Renowned best for his keyboard/synth excursions in the jazz-rock field, Dave and partner Barbara Gaskin achieved several chart hits with re-workings of classic pop songs like 'It's My Party' back in 1982. Together they are presently completing their first album for release on compact disc. David Etheridge took a look behind the scenes.

Information Society's combination of funk, hip hop, sampling and Star Trek give them a particular perspective on modern music making. Society spokesperson: Deborah Parisi.

Is there life after Limahl? Yup. The four shy boys take turns to explain how they do it, and what they do it on.

Techno music, the true successor to late seventies synth-pop, translates the desolation of post-Motown Detroit into electronic dance rhythms. Simon Trask listens to the programmer's tale.

From synth pop to sequencers and back. Two-and-a-half years since they lost graced our front cover, Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey tell Tim Goodyer how progress is made, as album number seven hits the streets.

He was once electronic drummer with jazz-rockers Landscape. Now he's a successful producer for the likes of Spandau Ballet and Colonel Abrams, but the search for new ways of using new gear goes on.

After calling it a day with seventies’ supergroup The Band, and an interim period spent scoring soundtracks for Martin Scorsese films, guitarist Robbie Robertson has teamed up with Daniel Lanois, Peter Gabriel and U2 to create an impeccable first solo outing. Mark Prendergast lends the album an appreciative ear.

Floyd, Eno, Gabriel... Grid?

New Grid on the block

The The's Matt Johnson talks about production, outwitting the lawyers... and hillbilly blues

A conversation with Ged Doherty, Paul Young's manager and best friend

Will the new-look ABC find success as easy as 1-2-3? Or will their latest Lexicon of Love lose something in the translation? Philip Bashe finds out.

little Andy Taylor on big guitar sounds

Tip from the topmost of twang

The Crusaders. Stix stix and Pops pops while Bacon sizzles gently into the tape recorder.

Dave Stewart in a room of his own

First the BBC, then Shakatak, now a solo album: Bill Sharpe's list of Famous People is an impressive one. Dan Goldstein makes further enquiries.

At 28 Seigen Ono is one of Japan's leading producer/engineers whose recording credits include working for David Sylvian, Robert Fripp, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Lounge Lizards. He is also the creator of some of the highest quality instrumental music yet to be classified under the New Age music banner. Mark Prendergast discovers what he and his music are all about.

After carving a career for themselves with their unique brand of anarchic funk, Shriekback have decided the time has come for a change. Barry Andrews tells David Bradwell about the importance of loving musical equipment.

Tim Goodyer looks past the bright colours of Drum Theatre to find high technology and ethnic tradition working hand-in-hand, and selling records, too. The band themselves explain.

Where big band Jazz meets hi-tech production. Richard Walmsley looks beneath the Matt gloss.

Chronicles of a moustachioed maestro. Philip Bashe reporting.

One Two listens to Stratists Jeff Beck, Adrian Belew and Richard Thompson. Plus a Hendrix compilation.