ASHLEE SIMPSON will host the West Coast arm of ABC's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2005, with talk show host REGIS PHILBIN filling in for the ailing DICK CLARK in New York's Times Square. Joining Simpson in the musical lineup are CIARA, BIG AND RICH; EARTH, WIND AND FIRE; GOOD CHARLOTTE and BILLY IDOL . . . The ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND's GREG ALLMAN will launch a twenty-three-date U.S. tour on January 19th in Norfolk, Virginia . . . MICHAEL JACKSON's lawyers have filed a motion to dismiss the child molestation charges against the pop star due to "vindictive prosecution and outrageous government conduct." They have also asked that evidence found in the December 3rd search of Jackson's Neverland ranch be suppressed, and that the January 31st trial date be pushed back . . .
OUTKAST's BIG BOI has launched Purple Label, with rapper and ex-TIMBALAND protege BUBBA SPARXXX as one of his first signings . . . After a string of radio events beginning Tuesday night, GAVIN DEGRAW will kick off the second leg of his American tour with a New Year's gig at Chicago's House of Blues, wrapping January 21st in Nashville . . . DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL, the CRYSTAL METHOD, ALKALINE TRIO, COLLECTIVE SOUL, THREE DAYS GRACE and BOWLING FOR SOUP are among the artists featured on the soundtrack to horror master WES CRAVEN's Cursed, due February 8th . . . BOWLING FOR SOUP kick off a thirty-city headlining tour on January 4th in Amarillo, Texas . . . AEROSMITH guitarist JOE PERRY will release his fourth solo album, the follow-up to 1984's Once a Rocker, Always a Rocker, this spring . . .
QUINCY JONES, HARRY BELAFONTE, YOUSSOU N'DOUR and the I-THREE will perform in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on February 6th to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the birth of late reggae legend BOB MARLEY. The funds raised from the concert will benefit a Marley museum to be built in the capital city, the birthplace of Rastafarianism . . . Bob Elfstron's out-of-print 1969 documentary, JOHNNY CASH! The Man, His World, His Music, will be released on DVD on March 8th. The film features late-Sixties interviews with Cash, as well as duets wife JUNE CARTER CASH and guest spots by BOB DYLAN and CARL PERKINS . . . ELTON JOHN has cancelled a second show in his U.K. tour due to a throat infection . . .
Just days after Roc-A-Fella Records was sold to Island Def Jam, CAM'RON has left the label. The Harlem rapper released his fourth solo album, Purple Haze, on December 7th . . . A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Wal-Mart in Maryland for stocking a parental-advisory-free version of EVANESCENCE CD/DVD Anywhere But Home, which contains the word "fuck." Each of the thousands of customers who bought the record may be eligible for approximately $75,000 in damages . . . Producer the ALCHEMIST and MOBB DEEP's PRODIGY will host the weekly show, Infamous Radio, on XM Radio's 66 RAW, set to debut on December 18th . . . Ex-SMASHING PUMPKINS drummer JIMMY CHAMBERLIN will kick off a tour with his new band JIMMY CHAMBERLIN COMPLEX in Los Angeles on January 10th . . .
