News: Miscellaneous News Archives

May 11, 2008

Brad Pitt Helps Bono Celebrate 48th Birthday in Monaco

By Peter Mikelbank, People Magazine,

Even by Monaco standards, it wasn't your ordinary dinner party for 12 on Friday night - though there was cake and champagne.

To celebrate his 48th birthday, U2 frontman Bono held a small dinner party at Sass' Café in Monaco. On the guest list: Brad Pitt, Monaco's Prince Albert II and The Edge.

"It was really quite a surprise," the café's maitre de tells PEOPLE. "It wasn't organized in advance. We only got called on it that afternoon."

Despite Pitt's presence, Angelina Jolie, who had visited Bono in Eze with her children last Sunday, remained at home.

The sit-down dinner, arranged by Bono's wife Ali Hewson, began with red wine at 10 p.m., according to staff, even before The Edge arrived for the evening. The meal was followed by a champagne toast and strawberry cake lit with candles; a staffer described the party as "tres speciale."

No word on what gifts Bono received - but what do you give a man who has his own rock band and has already been nominated for the Nobel Prize?

Posted by Jonathan at 12:24 AM | Comments (0)

March 29, 2008

Edge of Reason

The Edge has spoken of how his great friendship with fellow bandmates has contributed to the longevity of U2.

The U2 guitarist credits their three decades of music success to the comradeship that has bonded them together.

In an intimate interview with RTE presenter John Kelly, to be broadcast next week, the Edge reveals how it's the music that keeps him sane.

"There's something about performing our songs in front of a large crowd which works and it's to do with the fact, I think, that a lot of those people at those shows are there to celebrate not just their favourite band, or a favourite band of theirs, but part of their history," he said.

The guitarist, known for giving U2 its distinctive sound, has stepped out from the shadow of front man Bono to speak about the legendary band.

FOUNDATIONS

He thinks their foundations of friendship are what have made them so stable compared to other rock groups.

"Maybe it's because we were friends before we were a band," he said.

"So in a sense the friendships were solid, so when it came to those moments of conflicts or difficulty, we kind of were able to skirt around the big conflicts and diffuse the situation and so we're operating in pretty much the same way now as we always did," he added.

As friendships go, it's been very successful for all the four members of the group: Bono, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen and the Edge, who have sold a total of 170 million albums worldwide.

Little did they expect when they formed in 1976 that they would make their fortune through their solid punk sound, catchy lyrics and Bono's belting voice.

The Edge is very aware that fame and success come with a lot of responsibility. He takes this burden very seriously.

"I think it's something that you always are aware of and it's something that I would remind myself of often," he said.

The man, who grew up in Malahide and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with U2 in 2005, knows that he has been fortunate with the way his life has panned out.

"Here we are and with our friends. We are some of the luckiest people that have ever lived and once you bear that in mind, then first of all, I think you've a responsibility to enjoy your life.

CHARITY

"I also think you've a responsibility to take advantage of your situation, to make things better and to spread it out a bit."

The Edge has taken a quieter role in charity work compared to bandmate Bono but he has been actively involved with Greenpeace, Live 8 and Make Poverty History.

The full interview with the Edge will be broadcast on Monday night at 11.30pm on RTE1 television.

Posted by Jonathan at 04:16 AM | Comments (0)

March 07, 2008

Bono no longer has the voice for Clannad

As Irish group Clannad prepare to return to the spotlight, Sally Williams speaks to guitarist and vocalist Noel Duggan about their unique sound and their certain friend by the name of Bono

by Sally Williams, Western Mail

It is more than 20 years since Ireland's spiritual group Clannad teamed up with their countryman Bono for the spine-tingling hit "In a Lifetime."

But, as the band prepare to visit Wales as part of their first U.K. tour for a decade, don't hold your breath for the U2 frontman to appear on stage with them.

Guitarist and vocalist Noel Duggan admits that Bono never performed the hit live and when Clannad sang it on Top of the Pops they did it without him.

Duggan says, "He (Bono) says he doesn't have the voice for it anymore. So we will have Bryan Kennedy (who has sung with Van Morrison) singing it in Belfast and there will be other guests on tour too.

"But we see Bono a lot, we are bound to bump into him in Dublin because it is such a small place."

Duggan says that while his close friend is world famous, he can enjoy life without getting mobbed in his native city of Dublin.

"When the public see him in Dublin it really is no big deal. They don't like to treat people as heroes," he says.

"It's a case of 'Hey, Bono is up there at the bar. Ah, so what.' He is free to walk down the road without being mobbed."

In one bar in Donegal, Bono even ended up serving pints of Guinness to customers.

"There was Bono pulling pints for locals, he is really down-to-earth," says Duggan, whose mother and father were schoolteachers but had instruments all over the house.

Clannad is made up of Duggan together with his niece, lead singer Moya Brennan, his twin brother Padraig and Ciaran Brennan.

It is 25 years since their timeless piece "Theme From Harry's Game" became a chart hit across Europe and 10 years have passed since their last studio album release, the Grammy Award-winning Landmarks.

"It's been a long time but I still crave the stage," says Duggan, now in his 60th year and living near Dublin.

"I've been in a group called Norland Wind, with my brother Padraig, in Germany. A lot of old groups are coming back together now. And together again as Clannad we've already played Glasgow and Dublin so somebody out there still likes us."

Duggan's other niece, the solo performer Enya, spent two years working with Clannad.

"She was a very shy little girl. We don't see much of Enya at all now.

"She lives in a castle at Killiney, she lives like a queen. She doesn't go anywhere; she is a recluse."

Clannad's trademark mystical trance sound has featured on a number of blockbuster movie soundtracks, including Patriot Games, starring Harrison Ford, Message in a Bottle and Last of the Mohicans.

Clannad have come a long way since winning a talent contest in Letterkenny in 1970.

They have since sold more than 10 million records and have also been honoured with an Ivor Novello and a Bafta award.

But Noel said most fans will remember the band for the song, "Theme From Harry's Game," which was featured in the television series, Robin of Sherwood, starring Michael Praed.

He adds, "'Harry's Game' took the group in a different musical direction and the record company asked us to go 'poppy.'

"But we did and still do hold on to our mystical Celtic roots.

"We like to sing in our native Gaelic and hope that our listeners who don't speak it still like the sound.

"I think it is important to explain what the songs are about though.

"We are really looking forward to playing St. David's Hall, we expect that the Welsh audience will be great. The hall has good acoustics for our pipers, fiddle players and harmonies.

"When we last played Cardiff, there was no Millennium Stadium or Wales Millennium Centre so we are expecting a lot of changes."

Duggan hopes to revisit Wales in future on holiday when he will have a chance to have a proper look around.

He adds, "I've never been on a tour around Wales, although I would really like to some day.

"I get inspiration to write the songs when the feeling takes me, which is usually when I'm walking the dog (a border collie cross spaniel dog called Woofie) in Dublin Bay first thing in the morning."

Duggan and his partner Barbara have written a history of Clannad called A Moment In Life which will be published shortly.

The 2008 11-date U.K. tour will end at the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool on March 14.

The concerts provide a rare chance for audiences to see them performing material from across their entire ground-breaking career, dating back to the '70s.

Posted by Jonathan at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)

January 29, 2008

U2 manager wants illegal downloaders blacklisted

Adam Sherwin, Times Online Media Correspondent

Music fans who indulge in widespread illegal file-sharing should have their web connections cut off by internet service providers, the manager of U2 said.

Paul McGuinness, who has guided the Irish group to 150 million album sales during their 30-year career, said companies such as Yahoo! and AOL should be prosecuted if they fail to prevent illegal file-sharing.

Speaking at the Midem music industry convention in Cannes, Mr McGuinness said: "A simple three strikes and you are out enforcement process will see all serial illegal uploaders who resist the law face a stark choice: change or lose your ISP subscription.

"In the UK, the Gowers report made it clear that legislation should be considered if voluntary talks with ISPs failed to produce a commitment to disconnect file-sharers. I'd like to see the UK Government act promptly on this recommendation."

The UK Music trade body the BPI backed the call. Geoff Taylor, its chief executive, said: "We have tried to persuade ISPs to implement solutions that could avoid the need to take action against broadband customers who use illegal peer-to-peer filesharing.

"For more than a year, we have been negotiating with them to enforce their own terms and conditions about abuse of the account, but UK ISPs refuse to do even that on any meaningful scale. The time has come for ISPs to stop dragging their feet and start showing some responsibility, by taking reasonable steps to counter illegal music freeloading."

In France, President Sarkozy has backed the Olivennes initiative, by which ISPs will start disconnecting repeat infringers this year. This was a "brilliant precedent which other governments should follow", Mr McGuiness said.

He argued that the recent Radiohead release of a download priced on the honesty box principle had backfired. He said: "It seems that the majority of downloads were through illegal P2P download services like BitTorrent and LimeWire even though the album was available for nothing through the official band site. Notwithstanding the promotional noise, even Radiohead's honesty box principle showed that if not constrained, the customer will steal music."

In 2004, U2 signed a deal with Apple to release a branded iPod in exchange for a percentage of each device sold, but even Steve Jobs, the Apple boss, had not grasped the scale of the challenge to his own businesses, including the Walt Disney studio, presented by illegal downloading.

Mr McGuinness said: "I wish he would bring his remarkable set of skills to bear on the problems of recorded music. He's a technologist, a financial genius, a marketer and a music lover. He probably doesn't realise it, but the collapse of the old financial model for recorded music will also mean the end of the songwriter.

"We've been used to bands who wrote their own material since the Beatles, but the mechanical royalties that sustain songwriters are drying up. Labels and artists, songwriters and publishers, producers and musicians, everyone's a victim."

The manager predicted that Apple would reveal a wireless iPod that connects to an iTunes "all of the music, wherever you are" subscription service. "I would like it to succeed, if the content is fairly paid for," he said.

U2 will release a new album in October, Mr McGuinness said, which would be a collaboration with the producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. Unlike Radiohead, they are not seeking to leave their record company. Mr McGuinness said that the band had a positive relationship with Universal which would continue indefinitely.

Described as the "fifth member" of U2, Mr McGuinness negotiated a valuable deal in the late Eighties that guaranteed the group ownership of the master recordings of their albums.

Posted by Jonathan at 02:39 AM | Comments (0)

December 18, 2007

Bono's art is in right place now

Richard Kay, Daily Mail

HE ALREADY owns a highly successful hotel in the centre of Dublin, a state-of the art studio overlooking the capitals docklands and a number of houses scattered across the city and now U2 frontman Bono is set to add a modern-style house and art gallery to his property portfolio.

The rock star, who has become known for his own zen-like quality and laid-back disposition, has commissioned Japanese star architect Tadao Ando to design his very own museum, likely to reflect the minimalist style of the renowned architect.

Although the project is still in its early stages, the location of the gallery is expected to be in the capital.

The pint-sized pop star will be able to give some elevation to his celebrity friends by allowing them to show their collections at the gallery.

It is likely that the art collection of Gucci, former musician turned artist and close pal of Bono's, will be housed in the gallery.

The singers new project may derive from his own artistic talents, the U2 frontman having won acclaim with his own painting efforts.

Bono's own work has 18 paintings which were used for an updated version of Peter and the Wolf, a charity childrens book published in 2003.

The rocker is also trying his hand at architecture through his collaboration with Lord Foster on the redevelopment of the Clarence hotel.

