While Guy's talent as a journalist (Kewney, not Goma) was legendary he was also great company, which is why he had so many good, reliable contacts. My first long-haul trip as a journalist involved sharing a flight and a room with him for Comdex Spring in Atlanta - which was a very memorable week both in terms of what I learned professionally at the show and the time we spent in Atlanta which a couple of his long-term local contacts. Soul food in Little Five Points in Atlanta (location for some of Driving Miss Daisy) and jazz at Blind Willie's were too highlights.
But his real talents were missing deadlines and making up absurd (late-homework-absurd) excuses, with deep cover stories... The (invariable) absence of Newsprint was explained by having left the carrier bag of press releases on the tube or the dog having thrown up into the bag. And, on one occasion - already late and in response to our latest attempt to chase him - he simply renamed a .com file .rtf and - when we we told him what he has sent was corrupted (we later change the extension on a hunch and ran it) - claimed it was the only copy and he'd have to write it all again from scratch...
Great stuff, Marc! Reminds me of my time in the Castle in the early 2000s! I'm reminded of watching a show about late night Soho and seeing the homeless using the flower beds as beds!
I knew there were a lot of journos at VNU I knew, but had no idea about James Cleverley! Had a few press trips with Guy, as you say not the most talkative, and Steve sold me some stories when I was on the nationals. Those trade days were great, I don't think anyone will ever dine out on a story of what happened when they logged in and asked Chat GPT to write a story for them! I seem to remember half of VNU used to generally be in the Coach and Horses (where Chris Evans used to hang out...was it?).... i forget the name, but good times!
Wow, this article took me back. Our firm (Dabs Direct, dabs.com) featured regularly in PC Dealer's pages in the 1990s. Dave Atherton
I remember Dave!
While Guy's talent as a journalist (Kewney, not Goma) was legendary he was also great company, which is why he had so many good, reliable contacts. My first long-haul trip as a journalist involved sharing a flight and a room with him for Comdex Spring in Atlanta - which was a very memorable week both in terms of what I learned professionally at the show and the time we spent in Atlanta which a couple of his long-term local contacts. Soul food in Little Five Points in Atlanta (location for some of Driving Miss Daisy) and jazz at Blind Willie's were too highlights.
But his real talents were missing deadlines and making up absurd (late-homework-absurd) excuses, with deep cover stories... The (invariable) absence of Newsprint was explained by having left the carrier bag of press releases on the tube or the dog having thrown up into the bag. And, on one occasion - already late and in response to our latest attempt to chase him - he simply renamed a .com file .rtf and - when we we told him what he has sent was corrupted (we later change the extension on a hunch and ran it) - claimed it was the only copy and he'd have to write it all again from scratch...
love this Guy.
Great stuff, Marc! Reminds me of my time in the Castle in the early 2000s! I'm reminded of watching a show about late night Soho and seeing the homeless using the flower beds as beds!
Wow, that brings back a lot of memories. Great article Marc. They were good times and it was a great team on PC Dealer.
Thanks Simon. Hope you are ok. You must have some interesting stories about these times :-)
I knew there were a lot of journos at VNU I knew, but had no idea about James Cleverley! Had a few press trips with Guy, as you say not the most talkative, and Steve sold me some stories when I was on the nationals. Those trade days were great, I don't think anyone will ever dine out on a story of what happened when they logged in and asked Chat GPT to write a story for them! I seem to remember half of VNU used to generally be in the Coach and Horses (where Chris Evans used to hang out...was it?).... i forget the name, but good times!
So many pubs around there Sean - Coach, Crown and 2 Chairmen, Blue Posts, Dog and Duck, Nellie Dean, Coffee House...
The John Snow, Car and Starter (sorry, Star and Garter...)
Crown, I think it was... good times! Maybe a bit of Coach too, that's why i joined them up, as we no doubt probably did back in the day after work!