News of Jamiroquai's overdue follow-up to 1996's lauded Travelling Without Moving is finally slipping out of the hat. Word is the new release will hit British streets on June 7, to coincide with a two-week U.K. tour. American stores should be stocking the record shortly thereafter, according to a spokesperson at the Work Group, Jamiroquai's U.S. label. "We're sending a liaison over to London this week to listen to the new tracks, and will know more when he gets back," she says. "But it's definitely coming out in June." The long wait is not without reason. The band had to break in a new bass player after Stuart Zender quit to be a stay-at-home father (he and All Saints songbird Melanie Blatt had a daughter last year). Then, of course, there were band leader Jay Kay's multiple run-ins with the law, most impressive of which was his dramatic 111 m.p.h. race with police, which he claimed was due to a valiant effort to outrun a stalker. The vocalist had no recourse but to turn to air travel, but that presented its own problems. According to a U.K. press report, Kay was arrested at a Madrid airport earlier this year when he threw a tantrum after the airlines lost his luggage. Instead of taking it in stride, the hatted cat allegedly lost control and began hurling abuse at airport employees. Police were called to the scene and arrested the irascible singer for disturbing the peace . . .

Como se dice "Bruuuuuuuuuuuce!" en espanol? You'd better learn pronto if you plan on catching the first night of the highly-anticipated Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band reunion tour, which kicks off April 9 in Barcelona, Spain. Other European tour dates released by the Boss camp Thursday (March 4) are: Munich, Germany (April 13); Cologne, Germany (April 15); Bologna, Italy (April 17); Milan, Italy (April 19); Vienna, Austria (April 24); Zurich, Switzerland (April 26); Lyon, France (April 28); Manchester, England (May 1); Birmingham, England (May 16); London (May 18 & 19); Dublin, Ireland (May 25); Berlin (May 29); Paris (June 2); Zaragosa, Spain (June 5); Madrid, Spain (June 7). Springsteen will return home for the U.S. leg of the tour, scheduled to run from mid-July through the end of September. Dates and venues have yet to be announced, but he will be performing multiple nights in certain major cities. In other Bruce news, Columbia Records is hoping to tempt those who couldn't quite pony up the cash for his four-disc Tracks box set with a single disc version, 18 Tracks, to be released on April 13. And for those superfans who did buy the box, hey ... there's three *new* "bonus cuts" on the eighteen tracker that weren't on the box: "The Fever," "The Promise" and "Trouble River." Suckers . . .

In other other Bruce news: Springsteen has made plenty of dough singing about ex-cons, so it's about time he returned the favor and helped a former jailbird earn a few extra bucks -- which he's just done by turning in a cameo appearance on Cheating at Solitaire, the first solo album from Social Distortion majordomo Mike Ness. Ness, who chronicled his own descent into the criminal netherworld on Social D's Prison Bound, drifted in and out of jail during a mid-Eighties stretch that (by his own admission) was marked by drug abuse and general ne'er-do-wellism. He pulled it together by '88, when he re-emerged, having retooled his former punk cronies into a rootsier combo. For this first solo foray, which is due out in mid-April, Ness is joined by a wide array of Southern California rock vets -- and, of course, the Boss, who duets with the eyeliner-laden singer on a tune called "Misery Loves Company" . . .

Who knew Howie B was such a sexy guy? The DJ/producer/musician lulled us into thinking he was a domesticated animal back in '96 when he released Music for Babies, an album inspired by the birth of his son. But when he began a steamy relationship with Bjork soon afterward, and had to leave his opening slot on U2's Pop Mart tour for some never-disclosed reason, we began to think that Mr. B. had a much wilder side. Turn the Dark Off, his 1997 album, confirmed the fact -- and when we found out that he had dubbed his U.K.-based label Pussyfoot, we knew Howard was a swinger. Now, Americans will get a real taste of his prurient interests, since the multi-talented Brit just inked a deal with Chris Blackwell's entertainment conglomerate Palm Pictures to distribute six state-of-the art electronic albums a year. The B-man will release Snatch on March 16 and will follow it up with a compilation album called Suck It And See: A Musical Tribute to Pornography, due out on April 27. According to insiders, the so-called "dirty double disc" could make Barry White blush with its moaning, groaning and sex-line snippets. The cover is XXX and, to further titillate you, Palm Pictures is releasing a thirty-minute companion piece on DVD and home video . . .

