First Appearance In Atlantic Canada

U2.com has announced that U2 will perform at Magnetic Hill Music Festival in New Brunswick at the end of July with special guests Arcade Fire.
Live Nation Global Touring in association with Donald K Donald Events and The City of Moncton  today confirmed that U2 will come to Atlantic Canada for the first time ever.

The final North American date of the U2 360° Tour will visit Magnetic Hill Music Festival in Moncton, New Brunswick on July 30th, 2011 with very special guest Arcade Fire.

“The Moncton show is set to be the final date of the U2 360° Tour in North America and we're really looking forward to bringing this now legendary 360 production into Atlantic Canada for the first time,” says U2’s manager Paul McGuinness.


Having just completed their sold out European tour, along with stops in Australia and New Zealand, U2 360° will visit South Africa and South America before arriving back in North America in May.  By the time it reaches Moncton, U2 360° will have been seen by over 6.5 million fans.

“To say that we’re excited about welcoming U2 to Moncton is an understatement,” added Moncton Mayor George LeBlanc. “Our Magnetic Hill Concert Site has seen some outstanding artists over the past five years, and the 2011 event will be no exception. To host one of the biggest bands, on one of the biggest stages, as part of one of the biggest tours for their final North American date is an honour.”

With a cylindrical video system of interlocking LED panels, and a steel structure rising 150 feet from the floor over a massive stage with rotating bridges, the band has truly created an intimate 360º experience for concertgoers. Long-time U2 Show Director Willie Williams has worked again with architect Mark Fisher (ZooTV, PopMart, Elevation and Vertigo), to create an innovative 360 design, which affords an unobstructed view for the audience.

"There is no stadium big enough in Atlantic Canada” said Donald K Donald, “so we will build one and they will come. The impossible will become possible. Moncton will host the last North American U2 360° Tour date and it promises to be the biggest and greatest entertainment spectacle in Atlantic Canada history."

Montreal’s Arcade Fire has followed up their smash albums “Funeral” (2004) and “Neon Bible” (2007) with the now three-time Grammy Award nominated, “The Suburbs” (2010).  Debuting at #1 on the U.S. Top 200 and selling 475,000 copies and counting, “The Suburbs” has been nominated for Album of the Year, Best Rock Performance By A Duo or Group, and Best Alternative Album.  This fiercely independent band has faced pressure from every corner of the music industry, but they carved out something beyond the grasps of the major label system with great success, a combination of Internet word-of-mouth and old-fashioned live show impressions.

Joining U2 and Arcade Fire on the bill will be up and coming rock band, Carney.  

More info:

www.u2.com

Bono:The Biggest Problem Facing The Next Generation

More from Bono in the World Economic Forum at Davos.

Bono`s Interview in the World Economic Forum

Watch live streaming video from worldeconomicforum02 at livestream.com

Picture gallery 

The band is on track to break all-time gross record

Photo: ©PeterNeill

[The January 29, 2011 issue of Billboard magazine includes a feature called "2011's Top 40 Best Bets." U2 is listed 11th with this accompanying article.]

In early April, while the group is performing somewhere in Latin America, U2's 360 tour is projected to become the highest-grossing tour off all time.

The previous record-high gross of $558 million, set by the Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang tour of 2005-07, won't just be broken but, to quote the Stones, shattered. When U2 concludes its two-year, 110-show trek in North America in July, the 360 tour is projected to top $700 million in total gross and 7 million in attendance. The feat is even more remarkable when one considers that the band will break the record on a tour that spanned trying economic times around the globe.

U2 won't claim the all-time highest-gross mantle because it has the highest ticket prices -- the tour tops out at $250 and prices go as low as $30, well short of what acts the Stones and Barbra Streisand have charged. Rather, the record-breaking numbers are made possible by the band's enduring popularity and the tour's groundbreaking 360-degree staging, which expanded stadium capacities by double-digit percentages.

The success of the tour is also a milestone achievement for 360 producer Arthur Fogel, Live Nation chairman of global music and CEO of global touring. Fogel has played a key role in seven of the top 10 tours of all time, including treks by U2, Madonna, the Police and the Stones.

The 360 tour's record-high gross will stand for a long time, given the ambitious scale of the production, the band's willingness to invest in its show and its ability to stay on the road for such an extended period. Few acts can play stadium tours. And even if an artist attempts to emulate the staging that has enabled 360-size capacities -- a massively expensive endeavor that few would dare take on -- filling those seats would be a tall order, particularly over 100 shows in markets around the world. In all likelihood, U2 can only be topped by U2.
(c) Billboard, 2011.

www.billboard.com//www.atu2.com

Bono in Davos

This is a video which shows Bono and the other leaders in the World Economic forum in Davos, hours ago. Though it is a bit long, it`s worth watching it, not only to see our beloved U2 frontman but also to listen to the discussions that are relevant in the world today.

