Producer: K-Tel, 48K
£6.95 (3)

Part of a double bill with Tomb of Dracula; neither side of this tape comes up to scratch. It's Only Rock 'N' Roll purports to be the sort of strategy game where you pit your wits against the established music industry to become a pop star. Having chosen a name for yourself you can do concerts tours, make records, buy status symbols, write and record or sell songs, and hire yourself a manager. With the money you have at the start doing any of these things except hiring a flea-bitten manager is out of the question. Select CONCERT and you'll be told busking is more your line. The song writing facility is the only lively element in what is otherwise tedious and unrealistic. Overall CRASH rating 41%. BASIC.

Each month BIG K collars an expert in a particular field to review a selection of progs which claim to reproduce his line of work. This month: PETE SHELLEY
Reporter: RICHARD COOK

IF MUSIC BE THE FOOD OF LOVE...

As vocalist, guitarist and leader of Buzzcocks, Pete Shelley put a little romance into the attack of the New Wave which shook rock music in the mid-70s. His love songs channelled the power of punk into a form which laid groundwork for much of today's pop: beguiling music that was as fresh and energetic as any of the system-smashing ambitions of his contemporaries in The Jam and The Clash.

After the demise of Buzzcocks back in 1981, Pete embarked on a solo career which has taken quite a different track. His starry-eyed songs are now set to music made primarily through synthesisers and sequences that show one of the most imaginative approaches to instruments otherwise commonplace in today's charts.

And alongside this interest in new sounds Pete - along with a few others we know - developed a fascination with computers: the last track on his most recent LP was a program for Spectrum!

Pete started with a ZX81. Now he has two Spectrums, a Commodore 64 and a BBC 'B' as well. Although he's hard at work in the studios recording his third LP for island Records, Big K asked him to take some time off to check out a handful of programs designed to help write, practice or maybe just fool around with music. Can a micro assist you in making fortune and infamy in the pop world? We set up the machines; Pete flexed his fingers; and here are the verdicts.

MAKER: K-TEL
MACHINE: Spectrum 48K/Commodore 64
FORMAT: cassette
PRICE: £6.95

Some light relief. This is a strategy game that allows you to try and crack the charts by leading your own group. Monthly turns allow your band to write songs, play gigs, go on expensive tours, push your manager into fixing special deals and acquiring status symbols and eventually - make a record. If you've avoided bankruptcy, corrupt management and the apathy of the fickle public in the meantime, that is. Three skill levels in what's basically a text game, though there is a chance of seeing the group play live!

"A must for anybody who's ever picked up a guitar, I'd say! If there's a few of you playing it should be fun - I always find these games better when there's a few people gathered round calling out what to do. I like the pace of if - it moves fast enough to keep you interested. And it's not too easy either, even if the real thing is harder!"