Saturday, April 30, 2011

The most politically effective celebrities of all time

Bono  with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid


The National Journal has posted an article on the most politically effective celebrities of all time. Starting with Hollywood celebrities back in the time of the silent movies, it moves in time to arrive to "two individuals (who)have also had a powerful impact in shaping the contemporary pattern of Hollywood activism. One is President Obama...The other, even more consequential figure, is 
Bono, the frenetic front man for the global rock band U2."



Thursday, April 28, 2011

Bono`s Words for Boy with Rare Disease

Mateo Lentini is an Argentinian 9 year old boy with a rare skin disease whose sole ambition was to meet his idol, Bono. When the band was in Argentina and as the boy couln´t attend any concert or meet him,Bono sent him some words of comfort and love. This video was posted in the net  by .




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCqZUPpBY24

Bono`s Birthday Coming Soon!



The African Well Fund has 36 U2 concert photographs up for bid in honor of their 9th annual "Build A Well For Bono's Birthday" fundraiser.



A gallery featuring the 36 U2 concert photographs that will be featured in next week's U2 Live Photo Auction is now available on the African Well Fund website. A flash version of the gallery can be accessedhere. An HTML version of the gallery can be accessed here.
AWF's fourth U2 Live Photo Auction will run May 1-10 and benefits the 9th Annual Build a Well for Bono's Birthday fundraiser. The previous three photo auctions raised over $20,000.
The 9th Annual Build a Well for Bono's Birthday campaign benefits a water and sanitation project that will be implemented by AWF partner Africare at girls' schools in Benin supported by Angelique Kidjo'sBatonga Foundation. For more information on the fundraiser, or to make a donation, click here.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Larry Mullen Jr. Heads to Cannes as the 'Man on the Train'



The drummer is about to take a turn in the spotlight as a star, producer and composer of the crime drama.


When it comes to U2's public face, it's usually Bono and The Edge in the spotlight. But Larry Mullen Jr. -- one of the band's "quiet ones" -- is about to take a turn.
The drummer is set to make his film debut as a star, producer and composer of the crime drama Man on the Train, which Sierra / Affinity and Preferred Content will be selling in Cannes next month. The film also stars Donald SutherlandGraham GreeneTony NardiCarlo Rota and Kate O'Toole in an adaptation of Patrice Leconte's 2002 film L'Homme du Train, about a retired small town school-teacher (Sutherland) prepping for open-heart surgery who crosses paths with a stranger (Mullen Jr.) planning to rob the local bank.
Mary McGuckian (The Bridge of San Luis Rey) directed the film and produced with Mullen Jr. andMartin KatzJon Goodman served as executive producer. The film is an Irish-Canadian co-production produced in association with Windmill Lane Pictures in Ireland and Maple Pictures in Canada.
Sierra / Affinity is handling international sales and Kevin Iwashina’s Preferred Content is selling U.S. rights.



Saturday, April 23, 2011

Zoo TV PopMart Tour Revisited


Adam playing at Morumbi Stadium, Sao Paulo, Brazil



 @U2.com has posted a short interview Q magazine made to Adam Clayton where he drops that U2 is planning a 1990s / Zoo TV / PopMart theme for at least some of its upcoming performance at Glastonbury. In an interview in the new edition of Q magazine, Adam answers a number of short questions about U2's first Glastonbury performance, including this telling exchange:


Q: What can we expect from your show?
Adam: It's very un-Glastonbury to have a big production, but we will be sneaking a few things in through the back gate which will hopefully make the experience a little more like Glastonbury on steroids.
You'll have a job sneaking the U2 360 "Claw" in...
That might be tricky. But we're stretching the levels of what can be done. We hope to create a mind-blowing experience that reacts well with all the other substances involved.
How will you do that?
We want to go back to our '90s work that plays into a certain kind of psychedelia and do something that's tailored around that, from Zoo TV to PopMart. This is the 20th anniversary of Achtung Baby so there's a nice connection there and we thought we should mark that.





www.atu2.com//www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/

Friday, April 22, 2011

10th Annual Tribeca Film Festival

The Edge and wife Morleigh Steinberg attended  the premiere of "The Lotus Eaters" during the 10th annual Tribeca Film Festival at SVA Theater 1 on April 21, 2011 in New York City.







