While all the other boy bands have been taking over the charts, the three Hanson boys have been busy recording their follow-up to 1997's Middle of Nowhere, and the as-yet-untitled album is due out next May. The sibling trio has spent the better part of the year working with Black Grape producer Stephen Lironi and Mark Hudson, at the Los Angeles studio where Beck was recording Midnite Vultures. Although we can't really say that was a bonus, since the still-innocent brother act had to suffer a myriad of indignities and merciless teasing at the hands of Beck and his band -- including one memorable incident with a clump of faux dog doo. Guests on the album include Jonny Lang, DJ Swamp, John Popper, and Sly Stone's sister Rose...

U2 are reportedly planning to stage a free, open air concert in Dublin this March. According to the British press, the Irish mega-stars are in talks to mount a concert to celebrate their acceptance of the coveted Freedom of Dublin award -- an honor that has never gone to musicians before. U2 joins past luminaries such as John F. Kennedy and Mother Theresa in receiving the award. According to Dublin's Lord Mayor Mary Freehill, "Around 8,000 people will be able to watch the ceremony in the city's Smithfield area. U2 will play some music, at least they hope to." In other U2 news, BONO remains as ubiquitous as ever: The frontman will appear on an upcoming cover of George magazine and has been immortalized both in wax for Madame Tussaud's new wax museum in Las Vegas...

Although VAN HALEN insisted that they aren't even thinking about recruiting a new singer until after the New Year, WHITESNAKE singer DAVID COVERDALE says that's just not so. In fact, on the singer's Web site (http://whitesnake.santcugat.com/news.html), he reveals that not only was he approached after SAMMY HAGAR left, but more recently Van Halen's management company approached the singer after GARY CHERONE's exit, asking him to do some work with EDDIE VAN HALEN. Coverdale spent a few days recording twenty-three songs with VH. So is he in? "Let's just say that my management is meeting with their management, although money is not the issue," Coverdale explains. "The bottom line is I will be working with Eddie and the boys in some capacity" ...

MEGADETH's New Year's Eve show at Phoenix's Veteran's Memorial Coliseum has been called off. While it had been reported that the cancellation was due to difficulty in securing special guests, insiders say that it was really poor ticket sales that sunk the event. DAVE MUSTAINE is expected to turn up at ALICE COOPER's restaurant, Cooper'stown. Though not officially on the bill, Mustaine will most likely take part in the end-of-night celebrity jam . . .

XTC have finished Apple Venus Volume 2, the sequel to this year's Apple Venus Volume 1. Unlike its orchestral predecessor, Volume 2 (due in the spring) is more of a rock record. "It's great to get our hands tangled up in the electric guitar strings once again," said frontman ANDY PARTRIDGE. "This record has more hooks than a Long John Silver convention." ...

LIVE singer ED KOWALCZYK thought he had fully recovered from the upper-respiratory infection that forced his band to cancel a handful of shows in November, but his doctors have said "Au contraire." As the band was wrapping up its European tour in support of The Distance to Here, Kowalczyk was advised by physicians to lay off the hollering for four to six weeks. As a result, the band has cancelled both its Dec. 30 show in Asbury Park, N.J., and its New Year's Eve show in Hershey, Pa. Those shows have been rescheduled for Feb. 8 and Feb. 4, respectively ...

They may get no satisfaction, but they sure do get plenty of bread. The ROLLING STONES have been called-out as the highest earning rock band in history, with revenues of $755 million over their thirty-five-year history, according to a report in this week's Amusement Business Magazine. An amazing feat, but less surprising when you consider that the band performed for more than twelve million fans in the 1960s alone. Last year's tour reportedly raked in $89.2 million of the booty, which easily beats runner-up BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (at $52 million) for most profitable tour of 1999 ...

The BACKSTREET BOYS' Millennium outsold BRITNEY SPEARS' ...Baby One More Time to become the top-selling album of 1999, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. With eleven million records shipped, the Boys beat out Britney by one million. Coming in behind the teen sensations were RICKY MARTIN's self-titled album (with six million), and TLC's Fanmail, KID ROCK's Devil Without a Cause, LIMP BIZKIT's Significant Other and SANTANA's Supernatural, with five million apiece . . .

