With the ripples from the British Music Fair still spreading through the music industry, the promoters of the 1987 Guitar Weekend at the Barbican are already plugging for space — but since it's not on until the 27-29th of November, they'll have to wait... just like anyone who tried to join Casio's MIDI Users' Club at the BMF. All the forms were stolen from the show (vicious crime), leaving Casio with no record of who applied, which explains why no-one's had their membership cards yet. Could anyone who's interested in joining the Casio MIDI Users' Club (again) please contact Bobby Kaur at Casio, (Contact Details)... Syco (Contact Details) have announced that they are now exclusive London agents for the Stepp DGX MIDI guitar controller... that nice Mr Vesta has taken time off from his tv dinners to tell us about the new £360 Vesta Fire MR10 PRO, a double speed version of the budget MR10 portastudio we reviewed in our first ever issue. "It's the lowest priced double speed recorder on the market," says Mr Vesta. He also gave us some details on the mucho cheap Vesta fire footpedals he's cooked up. A compressor for £42, overdrive and distortion, both with three band EQ for a quid more, stereo chorus for £63, digital chorus/flange for a mere £89, and a 1024 mS digital delay, with top end of 15kHz, plus modulation, for only £99. Which is very good value...

After the re-introduction of Ampeg into the UK a month or so back, Kingfisher Music of Fleet in Hampshire (Contact Details) are bringing in Amplified Music Product bass amps. The more rigorous acronymicists amongst you will hiply ask for either the AMP BH260 or BH420 amplifier heads, at £525 and £635 respectively. Older bassists might spot a similarity between AMP amps and Acoustic gear — AMP is run by Roger Smith, formerly of the latter firm, Kingfisher are hoping to offer AMP products to other dealers around the country... if you're up for paying £500+ for a bass head, you'll probably want to know about Goodfellow bass guitars. Handcrafted by Bernie Goodfellow in south London's historic Rotherhithe, these superbly finished instruments come in a selection of high quality woods, with parts by Kent Armstrong and Schaller, as well as BG himself. Prices range from £1,240 down to just over £900, and Famous Users already include Graham Gouldman and Nic from Curiosity Killed The Cat. More stuff on (Contact Details)... Heart Guitars, who have been hacking the old wood about for a year now, have also launched some new handmade guitars and basses — scooped double cutaway bodies, angular headstocks, no headstocks at all, fine wood finishes, and a price of between £600 and £1,000... perusers of Making Music who purloin their print in the preliminary part of the er, month, will have time to attend the "drum event of the decade", the next 'Tama Days', which take place on October 3rd in the Usher Hall, Edinburgh (2.30pm), and in Fairfield Halls, Croydon, at the same time on the 4th. What makes these occasions so auspicious is the presence of his loudness, The Billy Cobham, and the honourable Mel Gaynor. Tickets are £3.50 from the box offices...

Pop'lar stringy things at the BMF now out and about are the new Superwound Starfire RT sets. These were developed by Hugh Manson and James How Industries — RT stands for 'reinforced twists', an original way of strengthening the plain strings against injudicious wanging... Laney are now making 50w and 100W switchable channel amplifier heads (£165 and £191, respectively), with matching Marshall stack-type cabs (£162). The advantage of the cabs is their size — they contain 2x12s mounted diagonally, which means they're smaller and lighter than (though not as loud as) Jimbob's originals... Premier's new legless hit-hat is now in production. The twin spring stand clamps onto the bass drum hoops in two different positions, and the footplate is fully adjustable. WE make no jokes about alcohol, and mention the price — £85...

