New York City Bush fans, who have waited three years to see the boys play, likely let out a collective groan at the news that the band was forced to cancel Wednesday night's Digital Club Festival show at Irving Plaza due to drummer Robin Goodridge's ear infection. According to the band's spokesperson, Goodridge's doctor advised him to take the night off. But, to make up for the cancellation, the band has relocated Thursday night's show to the much larger Roseland Ballroom, which will honor tickets to both Wednesday and Thursday's Irving Plaza shows...

Female MC Eve, a member of the Ruff Ryders posse, was robbed at gunpoint during a video shoot in Long Island City, N.Y., on Monday night. According to a spokesman for the New York Police Department, Eve was approached by two assailants who demanded that she hand over her diamond necklace, diamond bracelet and a white gold bracelet -- items whose total estimated value is $137,000 -- and absconded with the jewelry in a dark-colored Chevrolet Tahoe. At press time, no arrests had been made and Eve's manager was unavailable for comment...

British band Gomez has just completed its new album, Liquid Skin, which will be released by its U.S. label, Virgin, on Sept. 21. The band's debut album, Bring It On last year beat out the Verve and Pulp for England's prestigious Mercury Music Prize, an honor previously bestowed upon the likes of Massive Attack and Roni Size. Prior to the Liquid Skin's release, Gomez will play a couple of U.K. festival dates, and a fall tour is currently under discussion...

One of hip-hop's most illustrious couples, Naughty by Nature's Treach and Salt 'N Pepa's Pepa, will finally tie the knot on July 24 at Pepa's estate in Morristown, N.J., in front of pals like Mariah Carey, Queen Latifah, Foxy Brown and Star Jones. The ceremony is merely a formality, since the couple have considered themselves wed since last April, when they stopped into a Lawrence, Ks., tattoo parlor where they both had their ring finger tattooed . . .

How hot is MP3.com? Try $1.86 billion hot, thanks to the 12.3 million shares of public stock (at $28 a pop) the company sold Tuesday for a whopping $344.4 million. The sale represented an 18 percent stake in the popular digital music Internet site . . .

Following his appearance Monday night at the Yahoo! Internet Life Music Awards in New York, the Artist swung downtown for an impromptu show at Life. The club was packed moments after the doors opened, but the crowd had thinned before the performers finally took the stage at 3:30 a.m. The diehards who endured the six-hours-plus wait were rewarded with an energetic hour-and-a-half set, driven by the incendiary bass and charismatic stage presence of Larry Graham and guest appearances from Maceo Parker, Doug E. Fresh and Kool Moe Dee, among others. The band experimented with old-school funk, jazz and MC rhyming, and played only two Prince songs: "Alphabet Street" and -- for the fourth and final encore -- "Purple Rain" . . .

It took folk-rocker Shawn Mullins more than a decade to hit paydirt, but now that he has, it's time for him to benefit from the insolvent years. So, as Soul's Core approaches platinum status, Columbia Records will ready the release of a Mullins compilation that will gather his best material from the less prosperous years on his own SMG Records label. According to manager Russell Carter, the album will include twelve or thirteen songs and possibly a newly recorded version of "Lately," which originally appeared on 1994's Big Blue Sky. Mullins will launch a brief U.S. tour in support of the album (due in October), which bears the working title The First Ten Years . . .

Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley, Peter Guralnick's follow-up to 1995's Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, was honored Monday night with first prize at the Tenth Annual Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Awards in New York. Taking second and third place were Visions of Jazz: The First Century by Gary Giddins and A Good-Natured Riot: The Birth of the Grand Ole Opry by Charles K. Wolfe . . .

A trail of controversy has always followed Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew fame, and yesterday that trail led to a Miami-Dade County courtroom, where the rapper pled not guilty to charges of misdemeanor battery. According to Don Ungurait, spokesman for the Miami-Date County State Attorney's office, the arraignment was for an incident that occurred on May 8, when Campbell was allegedly involved in what Ungurait calls a "domestic violence-based" assault. Campbell is set to appear for trial beginning on August 10. Meanwhile, he still has to answer felony aggravated battery charges at an arraignment on July 26 for an incident in which he allegedly smashed a whiskey bottle across a nightclub patron's face...

TLC's 1994 album CrazySexyCool has just been certified as the number one best selling hip-hop album of all time, with eleven million copies sold to date. It just blew past MC Hammer's 1990 Please Hammer Don't Hurt Them . . .

