YOUR FAVORITE MTV SHOWS ARE ON PARAMOUNT+

Scans: Big Star, The Verve, Oasis, Rancid, Def Squad, John Cale...

Juliana Hatfield, Teenage Fanclub, Afghan Whigs, Whiskeytown, Matthew Sweet and Wilco are among the

artists who have signed on to record tracks for a tribute album in honor of '70s power-pop idols Big Star. Big Star Small World is due out in May on the Ignition label ... The Verve are working on a documentary that will include live performances along with other footage. There's no word

yet on whether the project is destined for theater or home video, but

filming should wrap up in the summer, according to the band's U.S. publicist, Ambrosia Healy ...

Oasis singer and all-around rabble-rouser Liam Gallagher was

charged Friday with assaulting a fan in Brisbane, Australia, according

to Reuters. The singer was released on $6,600 bail; he's scheduled

to return to court in June. Oasis fan Benjamin Jones suffered a broken

nose on Thursday after Gallagher allegedly head-butted him during a scuffle

outside the band's hotel ... The release of Rancid's long-awaited fourth album, Life Won't Wait (Epitaph), has been pushed back from mid-May to June 9 ...

Def Squad will rally the troops and release Def Squad The

Album in June, with rhymin' friends Biz Markie and Too

$hort dropping by to lend a rapping hand and Erick Sermon

handling production chores ...

Bush guitarist Nigel Pulsford will take the stage with former Velvet Underground viola player John Cale on March 9 at the sixth annual Tibet House Benefit. Also on the bill for the show are Patti Smith, Sheryl Crow, former 10,000 Maniacs singer Natalie Merchant, event organizer and modern classical composer Phillip Glass, Brazilian legend Caetano Veloso and Live members Ed Kowalczyk and Chad Taylor. Bush publicist Michael Pagnotta said that "Gun," from Cale's 1974 album, Fear, is among the songs Pulsford and Cale are rumored to be rehearsing. Pagnotta also said that Pulsford has been working on songs for the next Bush album in Nashville, Tenn., since December ...

Indie folk band The Spinanes will release a new album, Arches and Aisles, on April 7 ... The soundtrack to the independent film "Niagra, Niagra" -- starring Robin Tunney ("The Craft") and Henry Thomas ("E.T.") -- features tracks from former Golden Palomino chanteuse Lori Carson, Lucinda Williams, former Cardinal member Richard Davies and slow-core country combo The Cowboy Junkies. Michael Timmins, co-leader of the Junkies, composed the incidental music to the film and performs the song "At a Crossroads" on the soundtrack, which also features songs from Patty Griffin, Martin Sexton, Katie Belle and The Blue Heelers ...

The Celtic Heartbeat Collection 2, a compilation of contemporary Celtic music, features a track by U2 singer Bono and guitarist The Edge with singer Christy Moore entitled "North & South of the River." It's a song "reflecting their desire for peace in Northern Ireland," according to a press release. Also included on the collection is a live version of the traditional Irish song "He Moved Through the Fair," by Sinead O'Connor ... The release date for Chicago noise band The Jesus Lizard's upcoming album, Blue, has been pushed back to May 5. The album, produced by former Gang of Four guitarist Andy Gill, was originally scheduled for an April 21 release ....

Aggro metal act Fear Factory are currently in a Vancouver, Canada, studio to work on their follow-up to the album Remanufacture, tentatively titled Obsolete. No release date has been announced ... -- ATN staff report [Fri., March 6, 1998, 9 a.m. PST]

Eight unreleased songs composed and performed by Oasis mastermind Noel Gallagher before the formation of the superstar Brit-pop group will be put up for sale by Christie's auction house on April 30, according to a Reuters report. The 30-minute cassette is expected to fetch up to $10,000 ...

Sonic Youth guitarist Thurston Moore will be playing a solo

show at the Space in Worchester, Mass., on March 7. The gig is being billed

as an experimental noise set ... Fragile-pop duo Damon and Naomi, former members of Galaxie 500, will release their third full-length album, Playback Singers, on April 7. The nine-track album features covers of songs by Japanese experimentalists Ghost and the early-'70s psychedelic folk-rock band Pearls Before Swine ...

An April 16 benefit concert for the environmental group Walden Woods Project has been confirmed for L.A.'s Wiltern Theater, according to a spokesperson for the cause. Organized by Don Henley -- who founded the project in 1990 -- the event, entitled "Stormy Weather '98," will feature Stevie Nicks, Sheryl Crow, Paula Cole, Trisha Yearwood and Gwen Stefani, singer for No Doubt. The show will benefit the new Henry David Thoreau Institute at Walden Pond in Massachusetts. Henley

formed the nonprofit WWP in 1990, and it has since

raised in excess of $15 million, mostly through concerts. Tickets go on sale Sunday, March 8, at 10 a.m. (PST), through Ticketmaster ... The release date of Jeff Buckley's posthumous double CD, Sketches (for my sweetheart the drunk), has been pushed back three weeks to May 26. The delay was prompted by the cover art, which has yet to be completed, according to Columbia Records spokesman Howard Wuelfing ...

Rapper Noreaga is gathering songs for his debut solo album, N.O.R.E. (Niggaz On The Run Eatin'), which is slated for release on June 17. The album features rapping pals Nas, Busta Rhymes, Jay-Z and Foxy Brown, with production by the Trackmasters team of L.E.S., Grease, DJ Clue? and

Duro ...

The late Beatles leader John Lennon's famed week of TV appearances on the "Mike Douglas Show" from 1972 will be released as a box-set video, complete with a hard-bound book in May. Lennon and wife Yoko Ono co-hosted the show with Douglas. The shows include Lennon's only jam with Chuck Berry on the songs "Memphis" and "Johnny B. Goode" ... -- ATN staff report [Thurs., March 5, 1998, 9 a.m. PST]

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