The RIAA certified WARREN ZEVON's final album, The Wind, as Gold (sales of 500,000). The Wind is Zevon's first gold studio album in twenty-five years . . . MORRISSEY is working with producer JERRY FINN (BLINK-182) on his first new album in seven years . . . PAUL OAKENFOLD and the CRYSTAL METHOD will headline the Giant New Year's Eve event at the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles . . . DEAD CAN DANCE's LISA GERRARD will compose the score to Mel Gibson's new film, The Passion of the Christ . . . MICHELLE BRANCH, BRIAN McKNIGHT, GLORIA ESTEFAN and BRET MICHAELS will make appearances during the final season of The CHRIS ISAAK Show, which kicks off on January 8th . . .

PETE YORN will release the two-CD Live in New Jersey on January 6th . . . The SCORCHERS will back STEVE EARLE and BILLY JOE SHAVER at a tribute concert to the late JACK EMERSON tonight in Nashville . . . A twenty-three-year-old man is in critical condition after falling from an upper tier at a ROBBIE WILLIAMS concert in Australia . . . SUGARCULT will release their next album, "Palm Trees and Power Lines," on March 9th . . . SUPERCHUNK and DEVANDRA BANHART have contributed songs to the Kill Rock Stars compilation Tracks and Fields, due March 9th . . .

PEACHES, RUFUS WAINWRIGHT, MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO, JUNIOR SENIOR and BITCH AND ANIMAL have been nominated in the Outstanding Music Artist category for the fifteenth annual GLAAD Media Awards, which will be presented at three ceremonies next spring in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles . . . The original lineup of DURAN DURAN will launch their first U.K. tour in eighteen years with an April 13th performance at Wembley Arena . . . Country/pop star GLEN CAMPBELL pleaded innocent to charges of assault and drunken driving stemming from a November 24th hit-and-run incident in Phoenix. MY MORNING JACKET begin a ten-date tour on January 3rd in Nashville . . . The PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA will release a self-titled album on February 16th, President's Day . . . BRADLEY A. BUCKLES, the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, will leave his post next month to head the new Anti-Piracy Unit of the RIAA . . . A two-CD edition of DAVID BOWIE's "Black Tie, White Noise" will be released with a bonus DVD on January 13th . . . GRAHAM PARKER will release a new album, "Your Country," on March 9th.DAVID BOWIE's bout of influenza caused the cancellation of two more North American shows, yesterday in Boston and tonight in Philadelphia. The tour is now scheduled to launch Friday in Toronto . . . MYSTIKAL's sentencing on sexual battery charges has been postponed until January 15th . . . RAY MANZAREK and ROBBIE KRIEGER marked what would have been JIM MORRISON's sixtieth birthday with a candlelight vigil and poetry reading at his gravesite in Paris on Monday . . . TIMBALAND and HALL AND OATES are among those who will be honored at NARAS Heroes Awards 2003 Gala on Thursday in New York . . .

A PIXIES DVD is scheduled for release early next year. It will feature all of the band's videos and a 1988 London gig . . . CAT POWER begins a six-date mini-tour on Friday in Portland, Oregon . . . NATALIE IMBRUGLIA and SILVERCHAIR frontman DANIEL JOHNS will reportedly wed on New Years Eve . . . DOLLY PARTON's mother, AVIE PARTON, who inspired Dolly's hit "Coat of Many Colors," died Friday after a long illness; she was eighty . . . BUJU BANTON pleaded not guilty to charges of marijuana possession in a Kingston, Jamaica, court after police found two pounds of marijuana plants at his home last week . . .

ELVIS COSTELLO and jazz singer/pianst DIANA KRALL were married on December 6th in London. News of the couple's engagement was revealed in May by Krall's father. The marriage is the first for Krall, 39. Costello, 49, was married for sixteen years to former POGUES bassist CAIT O'RIORDAN, but they divorced in November 2002 . . .

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that civil rights activist ROSA PARKS can move forward with her lawsuit against OUTKAST and their label over the rap duo's 1998 single that bears her name. Parks sued in 1999, accusing OutKast and its Grammy-nominated song of false advertising and infringing on her right to publicity. A federal judge, citing the First Amendment, dismissed the suit in 1999, but an appeals court reinstated most of claims . . .

"We Are American," an unreleased EMINEM song which has made its way to the Internet, has drawn the attention of the Secret Service due to a line in which he raps, "Fuck money, I don't rap for dead presidents. I'd rather see the President dead" . . . P. DIDDY will design the alternate uniforms for the Dallas Mavericks' 2004-2005 season . . . An hour of additional footage will be added to the WARREN ZEVON documentary Keep Me in Your Heart for its DVD release on March 9th . . . DAVID BOWIE had to postpone the first two shows of his North American tour this weekend after contracting the flu. The dates, in Washington, D.C., and Atlantic City, New Jersey, will be rescheduled . . .

The ROLLING STONES' 2002-2003 Licks World Tour pulled in $300 million, the second biggest tour ever, only behind the group's Voodoo Lounge outing . . . HOOTIE AND THE BLOWFISH, ASHANTI, JOSS STONE and KENNY CHESNEY will perform at TNT's Christmas in Washington on December 14th . . . NERISSA AND KATRYNA NIELDS will release a new studio album, This Town Is Wrong, on January 13th . . . PRINCE, ERIC CLAPTON, MUSIQ, BOOTSY COLLINS and GEORGE CLINTON have contributed songs to Power of Soul, a JIMI HENDRIX tribute album, due May 4th . . . The ZOMBIES have lined up an eleven-date tour to begin February 6th in Stamford, Connecticut.

(December 11, 2003)