UK Porn

[Charles Prince]

Can anyone shed any light please? I picked up a few tapes while in London, a couple of Ben Dover and some others including Omar. Now I don't know who came first [no pun intended!] but is it my imagination or are all the other producers in this country just doing bad copies of Ben Dover, it certainly looks that way to me, because his just seem to hit it just right and the others are just not as good, well mostly shite actually!!. Neil Down anyone? I hope he's still got a day job. Also I was chatting to someone and he said that Ben Dover used to be something to do with the Bay City Rollers and actually made a film in the 80's starring one of the band! Anyone know if this is true? He also said that Ben is also a straight actor and has just done a feature film which is in cinemas now. Is this bloke pulling the proverbial or what? It all sounds very unlikely to me. He's obviously the oldest one out there so presumably he's been round the block a bit, but any information gratefully received. Thanks

[Otis]

The producers who frequent this forum would give you a definitive answer, but as far as I know, the gonzo style is by far the most popular with British porners because it doesn't require a budget. It was never officially illegal to make hardcore in Britain, but because it's always been outside the law, and also because there's never been a big (legal) market for porn in the uk, there isn't a big "industry" as in the US or Europe, so Paul Thomas-style epics are out of the question. Also, most British porn makers are working class and the British working class is obsessively anti-pretentious. That's my guess as to why simple Buttman/Ben Dover style camcorder porn is so big here, anyway.

But it's true, a lot of our filmmakers don't add much to the formula. And the trouble with gonzo stuff is that, if you do it sloppily, you get the opposite to what you want - instead of a naturalistic film of a girl going at it uninhibited and genuinely turned on, you end up with something that looks more like "Britain's Wackiest Home Movies", with people staring blankly into the lens, dicks falling out of pussies, long hair obscuring blow jobs and a girl very visibly in an unfamiliar environment, not quite sure what to do next. Ben Dover gets away with his looser-than-Stagliano style cos he's technically so good at filming sex and - simple point a lot of directors forget - bothers to relax the girl (if she needs it) and create an environment conducive to shagging before anyone gets their cock out. In America bad directors can wing it because they're working with performers - even the first-time girls are mostly strippers, and can put on a show even if the sex is mechanical and without chemistry. In Britain, many of the girls really truly are checkout clerks or students or hairdressers before (even during) their porn career - that's why badly-directed British porn looks so strange and clunky.

[Sohoshopper]

....and that's why Phil Mc's stuff in the Soho sex shops are being sold at ?9.95 and the good stuff at ?19.95!

[Phil McC]

You dont suppose it might be cause Phil McC sells it for less to the shops and therfore sells 5 times more per title naw.....Bens stuff is good for one reason fuck all to do with camerawork, he unlike most of us is a natural he loves his stuff you only have to talk to uncle Ben about a firm young bottom squeezing into a far to tight pair of riding joppers to send him into a filming frenzy.
As to why I choose to supply the trade cheap easy. All my stuff is pretty much free ie its of the back of my channel deals both of which pay me well. I worked out that if I put my web adds on all my tapes and got them out to every shop I could then one way or the other the prices would come down and everyone would get access to fayre prices. And I can assure you I am breaking my duplicators back right now for more stock cause I have a empty warehouse. One other thing worth a mention is and I am sure some of the guys will back me up. Home Town Girls was the first Gonzo style UK movie so maybe Strand Films are due a bit of credit. Bens made a few movies now and I have heard he is thinking of chucking it for a more relaxed family life and more mainstream acting/presenting work he will be sorely missed by the UK punters and no one will replace him.

Phil McC

[Gezzler]

Sounds about right soho shopper! Could you imagine Private or Vivid selling their stuff cheap? If they did everyone would asume it was crap, nobody wanted to buy it, and the firm was on the slide! Not the sort of image a world class video producer who understood about marketing would want to cultivate. However, if you were not world class and were struggling to shift an unapealing product....

Gezzler.

[David J]

Ben is indeed in a feature film, but he only has a small part. (so to speak)

The film is called Last Resort. I don't know if it was released outside London.

[Liam]

I don't mind if a Vid costs ?5 more than another.If its good its
worth it.However when people try to charge ?35 for a heap of crap
it is tooooo much.Private make high budget stuff and charge accordingley.However not everyone (me included) is bothered about
exotic locations and lavish sets.Just give me an attractive bird
(preferabley Stacey Owen) doing the stuff and I am happy.But I don't much care for boilers being plugged,however outrageous the
scene is I wouldn't watch them for free.Just my thoughts.

[Izzit]

If memory serves the BCR was a guy called Ian Mc??????? He was a replacement for Les McKeown I think. Phil McC, being a fellow countryman, can you throw any light on the matter, or were you a Slade fan?:-)

Izzit

[wrekked train]

as far as i know ben (steve perry) was the drummer in the bay city rollers for a time.He sure made the right choice in giving that up to become the king of gonzo.

[Phil McCavity]

Ben wisnay the drummer that wis one of the Longmuir bros from Preston Pans where they used to practice in Tam Paton's bookies(before they locked him up for Gary Glitter offences in a caravan. Ian ???? I can remmeber his name cause he joined after they were breaking up etc and Les started a new off-shoot band.
I asked Ben before about it and he told me but I wos pissed etc.

Phil McC

Still shifting loads of that rubbish someone must like it.