Bono invited to carry Olympic torch

EVERYONE from Bono to Jedward has been invited to carry it. But it looks like the GAA will be the biggest winners when the Olympic torch relay arrives in Dublin on June 6.
Despite the fact that Gaelic games are not Olympic sports, it will be a top inter-county GAA player who kick-starts the prestigious relay in the capital by carrying the torch across the roof of Croke Park's Hogan Stand. It will then spend a further half-hour at Croke Park before its two-hour tour around the city.
The GAA, along with other sporting bodies including the FAI and IRFU, has been asked to forward their nominee's name to the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) by Friday and the 40 participants will be announced a fortnight later.

Read more: here
http://www.independent.ie

See with New Eyes: Bono in Ethiopia,1985

"The girl with a beard", Bono, Ethiopia ,1985

Steve Reynolds,Marketing Director focusing on Child Health and Protection issues for World Vision remembers Bono and his visit to Ethiopia in 1985.

"...In 1985 I was working as communications officer for the World Vision Ethiopia relief in Addis Ababa...We received word that the lead singer of an Irish rock band called U2 was coming to  Ethiopia "on the quiet"...What was different about this visit was that Bono and his wife, Ali, wanted to work at one of our relief  camps...I knew what the conditions were like in these camps ...I remember thinking Well, they are certainly in for a shock. ..I was certain they wouldn´t last a week. But they did.In fact, they spent almost a month in Adjibar working with our staff, helping develop music and drama programmes for the children at the centre...

The staff praised Bono´s  energy ,spirit and creativity ...Upon the couple return to Addis Ababa,I had the privilige of touring with Bono  around Ethiopia to various camps...Something in him had changed...

Today Bono meets with presidents, prime ministers , and even the Pope, advocating for the poor and marginalized ."It´s not about charity, it´s about justice," he says.His vision is still strong more than 25 years later.

When God does eye surgery, you never see things the same way again.I saw this happen with Bono, and I smile  when I think about how this sharpened  vision is changing the world."

Bono and Steve

© World Vision Magazine 

Complete version of the article: World Vision Magazine, Spring 2012 issue.

http://www.worldvision.org 

African Well Fund Launches 10th Annual Build a Well for Bono's Birthday Fundraiser

www.africanwellfund.org 

 

The African Well Fund is pleased to announce the launch of the 10th Annual Build a Well for Bono's Birthday fundraiser. The organization is celebrating a "Decade of H2OPE" by raising funds to benefit a water, sanitation and hygiene project in Burkina Faso that will be implemented by African Well Fund partner Africare and aims to create a healthy environment for 257 schoolchildren.

More info about the project here.

From World Water Day, March 22nd, through Bono's birthday, May 10th, the African Well Fund invites U2 fans and others who are inspired by Bono's tireless activism on behalf of Africa to make a donation through the organization's website (link to BBW page) in honor of his 52nd birthday. The organization will also be raising funds by selling limited-edition prints through its website, T-shirts through its Zazzle store and by hosting a special eBay auction in May. All donors are invited to add their names and birthday wishes to a card on the African Well Fund website that will be sent to Bono in care of Principle Management.

"It's hard to believe that this is the 10th Bono birthday well fundraiser," said Diane Yoder, African Well Fund board vice chairman. "I still remember the very first fundraiser, our goal was to raise $1,000 to build a single well and we raised $10,000. We were so blown away by the response. It really hit home seven months later when we received our first well report from Africare. To realize that that $10,000 was really having a direct impact on so many people's lives was such an overwhelming feeling. I remember feeling very humbled and privileged to have been a part of the project."

Get on your boots: Adam steps into limelight for charity

Adam Clayton in his studded (and stunning) shoes! 

By Ken Sweeney Entertainment Editor


THESE shoes are made for rocking. Long known as the shyest man in music, U2's Adam Clayton let his footwear do the talking yesterday.

The bass player took time out from recording the group's 13th album to help launch 'Walk In My Shoes', a new initiative from St Patrick's University Hospital in support of positive mental health for young people.

Wearing a pair of eye-catching Christian Louboutin black studded shoes, the 52-year-old was following in the footsteps of his mother, Jo Clayton.

Mrs Clayton was a founding member of the Friends of St Patrick's and a tireless fundraiser for the Dublin hospital, located between Heuston Station and St James's Hospital, until her death last year.

Essential

"I think it is essential to take care of people with mental health problems. Money raised will be used to help put young people back on the road to mental health," Adam told the Irish Independent.

Eimear Keohane, fundraising manager of St Patrick's, praised the guitarist for taking on the role as ambassador for 'Walk In My Shoes'.

She revealed he was carrying on the good work done by his late mother who passed away, aged 77, last August after a battle with cancer.

"We are honoured today that Adam is continuing in his mother's footsteps by promoting the 'Walk In My Shoes' campaign," she said.

Brent Pope, Daithi O'Shea, Ken Doherty, Adam Clayton, John Murray, DJ Carey, Norah Casey at the launch of Walk In My Shoes 

"Jo Clayton was a valued fundraiser for the St Patrick's Hospital Foundation for many years, from the early 1970s."

Sarah Surgenor, communications manager of St Patrick's University Hospital, said the presence of the famous rock musician at the launch would help raise awareness of the need for funds to support young adults in need of mental health services.

