Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Killing Bono in DVD



"Killing Bono", the movie based on Neil Mc Cormick´s memoirs I was Bono Doppelganger has been launched in  the UK in DVD format. (Amazon ,UK). You can also buy the movie`s soundtrack  Killing Bono OST [Soundtrack] with an interesting version of "Street Mission" sung by the actor who played Bono in the movie, Martin McCann and  'The Killing Bono Hype'.

www.u2fanlife




Monday, August 29, 2011

Back Home

Hanover  Studio, Dublin


After almost  a month of the end of U2's 360° megatour, the  band´s instruments are coming back home. They´ve arrived at Hanover Studios . Hopefully this may mean the players will also come back to the studio.






www.u2place.com

"She's so independent and sometimes I wish she wasn't."


Bono and Ali in St Tropez the past week


This week, Bono and Ali Hewson celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary.
For nearly three decades, 50-year-old Hewson has been the other, some will say better, half of U2's swaggering frontman, staying at home with the kids, pets, home repairs and school run while Bono (51) struts his stuff on stages around the world for months at a time.
With a €572m personal fortune at her disposal, Hewson could live a designer-label-wearing, luxury-spa-going life of indulgence that would make the housewives of Wisteria Lane weep with envy. And yet we never see her shopping like a WAG, or appearing on reality TV.
Just what do we know about the lady behind the man once voted one of the world's most powerful?
Everyone has an opinion on Bono. Over the years, the singer has garnered a wealth of eclectic labels, from hero to hypocrite and pain in the ass.
But ask anyone who has met, interviewed or socialised with his wife and it's hard to find one with a bad word to say about her -- or indeed any words at all.
"She's very non-showbiz, very down to earth and genuine," says one reporter. "She's sharp, realistic and very normal. With someone of her status you would think there would need to be a certain level of schmoozing, but there's no bulls*** about her.
"If anything, she'd be turned off by empty flattery."

Saturday, August 27, 2011

"It`s Just a Moment,This Too Shall Pass"

Beautiful acoustic version of "Stuck on a Moment" by Edge and Bono on David Letterman.  Bono explained to Dave that the song was written about late INXS frontman and dear friend, Michael Hutchence  and also said that Larry called it a "sissy song."











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

Get Your Motor Runnin' !

To check  that our beloved frontman is more than well, we can see he was having a great time with his mates, George Clooney and Rande Gerber. The three of them took their bikes to ride off to Lake Cuomo a few days ago.


George, Bono and Rande on their iron maidens


This is all the evidence we need to know Bono is well and enjoying super-holidays! 


Tuesday, August 23, 2011

U2.com has posted this about Bono`s health:


Despite press stories to the contrary Bono has not suffered a health scare.

Reports of him being rushed to hospital for emergency treatment are untrue. Bono is in good health and enjoying a family holiday in the south of France.

The sighting of Bono ‬at Princess Grace Hospital was due to a routine check up. ‬‬



And Julian Lennon in his Facebook account:


For those whom are fans of Bono, the recent reports about him going to hospital with chest pains this weekend, were completely false & just the media trying to stir things up, as usual... He did, however, go for a regular check up last week, but was given the all clear! He's in fine form! ;)




Glad Bono is OK and taking care of his health. We all agree he needs a huge break and rest!