Painting and architecture are just a couple of Bonos many talents.

He has also tried his hand at magazine editing, taking the reins at Vanity Fair this summer for a special Africa edition.

And while actually making music has been on the back burner for Bono in recent years U2s last album was as far back as 2004 he has enjoyed another busy year of social activism, rarely allowing world leaders to meet up without being on hand for a photo opportunity.

In September, architect Ando, who is known as the Godfather of minimal-ism, launched an environmental campaign in Dublin.

His main project involves working on a 100,000-seat waterfront stadium for the Beijing Olympics next year.

Posted by Jonathan at 10:06 PM | Comments (0)

November 24, 2007

Surprise U2 charity gig wows fans

Bono and The Edge of rock superstars U2 delighted fans when they made a surprise appearance at a charity gig.

The Irish pair played an unannounced four-song set, before just 250 people, for Mencap's Little Noise Sessions at the Union Chapel, in north London.

Referring to their bandmates, Bono joked: "Don't tell Larry (Mullen) and Adam (Clayton) we've done this."

BBC Radio 1 DJ Jo Whiley, the event's curator, said the multi-million-selling duo "were actually nervous beforehand".

Whiley, who has helped curate a number of shows to raise funds for Mencap added: "Seeing them in a situation like this, in a tiny chapel, makes people realise just how great they are - worthy of all the praise they get."

Joshua Tree

The crowd were told about some "very special guests" by organisers, but had no idea who it would be until they walked out on stage.

"The singer, Paul, is a shy guy, so please be gentle with him," Whiley told the crowd, before Bono and The Edge - real names Paul Hewson and Dave Evans - appeared.

They opened their set with Stay, moving on to Desire and Angel Of Harlem.

Their closing track was a first-time performance for the song Wave Of Sorrow - a track originally written for their 1987 album Joshua Tree.

Both men left the stage to a standing ovation.

"After they came off stage, Bono was asking me if they'd been OK and they were also wondering whether the 'new' song had gone down well," Whiley said.

The pair acted as the first warm-up act for Biffy Clyro.

Rumours

Fan Simon Dowling, 20, from Newcastle, said: "I was here for Biffy Clyro. We turned up at 5 o'clock outside and got rumours it was Bono and the Edge and we were like, 'that can't be true'.

"I've used all the battery on my phone taking pictures of them."

Biffy Clyro singer Simon Neil said he had found out only on Friday morning that Bono and The Edge were to perform.

"We got to meet them earlier and they were very kind. They actually apologised to us for jumping on our show which obviously, you know, is incredibly polite," he said.

Posted by Jonathan at 11:05 PM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2007

Watch the video of Bono singing "Wave of Sorrow"

Ilike.com in conjunction with Facebook have released a sneak preview of the forthcoming Joshua Tree 20th anniversary re-release collection. "Wave Of Sorrow" is just one of the new tracks featured on the re-release and Bono himself sings and explains the song on a special video only featured to users of Facebook! Watch the 7 minute video below.

Posted by Jonathan at 04:56 PM | Comments (0)

September 06, 2007

Tenor Luciano Pavarotti dead at 71

(CNN) Famed opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who appeared on stage with singers as varied as opera star Dame Joan Sutherland, U2's Bono and Liza Minnelli, died Thursday in Italy after suffering from pancreatic cancer, manager Terri Robson said in a statement. He was 71.

"The great tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, died today at 5:00 a.m. at his home in Modena, the city of his birth,"according to Robson.

"The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the panceatic cancer which eventually took his life. In fitting with the approach that characterized his life and work, he remained positive untill finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness.

The porty singer retired from staged opera in 2004, but was on a "farewell tour" of concerts when he was diagnsed with pancreatic cancer in 2006 and underwent emergency surgery to remove the tumor.

Although the remaining concerts of his tour were canceled, his management said that he hoped to reume the tour in 2007.

But in early August, Pavarotti was hospitalized in Modena with a fever and released 17 days later after undergoing diagnostic tests.

Pavorotti is survived by his wife, Nicoletta Mantovani, and a daughter, Alice, along with three grown daughters by his first wife, Adua Veroni, whom he divorced in 2000, and a granddaughter.

According to Robson, his wife, daughters and sister, along with other relativces and friends were at his side when he died.

Posted by Brenda at 09:31 AM | Comments (0)

June 25, 2007

A Powerful Sound for Social Justice: Music From U2 Gives Contemporary Edge to Episcopal Service

By Lisa Crutchfield, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.

U2's "Gloria" poured from the speakers. The pews were packed.

And the newly consecrated bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia was pumped.

"This is the way church ought to feel every time it starts," said the Rt. Rev. Shannon S. Johnston.

"You couldn't have kept me away from this."

"Unforgettable Fire: A Eucharist for Social Justice" was held Thursday evening at the Church of the Holy Comforter (Episcopal), on Monument Avenue in Richmond. The service was held in conjunction with St. Stephen's Episcopal Church.

The U2charist blended traditional liturgy with music not usually associated with church.

The customary elements -- Gospel reading, sermon, prayer and Communion -- were there.

But the Rev. Abbott Bailey wore flip-flops and a ONE T-shirt.

In place of hymns and organ music, U2 songs played loud but not begging for earplugs. The message was to wage war against poverty, disease, injustice and preventable suffering, all part of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals.

A large screen behind the altar displayed lyrics and corresponding visuals, a la MTV. Images ranged from celebrities and politicians to photos from church mission trips to Africa.

Several hundred worshippers snapped fingers, clapped hands and tapped feet along with the songs.

"This is really, really fun," said 12-year-old Celeste Glave. "We can relate to this music."

U2 singer Bono has used his fame to create awareness of his political activism, especially in the struggle to end global poverty. He co-founded the advocacy organization DATA (debt, AIDS, trade, Africa) and is a creator of the ONE campaign to increase U.S. spending on programs to aid Third World countries.

Some of U2's songs are overtly religious; the lyrics to "40," for example, are adapted from Psalm 40:1-3. Others, such as "Pride (In the Name of Love)" and "One" are metaphors for faith and justice.

"Bono is a disciple," said Johnston, who was attending his first U2charist.

U2's music often is used in worship, but in the past two years U2charist has become a familiar service, mainly in Episcopal churches.

The Rev. Paige Blair, rector of St. George's Episcopal Church in York Harbor, Maine, is credited with fueling the movement. She is a clearinghouse for information for interested churches.

"We have worked to popularize the U2charist and have consulted with hundreds of churches around the world," said Blair in an e-mail.

According to her calculations, in the past two years U2charist services have raised about $100,000 for projects ranging from food pantries to the Heifer Project. The majority of U2charists have been held in Episcopal churches, but other faiths are represented in her tallies.

The rights to use the songs are waived if offerings are donated to Millennium Development Goal projects. Thursday's offering was earmarked for Episcopal Relief and Development.

The Episcopal Church has endorsed the millennium goals and its General Convention has called on congregations to set aside .7 percent of budgets to support such programs.

The messages of the U2charist, said Bailey, associate rector of St. Stephen's on Grove Avenue in Richmond, are universal among Christians.

"One thing that can't be disputed in the Gospels is that Jesus was always reaching out to those in need.

"I am confident that if we let ourselves get swept up into the divine enactment of God's creative possibility expressed in this service, then we can answer yes to the divine 'what if' -- that we can answer yes to God's radical 'do it anyway,' she said in her sermon.

"If so, then we might just be able to stare down the world's most intractable problems and run headlong into the whirlwind of God's life-giving activity -- we might just truly help make poverty history," she said.

The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Midlothian held a U2charist in April. Adrien Jacob was one of the organizers.

"It was great to see the Holy Spirit move people," he said, noting that many of the 250 attendees were dancing in the aisles of the church.

"We wanted to use it for a teaching tool for the Rite 13 [youth] group. We started teaching about world issues, showing them the Millennium Development Goals. We talked about world poverty.

"I said, 'We're going to save the world, one thing at a time.'"

That U2charist raised more than $2,000 for building an elementary school in Kenya, Jacob said.

The Rev. Bruce Birdsey, interim rector at Holy Comforter, said before the service, "Serving this noble cause is a grand opportunity to reach people who may not have much use for the institutional church."

A full house at Thursday's U2charist proved his point.

Bishop Johnston said, "I think it shows the world is hungry. Not just for food, clothing and health, but for spirituality."

Contact Lisa Crutchfield at (804) 649-6362 or LCrutchfield@timesdispatch.com.

Posted by Jonathan at 05:28 PM | Comments (0)

April 19, 2007

Taymor to Direct Spider-Man Musical, Scored by Bono & Edge

According to Superhero Hype!, a new musical based on Spider-Man may soon be weaving a web over Broadway audiences.

A casting notice reveals that the musical, soon to be presented in an Equity 29-hour rehearsed reading, will be directed by Tony Award-winner Julie Taymor, with music and lyrics by U2's Bono and The Edge and a book by Taymor and Glen Berger.

The reading will also feature musical supervision by Teese Gohl. Hello Entertainment/David Garfinkle, Martin McCallum, and Marvel Entertainment are the producers. Rehearsals will begin on July 2nd in New York City, while the readings will take place on July 12th and 13th.

Producers are casting for the title role of teen superhero Peter Parker, as well as his sweetheart Mary Jane, the powerful spider-woman Arachne, scientist Norman Osborn (whose villainous alter ego is the Green Goblin), Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson and a Geek Chorus, comprised of three teenage boys and one girl "who meet to ritualistically retell the greatest Spider-Man stories."

Created in 1962 and clad in his signature bewebbed blue and red, Spider-Man first appeared as a Marvel Comics superhero. The franchise has since spawned a TV series, syndicated newspaper comics and a blockbuster series of films directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. The third Spider-Man movie will be released on May 4th.

Taymor, who won a Tony Award for directing the Broadway musical The Lion King and who is also known for equally visually imaginative films such as Titus and Frida, helmed the recent Metropolitan Opera production of The Magic Flute, as well as productions such as Juan Darien, The Tempest, and Oedipus Rex.

Posted by Brenda at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)

February 23, 2007

Arcade Fire criticise U2 and Oasis

Win Butler talks exclusively to NME

Arcade Fire have criticised the marketing strategies of band's like U2, Oasis and the Rolling Stones.

Speaking in the new issue of NME, frontman Win Butler had a go at bands who aggressively force feed their music to fans.

Butler said: "It's not like we shun success, but at the same time we don't want to shove it down people's throats. In the U.K. there's this kind of rock star competition.

"I don't know if U2 started it, or the Stones or Oasis but a lot of bands think in terms of: 'I'm going to be the biggest band in the world. F**k all those bands who've got no ambition.' I think that's a total crock of s**t.

"There's nothing less interesting to me than the idea of marketing the f**k out of something so people are forced to like it. Some bands are just manipulating people to buy music. That's how 90 percent of the record industry works! It's basically the same as selling a f**king toaster or a cruise package."

Posted by Jonathan at 03:27 AM | Comments (2)

January 30, 2007

"U2-charist": Bono moves in mysterious ways

LONDON (Reuters) - For Anglicans who still haven't found what they're looking for, the Church of England is staging its first "U2-charist" communion service -- replacing hymns with hit songs by the Irish supergroup.

