I got in touch with John Minson - my old emails don't provide any clues. But I do know he's now involved in running the Erotic Film Society in London - http://www.eroticfilmsociety.org. Or at least he was five years ago. I guess it's possible that his dayjob is with Network DVD, given the links between them and the RFS, but that's only a guess.
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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FlexibleHead wrote: Mon Oct 08, 2018 10:47 pm I wrote that - thanks for sharing. Glad people are finding it. I wondered where the extra traffic to my blog was coming from, which is how I find myself here. I can't for the life of me remember how I got in touch with John Minson - my old emails don't provide any clues. But I do know he's now involved in running the Erotic Film Society in London - http://www.eroticfilmsociety.org. Or at least he was five years ago. I guess it's possible that his dayjob is with Network DVD, given the links between them and the RFS, but that's only a guess.
Heh... this is doubly brilliant. I mean brilliant that my mention brought you here and brilliant that Mr Minson might be involved in saucy B-movies. Perhaps *he* was Miss Martindale. ;)

Anyway, thanks for the reply. Perhaps Mr Minson will now find his own way here...
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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FlexibleHead wrote: Mon Oct 08, 2018 10:47 pm given the links between them and the RFS, but that's only a guess.
That should have said EFS, obviously enough. Late night typo.

Ha, from our correspondence I gathered Minson was a lot of things... but I don't think he's Miss Martindale.
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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Bonkers. I wasn’t familiar with the St Bride’s before, but I would never have dreamed an 8 bit publisher could have such a colourful backstory: a Victoriana themed disciplinary mansion producing lesbian magazines, clothes, scene books and progressive 8 bit text adventures…

The perfect scoop for a rum fuelled, drug crazed journalist!

Great blog post btw.
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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5MinuteRetro wrote: Mon Oct 08, 2018 5:12 pm But yeah, the careers of many Crash alumni are documented online but Minson? Minson seems right up/down there with Hannah Smith.
I do wonder if Hannah Smith ever really existed or was just another Lloyd Mangram fabrication to make it look like Crash had a bigger workforce than it actually did (something they've admitted to in the past). I know there were photos in that one issue of her with a wrestler and drinking a glass of bubbly in a Crash sweatshirt. But let's face it, that could have been any female employee at Newsfield (or a wife/girlfriend of an employee) as very few were ever pictured.
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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Vampyre wrote: Sun Oct 14, 2018 9:07 am
5MinuteRetro wrote: Mon Oct 08, 2018 5:12 pm But yeah, the careers of many Crash alumni are documented online but Minson? Minson seems right up/down there with Hannah Smith.
I do wonder if Hannah Smith ever really existed or was just another Lloyd Mangram fabrication to make it look like Crash had a bigger workforce than it actually did (something they've admitted to in the past). I know there were photos in that one issue of her with a wrestler and drinking a glass of bubbly in a Crash sweatshirt. But let's face it, that could have been any female employee at Newsfield (or a wife/girlfriend of an employee) as very few were ever pictured.
Hannah Smith existed, and turned up at SU doing playing tips for the twilight years of their life. Here's an earlier thread which shows photos and all that.
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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PeteProdge wrote: Sun Oct 14, 2018 3:41 pm
Vampyre wrote: Sun Oct 14, 2018 9:07 am I do wonder if Hannah Smith ever really existed or was just another Lloyd Mangram fabrication to make it look like Crash had a bigger workforce than it actually did (something they've admitted to in the past). I know there were photos in that one issue of her with a wrestler and drinking a glass of bubbly in a Crash sweatshirt. But let's face it, that could have been any female employee at Newsfield (or a wife/girlfriend of an employee) as very few were ever pictured.
Hannah Smith existed, and turned up at SU doing playing tips for the twilight years of their life. Here's an earlier thread which shows photos and all that.
Ah okay, I stand corrected! I must have missed her when doing all the transcripts for the SU reviews. Or more likely I've simply forgotten as my memory can be crap. I'll have a look through the ZXSR database and see if she's affiliated with any SU reviews.
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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Vampyre wrote: Sun Oct 14, 2018 7:06 pm
PeteProdge wrote: Sun Oct 14, 2018 3:41 pm Hannah Smith existed, and turned up at SU doing playing tips for the twilight years of their life. Here's an earlier thread which shows photos and all that.
Ah okay, I stand corrected! I must have missed her when doing all the transcripts for the SU reviews. Or more likely I've simply forgotten as my memory can be crap. I'll have a look through the ZXSR database and see if she's affiliated with any SU reviews.
Well... I was part of that thread back then and, while I won't deny that the photo evidence and Hannah's apparent shift to SU adds weight to her being a real person, I'll first re-iterate a couple of the comments made then, which were:

"I mean, obviously... there're all the above photos. I'm aware of those and have seen them before. But photos captioned 'Hannah Smith' don't make Hannah Smith a real person. Those could be photos of anyone -- an office assistant, a writer's sister, a local schoolgirl, a hired model. Who knows? Certainly she seemed to disappear off the face off the earth (well, Google) post-Crash..."

