STING has enlisted JOSH WINK to remix "Send Your Love," the first single from Sting's upcoming album, Sacred Love, due in September . . . A six-CD live NEIL DIAMOND box set, Stages: Performances 1972-2002, will be released on September 30th . . . The WHITE STRIPES shot a video for "Hardest Button to Button" near Grant's tomb in New York City last weekend . . . The DEAD KENNEDYS will perform a twenty-fifth anniversary show at the Key Club in Los Angeles in Los Angeles on August 19th. The band is celebrating the release of the new DVD, In God We Trust, Inc.: The Lost Tapes . . .

JEWEL will begin a twenty-one-date tour behind 0304 on September 19th in North Charleston, South Carolina . . . EMINEM will make a guest vocal appearance on Comedy Central's Crank Yankers, during the show's third season later this year . . . GUSTER will begin a thirteen-date tour on August 8th in Boulder, Colorado . . . MOBY has made "Love of Strings," a rearrangement of his song "Signs of Love" available exclusively through the iTunes Music Store . . . CYPRESS HILL are in the studio working on the follow-up to 2001's Stoned Raiders, due later this year . . . RAY CHARLES had to postpone fourteen concerts after suffering cartilage damage in his hip . . .

BRITNEY SPEARS and MARY J. BLIGE will perform at a free concert in Washington, D.C., on September 4th to kick off the 2003 National Football League season . . . EVAN DANDO has lined up another round of tour dates behind Baby I'm Bored, to begin September 9th in Indianapolis and run through mid-October . . . LIBERTINES guitarist PETE DOHERTY was arrested last week in London for burglary . . . Video game maker Conspiracy Entertainment filed a lawsuit against EMINEM claiming the rapper reneged on a contract he signed for a game that would feature his videos . . . STEREOPHONICS will launch a ten-date U.S. tour on September 9th in New York . . . HALL AND OATES will be inducted into the Hollywood RockWalk on Sunset Boulevard on August 5th . . .

GUIDED BY VOICES will release a box set, Hardcore UFO's, in November, which will include rarities, B sides, a DVD and the band's 1986 debut EP . . . The WALKMEN are recording their second album, set for an early 2004 release . . FISCHERSPOONER will begin a sixteen-date tour on September 14th in Portland, Oregon . . . SEAN PAUL received a summons by Jamaican authorities for using profanity during the Montego Bay Reggae Sumfest last week . . . Florida metalmen SIX FEET UNDER will release Bringer of Blood on September 23rd . . .

JAY-Z showed his support for basketball star KOBE BRYANT by donning a jersey bearing his name and number at the Las Vegas stop of the Roc the Mic Tour on July 27th. Just after the rapper was joined on stage by girlfriend BEYONCE KNOWLES, he spotted a fan wearing the Los Angeles Lakers shirt that read "not guilty." "I see you in the Kobe jersey, and I feel you," Jay said before asking the fan to borrow it. Bryant was accused of sexually assaulting a nineteen-year-old woman in Colorado earlier this month . . .

The Hip-Hop Summit Youth Council is petitioning residents of Hollis, Queens, in New York to rename 203rd street after slain RUN-D.M.C. DJ JAM MASTER JAY . . . ERYKAH BADU, DAVE MATTHEWS, TOM WAITS, COLDPLAY's CHRIS MARTIN, MOS DEF, the NEPTUNES and GWEN STEFANI are among the jury that will choose finalists for the Shortlist Music Prize, which will be awarded October 16th in Los Angeles . . . NAPSTER 2.0, which will charge money for downloading songs, plans to relaunch before year's end . . . BELLE AND SEBASTIAN are wrapping up their next album, and have lined up three performances in the U.S. starting August 19th in Brooklyn, New York . . .

The BACKSTREET BOYS' KEVIN RICHARDSON will return to the Broadway musical Chicago starting August 6th in San Francisco. Richardson will also be on hand when the musical debuts in London's West End in September . . . SYSTEM OF A DOWN guitarist DARON MALAKIAN will play in the Los Angeles Dodgers' forty-fifth annual Hollywood Stars baseball game on August 9th . . . PEARL JAM are assembling a two-CD set of B-sides and rarities due by Christmas . . . DEXY'S MIDNIGHT RUNNERS have reunited for a twenty-date, fall U.K. tour. The band will release a compilation, Let's Make This Precious, featuring some new material in September . . .

(July 30, 2003)