You have probably seen a thousand and one adult site tours that promise ‘live shows 24/7’ or something similar. Very often these live shows are actually only links to a live show site, and you are required to pay more to see the hot action – the cooler chat and non-porn cam links may be for free but no cash equals no cock. At High Octane things are different and they do what a site advertising live shows should do: they bring you exclusive live shows; their models, their exclusive shows and only available to members. This shows a commitment to giving the punter what he wants. Not only that, they also put a countdown on the page so you don’t need to figure out their time zone against your. It’s made easy for you and, while you are waiting for the next live performance, you can view the archive of pre-recorded shows. There are over 200 of these, by the way.

On top of the live shows, which are only a part of your membership package, you are treated to 40 videos that act as advertisements for the exclusive DVD store. When I say advertisements, these are more than trailers. You can view an entire scene that streams in WMV or Flash, and you can also view the box shot and some screen caps. This will give you enough of an idea as to whether you want the DVD. You can also access these scenes from the Video pages where they are listed over ten pages. As you might expect from such a good looking site, the models are just as sleek and sexy as the pages. The performances are genuine and good, the quality is high and these represent just some of the top class movie making that the company behind High Octane produces. Varied locations and a mixed cast means there is no repetitiveness; you have plenty of smooth hunks and cute guys here going at it hammer and tongs so, with the live shows and these scenes you’ve already got enough content to give you value for money.

The movies are DRM protected (because they are also for sale) so you can’t keep them, but they come with a choice of streaming qualities to suit all connections from a dial up one to a top 768k.

But there is more to the site still. Your membership grants you access to six great bonus sites – same company, same high quality, same temperature of sex, that is: hot. These sites include the simply named Twinks.com, plus more studs, jocks, hunks and bareback sex. There is more than enough content in the network to keep you hard and happy for days, if not months, everything works well technically speaking and you come away from the site looking forward to the next visit, when you will find that more content has been added.

So, all in all, High Octane does raise the heart rate with its excellent scenes and package of extras. For value for money, and a set of sites that are hardcore and god quality throughout, you can’t do much better then sign up here.

Cazzo Film won one of those awards, the 2008 EGPA award for the Best Hunk Film, ‘Berlin Privat 6’. In 2007 the company won the Best Stud Film, ‘Fuck Fiction’ and the Best Overall Film, ‘Fuck Fiction’ again, so what we have here is a European producer of quality movies that wins awards. But what more is there to know about the company?

The website cazzofilm.com gives you all the information and news you will need and is available in English, German and French. The company has been in existence sine 1996 and its main objective is to produce European porn films. They set themselves high standards, and reach them, and employ only the best looking, hunkiest or smoothest guys, depending on the genre of the movie, and they like to get the action out and about. Expect some bedroom scenes but many other locations are also used to provide you with variety.

Here are some examples of their latest movies: ‘Notgeil’ is a ‘sex report from the German capital’ and runs for 87 minutes plus 50 minutes of bonus material. A sexy young and straight Siberian reporter comes to check out the sin and sleaze of Berlin and find himself fully involved with a few hot Latino guys, leather hunks and studs with the scenes taking place in a nightclub. ‘Model Check’ is about showing you fresh new talent and how they deal with the cocks of some of Cazzo’s regular stars such as Florian. This is about solo jerk off auditions in the studio while some more hardcore sex is promised as you watch these young hopefuls at their try-outs. The third featured ‘latest release’ was ‘The revolution is my boyfriend’ a title which takes a bit of understanding. Cazzo describes this movie as ‘Sexy, radical chic’ and here we see the variety of their productions in full swing. This is more than just a boy on boy hardcore fuck fest, there is a storyline involving kidnapping and mistaken identities. Locations used here include studio sets and even the trunk of a car.

So not only will you find originality in a Cazzo production you will also find great looking guys and good quality too. You can sample some of this quality with the free trailers on their site, or you can use your UGAS password to view the XXX galleries. If you don’t have a UGAS pass and want to sample some of the guys then there are free galleries with decent sized images (442 x 624) to take a look at. These show you who is in what movie as well as showing you some of the action the flicks contain. There are 17 studs in the model index to check out and these guys range from bearded Tops to innocent looking younger guys like Marcel Schlutt.

Cazzo also gives you the chance to become a model, if you think you have what it takes, there is a newsletter to sign up to, all the info you could wish for about the movies and the stars, free wallpapers, banners and a shop for fans, so you can not only view the movies via the video on demand area but wear the T shirt too.

What you get from Cazzo is not just well made European porn; their site offers you lots of opportunities to sample their products, it’s very generous in giving you access to photos and trailers and a UGAS password to view the hardcore isn’t that expensive. You can also view the movies on line with the PPV option or order them from the likes of homoactive.com. And watch out for next year’s awards, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cazzo walking away with even more.

