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Rock News: Music's high and low notes

By JOHN SWENSON, United Press International
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FROM ELVIS TO THE STONES

Guitarist Scotty Moore and drummer DJ Fontana, two members of Elvis Presley's classic backup band, are special guests on Ronnie Wood's new album, "Not For Beginners."

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Wood, a veteran of the Rolling Stones, Faces and the Jeff Beck Group, is set to release his seventh solo album on SPV Records just in time to cash in on the upcoming Stones tour. Other special guests joining Wood on the record include Bob Dylan, Stereophonics vocalist Kelly Jones, former Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan, former Roxy Music drummer Andy Newmark and renowned session bass guitarist Willie Weeks.

Son Jessie Wood joins his father on guitar and daughter Leah Wood contributes vocals. Wood's talents aren't limited to music. He's been an acclaimed painter for many years, and his own paintings comprise the "Not For Beginners" cover and liner notes artwork.

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OSBOURNES BRINGING UP "BABY"

Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne have taken in Robert Marcato, their daughters' best friend, whose mother died recently from the same type of cancer for which Sharon Osbourne currently is being treated. Marcato, 18, will be a regular on the family's TV show, "The Osbournes."

Marcato's mother Regan died last week at age 36 of colon cancer. Marcato aka "Baby Osbourne" will move into the Osbourne household and the family will pay for his college education. "He wants to go to drama school, and we're sending him to the best drama school we can find," Sharon Osbourne told the New York Post. "We're moving him in as part of the family."


ADAM ANT IN PUB BRAWL

British pop star Adam Ant pleaded guilty in a London courtroom to a charge he started a fight in a North London pub after patrons taunted him over the cowboy outfit he was wearing. The incident occurred Jan. 12 at the Prince of Wales pub when, according to prosecution lawyers, Ant was ridiculed by bar patrons who hummed the theme from "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly."

This humiliation prompted the pop star to return to the pub with a starter's pistol which he used to threaten bar patrons. He also allegedly threw a car alternator through the pub window, hitting a local musician. The 47-year-old Ant, who appeared in court under his real name of Stuart Goddard, was released on bail pending an Oct. 2 sentencing.

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POP STARS TEAM UP ON FAITHFULL ALBUM

Beck, Blur, Dave Stewart and Billy Corgan all pitched in to help out singer Marianne Faithfull on her new album, "Kissin Time." The album -- her first in almost three years -- is a series of collaborations and specially commissioned songs from an illustrious line-up of Faithfull devotees. Faithfull currently is in the midst of a worldwide 100-date tour that began in May, 2002, and will bring her to the United States in September.

Corgan will join Faithfull for a special performance on the Late Show with David Letterman Sept. 2. "We did three songs," said Corgan, "two originals and a cover of 'Something Tells Me I'm Into Something Good,' the Herman Hermit's song. I asked her what she had been listening to, and she told me somewhat sheepishly that she's been listening to Herman's Hermits. We talked about that sunny-ness in music, and how people don't trust that anymore. So, why not do the song? A mature woman singing about that happiness?

"When she understands what she's translating to that voice, it's unbelievable. Don't let the mature Marianne fool you. She is still a punk rocker and it's so refreshing. I'm like, here I go. I'm 34, it's a new phase, it's not about teenage pain anymore. But when you meet someone like that, and realize they're still all there, it's so inspiring," she said.

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DEBORAH COLEMAN LIVE ALBUM

Blues/rock guitarist Deborah Coleman recently recorded a live show at the Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico, Calif. The resulting recordings will be released as an album entitled "Soul Be It!" on Blind Pig Records.

In 2001 Coleman, who has been called a combination of Jimi Hendrix and Tracy Chapman, won the prestigious Orville Gibson Award in the category of "Best Blues Guitarist-Female" and though she's received six W.C. Handy Award nominations, the one she most treasures is for "Best Guitarist," a category crowded with her male counterparts.

Coleman, co-producer of the live compact disc, was backed by her current band: longtime members Billy Crawford on second guitar, Debra "Nardi" Salyer on bass and newcomer Jason Paul on drums. "Soul Be It!" will be released in October in an enhanced CD format with a six minute video clip shot during the performance.

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