Welcome to the Smoke BMF special. We seem to have spent most of our waking hours over the last month either in Olympia, or talking about it. Talking about rumours that the British Music Fair is to run for two weeks next year. That was a wind-up. However, they are digging up the National Hall next summer, so a change of venue is a possibility... another rumour involves purchase of a British drum maker by a big Japanese firm. unofficially, we've been told that Yamaha and Premier are drawing up an agreement. What now for the popular and respected range of Premier products?...

distributor Doug Chandler has already sold the £1,314 Paul Reed Smith guitar we reviewed last month. "I want a PRS guitar that's identical to Gary Moore's," a female voice said to him over the telephone. Doug affirmed he had one in stock, and asked when the lady might be coming to examine the instrument. "Oh, I don't want to look at it," she said, "I'm buying it for my boyfriend's birthday. Do you take Barclaycard?"...

down at the old BMF this year was three quarters of Siouxsie & The Banshees, preparing to play with Bowie in America. Cozy Powell was there, Leo Sayer (twice), Nigel Twist from The Alarm... The Beatles are suing Nike over the use of 'Revolution' in an ad... while ace guitarist Jerry Donahue was hanging out on the Making Music stand at the BMF, he told us about picking the wood for a Strat that the Fender custom workshop is making for him. He's gone for a '56 design, with a very handsome piece of birdseye maple for the neck. He's going to let us know how it turns out...

enquirers after guitar maker John Birch will (probably) be pleased to hear he is planning a comeback with a range of new super pickups...

also spotted lounging in 'lympia were Mark Kelly and Steve Rothery from Marillion (the latter looking just like he did on our cover), Jeff and Rhino from Status Quo, and Kimberley Rew of Katrina & The Waves looking at the Groove Tube pre-amp in the Alternative Show. Someone said Rick Parfitt was there, but he was actually in Spain, waiting for the others to arrive...

Neil Murray was at the BMF, telling us of his new projects MGM and Bow Wow. Not to mention playing with the Stiff All-Stars at his brother Andy's birthday party...

that white Strat on last month's cover was actually Jon 'more guitars than sense' Lewin's. Mr Rothery was in town shopping the day he visited the photographer's studio, and asked to borrow an axe, rather than bring his own...

Midge Ure visited Olympia, partly to have a look around, but also to help judge the Yamaha/BMF band competition with Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden. Midge has been working on a new solo LP in his home studio, as featured in Tomorrow's World...

Akai means 'red' in Japanese...

old pal David Sinclair cocked up heartily in his review of The Beach Boys in The Times. Brian Wilson was described as "standing diffidently to one side, strumming a guitar"; yeah, 6000 miles to one side. Brian had stayed in California. Take your glasses next time, Dave...

another visitor to the Making Music emporium was the former Saxon drummist Nigel Glockler — yes, after some internal squabbling the blond one has gone orf to set up shop with GTR, who are signed to Arista...

why was Roy Harper at the BMF?...

top demonstrator John Entwistle managed to destroy a Seymour Duncan bass stack at one BMF party. The 600W head had been quite happily driving a single 150W cab, until Mr E got up to play. He ran his hand along the knobs turning them all up full, played a note and PFFFT. His bass eventually went through a dual channel guitar combo, with the overdrive turned up full. That survived...

Alan Holdsworth is a connoisseur of home-brewed beer...

strangest request we had from a reader at the Music Fair was for a signed copy of Making Music. Signed by the editorial team, that is. Aw shucks, and your workmates better stop taking the piss now, Robert Apleton of Forley Printing. A noble fellow (ahem)...

Dieter Meier of Yello called Phonogram to thank them for the new records they'd sent. "I liked most of zem," he said, Swiss accent akimbo, "especially ze Gay Bakers On Acid." He was apparently most disappointed to hear they were really Gaye Bykers...

light metal (tinny?) band Jagged Edge briefly overheard at a TOA demo. The PA was clear enough for Smoke to make out "We belong, belong to the night/So let me give you a love bite". Poetry, or what?...

Carl Palmer was spotted in the exhibitors' bar at the BMF, reading Making Music. Nicko McBrain wasn't so lucky, though he was there on the Premier stand...

long-haired and fingered Kraut prog-rocker Uli Jon Roth has ordered a scalloped fingerboard guitar from Hugh Manson...

the third volume of Julian Colbeck's ace keyboard review book, Keyfax, is due out next April...

BMF demoes of Sonor's very heavy, very expensive (£900), very loud brass snare drew comments from passers by — while it was inside the sound booth. The first one they sold was to the drummer with well-known megadeath volume merchants, the James Last Orchestra...

regular correspondents will appreciate that Demon Records' mailing to Mayking Music, 20 Boiling Green Land, is not quite correct...

top slidey guitarist B J Cole was at the Music Fair looking for the first MIDI'd steel...

Edwyn Collins had a falling out with producer and Cocteau Robin Guthrie while they were recording 'Don't Shilly Shally' together. "I wanted to use a stylophone on the B-side, and Robin was horrified — he didn't want to be associated with that. We compromised — I used it, and he changed the sound"...

the Housemartins' ex-drummer is 'helping out' another Hull group, called The Gargoyles. Highlight of their set is 'Ferry Across The Humber'...

most requested interview at the moment is Queen. Well, we asked, and it seems Bri is busy with someone called Anteater Dobson. Deaky's "a bit quiet" (well, he is a bass player), and Roger Taylor is working with a new group. Sir Frederick, however, has two solo records in the offing — the first is a rock album pursuing the 'Great Pretender' idea, while the other record is a series of opera duets with Montserrat Cabelle, under the collective title of "Barcelona" — a tune which stands a good chance of making it as the official theme for the next Olympics, apparently...

Ozzy Osbourne did a gig in Wormwood Scrubs recently. No, that's not funny...

winners of the Yamaha/BMF Band Competition were a melodic metal band from Liverpool called The Quest. We didn't like all the tempo changes they crammed into the one song they played, but the singer was good, and Tony says they should go down a storm in Japan, which is just as well as their prize, apart from loads of gear, is a trip to Tokyo to take part in the International Final on November 1st...

Ted Nugent claims that using Gallien Krueger amps gave him a guitar sound that "increased the petroleum productivity and the sperm count for a 26 mile radius"...

Mark Brzezicki tells us that Big Country have just signed to Warner Brothers in the USA. This follows a lengthy series of hassles which were partly responsible for the cancellation of the group's last tour there. As part of this new deal, BC will be going into a studio in LA in a month's time to record their new LP. Historical point — Mark was "knocked out" to be Number One drummer in our Readers' poll earlier this year, and has a framed copy on his wall...