It seems like only yesterday that a Band of Hopefuls joined together with the dream of a magazine to link the musician, the dealer and the manufacturer/distributor on a worldwide basis. The dream became a reality 10 years ago when the BOH, of which I was a member and probably the most hopeful, worked from a fruit warehouse in the now fashionable, but then not so fashionable Covent Garden. Facilities were limited and there were no electric lights but the BOH worked all night for six months producing the first issues of IM&RW.

When I recently played the drums at Ronnie Scott's with a band of IM&RW staff and contributors, advertisers and friends whose hopes had unquestionably been realised, it was clear that our magazine has been faithful to its roots. It is still musicians writing for musicians. The last 10 years there have been some rocky roads; we all had the big conglomerates sniping at us and all the Johnny-come-lately imitators undermining our ideas but you, our readers, have supported us throughout those 10 years and hopefully we have supported you.

You may know that our magazine now circulates some 82 countries and has separate editions published in America from its own American office, in Australia from its own Australian office and we have been clever enough to have published in Japanese from our own Tokyo office. We believe that the world of music is truly international and by having worldwide connections we can bring you facts about everything happening faster than anyone else.

From IM&RW has come What Keyboard? with emphasis on portable keyboards, pianos, and organs; and Electronic Soundmaker & Computer Music which we are all very excited about as we believe we are the first to let you hear on tape every month what we write in the magazine. The special IM&RW guides that come out at regular intervals should be consulted before making any purchase; they are the only publications that attempt to cover all the products in Sound Reinforcement, Studio Equipment, Electronic Equipment and, in the case of our On The Road Guide, gigging information.

Really the only thing we regret is the fact that we have to charge you £1.50 for our magazine when 10 years ago it was only 25 pence; but the first three years none of us had any wages and the only cars we had kept breaking down all over the place. Now we are all earning wages, costs of publication have quadrupled, the number of pages has doubled and the quality is now of a professional standard (well almost). We have a saying here that 'we are here for 40 years' — most of us then will be over 60, but so will you. Our enthusiasm for producing this magazine will continue and hopefully so will your enjoyment of reading it.

Thank you for keeping with us and thank you for making IM&RW number one in the world for everyone seriously interested in making music.

PS: Special thanks to Malcolm and Ray — can't talk about you too much as it takes the glory away — but I do remember!!

Richard Desmond
Chairman and Managing Director, Cover Publications