Wearing my "8-Bit Software" hat, I escaped the £5.00 entrance fee to this Spring's Acorn User show at Harrogate. There, I was able to help Chris Richardson to set up our shared stand in what the organisers call "Club Corner" and on the first day try to look intelligent and convince the punters that the 8bit world ain't dead.
It is very difficult for me to convey to you the chaos that existed that Thursday afternoon. Stands unoccuiped, carpets and electrics still being laid. On totally unorganised stands, computers switched on, operators just playing games! I just could not imagine the exhibition being ready for 10:00am the next morning. We were. A BBC, a Compact and a Master plus all necessary software.
I arrived at 9.30am the next morning, walking past the 25 yard queue and entering to find a vast improvement. Even then, everything was not shipshape and Bristol fashion. At 10:00am, the announcement was made that the exhibition was open and, as "Club Corner" was at the furthermost post from the entrance, it was after 10:30am before visitors began to reach us.
As I was acting as the 'Barker', dishing out leaflets and jocular remarks to passerbys, I got remarks like, "Oh! Is this the Museum section?" and "Are they still around?" but many people did want to tell us of their affection for the BBC; how marvellous the programmers were of that era, playing around with their 32k and what they achieved. And many may have their A5000 but they have still got their BBC and an odd Electron.
In fact, three chaps were there that day whole sole computer is the Electron. Two were about seventeen years of age and the other middle-aged. They hadn't heard of the EUG...they have now! I hope to learn they have got in touch with Will.
One of the surprises was when one of the visitors to the stand claimed to have seen more Electrons than all of us put together. Of course we tried to guess his job thinking of warehouseman for Acorn, etc but he turned out to be the firm that dealt with the contract with Interflora and was responsible for altering the Electron and fitting a modem to them so that the florists could deal with orders. Apparently, the number involved was 4,000!
If one was purely BBC/Electron, there was only 8 Bit Software of interest. Two other stands were both selling miscellania; one had a box of old BBC manuals and the other a dozen copies of the Acorn User from the 1980s. That was all. It was solid Archimedes. 99.9999%.
It was only an hour before the exhibition closed for the day that I felt tired, the crowd beginning to thin. It had been a very happy time, lots of laughs, memories and an obvious display of affection for 8bit computers. Pity everybody did not join the User Groups.
1st May 1994