January 2010 Archives

By Gavin Daly, Sunday Business Post

The planned U2 Tower in the Dublin docklands has been put on hold for another year. The Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) has written to the backers of the €200 million project, saying it will not go ahead until next year at the earliest.

It is the latest setback for the skyscraper project, which had already been put on hold for a year because of the deterioration of the property market and the economy.

The tower was to be developed by Geranger, a consortium made up of U2, Sean Merlyn's Ballymore Properties, property developer Paddy McKillen and architect Norman Foster. The consortium was named preferred bidder for the project in October 2007 and the 130metre tower was originally due to be completed next year.

By Maureen Coleman, Belfast Telegraph

A tour bus pulls up in Belfast's Lower Donegall Street with a big-haired band on board. Screaming teenage girls, in neon brights and leather jackets, greet the denim-clad rockers as they disembark. Nearby a market stallholder in pink pixie boots rubs her hands to fend off the cold.

Visitors to the Cathedral Quarter yesterday could be forgiven for thinking they had stepped back in time to the late 1970s/early 1980s, when new wave groups, red double-deckers, Ford Cortinas and pleated trousers were de rigeur.

Instead, it's a scene from music-comedy Killing Bono, being filmed in the city.

Starring Chronicles Of Narnia's Ben Barnes, the movie is set during U2's formative years in Dublin and London.

Mary J. Blige, Justin Timberlake, Madonna and Wyclef Jean are among those who bring real artistic achievement to the earthquake relief fundraiser.

By Ann Powers, Los Angeles Times Pop Music Critic

Programs like Friday's "Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief" do not exist to further musical careers, introduce new material or birth fruitful collaborations. Tragedies like last week's seismic disaster necessitate such urgent media efforts, and fundraising is their primary objective. Important information may also be transmitted; perhaps someone's consciousness will be raised. The pleasure, surprise or release that art can offer is merely added value.

That said, several of the major names who came on board for Haiti went beyond the expected heartstring tugs. Many delivered on precisely that front: The evening was full of big ballads and classic laments, from the opening "Prelude To a Kiss" by Alicia Keys to Jennifer Hudson's "Let It Be" and Stevie Wonder's "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

Others did something different. They made song choices or delivered performances that subtly enhanced our understanding of incomprehensible events.

U2, Jay-Z and producer Swizz Beatz have recorded a song together to raise money for victims of the Haiti earthquake.

BBC News

U2's guitarist The Edge told Irish radio station 2FM the band "wrote a song, finished and recorded" last week after being contacted about the idea.

The Edge, Bono and Jay-Z, along with Rihanna, are due to appear in London for "a group performance" as part of Friday's Hope For Haiti telethon.

George Clooney's two-hour benefit show will be aired on MTV in the UK.

The Edge told 2FM DJ Dave Fanning over the weekend: "Bono got a call from a producer, Swizz. He and Jay-Z wanted to do something for Haiti.

It's been a while since I have bestowed my theories to band stardom so hang in there with me whilst I ramble for a bit. I have been wandering around in the local LA band scene with my camera a bit. I think big things are coming out of this area right now, it might be the grunge Seattle set up from the nineties..... except with indie rock music. Bands such as The Airborne Toxic Event, The Henry Clay People, Radars of the Sky, Aushua, Le Switch, Monolators; and not local but just the same Passion Pit and Band of Skulls; are setting up 2010 for great challenges in the music industry. You may ask what does this have to do with U2?.................

Los Angeles Times

Heroin and NASCAR, who knew? U2 fans watching the NFL playoffs on Fox this weekend surely heard what would seem to be an oddly placed song scoring the network's preview of the upcoming Daytona 500: U2's mid-'80s hit "Bad." The commercial features little more than a snippet of one of the Edge's most recognizable guitar riffs -- the few slow, glistening notes that set the table for the song's explosive rock 'n' roll release.

U2 hasn't exactly shied away from commercial endorsements of late, or massive sporting events. Also, anyone who has attended any NFL, NBA or MLB game in recent years has likely heard "Beautiful Day" piped throughout the arena or stadium, further linking U2 with the sporting world. Yet judging by some previous NASCAR-branded music releases, U2 seems to be a bit out of place with the barroom hits and country rock more closely tied to the sport.

Stars including Bono, Justin Timberlake and Alicia Keys will perform in the Hope For Haiti TV fundraising event, organiser George Clooney has announced.

BBC News

The actor said more than 40 celebrities were expected to attend the Hope For Haiti event on 22 January.

The aim of the telethon, he added, was "to show the people of Haiti that the whole world is paying attention".

Clooney and Haitian-born singer Wyclef Jean will host the benefit, to be shown on more than a dozen US TV networks.

Other performers will include Sting and Christina Aguilera.

Clooney attended the Golden Globe awards on Sunday, where he was nominated for best actor for his film Up In The Air.

Example of the U2=BBC ad campaign from March of 2009

AFP

LONDON -- A BBC editorial watchdog body criticised the British broadcaster Thursday for breaching its own guidelines by appearing to promote the bands U2 and Coldplay in its coverage of them.

The BBC's Editorial Complaints Unit slammed an on-screen slogan "U2=BBC" used during its coverage of U2's last album as "inappropriate," while a "Radio 1 presents Coldplay" website broke guidelines about links to external sites.

The findings came after RadioCentre, the trade body for commercial radio firms in Britain, complained about the BBC's coverage of a Coldplay tour and U2's launch of its "No Line On The Horizon."

