Prince also announced that he was separating from the New Power Generation, although the band will open for and play with him on his European tour. No reason was given for either change.
LOCALLY CONNECTED
* Add one more attraction to the list of Philly highlights: the Liberty Bell, cheesesteaks, the Mummers and trendy music. Details magazine senior editor David Keeps and his staff have picked Philadelphia as one of the cities with the hippest music clubs in North America, including Khyber Pass, Silk City Lounge, the Ritz and Revival. The clubs are listed in the July issue of the magazine, its third annual all-music issue.
FULL COURT PRESS
* Consider this fair warning: Charles Barkley is ready to slam-dunk the next reporter who dares to ask whether he's dating Madonna.
"People have been harassing my family in Philadelphia - the National Enquirer, Hard Copy, Inside Edition, every rag magazine in the country," the Phoenix Suns star said Monday. "And it seems it has become a big joke."
Barkley, who is estranged from his wife, blames the recent gossip, in part, for his mother-in-law's heart attack over the weekend in Philadelphia. "I met the woman one time in my life," Barkley said of the pop diva. "We're not dating, and I wish the stuff would just die down - or direct the harassment at me because it's not fair to involve my in-laws or my wife and daughter; it's just not fair."
SWEET 70
* Virginia Kelley, President Clinton's mother, celebrated her 70th birthday Sunday with a bash in Las Vegas featuring Wayne Newton and Elvis Presley's manager, Col. Tom Parker. Friends gathered around a speaker phone Sunday night to sing happy birthday to Kelley as her son listened on the other end
from the White House. About 50 people attended the party at the Las Vegas Country Club home of Elias Ghanem, a Clinton fund-raiser. Kelley planned to be in Washington this week to attend granddaughter Chelsea's eighth-grade graduation.
