...did you spot a poster on the wall of Andy Kershaw's flat in our Country feature last month? It's for the gig that Hank Williams never played, on New Year's Day 1953. He died in the back of the car on the way there...

talking of hair: New From Wella — 'Hard Rock Mousse', says a recent ad. Bizarre, eh? Whatever happened to the Style Council then, Paul?...

talking of Mr C, Roy Orbison refers to him as Costello, to differentiate him from the other Elvis, as Roy knew the other one a bit. Orbison's latest comeback has involved him writing with Costello, Springsteen, Tom Petty, and others...

Chris Taylor, who took our cover shot of Courtney Pine last month, ran the London marathon in aid of Sport For The Disabled. Even though he was completely unpractised in the ancient torture of running, Chris finished the course in four and a half hours...

David Bowie's upcoming June Rotterdam gigs are reputed to be the fastest selling ever. All of the 100,000 tickets for the two shows at the Feyenoord Stadium sold out (via 132 outlets) within the space of an hour...

it's been reported that the Bruce Springsteen live boxed set has become possibly the biggest overstock in the history of record retailing. Heavy sales at Christmas led lots of record shops to re-order large amounts of Brucey product, only to find this expensive aural luxury then stiffed out completely, leaving them with mountains of unsaleable vinyl. "And CBS aren't taking returns," they squealed unhappily...

if Eric of noisy group Head Of David could be any character in Crossroads, he'd be the swimming pool...

talking of Virgin, you may possibly have heard about Richard Branson's plans to cross the Atlantic in a balloon. Well, not only was the man featured in an hour long documentary on ITV on May 26th, but the theme tune for said prog, 'In High Places' was by Mike Oldfield, who just so happens to be a Virgin artiste, and it just happens to be out now on Virgin Records. So get down to Our Price and buy one. Or not...

after the appearance of Pig Dog on the Guana Batz LP sleeve, and Mr Woolley's copulating Captain in The Archers, Jessie Rae is featured in the NME with Thistle and Tractor; it's now official — Staffordshire Bull Terriers are the number one rock & roll dog...

spotted in a recent Musicians Wanted ad: 'Magnetic Fish Pond (the band) require weird young musicians'...

Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello have been heard in LA playing songs by Chuck Berry, Grandmaster Flash, the Grateful Dead, and even Prince ('Sign Of The Times')...

white harmonica wizard Paul Butterfield has died, aged 44. He grew up in Chicago amongst the original bluesmen, and learnt his trade from the likes of Howlin' Wolf and Little Walter. In the sixties, he led the Butterfield Blues Band, with players like Elvin Bishop and the late Mike Bloomfield (one of Lewin's faves); they were Dylan's backing band when he went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Butterfield had been ill for some time, but will still be sadly missed. Coincidentally, the stupendous Indian influenced "East/West" from 1966 has just been rereleased on Edsel. Two months after Lewin paid £12 for a secondhand copy...

Simple Minds' drummer Mel Gaynor once played with Samson...

it is rumoured that the only time that all the members of Fleetwood Mac met during the making of their new LP was at the photo session...

our thanks to Metal Leg, a new Steely Dan fanzine, for transcribing a 1977 US radio interview, wherein Walter Becker is asked, "So you guys are fresh out of a gruelling year in the studio, right?" He replied, "Well, I wouldn't call it fresh and I wouldn't call it out, but like Voltaire said of the Holy Roman Empire, it's neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire, so you're right in all respects." More clever ways of saying no next month...

music for the new Pepe jeans TV ads is by Troublefunk and The The, neither of whom are being paid for the use...

why does handsome dude Dwight Yoakam (new LP, "Hillbilly Deluxe" out now) wear a hat all the time? Because he's got "hair trouble", that's why...

new CD releases from those ubiquitous Virgins include old stuff from Eno and Captain Beefheart, and a new 70 minute 14-track best of Magazine called "Rays & Hail", compiled by Howard Devoto. Poorer mortals will have to wait to see if it comes out on plastic...

terribly brilliant and inventive New York performance art (remember performance art?) person Laurie Anderson (remember 'O Superman'?) has a film opening at the ICA in London (and in 'art houses' around the country) on 12 June. It's called "Home Of The Brave", and was apparently "lensed" in New York part live and part in the studio, and features 18 Anderson compositions...

a quick plug for Cut, a new northern monthly music paper. It's produced in Edinburgh, costs 60p, and follows the general style of the weekly music press, only it's not written by incomprehensible neurotics. The 40 pages are packed with good, informative and entertaining stuff, and since we bought our copy in London EC1, it seems to be fairly widely available...

US mag Modern Drummer has just announced its Readers' Poll winners, who include Steve Smith (All-Around Drummer), Phil Collins (Pop/Mainstream Rock Drummer), Alex Van Halen (Hard Rock/Metal Drummer), and Greg Bissonette (D.L. Roth's band) for being Up And Coming. Stewart Copeland won something for being Multi Percussive, and Billy Cobham (a small village in Kent) got elected to the Hall Of Fame...

anyone who's been saving up for a Mitsubishi digital tape machine might be interested to hear of the company's new Diamond Finance, which will theoretically help clients arrange loans to pay for Mitsubishi gear. Any queries (or suggestions that this is only necessary because they're so bloody expensive in the first place) should be addressed to Adrian Bailey on (Contact Details)...

this year's Black Music Fair takes place at the Royal Festival Hall from June 19th-21st. There'll be guest speakers from music industry bodies and record companies, many of whom will be dealing with subjects of importance to all musicians. There'll also be live performances at the Fair, and in associated venues...

Nice calendar in May, wasn't it. But what were the guitars, you ask? An Ibanez solid from about 1966, a Yamaha SG3C (known as the Banana) from 1968, and a Tokai Humming Bird from around 1967. These three Nipponese black sheep came from the Paul Day Collection, snapped by Garth Blore.