KEV BLESSINGTON said that the idea for the very first Sobserver came from the Gladstone Apex club around 1978.

"Two committees were formed from both local Apex branches and they immediately set to work coming up with stories," he said.

His mate Darryl Keyworth said the groups didn't pull any punches.

We had a think-tank of about 14 people to come up with some witty stuff about people in town and I don't think we missed a single person," he said.

Doug Tighe recalls all the businesses quickly picked up on the intent of the paper and some of the ads were pretty dubious.

"There's no way they'd print those ads today and the photos of topless girls certainly wouldn't make the cut either," he said.

Doug said The Observer was happy to print the parody paper for free and then they headed off to the Harbour Festival Easter Parade to sell them in their own, unique, Apex way.

We filled Daryl's backhoe bucket with Sobservers then joined the parade, we sold the lot at the Mardi Gras down at the waterfront

Darryl added for 20 cents a copy they were great value and the money raised was used to buy small motorbikes for kids to ride on at fun fairs.

"Those bikes were death traps, but we raised a lot of money for charity with them over the years," Doug said.

All the men agreed that The Sobserver was extremely popular with the Gladstone community.

"Everyone loved them, and the people we made fun of took it particularly well," Kev said.

Which was why they recounted how many people were disappointed when the paper stopped production around 1988.

"We'd got away with a lot of stuff, but someone mentioned that we were pushing our luck legally, so we sort of faded away from printing them," said Kev.

When asked if they'd like to contribute the to this years Sobserver they shook their heads.

"No, it's not the same now, but it'll be good to see it make a comeback though," said Darryl.