Watch live streaming video from worldeconomicforum at livestream.com

Pictures of the event :here
httwww.weforum.org

Bono for Le Monde

Bono has  written a column  for  the daily newspaper ,Le Monde, France.

 M. le Président, get things done !

M. le Président is not lacking in energy. This week he will sprint from the World Economic Forum in Davos to the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa without breaking his stride or, one imagines, even breaking a sweat. There is some strange fuel that drives him… could he himself be a nuclear power? Is this fission that's happening inside his reactor?? Should the IAEA send a delegation to the Palais d'Elysee?

Whatever its source, a fair bit of President Sarkozy's energy—as we'll see again this week—has been directed at the developing world, particularly sub-Sarahan Africa. He's had plenty to say on the subject since becoming President in 2007. I remember meeting him at the G8 summit back then—his foot tapping and knee bouncing as we brainstormed with Youssou N'Dour about better ways to beat extreme poverty. To his credit, Sarkozy made clear he was willing to meet with the activist community, and he had a head full of fresh ideas to share. He wanted to examine what worked in development and jettison the rest; to move beyond the old vertical, France-Afrique relationships and get horizontal; and to build partnerships motivated not by guilt about the past but, instead, by optimism about the future.

So far, the transformational talk hasn't turned into transformational action.

These words won't surprise or offend him. He is the first politician—certainly the first head of state—who has given me express permission to, in his words, “torture” him. In a private moment he encouraged me to make noise and blow the horn to draw attention to these issues. “I know you have to torture me”, he said. “I know you have to raise the alarm.” Well, I'm not one to turn down a challenge; especially when those much better placed to make the case than me—Africans themselves—are putting forward an agenda that France needs to hear and heed.

So here I am. With their permission, I pass on these thoughts.

I do so as a big believer in what this President could do.

After all, he's at the helm of the G8 and the G20. He is still bursting with energy. He has some not-so-secret-weapons to deploy. Like Christine Lagarde. And Carla. The president's wife is the force behind France's major commitment to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. Sarkozy also champions clever ideas, like innovative financing, and better global governance. And he gives great speeches.

But “it's not a matter of making speeches; it's a matter of deciding.”

I didn't say that. The president himself said that—at the UN's Summit on the Millennium Development Goals last September—and he's certainly right. It's decision time for France's man in a hurry. It's opportunity time for Sarkozy, for France, and for the world. If you listen to African leaders, entrepreneurs and activists—there are at least three big areas where France needs to lead right now.

The first is governance. Africa is rich in natural resources yet it is rarely Africans (save some corrupt officials) who get rich off their extraction. Meanwhile the missing cash risks fueling conflict across the continent. Transparency could change that. It could re-route revenues to kickstart economies and invest in jobs, health and education. The United States—prodded by activists like the ONE Campaign and visionaries like George Soros—recently passed historic legislation requiring energy companies to “publish what they pay” to officials. This is big. Could be even bigger than debt cancelation, in terms of the money it frees up for Africa's fight against poverty. It doesn't cost the US a single dollar, and it wouldn't cost France or Europe a single Euro to enact the same law and make it binding.

Second, vaccines. This could be a big year for medical science. Two new vaccines, just ready to launch, are the best hope we've ever had to stop a couple of mass murderers: pneumococal, which kills about 800,000 children a year, and rotavirus, which kills another half million. This I've got to make some noise about, M. le Président, and it won't sound like cheering. As aid levels drop and promises slip - in France and beyond - African clinics are running out of life-saving drugs, death sentences are being reinstated, and the promise of new immunisations is at risk of being lost. Bill Gates thinks you should match France's generosity to the Global Fund with renewed support for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisations. I think Bill Gates is a very smart man.

And third, agriculture. World leaders are right to be concerned about food prices in the developing world and about commodity speculators. Reforms there will help. But as the President has rightly pointed out, and affirmed in 2008 at L'Aquila, investment in agriculture is the thing. Africa doesn't just need a fair price for food from other countries. It needs to build the capacity to grow more of its own. This region has the potential to feed not only its own people, but millions of others around the world—if we form the right partnerships with and for Africa's farmers.

Action on these three fronts—corruption, health and hunger—would get President Sarkozy a lot closer to the realm of transformation.

The president is a man in motion—bouncing, flitting, ever circling round like a boxer. This kind of motion may be thrilling to watch, but if in the end it does not win the day (and leaves its opponent, the ugly face of extreme poverty, still standing), well, that is a waste. A waste of this most talented politician's brainpower, and of this historic opportunity to transform the lives who live in the wake of decisions taken or not. What is needed now, I think, is not speedy kinetic energy, but movement—steady, determined, and purpose-driven—that knocks over obstacles and proceeds toward the prize of a new 21st century partnership with the developing world that leaves the 20th century patronage behind.

That is what I've heard Africans asking France to help provide—that sort of movement. It is what Europe and the world need from France, too. And, I might add, a bit audaciously, it is what France needs from France. Poverty, hunger, and disease in Africa—these are shared burdens, shared risks to our security and economy, shared affronts to our morality. And the opportunities in Africa—these are shared as well.

