NORTH EAST:      (We do not have a contact at present)
                  NORTH WEST:      (We do not have a contact at present)
                  EAST ANGLIA:      Mike Childs, Colchester
                  MIDLANDS:           Clive Kent, Daventry
                  LONDON:              John Repsch, Mortlake
                  SURREY & HANTS:  Barry York, Woking
                  SUSSEX:                Les Drew, Littlehampton
                  COTSWOLDS:       Andrew Cowling, Gloucester
                  WEST COUNTRY:   Bob Jarvis, Exeter   

The North West branch are one of our long-standing groups, they have put on their own convention evenings (as have both the North East and the Surrey & Hants groups) where they have entertained like-minded folk with semi-professional renditions of their own home-grown Goon Shows. The most recent being at the Egham Goonvention.

The East Anglian group, affectionately known as "The Seagoons", are also proud exponents of  amateur Goon Show evenings; a shilling on the door, chips & beer optional - bring own body and own money - and in that order…

The Sussex Mob are, well, what shall we say -  probably our most active branch. Not only do they meet every month (without fail) but they also organise Days Out In Sussex, to which anyone is invited to attend. They write and perform their own Goon Show scripts, they have also produced their own mini-newsletter "Goon Times From Sussex" and they advertise all of this on their own web-site "Sussex Goons!" (see the links page).

WEB COMMENT: What an outfit - no wonder they are held in such high esteem by the whole Society. Who can forget Phantom Head Shaving at the Brighton Convention? Or singing along with Mad Morris in his beautiful rendition of that timeless old classic "Sussex By The Sea"? Who indeed...

One such group (who originally got together independently of the GSPS) are a bunch of self-proclaimed Goon-atics based in and around the Midlands. Their leader  is Clive Kent, from Daventry. They are always on the look-out for new members to join them (as are all the local groups) and to that end invite anyone in their general area to get in touch. Clive now has a web site up-and-running, (see the links page).

Another is young Andrew Cowling from Gloucester (who might well have a Doctor called Foster) and he started his Group only a few months ago, with much success, so it can be done folks…

Full details of all these groups, their meeting times, who to contact, what they get up to, which pubs they meet in and so on can be found in that wonderful tome The GSPS Newsletter, yours for only £12.50 a year in Membership subs. See, we told you it was worth joining didn't we...

Postscript:-
One of the Sussex Mob, Les Drew, their honorary chairman, thing & string eating champion, was once asked onto his local BBC radio station to take part in a half-hour quiz show, "Beat The Know-All" with Les being the know-all in question, with the subject being of course, The Goon Show. Anyway, one question which Les set the listening audience was about the inspiration for the voice of Eccles, and where did Spike get it from. One elderly gentleman caller rang in to say that he thought it was Mortimer Snerd, an American ventriloquists dummy that provided the seed in Spike's mind. Now, like all of us through the years, we have oft heard Spike tell that it was Walt Disney's Goofy who gave him the idea. But lo! and behold, if you read the Goonology pages kindly provided by Dick Baker (U.S. Archivist) you will also find a reference to one Mortimer Snerd…  There must be more to this story?

By the way, Les beat the audience, as no-one could answer all five of his set-piece questions, but he didn't get a reward of any kind (it was the BBC after all!) just his fifteen minutes of fame… The station in question was BBC Southern Counties Radio, broadcasting from Guildford & Brighton.