"Rock music can be a vehicle of immense spirituality," said Bishop of Grantham Timothy Ellis, announcing plans for the unique service in the central English town of Lincoln in May.

A live band is to play U2 classics like "Beautiful Day" and "Mysterious Ways" with special singalong lyrics displayed on a giant screen. Seating for the 500-strong congregation is to be re-arranged so everyone can dance and wave their hands.

The service is to focus on the Millennium development goals -- U2's lead singer Bono is a leading promoter of the targets to alleviate world poverty.

Posted by Brenda at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)

January 29, 2007

Bono makes the scene at Sundance

The U2 frontman expresses his support for a new Joe Strummer documentary.

By Chris Lee, Times Staff Writer

Park City, Utah - WEARING his signature blue-tinted wraparounds and dressed in black leather against northern Utah's paralyzing chill, Bono made a surprise appearance at the Sundance Film Festival last week, expressly to support British director Julien Temple's new rock 'n' roll documentary, "Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten."

In conversation directly after a screening, the U2 frontman lavished praise on Strummer, the charismatic, deeply humanistic yet personally conflicted singer-songwriter for the Clash. The Irish rock humanitarian credited Strummer, who died in 2002, with awakening his rock 'n' roll ambitions when he saw the Clash play in Dublin at age 17.

"They can't play, but they play better than anybody you ever heard," Bono said. "At the same time, there's this shambolic genius going on. There's just ideas being whispered into your head, mad ideas: that music can mean something, that it can be a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

"So can rock 'n' roll change the world? It certainly changed my world."

Moreover, Bono took the opportunity to point out the commonality of the do-it-yourself ethos in punk and indie moviemaking that was on display in Sundance.

"Here we are at Sundance," Bono said, "people are complaining, 'This is an independent festival. It's been taken over by market forces, etc. etc.' It's the same with punk rock! I personally find that interesting."

He added: "I will say, right smack in the middle of a contradiction isn't always a bad place to be."

Posted by Jonathan at 12:10 AM | Comments (0)

January 08, 2007

Sir Bono, Cool or Not Cool?

As we shake off the final hangover of 2006 and kick off 2007 anew we are left with the resounding debate which was the center of most New Year's Eve conversations in Dublin bars... Should Bono accept a Knighthood from the Queen of England?

On Tony Blair's recent recommendation, Bono is set to follow in Bob Geldof's footsteps and become an honorary knight of the British empire. But as a citizen of Ireland and not Britain he will be deprived of the title "Sir Bono" (more accurately, Sir Paul Hewson), although that won't stop the media to referring to him thusly...

But as the U2 frontman gets on in years and his wealth, fame and political influence grow so far beyond what any of us could ever imagine - perhaps he's losing touch with the common man, U2 fans and even the Irish people?

Maybe years of hobnobbing with Tony Blair, George Bush, The Pope, Bill Gates and their like have given the Northside Dubliner a taste for titles, honours and awards? He has stated that such things are in recognition of his charity work and help breakdown barriers but we can't help feeling that vanity and an overactive ego are at work here... Surely charity is a selfless act?

We read in a paper yesterday that Bono said the British knighthood was no different in principal from the Legion D'Honneur he received from the French. We beg to differ. The relationship between the Irish people and the British Monarchy can hardy be compared with our relationship with the French, a totally different ballpark

We're not going to get into a debate here about Anglo-Irish relations but the fact still remains that the Irish struggled for emancipation from British rule for over 900 years and the scourge of bloodthirsty tyrants such as Oliver Cromwell who saw the indigenous Irish as no better than the beast in the field. Is it right that perhaps the greatest living Irishman should now bow down in front of the Queen and be knighted?

We caught up with Bono and The Edge over Christmas as they celebrated the end of their World tour with a well deserved knees-up in Lillies Bordello's VVIP bar Jersey Lils. We dare not ask Bono about his soon to be bestowed sword on shoulder ceremony as the timing just didn't seem right...

But irregardless of whether it is morally, politically, personally or otherwise right or wrong for a former Punk Rocker to accept this title we at ShowBiz Ireland feel it's just not cool! After a quick straw-pole most people we asked seemed to be of the opinion that knighthoods are wrinkly rockers well past their best and certainly not our Bono... Another talented Irish / Englishman Morrissey recently said that he would never be offered a knighthood because of his song 'The Queen is Dead' and we're somehow reminded of the Groucho Marx quip: "I don't want to belong to any club that would have me as a member!"

Happy New Year 2007 to Bono, The Edge & even The Queen.

ShowBiz Ireland is an equal opportunities Web Site Begorrah!!!

Posted by Brenda at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2006

U2 Win Battle Against Ex-Stylist

Rock group U2 have won a legal battle against their former stylist, forcing her to hand over a cowboy hat and clothes she took from them in 1987.

Singer Bono told Dublin's High Court last month that Lola Cashman acquired the items without permission during the band's Joshua Tree tour.

She insisted they were a gift to her from the star and appealed against a ruling that she must return them.

In a statement the band said they were "relieved" the legal battle is over.

"Proceedings were issued in Ireland very much as a last resort and with great reluctance," they said.

They added that they wished Ms Cashman "well in the future" and they would not be pursuing costs from her, despite being entitled to.

Rosary beads

The possessions were estimated to be valued at 5,000 euros (£3,400).

U2 had been fighting with Ms Cashman over the ownership of a Stetson hat, a pair of metal hooped earrings, a green sweatshirt and a pair of black trousers.

They were also trying to retrieve a number of other items which had been seen in her flat, including a video tape and monitor, rosary beads and hundreds of photographs.

During the appeal hearing, she claimed Bono was running around in his underwear backstage at the Sun Devil Stadium in Arizona on the last night of the tour when she asked him for the hat.

The court was told he "plonked" it on her head.

In 2002, Ms Cashman put some of the memorabilia up for sale at Christie's.

She claimed two letters sent to the auction house from U2 lawyers seeking their return were defamatory, and began proceedings against the band in the High Court in London.

Posted by Brenda at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)

October 22, 2006

Bono law: You go on a head

Bono and his former stylist are in court to claim ownership of the singer's legendary Stetson. Male millinery is now the ultimate fashion statement, and the days when it smacked of a life of conformity are long gone, says Stuart Husband

When is a hat not a hat? When it's an iconic-ironic sartorial manifestation of your personal and artistic philosophy. This, at any rate, is Bono's explication for the significance of his Stetson, which he's trying to wrest back from U2's erstwhile stylist Lola Cashman in an ongoing court case. According to his testimony, it was this headgear, rather than any amount of keening vocals and guitar arpeggios, that propelled the group into the enormo-dome stratosphere.

"I dressed like Nana Mouskouri before," confessed Bono. "She [Cashman] had a very good eye, and I'd already had the idea of making the Stetson a trademark. It's an American icon and it was part of my idea of how I wanted to present myself to the world in an ironic sense. Plus I thought it could be archived in the future." It seems a crushing amount of cultural weight - part-semiotic determinant, part holy relic - for a high-crowned, wide-brimmed accessory to bear.

But Stetsongate is just the latest flashpoint in the vexed history of male millinery. Since the hat lost its status as the exemplar of worker-drone conformity it's been reincarnated as its swinging opposite. "These days, any man wearing a hat is perceived to be making some kind of fashion statement," says the milliner Stephen Jones. "It's become a way of standing out from the crowd. Even the closest thing men have to a utilitarian hat - the baseball cap - is a way of advertising affiliations."

No one knows this socio-cultural-stylistic minefield better than William Hague. His decision to wear a Hague-branded baseball cap to the Notting Hill Carnival was, commentators agreed, the chief reason for his tenure as Tory leader being short-lived. His attempt to be "down" with the kids was ridiculed.

Hague made an elemental mistake, according to Jeremy Hackett, founder of the eponymous blue-chip outfitting chain. "A hat cannot simply confer cool," he counsels, "though it can certainly top off pre-existing personality traits." He cites the trilby and its adoption by iconoclasts as disparate as Kenneth Clarke and Pete Doherty.

Badly Drawn Boy's battered beanie serves, says the Cavalier Daily website, "to reinforce the apathetic/tortured singer-songwriter archetype co-opted from Elliott Smith, and to legitimise him to the espresso hipsters".

Hats can be used to subversive ends. The top hat was a looming status symbol, a sign its bearer had risen through the public school ranks to become a staid burgher in histrade. Now it's been reclaimed either as would-be social satire (the late Screaming Lord Sutch fought 40 elections in his) or dissolute fancy dress.

Slade's Noddy Holder was wont to épater le bourgeois (or, at least, the bourgeois who regularly watched Top of the Pops in the 1970s) by covering his topper with dazzling mirror shards.

Certainly, most men would rather go hatless than have to ponder all the Bono-esque sub-textual signals they could be sending out by donning a deerstalker. That is, unless they're as simple a soul as Jay Kay, who "just likes wearing hats, to cover my, like, greasy hair", and whose more outré offerings got him nicknamed "the prat in the hat".

Or unless, that is, they're wearing a hat for the most prosaic reason of all. If Bono had peered out from under his Stetson brim, he'd have seen that, right alongside him, The Edge was sporting his own headgear. And it wasn't because he was in the midst of a 10-gallon cultural studies seminar. It was because he was going ever so slightly bald.

Posted by Brenda at 11:09 PM | Comments (0)

October 18, 2006

Bono Says It Was His Idea to Wear Stetson Hat

By Times Online and PA

Bono, the frontman of U2, today gave evidence at an appeal in Dublin launched by his former stylist to keep the Stetson hat she claims the band gave her.

U2 successfully sued Lola Cashman last year and claimed back the hat, a pair of metal hooped earrings, a green sweatshirt and a pair of black trousers, which they argued she had taken without permission.

The stylist was ordered to return the items, estimated to be worth €5,000 (£3,500), to the band within seven days. Instead though, she has launched an appeal, which will leave her with a substantial legal bill if she loses.

Ms Cashman, who left the band in 1988, says that she was given the hat and other memorabilia as gifts during U2's Joshua Tree tour in 1987. She was hired by Bono personally to replace their stylist, who was on maternity leave.

Dressed in a chocolate brown suit and wearing rose-coloured tinted glasses, Bono - real name Paul Hewson - said that Ms Cashman had been found by his management company through an agency.

"It was a very big moment in the bands career," he said. "Everything had come right for us. We had a lot of songs on radio around the world and particularly in the US we had a couple of number ones singles."

Bono said Ms Cashman joined the 150-strong entourage at a tense and exciting time, when the group was moving out from playing in arenas to outdoor stadiums. He admitted styling was not the band's strength, and they were grateful to Ms Cashman for her input.

"I am trying to think of her exact moment of entry but I can't," he continued. She had a very good eye. She had a lot more experience than us.

"But it was very clear on almost immediate arrival she wasn't a good in dealing with personal relationships, and initially put a lot of people's noses out of place."

Bono told the court his trademark Stetson hat had been his idea, which he had thought of since before Ms Cashman's arrival. He said the image was used to represent American iconography. "It was always part of my idea of how I wanted to present myself to the world in an ironic sense."

The court was told that Ms Cashman was responsible for the transport of all wardrobe items. Bono stressed it was important to the band, and their manager Paul McGuinness, to keep record of their memorabilia to either archive or donate.

"We thought it would have some importance of the history of the band," he said. "We hoped we would be around long enough to be part of that."

The case continues.