We know where Sarkozy's head is on all this. We know where his heart is.

It's his feet we'll be watching.

Bono, lead singer of U2 and co-founder of ONE

 Bono is going to participate in the World Economic Forum again on Friday 28 January 16.00 - 17.00 CET, at least he appears in the Livestream Programme of the Annual Meeting 2011 in Davos. he will be in the panel "Raising Healthy Children"  where the  following dimensions will be addressed:
Access to medicines and vaccinations
Maternal health and nutrition
Social and cultural factors


Other speakers:

• Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva
• Melinda French Gates, Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USA
• Muhtar A. Kent, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, The Coca-Cola Company, USA
• Lars Rebien Sorensen, President and Chief Executive Officer, Novo Nordisk, Denmark

www.lemonde.fr///www.forumblog.org

Man on the Train

Some months ago, we came to know that Larry Mullen Jnr was starring a movie. The name of the film is Man On The Train,  directed by Mary McGuckian ( Inconceivable).Larry's co-stars are Donald Sutherland and Graham Greene. It`s a re-make of a 2002 French film (L'homme du train starred by Johnny Halliday)
and it`s an Ireland-Canada co-production. Though it`s not the first time he acts in a film (he and Bono appeared in Phil Joanau's 1999 film Entropy), this will be his first starring role. When Bono was asked what he thought of his bandmate debut by the Canadian media, he said: "You know what? He`s been acting the bollocks for years..." 
 Now Pembridge Pictures has  shown the first stills of the movie:

  

Larry also composed the film`s original score together with Simon Clime. There`s still no date for its premiere.

www.pembridgepictures.com///popgoesthenews.blogspot.com///www.atu2.com

'Back In The Van Again'

Sound man Joe O'Herlihy

 In the late 1970's this is how U2 got from one show to another - sound man Joe O'Herlihy would drive one van, with two band members in it, while manager Paul McGuinness would drive the other, with another two band members. The kit was rammed in all around them.

Thirty two years since Joe started work with U2, he says it's changed a little: 'e have an aircraft and 186 trucks on this tour'.
But in another way it hasn't changed at all.
'It's all about the same thing - communication - and on this tour the design concept was to shrink the huge stadium to be back in the van again and I believe we've achieved that.'

In the first of a two-part interview , Joe describes how the band took their music into bigger and bigger venues - and how technological advances enabled them to retain intimacy in shows in the biggest stadiums in the world.

To watch Joe talking about it all, click here:
U2 > News > 'Back In The Van Again'


www.u2.com

David Guetta Dishes On U2 Collaboration

David Guetta can check Akon, Rihanna and Flo Rida off his list of superstar collabos, but the next possible high-wattage team-up in the works for the producer/DJ may be much more than the clubs can handle.
The French behind-the-boards whiz recently told MTV News that he's been speaking with pop-rock icon Bono about putting his hit-friendly touch on the next U2 project.
"We met with Bono, and I was really excited, really honored because he proposed me to maybe produce some tracks for the next U2 album," Guetta said. The architect of smashes like the Akon-assisted speaker-crusher "Sexy Chick" and the ubiquitous Black Eyed Peas anthem "I Gotta Feeling," Guetta added that he's more than ready to broaden his professional horizons beyond the main-room bangers and R&B-tinged tracks that have netted him tons of fan acclaim and status as a dance-music demigod.
"I've been more and more open to different styles of music, and obviously electronic music is still my main thing, but I just love music. If it's good, it doesn't matter what style," he said. "After those collaborations with all these urban artists, I thought it would be a real challenge for me to try to go in that direction."
But what would a Guetta-helmed U2 jam sound like? The quartet has spent decades blowing minds with their epic yet intimate pop-rock cuts, but how does one marry the fist-pumping, booty-rattling throb of Guetta's body of work with the Dubliners' sensibilities? The DJ told us that's he's already trying to figure that out.
"That's done already," Guetta smiled, admitting that he started tinkering with some sounds in the studio. "I started a few ideas already, yes."
Bono said late last year that U2 are actively exploring a dancefloor-friendly sound in some of their new music, and have also enlisted Broken Bells producer Danger Mouse, Lady Gaga soundsmith RedOne and the Peas' will.i.am to craft some tracks.
"U2's remixes in the 1990s were a real treasure," Bono explained to Australian newspaper The Age in October. "So we wanted to make a club-sounding record. We have a pile of songs."
© MTV Networks, 2011.

www.mtv.com

Another Sound Win

The U2360° Tour has won the  award for Best '2010 Tour Sound Production' at the annual TEC (Technical Excellence and Creativity) Awards in Los Angeles.

U2's Joe O'Herlihy won in the category of Front of House Sound Engineer while 360 crew members Alastair McMillan, David Skaff, Richard Rainey and Niall Slevin picked up the award for Monitor Engineers. U2360° Tour partner Clair won Best 'Sound Company'.

