THE winners of the Womad Competition were J Gethin of Clyne, F Meehan of Chorlton-cum-Hardy and R Gracey of Spalding. It was Youssou N'Dour who duetted with Peter Gabriel on 'Shaking the Tree'. The winners receive tickets for this week's Cornish Womad.

EIGHT months after the second potentially terminal cash crisis of its 12-year career, the restructured Womad organisation is half way through a distinctly healthy 1993 festival season without even the nuisance of having to reconvene Genesis. In 1982, it took a specially-staged reunion concert by Peter Gabriel's former group to pay off the losses of the first Womad event. Now a new rescue package has brought even closer the converging paths of Gabriel and the world music outfit.

It wasn't enough to come away from the latest Peter Gabriel theatre-meets-rock extravaganza whistling the set - real men were quoting the statistics. 'Apparently he used five kilometres of cable,' said a young man to his date as they left the arena. His memory served him well. The enduring image of this wonderful show came in the opening seconds. Gabriel was revealed in a Genesis-era red telephone box, singing the opening track of his recent US album, 'Come Talk to Me'; he then walked agonisingly slowly down the 20m runway, stretching the black wire behind him. The elfin figure towards whom he strode stood hunched in the dark on the circular 'other' stage. A gasp of delight went up with the spotlights as it was revealed to be Sinead O'Connor: - Walkman on as usual, barefoot and elegant. Gabriel's cultured, airy tones were perfectly complemented by her angelic caterwaul. In less than two minutes the drome had been catapulted into an intense emotional state.

ALLEGATIONS of youthful drug use have finally hit Dutch politics, but in the tolerant Netherlands they are more a credential than a concern. In Broadcasting Magazine, the columnist Arie Kleijwegt, recalled how he and the Culture Minister, Hedy d'Ancona, had taken LSD together in the 1960s.

(First Edition)

At an exhibition organised by Peter Gabriel, people walking around with headphones on may be listening, not to a recorded guide, but to music. The former lead singer of Genesis is exploring the potential of bringing music into the art gallery, breaking down the unnatural divide between the art forms.

THE FIRST RECORD I BOUGHT

PETER GABRIEL

DOWN in Wiltshire, Kenyan lyres and Chinese harps are again outnumbering combine harvesters: the second Womad / Real World recording week is under way.

WOMAD celebrates its tenth birthday this month (17-19 July) with a weekend of world music and festivities at Reading's Rivermead Leisure Complex, held in association with the Independent. A musical Earth summit, the weekend features musicians from over 30 countries. Friday's highlights include Capercaille, Eddi Reader, Sheila Chandra and the Finnish group Varttina. Saturday's programme includes two of the world's great percussion troupes - Africa's Drummers of Burundi and Brazil's Grupo Olodum - and jazz from Courtney Pine. A Saturday night gala features Jah Wobble and Peter Gabriel among others, while Sunday's line-up includes Mali's Salif Keita and Aboriginal rockers Yothu Yindi.