The Hives were awarded with Sweden's prestigious Music Export Prize at the Scandinavian version of the Grammys this week . . . Great White's label, Knight Records, and the family of late guitarist Ty Longley have launched the Ty Longley Foundation, to raise money for families of victims of the February 20th nightclub fire in Rhode Island . . . The Cure have signed with ARTISTdirect and will begin work on a new album in July . . . Ice Cube has signed a three-picture deal as an actor/producer with Julia Roberts' Revolution Films . . . Matthew Sweet, Pete Droge and Shawn Mullins will release an album as Thorns on May 6th . . .

Chris Gotti, president of Murder Inc. Records and brother of Irv Gotti, was shot in the leg on February 24th outside the offices of Def Jam Records. He was taken to the hospital, where he was treated and released . . . Wire will release Send, their first full-length album in thirteen years, on April 28th. The album will feature some songs from the band's recent Read and Burn EPs . . . Lynyrd Skynyrd will push back the May 6th release of Vicious Cycle until June after lead guitarist Gary Rossington underwent open-heart surgery. The band will also reschedule tour dates through May 25th . . . Wesley Willis will begin seventeen-date tour on March 19th in Cleveland . . .

Audioslave have joined the lineup for the U.K.'s Download Festival. Limp Bizkit, Marilyn Manson, the Deftones and Iron Maiden will also play the event, scheduled for May 31st and June 1st . . . The Red Hot Chili Peppers will headline a concert at Ireland's Slane Castle on August 23rd. The Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age will also perform . . . David Gray will play seventeen dates on the second leg of his U.S. tour behind A New Day at Midnight, starting July 17th in Hartford, Connecticut . . . The Polyphonic Spree will begin their first full-scale U.S. tour on April 10th in Chicago, running thirteen dates . . . Toby Keith and Pamela Anderson will host the Country Music Television's Flameworthy 2003 Awards in Nashville on April 7th . . .

Annie Lennox will release her next solo album, Bare, on June 10th on J Records . . . A Los Angeles parole board ordered rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight to be released from jail yesterday. Knight had been imprisoned since December 23rd after he was arrested for associating with gang members, a violation of his parole . . . Fischerspooner will launch their first-ever North American tour on April 8th in Toronto in support of their new album, #1 . . . Dionne Warwick said this week that the marijuana found in her purse at Miami International Airport last year was planted by someone else . . . Peppers Ghost will launch an eight-date tour on March 8th in Wilmington, Delaware . . .

The Beatles Museum in Liverpool has placed George Harrison's very first guitar on display this week to commemorate what would have been the Quiet Beatle's sixtieth birthday. The acoustic guitar, valued at $800,000, was lent to the museum by a private collector, and dates back to the mid-Fifties when Harrison was twelve-years-old. Harrison, who died of cancer in November 2001, is also the subject of a new tribute album this week, featuring covers by Todd Rundgren, John Entwistle and They Might Be Giants . . .

Belle and Sebastian will headline a benefit for Concern, an African charity, on May 17th in Glasgow . . . Radiohead will headline the U.K.'s Glastonbury Festival on June 28th. R.E.M. is scheduled to headline the previous day . . . Howlin' Wolf's classic London Sessions, which featured guest spots by Eric Clapton, Charlie Watts and Ringo Starr, will be expanded and reissued as a two-CD deluxe edition on March 4th . . . String Cheese Incident, the North Mississippi All-Stars and the Charlie Hunter Quartet will perform at the inaugural Suwannee Bound music festival, to take place April 19-20 in Live Oak, Florida . . .

Tift Merritt will make a guest appearance on John Eddie's Lost Highway debut, "Who the Hell Is John Eddie?," due May 20th . . . Nineteen Forty-Five will release their second album, I Saw a Bright Light, on April 22nd . . . The Delgados will begin an eleven-date North American tour on April 4th in Toronto . . . Four people were arrested in New York City Monday when a skirmish began outside of MTV's MC Battles show, in which aspiring rapper compete for a Def Jam recording contract . . . Johnny Paycheck was laid to rest in Nashville yesterday. The country legend died last week of emphysema . . .

Paul McCartney performed a private function in San Diego over the weekend, and donated his $1 million paycheck to the anti-landmines charity, Adopt-a-Minefield . . . Bono and Bob Geldof have formed DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa), a new initiative to aid suffering countries in Africa . . . The Flaming Lips are putting together a documentary and asking for fans with video footage to contribute. More information is available at flaminglips.com . . . Bright Eyes will begin a thirty-four-date tour on April 1st in Boulder, Colorado . . . Buju Banton will release his new album, Friends for Life, on March 11th . . .

Bruce Springsteen has lined up three stadium shows in his home state of New Jersey. Springsteen and the E Street Band will play Giants Stadium in East Rutherford on July 15th, 17th and 18th . . . Juvenile pleaded guilty on February 21st to charges of felony battery stemming from a March 2001 fight in Miami. He was ordered to perform seventy-five hours of community service . . . F-Minus will release their Steve Albini-produced new album, Wake Up Screaming, on March 25th . . . Country singer Clay Walker, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, has launched the new Band Against MS Foundation, which will raise money for research and other MS-related programs . . .

(February 27, 2003)