www.U2.com/www.u2fanlife.blogspot.com

Friday, August 19, 2011

U2 Invests in Irish Music Schooling


U2, the rock band that headlined Glastonbury’s music festival this year, is investing its own money to fund music schooling for Irish children as the state cuts spending on education.
The band, which started out in Dublin, is funding musical equipment and the hiring of teachers to tutor thousands of children across the country, supporting a series of projects.
While lead singer Bono is well known for his activist work in raising awareness of issues in Africa, the property market crash in Ireland has left the one-time Celtic Tiger with problems of its own. In a country renowned for its musical heritage and for producing contemporary acts such as Westlife and the Corrs, only about 1 percent of secondary pupils receive music tuition.
“While we have a very rich musical culture and heritage, access to music tuition is like a geographic lottery, it depends on where you live and it depends if your parents can afford it,” said Rosaleen Molloy, director of Music Generation, which is funded by U2 and international charitable network The Ireland Funds. “There is an assumption that music is being provided for in mainstream schools, while in the reality it is not.”
With Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny’s government needing to make 6 billion euros ($8.6 billion) in savings this year to meet the terms of the country’s bailout, finding funding to expand education initiatives is difficult. Education Minister Ruairi Quinn said after taking office in March he was “very grateful to U2” at a time when the state isn’t “in a position” to provide more investment in education.

Music Program

U2 is providing 5 million euros through 2015 on a phased basis for the music program, together with an additional 2 million-euro commitment from the Ireland Funds, which is supported by people of Irish ancestry across the world. The aim is for the government to later take over that funding.
The government has cut comparable expenditure on education by about 3 percent between 2008 and 2011, according to figures from the Education Ministry. Quinn told teachers in April “further difficult measures” can’t be avoided even as student numbers are expected to rise by about 100,000, or 10 percent, in the next seven years.
“U2 had been looking for some time for a way to invest and support access to music education in Ireland,” said Molloy. “U2 wanted to give something back.”

‘Tax Efficient’

The donation came after the band drew criticism for moving their music publishing company to the Netherlands in 2006, to save tax. The Labour Party’s Joan Burton, now welfare minister, said at the time that move “seemed odd.” Lead  The Edge, said the band was trying to be “tax- efficient. Who doesn’t want to be tax-efficient?”
The members of the band have a combined fortune of 455 million pounds ($741 million), according to this year’s Sunday Times Rich List.
A Dublin-based spokeswoman for the band said nobody was available to comment on this story.
In 2001, the government commissioned a report into the feasibility for a publicly supported music education program, which failed to get beyond two pilot programs, one in Dublin and the other in Donegal, in the northwest of the country.
U2 is adopting the model to provide 50 percent financing for projects developed by local educational groups. Music Generation selected three Irish counties -- Sligo, Mayo and Louth -- for funding in May after receiving proposals, according to Music Generation’s Molloy.
“What U2 are doing is symbolically very important, but we should never come to depend on the benevolence of private individuals,” he said. “It’s the state’s responsibility to invest in education and to ensure there is equity and equal access to all children.”

ww.bloomberg.com

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Adam`s Farewell to his Mother


Jo Clayton, Adam`s mother, was bidden farewell in the small town of Foxford, Co Mayo, where Jo lived with her husband Brian for over a decade.


 Adam Clayton choked back the tears at his mother's funeral.

Bono and The Edge comforted the bass player at a moving ceremony for his his mum Jo.


Adam's bandmates attended the Church of Ireland service in the Straide parish with their families yesterday ahead of the cremation, which takes place in Glasnevin Crematorium in Dublin today.

A clearly distraught Adam (51) remained silent during the ceremony -- the Rev Andrea Wills, who officiated, said the whole family were going through a very difficult time.

"It is a terribly sad time for the Clayton family," she said.

The U2 star kept his head bowed and his eyes to the floor as he followed his mother's coffin into the church.

"It was a small, private service for family and friends," Ms Wills said.

"I delivered the service myself, no one else spoke.

"Jo's favourite hymns were played."

Adam was with his family, his French girlfriend, their baby son, and there were around 30 mourners inside.


We are very sorry for Adam`s loss , our sympathies to Adam and his family.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Bono and K'naan on Anderson Cooper


Bono and K'naan on Anderson Cooper 360° 8-10-2011 speaking on the emergency in Somalia.



