U2 is preparing for its upcoming European...

U2 is preparing for its upcoming European concert tour by recording new songs to be used as bonus tracks on CD singles. The band has also picked a name for the trek, the latest wing of its “Zoo TV” tour: “Zooropa ’93.” . . .

Fine Young Cannibals is negotiating with Teddy Riley--the New Jack Swing-meister who has produced Michael Jackson and Bobby Brown--to produce at least part of the group’s next album. This will be the Cannibals first new recording project since 1988. . . .

Sting is planning to play a few February shows in Miami before starting a European concert tour. A U.S. tour is planned to begin in May, with the sets expected to reflect the rock ‘n’ roll tone of his upcoming album. . . .

Van Morrison, who will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Tuesday, is getting a lot of help from John Lee Hooker on a new album. Both are writing new songs for the album, and recently recorded a new duet version of Morrison’s ‘60s classic “Gloria.” Also guesting on the record is James Brown’s JB Horns. . . .

Don’t start saving your pennies yet for the proposed CD releases of the American versions of the Beatles’ albums. EMI has told its American subsidiary Capitol to hold off until some unspecified future time. . . . The two Doobie Brothers reunion concerts in November raised $75,000 for an educational trust fund for the two sons of percussionist Bobby LaKind. LaKind died from cancer on Christmas Eve. . . .

R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe has signed on as a contributing photographer for the pop culture magazine Ray Gun. . . .

A word of caution about the album “Fuaim,” billed as being by “Clannad Featuring Enya” and due early next month. It’s a reissue of an album more than a decade old--recorded long before Enya became a New Age star, and only featuring the singer as a bit player alongside her siblings and uncles who make up the Irish group Clannad. This is the album’s first U.S. release. . . .

Suzette Charles followed Vanessa Williams to the Miss America crown in 1984 after a nude photo scandal forced Williams to resign. Now Charles hopes to follow Williams into pop music stardom. She has a debut album due in April. . . .

LL Cool J is working in an L.A. studio with producers Marley Marl and Bobcat finishing an oft-rescheduled album, now tentatively due in March.

If you can’t wait for the Hard Rock Cafe spin-off House of Blues to open later this year in Hollywood, try Jack’s Sugar Shack, the new weekend club at the Sugar Shack on West Pico. The club is being booked and managed by Eddy Jennings, for years a top blues promoter in San Francisco.

Guitarist Elliott Easton, quiet since the Cars disbanded four years ago, is resurfacing in a new group, Band of Angels. A debut album is due in mid-February. . . . Extreme is taking to the road with a show featuring songs from its 1992 hit “III Sides to Every Story” album. The tour begins Jan. 22. No L.A. dates have been announced. . . . Rapper MC Lyte will have a new album out in early April.