Curious eyebrow-raisers from Sinclair User's Gremlin column

[PeteProdge]

I think it must be Your Spectrum. By 1986 Gremlin is referring to Your Sinclair as "Headbangers Monthly" and describing it as "the slim publication."

It's something of an irony that three years later, Sinclair User would be employing Tony Dillon and starts getting beaten on pagination by YS.

[SteveSmith]

It's something of an irony that three years later, Sinclair User would be employing Tony Dillon and starts getting beaten on pagination by YS.

Did Tony Dillon write for YS prior to SU?

[PeteProdge]

Did Tony Dillon write for YS prior to SU?

Never seen his name in YS. He was very much an EMAP guy, so was in Sinclair User; ACE; CU Amiga; PC Leisure and that bizarre and very-short-lived VHS-based thing, Click.

YS's David McCandless does not speak fondly of him.

[Vampyre]

Never seen his name in YS. He was very much an EMAP guy, so was in Sinclair User; ACE; CU Amiga; PC Leisure and that bizarre and very-short-lived VHS-based thing, Click.

YS's David McCandless does not speak fondly of him.

Anyone know what he's referring to here?

"Stopped reading it after I heard about the scary origins of Newsfield"

[PeteProdge]

Anyone know what he's referring to here?

"Stopped reading it after I heard about the scary origins of Newsfield"

Ah, I had wondered for many years about that, and then things became clearer recently. Or rather not.

You see, that pointed observation might come from someone's homophobia. I hope it doesn't actually, and maybe it's a misguided fear of wrong-doing.

You're still scratching your head, okay, I'll reveal. Roger Kean and Oliver Frey didn't start their magazine publishing with Crash, oh no. They'd been going since 1978 with HIM Magazine, an illustrated erotica magazine for homosexual men. There's an interesting article here about those times before the home computing boom. Oliver Frey helped open legendary London gay nightclub Heaven and designed posters for it in its early years.

There were a LOT of police raids on Roger and Oliver's gay erotica publishing outfit, as some of the illustrations were seen to breach the UK's obscenity laws at the time. (I think these days no top shelf magazine would bat an eyelid at publishing them.) I've read up on this period and had my eyebrows raised at seeing the Newsfield artist's work in a really different context. The one questionable thing I'd say that could raise a concern is a liberal use of the word "boy" in a few comic strips. Now, given that we straights have typically used the term "girl" applied to attractive adult women for many decades, you could say it's an equal reaction, perhaps? Neither usage sits right these days of course, but it was certainly prolific and is still used today, albeit not as much.

With the term "boy" and Oliver's depiction of 'twinks', that may have raised some hackles somewhere. I don't know if David McCandless directly came to that conclusion or heard it second hand. I don't really want to delve into those theories, but you can imagine, especially with Crash/Zzap/Amtix set-up in Ludlow with schoolboy reviewers, that rumour mills could work overtime. You'd think these fears would disappear, but earlier this month we had the pitchforks out over a BBC newsreader's contact with a young man which turned out to have no criminal offense commited.

Zack dot com is the official Oliver Frey history website that has a lot of samples of his art from those days and understandably comes with an 'over 18s only' entry page. There's one HIM cover that is laid out almost exactly like a Crash cover - the 45 degree angle splash, the multicoloured straplines in bold oblique Helvetica! It's been quite the training ground for Newsfield to take off.

Phew... I bet you weren't expecting this jaw-dropper of an explanation, were you? Quite a lot to take in. F'nar.

[Sham Mountebank]

I did wonder about the scary origins of Newsfield comment myself. Like you I hope it's misplaced concern rather than homophobia.

The Zack website is really interesting (although people may not want to browse it on the train or at work) and I'm now struck by the similarity between the logos for Him and LM.

[Vampyre]

Thanks for the explanation, Pete.

When I first read it I did wonder if it had something to do with the relationship Roger and Oli had and/or the artwork Oli produced outside of Crash. But then I thought we're more enlightened now and then realised that interview was in 1997. There was still a hangover from the homophobia of the 80s even then.

Pure speculation, of course, I'll doubt we'll ever find out the real reason.

[PeteProdge]

The Zack website is really interesting (although people may not want to browse it on the train or at work)

Oh yes! And I got the URL citation wrong in my post, it's actually zack-art dot com but yes, your word of warning is very apt and hence I'm not turning that into a link, as it's NSFW! (Although the first page is innocent and does warn you what you're about to enter.)

[Vampyre]

I did find the Rock Stars page rather, ahem, interesting

[Evil Genius]

Interesting history lesson. I never knew Oli did some of the artwork for War Picture Library, i used to read those, along with Commando.

