Q&A with GV staff - Part 1
compiled by DaZZaBoY


This originally started out as a sensible Q&A interview for the 
benfit of you lot out there to find out who exactly is running the 
show here and what makes the GV.net staff tick? Then again, if you 
put together a team comprising of: a Devon web designer, a courier 
admin from Bristol and a northern steelworker, you can bet there's 
gonna be trouble! Fight! Fight! Fight! 



.: Where are you based? :. 
Zildjian: Exeter, Devon. 
DaZZaBoY: I am currently residing on the 'Nipple Of England' here in 
Barrow-In-Furness, Cumbria. That's near the Lake District! 
zYX!: Bristol in the good old South West of England. It's a city but
 everyone talks like they were born in the middle of a field!

Zildjian's reply to DaZZaBoY: So I can call you a tit then? 
DaZZaBoY's reply to Zildjian: As long I can call you a hay chewin', 
tractor drivin', sheep sha... [SNIP!]



.: What is your current career? :. 
Zildjian: Not working full-time, sort of freelance PHP programmer and 
graphics person. 
DaZZaBoY: I work full time as a Structural Welder on the Astute Class 
Nuclear Sub's at BAE Systems (Marine) in Barrow. It's good to graft 
for a living and not be one of these IT puffs :oD 
zYX!: Working full time in an administration role for a parcel courier 
company. Yes, it's as crap as it sounds!

Zildjian's reply to DaZZa: So if you hear of one of the bastards sinking, 
you'll know why. 
DaZZaBoY's reply to Zildj: That's supposed to be the idea of 'em. 
zYX!'s reply: Just have a few troubles submerging the thing again that's 
all, huh? :) 



.: What made you become involved in the Grapevine revival and what 
drives you to make GV a major production once more? :. 
Zildjian: I just stumbled on the Yahoo list from Ken's site I think, 
must have been looking for some issues of GV at the time. Not sure 
why I'm doing it, nostalgia I guess and maybe to recapture some of 
the sense of community that GV had and what the internet sadly lacks. 

DaZZaBoY: It was down to myself and a few others that got Ken 
interested in starting the GV mail list in the first place. I've 
always been interested in helping out with the revival project and 
offered my services whenever the opportunity arose. The thing that 
drives me the most to get this thing moving is (as Zildj said) I 
want to try and recapture the community and 'feel' that the original 
Grapevine possessed and which is something the internet lacks! 

zYX!: I wanted to contribute to a worthwhile UK scene project. I was 
always a big fan of the original Grapevine and I remember sitting for 
hours reading whole issues. Also, dabbled in creating our own group's 
(Area 51) diskmag which lasted a stunning seven issues back in the late 
nineties. I'm probably more qualified in diskmag production then any 
other scene activity so I kicked off my lazyarse shoes and got involved. 

Zildjian's reply to DaZZa: Nothing to do with annoying Pazza and Shagratt 
some more of course, purely a community thing :) 
DaZZaBoy's reply to Zildj: ...as if! :) 
zYX!'s reply to both: Couple of shit stirring so and so's! ;) 



.: Do you prefer to read Grapevine, or edit it? :.
Zildjian: To read it. Never want to write the web site again, until the 
next issue anyway.. 
DaZZaBoY: I'd say editing at the moment, then again, it's only the first 
issue. Ask me after issue #10? 

zYX!: Well, technically I'm not editing it but thinking back when I used 
to be a full time editor of a diskmag. Hmmm, it involved spell and grammer 
checking, formatting text and adding function codes to articles. It was a 
hell of a time consuming job! I'll always love to read Grapevine but not 
being an actual editor ensures I have more time to get dirty with writing 
articles. 

Zildj's reply to DaZZa: Your an optimist, I like that. 
DaZZaBoY's reply to Zildj: Never let it be said that we aren't committed 
to the cause m8! 
zYX!'s reply to both: Wait until you lot get some shit shoddy articles 
full of tabs, typos and random spaces which take you the best part of two 
hours to get into a readable form. You'll love it then! 

DaZZaBoY's reply to zYX!: If we DO get any articles like that AL, you know 
where they'll go! LOL! 



.: Pazza often whinged about editing GV. is it hard work? :.
Zildjian: Editing isn't hard work. Put the article in Word, spellcheck 
and grammar check then add HTML. Easy. 
DaZZaBoY: We aren't exactly snowed under with 100's of articles a day 
but we are receiving a steady supply, so at this moment in time it only 
involves a little bit of work. 

Zildj's reply to DaZZa: That's why it's taken him four days to edit some 
from Ken D :) 
DaZZa's reply to Zildj: ahem! Who's got the most articles up so far? 
zYX!'s reply to both: Spell and grammer check! That's all? What about some 
proper proofreading you bunch of amateurs! Look, I can't work with this. 
Where's my private trailer too? Shoddy workmanship. Tch! :) 



.: What groups have you been a member of? :.
Zildjian: Delta 8 and Cybertek. I think I was in Iris for a couple of hours, 
not sure. My mate was and I drew some Iris graphics in medres. 