We had mixed feelings when we first heard that Sting was going to be honored by having his face plastered on a postage stamp by the tiny Pacific island nation of Palau. Frankly we were outraged, until we were tipped to the notion that Der Stingle was actually being feted for his efforts as an environmental activist, which made a little more sense. While American tradition holds that a person must be dead in order to get his or her image on a stamp, Palau -- which takes in millions of dollars every year from its celebrity-driven postal service -- has no such requirement, darn the luck. As such, the Stingmeister -- as well as U.S. vice-president Al Gore -- will be part of the latest campaign from Palau's postmaster general. Sting and Gore are both being singled out for their work with the Rainforest Foundation, which was set up to save the endangered Amazonian forest. We could point out the irony of forcing folks to contribute to tree-cutting as part of this tribute, but we'll be polite this time ...

Two shows in and the Marilyn Manson/Hole tour is already living up to the boorishness such a crass combo virtually guaranteed. Last night, early in Manson's headlining set at Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum, the tactful frontman told the crowd, "Courtney [Love]'s in her dressing room playing with her dirty pussy." Love heard the disparaging comment backstage, and then proceeded to seek retribution. After plowing by security, she leapt on Manson, who continued singing while Love attacked him. "They struggled," says a source close to the tour, who witnessed the event. "He was wandering back and forth and she was attached to him in a bear hug. He was moving around with her and he shook her off and then she pushed him down." During the fracas, which lasted about a minute, Manson never stopped singing, according to the source, who says the two kissed and made up after the show. "The tour is, after two dates, beginning to live up to its controversial expectations," says the source. "There was such a threat of illicit sex and danger that this just bears it out." A representative for Hole had no knowledge of the incident. Manson's camp was unavailable for comment . . .

Contrary to several reports, Chris Cornell's solo debut will hit the street in September, not June. The still-untitled effort has received several tenuous release dates (mostly because Cornell's Interscope label is smack dab in the middle of the volatile Polygram merger), but now manager Jim Guerinot says a September release looks "dead solid." The album is expected to feature three different drummers, with Guns n' Roses/Vandals' Josh Freese banging away on nine tracks, and former Soundgarden bandmate Matt Cameron on another. As previously reported, Eleven members Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider back Cornell on the entire album . . .

If you've found yourself longing for a new offering from Bjork, you're going to have to wait a little longer. According to Elektra Records, they don't have any firm releases pencilled in for the ice maiden. Instead, they say Bjork has barricaded herself in her London flat and is finishing the soundtrack for Dancer in the Dark, the musical directed by Lars Von Trier that is set to begin filming in May. According to Elektra, the soundtrack will be released as an album, they're just not certain at this point which label has first dibs -- but there is a possibility that Elektra may release it. Our spies spotted the musician window shopping on London's Portobello Road last month, but other than the occasional foray out for a meal, Bjork is giving her full attention to finishing the score and memorizing her lines for her role in the flick. Everyone's favorite sprite is set to play the part of Selma, a Czech woman who arrives in the U.S. in the Sixties with her young son and must find work to pay for his medical treatment. Von Trier, best-known for his controversial Breaking the Waves, has convinced the still-beautiful Catherine Deneuve to take a role in the film, and is currently on a hunt to sign a high-wattage U.S. star. If you're really hard up for some Bjork, she does have a track on the Mod Squad soundtrack due out on March 23 . . .

