Billboard Bits: We The Planet, Jack Osbourne, Triumph

Tracy Chapman, Concrete Blonde’s Johnette Napolitano and Ben Taylor are among those who will take part in the upcoming We the Planet outing. Billed as “a nationwide tour of activism, discussion and music,” the CLIF Bar-sponsored U.S. trek will feature a rotating lineup of musicians and speakers attempting to address solutions for global problems.

The tour will launch Sept. 11 in Boulder, Col., and visit college campuses on the West Coast (Sept. 11-14), the Midwest and Northeast (Sept. 15-Oct. 4), and Southern California (Nov. 8-9). Presented by environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill’s organization Circle of Life, the package will travel in a bus powered by vegetable oil and bio-diesel fuel.

Others confirmed to take part are activists Hill, Patch Adams and Howard Lyman, author Alice Walker and actors Woody Harrelson and Alicia Silverstone. For details visit the We the Planet Web site.

The tour follows an April We the Planet concert in San Francisco that featured De La Soul, Cake, Alanis Morissette and Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers). Solely bio-diesel fuel generators and solar panels powered that event did not rely at all on the city’s traditional power supply.

— Barry A. Jeckell, N.Y.

---

MTV reality star Jack Osbourne will make his feature acting debut in Warner Bros. Pictures’ action comedy “New York Minute,” starring Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen. Dennie Gordon is directing the film, currently shooting in New York and Toronto.

In the tradition of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” the feature follows a day in the lives of 17-year-old sisters Jane and Roxy Ryan, who find themselves caught in mix-ups involving a shady black-market transaction, the kidnapping of a senator’s dog and pursuit by a truant officer.

Throughout the process, overachiever Jane (Ashley Olsen) is due to deliver a speech to qualify for a prestigious college scholarship, while punk-rock rebel Roxy (Mary-Kate Olsen) hopes to get backstage at an underground music video shoot and slip her demo tape to the band.

Osbourne will play Justin, the teen manager of Roxy’s band. The cast also includes Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Darrell Hammond, Andy Richter, Jared Padalecki, Riley Smith, Dr. Drew Pinsky, Mary Bond Davis and modern rock outfit Simple Plan.

— Zorianna Kit, The Hollywood Reporter

---

Canadian rock trio Triumph’s performance at the 1983 Us Festival in San Bernardino, Calif., will be released Sept. 23 on CD and DVD via TML Entertainment. The band played to an estimated crowd of more than 500,000 on “Heavy Metal Sunday,” which also featured Van Halen, the Scorpions, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Motley Crue and Quiet Riot.

Both the CD and DVD will feature the same track list of “Allied Forces,” “Lay It on the Line,” “Never Surrender,” “Magic Power,” “A World of Fantasy,” “Rock & Roll Machine,” “When the Lights Go Down” and “Fight the Good Fight.”

“It was awesome,” Triumph bassist/keyboardist Mike Levine says in a statement. “We just stood there and couldn’t see the end of the crowd. We’d played sold-out stadium concerts before, but nothing like this.”

— Barry A. Jeckell, N.Y.