MUSIQ will release his third album, Soulstarradio, on December 9th . . . N.E.R.D. will headline a Rock the Vote concert on October 30th in New Orleans . . . BADLY DRAWN BOY kicks off a fifteen-date tour on November 1st in Northampton, Massachusetts . . . LIBERTINES guitarist PETE DOHERTY rejoined the band for a performance in Kent, England, after serving a month in prison . . . The music of ELTON JOHN and BERNIE TAUPIN is being used as the inspiration for Rhapsody, a new drama series being developed for Fox . . . PETER GABRIEL has licensed a song to the next edition of the "Myst" video game series . . . A revamped (and legitimate) version of NAPSTER re-launched this week . . .

LENNON Legend, a new book, will include a sixty-minute audio CD featuring interviews and a live version of "Imagine" . . . MARIAH CAREY will release the two-CD The Remixes on October 14th . . . PUDDLE OF MUDD begin a fourteen-date tour on October 23rd in Chicago. The band's second album, Life on Display, was pushed to a November 25th release . . . DAVE GROHL's metal PROBOT project will release its self-titled debut in February . . . More than 100 LIMP BIZKIT fans took part in a class-action suit after the band cut short its Chicago set on the Summer Sanitarium Tour . . .

KORN's new album, Take a Look in the Mirror, has been pushed back to a November 25th release . . . The FCC ruled this week that BONO's use of an obscenity at the Golden Globe Awards did not meet the requirements to file an indecency charge . . . SARAH McLACHLAN will offer the five-song Acoustic Live EP 2003 for thirty days starting October 21st in the iTunes Music Store . . . JESSICA SIMPSON and NICK LACHEY's Newlyweds show on MTV has been renewed for a second season . . . JEWEL has lined up eleven tour dates, beginning November 21st in Thousand Oaks, California . . . Playboy.com has posted the results of a photo shoot with Outkast manning the cameras . . .

SUPERGRASS had to cancel the final four dates of their U.S. tour after frontman GAZ COOMBES and his brother ROB had to return to the U.K. for a family matter . . . AEROSMITH and KISS' tour has been extended through December 20th in Fresno, California . . . Rapper KURTIS BLOW will receive the Pioneer Award at the Source Awards on October 13th in Miami . . . The Cavern club in Liverpool where the BEATLES cut their teeth is being franchised with locations opening in Rio de Janeiro and Moscow . . . EL-P, TALIB KWELI and DAN THE AUTOMATOR will perform at the Audiotistic festival on October 18th in Los Angeles . . .

BONO will speak about his charitable work in Africa at the United Nations 2003 annual dinner tonight in New York . . . NELLY will include a new track, "Iz U," on Da Derrty Versions, an album of remixes due November 25th . . . A Chicago judge has granted R. KELLY, on bail after being indicted on child pornography charges, permission to tour the South and East Coast this fall . . . ZZ TOP will play the final concert at the Compaq Center (formerly the Summit) in Houston on November 22nd . . .

SHERYL CROW, KID ROCK, OUTKAST and RICKY MARTIN have joined the lineup for the thirty-first annual American Music Awards, set for November 16th in Los Angeles . . . BOB SEGER AND THE SILVER BULLET BAND's Greatest Hits 2 will be released on November 4th . . . Former ROOTS beatbox master RAHZEL will provide voice overs for the animated series PlanetRock! . . . TEARS FOR FEARS' ROLAND ORZABAL and CURT SMITH are reuniting for the first time in fourteen years. The pair will record an album for an early-2004 release . . . Eighties Swedish stars EUROPE are also reforming with plans for a new album and world tour next year . . .

ASHANTI will release a holiday album, Ashanti's Christmas, on November 18th. The set will feature four new songs along with more traditional fare like "Silent Night" . . . The Supreme Court refused to hear former BEACH BOY AL JARDINE's appeal after a Circuit Court ruled that he couldn't tour under a variation of the group's name . . . BOB WEIR AND RATDOG, DE LA SOUL, BLUES TRAVELER, PETE YORN and the DEREK TRUCKS BAND will perform at the Great Southern Music Harvest, which runs October 10-12 in Live Oak, Florida . . . ICE CUBE has signed on for the starring role in the sequel to the action movie smash XXX, which begins production next summer . . .

A fan was stabbed to death on October 4th in the bathroom of the Hyundai Center near Los Angeles during the P3 concert, which featured performances by SNOOP DOGG, LUDACRIS and others . . . U.S. MAPLE will release their fourth album, Purple on Time, on November 4th . . . . Bassist CHUBBY JACKSON, who had played with DUKE ELLINGTON, LOUIS ARMSTRONG, WOODY HERMAN and others, died of cancer last week in San Diego; he was eighty-four . . . BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND THE E STREET BAND wrapped a fourteen-month tour in New York's Shea Stadium over the weekend. BOB DYLAN joined the band for a take on "Highway 61 Revisited" . . .

(October 9, 2003)