Although ARK 21, the label owned by former Police manager Miles Copeland (Sting's current manager and brother of Police drummer Stewart), released not one, but two Police tribute albums last year, a reunion of the white reggaemeisters didn't materialize to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the legendary band's inception. Stewart and guitarist Andy Summers did grace the same stage last October for the first time in a decade when they both joined Mexican rock outfit the Jaguares at the House of Blues for three of their songs. The night was so magical, they began talking about a Police Reunion in South America this year -- without Sting, but with a handful of renowned Latin vocalists singing parts in Spanish. But those plans were scotched when Summers developed a bone spur. Howard Stern couldn't let the matter rest, and when he had Sting's jill-of-all-trades wife, filmmaker/writer/actress Trudie Styler, on the show on Wednesday (March 3), he grilled her about whether her husband was ever going to rejoin his comrades. "Reunion? He wouldn't do a reunion unless I went on a rampage at all the shops and bankrupted him," Styler said. "He doesn't want to get together with them now. I mean, he's recording a new album." If not now, *when* is what we want to know. Styler did fob off Stern's remarks that Sting was feuding with his former bandmates. "No, he doesn't hate them. He just played tennis with Stewart two weeks ago in Los Angeles. As for ARK 21, they told us there are no plans to reschedule the truncated Police reunion -- but didn't pooh-pooh a full-on Police reunion in the near future. "They're always talking about it," said a spokesperson . . .

Pearl Jam were originally going to begin work on their next album in early January, but with imbibing on all the hype surrounding the Super Bowl and getting cross-eyed evaluating previous Monica Lewinsky hair-dos, who has the time? But now it looks that the Seattle quintet is ready to get back to work. "Hopefully, we're gonna start making a new record in the next few weeks," says guitarist Stone Gossard. "We haven't really gotten together since the last day of the tour, so we're planning on meeting soon, but haven't done that yet." With regard to the uncertain drummer position, Gossard says Live on Two Legs skinsman Matt Cameron will "hopefully" assume duties in place of Jack Irons when they reconvene . . .

Lo-Fi Scottish indie popsters the Beta Band, whose overseas hype has reached very un-indie proportions with praise and adulation to rival Gomez, are set to follow up the release of The Three E.P.s with their official full-length album on June 15th. The band's debut disc will be comprised of two CDs: the first containing ten tracks and the second of experimental ambient music, according to Astralwerks. Following the release, the band is set to make a short, four-city U.S. tour in late June, followed by a more expansive tour in the fall . . .

Remember back in 1993, when KISS bassist Gene Simmons said that he was rededicating his life to music and was backing off the movie industry? That was after his brief tenure as an actor playing a raft of seamy characters, like a transsexual in 1986's Never Too Young To Die, and an Israeli terrorist in 1987's Tom Selleck thriller, Wanted: Dead or Alive. But after co-producing Detroit Rock City, Simmons apparently got the bug again, and is producing Groupies for New Line Cinema, as well as a flick for VH-1 based on Casablanca Records, the label headed by industry maverick Neil Bogart, who died from brain cancer in May 1982. The label, which broke the careers of KISS, disco diva Donna Summer, the Village People and Parliament/Funkadelic was reportedly deeply embroiled in some of the drug/payola scandals of the roaring Seventies, and should make for interesting viewing. That's not the only expose of the edgy label in the works. Larry Harris, former Casablanca VP and Bogart's cousin, is writing a book based on some of the more nefarious goings-on at the label while he was on board . . .

"Free Girl Now," the buoyant lead single from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' forthcoming album, Echo, (due April 13) can be downloaded free of charge at www.mp3.com, but don't be surprised if the track plays back with a fair share of blips and bleeps in the background. At least, that's how we're hearing it at the RS offices. Neither mp3.com nor Petty's management could be reached for comment on whether or not the glitch is a file problem or an intentional copyright protection, but, surprisingly, the song seems to play back fine on a portable Rio player. Go figure. In other Petty news, rumor has it that the Heartbreakers will be taping during their seven-day stint at San Francisco's historic Fillmore beginning this Sunday. Although Petty's label wouldn't confirm it, insiders claim that Petty would love to release a Live at the Fillmore album. It's high time, too; Petty's last live album was 1985's Pack Up the Plantation: Live! . . .