Mr Clayton last wore his black studded Louboutin shoes, worth €500, at a party he hosted to celebrate his 52nd birthday last week.

RTE's John Murray and Daithi O Se, rugby pundit Brent Pope, snooker player Ken Doherty and 'Dragon's Den' member and publisher Norah Casey were among others who took part in the launch.

Snooker player Ken Doherty, who wore striking spats, said his motivation for getting involved was the loss of so many young lives. "I have been to eight funeral in the last two years, and seven of those were suicides. The most important thing is that people in difficulty talk and don't bottle it up," said Mr Doherty who said there was a lot of "pressure" on sports stars.

'Dragon's Den' star Norah Casey, who walked into the Four Seasons wearing two odd shoes, said that as CEO of Harmonia, Ireland's largest magazine publishing company, she made a point of taking on employees who were open about suffering from depression.

"I think it's brave of them to own up to it, and therefore I should be brave as an employer. But I think sometimes employers are scared of taking on people with mental health issues," said Ms Casey, who at one point in her career nursed in a psychiatric hospital.

John Murray of RTE Radio One, the official radio partner of the campaign, said life had grown "more difficult" for young people in recent years.

"Young adults once moved from school to college to work but things aren't like that any more, which has a lot of parents worried. Any campaign that helps to raise awareness of how young people cope with issues they may be struggling with is worth highlighting"

The campaign name originated from a young service user at St Patrick's University Hospital who said he wished his "friends could walk in my shoes" so they could understand his mental illness.

Taking place on April 26, 'Walk In My Shoes' will see people all over Ireland wearing unusual or mismatched shoes while donating €2 to provide mental health services to young adults aged 18 to 25 years.

 

John Murray and Adam Clayton at the launch of the Walk In My Shoes campaign 

John Murray interviewed Adam for his show in RTE Radio One where not only did he talk about the campain but also about the fact that U2  are recording in Dublin. Listen to the podcast here.

More details can be found on www.walkinmyshoes.ie

- Ken Sweeney Entertainment Editor

Irish Independent
http://www.thejournal.ie/ http://www.independent.ie/http://www.rte.ie

Achtung Baby Best Album of the Past 25 Years

 

Spin magazine´s  editors rank the top releases since the magazine's beginning in 1985. In mumber 1, they have chosen Achtung Baby , among other albums by so different artists such as Queen Latifah, Blur, Nirvana, Green Day and R.E.M. U2 has another album into the list: The Joshua Tree is ranked N° 62.
But why has AB been chosen?
Here are the editors´ reasons:


With the middling reaction to last year's better-than-you'll-admit No Line on the Horizon, U2's chest-heaving big-box spectacle seems to be fatiguing more of pop's body politic than it's inspiring. Weirdly, this was exactly the case more than 20 years ago. After the critical and commercial sweep of Joshua Tree, the Irish conglomerate followed its bombastic muse with the ponderous 1988 docu-fiasco Rattle and Hum, which featured a Bono mot that would haunt many of us for years to come: "Okay, Edge, play the blues!" Flailing and directionless, the band retreated and reconsidered whether it was time to fold up their flag for good.

Instead, three years later they emerged with the album — Achtung Baby, cheekily titled as a nod to German reunification — that would energize their career and genetically engineer rock music into the hybridized mutant we know today. Initially recorded at Hansa Studios, a former SS ballroom near the reopened Berlin Wall (and later completed back home in Dublin), Achtung was an effort, stoked primarily by Bono and the Edge, to "deconstruct" the band and rewire it with jolts of beat-generated clutter and collage, nicked from industrial music, hip-hop, dance remixes, and the Madchester scene. That method almost collapsed the band — bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr., as well as coproducer Daniel Lanois, were left bewildered and cranky.

But the frisson found expression in U2's most immediately dynamic music since 1982's War, and its most emotionally frank songs to date, capturing that particular early-'90s rub of boundless possibility and worn-down despair. Bono's lyrical flights had a battered grit, like a defrocked cleric stirred to regain his flock without the usual trick bag of bullshit. "One" became an indelible anthem because it admitted "we're not the same" but urged that we've gotta "carry each other" nonetheless. The squalling swagger of "The Fly" resonated due to the rock star at its center confessing he's a liar and a thief. And for "Mysterious Ways," the Edge somehow concocted a jubilantly snarling riff that transformed Bono's gospel come-on so it didn't feel gross the morning after.

Daniel Lanois Discusses Achtung Baby

Ahead of his induction into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame, CBC Music asked Daniel Lanois to sit down and reflect on five albums that he's worked on over his acclaimed career.

Lanois walks us through the making of U2's Achtung Baby and how Bono and company took to Berlin to mix "flesh and machine" for their new record:






http://music.cbc.ca

Happy Birthday, Adam!

Today Adam Clayton turns 52. Hope he had the best of days together with friends and family. We wish him the best because he has given us the best these last years!!

A good idea to celebrate his birthday may be to join  the  "Walk in My Shoes" campaign , to support mental health services  for young people in Ireland.
More information and donations: here.
Support Mental Health on April 26th by Wearing Unusual Shoes!

http://www.walkinmyshoes.ie/