U2's Bono apologises over charity's alleged bullying and abuse culture

Bono has apologised after claims were made that workers at a charity he co-founded were subjected to a culture of bullying and abuse.   CREDIT: PETE MAROVICH

Bono has apologised after claims were made that workers at a charity he co-founded were subjected to a culture of bullying and abuse.

The U2 singer, 57, said he was left "furious" after the allegations surfaced in November last year.

He admitted the ONE organisation failed to protect some employees at its Johannesburg office and said: "I need to take some responsibility for that."

His comments came as the Mail on Sunday detailed a string of incidents, including allegations from a woman who says she was demoted after refusing to have sex with a Tanzanian MP.

"We are all deeply sorry. I hate bullying, can't stand it," he told the paper.

"The poorest people in the poorest places being bullied by their circumstance is the reason we set up ONE.

"So to discover last November that there were serious and multiple allegations of bullying in our office in Johannesburg left me and the ONE board reeling and furious."

Some former employees have launched legal action against the charity, which aims to tackle poverty and disease, particularly in Africa.

Gayle Smith, ONE's chief executive officer since March last year, said an investigation found evidence of "unprofessional conduct" as well as "bullying and belittling of staff" between late 2011 and 2015.

"Staff were called names, and some said their manager put them to work on domestic tasks in her home," she said in a statement.

"The investigation also found the situation was not adequately addressed nor resolved by executive management at the time, and that ONE's board was not, in my view, properly or fully informed."

She also acknowledged an allegation that a woman was "demoted because she did not become intimate" with an official from another country, but added: "We have not been able to corroborate these appalling claims."

"We do not discount any allegation - we investigate them and will continue to do so should others arise."

Bono said that although the allegations focus on one individual, "the head office failed to protect those employees and I need to take some responsibility for that."

He added: "In fact, if they would agree, I would like to meet them and apologise in person."


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Adam Clayton 'had 2.8m euro stolen by his trusted PA '

Adam Clayton's former personal assistant is on trial for embezzling 2.8 million euro of his personal funds, a Dublin court heard today.
Carol Hawkins worked for Clayton for 16 years starting as a housekeeper and earning his trust before being promoted to the role, earning up to 48,000 euro a year and living rent free at his home.
She is on trial for 181 counts of stealing cheques from the bass player between 2004 and 2008.
Hawkins was initially employed as a housekeeper at the bassist’s Georgian mansion - Danesmoate - in Rathfarnham, South Dublin, but quickly gained his trust and was promoted over the years to the role of personal assistant.
Prosecution barrister, senior counsel Colm O’Briain, told the jury of seven men and five women  at The Circuit Criminal Court in Dublin that Clayton appointed Ms Hawkins as signatory to a number of his bank accounts.
It was from two particular accounts - known as the Fitzwilliam account and the Danesmoate account - that she is accused of withdrawing a total 2.8 million euro (2.25 million pounds) over four years.
Clayton, dressed in a dark jacket and white shirt, sat intently at the back of the court as the prosecution opened its case

.

Mr O’Briain said Ms Hawkins and her then husband John Hawkins, who had also been employed by Clayton as a driver, lived at the musician’s Danesmoate home - where U2 recorded their album The Joshua Tree.

Bono For New York Times Co. CEO?

Yesterday afternoon, New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson abruptly announced her resignation. She may have been pushed out, though she got a nice fat "consulting" paycheck to cushion her fall. The important question now: who takes over?

Bono takes over.


Let's be clear about what's really needed in this job. The next CEO of the New York Times Co. will have the vague and weighty-sounding responsibility of "guiding the company into the digital age" and "navigating the transition of a legacy newspaper company into a multiplatform digital media company" and things like that. What it means is that the CEO must generally figure out how the NYT Co. can survive the next decade or so without collapsing into rubble. Janet Robinson was not a horrible CEO, but there's little question that someone better is out there.

