June 2008 Archives

Stephen Maguire

U2 were forced to pulled out of a planned trip to help Nelson Mandela celebrate his 90th birthday party -- to concentrate on their latest album.

The supergroup were due to join a host of other stars at London's Hyde Park on Friday for a special concert.

But the group backed out at the last minute -- with Bono and the Edge sending a video message instead.

The millionaire rockers are holed up in their Hanover Quay studios in Dublin putting the final touches to their new album which is expected to be released in October.

A source close to the band said they were bitterly disappointed they couldn't make the party.

"The band have always been supporters of the anti-apartheid movements and became personal friends with Mr. Mandela. They wanted to go but are simply snowed under," said the source.

Irish Voice,

A DUBLIN artist who's obviously quite talented - he created the statue of Irish musician Phil Lynott on Harry Street in the city - is well into his next project, but it's proving so costly that he's run out of funds and may not complete it.

The subject in question is Bono, and artist Paul Daley has been working on the statue of the U2 superstar for three months. But Bono remains unfinished in Daley's workspace because he can't afford the materials to go on.

"It's a labor of love really but I've gone with it as far as I can go without funding. Artists normally get commissioned to make pieces like this but I got so wrapped up in what I was doing, I didn't think about the cost," Daley told the Sunday Tribune.

The likeness of Bono comes from a photo that Daley saw during the band's Joshua Tree tour. "There's something incredibly powerful about Bono in this period. Evangelical almost. The way he stood on stage at Live Aid, the goodness of the man, and that's what appealed to me and started me making the piece," he added.

U2 Album in October 2008?

Georgie Rogers, BBC 6,

Coldplay and Radiohead have been distributing their music in new ways by giving fans their music for free, but do not expect the same from rock giants U2.

Their new album is due out this year and U2's manager Paul McGuinness explained to 6 Music why they would not follow in Radiohead's footsteps.

He said: "There will be events around the release of the album but for U2 physical sales are still an enormous part of our business and we still sell a lot of actual CDs.

"We will obviously work with whatever technology is available to make the release of the new record as interesting as possible."

McGuinness feels Radiohead's free giveaway and pay-what-you-like scheme was not a very business-savvy move.

Speaking to 6 Music, he said: "We should all be aware that Radiohead's honesty box release of their album to some extent backfired."

Paul McGuinness delivers Music Matters keynote

Steve McClure, Billboard, June 04, 2008

HONG KONG -- U2 manager Paul McGuinness has delivered another hard-hitting speech in which he said that by refusing to join forces with the legitimate music business, Internet service providers are clinging to the past and preventing the music industry's future growth.

In his keynote presentation at the Music Matters conference in Hong Kong on June 4, McGuinness said he wants to see "a real commercial partnership" between ISPs and the music business in which they fairly share their revenues, as well as "action to stop mass copyright theft."

McGuinness had used his keynote speech at MIDEM in January to accuse ISPs of "destroying the recorded music industry" by failing to tackle piracy, and he returned to this theme in Hong Kong -- although he welcomed some initiatives by European governments.

"Privately negotiated revenue-sharing partnerships are, I believe, a key model for the future," said McGuinness, who has managed the superstar Irish band for the past 30 years.

Jonathan Cohen, Billboard,

A wealth of previously unreleased and rare material will be found on reissues of the early U2 albums "Boy," "War" and "October," due July 22 via Universal. Each album will be available as a remastered single CD, a deluxe set with a second disc of extras and on vinyl.

U2's 1980 debut album, "Boy," features the previously unreleased tracks "Speed of Life," "Saturday Night" and "Cartoon World" and a previously unreleased mix of "I Will Follow." "Boy-Girl" and "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" are captured in live versions taped at London's Marquee.

The new edition of 1981's "October" boasts a series of tracks taped live at London's Hammersmith Palais and Boston's Paradise Theatre, a BBC session with Richard Skinner and Common Ground's remix of "Tomorrow."

1983's "War" is bolstered here with the previously unreleased track "Angels Too Tied to the Ground," several remixes of "New Year's Day" and "Two Hearts Beat as One" plus the 7-inch single edit of "New Year's Day."