BBC's editorial complaints unit says promotion, which included concert on roof of Broadcasting House, breached guidelines

John Plunkett, The Guardian UK

The BBC today admitted that it breached its guidelines in promoting U2's latest album, No Line on the Horizon, and that altering its logo to "U2=BBC" was inappropriate.

The corporation's editorial complaints unit said coverage of last year's album launch, which included a concert on the roof of Broadcasting House, amounted to "undue prominence for commercial products or organisations" and breached BBC editorial guidelines.

It said the use of the slogan U2=BBC "gave an inappropriate impression of endorsement", and said a reference to the BBC being "part of launching this new album", in an interview between Zane Lowe and U2's Bono on BBC Radio 1, was inappropriate.

I'm usually one to support Bono in everything he does, he has always been an huge inspiration for me, heck if he told me to drop off a building head first because it was good, I probably would do it, But there is one thing I think at the moment that I have to sit on the opposite of the table with Bono on, and that is internet file sharing.

Irish group took $123 million in 2009

By Christopher Morris, Variety

U2 predictably led the field as the top-grossing North American touring act of 2009, according to figures released by concert tracker Pollstar.

The Irish group's lavishly mounted 360 Tour of U.S. arenas grossed $123 million, selling more than 1.3 million tickets.

The band's closest competition was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. The Boss' "Working on a Dream" tour grossed $94.5 million.

The powerhouse duo of Elton John and Billy Joel ($88 million), renascent pop tart Britney Spears ($82.5 million) and headbangers AC/DC ($77.9 million) rounded out the top five.

I will be with you again.................

I have had a great year with U2station....a big shout out to Johnathan for giving me this gig. There is lots to look forward to in this coming year with U2. New Album, 2nd round of the 360 tour, and Im sure suprizes will pop up, because hey................its U2 baby YEAH!!!!

YES THEY DO ROCK.......................

By Soraya Roberts, NY Daily News Staff Writer

The illegal downloading of music is out of control, writes Bono.

In a column for the New York Times, the U2 front man writes that it's time for America to fight file sharing with the same fervor and technology that it does child pornography.

"We know from America's noble effort to stop child pornography [...]," he writes under the heading "Intellectual Property Developers," "that it's perfectly possible to track content."

By following the content, the Feds can determine who's downloading it illegally and nab the thieves that the Irish rocker says have crippled the music industry, .

By Bono, New York Times Op-Ed Guest Columnist

Dublin

IF we have overindulged in anything these past several days, it is neither holiday ham nor American football; it is Top 10 lists. We have been stuffed full of them. Even in these self-restrained pages, it has been impossible to avoid the end-of-the-decade accountings of the 10 best such-and-suches and the 10 worst fill-in-the-blanks.

And so, in the spirit of rock star excess, I offer yet another.

The main difference, if it matters, is that this list looks forward, not backward. So here, then, are 10 ideas that might make the next 10 years more interesting, healthy or civil. Some are trivial, some fundamental. They have little in common with one another except that I am seized by each, and moved by its potential to change our world.

It is hard to believe but ten years have passed. During this past decade a lot has happened to the world, including the world of U2.

The decade started with U2 releasing their first album of the twenty-first century. Rumored to be a return to their rock n' roll roots, U2 had their careers riding on the album's success. The band had spent the 90's experimenting with new sounds. While these albums were successful creatively, they left critics and some fans scratching their heads. The band had in the past thrived under pressure, and this was no different. ALTYCLB proved to be a success both artistically and financially. U2 had reclaimed their position at the top.

The lyrics in ALTYCLB seemed to echo the times as the U.S. tried to cope with the aftermath of 911. U2 showed their support by displaying the names of the victims on a screen during their concerts. Bono also took to wearing a jacket lined with an American flag.

The band's 360 Tour was a big hit, with Bruce Springsteen coming in second place for the year

Los Angeles Times

In just 20 beautiful days on the concert trail last year, U2 racked up the highest-grossing North American tour of 2009, pulling in $123 million at the box office in a year in which overall concert business was one of the music industry's remaining bright spots.

The Irish quartet's bar-raising 360 Tour of sports stadiums, which visited 16 cities, sold more than 1.3 million tickets, translating to a nightly average of just more than 82,000 fans, according to Pollstar, the concert-industry tracking publication.

U2 was the only act to cross the $100-million mark last year, and its nightly average at the box office pummeled the competition, at nearly $7.7 million per show. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, which tallied nearly $95 million from 58 shows, follows U2 at No. 2 in Pollstar's ranking. But the hard-charging New Jersey outfit also drew more than 1 million fans to those shows, one of six tours to cross that threshold last year.

Compare that with 2008, when only one act -- country star Kenny Chesney -- topped 1 million in total ticket sales.

Interview by Mike Pattenden

Times Online

The name on his passport says Dave Evans but the rest of the world knows him as The Edge, the moniker handed to him by a young Bono Vox in U2's early days in Seventies Dublin. Polite and self-effacing, the guitarist is a self-confessed "music obsessive" who finishes our interview asking what new bands he should catch up on. His status presents many opportunities, not least the chance to work and play with his musical heroes. At the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary concert in October he accompanied Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, Black Eyed Peas and Patti Smith. "That was amazing," he recalls. "You don't get many opportunities to play with artists of that calibre in your life." Actually, he gets more than most, as evidenced by his starring role alongside Jimmy Page and Jack White in the big-screen rockumentary It Might Get Loud. A guitar fan's wet dream, it traces the threesome's differing approaches to their art before bringing them together to jam."What came out of the movie," he says, "was that it doesn't matter what your influences are, it's whether you are an originator. It's about attempting to express the sound in your head you can't otherwise explain."