And then PeteProdge seemed to seal the deal by adding:

"Well, here's the kicker. She joined EMAP, it seems. December 1991 (issue 118) Sinclair User... I'll take a look at later issues to see any more evidence."

...where, according to me (again), she appeared to stick around until issue 127 of SU:

"Well, I didn't know that, but then I sure wasn't reading SU by that stage. I've just gone through those late-era SUs and she appears up to and including 127...and then she just seems to disappear, with nary a goodbye. I'm still not convinced she was a real person!"

...so I wasn't persuaded even then. And, since this latest thread's appearance, it's occurred to me that by December 1991 Crash/Newsfield were essentially dead in their original form, and the transfer to EMAP via Europress was already in motion. Okay, so perhaps it's unlikely that SU would've sequestered a made-up Hannah Smith as early the December 1991 issue (which likely went to press in November or even sooner), but who knows what stuff was going on behind the scenes?

Okay, this isn't exactly a Moon-landings-level conspiracy theory but I remain unconvinced that HS was a real person. Roger Kean did once tell me directly (on Twitter) that she *was* real but he was contradicted by Julian Rignall -- so my suspicions remain. More than anything else, though... where is she now, or what happened to her? Most everyone else related to Crash/Newfield is in some way traceable or has some online footprint, including John Minson (as per this thread). But after the shift to SU, HS just seemed to evaporate.
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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5MinuteRetro wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 8:53 am But photos captioned 'Hannah Smith' don't make Hannah Smith a real person. Those could be photos of anyone --
So basically what you're saying is Hannah Smith was probably Priscilla Langridge... :shock:
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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FlexibleHead wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 7:04 pm
5MinuteRetro wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 8:53 am But photos captioned 'Hannah Smith' don't make Hannah Smith a real person. Those could be photos of anyone --
So basically what you're saying is Hannah Smith was probably Priscilla Langridge... :shock:
Oh good lord. I'm not sure what the teenage me would've made of that!
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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5MinuteRetro wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 8:53 am Okay, this isn't exactly a Moon-landings-level conspiracy theory but I remain unconvinced that HS was a real person.
While it's possible she wasn't real, I'm not sure why you are so sceptical. I may have misunderstood you, but the only reasons you gave are that there wasn't a fanfare when she left her job, and you are not aware of her online presence. Neither of those things seems to me unusual. Isn't it simpler and more likely that she existed, but went off to be a civil servant, have kids, or whatever, and so disappeared off Speccy fans' radars?
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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There's only one way to settle this....

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1049
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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I'd also like to point out I have met Lloyd Mangram. Well, actually one of the people who played him. Crash editor Eddie McKendrick went on to work in the New Media department of Nickelodeon UK in the mid-1990s, over in... Rathbone Place. (Yes, the building that once housed Your Sinclair.) Very surreal for me to have a job interview in such a Spectrum-centric place, conducted by a key Spectrum figure. Alas, I did not get the job.
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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Rorthron wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 7:57 pm
5MinuteRetro wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 8:53 am Okay, this isn't exactly a Moon-landings-level conspiracy theory but I remain unconvinced that HS was a real person.
While it's possible she wasn't real, I'm not sure why you are so sceptical. I may have misunderstood you, but the only reasons you gave are that there wasn't a fanfare when she left her job, and you are not aware of her online presence. Neither of those things seems to me unusual. Isn't it simpler and more likely that she existed, but went off to be a civil servant, have kids, or whatever, and so disappeared off Speccy fans' radars?
Yep, that's entirely possible. I guess my doubt has always existed and has been cemented by Rignall contradicting Kean, or vice versa, and by the fact that she hasn't in any way resurfaced anywhere - which seems especially surprising given the particular retro interest in Crash over the past couple of years. Oh, and because made-up magazine staff are hardly unusual. :)
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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5MinuteRetro wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 10:16 pm
Rorthron wrote: Mon Oct 15, 2018 7:57 pm While it's possible she wasn't real, I'm not sure why you are so sceptical. I may have misunderstood you, but the only reasons you gave are that there wasn't a fanfare when she left her job, and you are not aware of her online presence. Neither of those things seems to me unusual. Isn't it simpler and more likely that she existed, but went off to be a civil servant, have kids, or whatever, and so disappeared off Speccy fans' radars?
Yep, that's entirely possible. I guess my doubt has always existed and has been cemented by Rignall contradicting Kean, or vice versa, and by the fact that she hasn't in any way resurfaced anywhere - which seems especially surprising given the particular retro interest in Crash over the past couple of years. Oh, and because made-up magazine staff are hardly unusual. :)
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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Hey you lot. Just going back over some old emails and I found one more bit of Minson info, if you're interested. As well as Crash, he also moonlighted for Sinclair User under the pseudonym "Jerry Muir", and for C&VG as "Ward R. Street" (haha). So if you've ever looked for those guys...

