Monday 23rd April

VERA JOHNSON:

Monday was another film morning. We had to choose between "Voyage to the End of the Universe" and "Timeslip". We chose the latter, by one vote.

FRED HEMMINGS (who counted the votes):

I was SO determined to see Timeslip.

VERA JOHNSON:

Another clunker, with poor script and wooden acting. However, there was lots of suspense to keep us awake. Somebody told me later the other film was even worse.

DAVE ROWE:

The 'choice' of films was extremely poor, 'Doctor Strangelove' and the 'Star Trek Bloopers' being the only decent titles therein. This was mainly the committee's fault for not dispatching the confirmation order in time, and thus having to make do with second best. (TYNECON Take Note: Post Early For Easter.) In fact the late right film shows (and bar) killed a lot of room parties, which are one of the essences of a good con. (A lesson which should have been learnt from Eastercon 22.) The only other film of interest (apart from the Goons) was 'Voyage to the End of the Universe'...

Betty Woodhead, Jan Howard Finder, Diane Ellingsworth (mb)

VERA JOHNSON:

After a film in which John W. Campbell, Jr., Harry Harrison and Gordon R. Dickson discussed over a liquid lunch the development of a plot, John Brunner talked about his approach to plotting. Interesting presentation, full of useful hints for would-be writers. According to John there are only three basic plots, because there are only three ways in which a person can be changed: by emotional involvement with others, by discovering something about himself he didn't know previously, or by the pressure of outside forces.

Just before this, John announced the winner of the contest to fill in the balloons in a Terry Jeeves cartoon. Much to my astonishment, this turned out to be me. I had prepared an entry, but didn't think it was good enough, so just left it on a table in the bar. The prize was well worth winning: a year's subscription to "Analog".

Before returning to London, I lunched with Brian Hampton, Malcolm Davies and some others, and then we walked down to see "The Great Britain", the Brunel ship which is now being reconstructed. Fascinating.

LEN MOFFATT:

The con was Officially Over, but there were a few diehards remaining. For the first time, we were able to chat with most of the committee. Gerald Bishop (or Gerbish, as he is knowed as), Pat and Mike Meara and Fred Hemmings. We thanked them for a great convention, and for picking up the hotel tab for the TAFF delegates. They had been worried (as are most concerns, especially first-timers) that they would go into the red, and were really freaked out when they discovered that they were actually in the black. We talked conventions for a while, and then let them proceed with the final gathering-up of equipment, etc.

I referred to the Moffatts as 'unofficial FGoHs' earlier because of things such as sitting on the top table at the banquet, giving speeches there, etc. Had the committee known beforehand there would be enough money to cover their hotel bill I suspect this would have been official.

JUNE MOFFATT:

At some point we were sitting in the lobby, chatting with Dave Rowe and others. He had been telling a story about being overcharged at some restaurant, and started to say "bloody". Actually, he got about as far as "bl - er - excuse my French!" I laughed, and assured him that it was harmless as far as I was concerned. We know that it is a Naughty Word in England, but it has no emotional content for us. (Besides, anyone who's stayed with Ella Parker can't be shocked by it!) Dave seemed to accept my explanation. Later, when I told Marsha about it, she looked at me and said, "Well! Nobody ever excuses themselves when they say that to me!" I told her it was because I looked so Sweet and Innocent. It was later when she found out that I'm really just as vulgar as she is....

Graham Poole, Dave Rowe (l-o)

LEN MOFFATT:

Later, in the lounge, we said goodbye to several, including Jim White, who was remarking on the bit of rain we were getting, and the fact that so many fans were coming down with the sniffles. Said Jim: "I do hope they won't bring their colds to Newcastle." Our goodbyes were more in the nature of a groan.

MALCOLM EDWARDS:

Once settled in I had a great time, which unfortunately seemed to flash by at about two hours per minute. I'd been looking forward to this convention for a long time, it being the first we'd been able to get to since the 1971 Novacon, and eventually I enjoyed it as much as I had anticipated doing, so that come Monday morning I was just ready for another week or so of convention. And I think Christine enjoyed it much more than she was really expecting to.

Andrew Stephenson, Bryn Fortey, Greg Pickersgill (gp)

Of course, a convention is no good unless you come away weighed down by a certain amount of printed matter which you didn't take with you. This year I managed not to buy a single book either in the auctions or in the Bookroom, but I nevertheless arrived home with a number of bits of paper, some of which deserve a mention here. One surprise was the eventual appearance of FOUNDATION #3. It's a good issue though, with its 84 pages representing much better value for money than the previous two.

Another item of interest was CHECKPOINT #36, with the results of its 1972 Fan Poll. Peter Roberts' EGG was voted best fanzine, as last year. VECTOR came in 10th, which I suppose is an improvement on the 19th of last year but is nevertheless disappointing. I'm not arrogant enough to think of suggesting that it's the best British fanzine; but nevertheless I'm damn sure it's one of the best five. Mutter mutter.

VERA JOHNSON:

It took me two days to read through 38 fanzines., published, on three continents over a period of several years. I learned a lot, but was left with a bunch of questions: Why spell beer "bheer"? and God "Ghod" and fan "faan"? What is fanac? What are NFFF, TNFF, N3F, APA, ghu, genzine, egoboo, fafia, gafia? What is a loc or LoC? What is corflu? Why the spelling "filksinger"? Is filk better than folk?

Somewhere in this pile of fanzines I ran across an article entitled "How to Increase the Efficiency of a Symphony Orchestra", which knocked me out. Whoever was responsible for this little gem deserves the highest praise. I immediately typed out a copy for my cousin Paul, who is a violinist with the Scottish National Orchestra,. Unfortunately I didn't make a note of the author or the fanzine it came from, Whoever you are, whereever you are, congratulations -- and thank you.

unknown panel: Tony Walsh, Ramsey Campbell, Bill Burns, Marsha Jones (l-o)

LEN MOFFATT:

This was a small convention, compared to U.S. cons. I think the attendance was a little less than 300. That would be small for a regional con (such as a Westercon) over here.

I liked it. (So did I - June.) I'm among those oldandtired fans who could live without BIG conventions. I can have more fun at a small convention even if I were on the committee. Yet, small though it may have been, the OMPAcon was a truly international con, in that there were fans from the Continent as well as from the States there. For us, it was our World Convention for this year. We knew we wouldn't be able to make it to Torcon, or even to the Westercon in San Francisco, but we have no regrets. The OMPAcon plus the touring and visiting before and after the convention more than made up for missing out on cons we would normally attend. That's for sure.

DAVE ROWE:

The general opinion seems to be that was a lousy programme but a good con', with which I agree. It was a conversation con, mainly thanks to the fen and the "near-all-night-bar". Fred certainly deserved the ovation he got at the end, anything he gets involved in usually ends up with him organizing it and no doubt the not too distant future will see him as Vice-Chairman of the BSFA, APA Editor AND/or President of OMPA, and founder of the Fred Hemmings Award. (On the first two, I kid you not.)

However, it would be unfair to credit it all to his forceful personality and/or limitless telephone calls. The parts Gerbish, Pat & Mike Meara had to play in the con have been greatly undersung. The multitude of film projections, the improvisations as Press Officer (when Brian Robinson failed to do his job) the ushering of speakers, the sorting of the auction material, and sundry other unnoticed items on the committee's agenda, for which the legworkers (Fred included) get very little or no thanks....

So from someone who had to drop out of the committee (No, I never was in OMPA) long before things really got underway - THANKS. It wasn't an all-time-great, but it was a good con.