The awards are known as 'the Grammy's' within the rock touring production industry and the U2 sound crew were up against talented competition from touring personell working with Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Metallica and James Taylor and Carole King. ML Procise from Clair, who have worked with Joe and U2 for over thirty years, accepted the award on behalf of the 360 Tour.

'It's a fantastic accolade at beginning of the year,' said Joe, when we caught up with him in Dublin. 'These are the awards  made by your peers in the industry and they recognise outstanding creative achievement so it's pretty special for us to win.'

Joe and the U2 crew were also winners in 2002 for the Elevation Tour and in 2005 for Vertigo and he said this win was a special tribute to the 16-strong audio team led by Jo Ravitch, Senior System Engineer.

 'This makes it a hat-trick of wins for us but not only is the competition getting tougher every year but  this time, with this 360 tour, we're doing something quite revolutionary which required us to completely rethink how we deliver great sound in the round in stadiums. We're delighted!'

And after a few weeks off, the team are already working on preparations for next months dates in South Africa and those in South America that follow.

'South Africa will be amazing particularly as in Johannesburg we'll be opening in the new stadium where the soccer World Cup Final took place last year. And we always love heading over to South America, the audiences are extraordinary, that latin passion is something we all look forward to. I'll never forget those nights shooting the U23D movie, it'll be great to be back.'

www.u2.com

Bono Performs at Shriver Funeral

U2 frontman Bono along with Glen Hansard of The Swell Season perform at the funeral for R. Sargent Shriver. (Jan. 22)

www.ap.org

Bono´s interview on Oprah in Australia (The Grand Finale)

"Grounded" (2nd Part of Dave Fanning´s interview)

In the second part of U2.com´s  interview with Dave Fanning, he talks in more detail about his longtime friendship with U2 - and the common denominator amongst the many great musicians he has interviewed. (You can read the first part of this interview, here)


Was there a moment when you began to really love them? When you thought, ‘I’m getting this now’?
‘Getting it’ and ‘loving it’ are different things. I was behind them at the start more for who they were and where they were coming from, than from the fact that I thought the music was great. I never thought they would get out of a pub in Dublin to be world-conquering.

But by the time I went to national radio, I asked myself, which band’s demos have I played the most (and playing demos was a very important statement when it came to supporting local bands) and that happened to be U2.


 Can you look back now and see what sets them apart?
They had a belief in their own ability that none of the other crowd had. They were almost naive in that belief, which I found kind of funny. I remember meeting Bono once on Grafton Street and he said, “We’re going to go to London,” and I said, “Jesus, that’s been the death of every band I’ve known! Are you sure you need to do that?”

As it was, they were going because they had to do a few gigs there and get reviewed by the English press, but really, they were going to America. I didn’t know that, and I don’t even know if Bono did. Maybe even Paul McGuiness didn’t.


You are avowedly atheist in your autobiography; and U2 clearly have a spiritual dimension to their music…
Well I mean, God yeah, anyone can see they have this whole vibe about them. But whatever turns them on! It didn’t mean anything to me, but I never saw that in anyone else’s music, and if that’s what inspired Bono as a song-writer, then that’s fine by me, because it got as good as it gets. A Celebration, I Will Follow… it was there from the start.


How important is it that U2 stayed close to people like you, who’ve been there from the start?
That is one thing that amazes me. You can meet people like David Bowie and they feel pretty cool and ordinary and OK. I interviewed him once in New York and he didn’t have a minder anywhere. He was fantastic. But U2 - I don’t quite get it. I am amazed at how grounded and normal they are. I don’t think I would be; I don’t think you would be.


Are you able to be honest with them? They’ve sat you down to play each album to you. What happens if you don’t like what you hear?

 I always tell them - every time, no matter what they’re playing to me - that if you expect me to judge this on first listening, it doesn’t work like that. I am still old-fashioned enough to have to listen to an album 10 or 20 times - in the bath, in the toilet, in the car…


You wrote that the Stones have become their own tribute band. Do you worry that could happen with U2?
U2 are as vital as they can be, and it’s really important for them to be that. They never really go out on tour without a new album. And six or seven songs from No Line peppered the first year of the 360 tour, which is pretty amazing.


Is there a common denominator between the great artists you’ve interviewed?
They all want to be seen to be relevant. Guys like Prince and Paul McCartney don’t just want to play to an adoring audience. They want to release something that people respect, and that they go out to buy in their droves. It’s their lifeblood; what makes them human at the age of 60 or 70 is their work. If their work is as valued as it used to be, that’s all they could ask for. Bob Dylan is unique in the fact that his last three albums have all been critically acclaimed. With U2, they’d love to sell 10 million copies of their next album. And I’d say they’d sit there feeling baffled if they sell less albums than Duffy.


 How do you stay curious and passionate about music after all this time?
There’s always good music out there, and you’re only going to hear 10 per cent of it. But the 10 per cent can still be great. There’ll always be 10 albums at the end of the year that will stay with you for the rest of your life.

