You read their scribblings, but what do those Making Music contributors of ours really do? Well, we thought we'd tell you about some of them. Like keyboard reviewer, Alastair Gavin, who has been gigging with Working Week recently, playing support to that Gabriel bloke over in Germany...

at the time of writing, hi-fi persons Sony had put in a bid to buy CBS Records. If they succeed, Sony will be able to use CBS product to encourage the sales of DAT tapes and recorders, which will effectively stifle the record companies' attempts to add a 'spoiler' code to CD releases. Trade journal editor David Dalton also pointed out that "some practices considered standard in the music business are likely to appear distinctly odd to hard-nosed hardware manufacturers." Bang goes the four hour lunch break for CBS employees...

after his Chicago concert, L. Rick Clapton was spotted jamming with Phil Collins, Robert Cray, James Cotton, Sugar Blue, and Buddy Guy, at one of the latter's club gigs....

Mr Gallagher's Bottlenecks (one of them, anyway) are made for him by a German brain surgeon, whom he met through a mutual friend in Clannad...

one of the tracks on the CD single from the 'new' Pink Floyd LP is a special lead guitarless mix of "Terminal Frost", so that rich gits can play at being Dave Gilmour in the safety of their own home...

Ben (Globestyle) Mandelson's "twin brother" has been spotted in the 3 Mustaphas 3...

we're sorry to report the murder of reggae star Peter Tosh. Tosh was a member of The Wailers with Bob Marley, and an uncompromisingly political musician in his later solo career. Although he's probably best known here for his great version of The Temptations' "Don't Look Back", recorded with Mick Jagger, he made numerous outstanding LPs, including 'Legalize It', and 'Mama Africa'...

wind synth reviewer John L. Walters was actually the cover star of another magazine last month...

someone we know recently bought a Fender bass that had belonged to John Entwistle, part of his collection that's being sold off by the Bass Centre in Wapping. Said person was subsequently delighted to receive a lengthy letter from the Ox detailing the bass' history — where it had come from, what gigs it had been played on — wishing him well with it. Nice gesture...

Andy Duncan has been percussing widely, on George Michael's new album amongst others...

Semie Moseley, the man behind Mosrite guitars, is up and sawing again. He's making two brand new Mosrites, versions of the Ventures and Vibramute models, which will be available in limited numbers. Just as well, as the only person we can think of who uses Mosrites these days is Johnny Ramone, shortly to visit these shores himself...

thanks to Lars-Erik Mattson for sending us a copy of his band's single. Eternity come from Finland, and have a singer called Thor Hammer. Unfortunately, Thor's voice is distinctly ungod-like...

Keef Richards has signed a solo deal with Virgin...

what with Squeeze being in the mag, perhaps we should mention that J. Holland's younger identical twin brothers Chris & Ricky have got a single out on IRS with singist Lisa Covington. They're called Twinset & Pearls, and the record is "While The Going's Good"...

WH Smith's and Our Price Records account for almost 25 per cent of sales of recorded music in the UK...

Gang Of One Andy Gill (see Unnatural Axe) was asked to audition for Mick Jagger last year. He turned up at a certain King's Cross rehearsal studio to be greeted by the sight of El Jagger, Omar Hakim, and Jeff Beck. "Do you know 'Miss You'?" questioned a fairly friendly Mr J. "No," returned our hero. "Aw you must — it's just Am, D, etc," returned Jagger. "One, two, three, four," began Mr Hakim. "Sometimes your fingers don't let you down," a relieved and rather proud Andy explained. "And I managed to squeeze Jeff Beck out of a solo." Mr Beck, apparently, was rather "snooty"...

Guitar Guru Paul Day got married (cf Peggy Sue?)...

royalty fans will be pleased to hear that new Virgin, signing The Cross list amongst their members bassist Peter Noone (probably not the Herman's Hermit), keyboard player Spike Edney (more usually seen with Queen), and vocalist/rhythm guitarist Roger Taylor. Mr Taylor is better known for hitting things in another group...

and while we're on the subject of what our freelancers do in their spare time. Drumhumming Geoff Nicholls has been helping his wife Jill have a baby...

baroque rocker Yngwie Malmsteen was unfortunately in a road accident in California recently. The car got seriously stuffed, but ol' unpronounceable is OK, and is back to working on his new LP...

audiences at Stevie Wonder's recent Wembley gigs will have noticed the huge revolving stage. What they might not have noticed were the Walkman style headphones all the band were using — no, not because they were bored with the music (apparently they hadn't played together for eight months before the tour). The headphones were for the foldback, which was being transmitted from two FM aerials on either side of the stage. Stevie himself had a separate FM channel, over which the two Synclavier operators under the stage could keep him informed as to which discs were loaded. Next time he plays, take your radio along...

this month sees the release of the first five Virgin Video Biographies, featuring The Bee Gees, Abba, Marc Bolan, The Kinks, and Rod Stewart. These hour long documentaries, which use solely archive footage, press cuttings, and memorabilia, have been researched by rock fact supremo John Tobler. "The best description I can give of them is as a video picture book," he says. "There won't be any narration, it will be 100 per cent music with captions to tell the story." The handsomely bearded Tobler has done his best to make the tapes as comprehensive as possible, with full discographies et al. For £9.95 a piece, we're convinced...

Mr McCartney, apart from writing songs with the living Elvis, was spotted jamming with Pirate Mick Green at the Buddy Holly Anniversary party...

Adrian Legg has written and is playing a piece of music for the Ballet Rambert's recent 'Collaboration V,' and is preparing to play a gig at the London Town & Country Club with legendary' US guitarist John Fahey on October 6th...

further to our Equinox TV show story, we're told that Jerry Donahue used to work at Selmer's in Charing Cross Road. Rory Gallagher says that on seeing Mr D playing, "Humble me had to go off and cry"...

are word processor heroes Amstrad about to launch a budget portastudio? Two Status Series II basses have gone missing (serial nos 330 and 333). Ring (Contact Details) if spotted. And nobody knows what Ben Duncan's been doing (not even Ben)...