It's a rough time for anyone to be in the newspaper business.(...)The actual nuts-and-bolts job of transitioning the NYT Co. into the "digital era" can be handled by any number of bright, lower-level functionaries. Plenty of those around. Here is what the NYT Co. actually needs in a CEO:

1. A big name. Someone who will help keep the company itself relevant and in the news.
2. Someone who is well-connected to the rich and politically powerful.
3. Someone with an actual personal interest and belief in good journalism for good journalism's sake.
4. Someone who has no personal need to plunder this financially stretched company for millions to line their own pockets.

Allow us to introduce you to Bono. Already writes for the New York Times! Sure, he's a little bit of a self-centered guy, but who isn't? He has quite a few things going for him: he's a real, from the heart, do-gooder. He believes in the mission of the NYT (above and beyond its financial performance), and would be well-motivated to do anything to keep the company healthy. He's as well-connected in moneyed and political circles as anyone this side of Bill Clinton, without being a political veteran himself, which brings lots of bullshit baggage to a media company. He could work for a dollar a year, no problem. The validation conferred upon Bono's own self-importance by such a job would be its own reward


The New York Times Co. needs a figurehead. It needs a symbolic leader more inspiring than Pinch Sulzberger. The process of saving this company from irreversible decline could very well soon involve summoning up the good will of the public, the political establishment, and the financial titans of this world—the good will of the New York Times readership. The NYT Co. must sell itself as a public good. The newspaper business is bad. The business of being the most honest, meticulous, and civically-minded purveyor of journalism left in America is good. Frankly, the NYT Co. needs attention, at this point. Bono could use a real job. He can keep his hobbies. Everyone wins.

For all those little "operational" issues, hire a freaking deputy. Poll the staff. Whatever. Shit. Think big, New York Times! Bono already does.

Read the complete article: http://gawker.com

U2 back in town with wall-to-wall support at studio

Bono checks out U2 fans' graffiti at their Hanover Quay studio in Dublin yesterday

U2 were back in town yesterday to record part of the band's newest studio album at their Hanover Quay studio.

U2 frontman Bono was spotted signing autographs for fans outside the band's Dublin studio, where many of their best-selling albums were recorded after the band bought the studios in the early 1990s.

He even took time to pose next to some of the graffiti left on the studio walls by fans of the band.

He later attended the opening of an exhibition of art by his niece, Leah Hewson, at the KTcontemporary gallery in Donnybrook.

www.independent.ie

Bono is not a celebrity, he´s a force of nature.

Len Short (Red)ily Discusses Google, Bono & Steve Jobs  

Len Short is truly an online marketing pioneer, heading up marketing at Charles Schwab, AOL and then (PRODUCT)RED. He is now leading Chug, a car buying search engine, as its Founder and CEO.

Len later joined (PRODUCT)RED as its Founding CMO. In this capacity he worked with U2′s Bono, as well as Steve Jobs and a number of other notable celebrities whom Len encouraged to lend their brand equity to bolster RED’s cause.

Earlier in his career, Len worked at NW Ayer where he focused much of his attention on non-profits. Fast-forward a decade and he was the CMO at (PRODUCT)RED. Giving back is clearly in Len’s DNA. He shared the following advice for emerging entrepreneurs who have limited time and money but an unlimited passion to give back philanthropically. “With Red, Africa wasn’t my cause. It was Bono’s cause and Bobby Shriver’s cause. I found an opportunity to take some unique skills that I had (and) to apply them to that model. I invested two years of my life…and it became my cause. The most important things people can give are their talents and innovation. So as an entrepreneur, (talent) is the most valuable currency.

Bono said, ‘Well, OK. I understand your plan but I want a friend of mine who is a marketing guy to vet your plan,’ and I said, ‘Oh yeah, who’s that?’ and he said, ‘Steve Jobs.’ Steve was amazingly helpful and supportive.