I must say, that "Roman Games" picture is awfully familiar

[mjwilson]

Ah, I had wondered for many years about that, and then things became clearer recently. Or rather not.

You see, that pointed observation might come from someone's homophobia. I hope it doesn't actually, and maybe it's a misguided fear of wrong-doing.

You're still scratching your head, okay, I'll reveal. Roger Kean and Oliver Frey didn't start their magazine publishing with Crash, oh no. They'd been going since 1978 with HIM Magazine, an illustrated erotica magazine for homosexual men. There's an interesting article here about those times before the home computing boom. Oliver Frey helped open legendary London gay nightclub Heaven and designed posters for it in its early years.

I didn't know about Heaven... or this, from the linked article:

his gay erotic art was the subject of an exhibition at the British Library in 2014 – giving it a degree of establishment respectability that was denied to his more mainstream art.

[MarkRJones1970]

Thanks for the explanation, Pete.

When I first read it I did wonder if it had something to do with the relationship Roger and Oli had and/or the artwork Oli produced outside of Crash. But then I thought we're more enlightened now and then realised that interview was in 1997. There was still a hangover from the homophobia of the 80s even then.

Pure speculation, of course, I'll doubt we'll ever find out the real reason.

I think that's what it must have been refering to. I remember when I started work at Ocean in 1987 and someone (I know who but I'm not naming him) told me that Roger and Oli were 'dodgy' and that Crash and Zzap!64 had only been set up so that the both of them could have a fresh influx of young boys around them! At the time, I had no idea that either of them were gay nor did I know about Oli's 'Zack' alias or the work he'd done before that for the gay market.

[Vampyre]

Blimey! Feels like my question has opened a can of worms...

[PeteProdge]

Blimey! Feels like my question has opened a can of worms...

Yeah, there was never an easy way to answer it, and although I prefer being succinct, it had to be a long-winded post to get the nuance out there.

I re-read the McCandless interview around the passing of Oliver Frey and found that line really uncomfortable (now knowing what he did before Newsfield). It took me a few months to rationalise it. I'm glad people see my theory, but also, having looked at the Zack Art website, I can't deny there are depictions that make me feel rather uncomfortable.

[PeteProdge]

Sinclair User #40 Jul 1985

• It's goodbye to VNU's Personal Computer News, which bit the dust on 11th May 1985. "You want me to say something really tacky but I won't" insists features editor John Lettice, quoted by Gremlin. "We're ****ed off."
• "The Clumsy Colin game and KP Skips will both be on sale at grocers" reckons a Mastertronic PR man, with the game advertised on the back of packets of the not-quite-a-crisp snacks.
  
• Four Systems, which offers cheap QL microdrive cartridges has announced a new credential, being a supplier for the Ministry Of Defence, leading Gremlin to wonder if a Sinclair QL is at the heart of the UK's cruise missile procedures.
• A reader points out the arrival/departures screens at Italy's Genoa International Airport have a "flashing 'C' cursor in the lower left hand corner and a very familiar typeface". Are they really using ZX Spectrums to display information there?

[Journeyman]

I used to read SU quite regularly when I first got a ZX81 in 1983, but within a year or two it had died on me. I didn't own a computer again until I got my Spectrum +2 in 1987. I went to the newsagents and bought a copy of SU shortly afterwards, and was shocked and disappointed to see what it had become. I was always quite a serious minded kid.

YS managed to successfully balance serious and silly stuff, in my opinion.

[SteveSmith]

I notice on the same Gremlin page in issue #40 there's a photo with the caption "... He's hoping Eamon can help him out with the 16 grand Hewson Consultants lost on the Tiger fiasco.". Does anyone know what this was?

[PeteProdge]

Sinclair User #41 Aug 1985

• The bouncing Czech Robert Maxwell has stepped in to save Sinclair Research by "paying £12m". Apparently, on BBC Radio 4, he praised the telephone as one of the inventions from Sinclair Electronics. Even Sir Clive had to admit in a Mail On Sunday interview that he was struggling: "I have suffered a great deal from ineptitude". Gremlin has pretty much stated that the pension-raiding crook from Mirror Group Newspapers is now "at the helm" in Sinclair.
• Ever wondered why Gremlin (er, the software, not the name of this long-running regular column) released Dinamic's boxing game Rocky over in the UK as Rocco? Yeah, it was MGM not being happy about it! For some reason, Silversoft believed they had the right to issue it over in the UK until Gremlin's announcement.
  
• Bryan Robson's Super League, the only game from Paul Lamond, is a "computer moderated board game" - part board game/part computer game (available at this site purely as a TZX, which doesn't exactly make it easy to play as you don't get the board game side of things). Bryan himself was meant to appear at a promotional event for this game at huge London toy store Hamley's but was double-booked.

