THE VERY, very best features in any magazine are those you don't have to do a stroke of work for. Which is why this month's Skill Centre is fab squared. That nice Dave Stewart man knocked out his chords for 'Locomotion' in his own joindy-up handwriting, and sent them in.

'Locomotion' was originally written by Jerry Goffin and Carol King sometime around 1966, we reckon, for that fine singist act, Little Eva. Dave and Barbara Gaskin recorded their recent charting version at Spaceward Studios in Cambridge, 35 days, including the 12in.

"I like to listen really closely to the original," Dave told us over a crackling satellite connection, "maybe even writing out the bass line. Occasionally you can get ideas from what somebody thought was a good bass line 20 years ago..."

Samples on Dave and Barbara's single included an aluminium sheet from an old plate reverb, hung from the ceiling and roundly bashed, and a recording of an old steam locomotive from a special effects record.

"We wanted a chugging train rhythm, but only part of it would stay in time. We sampled about six beats worth of chug, then wrote a drum machine rhythm in six and put one click in to keep triggering the train in time. Fiddly... but that's the sort of thing I like..."

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Left hand bass notes as chord name unless otherwise specified

VERSE 1 FOUR TIMES

EVERYBODY'S DOING A............BRAND NEW DANCE NOW
COME ON BABY...................DO THE LOCOMOTION
I KNOW YOU'LL GET TO LIKE IT....GIVE IT A CHANCE, NOW
COME ON BABY...................DO THE LOCOMOTION, MY

Verse 2 as Vs 1 — further remonstrations of the dance's easiness and exhortations to perform it, albeit with a cautionary note against excess enthusiasm.

Middle 8 — 3 chords Bb, Eb, F, see Jesus and Mary Chain album. Instrumental - about 800 chords, sorry no room.

VERSE 3

Errata: In our issue number 6 dated September 1986 we reproduced without permission the musical composition "The Locomotion". In fact this work is controlled in the United Kingdom by Screen Gems-EMI Ltd and reference should have been made to their ownership and to the fact that it was written and composed by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. We should like to apologise for this omission to the copyright owners and would like to assure them that it will not happen again in respect of any other copyright material.