But I have to be honest with you: if music stops now, it wouldn’t worry me too much, because there’s so much to go back to, so much I didn’t hear in the first place. I know two of Frank Zappa’s albums; the other 19 I don’t know, but I’m sure I’d love them. Same with Captain Beefheart…  and a million others in between.


Dave Fanning's memoir, 'The Thing Is...' is available now.







www.u2.com

Young musicians find what they're looking for

Soon, they will have found what they're looking for.
Young musical talent, starved of the money or opportunity to develop their skills, can look forward to tuning up thanks to the country's biggest band.
A public-private music education partnership, called Music Generation, has been partly funded to the tune of €5m by U2.
Two pilot projects, one in Dublin and one in Donegal, are already proving a huge hit.
In Co. Donegal, about 1,000 children a year are learning an instrument or receiving vocal tuition, thanks to the programme.
Hundreds of children in disadvantaged communities in Dublin's north inner city and Ballyfermot are also benefiting.
At Larkin Community College in the city centre, the project led to the introduction of music as a core subject and saw an increase in attendance on the days it was offered.
Now Music Generation is ready to set up music education partnerships in other parts of the country and is seeking applications from interested parties.
The funding will support 12 new programmes between 2011- 2015, with up to €200,000 a year for three years on offer.
Opportunity
U2 were attracted to the project as a way of giving children the opportunity to get involved in music. Ireland's most famous rock band came together during their own school days at Mount Temple Comprehensive on Dublin's northside.
Guitarist The Edge said they considered themselves lucky to have had music in school.
But an Arts Council-funded report some years ago found that only about 1pc of children of second-level age receive tuition in instrumental or vocal performance, compared with 6-8pc in other European countries.
Music education in Ireland has largely been concentrated in urban areas and has proven too expensive for some.
The new partnerships will allow for music education to be offered at an affordable cost or for no charge at all, depending on local circumstances.
Rosaleen Molloy, who heads the programme, said music education should not be a matter of chance or luck.
U2's funding was crucial to a national rollout of the initiative, but the Department of Education is also a key player.
Once a partnership goes through the initial three-year phase, the intention is that the department will sustain it through state funding.
As well as U2's €5m, the Ireland Funds, a philanthropic organisation dedicated to supporting programmes in the arts, culture and education, is raising a further €2m.
Applications must include at least one statutory agency, such as a VEC or local authority.
© Independent.ie, 2011.

www.atu2.com//www.independent.ie/

Bono's New York Times Column

What I Learned From Sargent Shriver

 The Irish are still mesmerized by the mythical place that is America, but in the ’60s our fascination got out of hand. I was not old enough to remember the sacrifices of the great generation who saved Europe in the Second World War, or to quite comprehend what was going on in Vietnam. But what I do remember, and cannot forget, is watching a man walk on the moon in 1969 and thinking here is a nation that finds joy in the impossible.
 The Irish saw the Kennedys as our own royal family out on loan to America. A million of them turned out on J.F.K.’s homecoming to see these patrician public servants who, despite their station, had no patience for the status quo. (They also loved that the Kennedys looked more WASP than any “Prod,” our familiar term for Protestant.)

I remember Bobby’s rolled-up sleeves, Jack’s jutted jaw and the message — a call to action — that the world didn’t have to be the way it was. Science and faith had found a perfect rhyme.

In the background, but hardly in the shadows, was Robert Sargent Shriver. A diamond intelligence, too bright to keep in the darkness. He was not Robert or Bob, he was Sarge, and for all the love in him, he knew that love was a tough word. Easy to say, tough to see it through. Love, yes, and peace, too, in no small measure; this was the ’60s but you wouldn’t know it just by looking at him. No long hair in the Shriver house, or rock ’n’ roll. He and his beautiful bride, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, would go to Mass every day — as much an act of rebellion against brutal modernity as it was an act of worship. Love, yes, but love as a brave act, a bold act, requiring toughness and sacrifice.

His faith demanded action, from him, from all of us. For the Word to become flesh, we had to become the eyes, the ears, the hands of a just God. Injustice could, in the words of the old spiritual, “Be Overcome.” Robert Sargent sang, “Make me a channel of your peace,” and became the song.


Make me a channel of your peace:

Where there is hatred let me bring your love.

Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord,

And where there’s doubt, true faith in you.

Oh, Master grant that I may never seek,

So much to be consoled as to console.

To be understood as to understand,

To be loved as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of your peace,

Where there’s despair in life, let me bring hope.

Where there is darkness, only light,

And where there’s sadness, ever joy.



The Peace Corps was Jack Kennedy’s creation but embodied Sargent Shriver’s spirit. Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty but Sarge led the charge. These, and the Special Olympics, were as dramatic an incarnation of the ideas at the heart of America as the space program.

Robert Sargent Shriver changed the world more than a few times and, I am happy to say, changed my world forever. In the late ’90s, when the Jubilee 2000 campaign — which aimed to cancel the debts that the poorest nations owed to the richest — asked me to help in the United States, I called on the Shriver clan for help and advice. What I got were those things in spades, and a call to arms like a thump in the back.