RED… is a for-profit endeavor, the profits just go to Africans, not to anybody else. It has made and distributed over $180 million in profits that have all gone…to buy ARVs (antiretroviral drugs). Look at your talents and see what they can lend. Later on give your money away.”

(PRODUCT)RED continues to be immensely successful, having directly impacted the lives of over 7.5 million people. The organization is on track to make the children born in 2015 the first AIDS free generation in decades. Given RED’s immense marketing impact, I asked Len what he would do differently, if he were launching the project today. “If I did it again, I’d be even more adamant about staffing it and creating a culture of relentless, hard-nosed focus on creating results. That goes for pretty much any enterprise and certainly a cause should have the same hard-nosed approach that business does. That was our going-in proposition.”

In addition to its Co-Founder, Bono, (PRODUCT)RED enlisted the support of a number of notable personalities. Due to Rincon Venture Partners‘ focus on sourcing deals within the Southern California ecosystem, we often see deals in which one or more celebrities are involved. From an investor’s standpoint, we view this as a mixed blessing. Even so, I found Len’s counsel regarding how to appropriately manage and maximize an organization’s relationship with high-profile celebrities to be a bit surprising. “Celebrities are tricky. I think it is borrowed equity. Essentially a successful entrepreneur will always be purely driven by a vision. They won’t let distractions or shortcuts distract them. It’s easy to talk yourself into, ‘So and so is interested and it will help me.’ I am not sure it ever does, unless there is a natural connection. The same rule applies, borrowed equity isn’t yours.

I can’t really think of a great case history where a celebrity has really driven a startup. Other than RED, I mean Bono, I wouldn’t call him a celebrity, he’s a force of nature.”

www.businessinsider.com

Read more: http://infochachkie.com/len-short/#ixzz1e59ac0V2

Larry Mullen Jr.: The Man on the Train

The musician-turned-actor talks about his "jump off the bridge" straight into the movie business. Now available in USA on demand via Tribeca Film.

Photo courtesy Tribeca Film / credit: Sophie Girau

Now playing across the country on VOD via Tribeca Film, Mary McGuckian's The Man on the Train is an English-language remake of Patrice Leconte's atmospheric L'Homme du Train [2002], which starred musician-turned-actor Johnny Hallyday and Jean Rochefort. In the current film, Irish musician Larry Mullen Jr. makes his acting debut opposite the legendary Donald Sutherland.

Mullen, who did triple-duty on the film—actor, producer, and soundtrack supervisor—recently talked to us about his "baptism by fire," his acting method, and what it was like to work with an icon.

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Tribeca: Congratulations on your acting debut! Clearly, you’ve always been a creative man. When did you realize that you had an interest in acting, and was there something particular that prompted you to tackle this new challenge?

Larry Mullen Jr.: I’ve always had an interest in doing something that was outside my comfort zone; I had this thing about standing on the edge of the cliff and deciding to jump. I think it’s probably a bit like imagining that you might enjoy shark diving or bungee jumping off a very large bridge. I thought [acting] might be an exciting thing to do—I’m used to sitting and being in the background, and I’ve enjoyed that, for many, many years. But I kind of played with the idea for a while, never believing that anything would come of it.

Then I ran into Mary McGuckian, and we talked about her making films, and what that was about. And she said to me, “If you’re interested in filmmaking, you should watch this film,” which was the original Man on the Train, the Patrice Leconte version. So I had a look at that, and I loved it, and I thought, “Well, it would be great if somebody remade this film and I could get a small part; that would be a rich little idea.” To put a long story short, Mary said, “Look, if we’re going to do this, let’s create a partnership.” So we did, and I got involved in the production—trying to get the rights, etc.—which I enjoyed very much.