Anyone savoring the thought of a messy, protracted battle between Oasis and former drummer Tony McCarroll -- or at least a punch-up -- was denied his sport today. Proceedings were due to start this morning (March 2) in London's High Court where the former drummer contested that his sacking from the group, prior to What's the Story Morning Glory, was unlawful and is seeking twenty percent of the band's profits since his expulsion as compensation. However, as the eleventh hour loomed, an announcement was made that the two parties had settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. Last week, the band had offered a settlement of $800,000, which McCarroll had turned down; some estimates placed the amount sought by Carroll as high as $26 million pounds. The undisclosed amount will go before the judge for approval on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Noel Gallagher told journalists last month that work wouldn't begin on the fourth Oasis album until the case was out of the way. Studios have reportedly already been booked and Gallagher, as always, will be producing. However, regular engineer Owen Morris has been replaced by Mark "Spike" Stent, the famed British mixer who has worked with Massive Attack, the Spice Girls, Madonna and Bjork. He has just completed mixing the second album by British trip-hop quartet Sneaker Pimps, the follow-up to their million-selling Becoming X and the first to be fronted by guitarist Chris Corner. Former vocalist Kelli Dayton left the band last year . . .

The first commandment of rock & roll: Thou shalt not try to upstage Keith Richards. Cake frontman John McCrea shattered that tenet when he insisted on moving furniture in his Sacramento, Calif., home last weekend, somehow miscalculated and ended up with a broken arm, costing his band at least four weeks of shows in Europe. The boner one-upped the Rolling Stones guitarist, who, while reaching for a book in his Connecticut home last year, fell and bruised his ribs. According to a management spokesperson, McCrea will obey doctor's orders and stay off the road this month to recuperate. Cake were scheduled to launch a European tour on March 2, but will now move those dates back at least one month and likely return to the States in late spring . . .

So what if you can't mosh to cabaret music? Third Eye Blind's Stephen Jenkins and piano man Rufus Wainwright chilled out backstage Saturday night at Bimbo's in San Francisco where Wainwright, beleaguered by an inebriated and inattentive crowd comprised of contest winners from a local radio show, told Jenkins he made it through the night by singing to the first two rows. "At least I know those people love me," he explained. The two got on so swimmingly that Jenkins invited the singer to join him and Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich for a drink at the local celeb watering hole Tosca's. Wainwright demurred, but Jenkins and Ulrich, who are now bosom buddies, closed the place down, and not before trading quips with San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who was better dressed than either of the rock stars. And what's a celeb pow-wow without some celluloid talent? Jenkins didn't gush over the finer points of Godfather II when introduced to Francis Ford Coppola, but rather chatted about the legendary director's son, Roman, a video director cum feature filmmaker who recently snared the rights to Jack Kerouac's On The Road. The younger Coppola has been in touch with Jenkins about taking a small but significant role in the pic. Jenkins was flattered by the offer, but told the young filmmaker he's too busy laying down tracks for the follow-up to Third Eye Blind's 1997 self-titled debut album to get in character . . .

Anyone remember ABC? Assuming you can hum along to the Buggles' "Video Killed the Radio Star," you'll likely recall a verse or two of "The Look of Love" or "Poison Arrow," the two songs MTV popularized about sixteen years ago. Amazingly, ABC haven't gone away -- unless away means the world outside of the United States. After touring the U.K. last winter with Culture Club and Howard Jones, the band is looking to make its return to the U.S., possibly in a New Wave package tour. To help stir the memory of ABC amnesiacs, the group will release its first-ever live album, tentatively titled The Lexicon of Live (a play on the band's breakthrough record, 1982's The Lexicon of Love) via the Internet at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Melomania/. Set to include songs like "When Smokey Sings," "All of My Heart," and the two aforementioned hits, the album should be available within the next month or so. And, even if Americans refuse to greet ABC with open arms, the group will be back in the U.K. and back on the road with Culture Club and the Human League in November . . .

