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19-425: Club International was founded in 1972 and is published every four weeks, making thirteen issues per year. Each edition consists of one hundred printed pages and is staple-bound, with the exception of the slightly larger "special edition", published at the start of each new volume, which has some 120 pages and flat glued binding. Club International is published by Paul Raymond Publications , which publishes eight of

38-616: A glamour photography style that was far from explicit, showing little more than breasts and pubic hair. The videos were also on sale in Australia. The Electric Blue series came to an end in the mid-1980s. Playboy entered the cable television market in the early 1980s and the videos were shown on the Playboy Channel between 1983 and 1987. It appeared on home video releases in North America, Australia, New Zealand in

57-423: A fee of £75,000 to appear naked in its pages, but she declined. It has, however, featured a number of well-known models and pornstars , such as Lexi Lowe, Tanya Tate , Monica Sweet, Zsanett Égerházi, Sandra Shine, Peaches, Silvia Saint , Stephanie Swift, and popular Hungarian model Sophie Moone (often credited as 'Stella'). Also among the women featured is the "Reader's Girlfriend", presented as an amateur model who

76-638: Is a British publisher of softcore monthly pornographic magazine titles, including Escort , Club International , Mayfair , Men Only , Men's World and Razzle . The company's lawyers scrutinise the magazine content before publication to ensure that it is likely to comply with the Obscene Publications Act 1959 since UK law does not allow hardcore R18 imagery to be sold on newsstands. The magazines are generally available in most newsagents, although some larger retailers require them to be sold in bags to protect minors from seeing

95-540: Is a film compèred by the US pornographic star Marilyn Chambers. It consists of a compilation of clips from the Electric Blue home video series. These include sketches, erotic songs, lesbian fantasies and a nude disco dancing competition. There are also film clips showing archive nude footage of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe , Joanna Lumley and Jacqueline Bisset , as well as Jayne Mansfield 's naked bath scene from

114-474: Is the girlfriend of a Club International reader. Long-running features in Club International include its regular readers' letters page, "Talkin' Blue", where 'readers' share tales of their sexual experiences, and "Peaches", a feature that covers anal sex (although the writing is far more explicit than the images that accompany the feature). As with a number of similar men's magazines , there are

133-450: The 2000s the company's fortunes waned due to competition from the internet and " lad mags ". Profits declined from an annual profit of over £10 million in 2005 to a loss in 2008, a situation that the company blamed on Internet competition and the cost of including free DVDs with its magazines. Following Raymond's death, the US arm of the company was sold to Magna Publishing Group ; the UK arm

152-661: The UK's ten top adult magazines. Along with Mayfair magazine, Club International is considered one of Raymond's most upmarket top shelf productions, with the photo spreads generally featuring more glamorous photosets shot by experienced photographers. Each edition of Club International features ten photosets, with the exception of the slightly larger "special edition" which features between twelve and thirteen sets. The photosets are usually single-model shoots but there are also lesbian scenes. The shoots are generally softcore , and as such do not feature any sort of penetration or oral-genital contact. However some photoshoots feature

171-481: The company for a time, until her death in 1992 from an overdose. The company's main competitors in the UK are Gold Star Publications, formerly owned by David Sullivan , and Northern & Shell , owned by Richard Desmond . In 1999 the company had revenues of £20 million, and pre-tax profits of £19 million. As of 2001 it produced eight of the 10 best-selling pornographic magazines in the UK, aided by its deal with Comag, one of Britains largest magazine distributors. In

190-470: The cover photographs. The magazines have also been published in digital format since 2013. They were initially available from the dedicated Paul Raymond digital newsstand, but since that closed they have been sold via the publisher's main website which contains both softcore and hardcore pornography . Blue Active Media Ltd. is the parent company. Paul Raymond (1925–2008) began his publication ventures, which were financed by Raymond Revuebar profits, with

209-521: The early to mid-1980s. Electric Blue was derived from the UK and were a subsidiary of the Video Classics group of labels in Australia. After that company ended, Electric Blue films were released by Virgin Video . Then, in the mid-1990s, they were distributed by Columbia TriStar . The versions released on home video in North America differed from the UK versions, adding localized content and

SECTION 10

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228-459: The film Promises! Promises! (1963). Electric Blue: The Movie was released theatrically in the UK in March 1982 under an X certificate and on VHS in 1983 as a tie-in to the Electric Blue video releases. The series was so popular that the slang term 'bluey' was coined to represent all pornographic films. In 1979, the home video market in the UK was in its early stages of development and

247-607: The form of X certificate videotapes in UK shops alongside more conventional films. They were produced under a commercial relationship with Paul Raymond , a publisher of "top shelf" men's magazines, including Men Only and Club International . Raymond also owned the Raymond Revuebar , a striptease club in Soho, London. The Electric Blue videos were an extension of his magazines into new media, making use of his existing magazine models. They presented images of women in

266-476: The occasional "pink" shot, where a model exposes her vaginal lips. During the early to mid-1980s, a regular feature was "Club Event", a picture sequence involving a group of models (usually about half a dozen) performing a form of striptease around a central theme such as a Christmas party, or whilst wearing (and removing) various types of uniforms. The magazine once offered the British TV newsreader Anna Ford

285-841: The print publications. He developed the Paul Raymond brand online, setting up new websites using the top-level domain name .xxx that had been introduced in 2011. Electric Blue (TV series) Electric Blue is a series of softcore pornographic videos that were produced in the UK in the 1980s. They subsequently aired on the Playboy Channel . Many prominent porn stars performed on Electric Blue , including Ginger Lynn , Traci Lords , Marilyn Chambers , Christy Canyon , Sasha Gabor , Blake Palmer, Janey Robbins, and Rick Savage . Hustler centrefold model and " scream queen " actress Gail Harris made appearances in many episodes. Electric Blue: The Movie (1981)

304-461: The regular automotive features, editorials, video and book reviews, as well as a jokes page. Starting in 2008, a free DVD has been included with every issue. Club International is also sold in digital format. Initially this was via the Paul Raymond digital newsstand from 2013 until that website closed. Subsequently it has been available digitally from the publisher's main website. Paul Raymond Publications Paul Raymond Publications

323-504: The short-lived King magazine in 1964 but the company was established with the purchase of Men Only in 1971 and Club International in 1972. Raymond relaunched Men Only with photographs of the women who worked at his strip-clubs. Within a few years he made the claim of a 500,000 circulation. In 1979 he launched the Electric Blue series of videos, a range which was produced until the mid 1990s. Raymond's daughter Debbie ran

342-534: Was dominated by cheap exploitation films available from rental shops, Electric Blue was launched in December of that year with the cost of £31. Described as "the UK’s first men’s magazine on video", Electric Blue was an hour-long compilation of "video centrefolds" intercut with acquired film footage. A new instalment of Electric Blue was released about every three months. The full-colour video magazines were sold in

361-514: Was sold to private investors that formed Tri Active Media Ltd. holding it for about 3 years. On 6 October 2012 Paul Chaplin bought Paul Raymond Publications for an undisclosed sum and united it with Loaded and Superbike magazines under the newly formed Blue Active Media Ltd. This provided the capital to rejuvenate the Paul Raymond magazines with the aim of returning them to their heyday. Mayfair magazine improved in paper quality and pagination. Chaplin aimed to use digital media to add value to

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