And then when we actually got the rights, they said to me, “Well, you’re going to have to play the part of The Man; that’s the whole idea.” And I said, “Well, what the f*&%?” So I was forced into it, but I wasn’t totally an unwilling participant. It was a pretty damn big decision to make. And of course, when Donald Sutherlandsigned up, it seemed like the most stupid thing I’d ever done in my whole life! [laughs] But there you have it. I ended up on a set in Toronto for 17 days working with Donald Sutherland, and it was a very different experience for me, I have to tell you.

Photo courtesy Tribeca Film / credit: Sophie Girau

Tribeca: Well, you really held your own. What attracted you to this story? What did you like about the original film, and what did you and Mary think you could do differently with this version?

Larry Mullen Jr.: I think the reason Mary showed it to me was because of how difficult it is for people who are in music, in particular, to make that changeover [to acting]. There’s a long, long list of people who have tried and have not succeeded—not because they weren’t talented, but because it’s difficult to be believable when you’re known as one thing and then you decide to do something else.

Mary’s point was that [French musician] Johnny Hallyday [Mullen’s counterpart in the French film] had made several films and had not been terribly successful, and then he found this movie. And it was a very, very successful transition, and she was saying that this is how it can be done: with a great story, a good director, and so on.

Johnny had not been known as a great actor, and then he ends up in this movie, and it’s the right movie for him, and he’s great in it. So that’s how it started.

Tribeca: Did you find any similarities to performing as a musician, or is that such old hat to you now that it’s not like jumping off a cliff anymore?

Larry Mullen Jr.: I think there are some similarities, but generally speaking, when you’re a musician, you’re playing for yourself: it’s about you, and it is a very personal experience. Whereas, I think with acting, it’s kind of the opposite in some ways. It’s about the non-personal becoming the personal—you’re playing somebody else. I think for a lot of young actors, people who haven’t acted before, the great lesson is that sometimes it’s the stuff you don’t know that really benefits you.

That really stood out to me, I have to say, when I was working with people like Donald Sutherland. I didn’t know any better; I didn’t know what the protocol was meant to be. I succeeded and failed, all at the same time; I had no expectations of myself; I didn’t know whether I could do it. So I just kept on trying to do what I thought was the right thing.

I imagine had I known a little more when I got into it, the prospect of working with someone with the stature of Donald would’ve been too much. He’s an extraordinary actor, but he’s also an elder statesman. It was only halfway through the film that I actually realized how difficult it was for him, I think, working with a novice like me, but by that stage I didn’t care…

Photo courtesy Tribeca Film / credit: Sophie Girau

Tribeca: You were already deep into it…

Larry Mullen Jr.: I’d already jumped. There was nothing I could do; there were no parachutes. I jumped, and that was it. But Donald was very generous, in that he didn’t offer me huge amounts of advice and mentor me, and try and teach me. He just stayed out of my way. He just let me do it. And I think that was the great gift that he gave me. I’m very grateful to him, because I think it can’t have been easy to see me muddle through various different scenes, and mess up my lines, and not get things right. It can’t have been easy for him to watch that, given what he’s done, but he just stood back. He stood back and he allowed me to rise and fall.

Tribeca: I think it’s an honor that he respected you in that way, and let you do your thing.

Larry Mullen Jr.: Absolutely. And that’s how I see it. I see it as an incredibly generous thing for him to do, to actually just step out of my way. Because I was getting in my own way enough.

Tribeca: So the press notes mention that Mary views the film as a contemporary urban Western. With that in mind, how did you prepare for the character, and was the goatee part of your transformation, or was that something that you’d been playing with already?

Larry Mullen Jr.: You know, I leafed through the Stanislavski book on Method acting many, many years ago, but it meant absolutely nothing to me, because I’d had no experience acting. And when Mary and I decided that we would actually go ahead and do this, part of the issue for me was, “Well, what do I do? How do I prepare for something like this?” She had a very clear idea about how I would prepare to do this, and she’s worked with non-actors before, so I got a sort of binder with all the scenes in it, and I had to build my character. I grew the goatee, and I think I went into a form of Method, although I had no idea what I was doing. I got into the zone of, like, 5 or 6 individuals that I knew, and I sort of put them all together and came up with the character.