In the years since, Bobby Shriver — Sarge’s oldest son — and I co-founded three fighting units in the war against global poverty: DATA, ONE and (RED). We may not yet know what it will take to finish the fight and silence suffering in our time, but we are flat out trying to live up to Sarge’s drill.

I have beautiful memories of Bobby and me sitting with his father and mother at the Shrivers’ kitchen table — the same team that gazed over J.F.K.’s shoulder — looking over our paltry attempts at speechifying, prodding and pushing us toward comprehensibility and credibility, a challenge when your son starts hanging round with a bleeding-heart Irish rock star.

Toward the end, when I visited Sarge as a frailer man, I was astonished by his good spirits and good humor. He had the room around him laughing out loud. I thought it a fitting final victory in a life that embodied service and transcended, so often, grave duty, that he had a certain weightlessness about him. Even then, his job nearly done, his light shone undiminished, and brightened us all.



www.nytimes.com

Congrats Adam!!

According to  Sunday's Irish Independent,and  Belfast Telegraph   Adam Clayton has become a father.

Adam and his French girlfriend became parents to a baby boy in early 2010. The article says Adam is "deliriously happy with fatherhood." I wonder if that was why he looked so glad, suave and easy going during the gigs.

Congratulations , Mr Bass Man!!!  May this be the beginning of a nice family for you!!

I still wonder how Bono did not say anything, not even a hint, during the tour... I think he`s maturing with age!!!!

www.atu2.com/www.independent.ie/www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/ 

To All Die-hard Fans

Being a U2 fan is not always easy.But you know what they say... If you had a good time, you have nothing to complain about. Or do you? This documentary made by Dom Puglisi from Sydney,Australia  shows us the adventure  of being a U2 fan, I`m sure most of us all over the world  have  been  through some of these...

U2 360. A day in the life of a U2er. Part 1

U2 360. A day in the life of a U2er. Part2

U2 360. A day in the life of a U2er. Part 3

U2 concert day, in the eyes of a U2 fan.
Filmed by Dom Puglisi for U2 and all U2 fans around the world.
Love and Peace.


Thanks, Dom, for being so kind as tu share your experience with all of us!!! This is to all of us, die-hard fans!!!

Larry´s "secret" to fitness

What do the likes of Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, Paula Radcliffe, Haile Gebrselassie and Larry Mullen Jr have in common? They’re all dedicated followers of the core exercise regime specifically designed for them by Limerick-based sports injury therapist, Ger Hartmann.
Prevention is better than cure, as they like to tell you in expensive medical schools – although Hartmann has always known that. For almost 20 years now, after a training accident in 1991 ended his career as an elite triathlete, Hartmann has been treating some of best-known athletes in the world at his clinic in Limerick. More recently he has found his expertise in increasing demand outside of the sporting world.
Hartmann’s methods go well beyond the treatment of injuries. He not only identifies the source of the problem, he instils the positive mindset to ensure full and proper recovery. “It doesn’t matter if you’re an elite athlete or an actor or a musician,” he says. “If you’re performing any physical work, and are serious about longevity in your career, you have to do some prehab work, even just some stretching or strength work. Otherwise you’ll be on a Zimmer frame before you’re 60.
“Strength and conditioning has become more important in that regard, and it applies to every facet of life, even people sitting down at a computer all day. Part of the issue here is the lifestyle changes. Our fathers and grandfathers and even our grandmothers were doing more physical work, whether on a farm, or even riding a big black bicycle to work. They were conditioning themselves, naturally.
“There is almost no conditioning in daily life now, especially among children. It’s practically gone from PE classes as well. That’s why core work and proper conditioning is ever-more prevalent, and has so much more of a need as well, whether it’s the elite athlete or not.”
Hartmann’s reputation for ensuring physical wellbeing, and the mental wellbeing that comes with that, has gradually attracted a range of clients from outside the sporting world, such as, for example, the U2 drummer.
“Many people do not realise the fitness and conditioning needed to perform at the top level in drumming,” Hartmann explains. “It is very physical and very good conditioning is required to enable the drummer to perform both on stage and in rehearsal day in day out, year in year out.
“Larry’s longevity and indeed U2’s is testimony not only to the great music they perform but their attention to keeping themselves fit and in top condition for the rigours of constant travel and concerts, especially as each member reaches 50 years of age. So a lot of this is about longevity of their career, whether it’s Paula Radcliffe, trying to run her fifth Olympics in 2012 at age 39, or whoever. Larry is on the road 33 years. And he puts his body through tremendous stress when he’s on tour, simply because drumming is very, very physical. There’s rotation and repetition and it’s all full-on. So Larry puts himself through a very good conditioning programme, not just cardiovascular, but all the prehab work, so his skeletal system is strong enough to be able to perform on stage night after night.”


www.irishtimes.com

Bono 'Had a Great Time' Seeing Spider-Man

 Bono paid his first visit to the show on January 4 and the rocker gave Spidey a thumbs-up, according to the musical’s star Jennifer Damiano. “He had a great time and was very positive about the show,” Damiano, who plays Spider-Man's gal pal Mary Jane Watson, told Broadway.com.