The movie was written and directed by Alexandra Mc Guinness (Paul Mc Guinness`s daughter)


Paul McGuinness and daughter, Director Alexandra McGuinness


www.gettyimages.com/ laainformacion.com/www.imdb.com//

Monday, April 18, 2011

Are U2 the greatest rock band ever?

U2 perform in Sao Paulo, Brazil (Photo: AFP)


Neil Mc Cormick  figures it out.


U2 are now, officially, the most popular live band of all time. Their 360 tour has broken previous ticket sales records set by the Rolling Stones, and there is still another three and a half months on the road to go. By the time the three year world tour winds down in North America at the end of July, they will have sold more than 7 million tickets and grossed more than $700 million dollars.
I don’t expect them to be banking too much of that money. Talk to U2’s accountants off the record and they express horror at the high costs and low profits of this whole enterprise. Manager Paul McGuinness commented that “the dollar figure for the gross looks enormous. Of course I can’t tell you what the net is, but I can tell you that the band spend enormous sums on production for their audience.” Keeping the U2 show on the road costs close to a million dollars a day, whether they are playing or not. And, of course, this one was disrupted for several months when Bono put his back out.
It has always been a slight bone of contention between band and management. Bono comes in to meetings raving about ideas to build an alien space station and convert stadiums so that they can play gigs in the round, promoters and designers and accountants queue up to tell the band it can’t be done, and then they do it anyway. U2 are mounting not only the greatest show on earth, but the most expensive. It has been this way since they set new standards for stadium rock in the early 90s with the astonishing Zoo TV show, which ran for two years and nearly bankrupted the band. “I remember that whole tour as a triumph, although it didn’t actually make any money,” McGuinness once admitted to me. He and the promoters had implored the band to raise the ticket price, which they refused to do.  “If we had put on another couple of dollars it would have been not only a creative but also a huge financial success. I suppose it was an investment in the future, which is what we always used to say to make ourselves feel better about the money.”
But the underlying reason for U2’s continuing popularity live is that they more than match the jaw dropping spectacle and ground breaking hi-tech wonderment with the heart and emotion of their music. The Rolling Stones, who have long billed themselves as the world’s greatest rock band, (and have four tours in the top ten, to U2’s two) have rarely got the balance quite right. The Stones’ music, which is so much better suited to the clubs that they came of age in, can veer towards a showband parade in a stadium, all trademark riffs and no heart, while the spectacle verges on circus silliness. A bold pop act like Madonna can certainly put on a show, but the music is barely live, a pre-recorded and sequenced soundtrack to the dance extravaganza. The Police and AC/DC both feature in the top ten grossing tours of all time, and, interestingly, they go the other way, relying on their musical muscle, with the visual side almost an afterthought.
U2 have an advantage in these settings because they make big gesture music, that suits a stadium scale, performed live by a rock band that depend on the primary musical colours of guitar, bass and drums, while in Bono they have a frontman with the charisma, warmth, personality and almost mad drive to fill a vast space and reach everyone out there. He is aided in this by his almost evangelical (his detractors would say Messianic) desire to affect political change in the world, by moving the greatest number of people to respond to his charitable causes. Bono’s activism adds a sense of worth to the whole endeavour, by giving U2 fans the feeling that they are participating in something selfless, so the audience surrenders not just to the lure of a communal sing song, but is suffused with the heartwarming feeling that by doing so they are actually aiding their fellow man. It is heady if contradictory stuff, like a protest march in Las Vegas, but the inbuilt ironies of the dazzling barrage of video imagery on display embrace that complexity, cleverly illustrating the band’s own awareness of the contradictions, and facilitating all kinds of individual responses to the performance. The U2 message is not as simplistic as “love will save us all”, because while Bono is singing his redemption songs, the screens are just as likely to be flashing up motifs declaring Everything You Know Is Wrong.
A U2 show is a bustling, complex affair, because creatively, U2 have never stopped moving, never got stuck in a nostalgic trap, so that the whole endeavour feels live in more than just the obvious respect, it is alive to the moment. Even after an amazing (and unparalleled) 35 years together with the same line up, there is still the strong sense that U2 really want to be there, they are in it for something more than the money, or even the glory.
There are, of course, plenty who will disagree, and for whom U2 represent a rock nadir, the triumph of the blockbuster tendency over rock’s primal roots. Some people prefer small and intimate, and distrust special effects. Which is fair enough, but U2 have an answer to that too, and we will see it at Glastonbury this summer, when they take to the stage without their sci-fi 50 metre high alien claw and all their hi-tech gizmos, and try to win over the festival crowd with the very essence of what they do: playing passionate, brilliant, white hot rock music and singing songs that stir the soul. At Glastonbury, U2 won’t be playing to converts, and it is there that we will see what they are really made of, and whether they have really earned the right to claim the Rolling Stones title as their own: not just the highest grossing rock band ever, but the greatest.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Holidays for Bono and Ali