Basically a new company was set up to arrange and host award ceremonies to celebrate what’s good in the world of European Porn. The company is called ‘EGPA Ltd.’ and earlier this year, in May, they hosted the first awards ceremony for European Gay Porn movies and producers. Later this year, on October 17th, there will be a second ceremony where porn websites (from Europe but with a couple of non-European based categories too) will be honoured for their work in he industry. This event will take place in Berlin, Germany, during the international trade fair ‘Venus Berlin.’

Speaking at the launch of the project, Marc Cram, director of EGPA, said: “As we all know in this technological age, not all gay porn is studio based. Truth is some of the best action around is on the web – a fact that millions of guys have long since realised. Having so successfully launched the European Gay Porn Awards last year, we are now hereby acknowledging the importance of web-based GLBT entertainment with the launch of the EGPA Web Awards, which will run alongside the European Gay Porn Awards.”

The best thing about what EGPA is doing is that it is us, the members of the public, who get to vote on the nominees. Nominees were voted in by webmasters and the public between March and May, so that’s already done but you can still cast your votes on who you think should actually win, right up until September.

There are 26 categories of nominations and some of our favourite sites are in there. You can select your favourites from the best Blog site, the best Video On Demand site, amateurs, the best story site, celebrities, live cams, dating sites, escorts… the list goes on and there are 11 nominees in the best European site category so that’s going to be interesting. Will it be Czechboys.com or UKNakedmen.com? Will the best fetish site be Sk8terboy, Sports Lads, Boykakke or Easymec magazine? Who will win the best muscle site; there are five in the running including Big Muscle and Manifest Men. Apart from anything else, just checking out the EGPA website and the nominees list you will get some great ideas for the best of European porn sites to go and take a look at.

Marc Cram went on to say: “With almost every major producer represented at the event, it promises to be a star-spangled celebration in every sense of the word – one that anyone who’s anyone in the world of gay porn would be a fool to miss!” But it’s not just porn producers who are invited to attend. You can contact them through their site and book tickets, they have special deals on with local gay hotels and businesses and the October event happens the day before Berlin’s Hustlaball. (hustlaball.com )

In addition to the awards ceremonies that EGPA organise, the company also publishes the annual European Gay Porn Directory, which lists the very best gay porn available to rent and buy across Europe.

Above all, “EGPA Ltd is committed to celebrating the very best gay porn and to allowing the gay public to participate in that celebration.” So now is your chance. Click over to egpawebawards.com and check out the nominees; you can then link over to the sites to see which you would vote for. Register for free and you can login to cast those all important votes, and find some great porn along the way.

Looking at the 2007 winners and categories I decided to use this as the basis for writing about the best in Euro Porn but remember that these awards are for productions, videos and models – later this year there will be awards for websites, reviewers and writers but that’s another story. So, who is making the best gay porn in Europe?

Looking down the list of winners in all 20 categories I did some adding up and found five companies that received more than one award:

Cazzo Film, Berlin, (cazzofilm.com) prides itself on making sophisticated productions that are filmed in unusual locations. They provide you with hunky European guys in hardcore gay sex movies… sorry, films, as we’re talking European. The company has been going since 1996 and knows what it is doing when it comes to making quality porn. These guys are giving the big American companies a run for their money and they don’t show any signs of slowing down just yet. Visit their site and you’ll find more than just a DVD store.

Beau Mecwon three awards at last year’s awards Ceremony in Amsterdam: best come shot and best actor for Cameron Jackson and best director for Vlado Iresch. All these prestigious awards were for the film Hard Riders which I tracked down on a DVD site which ended its review of the film with, “You can expect the usual sexiness and smoothness of all these Eastern European delights, who all give a good performance for us porn junkies. I have to say there is something very quaint and laid back about this film, which makes it very dreamy.” (http://www.tiposesso.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=125) Finding information about the genius behind this top title was trickier so I’ll have to leave it to you to search out.

Sk8terboy Film Productions, on the other hand, was easier to locate. This company was founded in 1999 and is one of Germany’s most popular porn labels. As the name suggests they turn out skater boy style movies with lots of younger guys, plenty of foot fetish action as well as more extreme and harder fetish content. You can check their site at sk8erboy.at where you will find it in English and German and where you can not only read their latest news but also order their DVDs, CDs containing their pictures, meet the boys and view the video on demand collection. Sexy, youthful European boyz wait for you there.

Finally I looked up OTB Video, winner of the best black/Latino film and best ‘top’. OTB are based in Amsterdam and, although it’s only been gong for a few years is already setting standards in the bareback, twink market. They film their productions in South America so you can expect lots of hot Latino sex. If you have visited such sites as Originalboys.com, CuteLatinBoys.com and BoyCumParty.com then you will already have seen some of the top talent on offer. (And if you haven’t then you should!) These sites are from Cobra Photo BV, which is a sister company of OTB.

So, those were only four of the winners in last years European Gay Porn Awards. You can vote for this year’s winners, see pics from the ceremony and find out all the latest news on who is making what in European gay porn by visiting the site (http://www.europeangaypornawards.com/egpa). And don’t forget, I’ll be there in May so you’ll get the first hand news when I return. What a job eh? Mixing with the hot porn stars from all these studios; it’s nasty but someone has to do it.