Posted by Jonathan at 03:36 AM | Comments (0)

September 17, 2006

Green Day joins U2 at Abbey Road

Earlier last week, U2 and Green Day were sighted on legendary Abbey Road posing for photographs for the cover of their forthcoming single, The Saints Are Coming, a classic 1978 post-punk song by The Skids. On hand to catch the moment on video was Bob Geldof, who was filming proceedings in the studio.

One fan was able to capture several minutes of the day's events and thanks to YouTube.com, we have blogged the video below for your viewing enjoyment.

Posted by Jonathan at 03:13 AM | Comments (0)

July 08, 2006

Chili Pepper blasts 'sell-outs' U2 and Black Eyed Peas

Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith has slammed U2 and The Black Eyed Peas for allowing their music to be used on television advertisements.

The Dani California star finds it difficult to understand how bands can sacrifice their integrity by selling their songs to corporations.

And Smith brands U2 and The Black Eyed Peas "idiots" for letting their respective tracks Vertigo and Hey Mama be used to promote the sale of iPods.

Smith, 44, says, "I'm fine with getting our music out to people but I don't want to be on a TV commercial with some guy bowling and then music comes out of his phone. There's no artistic credibility. I'd feel like a jerk if we did that.

"I think Black Eyed Peas look like a bunch of idiots. It's dangerous.

"The U2 song on the iPod when it came out was weird and it was longer and it had more parts.

"It's dangerous to tie yourself in with a product and also the visuals that go along with it.

"I think young people, not old guys like myself, think it's normal now to have Led Zeppelin on jeans commercials. Oh no! That's not normal to me."

Posted by Jonathan at 04:54 PM | Comments (7)

June 27, 2006

Are Virtual U2 Concerts Even Better Than The Real Thing?

Tech-savvy superfans set up elaborate gigs starring their favorite band for online gamers.

There are some key rules for attendees of a virtual U2 concert. Among them:

"No hoochie hair" ("So that this concert may be enjoyed by the maximum number of people").

"No particle poofs or particles of any kind."

And ... "DO NOT IM the band while the concert is in progress."

Failure to obey these edicts doesn't get anyone physically kicked out because no one is really at the concert. It's all taking place through computers: a massively multiplayer musical experience created and enjoyed by people logging into the virtual world "Second Life"

Since last year, a small group of players has taken advantage of the blank slate and creative flexibility of "Second Life" to create the stage sets, the bodies and the moves of their favorite band: U2. They've helped pioneer the concept of virtual concerts — shows that are attended not at a stadium or club but in front of a monitor and keyboard.

Since 2005, four members of the U2inSL crew (U2inSL.com), living in locations as distant as California, Connecticut and Germany, have logged onto their computers and into the shared landscape of "Second Life" in order to steer digital replicas of Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. Running their characters through a series of stage moves and piping in audio recorded from an actual concert, they are able to create a virtual performance. Other "Second Life" citizens can attend as members of a character-packed audience.

The anonymous players behind the virtual band said they've tried to contact U2 management to make sure this is all OK. They're not making any money off of it, and they adorn their concert area with signs urging people to donate to the real U2's One Foundation charity. But the real band has yet to respond. U2 management also did not comment on the virtual U2 for MTV News.

A virtual — and unauthorized — U2 might be the most provocative example, but independent musicians and big-label acts are also getting involved, potentially making multiplayer video game worlds the next frontier of touring. Musicians can channel audio into game worlds and set up characters to be their puppet personas — a way to go on tour without leaving their keyboard, be they the "SL" musician Frogg Marlowe or, if Universal Music's official plans continue to take shape, Chamillionaire and the rock band Hinder (see "GameFile: Chamillionaire's Ridin' Virtual, 'Saint's Row' Has A Surprise, Anti-Game Laws Gain Steam And More").

"It's really a rush, like being in a real-world concert," the virtual Bono told MTV News. The members of U2inSL prefer not to use their real names in public "to keep the mystique and excitement," according to the unreal Bono. "This is role-play after all."

The group gathered for a concert this past weekend after two months of inactivity due to an injury suffered by one of the members. In April, MTV News attended a small invitation-only concert where the U2inSL crew provided an education on how a virtual concert works.

Physically it requires nothing more than logging onto a computer running "Second Life" and digitally walking — or flying — to the concert's location. In April, that locale was a tropical island called Dragon Moon. The concert organizers can block unwanted guests by requiring a digital ticket, without which an approaching player will see their character run into an invisible wall.

Before the April concert began, the virtual bandmembers hung out in the band room. "Second Life" doesn't support voice chat, so Bono was text-chatting with the Edge.

Next to their building was a large concert stage. On the far side were two porta-potties. The concert area was about 100 virtual feet from the edge of a beach, the stage facing the water. Behind the audience pit, just out of reach of a lapping tide, was a concession stand, a T-shirt booth and a bar. A mouse click on those spots would generate virtual hot dogs and beer or a U2 outfit that can be zapped onto a character's body.

"Second Life" is different than other massively multiplayer games like "World of Warcraft" and "EverQuest," not just because it doesn't actually contain any game-oriented goal but because it allows players to create everything in the world. Players can create characters that look like monsters, supermodels, Bono or whatever else they can think of while messing with the program's modeling tools.

Everything a player creates is stored on servers at "Second Life"'s parent company, Linden Labs, and has to be transmitted back out to any other players who would need to see it, say, because they're walking past the Bono character or watching him perform onstage. This presents a problem if too many people are standing around in the game trying to watch Bono at the same time. The Linden Labs server begins to feel the strain of sending the same graphics out to more and more attendees. So if too many people come to a virtual concert in "Second Life," the world is going to stutter. Popularity can cause a slowdown.

That didn't happen during the April concert, in part because people followed the rules. The ban on "hoochie hair" and "particles" was really a ban on attendees bringing graphically elaborate hairdos and special effects that would put more strain on Linden Labs' servers.

Until the audio feed is activated, the virtual concert is practically silent. But once it was on, the band "played" a 14-track set, which included streamed audio of the real U2 playing "Vertigo," "Elevation" and "Where the Streets Have No Name."

The final cued track of the evening was real-life crowd applause. The members of U2inSL don't have to sing, but they have to make sure their characters hit their marks and make the appropriate motions (hold microphone to mouth, throw arms in the air, spin around, etc.) "I rehearse steady for about a week," the fake Bono told MTV News.

The concert in April went smoothly, though not without at least one kink. "I missed hopping at the keyboard for 'Miss Sarajevo,' " the virtual Edge confessed.

A "Second Life" concert is an odd place. A mysterious object in front of the stage proves, with a curious mouse click, to be a dance machine. It immediately causes the player's character to start dancing with energetic spasms. Anyone else clicking winds up with their character also dancing, in perfect unison with everyone else. Dancing doesn't take any sustained effort. It just happens — and keeps happening long after some of the people too busy text-chatting remember they're still doing it. It's all done with computers, after all.

After the April concert, the fake Bono demonstrated how a few mouse clicks can generate a complete wardrobe change. But those Linden Labs servers aren't so fast that one shirt just swaps for another. " 'Zip' ain't a word when changing clothes," he said, as a red-and-black tunic faded in to replace a black leather jacket.

Another weird touch: People wanted to hug goodbye, but one of them hadn't set his character up properly to do it: "Sorry, dear, took hug attachment off. I'll have to dig it out of inventory later," he responded.

Virtual concerts — even better than the real thing? Well, a bit different at least.

— Stephen Totilo

Posted by Jonathan at 04:22 AM | Comments (1)

May 11, 2006

Bono heads back to Africa to see progress, needs

By Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Irish rocker and activist Bono is taking his crusade for Africa on the road.

U2's lead singer will tour Lesotho, Rwanda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Mali and Ghana on a 10-day trip starting on Tuesday to examine how his successful campaign for debt relief can now help combat poverty and disease, his advocacy group DATA said on Thursday.

The tour comes four years after Bono focused the world's attention on Africa's plight when he and then U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill traveled around the continent to highlight the need for Western governments to increase aid and erase poor countries' debt burdens.

Bono is credited with spearheading the successful campaign to erase the debts of poor countries, with world leaders praising his effort to learn the issues and be a constructive participant in policymaking.

In June the Group of Eight industrialized countries, meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, agreed to cancel the debts of 18 low-income countries, most of them in Africa, to free up resources to tackle poverty.

The G-8 powers also pledged to double aid to Africa by 2010 to about $47 billion.

Much has changed since Bono's trip with O'Neill in 2002. The continent is enjoying its best growth rates in more than 30 years, due not only to a boom in global commodity prices but also to improvements in government economic policies and fewer conflicts.

HEALTH CARE, EDUCATION

However, critics say years of foreign aid has done little to effectively change the lives of many Africans.

Jamie Drummond, executive director of DATA, or Debt AIDS Trade Africa, the advocacy group co-founded by Bono, said the tour will try to gauge if the increased attention on Africa is making a difference for such things as health care and education.

"We're going to look at foreign assistance working on the ground in Africa and see what is working and what is not," he told Reuters.

"Effective aid backing good African leadership can get results, so let's do more of it," said Drummond, adding, "Why would you not do more of it?"

In Washington, the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, in the early stages of crafting fiscal 2007 bills, has shaved off $2.4 billion from President George W. Bush's request for foreign aid as a way to help with tax cuts.

Drummond said such moves will derail the promises made to the world's poor, and Bono's goal is to keep policymakers' attention on Africa.

"The timing of this is extremely important, not just because you can see all the results on the ground, but because at this very moment top policymakers in all of the G-8 countries are looking at whether they can afford to keep their promises -- whether in Germany, Canada, Italy, or France, and above all in the U.S. Congress," he said.

Posted by Jonathan at 11:55 PM | Comments (4)

April 03, 2006

The gospel according to U2 and Bono

US church uses U2's songs to attract young worshippers

By STEPHEN MCGINTY

BONO has declared that he is not a man of the cloth, "unless that cloth is leather". But the words of the charismatic U2 front man are nevertheless ringing out from pulpits across the United States.

The Irish rock band's songs and lyrics are being used by the Episcopal Church in so-called "U2 Eucharists" as a means of attracting young people who relate to the group's social activism.

Earlier attempts by churches to connect to youth culture have usually involved ministers in open-toed sandals strumming acoustic guitars and singing Kumbaya to the general embarrassment of all. Yet, in parishes from California to Maine, worshippers are flocking to hear U2 classics such as Beautiful Day, Pride and Peace on Earth rolled into a service of prayer.

However, ear plugs are passed out with the Bibles and hymn sheets for those who prefer organ music.

The U2 Eucharist was devised by the Rev Paige Blair, a parish priest in York Harbor, Maine, and it has since spread through word-of-mouth and on clerical websites.

At All Saints' Church in Atlanta, Georgia, organisers had planned for 300 worshippers, and instead had to contend with 500, while at the Grace Episcopal Church in Providence, Rhode Island, as many people turned up for a Friday night U2 Eucharist as normally turn up on a Sunday morning.

While U2 songs are not yet listed in the Episcopal Church's authorised hymnal, Ms Blair believes it is only a matter of time. She said: "I seriously think the day will come. There's a gift they have in speaking to the human soul."

She came up with the idea after a sermon about the One Campaign, the Bono-backed initiative designed to alleviate global poverty and fight AIDS. She quoted equally from Bono and the Bible and included the lead singer's line: "Where you live should not determine whether you live or die."