Could Bono be a no-show at the Johnny Cash tribute concert on April 6 at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom? U2 are listed among the A-list performers scheduled to pay homage to the Man in Black, but a high-placed industry source says the Irish superstars will not be performing at the tribute, and neither will Bruce Springsteen or the heretofore unannounced Bob Dylan. All three will be sending pre-taped video salutes. Artists scheduled to perform at the Cash tribute are: Willie Nelson, Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Lyle Lovett, Trisha Yearwood, Kris Kristofferson and possibly others yet to be announced, including Cash himself. In other industry giant news, insiders say Bono has agreed to give a speech for Springsteen's induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on March 15 . . .

What do you get when you combine Communism and a member of R.E.M.? Approval from the U.S. Treasury Department to fly a cadre of musicians into the off-limits island of Cuba for a nine-day writing/jamming session, that's what. Dubbed "Music Bridges Around the World," the sonic cultural exchange is set to take place in late March and will climax in a free concert at the Karl Marx Theater in Havana. So far, organizer Alan Roy Scott, an American songwriter who has hosted such exchanges in Indonesia, the Soviet Union, Romania and Ireland over the past ten years, has recruited not only R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, but also such diverse artists as Burt Bacharach, Joan Osborne, Jimmy Buffett, Chuck D, Stewart Copeland, Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Kris Kristofferson, Lisa Loeb, Mick Fleetwood, Montell Jordan, Andy Summers and the Indigo Girls. Lucky artists who sign up will not only get to fly direct from the States, they'll also get to show off those fancy and much-coveted stamps from the border patrol in Cuba (something scant American lay-people can boast). . .

Neil Young for the birds? Apparently so. A fan letter posted on the "Hyper Rust" Web site excerpts an article from a recent issue of Cottage Life magazine that swears a liberal dose of Young's finest hits soothed an ailing loon. Seems bird rehabilitators Michael and Janice Enright could not comfort an inconsolable loon chick in their care. After the bird had been crying for weeks, the couple got the bright idea of playing the infant bird music. They went through their record collection, playing jazz, classical, pop. But nothing worked until they put on Long May You Run, by Neil Young, and according to Michael Enright, "the chirps turned into chirps." (Huh?) Just to make sure that it wasn't just a coincidence, the couple continued their musical tests, and interspersed Young with other artists. But the bird responded only to Neil. "He really liked 'Thrasher' and 'Birds,' of course," said Michael. The couple were astounded at their results and have included Neil Young music as a regular part of their therapy. When a second loon was brought in to recover from an injury, they immediately put Harvest Moon on the CD player, and, like the first bird, the second loon was quieted. When the magazine approached Young's father, Scott Young, about this strange phenomenon, he replied: "I always knew loons were smart. They probably heard in Neil's voice a kindred spirit, for he used to . . . watch loons and serenade them. He has a loon-like sound, I'm sure he tried to imitate them. That is why he's gotten so successful." Cottage has not yet weighed in with a report on how Young's charms work on former Byrd David Crosby, with whom Young is collaborating for new Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young tracks . . .

In true "I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of people I'm preaching to"-like behavior, the guy who vociferously denounced last week's Grammy Awards has decided to take home the trophy he was granted by the National Academy for Recording Arts and Sciences. Citing a gross lack of recognition for rap artists by NARAS, chart-topping rapper Jay-Z boycotted Wednesday's awards ceremony through a statement issued to the voting committee. "Too many major rap artists continue to be overlooked," the rapper wrote. "If it's a gun everybody knows about it; but if we go on a world tour, no one knows." However, when luck smiled upon him in the form of a nod for Best Rap Album for his latest release, Vol. 2 ... Hark Knock Life, Jay-Z accepted the accolade. "If they want to give us awards, we'll take them," Damon Dash, co-founder/CEO of Roc-A-Fella (Jay-Z's label), told Billboard magazine. "But we aren't gonna drop everything and run to the show to get a small pat on the head when they don't even air the award he won. We feel we made our statement by boycotting the show." Suppose he won't be giving over the money earned by the sales of his album, which will be undoubtedly be bolstered by last week's victory . . .

BLAIR FISCHER, JIM IRVIN, JOLIE LASH, RICHARD SKANSE, HEIDI SHERMAN, DAVID SPRAGUE and JAAN UHELSZKI
(March 4, 1999)