Rapper Cam'ron will release his next album, Purple Haze, on August 5th. His Diplomats mate Juelz Santana will drop a solo album, From Me 2 U, later this summer . . . Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready admitted last week that he's suffered from Crohn's disease for more than fifteen years . . . Eve 6 will release their new album, It's All in Your Head, on July 22nd. The band will begin an eight-date tour on June 20th in Los Angeles . . . Aaron Neville will release Nature Boy, a collection of standards by the likes of Nat King Cole, Cole Porter and George Gershwin, on August 26th . . .

Eric Clapton and B.B. King will guest on Buddy Guy's new album, Blues Singer, due June 3rd . . . Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi" song has been optioned for a feature film production . . . Ja Rule has recorded "The Wrap" a new collaboration with former 2Pac associate Fatal Hussein . . . The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players will launch their month-long Summer Slideshow Bizarre Tour '03 at the All Tomorrow's Parties Festival in Los Angeles on June 22nd . . . 311 will begin a thirty-seven-date tour on July 15th in Bakersfield, California. The band will be plugging Evolver, due in July . . . George Strait will release a new studio album, "Honkytonkville," on June 10th . . .

The Flaming Lips, Hot Tuna, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Steve Winwood and the BAD PLUS have joined the lineup for Bonnaroo NE, set for August 8-10 in Riverhead, New York . . . Jewel fans who buy her new album, 0304, during its first week of release (June 3rd) will receive a special PIN number that allows access to two previously unreleased live tracks . . . The Clientele will release their new album, "The Violet Hour," on July 8th . . . J Records head Clive Davis will receive the Hitmaker Award by the Songwriters Hall of Fame on June 12th in New York City . . . The Singapore Sling will begin their first U.S. tour on June 28th in New York City. The band is plugging its debut, The Curse of the Singapore Sling . . .

Coldplay won songwriters of the year at the forty-eighth annual Ivor Novello Awards in London on May 22nd. Other winners included U2, Bryan Ferry and Brian Wilson . . . Roger Waters' The Wall: Live in Berlin, featuring guest spots by Sinead O'connor, Cyndi Lauper, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell and others, will be reissued on CD and released for the first time on DVD on June 24th . . . Slayer's War at the Warfield DVD will be released on July 29th . . . Spoon will release a new seven-song EP, The Way We Get By, on August 8th in the U.K. There are no plans yet for a U.S. release . . . Tracy Chapman will begin a thirty-four-date tour on June 7th in Seattle . . .

(May 28, 2003)