Porn in the UK before it got legal - remember?

[MrStockings]

A full sized catalog from November 1993. Slimmer pickings in this one.

[MrStockings]

Another fairly thin catalog from about 1994 - they were sent out every month or so, so a lot of content was the same as the turn-over of material wasn't that high.

[MrStockings]

In about 1994 they moved to a smaller A5 sized catalog, easier to post presumably. This one is notable for the first advert for amateur material where they are considering a 'Viewer's Wives' section, something that continues to this day.

[MrStockings]

Another catalog from about 1994, there are no dates on these so it's hard to judge the sequence.

[MrStockings]

And the last of the catalogs. A little glimpse into the seedy past of the UK porn industry. This one has the advert for the very first 'Viewer's Wives' video, so seems like a good point to leave it.

[JeffThrow]

[QUOTE=MrStockings;4243793] and then the catalogues kept coming.

I was at Uni 84-88. In the first year, there was a Nigerian guy living with us - he was in his final year, so left in '85.

However, the parcels for him kept coming, and it was clear he had been enjoying the relative freedom of being in the UK.

Mostly they were "sampler" magazines, and catalogues similar to those above.

However, there were a couple of lower quality (think repeated photocopied) A5 catalogues which were very clearly for illegal stuff (with pictures ).

Because we were forever requesting company brochures for study (IT degree) nothing ever stood out. One jiffy bag of mags is the same as a jiffy bag of HP technical data.

[mickamick]

Originally Posted by broxyman

Anyone else remember the bad (or maybe good?) old days in the UK when all 'hardcore' porn was illegal? Up until 2001 or so the only way to get anything other than softcore porn was from abroad (illegal to import) or 'under the counter'.

Remember the scruffy unpleasant little magazine shops in Soho and Paddington? The password phrases you needed? Like "Have you got any Scans?" or "Have you got anything harder?". There was always a little room hidden away at the back where the more discerning customers were shown a box of Private magazines, or Color Climax, or similar, all specially brought in from Holland and sold at maybe £25 a copy - around £150 in today's terms! There might be a copy or two of Sex Bizarre, but that was even more sought after and would cost even more.

You could exchange them and get half back by way of a credit against another one, of course, but hardcore was still beyond the reach of most people.

Then came the porno cabins, where for 50p you could watch a couple of minutes of real hardcore from one of the Color Climax loops - highly illegal, but the police turned a blind eye for various reasons. The floors were always sticky because most people in the UK had never seen hardcore porn before at that time. Respectable business men used to go there after work, and do their best to bring themselves off for just one 50p coin before catching the train home to the wife, the children and suburbia. Never before had 50p brought so much pleasure - the chance to masturbate on the floor of some seedy cabin in Soho, watching a pretty young Scandinavian porn model actually being fucked for real!

don't want too give my age away but yes it was dire! getting some pirated V.H.S back in 1980' color climax loops thinking how many bloody times as this been copied! and doing it you're self!
betamax copies always looked better.

[JeffThrow]

Originally Posted by broxyman

Remember the scruffy unpleasant little magazine shops in Soho and Paddington?

Yes. But they were - a la Sullivan stylee - rip off merchants. Yes, you'd ask for "something special". They'd give you a knowing wink, and then nip out back, and return with (what appeared to be) a genuine Color Climax. Or Rodox. Shrink wrapped, but looking like the real thing. With a price to match.

Of course when you bought it, it was sealed into a brown bag. Usually you'd be home (or taking a long walk ) before you realised it was a rip off. Original cover, but inside censored to fuck.

Maybe worthy of it's own thread ... "Did you ever confront a rip off shop ?". However I didn't. I guess if I were the sort of person that would have, then I wouldn't have been in a rip off shop to start with.

[broxyman]

Originally Posted by JeffThrow

Yes. But they were - a la Sullivan stylee - rip off merchants. Yes, you'd ask for "something special". They'd give you a knowing wink, and then nip out back, and return with (what appeared to be) a genuine Color Climax. Or Rodox. Shrink wrapped, but looking like the real thing. With a price to match.

Of course when you bought it, it was sealed into a brown bag. Usually you'd be home (or taking a long walk ) before you realised it was a rip off. Original cover, but inside censored to fuck.

Maybe worthy of it's own thread ... "Did you ever confront a rip off shop ?". However I didn't. I guess if I were the sort of person that would have, then I wouldn't have been in a rip off shop to start with.

The ones I was talking about were the 'genuine' shops though - not the places that only sold the Sullivan crap. These older shops existed from around the 1950s (probably before that in reality) initially selling pornographic photographs in sets of around 4 or 5 - usually with British models. Mainly just open leg stuff (illegal at the time) but occasionally showing actual fucking.

These shops moved on dramatically once Denmark and Sweden liberalised their pornography laws, and they started selling 'Scans'. These were the genuine magazines as imported from Scandinavia (later Germany) and they sold for around £20, with half back on exchange (usually with a few pages missing!).

Sullivan (allegedly - but he distanced himself through the use of various companies such as Roldvale) spotted a gap in the market for fake magazines which promised so much on the cover but delivered so little on the inside - large black blobs covering over any erect penises, or any sign of a vulva or vagina, let alone real fucking or sperm. I suppose if you had a vivid imagination they were wankworthy, but they certainly weren't the real deal.

Much the same thing's still happening in Japan, of course, where everything's censored to blur out the shocking sight of penises, cunts, but not, interestingly, anuses.

[pharoahegypt]

Even those of us who were in the business of sex shops back in the mid to late 90s got our fingers burnt buying stock now and then.

I recall a trip to Soho, fending off the hookers as I walked, to meet with a supposedly trusted seller of top quality porn, collect the tapes; vhs as it was back then; but only on returning to the Midlands did I find out that he'd diddled me. Not only did these two "exclusive" Ben Dover #15 & #16 titles not even exist, but what was on the tapes could be shown at a vicar's afternoon party. I was so incensed to have gotten done like that I really don't recall which Disney 'classic' it was.

Tip I used to give my regulars if venturing down south from that point on, was to ask to see a few seconds of the tape; then watch the person bagging it closely; to make sure he didn't slip another tape into the bag instead. And if he refused to show those few seconds, just walk away. I never got fiddled again for sure.