Photo courtesy Tribeca Film / credit: Sophie Girau

Tribeca: Did you go into a different mental place, or was it really more about outward appearances? What was the process?

Larry Mullen Jr.: A lot of this part was the outward, surly, rogue, tough guy, and the transformation into a “buddy” [to Sutherland’s character, a professor] was actually a nice curve. Because I wasn’t playing the same character through the whole film: I had an opportunity to engage with the professor.

But the way the film was shot—it wasn’t scene one to scene two, etc. It was shot in different sequences: outdoors, indoors… So that was a bit of a challenge. In the morning, for instance, I would be doing a bank robbery. And then in the afternoon, I would be telling the professor over dinner what a wonderful guy he was. It was a challenge just trying to figure out which particular guy I was going to be at which particular time. [laughs]

And did I pull it off? I think I pull it off in places. Is it convincing everywhere? It has its flaws; I mean, I’m not an actor, but it’s definitely something I enjoyed doing.

Tribeca: I think you see the flaws more than everyone else does... Switching gears, you wore quite a few hats on this film: you’re a producer, and you’re an actor, and you produced the score. Which did you find the most challenging? And did producing surprise you?

Larry Mullen Jr.: Yeah, it did. When you’re in the music business, everything is very personal, because you are invested in everything; there’s a very deep, personal attachment to your music. When you’re making a film, it’s very different. I think as a director who’s written the piece, I can understand how you’d feel very personal about it., [but for me] it was not a personal challenge; it was a film. And the production part of this was very matter-of-fact, problem-solving in a very basic form: how do you get the movie out, how do you get the financing, who’s going to release it, and so on and so forth. So I enjoyed that process. I thought I was better at that, in a funny way, than at the acting. The acting was a real challenge for me, although I found it incredibly liberating. Was it the most enjoyable experience of my life? No, but it did something I didn’t expect it to; it didn’t spite me the way I thought it would.

And as far as the score was concerned, that came about by chance. I wasn’t meant to do the score, nor did I particularly want to do the score, but we were kind of running out of time. Mary suggested that I get together with Simon Climie, who Mary had known for years; I hadn’t met him before. He’s a proper musician. So he and I just worked for a couple of days and came up with something. We didn’t have a huge amount of time on it. And that, I have to say, of all the things, that’s probably been the most difficult—I’m used to having time around musical projects, to access resources quickly, and get what [I] need, and this was not like that. This was very different, and it was a challenge. But we did what we were tasked to do. It could have been very different, and probably could have been a lot better. And it’s one piece of music used over the whole film; I would love to have had two or three pieces—but we just didn’t have the time for it.

Photo courtesy Tribeca Film / credit: Sophie Girau

Tribeca: So what’s the verdict? Do you think you’ll act again, or have you run screaming from this crazy movie business? What’s your plan?

Larry Mullen Jr.: Well, my baptism was a baptism of fire. I didn’t feel humiliated, and I don’t feel I failed, as I thought I might. I didn’t know how it would go. I feel I held my own, and I would absolutely like to do more film. I don’t know what I’m qualified to do, film-wise... So it’s really down to a director or a casting director to find something that they think I could do. To answer your question directly, I would love to do more acting.

www.tribecafilm.com

U2 not splitting up

McGuinness ends speculation on band's future in  an interview for Belfast Telegraph.
It's official - U2 are not splitting up. The band's manager, Paul McGuinness, last night flatly denied reports that the four school friends are going their separate ways after 35 years.
Known as the fifth member of U2, Mr McGuinness (60) has steered their career from local outfit to global superstars. Asked about the constant speculation that U2 have hit the end of the road, he said: "No, and I think I would have heard. Not all all. They are always working on the next record."
Fears of a U2 split began with an interview Bono gave to 'Rolling Stone' magazine last month in which he hinted that himself, Larry Mullen Jnr, the Edge and Adam Clayton may part company sometime in 2012.
"I'm not so sure the future hasn't dried up," said the 51-year-old frontman.
"It's quite likely you might hear from us next year but it's equally possible that you won't. The band may have finally run its course."
However, at the opening of a new stage version of Edna O'Brien's novel 'The Country Girls', Mr McGuinness said: "I'm not sure what was said, but I think it was a chance remark taken out of context. I would disregard it."


