Backstreet mania hit Toronto July 25 when a local radio station leaked that the pop stars were in town shooting a Burger King commercial over several days at various locales. The shoot is for a BK Boys promotion which will launch in late summer or early fall. Burger King will be promoting a behind-the-scenes video as well as compact discs that feature one new song from the Boys' upcoming album, as well as previously recorded but "never aired" songs by the BSBs. The CD will be a purchase-with-purchase offer at participating Burger King restaurants. According to a BK source, there will be three commercials shot in Toronto, two geared toward adults, the other geared towards younger consumers. The spots will air in Canada before the U.S. . . .

Never one to rush an album, Paul Simon has put the finishing touches on the eleven-track You're the One, his first studio album since Songs From the Capeman, which featured Simon's interpretations of the music from his excursion into the Broadway musical. Prior to The Capeman, Simon's last recording of original studio material was Rhythm of the Saints in 1990, though he did release the double-live Concert in the Park in 1991 and Paul Simon 1964-1993, a three-disc box set of his work. The album is slated for release in late September . . .

A twenty-year-old fan died from a reported drug overdose last Saturday night at New York's Twilo, where East Berlin disc jockey-cum-producer and leading trance maven Paul Van Dyk was performing. James Wiest collapsed on the dance floor at approximately 6:50 a.m. and was then rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly before 8 a.m. Friends had thought Wiest had ingested the drug Ecstasy, but Peter R. Sullivan, a lawyer for the club, explained to the New York Times, that Wiest had taken GHB, or gamm hydroxybutyrate, commonly referred to as the "date rape drug," which, when combined with alcohol, can be fatal . . .

Memphis, Tenn. city officials have renamed a stretch of Hale Road as Rev. Al Green Road. The newly named strip of road passes by the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church, where the fifty-four-year-old soul legend has served as pastor since 1976 . . .

The Gallagher family soap opera has hit a new low. The thrice-married Patsy Kensit, who announced her split from Liam Gallagher earlier this month, has now decided to spill the beans on their ill-fated relationship. In an interview with London's Daily Star, Kensit blasted the singer, explaining, "It's impossible for me to go on any longer in this sham of a marriage. I did my best and got absolutely no help in return." Following the split, Patsy has been spotted around town with Sleepy Hollow actor Jamie Forman, but her soon-to-be ex is not lamenting her exit. He's been keeping very close company All Saint singer Nicole Appleton, former fiancT of his rival Robbie Williams . . .

The ninth annual 2000 Mercury Music Prize winners for Album of the Year were announced in London Tuesday. Former Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft's debut solo album, Alone With Everybody," which received a lukewarm reception from critics on its release, made the list along with Coldplay's Parachutes, the Delgados ' The Great Eastern, Leftfield 's Rhythm & Stealth and Death in Vegas' The Contino Sessions. Past winners include Roni Size, Gomez and Sinead O'Connor. The Mercury Music Prize will be awarded Sept. 12 during a ceremony at London's Grosvenor House Hotel . . .

While U2 have not been forthcoming with the release date or working title for their next album, Bono was in a confessional mood when he spoke to the BBC's Radio One last week. The U2 frontman not only revealed that "Beautiful Day" would be the band's first single, but recited some of the lyrics for the listening audience, while explaining that it was inspired by his work with Jubilee 2000's "Drop the Third World Debt" campaign. "There's a fire in the belly of this music," he said. "There's a certain joy that I've picked from working with the Jubilee people, and there's a righteous anger, if you want to call it that, that makes for great rock & roll." The album, which is reportedly a week from completion, was produced by longtime U2 stalwarts Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, and will be mixed by Steve Lillywhite, who produced U2's first three albums. In an interview with Propaganda, U2's official fanzine, the Edge confided that they are massaging their eighteen favorite songs to a more manageable dozen, revealing that he's taken a shine to two of the tracks, "Elevation," and "Stuck in a Moment (Which You Can't Get Out Of)" . . .

After spending a month in a Vancouver studio hammering out their next album, R.E.M. returned to their home base in Athens, Ga., this month to continue work on the untitled album. Producer Pat McCarthy has been recording vocals with Michael Stipe and Mike Mills to pair with the previously recorded basic tracks. "We've spent a lot of the time experimenting with different approaches to each song, writing new songs and experimenting with arrangements," Stipe said in an update on the group's official Web site. "We're surprising ourselves." According to the site, the album is still slated for release next spring. In other R.E.M. news, the group will see several of their concert videos on DVD in August. The reissue series will include Tourfilm (1990), Pop Screen (1990), This Film Is On (1991) and Parallel (1995) which offer up R.E.M. concert films and video collections. The DVD's are scheduled for release on Aug. 22 . . .

