CYNDI LAUPER is putting together a US tour later this year to support the charity PFLAG and is expected to announce around twenty US 'True Colors' shows which will also feature ERASURE and THE B-52S.

JANET JACKSON's forthcoming new album will be titled '20 Years Old' and the first single from the album, 'Call On Me', is scheduled for a July release.

HOWARD JONES will play a four-night residency as part of this year's Edinburgh International Festival. The shows will take place at the Gilded Balloon from August 9th-12th.

REM are set to go back into the studio later this year to start work on a new studio album.

PET SHOP BOYS are rumoured to be working on a secret dance project with singer Robbie Williams. The album is expected to be released under a false name but is also said to include Williams collaborating with sometime MADONNA producer WILLIAM ORBIT.

ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN singer IAN McCULLOCH has provided vocals for Liverpool Football Club's FA Cup Final anthem, a reworking of Johnny Cash's 'Ring Of Fire'.

SHEENA EASTON will see her 1989 album 'The Lover In Me' reissued on May 15th. The album will feature four bonus tracks alongside the original tracklisting.

DEACON BLUE frontman RICKY ROSS has composed the music for a new theatre production which starts in Glasgow on may 18th. The play, No Mean City, runs at the Citizen's Theatre and will be on until June 3rd.

HAPPY MONDAYS will play a one-off show at Liverpool's Academy on June 2nd.

NITZER EBB have delayed the release of their forthcoming retrospective - 'Body Of Work' - until June 2nd.

MADONNA will finally release the DVD documentary that was filmed on her last tour. 'I'm Going To Tell You A Secret' will come out as a CD/DVD package on June 20th and consists of three main threads described by Madonna as "sort of a circle around three families: the family of the people I work with, the family that I live with, and the family of man, the world that I live in,". The release will contain previously unseen footage, as well as the director's cut of 'American Life'.

DEBORAH HARRY has recorded a track 'Dirty N Deep' as a gesture of support for the recently imprisoned rapper Lil' Kim. The track is available to download for free from the official BLONDIE website.

INXS have announced a UK and European leg to their current tour starting in London on October 12th and playing shows in Holland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Switzerland, Italy, France and Belgium.