www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

U2 Revisit ‘Achtung Baby’ – and Question Their Future for Rolling Stone

Bono: 'We'd be very pleased to end on 'No Line on the Horizon''

Those words were published by Rolling Stone magazine and they sound harsh. Let´s read the rest of the article by Brian Hiatt.

Ask Bono a tough question and you might get a tougher answer. U2 are about to release their most expansive reissue project yet, for 1991's Achtung Baby – the album where they traded in earnest uplift for funk, noise, sex, irony and self-doubt. So how does this lavish look back square with the band's old lyric "You glorify the past when the future dries up."I'm not so sure the future hasn't dried up," says Bono, who's been irritating his bandmates lately by publicly questioning U2's relevance – despite the fact that they just finished the highest-grossing tour of all time. "The band are like, 'Will you shut up about being irrelevant?'" he says. But Bono can't help himself – even though U2 have been in and out of the studio with various producers recently, he raises the possibility that the band may have released its final album. "We'd be very pleased to end on No Line on the Horizon," he says, before acknowledging the unlikelihood of that scenario: "I doubt that."

Bono concedes that revisiting the album where U2 punched themselves out of a tight corner – after 1988's Rattle and Hum movie and album helped convince some music fans they were hopelessly solemn and pompous – suggested a way forward. "Ironically, being forced to look back at this period reminds me of how we might re-emerge for the next phase," says Bono. "And that doesn't mean that you have to wear some mad welder's goggles or dress up in women's clothing. Reinvention is much deeper than that."

Moving forward has never been easy for U2, as chronicled in the outtakes, B sides and early versions of Achtung songs unearthed for a new box set – and set forth in moving detail inFrom the Sky Down, a documentary about Achtung Baby's genesis by It Might Get Louddirector Davis Guggenheim. The movie, which opened the Toronto International Film Festival, makes it clear that trying to find a new sound led to what the Edge calls "a potentially career-ending series of difficulties." In tracing the creation of "One," the film also reveals that lyrics such as "We're one, but we're not the same" are as much about the band's fraught brotherhood as anything else. "I thought [Achtung Baby] was a really supercool moment in a not always supercool life," Bono says with a laugh, "and [Guggenheim] goes and makes an uncool film about us!"

Rattle and Hum, and the horn-section-and-B.B.-King-accompanied Lovetown Tour that followed, were U2's rootsiest moment. But for a band whose actual roots were in late-Seventies post-punk, the cowboy hats and denim were starting to chafe. The Edge was listening to My Bloody Valentine, Nine Inch Nails and Einstürzende Neubauten, while also noting the fusion of rock and dance coming out of Manchester, with groups like the Stone Roses. "I always remember the intense embarrassment when I happened to be in a club and a generous-spirited DJ would put on one of our tunes from the War album," the Edge says. "It was so evident we had never been thinking about how it would go down in clubs. So we just wanted to stretch ourselves in the area of rhythm and backbeat and groove."

The band recorded the bulk of the album in Berlin's Hansa Studios, just as Germany was reunifying – and as co-producer Brian Eno wrote, aesthetic guidelines soon emerged: "Buzzwords on this record were trashy, throwaway, dark, sexy and industrial." "We found it was more interesting to start from an extreme place," says the Edge.