On Sept. 12 -- thirty years to the week after his death -- Jimi Hendrix will be taking over the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum with his own exhibit. A collaboration between the Museum and the official Jimi preservation society, Experience Hendrix, the exhibit will feature videos, interactive kiosks and artifacts, including guitars, stage wear, family snapshots, Hendrix's stereo, yearbooks, original lyric manuscripts and the couch he slept on. Selections from the recently re-edited and re-mastered film Jimi Hendrix: Live at the Isle of Wight, will also be shown at the Museum's Surround Sound 3-D Theater . . .

Witchy woman Stevie Nicks has not only convinced pal Sheryl Crow and two former boyfriends, Lindsey Buckingham and Don Henley, to join her in a benefit for the Arizona Heart Institute Foundation, but she got one of the nation's biggest banks to underwrite it. "Wells Fargo Stevie Nicks and Friends" will take place on Sept. 23, in Nicks' hometown of Phoenix, Ariz. Both of the singer's parents have had heart bypasses, so she decided to do what she could to help fight heart disease. Wells Fargo has donated $200,000 toward the concert and to help fund the institute's $5 million Arizona Community Cardiovascular Research and Education Center, which will be built in the fall next to the Arizona Heart Hospital in Phoenix . . .

Mick Jagger will finally bring the story of the Rolling Stones to the silver screen. Tentatively titled "The Long Play," Jagger will produce and write the script himself, but has tapped Martin Scorsese to direct. Insisting that the film will not be strictly autobiographical, the Rolling Stone frontman recently told the Daily Express, "It's a film mainly about the Machiavellian deals and relationships in the record industry." Jagger has no plans to star in the movie, but instead has chosen Jude Law, who most recently wowed audiences in The Talented Mr. Ripley and Wilde to star . . .

What good is an apology sixteen years late? In the case of the Go-Go's new song "Apology," which they previewed Friday night at their concert at Jones Beach in Wantaugh, N.Y., the answer is good enough to stand tall next to any of the greatest hits that filled their live set. The reunited group also performed two other sassy, immediately catchy new songs, which may or may not be titled "Kissing Asphalt" and "Sonic Super 21st Century Boy" something-or-other. All three are from their forthcoming Vision of Nowness album (due in the spring), their first full studio effort since Talk Show in 1984. "Sing along," guitarist Jane Wiedlin teased, "Just make up the words" . . .

World Party's next album is scheduled for release in the U.K. on Aug. 7. The eleven-song Dumbing Up is the first offering from Karl Wallinger and Co. since Egyptology in 1997. The group has already released its first U.K. single, "Here Comes the Future," and the release of the album will coincide with a full reissue of the World Party catalog (sigh, again only in the U.K.). A U.S. release date has yet to be set. Meanwhile, Wallinger's former boss, Mike Scott has put together another Waterboys unit, with former Waterboys reedman/mandolin player Anthony Thistlethwaite and drummer Kevin Wilkinson back in the fold. A Rock in the Weary Land, the first album Scott has recorded under the Waterboys banner since Dream Harder in 1993, is set for release on Oct. 4 in the U.K. and should reach North American shores in February, 2001 . . .

Thrash metal pioneers Anthrax have opted off of the Maximum Rock and Roll tour, which also featured metal headliners Motley Crue and Megadeth. Though the tour is still scheduled to run until Sept. 2, Beyond Music, the group's management, issued a statement claiming that "financial constraints" as the group's reason for bailing on Maximum Rock . . .

The Beastie Boys and Rage Against the Machine's Rhyme and Reason Tour will come to your computer terminal next month via a new partnership between the Boys' Grand Royal company and Intertainer, an entertainment broadband network. Bananas 2000 will consist of a dozen, daily ten-minute episodes (Aug. 15-26) featuring concert footage and backstage happenings. The series will also give fans the opportunity to win the Beasties' 1972 Fleetwood Cadillac. For more information, go to www.intertainer.com or www.grandroyal.com . . .

KAREN BLISS, ANDREW DANSBY, CHRISTINA SARACENO, RICHARD SKANSE, JAAN UHELSZKI
(July 26, 2000)