Instead of a hymn, the service began with one of U2's earliest hits, Pride (In the Name of Love). As the music played, pictures of famous believers, including Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, flashed on a 10ft by 4ft screen behind the altar.

Other songs included in the service were Peace on Earth, which was inspired by a fatal bombing in Northern Ireland and which questions why God does not halt human suffering; during it, Bono sings: "Jesus, can you take the time to throw a drowning man a line." Also played was 40, in which Bono echoes the 40th Psalm, singing: "I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined and heard my cry."

Bono may favour black leather while on stage in front of an audience of millions, but to some believers, he can still act as a latter-day prophet, producing songs filled with Christian symbolism.

The Episcopal Church in the US has been among the first to recognise the band's power. A few years ago two of its priests edited a book of sermons based on U2 songs entitled Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog.

Yet Bono has provoked criticism from fans and even members of his own band for his close involvement with the US president, George Bush, a born-again Christian, whom he lobbied last year as part of the Make Poverty History campaign.

In February, he joined Mr Bush at the national prayer breakfast in Washington, and told the gathered clergy: "I'm certainly not here as a man of the cloth, unless that cloth is leather ... I'm the first to admit that there's something unnatural, something unseemly, about rock stars mounting the pulpit and preaching at presidents, and then disappearing to their villas in the south of France."

The gospel according to U2

IN HER sermon, the Rev Paige Blair quoted from both Bono and the Bible and included the singer's line: "Where you live should not determine whether you live or die."

As an opening hymn, the service played one of the U2's earliest hits, Pride (In the Name of Love).

On a screen behind the altar, pictures of famous believers such as the Rev Martin Luther King jnr were flashed up as the music played.

Other songs included in the service were Peace on Earth, inspired by a fatal bombing in Northern Ireland and which questions why God does not halt human suffering.

Another song was 40, in which Bono echoes the 40th Psalm when he sings: "I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined and heard my cry."

Editor's Note: The first U2charist was my idea; it was announced in 2003 and the first public service was held in Baltimore, Maryland in April of 2004. I chose and led the music with a live band and wrote some of the prayers, the Eucharistic prayers were written by the Rev. Ken Phelps, and the PowerPoint visuals were by Kathleen Capcara. Paige Blair, a good friend of mine from Gathering the Next Generation (GTNG), the network for Episcopalian members of \'Generation X,\' saw my posts to the GTNG email list about the U2charist and, when she decided in 2005 to host her first U2charist at St. George\'s, she made use of the liturgy from that first U2charist in Baltimore. If you need documentation, I\'d be glad to send you a copy with full headers of a June 2005 email from Paige acknowledging her receipt of the earlier liturgy as she was planning her first service, or you can refer to this BBC news article, which has the correct information: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6517449.stm - Sarah Dylan Breuer/http://www.sarahlaughed.net

Posted by Jonathan at 12:52 PM | Comments (9)

March 28, 2006

Norton hails 'humble' Bono

Hollywood star Edward Norton has praised the 'humbling' efforts of crusading rocker Bono - because he can work with people he doesn't like.

The U2 frontman and anti-poverty campaigner is hailed for his ability to shed personal prejudices to progress the causes he champions.

And the Fight Club star insists Bono's courageous behaviour should be an example to all.

Norton says: "I've been pretty impressed with him. It's very enlightened to choose to seek as much positive connection as he does, even with the people who are the instruments of these terrible terrible policies.

"In essence it's 'turn the other cheek', 'hate the sin and love the sinner', which is a lot more forgiving - more Christian, more Buddhist - than a lot of these things these more radical people talk about.

"It's saying, 'You're still my brother, I still want you in on this with me, even if I disagree with you. I'm going to find some common ground.'

"It's humbling to realise the degree to which we all indulge in anger, in response to these things. It's humbling to realise that the people who have affected real change embraced their adversaries.

"You realise what courage that takes, because it's easier to be angry."

Posted by Jonathan at 12:53 AM | Comments (11)

February 25, 2006

Bono Rocks Brazil's Carnival

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Thousands of Brazilians took a break from samba to rock with U2 frontman Bono during Carnival celebrations in the northeastern city of Salvador.

Bono performed an impromptu duet of "Vertigo" with Brazilian popular singer Ivete Sangalo as Carnival got underway in Salvador on Thursday, a day earlier than in Rio de Janeiro.

While the highlight of Brazil's carnival celebrations is Rio's annual samba parade on Sunday and Monday nights, many people prefer Salvador's carnival, where giant sound trucks with bands on top jam the city's streets night and day.

The U2 singer is attending Salvador's Carnival as a guest of Culture Minister and pop star Gilberto Gil. The O Globo newspaper reported Friday that music producer Quincy Jones was also attending Carnival as a guest of Gil.

Bono sang the duet from Gil's private box that faces the avenue as Sangalo and her band performed from atop a sound truck.

U2 played two sold-out concerts in Sao Paulo's Morumbi soccer stadium Monday and Tuesday nights.

Bono is among 191 nominees, including politicians and peacemakers, for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. The Irish singer was proposed for his fight against world poverty.

Bob Geldof, former leader of the Irish punk group the Boomtown Rats, is also among the nominees. Geldof was nominated for organizing last year's Live 8 benefit concerts.

Posted by Jonathan at 03:06 PM | Comments (13)

December 27, 2005

Quit moaning about Bono, thank him

By Brendan O'Connor

NO DOUBT the usual cranks and begrudgers will be bitching about Bono over the Christmas. "Man of the Year?" the taxi-drivers will say, "Time fecking magazine? I'll give him Man of the Year. And Time magazine. It's far from it he was reared."

It's easy to have a pop at Bono. It's practically an instinctive reaction at this stage. "Oh, he might fool that crowd of Yanks at Time magazine and that George Bush fella, but he can't fool us. We knew him when he hadn't an arse in his trousers."

Frankly, that kind of thing reflects more on the people who say it than it does on Bono. Because, if you think about it, Bono hasn't actually done anything wrong. And it's not as if you could disagree with most of his causes. He's often compared to Jesus, in a negative kind of smart-arsey way. But, in fact, he is a bit of a Jesus - though in a good way.

Whatever your personal opinions about Jesus, it'd be hard to disagree with most of his messages: Don't kill people and be nice to the poor and so on. And Bono is pretty much the same. The message is inherently sound: Cure Aids, be nice to black people and eliminate poverty. You can't fault that kind of thing.

And in fairness, his heart seems to be in the right place. There are people who claim that he does it all as a big PR thing to sell even more records, but that doesn't really stack up. If anything, the preaching is probably putting people off the records.

But for the other members of the band it has a musical benefit. Larry Mullen broke ranks recently to say it was handy when Bono headed off out of the studio and let them get on with theirwork. He'd go off and meet George Bush or whatever and they'd get on with making the album, and when it was all nearly ready he would come back in and do his singing thing.

And it's not easy being some class of a living saint. In fact, if you listen to Bono properly he actually spends a lot of time trying to tell us that he's not a saint. In fact, he goes to great lengths to try and convince us that's he's only a human being - and a flawed one at that, a bit like the other Christ. He's always telling us what an eejit he is and how he lets people down and how he goes on the piss and doesn't have time for his friends and how he's insecure and hugely egomaniacal.

But still people think he goes around thinking he's a saint. But he doesn't. People are just projecting.

And the fact of the matter is that the rest of us haven't really got time to think about world peace and curing Aids and poverty and the environment and all that other stuff. Most of us have jobs and just need to try and look after our own little corner of the world.

And we could easily forget that all those big problems exist and we could sleepwalk our way into a situation where it all falls apart for future generations.

But Bono has the time and the money to be thinking about it all and doing something about it. And it kind of takes the pressure off us a bit. He's kind of like our nagging conscience. And of course he's the nagging conscience of the politicians as well. If he wasn't bugging them and embarrassing them they'd probably happily enough ignore the whole saving-the-world business as well.

The other thing to bear in mind is that he doesn't have to do all this stuff. He could happily sit around on his arse out in Florida, make one album every five years and be loaded.

But he's taken this job on himself. And what a job it is. He could have taken on something simple, like paying for an orphanage or a school or something. Instead, he decided to try and solve the insoluble, to do a job that is as wide as it is deep, a job that often seems to have no tangible results, and a job that he gets the complete piss taken out of himself for doing. It's not only impossible, it's thankless.

So, for the New Year, we should thank him. We should start ignoring the knee-jerk reaction to seeing him mugging around the world with the Nelson Mandelas and the George Bushes and all that. We should remind ourselves that he is doing a good thing.

And, not to be cliched about it, but he really is a great ambassador for this country. He'd actually make you proud to be Irish.

Posted by Jonathan at 02:48 PM | Comments (14)

October 08, 2005

Bono Hits All the Right Notes

By Amey Stone

A crowd about 50 students was waiting eagerly near the entrance of New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts the evening of Oct. 5, when a shiny black SUV pulled up. Out stepped Bono, the lead singer of rock band U2 and arguably the world's most accomplished celebrity advocate for the poor, sick, and hungry.

Dubbed "the statesman" in a hagiographic New York Times Magazine cover story in September, Bono is rumored to be on the short-list to win this year's Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced Oct. 7.

Wearing a tan cowboy hat and his customary black jeans and tinted sunglasses, the rock star was greeted with cheers. He graciously took a few minutes to joke with the crowd and sign autographs. Fans attempted to scale the building's walls to catch a glimpse of the short, smiling Irishman before security ushered him inside. College students eager to snare tickets asked every passerby if there was one to spare -- a hallmark of any U2 concert.

"WARM-UP ACT." Only this wasn't a rock concert. It was an economics lecture. And Bono wasn't even the main attraction. He was invited merely to introduce global poverty-fighter and Columbia University professor Jeffrey Sachs, who was night's main attraction.

"We're back to being a warm-up act, Edge," Bono called out from the stage to U2's knit cap-wearing guitarist, The Edge, who was sitting sedately in the audience.

Bono, introduced by NYU President John Sexton as "Ireland's ambassador to the globe," clearly enjoyed playing second fiddle to Sachs for the evening. "I'm a groupie," he said, relating how he engaged Sachs to teach him "Rock star remedial economics."

ROCK-STAR RECEPTION. He even ribbed Sachs, joking that these days, when he tries to reach him by phone, he is told, "Sorry, he's with Angelina Jolie."

Bono's glowing speech gave the early part of the evening an atmosphere not unlike an awards ceremony. As if he was reciting a poem, Bono said of Sachs, author of the acclaimed book The End of Poverty, "He has a voice louder than an electric guitar.... He sees statistics not as numbers on a page, but as real people's lives.... He is not afraid of a big idea -- that we can do something about hunger and extreme poverty."

Finally, he presented Sachs as, "my friend, my teacher, my rock star."

When Sachs, with boyish smile and sedate gray suit, stepped up to the podium, he also was greeted by cheers. He had a major fan base there, but some of Bono's star status had rubbed off.

"CHILDREN DIE." Sachs took time out to rib Bono about his being in contention for the Nobel Prize. "We're rooting for you," he said. He joked that Bono could also win the Nobel Prize for Physics, since he had figured out how "left and right can come together." He expressed amazement that none other than Jesse Helms had said of Bono, "Take care of that boy, he's doing God's work."

