Old hacks meet older hacks at the court of the crimson king

A VERITABLE WHO'S WHO of British IT hackdom tipped up the Cheshire Cheese yesterday to pay tribute to the man who started it all, Bill Moores, of that parish.

Bill, we believe started the event in 1984, although we think the first one we went to was in 1988. He is now running a hotel in Brazil, apparently, but was always very generous to hacks when he did his PR gig at Bill Moores Associates.

And many an old hack and hackette tumbled down the stairs to blink in disbelief at their past unfolding before them.

There at the top tier, was Tom Foremski, who decided to start calling our table the court of the crimson king. Did we tell you Robert Fripp used to subscribe to an ancient magazine we ran in the 1970s?

Queuing up to pay homage to Tom were the likes of Phil Manchester, the first IT hack to be a grandad way back when, Martin Banks, Colin Barker, David "Lord Bostoon" Evans, Tony Dennis, Guy Kewney, Manek Dubash, Ron Condon, Andrew Charlesworth, Eric Doyle and many many more.

It was even rumoured that down in the depths of the beer cellar was one David Bannister - a rare sighting in these days.

And talking of these days, these days it is run by Zed PR and Sourcewire in combo, who dole out yummy beef and kidney pies, mince pies, and delicious cheeses in what Foremski described last year as a soup kitchen for old has beens.

There were about 150 folk there, including our own INQ hack, Tamlin Magee, who probably brought the median age of the attendees down to about 65 or so. µ