It's a hard life trying to be lighthearted, humorous, funny, call it what you will. It's very easy to upset people unintentionally, give people the wrong idea, or otherwise make a fool of yourself. And while we do like to try and put a bit of fun into the music business, we'd be the first to admit that sometimes things don't turn out quite right. Hopefully our successes outweigh our failures.

So multiple apologies are due to the Rich Kids manager, Pete Walmsley, who rang up recently to bend my ear, and to the band themselves, for perhaps giving the wrong impression in our piece last month. In our article, we referred back to our January Rhythm Section piece and invited readers to win a free copy of the Kids current album, gHOSTS oF pRINCES iN tOWERS. We couldn't think of a good idea for a competition at the time, but we wanted to offer you the albums, so we just asked you to think up a good idea for the competition that we should have thought up ourselves. The best 15 replies (in less than 100 words) would win a copy of the album.

That was the essence, but the way we wrote it could be taken in the wrong way. We were not interested in cynical bullshit (and we haven't received any, by the way); we were interested in honest replies (that doesn't disallow funny ones, please note) from people who'd actually like to get a free Rich Kids album.

So here's our solution. The competition will remain open for a further month — closing date is now May 4 (UK) or June 1 (abroad) — all you have to do is think of a good idea for a competition; best 15 entries get an album; top entry gets a fiver ($10) and publication — that's the new bit. Cynics end up in the waste-bin.

Meanwhile, Glen Matlock of the Rich Kids is playing as guest bassist on Iggy Pop's current UK/European tour, this month and next, and Rusty Egan, the other half of the dynamic duo we interviewed in January, has been spending some time with Kraftwerk in Germany, including some mucking about in their studio. What we don't know as yet is what will come out of it, but it certainly sounds interesting.