Author Archives: Viva VHS

Fantastic Fest 2013

Leave a reply

This year I was fortunate enough to obtain (through a very close friend) a VIP badge for Fantastic Fest, a genre film festival which is held each year in Austin, Texas.
I made the trip with my brother-in-law, Simon (@simonbarber on Twitter), and it was to be our first adventure away together. A tough feat to pull off too, considering we both have very small children, but eased greatly by having two very understanding wives. This was, however, always going to be a one-off experience so we planned to make the most of it while out there.
ff2013_1

Continue reading →

The VivaVHS vs. The Good Bad Movie Club VHS All-nighter

3 Replies

The VivaVHS vs. The Good Bad Movie Club VHS All-nighter – The Prince Charles Cinema, London.

My good friend Paul, who is the programmer for The PCC, and also runs The Good Bad Movie Club, asked me to join him in an epic battle of the grain. Three selections of his, versus three of mine, head-to-head in a night long duel of sleaze and cheese. The only thing I wanted to nail down, was to make sure that all selections were not available on DVD or Blu, thus hopefully creating more appeal for the event.


Continue reading →

Never Too Young To Die – The Electric Cinema, Birmingham

Leave a reply

Following on from last year’s screening of The Burning, I was once again invited to present another tape viewing at this year’s Shock & Gore Festival at the Electric Cinema in Birmingham.

With my selection being restricted to ‘Video Nasties’ last year, I was over the moon to get free rein for this one. I immediately drew up a list of around 15 titles, with the aim of restricting them to movies currently unavailable on DVD and Blu. Luckily, my first choice on the list was chosen and confirmed – Never Too Young to Die (’86).Shock and GoreTicketsDetails Continue reading →

New Dimension

1 Reply

I make no secret of the fact that Medusa are far and away my favourite video label of all time. Not only great covers and lengthy pre-movie trailer reels, but also, for the most part, simply great movies.
It is in my research of the fabulous label that I discovered their many layers, and none more so than the connection to Guild Home Video. You see, Medusa and Guild cut a deal in November of 1986 that gave birth to the New Dimension label. “Guild’s added Dimension” was a sideline as spearheaded by Guild sales director Peter Johnson, who headed up this new venture. Johnson had been with Guild since day one.New Dimension Logo

Mr Johnson understood Medusa’s reliability in the market, and so effectively the product would not alter, with New Dimension retaining the appealing artwork. The distribution side of things was all done through Guild Home Video. Continue reading →

Video Copy Kit

Leave a reply

While clearly obsessed with the many cheaper looking off-shoot labels of the mid 80s, I am equally passionate about video fonts and logos in general.

A few years back I came across a video at a local car boot, but when I opened the box I was greeted by leads and instructions. This was no videotape. This was a video copy kit, allowing you to convert your beloved Betamax collection over to VHS, or back-up your wedding video to another (other memories are also welcome).
Copy Kit

You might consider it odd to collect such obsolete material, but it’s not the connections or instructions i’m after, it’s the cover scans of the various box designs. Also, just why were these sent out in puffy video boxes? Seems strange considering no instructional tape ever accompanied the leads. Continue reading →