B2K will release their first Christmas album, Santa Hook Me Up, in October . . . Mana will kick off a tour on September 29th in Denver in support of their first studio album in five years, Revolucion De Amor . . . Home Town Hero will fill the supporting slot on Incubus' upcoming tour which kicks off on October 5th in Salt Lake City . . . Despite the loss of guitarist Michael Houser, who died of pancreatic cancer last weekend, Widespread Panic will carry on for the Seven Fiddlers Music Festival which kicks off today in Greenwood Village, Colorado . . . Bone Thugs-N-Harmony will headline the Grey Goose Tour along with 8 Ball And Mjg, Lil' John and the Eastside Boyz, Now City and Lady May beginning September 17th in New York . . .

Backstreet Boy Nick Carter will release his debut solo record Now or Never on October 29th; the first single "Help Me" hits radio today . . . Black Sabbath tribute band Hand Of Doom will release their debut record, Hand of Doom Live in Los Angeles on October 22nd . . . Deana Carter was sentenced to sixteen hours of community service and a $500 dollar fine for speeding and driving while intoxicated in Nashville last December . . . Ash will open all dates of Coldplay's upcoming tour which kicks off in Seattle on September 4th . . . Diana King's upcoming album, originally scheduled for release on August 27th has been moved to an early 2003 release; the first single, "Suga Suga," hits radio in mid-January . . . The Streets' Mercury Music Prize-nominated, Original Pirate Material, will be released in the U.S. on October 22nd . . .

(August 19, 2002)