Admirers of BUSH's hottie frontman GAVIN ROSSDALE will want to keep an eye out for the band's new video, in which the raspy-voiced rocker bares more than just his heart. The clip for "Letting the Cables Sleep," directed by Joel Schumacher, is said to feature a scantily clad Rossdale cavorting with actress Michele Hicks (of Twin Falls Idaho). It debuts on MTV on Dec. 27 ...

OZZY OSBOURNE and his BLACK SABBATH pull the plug tonight on the three-decades-old band. On Dec. 22, the bombastic band is due to play the final notes of "Iron Man" in front of their hometown fans in Birmingham, England. But that's not the last you'll hear from the band: When Penelope Spheeris's Ozzfest documentary hits a theater near you next summer, Osbourne plans to mount a special film tour. In addition to screening the flick, three bands will play live throughout the night. But first the eccentric rockumentary needs a title, so the Ozzmeister is holding a contest to name the film. Submit your entries to Osbourne at ozzy@artistdirect.com. There's no monetary reward, but just imagine the satisfaction that would come with getting the irascible frontman to do what you say ...

SNO-CORE 2000's thirty-one days of winter sports, exhibitions and music kick off this Jan. 15 in San Diego, Calif., with SYSTEM OF A DOWN headlining. Supporting acts include INCUBUS, MR. BUNGLE -- featuring former FAITH NO MORE singer, MIKE PATTON -- and PUYA. See www.pollstar.com for additional dates . . .

MADONNA is looking to add a second best-original-song Golden Globe award to her mantel (she won in 1991 for "Vogue"). "Beautiful Stranger," her randy little collaboration with WILLIAM ORBIT for the movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, is her latest Globe entree. The rest of the nominees are - or, at least, were -- pop stars in their own right: PHIL COLLINS for "You'll Be in My Heart" (from Tarzan); KENNETH "BABYFACE" EDMONDS, George Fenton and Robert Kraft for "How Can I Not Love You" (from Anna and the King); AIMEE MANN for "Save Me" (from Magnolia); and RANDY NEWMAN for "When She Loved Me" (from Toy Story 2). The Golden Globes will take place Jan. 23 and will air on NBC ...

Louisiana home girl BRITNEY SPEARS will don a crown when she serves as the grand marshal of the Endymion parade in next year's Mardi Gras. The eighteen-year-old teen-pop queen, who lives in Kentwood, Louisiana, will lead the hullabaloo for the prestigious Endymion club, renown for their dedication to creating the most lavish and outrageous parades during the N'Awlins-style bacchanalia that marks the beginning of Lent. On March 4, Spears will preside over the approximately thirty floats, forty marching bands and appearances by HALL AND OATES, the NEVILLE BROTHERS, BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY, and others ...

PET SHOP BOYS NEIL TENNANT and CHRIS LOWE have taken on top British academic, Professor Roger Scruton, suing the Cambridge-trained scholar and his publishers Gerald Duckworth and Company for libel over an entry in his recent book An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Culture. The book suggests that the Eighties icons did not pen their chart-topping hits, which include 1984's "West End Girls." Scruton, who has written such weighty tomes as Thinkers of the New Left, A Land Held Hostage: Lebanon and the West and Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation, wrote in ...Culture: "as with the Spice Girls or the Pet Shop Boys, serious doubts arise as to whether the performers made more than a minimal contribution to the recordings." Tennant and Lowe did not take the slur on their talents lying down, and sued the author in London's High Court, retaining Jane Phillips as counsel. Phillips fed the fires of controversy when she told the court that Scurton's entry suggested that the band had deceived its fans. Scruton finally offered an undisclosed amount to settle with the duo and, on Tuesday, Tennant and Lowe, feeling vindicated, agreed to accept the amount. At press time, it appears that Scruton and publisher Gerald Duckworth would also pay the pop group's legal costs ...

