"Torch Song's quasi Funk didn't impress us."
Adrian Deevoy's demo review (January)

"Sting... has been recording his first solo album at Guerilla Studios in North London. The studio reportedly belongs to song manufacturers Torch Song..."
Adrian Deevoy's Studio Diary

"...with Japan the thrill soon wore off. Too many fucking kimonos and chopsticks."
John Lydon (Jan)

"Well I don't think this area needs any introduction. Needless to say we have all the usual gear fitted onto the usual three ply white plastic scratchplate which all works in the usual manner. The actual pickups are of the usual design... and we have a five position pickup selector switch which, by today's standards is no longer any different."
Dave Burrluck excited by the uniqueness of a Strat copy's electrics (Jan)

"We're thinking of using plastic lobsters to trigger the Linn."
Larry Steinbachek, Bronski Beat (Oct)

"Who the hell is Nik Kershaw anyway?"
Tony Horkins (March)

"...she often does the vocal very well, very quickly. When she did the vocals for this album she was eight months pregnant, way out here. But I believe Brian Ferry is like that too."
Martin Chambers tells all about Ferry's pregnancy and The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde (Jan)

"I did Went Crazy completely in the nude... I think knowing you've done a vocal lying down or with your hand down your trousers just makes you feel that much better..."
Julian Cope on studio tricks (April)

"If we thought the sound of a jaws harp going through a wah-wah pedal and into a Marshall stack suited a particular song we'd use that..."
Dave Sharp, The Alarm (April)

"You only need majors with a couple of minors. There's no need for all those Roddy Frame chords."
Ian McCulloch of the Bunnymen (April)

"Popular? I'd like to see how bloody popular Boy George is; in the Kop on a Saturday afternoon. He'd be better off stopping on Saturday Superstore with all those little turds sitting on his knee."
Mac attacks again (April)

A friend of mine rang me up and asked me if I wanted to do a session. I only found out when I turned up that it was for Max Bygraves. I couldn't believe it, but he said, 'before you leave, he's making a Disco album — Discolongamax' — and I thought that it was so over the top that I've got to do it...
A miserable excuse from Paul Fishman, Re-Flex keyboardsman, IM reviewer and man of many parts, some of them embarrassing. (April)

"Providing you aren't more than ten years old and five foot tall I think we might have just the thing for you."
Bob Henrit (Jan) reviewing Remo PTS Junior kit

"My mother said to me the other day, 'Julian, do you ever meet people who take drugs.'"
Julian Cope (April)

"Jim started this bloody thing off and I'll keep it going if it kills me."
Martin Chambers (Pretenders) on Jim Honeyman Scott's death

"I think with a guitarist speed, accuracy and timing... it's probably the one weakness I've got."
Sarah-Jane Belle Star (Feb)

"When they say I'm a big nosed bastard who can't sing I'll say 'tell me something new. I know that.'"
Billy Bragg (Feb)

"I used to play in Etta James' band way back when I was black."
Billy Zoom, X (June)

"This new Bond... has little LEDs on the body to tell you the volume of the guitar... the fingerboard has ridges not metal frets."
Charlie Burchill, Simple Minds (Feb)

"It was the obvious thing after failing as a musician."
John Otway on gimmicky instruments and strange stage behaviour (March)

"I can't sing. It's something to do with the cavities in my body... no, honestly... ask Eric."
Vince Clarke (March)

"Jimmy Osmond is a very level-headed guy."
Tony Brainsby, Publicist (March)

"A little less than two years ago Roland introduced the world's most economic full function polyphonic synthesizer; the £799 Juno 6. Six months later they produced the Juno 60 with a similar range of facilities but with a memory giving 56 onboard patch programmes: price, £1,199. Now the Juno 106 costs the same as a Juno 6 and has twice the memory of a Juno 60 plus MIDI. And that's progress."
(May)

"This is an acoustic chair..."
News story (May)

"We've invented a new concept for bands — the TV tour."
Roy Hay, Culture Club (May)

"The DX7 utilises a totally new concept in synthesis patented by Yamaha called FM (frequency modulation) synthesis."
Paul Fishman (March)

"What's more you can walk through the rain with a Van Halen solo on your headset and I can guarantee you won't get wet."
Stewart Jalley (May)

"Synths won't go away that quickly. They've become part of the Pop foundation now."
Phil Oakey (Human League) July

"We're not just puppets of Trevor (Horn) and his machines. If that were the case he'd do it himself and take all the money."
Frankie Goes to Hollywood (Oct)

"Sooty is not exactly renowned for his sonic output, nor Sweep for his musicality..."
Jim Betteridge visits Sooty's home recording studio (May)

"'Plink, plonk, plink, plonk, pling, plonk. Remember that one?' Course you do."
Pete Picton interviews Shakatak (Dec)

"Our job is we kinda blow into town, tell everybody to keep going and we kinda blow out again..."
Bruce Springsteen (Dec)