The latest addition to Woodstock '99's sensory overload is the "free speech forum" Spitfire. The event's speakers -- discussing topics like racism, censorship, the environment and gay rights -- will include rockers Perry Farrell, Everclear's Art Alexakis and Nirvana's Krist Novoselic, as well as activists like medical marijuana supporter Todd McCormick. Following its appearance at Woodstock, Spitfire will launch a twenty-date tour of college campuses. More information can be obtained at www.colleges.com/spitfire...

Over the past sixteen years, New York's D&D Studios has hosted recording sessions by hip-hop luminaries like Gang Starr, Jay-Z, KRS-One, Nas and the Notorious B.I.G. With the Aug. 30 release of Best of D&D Studios: Hip Hop Volume 1, the studio will launch its own imprint, D&D Records. The compilation, to be distributed via K-Tel, will feature tracks like Biggie's "Unbelievable," KRS-One's "MC's Act Like They Don't Know," and Jay Z's "Ain't No Nigga." Future D&D releases will include Gee Street-distributed albums by Afu-Ra and QNC . . .

In tribute to the late Morphine singer, the "First Annual Mark Sandman Memorial Concert" will be held on Sunday, July 25, and will include performances by Sandman's friends, family and some of his past musical collaborators. Featured acts will include the Either/Orchestra, the Ray Corvair Trio, and surviving members of Sandman's other band, Treat Her Right. The event will be held outdoors, from 3-6 p.m. (EST), on Boston's Brookline Street. Memorial attendees will be asked to make contributions to the Mark Sandman music Education Fund, which will benefit music education in the Cambridge public schools . . .

Gibson Guitars got the stars out last week to launch their new London office and honor Elvis Presley guitarist Scotty Moore with his own signature instrument. The Moore guitar is based on the ES-295 the six-string slinger played on tracks such as "That's All Right Mama," "Heartbreak Hotel," "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Hound Dog." The guitar manufacturer called on Jimmy Page to present the model to Moore, because the Led Zeppelin guitarist has said that he was inspired to learn guitar after hearing Moore's licks on "Baby Let's Play House." In other Page news, sources say the guitarist has been in a London studio with Page/Plant drummer Michael Lee demoing some new material for the next Page/Plant project. After they finish, Page will give the DATs to Robert Plant in hopes that he can lure him back into the studio . . .

Dennis Brown, the forty-two-year-old "Crown Prince of Reggae" who died on July 1 of pneumonia, was honored with a state funeral in his native Jamaica on Saturday, July 17. More than 10,000 mourners attended the ceremony, including Prime Minister PJ Patterson. Brown is the first entertainer to be buried at Kingston's National Heroes Park. A tribute concert featuring Maxi Priest, Shaggy and gospel singer Carlene Davis was held at the National Arena following the funeral . . .

Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst has been given a court date to respond to misdemeanor assault charges related to his alleged kicking of a security guard during his band's show in St. Paul, Minn., last Monday (July 12). According to St. Paul Deputy City Attorney George Stephenson, Durst is expected to enter his pleas on charges of disorderly conduct and fifth degree (or "simple") assault on Aug. 19 at Ramsey County District Court. If Durst is found guilty of either charge, he could face a $700 fine and up to ninety days in jail or two years probation . . .

Beth Orton joined Sheryl Crow for a raw version of the Clash's "Train in Vain" and Crow's own "Strong Enough" at Sunday night's Lilith Fair concert at Irvine Meadows outside of Los Angeles. Stevie Nicks also chimed in on the latter tune, which wasn't a surprise given that Crow is producing a good portion of Nicks' forthcoming solo album due out on Reprise next year . . .

The world's largest music label, Universal Music Group, has wasted no time in showing its approval for the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) standard. UMG, which includes Interscope, Def Jam, Geffen, Mercury and Universal, has announced that it will make music from it's diverse artist roster compatible with the next generation of SDMI compliant portable music devices from RioPort, Inc., Matsushita (Panasonic) and Toshiba. The SDMI specifications, which were finalized last week, were adopted to fight piracy and ensure artist copyright protection . . .

ANN ABEL, JENNY ELISCU, BLAIR R. FISCHER, JOE ROSENTHAL, JAAN UHELSZKI, RICHARD SKANSE
(July 21, 1999)