Fender Soundhouse in London's Tottenham Court Road was temporarily a madhouse on the 13th March, when hordes of Bay City Rollers fans gathered to watch their idols present a Fender Stratocaster to Gary Fitt of Scarborough, Yorkshire.

Fitt won the Strat in a competition sponsored by The Sun, in conjunction with CBS/Arbiter and the Rollers. He told I.M. that "I don't play guitar, but I certainly am going to learn now" The Stratocaster was a natural wood model, and was autographed by all the Bay City Rollers.

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A Ludwig 400 snare drum cost £88.72 in February, it now costs £70.65. The reason for this is that Rose-Morris have recently acquired the Ludwig U.K. Agency.

With The collapse of John E. Dallas & Sons (reported in I.M. last month), the franchise for one of the world's finest percussion ranges was up for grabs.

The deal was signed on the last day of the Frankfurt Trade Fair last month by Bill Ludwig, President of Ludwig Industries, and Roy Morris, Chairman and Managing Director of Rose-Morris.

Bob Wilson of Rose-Morris told our reporter that "We will be pulling out all the stops to guarantee delivery of Ludwig drums and kits to our customers.

"We will not only supply the whole range of Ludwig drums, but for the first time, we will be offering the entire range of Ludwig percussion instruments in this country".

Perhaps the most astonishing repercussion of Rose-Morris' acquisition of the Ludwig franchise is the drop in prices that it will mean to the customer.

Wilson added that "Ludwig's Supra-Phonic snare drum, model 400, which formerly retailed for £88.72 will now sell for £70.65". The reductions will literally affect every Ludwig product. The Ludwig Super Classic Kit, model 980, which previously retailed for £460.35 will now sell for £429.75.

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Zoot Horn have announced that their new 10 into 4 recording console, which attracted a great deal of attention among U.K. dealers at Frankfurt, will soon be available in this country. Brian Hawkins of Zoot stated that the "10 into 4 will be retailing for around £895 plus VAT. We hadn't really anticipated a great deal of attention from British representatives at an export fair, but the interest certainly was there".

Zoot are doing their utmost to ensure immediate delivery of the console.

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Moog Synthesisers are now distributed in the U.K. by Henri Selmer & Co. The deal for the U.K. Agency was agreed in Frankfurt following the collapse of Moog's previous U.K. distributors, John E. Dallas. In addition, Selmer have also managed to make an agreement to market the Japanese made Pearl percussion range in this country.

Moog is a unique and valuable agency in the U.K.'s expanding synthesiser market as the instrument bears the name of the synthesiser's pioneer, Dr. Robert Moog.

Pearl drums have already found favour with some drummers here and the range has two centres, one professional around £300 for a basic kit, the other at £184.

Peter Pulham of Selmer's told International Musician "We're naturally delighted at our new agencies, we aim to make both Moog and Pearl more readily available to British Musicians".

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Three New Gibson guitars were introduced at the Frankfurt Trade Fair. They are the Grabber Bass, The Marauder guitar and the Flying V guitar.

The Grabber Bass guitar features a sliding pick-up which offers an extremely wide range of tonal effects. Only Dan Armstrong guitars were previously available with this feature. The pick-up is Super Humbucking.

The Marauder is a two pickup instrument which combines one Super Humbucker and with a new pick-up about which Gibson are saying little.

The Flying V is a re-introduction of the rare instrument that Gibson produced a few years ago. Gibson guitars are distributed in the U.K. by Henri Selmer & Co.

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3M have introduced a new studio master tape known as Scotch 250. The tape is claimed to offer a 4dB improvement in signal-to-noise ratio over the popular Scotch 206 tape. This is the result of a new higher coercivity oxide formulation.

Equalisation time for setting up with Scotch 250 is claimed to be very quick and the tape is available in 2 in., 1 in., ½ in., and ¼ in., widths.

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International Musician and Beyer Dynamic are sponsoring the International Club Singer of the Year Competition. Beyer Dynamic initiated the competition offering a superb engraved studio microphone as first prize, and I.M. is proud to add a recording test to the list of prizes being assembled.

The growing club circuit is producing first-class bands and singers and all vocalists, with or without bands, are invited to enter. Lead singers in groups will also be eligible. The finals will be held during the National Club Exhibition in Bellevue, Manchester during September.

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Claude Venet is offering ten percent discount to all Readers of International Musician starting from April 1 and running until the end of the month. If you take this issue with you to his shop at 64 Queen's Road, Watford, Herts., Claude will make sure that you get a ten percent reduction off the advertised prices of all items in his shop.

The lines Claude sells include MI amplification, Gibson, Fender, JBL, Altec, Sunn, Acoustic, Peavey, Rickenbacker, Guild, Ludwig and Marshall.

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Macinnes Laboratories are fielding their well known motor racing team again this season. The Alfa Romeo Alfetta saloon is painted in the team colours of mauve and orange. Also sponsoring the car are High Liner Seafoods, Kaiser Photographic and Camera User Magazine. The car will be competing in the Radio One Production Saloon Championship.

A new Van Dieman RF75 will be raced in the Southern Organs Formula Ford Championship.

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A new 50 watt P.A. system in the economically priced Hawk amplification range was shown at the Frankfurt Fair.

Hawk amplifiers are distributed in the U.K. by Boosey and Hawkes and the new P.A. system has three channels, each with independent volume, treble and bass sliders as well as individual rotary reverb controls. Two options on speaker columns are available. The first is fitted with 2 x 100 in speaker handling 30 watts per column, the second has a single 12 in unit per column capable of handling 50 watts each.

Also introduced is a Hawk Clubman disco system which combines a disco deck and 50 watt amp and columns.

Last new Hawk item is the Firehawk 30 watt guitar combo. The amp features a new idea in cabinet covering, a spray-on 2mm fibre optic material which Hawk claim is more durable than traditional coverings. Also novel is a control described as "punch" which produces a biting over-load sound.