Wondering what a mix tape by KID ROCK might look like? Myplay.com is banking on your curiosity to help cancer research center City of Hope. The Web site, which helps users store and organize their digital music files, will donate $1 each time someone emails a playlist -- either their own, or one by artists like Kid, WILLIE NELSON, AIMEE MANN or BEN FOLDS FIVE's Ben Folds -- to friends or family ...

It looks like ROGER DALTREY will be needing to make some last-minute New Year's Eve plans. The WHO singer was supposed to perform at the "America's New Millennium" benefit gala in Washington, D.C., but poor ticket sales forced the event's cancellation. Maybe Daltrey could pull together something with STING and JEWEL, who also pulled the plug on their millennial concerts due to sluggish sales ...

The GOO GOO DOLLS were lucky to have a backlog of good karma yesterday afternoon. The do-good Dolls were wrapping up a five-date tour of European military bases, during which they brought holiday cheer to countless U.S. service men and women, when a rainstorm caused their plane to skid off a runway at the Naval Air Station Sigonella. According to a statement released by the band's spokesperson, the U.S. Naval-operated DC-9 aircraft tried three different landing approaches and, when it finally touched down, slid off the runway and back on again. Fortunately, none of the thirty passengers or crew members were seriously injured ...

British tabloids reported this weekend that the SPICE GIRLS have decided to throw in the spice rack and call it a day after the release of their third album. A British news source insisted that the feisty foursome met at London's Metropolitan Hotel early Friday morning (Dec. 17) prior to heading over to Virgin Records' London office, where they reportedly worked out a strategy on how to break it to their fans. But the band's publicist says it ain't so. "It's absolutely baloney. It's hogwash," huffed Elizabeth Freund. "They love what they're doing, they're on a high, and they're looking forward to their future, not planning their demise." Rumors began circulating when the Spice Girls released the single "Goodbye" earlier this month, even though the song's chorus promises "Goodbye my friend / It's not the end." If that wasn't clear enough, MEL C. posted a message on the band's official Web site (http://www.virginrecords.com/newspice/news.html) that reads, "So for all those people who think we're breaking up, we're not" ...

METALLICA know what they're going to wear for their New Year's Eve show at Pontiac, Mich.'s Silver Dome, but not what they're going to play, so they've put a plea out to hardcore fans to help them compile their set list. JAMES HETFIELD and Co. are taking requests at the band's official touring Web site (www.metontour.com). So far submissions have tended to be rather obscure, with requests for "Dyer's Eve," "Blackened," "The Frayed Ends of Sanity," "(Welcome Home) Sanitarium," "Don't Tread On Me," and, of course, the perennial favorite of headbangers everywhere, "Fade to Black" ...

Canadian born Grand Ole Opry star HANK SNOW, who gave the world the immortal rambler's anthem "I've Been Everywhere," died at his Nashville area home Monday morning at the age of eighty-five. An autopsy is pending to determine the exact cause of death, but Snow's son Jimmy told Reuters that his father had been in failing health for years and died peacefully in his bed. Over the course of his half-century career, Snow recorded more than 2,000 songs, including the hits "Movin' On," "Golden Rocket" and "Hello Love" ...

STING's tenth annual Rainforest Foundation Benefit is scheduled for April 13 at New York City's Carnegie Hall. The Foundation fights to preserve the rainforests and ensure the rights of its indigenous peoples. JAMES TAYLOR and ELTON JOHN will be among those also on the bill ...

Jazz saxophonist GROVER WASHINGTON, JR. died of an apparent heart attack in New York on Friday after taping a segment for CBS's The Early Show. He was promoting a compilation CD Prime Cuts: The Greatest Hits 1987-1999. Growing up in Philadelphia, Washington began playing the sax at ten and performing professionally shortly after. He composed the themes to the TV series The Cosby Show and Moonlighting, and his biggest hit -- 1981's "Just the Two of Us," a collaboration with singer Bill Withers -- earned him two Grammy awards. Washington was fifty-six ...

BILL CRANDALL, JENNY ELISCU, CHRISTINA SARACENO, RICHARD SKANSE, JAAN UHELSZKI
(DECEMBER 23, 1999)