Hence the buzz-saw guitars that kick off the opening track, "Zoo Station," followed by a blast of Larry Mullen Jr.'s drums distorted almost beyond recognition. "Some of the extreme sounds weren't achieved with sophisticated, outboard equipment, dialed in carefully," says the Edge. Instead, they simply overloaded their vintage recording console. "It was literally, 'What happens if you try to go to 11?'" says the guitarist.

For the band, rediscovering the wildly different lyrics and arrangements on the early "kindergarten" versions of the songs was revelatory – "Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World," for instance, sounds like an Irish folk tune. "The first time the paint goes on the canvas is a very, very exciting moment," says Bono. He was intrigued by a line in the early "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" that recasts its story as a "parasitic" love affair ("Your innocence I've experienced"), while the Edge is convinced the more restrained vocal melody on that version is superior to the released track.

One of the more intriguing outtakes, "Down All the Days," has the same backing track as "Numb," from U2's 1993 follow-up, Zooropa, with Bono singing an entirely different song. "It's this quite unhinged electronic backing track with a very traditional melody and lyrics," says the Edge. "It almost worked."

Meanwhile, U2's future plans are not set. "It's quite likely you might hear from us next year, but it's equally possible that you won't," says the Edge. Adds Bono, "We have so many [new] songs, some of our best. But I'm putting some time aside to just go and get lost in the music. I want to take my young boys and my wife and just disappear with my iPod Nano and some books and an acoustic guitar."

This story is from the November 10, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone.

http://www.rollingstone.com

U2 Need to Dream It All Up Again

Bono says U2 are under more pressure to make a good album now than they were when they recorded the career-defining Achtung Baby 20 years ago.

Echoing his "we need to dream it all up again" words when U2 played Dublin's Point Theatre on New Year's Eve in 1989, he told The Irish Times: "It's actually worse for us now than it was when we went to Berlin. We can play the big music in big places. But whether we can play the small music, meaning for the small speakers of the radio or clubs, where people are living, remains to be seen. I think we have to go to that place again if we're to survive.

"There are so many U2 albums out there. We need a reason for another one. The whole point of being in U2 is that we're not here to be an art-house band. Our job, as we see it, is to bring the art house to the mainstream; our job is to puncture the mainstream."

The singer says he sees the future of the music industry in new technology and new formats. "Our last album was the first album to be made available as an app with BlackBerry devices, but it didn't work: the functionality was not what it could have been," he says.

"New formats are going to happen. I'm always banging on about this. The app format brings you back to that world of gatefold sleeves, of being able to read lyrics - and being able to play the album at home on your plasma TV."

Bono also defended the sales performance of the band's 2009 album, No Line on the Horizon. "We're just about to come to five million sales on No Line on The Horizon, and that, these days, is the equivalent of selling 12 million records," he says. "You can actually do the figures on that. So when you look at it like that, it has the same sales as All That You Can't Leave Behind.

"That's despite the fact that No Line doesn't have A Beautiful Day and doesn't have a Stuck in A Moment. There's no pop song on No Line, but it's still sold that amount. It's been an amazing success for an album which is quite a complex piece of work and doesn't have one single pop song on it."

"People say Get on Your Boots was the wrong single, but it's great live. Unfortunately in the last few weeks of finishing the album, we didn't have the objectivity. We figured out Get on Your Bootslater, when we were on the road and it became a much better song. I think Unknown Caller is a classic, as is Moment of Surrender."

U2 release the 20th anniversary edition of Achtung Baby next week.

www.rte.ie/

Adam tells us about the beginnings of U2

In Davis Guggenheim's new film From The Sky Down, Adam recalls the earliest days of the band.


'We've tried this going to college thing and this going to work thing... and we want to be in the band.'





www.u2.com//www.u2fanlife.com

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.

www.telegraph.co.uk/

Did you think you came here just to drink some wine?

Bono and Leòn on stage at Estadio Unico on 3rd April

León Gieco talks to Eduardo Fabregat for Pagina 12 after singing with U2 at Estadio Unico in La Plata last concert of the 360º Tour.