Bono and co-composer The Edge had been on tour with U2 and were unable to attend the show’s first previews, when it began performances November 28 at the Foxwoods Theatre. “[Bono] told us to never underestimate the magnificence of what we’re doing and that’s really special to hear from him,” Damiano said. “He’s the coolest and just so correct about everything. When he [offers a suggestion] you always just say, ‘Wow, you’re so right.’ Every song they’ve written is so different, but they all make sense as a unit when you put them together,” she said of the musical’s original rock score.

So does the Tony-nominated actress, known for her Broadway performances in Next to Normal and  Spring Awakening, ever freak out when she’s in the presence of the U2 rockers? “I do my best to keep my cool. They’re focused on the music in the show just like I’m focused on my own role, and we all have to come together to make this show incredible. But when I actually step outside of myself for a minute and see who I’m discussing these songs and scenes with, it kind of blows my mind! At the end of the day I wouldn’t want to be surrounded by any other people. You couldn’t ask for a cooler experience.”

Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark is set to open on February 7.

www.broadway.com

Pete Postlethwaite's last film appearance in 'Killing Bono'

The British actor,Pete Postlethwaite, considered by many "the best actor in the world" died from cancer  last January 2nd. His last movie was "Killing Bono" where he plays Karl, McCormick's camp landlord, a role written  for him especially.

Killing Bono is set in Ireland and stars Ben Barnes as Telegraph music critic Neil McCormick, a young man struggling to become a rock star in 1970s Dublin.

The film, which will be released in cinemas in April next year, is based on McCormick’s memoir I Was Bono's Doppleganger. It follows Neil and Ivan, two brothers attempting to become global stars as old school friends U2 become the biggest rock band in the world.
In this scene,Postlethwait´s  last in the film - and his acting career - his words of advice have particular poignancy because Postlethwaite already knew he had cancer.

"A word for the wise from an old man before you go. Remember only this: the measure of a man is what's left when fame falls away."

www.telegraph.co.uk

Edge Supports Concern Worldwide

Concern Worldwide works with the poorest people in the poorest countries of the world to enable them to transform their lives. Concern Worldwide US and American Eagle Outfitters have announced a partnership to raise funds to rebuild and support schools in Haiti. The campaign is called  "Help Haiti Heal", some of the celebrities who collaborate with this campaign are actors Mark Ruffalo and Paul Bettany and U2`s guitarist, The Edge.

You can help by buying the t-shirt: www.ae.com

 

Willie Williams Shows 360º Videos

Willie Williams,set designer of 360º tour, has shared two new videos with the screen content being used in the last leg of the tour, especially in "Moment of Surrender":

And the second with the questions sent  for the questions contest shared during  "Miss  Sarajevo"

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/NealStStudio

Generous Celebs

Forbes magazine published a list of "generous celebs" and of course, our dear front man is on top of it. Apart from Bono, the list includes: Sandra Bullock,Nicholas Cage, Jackie Chan, Celine Dion,Angelina Jolie, Paul Mc Cartney, and many more.(complete article, here)

Bono
Charity: Debt AIDS Trade Africa (DATA)

U2's frontman has campaigned so widely and vehemently against the spread of AIDS and for debt relief in Africa that in February he was among the 191 nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize. But his philanthropic efforts don't start or end with DATA, the organization he co-founded in 2002. He has participated in fundraising concerts including Live 8, Live Aid and Band Aid 20. In 2003, U2 donated €40,000 to One in Four Ireland, a charity that helps survivors of sexual abuse.

www.forbes.com

U2 were up in the clouds...

Ever since anyone can remember, Irish  rock journalist and broadcaster Dave Fanning has been the first person to air the first single from a new U2 album.

Dave has been friends with the band since their earliest days even though, when he first saw them play, ‘there were 5 or 6 other bands that I much preferred’. But, he recalls, ‘they had a belief in their own ability that none of the other crowd had.’

Ever since anyone can remember, Irish  rock journalist and broadcaster Dave Fanning has been the first person to air the first single from a new U2 album.

Dave has been friends with the band since their earliest days even though, when he first saw them play, ‘there were 5 or 6 other bands that I much preferred’. But, he recalls, ‘they had a belief in their own ability that none of the other crowd had.’

With the publication of his memoir, ‘The Thing Is…’ we tracked Dave down to ask him about the waning power of the DJ, how music has changed and some of his most memorable interviews.

Congratulations on your autobiography! Are you glad you wrote it?

I really am! Originally, I was thinking, “This is stupid. Does the world really need a book about Dave Fanning, written by Dave Fanning?” But I realised there are those who grew up in Ireland in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s who will relate to it.


