Former Van Halen and Extreme singer Gary Cherone will spend the next few months starring in a small community musical version of Pink Floyd's The Wall in Wisconsin, reports Australian music news site Undercover.com.au in their news pages. Cherone, who left Van Halen in 1998 after the disastrous Van Halen III album, was their third singer, taking over from David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar. He was previously lead singer for Extreme, who had a hit with "More Than Words" in 1991.

He will play Pink, the starring role Bob Geldof played in the movie. The show will premiere at The Schauer Arts and Activities Center in Hartford, WI, USA on November 29th, and will then play the Scottish Rite in Milwaukee from January 22nd - February 1st, 2004.

In UK newspaper The Independent on Monday (September 22nd), there was a great interview with the ever interesting Gerald Scarfe, artist of course of the animation used in The Wall.

As part of his recent series of talks that he toured with, he showed some of his drawings together with excerpts from The Wall, to which the audience were "politely enthusiastic". Read the full interview here.

The Sir Charles Blues Lab is a non-profit making organisation collaborating with schools and community centers across the nation to provide young people with opportunities to learn and master the Blues as an enriching after school activity. On Tuesday this week, his birthday, Ray Charles took the occasion to announce his own gift to the world, a national songwriting contest for kids to be sponsored by The Blues Lab and Comcast, which kicks off September 30th.

Zagat, who publish restaurant guides, this week published its Music Guide, which rates and reviews the 1,000 top albums of all time based on the tastes of 10,656 participating listeners, spanning eight decades of recorded music from rock to classical, and with 80 indexes embracing categories like platinum sellers, chill-out and Grammy winners.