Things are really on the move here at Chateau Newsfield — both literally and figuratively. Auntie Aggie and Guru Denise and the rest of the Mail Order crew are on the verge of moving out of CRASH Towers into another set of offices in the town which they will be sharing with a new magazine.
A new magazine? Well yes, Lloyd has finally negotiated a pay rise with the Powers That Be and lends his name to a new publication — LM — which you will be among the first people in the country to see. The first issue is going to be given away with the Christmas Special this year. We’ve already planned to have 196 pages in the Christmas CRASH, so if your eyesight’s a bit dicky, make sure you’ve got a set of reading glasses sorted out by Christmas. There’s going to be an awful lot of reading for you to do!
LM is going to be headed up by Roger Kean — not satisfied with being a traitor to CRASH (as some of you felt), he’s now about to do the same over on ZZAP! Roger promises LM is going to be an exciting read, covering all aspects of life as a teenager, from money and jobs through music and computer games to style, film, video and books. If you can’t wait until Christmas to find out more about LM, there’s a chance to attend an LM party in London next month — take a peek at the News Pages.
On the home front, the CRASH team has expanded, with the arrival of another staff writer, Tony Flanagan, and we’re eagerly awaiting Auntie Aggie’s departure so we can take over her room in CRASH Towers. There’s hardly enough room to swing a Comps Minion in the CRASH office nowadays!
It’s not just the CRASH team that’s expanded, either. The Art department has gained another couple of helpers, including Ian Craig — who was ON THE COVER in Issue 21. He’s going to be helping Oli with the illustration work on all the Newsfield magazines, and arrived just in time to plug in his airbrush and provide the artwork for our DYNAMITE DAN jukebox comp.
On the plus side, Gary Liddon now no longer eats massive meals in (and all over) the office: he’s scampered off to London with Flathead Andy (ex-Activision) to set up a software house by the name of Thalamus which is owned by Newsfield. Gary and Andy are currently sorting out their programme of releases, which will cover Spectrum, Commodore and Amstrad machines, and they’ve already got a couple of games in the bag. More news soon.
And we’ve had to go out and buy lots of extra teamugs — Mr Liddon was replaced by Richard “Dick” Eddy, a Cornish lad who is busily clotting the milk in the tea hut. (We don’t get cream!) Lee Paddon and Tony Clarke have also joined the AMTIX! crew, and poor old Malcolm Harding, AMTIX! Editor has hardly got room to park his bathchair...
All these new helpers should mean CRASH will get even better, and that’s no bad thing, I’m sure you’ll all agree.
This month sees the arrival of another Staff Writer — Gorgeous Pouting I thought we’d had enough of this, thankyouverymuch. Oh alright then, Tony Flanagan has abandoned his job as a college lecturer to try his chances with the undisciplined CRASH crew, and being a sensible man has brought his very own tea mug with him all the way from Shifnal, another sleepy Shropshire town. He’s already zoomed up the motorway to Liverpool with Julian Rignall from ZZAP! and survived — see the Software Projects interview — so it looks like Tony is set to become The Bearded Man of Software Reviewing. Welcome Tony. We’ll all want our own monogrammed mugs now...