Then the tone of the evening quickly became somber as Sachs led the audience on a harrowing tour through a handful of dying, impoverished villages in Malawi, western Kenya, and Ethopia. His first slide depicted a woman from Malawi, surrounded by about a dozen children, who she was charged to care for. But her crop had failed and her only food was a watery gruel made from boiled husks she collected at the mill. "What happens when people have no food at all?" he asked the crowd. "Children die."

He pointed to a small boy of about four leaning against the woman's hip. Sachs reported that on a return trip just a few weeks ago he learned the boy had recently died. He was just one of the 200 out of every 1,000 children in that region will die before the age of five -- 100 times the rate of the Western world, says Sachs.

SMALL STEPS, BIG GAINS. More such grim images, anecdotes and statistics followed, but by the end of his 45-minute talk, Sachs had become more inspiring and hopeful than sad. His message in a nutshell: Solving world poverty can be done -- in fact it would be neither all that hard nor expensive to accomplish. Moreover, such action is a moral imperative for citizens of the developed world.

Best of all, it will make you feel good. "Poor countries have given us the best bargain in the world," he said.

All it takes is items like a $7 bed net to ward off malaria-carrying mosquitoes, a $40 treadle pump to irrigate crops, a $30 bag of fertilizer to restore nitrogen to the soil, and $45,000 to hire a doctor for 15,000 villagers -- "nothing fancy," he said. "We really can do something very special," he said. "We have to do it."

AWE AND ACTION. He urged the audience to rise above defeatist bureaucracy. He scoffed at arguments that it was futile to hand out goods and supplies to African nations due to corruption and incompetence of governments or worries the people wouldn't value what they had been given for free. "They are not looking to shake us down," said Sachs. They just need a "helping hand to get on the first rung of the ladder of economic development."

By the end of the night it was less clear whether Bono should be the Nobel Prize recipient or Sachs. But it also seemed not to matter much. The crowd left awed, and seemed, based on the buzz in the room, to have been inspired to action.

A grass roots movement is building, fueled by university lectures like the one at NYU. Sachs is the movement's architect, but Bono is its momentum. Keep an eye on it. It seems destined to grow from here.

Posted by Jonathan at 04:34 PM | Comments (0)

October 05, 2005

Conan to Turn Entire Show Over to U2

NEW YORK (AP) - In his 12 years in charge of booking musical guests on Conan O'Brien's "Late Night," Jim Pitt always listed U2 and Johnny Cash as the dream artists he'd tried but never succeeded in getting.

He lost his chance with the late Cash, but the U2 dream is coming true Thursday in a major way.

O'Brien will turn over his entire show to the band, which is in New York for seven sold-out engagements at Madison Square Garden.

"We were able to offer them something to feel enough like an event for them to do the show," Pitt said. "It's basically 'Late Night with Conan O'Brien,' the U2 edition."

The NBC show has never before devoted itself entirely to a musical guest, although it gave major time a few years back to a holiday appearance by bandleader Max Weinberg's other employer, Bruce Springsteen.

O'Brien's a big U2 fan, and made a personal connection by talking at length with Bono during breaks in rehearsals for the band's "Saturday Night Live" appearance last season, Pitt said.

It may be a nervous time for Bono, who is nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in trying to ease Third World poverty. People who watch the Nobel closely list the lead singer as one of the favorites. The winner is expected to be named Friday.

The band is expected to perform three songs and be interviewed by O'Brien.

Pitt is not pushing for any material in particular.

"When U2 decides they want to come on the show for an hour, you don't get too picky about what they play," he said.

Posted by Jonathan at 02:53 AM | Comments (2)

June 30, 2005

U2: How to dismantle a ticking time bomb

By Edna Gundersen, USA Today

U2's starring role in Live 8 marks a confluence of anniversaries. It has been 20 years since the Irish band made a splash at Live Aid, the Africa-relief benefit that inspired the similar Live 8 concerts being staged Saturday. A quarter-century ago, U2 was celebrating its first single and recording its debut album, Boy. By some barometers, 2005 is also the 50th birthday of rock itself.

This could be a nostalgic weekend for the planet's most driven band - if it had a reverse gear.

"I wince a little at the term 'veteran band,' because we're releasing records as popular and as creatively alive as anything we've ever done," says bassist Adam Clayton, 45. "We still get videos played on MTV. Rolling Stone, which tends to put half-naked ladies on its cover, had a very successful issue with U2 on the cover.

"These things are not the industry norms. These things make people scratch their heads. It's humbling to be in that position."

And unique. The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and other boomer warhorses subsist on tour receipts or catalog sales that emphasize past glories while new music gets tuned out. U2 is the only rock band to survive on top this long without converting into an oldies act. With no mentor or model to guide them, the foursome's next challenge will be sustaining that unprecedented stretch of critical and commercial success.

"Rock bands aren't supposed to last," Clayton says. "We don't want to be in that subdivision called 'heritage,' so we're trying to figure out how to age and not make dull music. You don't want to start having work done on your face just to get on MTV. There has to be a way to be acceptable with dignity."

The Vertigo Tour, loaded with latter-day hits, is on track as the year's highest-grossing trek. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb has sold 2.8 million copies so far after entering the chart last fall at No. 1 with 840,000 copies, nearly double the No. 3 debut of 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind. Since 1991, when SoundScan began tabulating data, U2 has sold 29.2 million albums in the USA. It's not enough.

"We are still hungry," says drummer Larry Mullen Jr., 43. "We want the cake, the cream on it, cherries and jam and anything else you have. This is not about playing for our original audience. We are nothing like the Grateful Dead. It's about finding a new audience without disenfranchising the old one."

And it's not just about size.

"I don't want to be in the biggest rock band in the world," says the drummer for the biggest rock band in the world. "I want to be in the best band, and we're closer to that now than we've ever been."

The foursome was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April at the peak of its powers, not on the cusp of retirement.

"We were proud to be inducted, but our focus is not on the past," says guitarist Edge, who turns 44 in August. "It's an honor, but it's slightly off-kilter at this moment. We're not ready to sit back and reminisce about the golden years. We're determined to still be making great music in this millennium."

They head into an unmapped wilderness as they attempt to maintain creative and commercial authority in a field of fickle fans, sinking sales and discarded idols.

Chris Martin of Coldplay, the biggest of many acts shaped by U2, says the band is a career model.

"I don't know how they do it," he says. "Just the solidarity of the gang of U2 is really inspiring. There are great lessons there. So many bands I've loved have tripped. They sacked the drummer or did some crazy bad commercial or turned against their audience."

Lasting success brought fame, wealth and boxcars of awards, spoils that tend to invite laziness and boredom to the party. Unless you have guilt as your bouncer.

"We're constantly unsatisfied as a band," Mullen says. "We've got all this stuff, but maybe we haven't earned it. There are contemporaries who have worked equally as hard as U2 and don't have as much success. We're uncomfortable with it; we need to prove ourselves."

He says U2 will survive by clinging to founding principles.

"Early on, we decided to work as a democracy, and we use our votes very wisely," Mullen says. "It's a very transparent process, and it can be brutal, but we get the best out of everyone that way. We made a commitment to each other, to making music that we believe in. Today, it's about ego for a lot of bands: 'I wrote this part' or 'I want a bigger dressing room,' the most childish things you've heard in your life, never musical differences."

Uncharted waters don't necessarily portend rough seas, says Bono, who isn't in a panic over the industry's youth obsession.

"It would not surprise me if this album, depending on which songs catch fire, or our next album will be by far our most popular," he says, noting that many of pop's best sellers are adult-oriented. "The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Shania Twain. They made records for people ignored by the music business, which spends 80% of its marketing budget on 15- to 25-year-olds. We have an enormous audience potentially, if we're up to the task."

Can U2 drop another Bomb?

"I think we can make more extraordinary melodies," says Bono, 45. "I'm just kicking in as a writer. I was just sketching in the '80s. I have much more focus, and the band has much more firepower."

If U2 retreats from the mainstream, as it did under the pseudonym Passengers in the mid-'90s, it hopes to do so by choice for artistic reinvention and replenishment.

"If you're interested in pop culture and what's going on, the music just naturally will be relevant," Bono says. "We still make music for virgins. That is the most powerful moment, the discovery.

"I'm always trying to bring myself back to that moment when Bob Dylan and John Lennon woke me up. I'm delighted MTV is taking a risk. They're saying, 'We think U2 can still communicate with our audience.' Even 14-year-olds don't want a diet of candy all the time."

U2's ability to connect to younger fans may in part owe to the contagiousness of its own enthusiasm.

"The challenge is to keep the songs alive and vibrant and not allow them to become relics of a previous era," Edge says. "I'm trying to find an angle on the old songs to give them a new life. In previous records, I've obscured the guitar behind layers of effect and textures. Now it's back to the simplicity of electric guitar and what it does. I'm falling back in love with it.

"If we were at a point where we lost our heart and our taste for making records, we would pack it in. We get inspired by things going on in music. That's kept us fresh over the years. We can't be pinned down. It's never static. We're absorbing what goes on in rock 'n' roll and constantly evolving."

Could U2 be content with modest sales and small venues?

"If we make the decision, the answer is yes," Edge says. "I can see consciously scaling it down, but right now I'm interested in making rock 'n' roll music as loud and proud as we ever have."

Should its clout and stature start to slide, U2 won't stick around as a comeback cliché, thank you.

Says Mullen: "We will put the bullet in our own head before anyone else does."

Posted by Jonathan at 06:11 PM | Comments (0)

June 28, 2005

U2 Sues Ex-Stylist Over Auction Items

DUBLIN, Ireland - Bono wants his hat back. And his earrings. His sweat shirt, too. Dublin-based rock band U2 went to court Tuesday to recover items from former stylist Lola Cashman, who has a range of memorabilia from her work on their 1987 Joshua Tree world tour.

In 2002, Cashman tried to sell some of the items - including a cowboy hat, sweat shirt, pants and earrings worn by Bono - at a London auction house. U2's lawyers stopped the sale by telling auctioneers the goods weren't Cashman's to sell.

On Tuesday, lawyer Paul Sreenan told Dublin Circuit Court Judge Matthew Deery that Bono and other members of U2 would testify that they hadn't given any of the items to Cashman, who was also accused of claiming inappropriate expenses during the tour.

Sreenan said the band hoped the judge would issue a judgment that Cashman should not continue to possess or try to sell any of the materials in dispute, including about 200 photos of the tour.

U2 completed a three-night concert stand Monday night in their hometown with an 80,000-seat sellout performance at the city's Croke Park stadium. They are to take part in the Live 8 concerts on Saturday, playing in the London event in Hyde Park.

Posted by Jonathan at 07:14 PM | Comments (0)

May 16, 2005

Pride of Dublin

By Lise Hand, New York Post

A superstar in the United States, an ambassador in the Third World, a saint in Rome, Bono is something else in his native Ireland - ordinary.

My friend Craig de Wald found that out in a rather comical way when he strolled into the men's room of a Dublin bar last year and found himself standing next to his longtime hero.

De Wald had first seen U2 in action in San Francisco in 1987, and since then had criss-crossed the country six times to see them play. "I've always looked on Bono as a bit of a role model. I find him interesting because he has the ability, as Rudyard Kipling put it: "To walk with kings, nor lose the common touch."

The closest most Americans will get to U2 is in the audience at one of the band's sold-out shows this week at the Continental Airlines Arena and Madison Square Garden. But in Ireland, you pass them on the street.

