The Girados tour kicks off in Spain July 26. The tour by two of Spain’s best-loved artists will start in Santiago de Compostela, continue through 30 dates and finish September 23 in Seville. Girados is a co-headlining tour with Ana Torroja and Miguel Bosé, and marks a return to the live arena after a long absence for both of them.

Torroja has not toured since she last played with the successful band Mecano in 1992 and her new album, Pasajes de un sueño, has had a huge impact.

Bosé returns to promote a best-of album covering the last 15 years of his career, which has exceeded expectations critically and sales wise.

The Girados will continue through the summer in Spain and finish in the Americas, performing more than 100 concerts over the next 11 months. After Spain, the tour continues till February 2001.

Russia

The alternative Russian rock act Blast, which was due to play eight dates around the U.K., had to cancel its tour when British immigration said it could not play live without the necessary work permits.

The band, fronted by Noshrevon Tavkelidze, the godson of former Russian Premier Yevgeniy Primakov, arrived in the U.K. to start a tour May 1 and was detained at London’s Heathrow Airport for seven hours by immigration officials. The result of the interrogation was that the band members were allowed to enter the country but were not allowed to play live.

Blast is the first Russian act to sign to a British record label and this was to have been the band’s first U.K. tour in support of new CD release Bury the Shoe Girl, which the band recorded with producer Mark Tolle earlier this year.

Tolle said, “The only people losing out financially here are the British – Ghost Records, HQ studios, the CD pressing plant, the plugger, the PR company, hotels, Easyjet and Practical Van Hire.”

U.K. record label Ghost Records is rescheduling the dates for July.

Australia

INXS members are eager to tour again after a May 14 show at the Mercury Lounge in Melbourne with guest singer Jon Stevens, formerly with Noiseworks. What’s more, at least three tour promoters — including Frontier Touring managing director Michael Gudinski, who co-owns the Mercury Lounge — have signaled their interest.

The 90-minute set was the first “real” set from INXS since the death of singer Michael Hutchence three years ago. An audience of 1,000 people — some from other states, three from the U.S. — packed the club and called the band back for three encores. INXS has played two other shows since Hutchence’s death — with Jimmy Barnes at the Mushroom 25th anniversary concert in October 1998 and with Terence Trent D’Arby at the opening of Stadium Australia last year.

But as close associates of INXS say, Stevens was the best of the three surrogate vocalists. At the start of the show, Stevens, who a year ago was in Los Angeles working with former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, sauntered onstage to see that the other members had stuck an “L” plate (for Learner). Halfway through the show, Tim Farriss changed it to “P” to denote “Probationary,” for passing his (driving) test.

Stevens and the band had only two rehearsals, but as the singer told them, “I’ve been such a fan, I know all the words anyway.” The set took in all the best-known songs — “Suicide Blonde,” “Kick,” “Devil Inside,” “Don’t Change” — with the band playing with old fervour.

Backstage, the mood was “emotional but definitely exhilarated. INXS definitely wants to go back on the road,” according to a close associate of the band. But whether it’s with Stevens or a group of guest vocalists remains to be seen.

Canada

Toronto’s I Mother Earth and Vancouver’s Matthew Good Band, both part of the Universal Music Canada family, will embark on a tour of Germany called Tour Des Monats.

Put together by Mercury Germany and promoter Scorpio Concerts, the co-headlining tour is designed to help developing artists. America’s Jimmie’s Chicken Shack (Island/Def Jam U.S.) is also on the bill. Tour Des Monats, which translates into Tour of the Month, is a play on the popular German football game show, “Goal of the Month.”

The four shows, promoted by Hamburg-based Scorpio Concerts, are May 22 in Hamburg at Logo+Grunspan, Berlin at Stageclub (23), Munich’s Georg Elserhalle (24) and Cologne at Prime Club (25). The booking agent for I Mother Earth is Andrew Leighton-Pope of London’s Leighton-Pope Organisation. Matthew Good Band is handled by Paul Bolton of London’s Helter Skelter.

Rock/alt. video channel VIVA2 is on board to present the shows. All three artists have videos in rotation and will be interviewed on the station. The Cologne date will be filmed for broadcast. German Internet radio station ChartRadio (ww.chartradio.de) will broadcast the Munich show May 24 from 2 to 6 p.m. (ET). Sponsoring the tour is Dickies Streetwear and online retailer Boxman.