November 2011 Archives

NEW YORK (AP) - Bono is afraid of Alicia Keys.

While Keys talked about being pregnant and empathetic when filming her documentary about AIDS in Africa, the U2 singer chimed in and said: "She's scary, isn't she? She's scary."

Bono went on to say that Keys has "lioness energy" and that her role as a new mother won't allow her to "let other mothers suffer."

He made the comments at the premiere of Keep a Child Alive with Alicia Keys, a documentary which followed a visit to South Africa during last year's World Cup with a pregnant Keys and five Americans. It airs on the cable television Showtime channel on Dec. 1, which is World AIDS Day.

Genevieve Carbery, The Irish Times

A LINE-UP of big names in the music business have re-recorded U2's hugely successful Achtung Baby album in a new special recording to raise funds for Africa.

Patti Smith, Snow Patrol and Depeche Mode are among the artists on the recording.

(Ahk-toong Bay-Bi) Covered was released for download yesterday to raise money for Concern Worldwide's work in crisis-hit east Africa. The 12-track album features covers by three Irish artists: Mysterious Ways by Snow Patrol, One by Damien Rice and The Fly by Gavin Friday.

By Patrick Healy, The New York Times

In a new interview with Esquire magazine, the theater director Julie Taymor accuses Bono and the Edge of U2 - her former collaborators on the Broadway musical "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" - of maligning her as exhausted and overwrought as a bogus explanation for ousting her from the production in March and then overhauling the show as they saw fit.

Edge, who wrote the music and lyrics for "Spider-Man" with Bono, had previously used those two adjectives to describe Ms. Taymor's state of mind last winter. Of those adjectives, Ms. Taymor told Esquire, "I think that those were important to paint a picture of a director who you needed to release in order to make this big change. I had to be characterized that way in order for something to happen." After her firing, "Spider-Man" shut down for three weeks to insert new dialogue and scenes that Ms. Taymor's former colleagues had been secretly preparing and sharing with the producers during the winter.

Bono, at least, had no idea about her energy or psyche last winter, Ms. Taymor said, because he was mostly absent while she was making changes to "Spider-Man" during preview performances.

Jim McCarthy, Fast Company

This post originally appeared on Fast Company.

Everybody has a concert story. Whether it's lifting Wayne Coyne aloft in his human-sized gerbil ball at a Flaming Lips show, camping out all night for Springsteen tickets, or being hypnotized by Skrillex's beats, you've probably got a story, too.

Though individuals' narratives about their concert experiences remain in many ways unchanged, the concert industry itself has evolved over the past 10 or 15 years, because now, it's overtaking album and record sales (digital or otherwise) as the primary source of revenue for big names in the music industry.

Written by Sean Highkin & Liam Demamiel, One Thirty BPM

Sean Highkin and Liam Demamiel delve into the sprawling catalog and career of U2 in our next Discussions feature.

LIAM DEMAMIEL: Most U2 conversations invariably end up on the subject of Bono, and I can't really think of any other frontman who polarizes listeners as much as the man in the sunglasses. I know we are both big U2 fans, what are your thoughts on him?

SEAN HIGHKIN: I can sort of see why he's such a divisive figure. There is a strong contingent of rock fans that can't stand rock stars who have aspirations beyond being entertainers. I don't get it myself. The amount of money and awareness Bono has used his celebrity to raise for poverty, hunger, and AIDS is unparalleled in the pop music. People see him acting all buddy-buddy with world leaders and roll their eyes, because our first reaction when we see someone worth hundreds of millions of dollars talking about hunger in Africa is to question their intentions. But I don't think anyone can argue that Bono hasn't done a whole heck of a lot of good for society as a rock star.