Yes, I'd assumed that it was the scalar context that made it magic. Stupidly I'd thought about changing the if to a while before I posted, but decided it didn't matter ... ahh well, I may be slow but I've got there in the end. So...

sub next_record() {
  local $/ = "DELIM";
  while (<FILE>) { return 1; }
  return 0;          
}

while (next_record())
{
...
}
[download]

...is what I should have posted about 10 posts up the thread.