VILLAGE PEOPLE COWBOY PENS SPACE ROCK OPERA

VILLAGE PEOPLE COWBOY PENS SPACE ROCK OPERA

NEW YORK (Wireless Flash) -- It may sound spacey but the "Cowboy" in the Village People is trading in his horse for an alien spacecraft. Randy Jones, the original cowboy for the disco quintet, has just released a CD that he calls an "an electronica opera combining samples from sci-fi films with techno music." Although the 48-year-old Jones is best known for shaking his rump to "YMCA," he's been playing keyboards for years and kept up with modern styles even after disco died. The new CD, "Imagining Mandolins," is the first part of a trilogy that he hopes eventually will become a big screen feature. Jones is also planning a nationwide tour of dance clubs in the next few months, but fans shouldn't expect to hear "Macho Man," "In The Navy" or any other Village People classic. He says those disco ditties just "don't sound the same when sung by a single person."