DaZZaBoY: I was never a member of any major groups but I was in a little 
crew which went by the handle of PsykosoniK. We never produced anything 
ground breaking, but upped a few files to BBS'es aswell as other naff 
stuff like song lyrics etc.. not exactly party winners! 

zYX!: Initially, a very little known group called PowerTeK which basically 
consisted of myself and a couple of mates. I think we produced four issues 
of diskmag like that though. I noticed that a couple of years later some 
bastard had named an exercise machine PowerTek too. After that we got 
together with a few more interested scene guys and created Area 51 which 
had about 15-20 members at one point.

Zildjian replies: Was more rewarding and satisfying submitting articles 
and crap piccies to GV at the end of it all. 



.: What annoys you? :.
Zildjian: Old people, single parents, politicians, students and stupid people..

DaZZaBoY: Obnoxious people and those that spout complete shite and don't 
listen to others. I also hate people who blatantly bleed the 'system'. 
Granted, lots of people hit hard times and do deserve support, but I hate 
the lazy b@stards who have no intention of finding work etc.. and coin 
every allowance going. GRRrrrr!!
I also detest passive smoking. I don't mind if peeps fag it in their own 
space, but when you see people letting fags burn down without smoking 'em 
and polluting my air space.. that really gets on my tits!! 
zYX!: The general population most of the time!



.: What are your musical tastes? :.

Zildjian: I like most music, bit of classical as well. Love U2, Queen, 
REM, Coldplay. White Stripes, and that kind of stuff. I hate music in the 
charts today, all shite. I listen to a lot of Amiga music more than anything else.

DaZZaBoY: I've got a VERY wide taste in music which stretches from Vocal/Hard 
Trance, Rock etc.. all the way back to early Motown. I like some R&B stuff 
but hate the repetetive, ripped off samples in some tunes and the blatant 
'bling!' in the vids. Trash!

zYX!: Hard dance music if I'm being honest. Old skool breakbeat hardcore, 
drum'n'bass, new style hardcore, gabber/hard techno and some hard house. 
Even the odd bit of trance and commercial stuff now and again. Apart from 
that some chill out and old Amiga demo music. I'd like to say I was into 
something more intelligent but I'd be lying.

DaZZa replies: Oh yeah, Amiga retro chipz 'n' MODs I luv too! Class!! 



.: List your fave scene demos? :.
Zildjian: Fuck. Mental Hangover, Cebit 90, RSI Megademo, anything by Fairlight, 
Melon, Virtual Dreams, Sanity, Kefrens and Scoopex.

DaZZaBoY: Black Hair Tongue Disease by Ward , Kosher by PSB (not impressive 
in the GFX dept by any means, but was great with the lights off and watch the 
strobe effects when pissed), Jesus On E's (of course) by erm.... I also like 
the classic Kefrens, Spaceballs and Axis stuff.

zYX!: The Lyra II and Shock (ZX Spectrum) by Ethanol Soft Inc. Legendard 
Spectrum Demo (ZX Spectrum) by Pentagram. The Product (Win32) by Farbausch. 
Melrose Space (Win32) by 3State. Desert Dream (Amiga) by Kefrens. Technological 
Death (Amiga) by Mad Elks. Apart from that, there are way too many to list. 

Zildjian replies: Oh yeah Spaceballs, State of the Art and Nine Fingers. 
Axis? Big Time Sensuality is the only one I can remember.

DaZZaBoY replies: Big Time Sens was a classic! I'm sure they had a few 
other prods but the names escape me now? Oh yeah.. does anyone remember 
Little Pinnochio by The BloodyFuckers? Now that was crazy shit!! 

zYX! replies: I remember seeing some smaller demos by Axis but the actual 
names escape me. It was just when "Madness Took Me". Aha! The Mental 
Hangover. You see the link? You get it! Good innit! 



.: Did you do any 'scene' productions? :.
Zildjian: None that were finished. In Cybertek I had the graphics to an 
AGA version of Jet Pac and a Tetris clone called Clitortris (clever huh) 
but I was as lazy as fellow coder Sprinter and they never got finished. 
Only thing that was done is the last three or four PD screens for the 
original Grapevine.

DaZZaBoY: I once produced a splash screen, front end thingy for a music
prod by a group called Aneurysm... but the project died before release? I 
also did 2 retro arcade game compilations called Mr.Q's Classic Arcade 
vols 1&2, I saw these listed on a few PD library disks - fame at last!!

zYX!: Four issues of Beyond Sanit-E. Three issues of Beyond The Frontier. 
Some graphics and bits and pieces for the Convergence Musicdisk. Loads of 
ASCII logos over the years. Apart from that not much worth mentioning that 
I can remember.


More Q&A's with the staff