...with the announcement that Sharp and Sanyo are now selling S-DAT digital cassette recorders in Japan, the digital portastudio gets one step closer. The R-DAT machines now appearing in the UK use a rotating playback head akin to a domestic video recorder; S-DAT players have static heads more like conventional tape machines, which (theoretically) means it's easier to align the four fiddly bits necessary for 4-track recording...

Cherry Red claim that Tracey Thorn's "A Distant Shore" album only cost £138 to record, which makes it the cheapest CD release to date. Doesn't mean she can sing in tune though...

we're sorry to have to report that Egypt Guitars of Glasgow have gone bust...

the music at Bishop Of Rock Jim Marshall's anniversary party was provided by the Ray McVeigh Dance Band, and vibes player Alan Randell. We hope they used the right sort of amplification...

The Cure have a new keyboardist in Roger O'Donell previously of the Psychedelic Furs. He's joined so that Porl can take over the parts that Robert won't be doing now that he's decided to sing without his guitar. "It makes me sing better, and perform better. And I like to see what's going on, without being tied to the spot by a mike stand," Robert says...

China Crisis' Eddie Lundon recently produced a one song demo for fellow Liverpuddles Jo Jo & The Real People, which was sufficiently good to land them in Polydor's lap. So who do you know?...

what does this say about nostalgia? The four BBC "Rock & Roll Years" LPs we writted about last munf entered the charts at the end of June, in the following order: at number 84 was "1960-63", at 80 was "1956-59", at 77 came "1968-71", while the highest entry was the "1964-67" record at number 71. Historical favouritism, or what? Can we just say we prefer "nostalgia for an age yet to come" (spot the quote)?...

Virgin Records' press office claims that half the replies to a poster offer on Suicidal Tendencies' "Join The Army" album came from soldiers. And that "a fair number of them" were from soldiers in psychiatric wards at camp hospitals. And if they say it's true...

Mr Bev Bevan, formerly of ELO, though now in a camp psychiatr — er, Black Sabbath, has just taken it upon himself to endorse Premier drums. Which means in his case a white Resonator kit with four rack toms, two floor toms, a 9in Heavy Rock Nine brass snare, a 6in Project One wood shell snare, and ProLock hardware...

charming chap and Greek food fan Rory Gallagher has a new album out this month, by the name of "Defender". When our roving correspondent bumped (literally) into Mr G, the latter mentioned minor problems with the cut, though he was generally pleased with the music. Unfortunately our reporter was too drunk to remember anything else Rory said...

The Royal Academy Of Music is said to be modernising its curriculum. "Should we carry on building Model T Fords," administrator John Bliss told The Times, "when what is needed are turbo-charged Granadas?" Does this mean that in future Radio One sunstrips, whiplash aerials, and fuzzy dice will be required fitting for all cellos, and that courses in jazz-funk will be on offer?

...clumsy chaps Dr & The Medics mislaid some of the master tapes for their new LP, which means it will only be a single album, and not a double. Did I hear a sigh of relief at the back there?

...thank you to the nice chaps who sent us a demo encased in a pack of Vegeburgers. The parcel was posted in April. We opened it on a particularly warm July day. Messrs Bacon and Colbert soon had the Vegeburgers cornered behind a filing cabinet, but it took 40 minutes for Rentokil to arrive and put them out of our misery. Unfortunately they'd eaten the cassette, so we don't know who the band was. If it was you, DON'T DO IT AGAIN...

Siouxsie & The Banshees now have five members for the first time in their ten year career. New guys are John Klein from Specimen on guitar, and Martin McCarrick of Marc Almond's Willing Sinners on keyboards, and they both played on the Banshees' new single 'Song From The Edge Of The World'. They're off to tour the US in August, and should start recording a new LP in the autumn...

there's a new Hendrix album out. "Live At Winterland" was recorded in October 1968, and contains two LPs of stuff. It seems that only three of the songs haven't been available in these versions before, and there's only one previously unreleased song, a rendition of Cream's 'Sunshine Of Your Love'...

on June 18th Sony made their 30 millionth Walkman, two weeks before its eighth anniversary...

Jazzers will be staying in on Tuesday nights at 10.50 for the next few weeks if they know what's good for them, because that's when the giant jazzer-eating monster goes out for his supper. Well, actually they should stay home because C4 are running a series of documentaries on such famous plonking and tooting types as M. Davis, S. Rollins, A. Blakey, C. Mingus, O. Coleman, and A. Ayler...

anyone for tape levy? Legislation announced in the Queen's Speech has confirmed the government's commitment to a 10 per cent home taping levy. Also mentioned was the possible abolition of the statutory royalty — a proposal that the BPI suggests "should form the subject of fruitful discussions between the record companies and music publishers." We can picture the scene: "Well, Mr Bastard, you don't have to pay those nasty scummy little pop singers on your label any money at all now." "And Mammon Publishing can rewrite all those expensive little contracts, Mr Thief." Take care, persons. The new Copyright Bill should make it onto the Statute book sometime this year...

we had a friendly call from a Mr Baxendale re last month's Demology. We reviewed a band called Cut The Wire, and it seems that Mr B already owns that name. While we understand that pop groups' names aren't strictly speaking reservable, in this case Mr B probably has first call on the name as his Cut The Wire have actually formed themselves into a limited company registered as such...

when Can-U-Music'e shop in Luton collapsed recently (due to some over-enthusiastic excavation work next door), most people were sympathetic to manager Paul Gittings, who lost not only his shop, but his flat. However, some unscrupulous swine blagged the Daily Mirror into believing he'd lost £5000 of gear in the wreckage, and they printed the story. Paul's written to us to say it's not true — the most anybody lost was £750, and anyone who had gear damaged will be reimbursed by Paul's insurance company. Good luck to the man, and we hope he's open again soon.