Move over, Gomez. The nominations are in for this year's Technics Mercury Music Prize, which honors the best British or Irish album of the year as selected by a select panel of journalists. Gomez's Bring It On won the prize last year, but on September 7 it will go to Blur's 13, the Chemical Brothers's Surrender, Beth Orton's Central Reservation, Underworld's Beaucoup Fish, Manic Street Preachers' This is My Truth Tell Me Yours, Stereophonics' Performance and Cocktails, Talvin Singh's Ok, Faithless' Sunday 8 p.m., Blackstar Liner's Bengali Bantam Youth Experience, Kate Rusby's Sleepless, Thomas Ades' Asayla or Denys Baptiste's Be Where You Are . . .

Last year, with his book Light My Fire: My Life with the Doors, former Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek became an author. Now, he's adding "director" to his resume with a film called Love Her Madly. Although the flick has nothing to do with the famous song other than the same title, Variety reports that its about "love, madness, obsession and murder surrounding a captivating female drama student," all of which sounds suitably Doorsy. Manzarek also co-wrote the screenplay, and the film is produced by Doors videographer Rick Schmidlin. . .

After the book I, Tina and the ensuing movie What's Love Got To Do With It, not many people like Ike -- Ike Turner, that is. Tina Turner's autobiography is one of extreme hardships and glorious triumphs, not the least of which is the ditching of her abusive husband and musical partner. Well, Ike Turner is sick of being the bad guy in someone else's book, so he's decided to write his own. Takin' Back My Name: The Confessions of Ike Turner is Ike's side of the story, and it hits bookstores in October. . .

On Saturday, former Guns n' Roses guitarist Slash interrupted the recording of his first album since 1995's It's Five O'clock Somewhere with famed producer Jack Douglas to go directly to jail. A day after his thirty-fourth birthday, the artist born Saul Hudson was arrested at Ocean Way Studio in Los Angeles for allegedly beating his live-in girlfriend Perla, according to police. She claims that Slash beat her on July 19 at Le Parc Hotel in West Hollywood, but authorities did not explain why she waited so long to report the incident. The guitarist is now free on $50,000 bail . . .

Almost three decades after the Who's rock opera Tommy hit the stage for the first time, Tommy architect Pete Townshend is staging "Lifehouse," a sequel twenty-eight years in the making. Rehearsals for "Lifehouse," which will debut on BBC3 in December, have already begun. Begun in 1971, the musical is reported to be about a "vast global network" much like the World Wide Web. According to Kate Rowland, head of the BBC radio drama, as quoted in the U.K.'s Independent, "It's extraordinary when you think about what [Townshend] was writing in 1971. It was like he was projecting ahead. He didn't use the words 'Net' or 'Web.' He called it 'grid'" . . .

You knew that Ozzy Osbourne is slated to be a doll, thanks to McFarlane Toys and Signatures Network, but on July 25, the Ozzmeister will also be a magazine. Todd McFarlane Productions is unleashing Ozzy Osbourne, a fifty-six-page glossy magazine, taking some of the old war horse's more sensational road stories and having author Paul Jenkins putting them in a "fictional setting." So they say. The mag will also include an Ozzy biography, photo gallery, and a no-holds barred interview conducted by Steve Niles -- all for only a mere $4.95 . . .

Just last week, Megadeth's Dave Mustaine told reporters that he named his band's forthcoming album Risk because his old bandmate in Metallica, Lars Ulrich, told him that he wasn't taking enough risks with his career. This week it has come to our attention that the old hunk of burning love, Tom Jones has dubbed his upcoming double album, Reload, no doubt as homage to Metallica's 1997 opus of stripped-down, rhythmic songs. But the similarity ends there. Jones' Reload is a collection of duets the Welsh crooner recorded with some of rock's brass. Among those joining Jones are Natalie Imbruglia for a rendition of INXS's "Never Tear Us Apart"; the Cardigans for the Talking Heads' "Burning Down the House"; Van Morrison for his own "Sometime We Cry"; the Barenaked Ladies for the George Baker Selection's "Little Green Bag"; and the Pretenders for Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" . . .

BILL CRANDALL, RICHARD SKANSE and JAAN UHELSZKI
(July 27, 1999)