Sting has cancelled his fiftieth birthday party, which was set for September 27th in Morocco due to the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. . . . The annual CMJ Music Marathon and Film Fest, which was to have started on September 13th with acts including Ben Folds and Coldplay, has been delayed until October 10th . . . Britney Spears cancelled a September 13th press conference in Sydney, Australia to discuss details of her upcoming album, "Britney" . . . Jay-Z has bumped the start of his tour from September 14th to October 9th in Cleveland . . . Pre-sale and on-sale dates for the Family Values Tour, which will include Stone Temple Pilots and Staind, have been pushed back to next week . . .

Madonna rescheduled her cancelled September 11th show in Los Angeles for September 15th . . . Aerosmith's September 13th and 15th tour dates have been indefinitely postponed . . . Blink-182 has rescheduled their September 13th Anaheim, Calif., appearance for September 16th . . . Anthrax and Judas Priest postponed their joint tour until January . . . Canada's MuchMusic Video Awards, which were to air live on September 23rd with performances by Shaggy, Nelly Furtado, Staind and OutKast, have been cancelled . . . Trisha Yearwood has postponed her concert dates through September 20th . . . Janet Jackson has rescheduled September 14th and 15th dates in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., for October 28th and 29th . . .

Aimee Mann filed an $8 million lawsuit against the Universal Music Group on Monday, September 10th, after the label repackaged her songs as the "Aimee Mann Ultimate Collection" without her consent . . . LL Cool J will star in the action film, "Mindhunters," which will begin production in November . . . Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will release a two-DVD set, "Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Live in New York City," which will include nearly ninety minutes of footage that didn't appear in the HBO special of the same name. The set, which features interviews and rehearsal footage, will be released on November 6th . . . Radiohead's "OK Computer" topped a "Q" magazine poll for best album of the past fifteen years. Albums by Nirvana, R.E.M. and U2 also made the list . . . Guitarist Peter Buck told the R.E.M. fan site, murmurs.com that he has already begun writing new material for the band's thirteenth album . . . Queensryche will sponsor a blood drive in their hometown of Seattle on September 25th to benefit the survivors of Tuesday's terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.; the drive will coincide with the release of the band's new album, "Live Evolution" . . . Nick Lowe will play four dates behind his new album, "The Convincer," starting September 26th in Philadelphia . . .

A preview of the Smashing Pumpkins' animated Web series "Glass and the Machines of God" is available on the Web site for Sony's new broadband platform, Screenblast at www.screenblast.com . . . Sub Pop Records, the small Seattle label that gave the world Nirvana, will salute another legendary band, the Kinks, this fall, when it releases "Give the People What We Want -- Songs of the Kinks as Performed by..." Among those tackling the works of Ray Davies & Co. are Mudhoney ("Who Will Be the Next in Line"), the Young Fresh Fellows ("Gotta Get the First Plane Home") and the Murder City Devils ("Alcohol"). The album is due out November 6th . . .

Paul McCartney will read a selection of his poetry in celebration of National Poetry Day at London's West End theater on October 4th . . . Videos from Sparklehorse, Radiohead, Gorillaz, Daft Punk, Cibo Matto and other acts will be included in the second season of "Sonic Cinema," on the Sundance Channel in October . . . Designer Ivy Supersonic has teamed up with Snoop Dogg to create a line of men's and women's hats that features the rapper's image on the front . . . Thirteen sketches drawn by John Lennon between 1968 and 1980 went on display for the first time this week at London's Harbour Yard gallery . . .

Quincy Jones and Luciano Pavarotti are among this year's Kennedy Center Honorees. They will be honored in a ceremony at the JFK Center for the Performing Arts on December 2nd . . . The Three 6 Mafia will release the soundtrack to the film "Choices" on October 2nd, two weeks before film hits theaters . . . Diana Krall will play a free concert at Toronto's Union Station on September 19th . . . The BoDeans have settled their lawsuit with the Boston Beer Company, and the brewer has stopped the manufacture and sale of products under the band's name . . "Philip on Film: A Celebration of Twenty-five Years of Film Music by Philip Glass" will include a live performance by Glass set to new films by Atom Egoyan and Peter Greenaway. The festival runs October 23rd to 27th at the University of California at Los Angeles.

(September 14, 2001)