De Wald and fellow New Yorker Paul Bossert were visiting me for a weekend, and I had mentioned that I knew Bono. In Ireland, the theory of six degrees of separation goes out the window when it comes to the U2 frontman. Everybody "knows Bono." Everyone went to school with him, saw the fledgling band play in the early days, scrounged a pint off him, offered him song-writing tips.

While most of these claims of kinship are, shall we say, a tad fanciful, Bono does possess an uncanny ability to move about his native city with an ease unknown to most superstars. Although he is usually instantly recognizable, wearing his uniform of peaked cap, tinted shades and hastily assembled collection of black clothes, he is rarely swarmed by fans - and if he is, it's invariably by disbelieving tourists rather than more blas‚ locals.

I don't recall the first time I met Bono. Like many over-35-year-olds, U2's music was a soundtrack to our growing up, particularly through the tedium of the early 1980s, when Ireland was an ignored and unfashionable backwater, and the only buoyant figures were the unemployment rates.

I refused to go and see the band play in the Dandelion Market in the late 1970s (this venue was to U2 what the Cavern in Liverpool was to The Beatles). I reckoned U2 was crap, and a rival Dublin band called DC Nein was destined for greatness instead.

Based on this and other incredible insights, I became a rock journalist. In the mid-1980s, Dublin's rock scene was incredibly vibrant, and everyone drank in the same bars and clubs; it was a close-knit community, save for the usual bouts of back-stabbing and "my-bass-is-bigger-than-yours" posturing. I had changed my mind about U2 by now, and was on friendly terms with all the members of the band and had written about them on various occasions.

But I definitely remember the first long conversation I had with Bono; it was in 1990, and I bumped into him in the city one evening. I was bone-weary, having spent the entire day moving my stuff into my new apartment. I moaned about having to go home and unpack everything and wished aloud I was a rock star like him, who had furniture-moving elves to do that sort of heavy lifting.

An hour later, I was tussling with packing cases when the doorbell rang. It was Bono, offering to help out. By this stage, the one item I had liberated was a bottle of vodka, so I broke it open, and we sat on two boxes and solved the problems of the world. He realized I wasn't looking for a team of workmen, but just a bit of company on my first evening in my new home.

Since then, our paths have crossed on numerous occasions, and it's always fun to meet him. He's witty company and extremely considerate; if I'm with friends, he makes a point of drawing them into the conversation. It's not hard to bump into Bono; when he's in Dublin, he's often out and about in his favorite haunts. Once a week, he and his gang of buddies, whom he has known since his school days, end up in top Dublin nightclub Lillie's Bordello, which has played host to an endless list of celebrities, from Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie to Julia Roberts and Colin Farrell.

Valerie Roe, who ran the club for 13 years, describes Bono as "completely normal and down-to-earth. He never asks for any special treatment; he never has a driver because he walks everywhere." Says Roe, "He likes to hit the dance floor, and sometimes brings new U2 tracks for our deejay to test out on the dancers. He's thoughtful, too - he gave me a Christmas present last year, a signed copy of his 'Peter and the Wolf' book."

Another close friend of Bono's is movie director and fellow Irishman Jim Sheridan, who is currently shooting a movie with rap star 50 Cent. Sheridan describes the U2 singer as "a genuine friend, there's no bull---t about him. He's one of those people who acts as a tipping point and who can genuinely bring about great change."

Sheridan believes that it's the attitude of Irish people to their famous sons and daughters that keeps the singer grounded. "Irish people often begrudge success among their own, and watch out for any sign you've gotten too big for your boots. They tend to keep you in line!" he laughed. But the director adds, "For such a public person, Bono is amazingly private. You may think you know a lot about him, but you don't really. He has that rare ability to hide in plain sight."

That day last October when Craig de Wald and Paul Bossert met the singer in Dublin, they were treated to a vintage performance. The two New Yorkers and myself were sitting at the bar, feeling a little fragile after dashing ourselves on the rocks of Irish hospitality the night before. I was on my cellphone talking to my sister when Bono suddenly appeared and snatched it from my hand. "Lise looks terrible. I think she's in costume," he informed my bemused sister.

He then joined us for a drink.

Craig de Wald has gotten mileage out of the story: "My American friends can't believe that we just ran into him in a neighborhood bar. Nor that he turned out to be a genuinely great guy, having a beer and a laugh."

Posted by Jonathan at 03:35 AM | Comments (1)

December 14, 2004

U2 Fans Catch Glimpse Of Band On Video Shoot

12.14.04 - IOL

Hundreds of music fans gathered to catch a glimpse of rock legends U2 today as they filmed the video for their next single.

Gardai were on high alert outside Dublin's legendary Gaiety Theatre as the four band-mates attempted to sneak in unnoticed.

But the hoards of screaming fans, some of whom had waited since 6.30am, soon scuppered their efforts.

A spokeswoman said the band were filming a video for their next single from their much-awaited album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, which has topped the charts in over 30 countries.

The band's spokeswoman said the name of their next single had not yet been released.

The Edge pulled up outside their hometown theatre in a taxi with blacked-out windows at around 1pm.

He spent several minutes signing autographs and having his picture taken with dedicated fans.

The crowd then surged forward as Bono arrived some 45 minutes later.

The international humanitarian campaigner spent five minutes greeting fans before making a victory salute and entering by the stage door.

The crowd quickly dispersed after glimpsing the U2 frontman.

Several gardai watched over the crowd, erected safety barriers and ensured traffic continued to flow past the theatre.

Over 50,000 fans recently lined the streets of New York to catch a glimpse to the band as they moved across the Brooklyn bridge on a truck.

Posted by Jonathan at 04:07 AM | Comments (0)

October 16, 2004

U2 Take Over Top Of The Pops

10.16.04 - NME

U2 surprised fans in LONDON last night (October 15) when they played a short set after making a brief television appearance for TOP OF THE POPS.

The band performed their new single 'Vertigo' and the Roy Orbison classic 'She's A Mystery To Me' live in the pouring rain at BBC's Television Centre before treating the crowd to a series of new tracks and old classics, off air.

Around 400 fans queued outside the gates for several hours before they finally had a chance to see the band play on a stripped down stage in the car park.

At the start of the show Bono, who was dressed in a leather jacket and a cowboy hat, spotted Doctor Who's Tardis by the stage and shouted to the crowd: "Wow it's the Tardis. Exterminate, exterminate, pop music," before he launched into their new single.

When they finished their TV appearance, the group carried on playing and treated fans to the U2 classic 'Desire' and gave an exclusive preview of two new tracks from their forthcoming album 'How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb'.

They performed new track 'All Because of You' before Bono addressed the crowd and said: "This next song is about how we used to come to cities like London and New York when we were younger and naive and how over time our innocence has disappeared and how experience has kind of kicked in especially when you're smoking 40 cigarettes."

He added: "We played this amazing show after September 11 and we remember all these blinding lights after playing 'Where The Streets Have No Name'. People were crying and it was an amazing thing to see."

The band then ended the show with new song 'City Of Blinding Lights' and Bono said: "We'll see you next summer. It'll still be raining," before he left the stage.

U2 fan Rob Cole, 33, from Shepherd's Bush said he was surprised the band carried on playing after their TV appearance.

He said: "It was amazing. I really didn't expect that. You don't get to see the biggest band in the world play at the bottom of your street for free very often. It is good to see they are just as good as they always have been and I'm looking forward to seeing them tour next year."

U2 played:

'Vertigo'
'All Because Of You'
'Desire'
'She's A Mystery'
'City Of Blinding Lights'

Posted by Jonathan at 03:56 AM | Comments (0)

April 19, 2004

Challenge to Indecency Rules

4.19.04 - Associated Press

(CBS/AP) Several media companies, activists and performers are asking the Federal Communications Commission to back off a ruling that fined NBC for broadcasting an event during which Bono used the F-word, a magazine reports.

Broadcasting & Cable magazine says a group of companies including Viacom (which owns CBSNews.com), Fox and RadioOne is joining with activists like People for the American Way and Media Access Project, as well as entertainers like Penn & teller and comedian Margaret Cho to oppose the ruling.

NBC was expected to file a separate petition Monday, the magazine reported.

In March, the FCC overruled its staff and declared that the expletive uttered by Bono on NBC was both indecent and profane. The agency made it clear that virtually any use of the F-word was inappropriate for over-the-air radio and television.

The decision marked the first time that the FCC cited a four-letter word as profane; the commission previously equated profanity with language challenging God's divinity.

The FCC has been under pressure to punish indecency on the airwaves after Janet Jackson bared her breast during a halftime performance at the Super Bowl, which was televised by CBS. As it announced its decision on the F-word last month, the FCC also revealed three indecency fines for radio broadcasts -- two against Infinity Broadcasting, including one for a Howard Stern show, and one against a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications.

But the commissioners did not propose a fine for Bono's expletive during the 2003 Golden Globe Awards because, they said, they had never before said that virtually any use of the F-word violated its rules.

Indeed, the commission specifically rejected earlier findings that occasional use of the F-word was acceptable, including a ruling by its enforcement bureau last October that Bono's comment was not indecent or obscene because he did not use the word to describe a sexual act.

"The 'F-word' is one of the most vulgar, graphic and explicit descriptions of sexual activity in the English language," the commission said Thursday. "The fact that the use of this word may have been unintentional is irrelevant; it still has the same effect of exposing children to indecent language."

According to the commission's order, "The Commission defines indecent speech as language that, in context, depicts or describes sexual or excretory activities or organs in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium."

The FCC received hundreds of complaints after Bono, the lead singer of the Irish rock group U2, said, "This is really, really, f------ brilliant," and FCC Chairman Michael Powell asked his fellow commissioners to overturn the staff decision.

The lawyer who wrote the petition for Viacom and the other opponents of the new rule, Bob Corn-Revere, tells Broadcasting & Cable that the F-word ruling "has sent shock waves through the broadcast industry and is forcing licensees to censor speech that unquestionably is protected by the First Amendment."

NBC aired this year's Golden Globes broadcast on a 10-second delay. ABC did the same with its telecast of the Academy Awards show.

NBC also removed a glimpse of an elderly patient's breast in an episode of the hospital drama ER. Victoria's Secret dropped its nationally televised fashion show this year, at least partly because of criticism following Jackson's breast-baring faux pas.

Clear Channel dropped Howard Stern from its six stations that broadcast his show, and fired Larry Wachs and Eric Von Haessler, also known as 96 Rock's "The Regular Guys," after the company finished its investigation of a March 19 radio skit in which explicit sexual talk was broadcast during a car commercial.

Posted by Jonathan at 03:34 AM | Comments (0)

April 01, 2004

Large Irish Festival With U2 Scrapped?

4.1.04 - Financial Times

U2, various other artists were set to headline "Ireland's Day of Welcomes"

Far from welcome

Ireland's Day of Welcomes - an EU extravaganza to celebrate the formal accession of 10 member states on May 1 - has been scaled back after receiving a far from rapturous welcome.

The centrepiece - a big open-air concert in the middle of Dublin - was scrapped yesterday. Joint promoters Irish broadcaster RTE and the BBC said it would cause too much disruption for local businesses, with the area closed to traffic for five days.