Bono and K'naan on Anderson Cooper 360° 8-10-2011 from popbonobuzzbaby on Vimeo.



source: popbonobuzzbaby on Vimeo 

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

U2 join aid effort for African children




U2,Lady Gaga and Paul McCartney and  are among more than 150 musicians who have joined the “I`m gonna be your friend” social media campaign, backing a fundraising effort to help people affected by the drought in northeast Africa.
Universal Music Group, Facebook, Yahoo!, AOL, MSN, YouTube, Twitter and celebrities including Lady Gaga, U2, Eminem, Muhammad Ali, Jennifer Lopez, Elton John, Britney Spears, Madonna, Justin Bieber, Sting, and Rihanna are backing the campaign, via their huge networks of friends and fans on Facebook and Twitter.
The celebrities are asking people to pay to download a single by Bob Marley & The Wailers for $1.29, the campaign official site imgonnabeyourfriend.org said.
Visitors to the site are also encouraged to donate money and share information about the campaign in social networks and blogs.
Bob Marley & The Wailers’ 1973 song High Tide or Low Tide has been donated by the reggae star’s family, and appears on the site with footage of malnourished children.
“Bob's music has always conveyed a message of hope, unity and love. And this is a message needed now more than ever,” campaign organizers said on the website.
The campaign hopes to increase the number of participants to a billion people.
About 3.6 million people are at risk of starvation in Somalia and 12 million people across the Horn of Africa, the United Nations says. Thousands of families, including around 70,000 children, have been forced to flee their drought-stricken homes, with many now in overcrowded refugee camps.


Monday, August 8, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GUITAR GENIUS!!!

The Edge rendering his magic in Argentina, April 2011




Happy 50th  birthday to the man who´s made U2 sound so particular and unique!!!


Serenading his fans, Argentina, April 2011

The Edge's unmistakable guitar sound -- clean, sharp, incisive, and cutting-Edge -- is part of U2's trademark. The characteristic and mesmerizing sounds and the emotions he expresses through them make him one of the most respected guitarists in rock and roll. He has often been called an "anti-guitar hero" because of his aversion to the indulgent, showy style based on intense soloing of many contemporaries, preferring instead to play in often a technically undemanding and low-key, yet original, way. He is renowned for being a guitarist who is more concerned with sounds, texture  and innovation rather than flashy technique (Maddy Fry from www.atu2.com)


Guitar hero only???




For many more years of sounds and delays, Dr!!! Love to you!!


Friday, August 5, 2011

Killing Bono in US





Killing Bono, the film  based on Neil McCormick's book about growing up in the shadows of U2, will formally arrive in the U.S. this autumn. The film will be available on VOD (video on demand) in October and in cinemas in November. 
The film is on cinemas in many parts of Europe now.


I had the pleasure of seeing it last Thursday in Paris...




www.atu2.com

Bono:In touch with his feminine side





Bono shows he is in touch with his feminine side by dipping his toes into nail-varnishing. That is what the Daily Mail thinks of Bono and his new look. He was seen in Eze with his family beginning his well-deserved holidays after the monumental 360º Tour.

Perhaps he was trying to get more in touch with his feminine side.
But it seems Bono quickly had second thoughts. 
The U2 singer had started painting his toenails – but stopped after just two.
The 51-year-old was nevertheless content to show off his attempt at varnishing the big toe on either foot as he stepped out in sandals when he left a restaurant with wife Ali Hewson, 50.
They had been eating at The African Queen on the quay at Beaulieu-sur-Mer on the Cote D’Azur, near to where he owns a seafront home. 
Bono regularly spends most of the summer there with his family, and has long been a customer at the chic restaurant.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Thursday, August 4, 2011

'The sound of four men chopping down The Joshua Tree' turns 20

Baby Grows Up




Twenty years ago U2 released Achtung Baby which went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance and became one of the most significant records of the nineties and of U2’s career.

Recorded over six months at Hansa Studio in Berlin and Windmill Lane in Dublin, Achtung Baby is U2’s seventh studio album. Produced by long time U2 collaborators, Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno with Steve Lillywhite, Achtung Baby was engineered by Flood and led by The Fly. With four other singles, Mysterious Ways, One, Even Better Than The Real Thing and Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses.