Now I've got a question – does anyone know where Sinclair User's Chris Bourne (AKA "Gremlin") is these days?

Cheers!
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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FlexibleHead wrote: Fri Aug 30, 2019 12:34 pmNow I've got a question – does anyone know where Sinclair User's Chris Bourne (AKA "Gremlin") is these days?

Cheers!
I'm here!

Nah, I'm not really him. Just happen to share the same name.
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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Vampyre wrote: Fri Aug 30, 2019 1:16 pm
I'm here!

Nah, I'm not really him. Just happen to share the same name.
That would've made you a Vampyre Gremlin...

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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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FlexibleHead wrote: Fri Aug 30, 2019 12:34 pm Hey you lot. Just going back over some old emails and I found one more bit of Minson info, if you're interested. As well as Crash, he also moonlighted for Sinclair User under the pseudonym "Jerry Muir", and for C&VG as "Ward R. Street" (haha). So if you've ever looked for those guys...
Teehee! I wasn't aware of either of those pseudonyms. FWIW, I was for a while a tech journalist, working literally around the corner from Wardour Street. This was at the height of the dotcom boom, and I worked for a number of sizeable titles and had a regular radio slot -- so for a short time I had some level of 'profile'. Even so, based on my real name I'm probably no more 'discoverable' now than is Jon Minson, so I guess I'm not terribly surprised that some guy from the 1980s has a minimal digital footprint! (And, as an aside, I also operated under a handful of pseudonyms that were known mainly only to me and the commish editor involved, so perhaps Minson has several more besides.)
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

Post by ManicMinor »

Hello,

Signed up just now after discovering this thread.

I knew John in another guise... poker. Also, I knew of him since going to the ZX Micro Fair and getting a free copy of Issue 2 of Crash.

In the late 90s I was working in London for Reuters and spent nights at the Regency Casino, playing poker. One of the characters at the tables was John, who never drank anything stronger than lemonade. Yes, he was very knowledgable in the porn industry, a collector of porn memorabilia and a writer on the subject. I remember John having an interest in the larger lady, especially one of the casino waitresses.

Eventually, I ran a home game in my Barbican apartment. John was a regular. I was made redundant in 2002 and took my redundancy check to Ireland, to run a small-holding. John preferred that I funded a porn film or documentary (I forget which) but the small-holding was my dream. I kept in contact with John for a while but lost his email address when buying another pooter.

Very much a private person, John could well be reading this thread, as he did with threads about him on poker forums, but he'll either not join in or do so anonymously without giving the game away.
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Re: Whatever happened to... John Minson

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ManicMinor wrote: Fri Dec 06, 2019 1:25 am I was made redundant in 2002 and took my redundancy check to Ireland, to run a small-holding. John preferred that I funded a porn film or documentary (I forget which) but the small-holding was my dream.
Heh, you had a circa 5-year window to make and profit from such a movie before Pornhub came along and ruined everything for almost all porn producers, but you missed your chance! Still, it indirectly reminds me that Jon Ronson -- another Minson-like gonzo hack -- did a deep-dive (no pun intended) into the porn industry, revealing his findings in this podcast:

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/audibl ... e/59972665
ManicMinor wrote: Fri Dec 06, 2019 1:25 am Very much a private person, John could well be reading this thread, as he did with threads about him on poker forums, but he'll either not join in or do so anonymously without giving the game away.
Okay, ManicMinson. ;)

But seriously, I did find your account interesting. I guess we all of us here perhaps spend a bit too much time thinking about the past. Minson is just one of those industry characters that's always intrigued me (cf 'Hannah Smith'), so it's fun to know he might still be kicking around in the shadows.
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