The stars already lined up included Van Morrison, U2, Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries and Bob Geldof. Tickets will be refunded. There remains a suspicion, though, that the real reason for the cancellation is security.

The simultaneous concert in Belfast will still go ahead. While Belfast is (for now) part of the UK, not the Irish Republic, it is well used to dealing with terrorist threats.

Posted by Jonathan at 03:32 AM | Comments (0)

March 02, 2004

U2 Retrospective Book Planned for 2005 Release

3.2.04 - MTV

Publishers got a sneak peek the past few weeks at what is poised to be one of rock's big publishing events of 2005, an anthology by and about U2. Planned as a full-color photo retrospective, "In the Name of Love: U2 by U2" is proposed to coincide with the release of the band's next and 10th studio album, and timed for the 25th anniversary of the group's first LP, Boy.

The proposal, which was shown to prospective publishers in the past few weeks in the form of a blad -- a selection of pages of text, photos and illustrations -- includes previously unseen photos of the band throughout its career, such as from album-cover photo shoots with Peter Rowen, the boy who posed for the cover of War and other releases. "It's meant to show the band not just in the context of a rock band, but as figures in world culture," said one publisher who took a look.

The bandmembers themselves did not take meetings to shop the book, but sent out their longtime manager, Paul McGuinness, in their place. (McGuinness' office did not return calls for comment.)

Jim Henke is the proposed writer for the book, since he has had a long history with U2, first having lobbied his bosses at Rolling Stone to feature the group on its cover in 1985 (with the headline, "Our Choice -- Band of the '80s"), and then creating an exhibit in 2003 on the band at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where he is now chief curator. Much of what was included in the exhibit, titled "In the Name of Love: Two Decades of U2," is expected to make the finished book. One of the most extensive exhibitions on one act ever to be displayed in the museum, it included the band's first drum kit, costumes from years of stage productions, the Zoo TV Tour sign, photos by longtime band lensman Anton Corbijn, the first U2 T-shirt, early rejection letters from record labels, meticulous notes by producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois from a couple of recording sessions, and handwritten lyrics.

"Most bands don't have their material tied in as cogently as that," said the publishing source, who asked not to be identified so that negotiations to procure the anthology wouldn't be jeopardized. "If a publisher can make the book work as an event or tie it into a loyal fanbase, there's some gold in them thar hills."

He predicted that the U2 project would command a multimillion-dollar deal once the bids are collected on Monday (March 1).

-Jennifer Vineyard MTV.com

Posted by Jonathan at 03:31 AM | Comments (0)

January 15, 2004

Bono a No-Go For Super Bowl

1.15.04 - E! Online

By Sarah Hall

The NFL still hasn't found what it's looking for--it just doesn't want Bono.

Jennifer Lopez during the Super Bowl halftime show was rejected by the organization.

Bono had hoped to perform his new song, "An American Prayer," which he had planned to use as pitch to attract attention to the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

MTV, which is producing the program, signed off on the performance, but the NFL flinched at the subject matter.

A spokesman for the NFL indicated that the organization didn't find Bono's message in keeping with the atmosphere it sought for the Super Bowl.

"We simply decided that we were going to deliver, as we do annually, an extremely entertaining halftime show," the spokesman told the New York Daily News. "We don't believe it's appropriate to focus on a single issue."

So far, Janet Jackson is the only performer confirmed for the halftime show. Beyonc will perform the national anthem before the game, which will be played February 1 in her hometown of Houston.

No word on how the musician responded to the NFL's snub; however if his reaction was colorful and involved four-letter words, he better hope there weren't any cameras around.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell has asked his fellow commissioners to overturn a much-criticized decision that a certain f-word used by Bono at last year's Golden Globes was not obscene.

"This is really, really, f---ing brilliant," the musician remarked onstage during the broadcast of the award show. Oops.

However, the FCC 's enforcement bureau ruled in October that Bono's dropping of the f-bomb was not indecent or obscene, because he used it as an adjective as opposed to using to describe a sexual act.

"The performer used the word...as an adjective or expletive to emphasize an exclamation," the bureau said.

Powell apparently disagrees with his minions. The chairman is also seeking a tenfold increase in the amount of fines the FCC can seek from broadcasters that violate the profanity code.

Powell believes the current maximum fine of $27,500 is not enough to intimidate broadcasters into keeping their shticks free from the dreaded pottymouth.

"Some of these fines are peanuts," Powell told a National Press Club luncheon. "They're just a cost of doing business. That has to change."

The largest fine in FCC history was a $1.7 million slap at Infinity Broadcasting in 1995 to settle several cases against shock jock Howard Stern.

Posted by Jonathan at 03:28 AM | Comments (0)

November 24, 2003

Bono: Hes a Sell-out at Christies

11.24.03 - Fashion Wire Daily

Godfrey Deeny

You too can be painter Bono, and judging from the proceeds at Fridays auction of your art a pretty successful one at that.

A series of 16 paintings by U2's singer, aided by his two young daughters, Jordan and Eve, raised $368,000 in Christies New York Friday at a benefit for the Irish Hospice Foundation.

Hello my name is Bono and I am a Rock Star, said Bono with a mock smirk as he addressed the packed auction room, before going on to praise the angels at the Irish Hospice for the care they showed his late father. Bonos father Bob Hewson died in August 2001 after a long fight with cancer.

The Bono family artwork are illustrations for a modern interpretation of the Prokofiev orchestral classic "Peter and the Wolf," whose score has been updated by film soundtrack producer -- and Bono's childhood friend -- Gavin Friday ("Moulin Rouge," "Romeo & Juliet").

Two portraits of his father carrying his Cleveland golf clubs each went for $15,000, while a study of the wolfs head was acquired by for $20,000 by U2 manager Paul McGuinness. The top price at the auction, however, was $60,000 paid for a self-portrait of Bono as a kid entitled Baked Bean Boy, acquired after some heated bidding by Doug Morris, CEO of Universal Music Group.

I asked my girls Jordan and Eve to help me with detail and a filigree of flowers. I painted myself in a corner as Peter. My Da we made the grandfather, as he was to Jordan and Eve, my two daughters who loved and were loved by him. The Wolf was ambition for things just out of reach, Bono said in his speech.

At times, the auction became a zany after. When auctioneer Bernard Willams called Bono the Basquiat of the future, Friday joined him at the rostrum and promised to put his tongue in the ear of whoever paid $30,000 for one of the paintings, mixed media on paper, as large as 5 foot by 10 foot.

Hospice director Marie Donnelly revealed to FWD that the Hospice expects to raise a further million dollars from the sale of a limited edition of 200 box sets costing $5,000 each containing fine reproductions of the paintings. A book and CD are also available on peterwolf.org, with all proceeds benefiting the Irish Hospice.

Bono mingled with Moby, Elvis Costello, Michael Stipe and Matthew Barney super-beauty Aimee Mullins at the post-show cocktail, before heading to dinner in Mario Battalis Otto and making the late night scene at PM.

Posted by Jonathan at 03:21 AM | Comments (0)

October 08, 2003

No FCC Action vs. Bono Over Naughty Word

10.8.03 - Reuters

By Brooks Boliek

WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) - The Federal Communications Commission decided that U2 singer Bono's utterance of an obscenity during this year's broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards did not constitute a violation of the nation's broadcast indecency rules.

On Monday, the government agency's Enforcement Bureau rejected complaints by the Parents Television Council and others that Bono's use of the phrase "this is really, really f---ing brilliant" failed to meet the test for indecency. The bureau ruled that Bono's indiscretion was so "fleeting and isolated" that it did not run afoul of the rules.

The commission defines indecent speech as language that, in context, depicts or describes sexual or excretory activities or organs in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards. As a threshold matter, the material aired during NBC's Golden Globes telecast doesn't fall into that category, the bureau ruled.

"The word 'f---ing' my be crude and offensive, but, in the context presented here, did not describe sexual or excretory organs or activities," the bureau wrote. "Rather, the performer used the word 'f---ing' as an adjective or expletive to emphasize an exclamation. Indeed, in similar circumstances, we have found that offensive language used as an insult rather than as a description of sexual or excretory activities or organs is not within the scope of the commission's prohibition of indecent program content."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Posted by Jonathan at 03:15 AM | Comments (0)

May 17, 2003

Lost' Music Archive Released

5.17.03 - BBC

An archive of recordings by major stars including U2, Rod Stewart and Elvis Costello is to be released for the first time. The recordings, a mixture of live sets and studio sessions, were taped for Radio Clyde in Glasgow in the 1970s and 80s. More than 600 recordings found by Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) will now be released in a multi-million record deal with the Universal music group.

The archive, which features sets by acts including U2, Rod Stewart, Elvis Costello and Simple Minds, is thought to be the biggest outside of the BBC. The recordings were found when SRH was trying to locate some of its lost tapes.

"These totally unique recordings were usually only broadcast once or twice within a radio marketplace and then left to gather dust," said a company spokesman.

The recordings will be released with the blessing of the artists and their management. SRH chief executive Richard Findlay said: "The artists we have been in touch with so far share our enthusiasm.

'Unknown to fans'

"With the support of Universal, whose labels represent a large part of the archive, we believe something of considerable importance can be created," he said.

The company has set up its own record label, River Records, which will release some of the music.

"In many cases, these recordings have been unknown to fans, music retailers and music lovers," said Nigel Haywood, Universal's UK commercial director. "Consequently, their resurrection from the vaults of time will be eagerly anticipated."

The BBC has already released live recordings of some of the bands appearing on shows such as Radio 1's John Peel Show. Groups such as The Pixies, Elastica, Teenage Fanclub, The Wedding Present and The Fall. Many of these records have been released on the Strange Fruit label.

Posted by Jonathan at 02:59 AM | Comments (0)

January 12, 2003

U2 Exhibit To Open At Rock Hall In February

1.12.03 - Launch

A U2 retrospective is set to open February 8 at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland. "In The Name Of Love: Two Decades Of U2" features more than two dozen pieces of clothing, including outfits worn on the group's tours and in videos from the past 20 years; instruments provided by all four band members; original lyric manuscripts; stage set designs; personal correspondence; and video and animation cells. There's also some U2 memorabilia that's been on loan to the Rock Hall Museum since it opened in 1995. The exhibit is scheduled to run through September 2003.

U2 guitarist the Edge says that the exhibit is part of a long-term commitment the group has made to the Rock Hall. "We've been donating stuff to the Hall Of Fame over the years, you know, and I've been there a couple of times, and I think it's a great facility," Edge said. "It's fascinating to wander around. We give them any help we can." Edge and U2 frontman Bono have been involved in Hall Of Fame inductions for the Who, the Yardbirds, Bob Marley, and Bruce Springsteen.

The U2 exhibition will take up the top three floors of the museum, with a shifting design on the top floor. From its opening through May, the fourth floor will feature an exhibit of U2 photographs by Anton Corbijn, who has also directed many of the band's videos, while June through September will bring an exhibit dedicated to the band's image, spotlighting U2 artwork by designer Steve Averill and his Four 5 One team, plus unused album cover concepts.

"In The Name of Love: Two Decades Of U2" will kick off with a special preview party open to museum members and their guests. A limited number of tickets priced at $15 each will go on sale Monday (January 13) through Ticketmaster and at the Museum box office.

U2 is nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of best rock performance by a duo or group with vocal for its live version of "Walk On," taken from the America: A Tribute T

The U2 Station News Blog