[PeteProdge]

No responses about the previous one. Not too surprising as these have got a bit thin on the ground, so, it's losing its 'Popbitch' feel. Still, I persevere with another digest...

Sinclair User #42 Sep 1985

• Strange press release time. Elite had to hire a taxi to deliver 1,500 extra copies of Frank Bruno's Boxing to distributor Micro Dealer who had sold out of the game
  
• Ever wondered about the existence of Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes and the (non-)existence of Attack Of The Mushroom People? It's down to Mike Daniels of Global Software signing a deal with Michael Medved, author of The Fifty Worst Films Of All Time; The Golden Turkey Awards; The Hollywood Hall Of Shame and Son Of Golden Turkey Awards. The American author picked up a regular Channel 4 show here in the UK, The Worst Of Hollywood (which was filmed at the Scala Cinema, which we know has a connection with Palace Software). The rights to that series apparently means these two games can be made, which doesn't make sense to me.
  
• The continued non-appearance of Ocean's game tied into The Neverending Story is "because court advistors reckon they'd better wait for the film to hit the provinces first". Apparently, the film bombed in London. The game would eventually come out in very late 1985.
  
• 'Judith' is "one of the driving forces" behind Fergus McNeil's software career. She's referenced in Sceptical, the teletext-esque magazine, from his label Delta 4. He gave Gremlin "a quick peek at the photo he carries close to his chest". Gremlin "now understands why 95% of his time writing adventure games".
  

[AndyC]

It does feel like they're struggling to fill these columns with the kind of "gossip" that they perhaps started out with. Maybe the industry just wasn't quite as exciting as they'd hoped.

[SteveSmith]

He gave Gremlin "a quick peek at the photo he carries close to his chest". Gremlin "now understands why 95% of his time writing adventure games".

Ouch, that's quite a burn even for Gremlin.

[PeteProdge]

Sinclair User #43 Oct 1985

• "Being Americans, they don't see why the game should go out with inferior screen shots to those which they can produce from the original coin-op or Commodore versions" says Tim Chaney of US Gold when quizzed about the use of 'Commode' screen shots on Spectrum cassette inlays. Gremlin insists many of the games look "just as good on the Spectrum as on the Commodore" and cites Dambusters as an example, and then remarks that Tim "mutters something about duplication of photography and printing". Which would make sense if the inlays were platform-agnostic (with a sticker bunged on later, very common for the 16-bit Atari ST/Amiga/PC era), but I don't think they were.
  
• Unsurprisingly, the Daily Mirror has been somewhat less enthusiastic about its then-owner Robert Maxwell pulling out of a deal to buy Sinclair Research than the time he made the announcement to acquire it ("MAXWELL SAVES SINCLAIR" was the headline back then). Gremlin makes a pithy remark about dodgy chequebooks. I'd say this was somewhat prophetic for what the British public would soon find out about the slimy crook, but then, Private Eye was always making reference to his dodgy finances for many years anyway.
• "26,000 people in the US want to buy QLs" says the optimistic Clive Sinclair, leaving Gremlin to wonder why the US launch keeps being postponed.
• "...in effect, I pay your wages" says Andy Shafte, the production manager at System 3 who wanted to know why Sinclair User doesn't cite him as a major industry figure and inists his great talent helps entertain people. His boss, Mark Cale says "Andy needs his wrists slapped, I'm more of an industry figure than he is and I'm nobody."
• Sir Clive also continues to deny the existance of the Spectrum 128K. Gremlin notes some software houses have been sent the machine, accompanied with letters insisting it remain a secret and the computer must be carefully guarded. Apparently one software label has left its 128K model "lying around the office for any old industrial spy to see".
• Phwooooar!
  
• Meow. Dead cat 'Selwyn' was the 'beloved pet' which inspired the game Paws. Artic's press release mentions the method of the cat's passing (a car accident) in a press release, leading Gremlin to wonder if the software house will "have the decency to send all profits accruing from the game to the RSPCA."
  

[SteveSmith]

I notice on the same Gremlin page in issue #40 there's a photo with the caption "... He's hoping Eamon can help him out with the 16 grand Hewson Consultants lost on the Tiger fiasco.". Does anyone know what this was?

Just to answer my own question and in case anyone else is interested, it seems Tiger were a software distributor that went bust, expediting the downfall of some software houses with them.

[Mpk]

Tiger were a software distributor that went bust

Not as exciting as the 'tiger fiasco' that I was imagining.

[Vampyre]

At first I thought that model in the pic above was Jo Guest - does look a little like her from the blurry image. But she'd have been 13/14 at the time so I guess not