ATP Masters Series Monte Carlo - Day Eight


MONACO - APRIL 17: Bono of U2 is seen before the final match between Rafael Nadal of Spain and David Ferrer of Spain during Day Eight of the ATP Masters Series Tennis at the Monte Carlo Country Club on April 17, 2011 in Monte Carlo, Monaco. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Saturday, April 16, 2011

U2 NOMINATED FOR TWO BILLBOARD MUSIC AWARDS



U2 is nominated for two Billboard Music Awards: Top Duo/Group and Top Touring Artist. The Award show will be broadcast on ABC on May 22 at 8 p.m. ET.(U.S.)

The awards are primarily based on global box office numbers reported to Billboard Boxscore from Oct. 1, 2009, through Sept. 30, 2010.

The finalists for the Top Tour and Top Draw awards, which acknowledge the top grossing and ticket selling tours, respectively, are the same three global treks: U2's ongoing 360 tour, AC/DC's Black Ice tour, and Bon 
Jovi's The Circle tour.


Friday, April 15, 2011

Beautiful!

This is just beautiful and moving...Bono, we love you!





http://www.youtube.com/user/wrbk73

U2 RECEIVE NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIST OF THE YEAR AWARD


The Community Foundation for Ireland, one of the country’s leading foundations for developing philanthropy in Ireland, has announced the winners of the fourth annual Philanthropist of the Year Awards. Among this year’s award winners are U2, who were given the National Philanthropist of the Year Award for their involvement with Music Network in funding the establishment of Music Generation, Ireland’s National Music Education Programme which aims to help children and young people access vocal and instrumental tuition in their own locality.
The awards, now in their fourth year, were set up by The Community Foundation for Ireland to shine a light on the extraordinary generosity and leadership of philanthropists in the country. Accepting the award on behalf of U2, Trevor Bowen from Principle Management thanked The Community Foundation and Music Generation for the award and said that the band believe in the importance of music education for Ireland’s children and young people.

Interview for Mexican TV

Adela Micha ,one of the most well known Mexican journalists, travelled to Brazil to interview U2 before the band played there. This is the interview Adela made as she confessed seeing the tour "marked her".





Excellent interview about lots of topics the guys dont often talk about!!


source: http://www.youtube.com/user/roiy1


Thursday, April 14, 2011

Last Minutes in Brazil

Bono says goodbye to Brazil (and South America) this evening when he arrives at Sao Paulo air base.