In 2011,  an anniversary edition of Achtung Baby, now all grown up,  is due for release on October 31st.

The Achtung Baby archives have unearthed some previously unreleased songs from the recording sessions. With a raft of unreleased material; video, remixes, b-sides and documentary footage discovered, a full album of demo and early versions of the final 1991 tracklisting has also been revealed. 

Five physical editions including vinyl, CD, DVD and digital options will be made available. Full details of all formats here

A version of From The Sky Down (Davis Guggenheim) will also be made available in the release, following its premiere as the opening film at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8th.  In the film U2 return to Hansa studios to discuss the making of Achtung Baby. 



www.u2.com

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

"We´ll miss you...Goodnight!"





'Moncton, Hub City, where you gonna take us tonight?'

Moncton in Atlantic Canada, the end of U2360°,  the most successful concert tour of all time.

Two years after opening up in Barcelona in June, 2009 tonight the band played their final show in a record-breaking tour of  110 concerts  in 30 countries across 5 continents. It's been some ride and the fact it had rained all day and was moist underfoot here in Moncton was not going to stop anyone  in this 75,000-strong audience making this a night to remember.

A breathtaking flyover from the  Canadian Airforce  set the scene before the show along with  powerful opening sets from Carney and the one and only Arcade Fire.

'Extraordinary band, give it up for Carney,' said Bono, after Get On Your Boots.  'I don't know if there's vocabulary in English or French  to describe Arcade Fire. They asked to play here as they have a relationship with you guys. They're not like a band, more like a miraculous event, carnival of chaos...'

Six songs in and Moncton had put the 360° spaceship into orbit for one final trip: 'This is the best time we could be having anywhere,' explained Bono, adding that the band wanted to make the most of the fact that this is the end of the tour. 'Eighteen babies, two marriages in the crew, eight separations... over 7 million served!'

And the best thing about this remarkable structure they've played under night after night ? It has no roof, 'but that's because it won't rain - right?'

On bass guitar tonight, we had Adam Clayton. On drums, 'the man who gave us our first job', Larry Mullen. On guitar? 'People like to remind us that without Edge we'd be nothing... but without us, he'd still be in his room twiddling knobs.'
And at the microphone: 'My name is Bono, I'm a work in progress...'

'I have climbed highest mountains
I have run through the fields...'


The end of 'Still Haven't Found' segued into The Ballad of Springhill while the lyrics of 'Stay' were customised for the occasion.

'110 shows, strangely it feels like home
Glad my wife is here tonight, not a night to be alone
Just a bang and a clatter, as 360 leaves town...'


The night, like this tour, raced by. Special thanks to Live Nation, Universal Music, Principle Management and the unrivalled 360 Crew gave way to Moment of Surrender which was not to be the final song of the tour.
' We're a band from Dublin, Ireland. We're called U2..'
Out of Control, the band's first single,  was an inspired way to bring things to a close.
'A higher than high here, out on the Atlantic Coast
Larry Mullen, Adam Clayton, Bono, The Edge... still... out of control.'

But there was one final piece of inspiration, marrying this legendary tour to the band's earliest tours. A bottle of champagne was found for Bono to uncork and the band left this audience, singing with so many others,  as the night came to an end.

'How long to sing this song
How long to sing this song ...'


Bono, Edge and Adam waited at the back of the stage for Larry to end '40' and once he did, he took the mike at the front of the stage; 'We'll miss you guys, Goodnight!'

With that the four members of U2, arms around each other, took a final bow and the U2360° spaceship was gone.





SET LIST

Even Better Than The Real Thing
The Fly
Mysterious Ways
Until The End Of The World
I Will Follow
Get On Your Boots
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
Beautiful Day
Elevation
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Miss Sarajevo
Zooropa
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Discotheque
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
Out Of Control
40

www.u2.com