Hush, whisper who dares, Doctor Ray Dolby is saying thank you for his OBE, even if it is only an honorary one because he's 'n' American... "unchecked technology is killing the music industry" — a laughable point of view for 1987, yes? Not so when you realise that this, according to a recent Music Week cover story, is the opinion of the IFPI, the record companies' international organisation (IFPI for some unfathomable reason actually stands for International Federation Of Phonogram & Videogram Producers). In recent discussions over international copyright, the IFPI clashed with the Japanese tape manufacturers over the new DAT high quality cassette systems. Reading between the lines, it seems that IFPI president Neshui Ertegun is trouserless with fear over the possibility that DAT may impinge upon the record companies' profits. "There may come a day when there is nothing left to play, nothing left to copy." Unsurprisingly, the Japanese were not impressed by this outrageous hyperbole... top selling indie album of 1986 was the late Half Man Half Biscuit's "Back In The DHSS", more popular even than The Smiths' "The Queen Is Dead"... Channel 4 News recently featured an item on the Greenwich by-election; as the voice-over remarked on the new-found fashionability of the area, the camera panned across the familiar face of famous Making Music editor Paul Colbert, out shopping. Shurely shome mishtake? — other eds... Genetic, the studio owned by Martin Rushent of Human League and Buzzcocks fame, has gone into receivership with estimated debts of £700,000... festive woss-name assailed (wassailed?) Marillion at their Glasgow Barrowland Xmas concert, resulting in a set-list that included such delights as 'Rudolf The Red-Nosed Reindeer', 'Let's Twist Again', and 'Scotland The Brave'. Fish's Christmas turkeys?...

Garrod & Lofthouse, the printers of all those album sleeves in the sixties and seventies, have just been saved from bankruptcy. Nostalgia lives on... US session hero Tommy Tedesco played guitar on the 'Bonanza' theme... our sympathy to Making Music dealers Percy Prior of High Wycombe — when the last delivery of our stout organ arrived, the persons there were too busy to even sign for the mags, having just been subjected to a "fire and burglary attack". 'Riot inna Wycombe?' Just doesn't seem right somehow... Wang Chung have just had a video banned by the BBC because they said its fast cutting could induce epileptic fits... according to Variety magazine, Judas Priest are being taken to court in the USA on a murder charge, after a 'youth' shot himself upon hearing one of their LPs. And while we're on the subject of suicide, the lengthy wrangle over Ozzy Osbourne's similar case has brought to light some absurd details. Apparently, the head of the 'Institute For Bio-Acoustic Research' claims to have found a backwards double speed message lurking in the backing of the contentious song, 'Suicide Solution'; according to Kerrang magazine, the message is as follows: "Ah know people/You really know where it's at/You've got it/Why try it, why try/To get the gun and try it/Shoot, shoot, shoot". It seems that the autopsy report on the dead teenager stated that he had shot himself "while listening to devil music". Honestly, some people... apart from a new LP, The Cure are working on a film, provisionally entitled "The Cure In Orange"... outspoken chap and Sun-styled MISTER ANGARY, Gazza Moore hit out at fellow musicians in your Snortaway Sun recently! He SLAGGED Jimmy Somerville, DESCRIBED Glenn Hughes as "a plonker" with "two acres of Peru" up his nose, said he ENJOYED singing, JABBED the air (?), DENIED ripping off Big Country (that's enough crap)... numero uno indie single of last year was The Mission's 'Serpent's Kiss', on Chapter 22 Records; not far behind at number four were former colleagues, The Sisterhood, with 'Giving Ground'. Obviously, they were... back to Marillion for a mo — drummist Ian Mosley, long renowned amongst his chums for not carrying around much in the way of folding stuff — or ciggies, actually — has formed his own company under the opposite handle of 'Lend Us A Quid Ltd'... following a complaint from a funny man about the appearance of a naughty word in the last issue, members of the local constabule popped into Chappells in Milton Keynes, and removed a copy of yer actual Making Music. We hope they enjoyed it...

Don't Lick Ink Shocker: when Marvel Comics published their Kiss (remember them?) Komik, the wicked popstars dripped a drop of theircblood into the ink. Anyone with a copy in their possession should refrain from absorbing the magazine in any way... Bizarre Interview Scenarios, #13; why did the NME interview Jim Kerr by telephone from Australia, while Jimbobs was at home in Scotland?... interesting comment recently reported from Polydor A&R scout Mike Ede: "I would like to see more bands looking beyond the independent scene. Too many of them seem to have no aspirations further than that but if they were to look at the majors, a lot of them would be quite surprised." Right, now you know where to send those demos... Richard Thompson will be making what we imagine will be a pretty wacky LP with eccentric multi-instrumentalists Henry Kaiser and Fred Frith (plus drummer) in Los Angeles, even as we speak... er, type. Prepare for Thompson solo concerts back in Blighty during May and June.