A video of Bono singing  Talking Head`s Psycho Killer  at Bar Secreto in Sao Paulo  has appeared in the net:




Bono, Edge, and Larry sing a few songs at a party in the early morning hours following the last show of U2's South American tour. We're not sure the order of songs. Larry sings The Wild Rover a cappella. Edge sings Let's Dance with Larry and Dom (from Muse) on drums, and sings Miss You with local guitarists. Bono sings Psycho Killer also with Larry and Dom on drums. It's part of a regular Wednesday event at the bar called 'This Is Not A Karaoke' where real musicians play while song lyrics show on a screen in front of the singer. More videos, here. (source:www.u2tours.com)

Out and about in Brazil...more pics here

U2 as big as we'll ever be: The Edge





U2 are “at the absolute limit” with their 360 Degree tour, and are “as big” as they could “ever get”, according to The Edge.

The ‘Vertigo’ rockers were declared to have the highest grossing tour ever – beating a record set by The Rolling Stones – last week, having made €383.5m with 20 dates to go, but the tour itself is also the most expensive ever staged, taking 120 lorries to transport its 50-metre tall sound system, stage and lighting rig.

Guitarist The Edge told Rolling Stone magazine: “We're actually at the limit, the absolute limit, when you consider the economics and the practicality of transportation. We're really as big as we could ever get."

Bass player Adam Clayton added: “Somebody asked us last night, 'Do you need this stuff?' And the truth is, you don't really need this stuff.

“But part of show business is you have to change people's perceptions, you have to find ways to make the songs touch people more, to disorientate people so they're more open to being touched."

By the time the 360 Degree tour ends after two years on the road in July, the band will have played to more than three million fans in over 20 countries around the world, however, despite travelling the globe, the group don’t actually get to see much of the countries they visit.

Speaking before a recent show in Croatia, The Edge said: “This will be my Zagreb experience. It's the one thing that's strange about touring — you don't get to see things." 

/www.breakingnews.ie

Adam Speaks about "Out of Control"

U2.com has published a video where Adam explains how , even when many years have gone by, these songs are  "the ones you remember".





www.u2.com//www.youtube.com/user/roiy1

Goodbye South America!!

 With Seu Jorge




"Tonight is our last night in South America and we wanted to remember this,' said Bono after Until The End of the World. 'So we're going out live on radio and online across the whole of your mesmerising continent as an excuse so we can have the record of this show. This show will last for ever.'
The show was broadcast live   and people from Venezuela, Peru Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Argentina, Brazil  listened  and all those tuning in worldwide on U2.com . A more than fitting way to finish an unforgettable  leg of the tour. 


Steve Lillywhite had flown down from New York and when I Will Follow took over from 'Real Thing' Steve, the original producer of this track, was amazed to hear it 'sounding as good as it did 30 years ago'. And this audience is loud, as he told his followers on Twitter: 'People from Sao Paulo know how to make a noise at a U2 concert !'
Larry had a Brazilian flag across the drum kit as the band were introduced:'Ring those bells Edge, ring those bells.'

'I hope you like our current mode of transportation,' continued Bono, before Still Haven't Found. 'The space station has been to all kinds of interesting places and we mean it when we say that we are coming all the way over here to here to see you.
'Usually we sing to our audience but here our audience sings to us.
'Usually we put on a show for our audience but here you put on a show for us.'

No need to actually sing the song as the whole place was singing it for him. 'Let's go to church now...' After Pride, a special guest: ''We are great fans of a truly great artist here in Brazil,' explained Bono, 'His name is Seu Jorge.' Loud reception as Seu takes the stage to join Bono for a beautiful acoustic duet of 'The Model'. Another guest followed, a young woman to read a Brazilian translation of Beautiful Day which the band then follow with their own translation, seamlessly giving way to Miss Sarajevo -.

And a great night is only going to get better.

'Zooropa... Vorsprung durch Technik
Zooropa... be all that you can be
Be a winner
Eat to get slimmer....'


For only the fifth live performance ever Zooropa returns to the set and it's perfectly placed before the Space Station takes off again.