But it goes wider than that. Not only did you have a ring-side seat and access to the great artists of those decades, but you played a significant part within popular culture, starting with pirate radio…

I was the biggest fish in a small pond, and that’s why I got so much of what I got. Not because I was good, or bad, but because I was ‘Ireland’ to the PR people. I could offer print, radio and TV. Robbie Williams gave half an hour to each country, and I got the half-hour here because I was able to offer all three. Don’t make me into Sir Dave Fanning. It’s just what I did.


But you were able to do something with it when you got it. You helped to introduce new bands to their audience, including U2…

No question, yes. But the world was different, then.

The power of a DJ like John Peel has completely diminished these days. If you want to find something new, you can do it instantly. You don’t need anyone guiding you through.

I think a lot has been lost. Most bands don’t get time to develop. It was only when U2 got to Unforgettable Fire - album 4! - that they really started moving, but it was to get to that point that was important, because then you get the breakthrough: suddenly it becomes The Joshua Tree.

That sort of thing doesn’t really happen any more, which I find sad. It’s all so ephemeral.


Did you ever have to play music from a play-list?

Never once in my entire life did that happen. Never. We were always meant to be the experts and we were left alone to do it.


How important does music remain within popular culture?

Good question. I do think it’s diminished… Once, if I saw someone carrying a record bag, I had to know what was in the bag, and would instantly decide on what sort of person they were! They were either an idiot or really cool…

Getting your hands on music was so difficult. Even listening to music. BBC Radio 1’s ‘Sounds of the Seventies’ was so important; even more essential than Peel. And I’d listen to the live gig between half 6pm and 7.30, even if the band was boring.

Today there are 40 channels playing music all the time, and if you go into your local supermarket, there’s a TV playing a video of the latest Black Eyed Peas cover band. Jesus Christ! What’s it become? There’s no listening to Radio Luxembourg under the covers any more, waiting to see what they’re going to play next.

Maybe I’m just too old…


Are today’s kids the Generation X-Factor?!

I’m stunned at the number of people who watch X Factor. It’s such glue for the family. Every age group, even hardened rockers… I just don’t get it.

You have Louis, who I like a lot, being pathetic every week. And then you have Simon Cowell saying, “You’re what this show’s all about.” No it’s not. It’s all about you, Simon…

These idiots have hijacked everything that was dear to me: the pop charts. And yet the amount of pleasure people get out of X Factor! So who am I, but an old fogey with my slippers and rocking chair and my Bovril?


What, for you, makes a great interview?

I’m not sure. Sometimes, you just know. The other day I interviewed Ron Wood and it didn’t work. But usually, the bigger the star, the better the interview. They have more to say, they understand the game, and they perk up if they realise you’re not just asking the normal series of questions.


Do you get star struck?

My interview with Joni Mitchell was the biggest one of all for me, because she came into the studio. I realised then that I was a little bit star-struck. For me, she was the greatest thing in the 1970s and to have her come in to do her first interview in six years – I still have no idea why she agreed to do it, to this day.

But there is always something bigger than the star: you’re consumed with having to get it right. Once I went all the way to Cincinnati to interview Peter Frampton, then straight to LA for Fleetwood Mac. It just has to work in those circumstances. And making it work is always bigger than the person I’m sitting in front of.

I usually get a bit bolder towards the end. That’s why I was so annoyed with Lou Reed. He stopped the interview 20 minutes before the end and I would love to have gone elsewhere with him.


U2 weren’t stars when you first met them - and you didn’t see much in them that suggested they would be. Is that right?

Yes. There were 5 or 6 other bands that I much preferred. U2 were trying to do something new that sounded different. And in 1978, that wasn’t what I wanted to hear. The Undertones were based on decent pop music; the Rats were stealing from the Stones, and a thousand people were making short, sharp aggressive pop music. U2’s music was ethereal, up in the clouds. And it was like, “Jesus! Who do they think they are?”
It’s easier for someone like Jack White or Jimmy Page to look cool because their coolness is built on the blues, from something in the past. Edge, meanwhile, was trying to bring music into the future; and that’s a much more difficult thing to try and sell.

First part of the interview published in U2.com


www.u2.com

U2 live in Athens 360º Tour Photo Shooting

Greek photographer Yiannis Velissaridis took loads of pictures of U2 when they played in Athens, Greece on 3rd September, 2010. The shooting is called "Dancing with Bono" and he`s already exhibited  it in Athens and will repeat it in Thessaloniki on 17th January.

This is a trailer of his excellent work: 

Bono and Edge in Carson Daly's New Year's Eve show

Bono and Edge appeared in a pre-taped interview with Carson Daly during his New Year's Eve show on NBC  to plug Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Bono called it a "pop art opera," while Edge defended the size of the production saying, "If you're not going to do something revolutionary, why bother?"
Bono responded to the "Why Spider-Man?" question saying, "We needed a compelling reason for people to go to the theatre in case we didn't manage to pull it off."






www.atu2.com