Baz and Lloyd, those cheeky chappies from Simmons, are out on the road for another workshop tour, with an SDS9, MTX9, SDS1000M, SDE, and the newish SPM8:2 mixer in the back of the transit. There'll be opportunity for discussion during their show, plus prizes, and the chance to enter a draw for an SDS1000M. Lloyd hints that there might even be a chance to hear the SDX megamachine, (which should be in the shops this month, by the way). Dates for the tour are as follows: Belfast, Session Music, October 6th; Dublin, Music Maker, 7th; Wigan, Dawsons, 12th; Warrington, Dawsons, 13th; Chester, Dawsons, 14th; York, Network, 15th; Doncaster, Electro, 19th; Newcastle, Rock City, 20th; Glasgow, McCormacks, 21st; Blackpool Sound Centre 22nd; Romford, Monkey Business, 26th; London, Rose Morris, 28th; Warrington, Music Show, Racecourse, 29th — Nov 1st; Birmingham, Jones & Crossland, 2nd; Manchester, A1m 3rd; pause for breath; Newport, Gwent Music, 4th; Mansfield, Carlsbro, 9th; Sheffield, Carlsbro, 10th; Leicester, Carlsbro, 11th; Rugby, Supersonic, 12th; Bristol, Drum Cellar, 17th; Swindon, John Holmes, 18th; Cambridge, Music Village, 24th; Streatham, Gigsounds, 26th; Brighton, Future Music, 30th; Southampton, Future Music, Dec 1st; Bournemouth, Eddie Moore's, 2nd; Truro, Modern Music, 3rd; Guildford, Andertons, 8th; Croydon, Rockbottom, 10th; and Fleet, Kingfisher, 15th. Phew.

Celestion's innovatory new SR1 compact PA (it looks like a prop from Doctor Who) done the business at the Peterborough Country Music Festical, as sidefills in the big stage, and main PA in the outdoor arena... the new DOD PDS8000 digital delay/sampler bungs a whole eight seconds of sound into a double footpedal sized box, and then sells itself at £250. A whole 8 seconds, with a top ends frequency response of 7kHz...

We've had confirmation of the BMF rumour that Yamaha have got engaged to Premier, giving the Japanese a percussion manufacturing base in Europe. Premier will continue to operate as an autonomous company, and — at the moment — no change in either firm's product lines is expected... our correspondent Yuki Saito has telexed us with news of product hot off the Japanese production lines: the Technics SM-PS50, a MIDI PCM sound module; the Ensoniq SPM-1, a sampled piano module with at least 13 keyboard sounds; a reissued Mustang from Fender Japan; revised guitar and bass models from Ibanez and Aria; the PS2 Digital Pitch Shifter/Delay footpedal from Boss, and two Ibanez foot pedals, including the 'Bass Stack.' No details, no potential relese dates... Scintilla Technology have announced a low priced foot operated lighting controller for the "serious musician." Tootsy, as the box is named, will switch between preselected programmes, automatic progs, eight chase patterns, sound-activated chase, and darkness. £200 or so to you, but doesn't include lights... a brief plug for Dave Howson of GRP Products, who has taken it upon himself to produce strong, light fibre glass flight cases for musical instruments. Any size or shape can be accommodated, from double bass down. Anyone with an aversion to lugging tons of aluminium to every gig should contact GRP at (Contact Details)...

Also out in the country is Evenlode Soundworks, which held its opening last month. A shambles of music business people congregated at The Studio, in Stonesfield, near Oxford, to eat sandwiches, drink drink, and watch demonstrations of hi-tech gear: like Steinberg software for the Atari ST 'puter, JL (nice initials) Cooper MIDI controllers, including the MidiMation mixer automation system, the PPS-1 (Poor Person's SMPTE) for £199 — ideal for use with the Atari, and two Midi Matrices, the MSB 16/20, and the MSB Plus. Also on show was the eight channel digital drum brain, the Ddrum 2 from Clavia Digital Instruments in Sweden. This has one megabyte of internal memory, plus another six on cartridge, all of which are subject to the Ddrum 2's algorithm sample manipulation. High quality, and natural sounds were in evidence. Finally, the useful sounding Passac Sentient Six guitar MIDI bridge and rack mounted controller, all the way from Australia. They claim their new software has eliminated delay problems, and the demo certainly sounded impressive. The controller is built into a Kahler bridge system, and offers new features such as determination of where the string is picked, and which way the plectrum is travelling. This information can be used to send MIDI message functions, such as stereo pan for up and down strokes. This should be available around Christmas, for under £1,000...

Meanwhile t'editor was off at the '87 Light and Sound show to see how the other half gets down on it. The annual four day expo is aimed at Britain's disco industry and was located at Hammersmith's Novotel from September 6 to 9. It made the British Music Fair look like a classical concert. What you got was thudding disco stacks (and therefore music), more lights than an airport, and enough smoke and dry ice generators to fill the entire hall to the ceiling by lunchtime. Impressive, if a little alien. Apparently business was good — then again it was primarily a trade show — and next year's wil be larger still. Very big in Italy is disco, so they say...