SET LIST

Even Better Than The Real Thing
I Will Follow
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
Mysterious Ways
Elevation
Until The End Of The World
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Beautiful Day
Miss Sarajevo
Zooropa
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight (Remix)
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Scarlet
Walk On

ENCORE

One
Where The Streets Have No Name

ENCORE 2

Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
With Or Without You
Moment Of Surrender


Picture gallery


www.u2.com

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Julian Lennon´s Birthday Party

On 8th April it was Julian Lennon´s 48th birthday. Bono dedicated him his song "Stuck in a moment"(written for another dear friend, the late Michael Hutchence) and the whole Morumbi Stadium sang him "happy birthday".On Sunday Julian made a party at a disco in Sao Paulo. Bono, Edge and Morleigh and Larry were seen there as well as Matthew Bellamy (Muse´s front man) and his girlfriend, actress Kate Hudson.
Happy birthday, Julian!!! For many, many more !!!(and more of those awesome U2 pictures you took!!!)


Give me one more chance...

The inclusion of "Even Better Than the Real Thing" in the South American leg has caused impact on U2fanworld.
As U2.com published: "It came from nowhere to open the show and here it is live from Sao Paulo on the second night in Brazil - 'Even Better Than The Real Thing'."


The third (farewell) concert in Sao Paulo is announced to be on the web (for U2.com for subscribers) and U2 fans across South America can follow the U2360° show from  Morumbi Stadium in Sao Paulo via Terra u2.sonora.terra.com.br and also on radio in Brazil on OiFM. Listeners in South America should look for the stream for their home country:


'U2 have had a great time in South America - they've played fantastic sold out concerts in Santiago, Buenos Aires and here in Sao Paulo. This webcast and live radio broadcast in Brazil gives U2 fans who couldn’t get a ticket, the chance to hear a great show.' said U2 Manager, Paul McGuinness.

Terra will broadcast the concert audio directly from the stadium, with digital quality, during a special edition of  Sonora Live, sponsored by Intel. 


 Edge has been entertained and  twitted several pics of the last places they`ve visited, mainly Australia, New Zealand,Chile, Argentina and Brazil.

Monday, April 11, 2011

U2 break world record for highest grossing tour ever



U2's current worldwide 360° tour has become the highest grossing in history, beating the record previously set by The Rolling Stones between 2005-2007.
The Irish rockers passed the $558 million (£341m) world record following their concert in Sao Paolo, Brazil, last night (10 April).
The tour kicked off in July 2009 in Barcelona and still has more than 20 gigs to go.
More than seven million tickets have been sold to date for 110 shows.
On average U2's 360° Tour packs out 63,000 people each show, taking $6.4 million (£3.9 million) according to Billboard Boxscore.
The final date is 30 July 2011 at the Magnetic Music Hill Musical Festival in Moncton, Canada. Arcade Fire will be the support act.
Before that, they will headline the Friday night of this year's Glastonbury festival on 24 June.
It will be the band's debut at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset.
Their 2010 show was cancelled because lead singer Bono injured his back.

Zooropa!!!



The heavens opened and drenched everyone ahead of the band taking the stage for the second night in Sao Paulo but this turned out to be a memorable night for all kinds of other reasons.
'Real Thing' opened the show and then, 'for special reasons, this is our first single' announced Bono as  the band broke into a surprise that  sounded as fresh and fierce as the day of its release in 1979.
'I had the feeling it was out of control
I was of the opinion it was out of control....'


Rain, what rain? 'Boots', Magnificent, Mysterious Ways, Elevation, the joint was jumping at Estadio Morumbi, it was well out of control.
'Mucho obrigado, Thank you to Muse,' said Bono. 'Extraordinarily talented musicians.'
'Nos amamos o Brazil... We love you... but you know that don't you?'

Still, everybody needs reassurance, so it was a good moment to make sure, he explained.
'Edge is a very insecure guy and asked me to check that you don't love other bands the way that you love us...'
The general ovation that followed suggested there wasn't too much to be concerned about, but still, as Bono continued, 'You've had other lovers passing through - Oasis, Coldplay, now Muse - so  Edge needs to know how much you love him.'
Brazil confirmed its undying love in the loudest possible terms. Tonight, in case of any doubt, Bono also confirmed it was  Larry Mullen on drums and Adam Clayton on bass guitar.
'And if I wasn't insecure I wouldn't have become a singer - my name is Bono.
We try to serve you. We salute you...'

Special thanks went out to Governor Alckmin for the loan of Sao Paulo. 'No work tomorrow, is that right? U2 day. Its official! Alright new song, this is North Star.'

Beautiful Day segued into an stadium-wide sing-a-long of Singing in the Rain before Vertigo turned the stadium into clubland again. And then, out of nowhere, after Miss Sarajevo, a total surprise, the return of Zooropa, which hasn't been played live since the year it was released way back in another century.
'Zooropa... a bluer kind of white
Zooropa... it could be yours tonight.'


You know a track is making a little bit of musical history when it starts trending on Twitter which Zooropa did tonight - amazing moment for Brazilian U2 fans.

'Don't know what to say to you,' exlaims Bono after 'Streets. 'What an unforgettable night. We will never forget this night. Good looking people!'

And with another special dedication of 'Moment of Surrender' to those in sorrow, 'mothers and fathers without children',  after Thursday's events in Rio, the second show in Sao Paulo comes to a close. 




SET LIST


ENCORE


ENCORE 2


Out of control, last played live in 2006:




www.u2.com/www.u2.gigs.com


Pic gallery

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Saturday Night in Sao Paulo



'Trem das Onze', a samba composition by Adoniran Barbosa, was playing ahead of the band's arrival on stage tonight. It's one of the most famous of all Brazilian songs but when it gave way to 'Space Oddity' finally Brazil knew that U2 were heading to the stage and before we knew it we were all caught up in 'Even Better Than The Real Thing'.

'Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo...' Bono sang, the whole stadium grateful that there was no rain coming down as the first of three shows here got underway.  'Even Better', already in contention for the best opening track of the tour to date, led into I Will Follow and then 'Boots, two tracks written thirty years apart but you'd never know it from the reaction of this super-passionate audience. Phenomenal sound from all around.

We've had some mixed weather in Sao Paulo today but it was dry as the first of three shows in this city got underway, with spectacular shards of lightning in the sky illuminating a helicopter buzzing over the stadium.

'Wow! Thank you. Obrigado.' said Bono. 'Tonight is Saturday in Sao Paulo...'

Introductions to the band took a pizza twist with Bono describing himself as the pepperoni pizza, Adam as the banana pizza and Larry... 'No cheese, no tomato, no pastry, no pizza - we call him the good looking pizza. Larry Mullen on drums.'

An acoustic version of Stuck In A Moment made its way back into the set tonight, dedicated to Julian Lennon to whom the band led a rendition of Happy Birthday.

'We'd like to sing this song for a friend of ours, Julian Lennon... here's a song about friendship.'

With a stadium of Brazilians singing along word for word, it was a little bit spine-tingling, as was the poetry read by a young woman who made her way into the spotlight  before Beautiful Day.

'We're so proud to be friends of Brazil,' said Bono, as,  a beautiful night coming to a close, he paused  to pay tribute to the people of this country and to President Dilma Rousseff. 'We salute you, we salute her.'

And then an incredibly touching moment with Moment of Surrender going out to those who lost their lives in the shooting at Tasso da Silveira school in Rio di Janeiro on Thursday.
' This has been a difficult time for Brazil... and what happened in Tasso da Silveira.
'We'd like to dedicate this to the children and the mothers and their families and the teachers and the people of Brazil.'

And as Moment of Surrender offered its beautiful benediction, the names of the children who lost their lives illuminated the giant screens around the stage. Unforgettable.




SET LIST



ENCORE

ENCORE 2


www.u2.com