Things were about to close  up when I came across Leon Gieco in the backstage of U2 concert in La Plata last Sunday. We chatted about the great musical quality of Muse and the enormity of what was about to happen. Leon had never thought that he would sing "Solo le pido a Dios" (I only ask God) with Bono in second voice and Edge playing subtle tones and the whole of Estadio Unico as chorus.


"I was in Chaco  giving a show for HIJOS (organisation of the children of the Disappeared  in the Dirty War in Argentina) and I got a phone call from U2 production saying that they wanted me in La Plata, so I took the car and drove here," Leon explained.
There Leon Gieco discovered that Bono wanted something more than just sharing a glass of wine.
"Let`s play that song," the  singer proposed, "that I  couldn`t sing well in River." That`s how Leon ended up rehersing with U2.
"At the beginning I was frozen, I was there to enjoy the show ; I had some wine in the VIP  and all of a sudden I was about to get on the stage with these people, let`s face it , this was not just a concert at Grand Rex theatre.If they told you a couple of days earlier, you might get ready, but like this? Bono laughed and asked me, "Did  you think you came here just to drink some wine and that was it?"


Leon commented on the fact that he didn`t take real dimension of what was about to happen until much later .
"The following day, you react.But after all, they are just people! And Bono is person who takes you into account a lot, he knows everything that is going on in the place he plays...I`m sure he must be thinking who he will sing with in Brazil."


Impossible to forget that they are superstars, but they are also flesh and blood people, I added.


"All of us have to poop..."

What about the show, Leon?

"I loved it, though I was not in a good place. I was invited to watch and listen to it from a great place, but then that guy(Bono) fucked it up!" (laughter) .I was a great show."

But apart from all the magnitude, they are still a band...

"Because everything comes before they became a band. They are four friends that still have that coutryside Irish thing, that has a lot to do with the Argentinian. I think we are similar, it`s (Ireland) a country that has suffered too."

"You watch Bono on stage and he has an enegy and a voice that are incredible. I will have to go to a a voice coach ...how I heard him sing last Sunday was amazing! Two intense shows on Saturday and Sunday and the guy had the will to talk, take pictures with fans. He  could be quiet, he doesn´t  need anything else, he has nothing to add to his thing. Does he really need me on stage?"

Eduardo Fabregat 


www.pagina12.com.ar

Bono and Edge Anticipated their Tour in Argentina

Bono and Edge in TV Chile

Exclusive interview with Bono and Edge  by Chilean TV... (the interview is conducted in English,but the rest is in Spanish)

Only 14 days to see them in South America...

Bono Nominated for Man Who Changed The World Award

U2 lead singer Bono, film director Steven Spielberg and Google's Sergei Brin are among the nine nominees of the Mikhail Gorbachev award.

The Gorbachev Awards have been set up by the former Soviet leader, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, to mark his 80th birthday earlier this month.

The former Soviet leader said the winners for the three categories will be announced on March 30 in London, during a charitable concert.

Other nominees include World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, ex-Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Martin Cooper who invented the cellular phone.

Mr Gorbachev said each nominee contributed to 'changing the world we're living in'.

He turned 80 last Wednesday. Revered in the West for liberal reforms that led to the collapse of Communism, he has been reviled at home, where many hold him responsible for the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Mr Gorbachev said: 'The people nominated for the inaugural Gorbachev Awards have already made a significant contribution to the world and changed the way we live our lives today.

'Selecting just nine people has been very hard and we are delighted that the people we have nominated bring such a diverse range of skills and achievements to the awards, and the values the awards stand for.'

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk

U2 Compare Last Album to Corn Flakes

U2 frontman Bono says that the band’s new album, rumored to be coming out in the Spring, will be a marked departure from the band’s last release, No Line on the Horizon. The singer toldBillboard.com that the album, which features production work from Danger Mouse, will be more streamlined.

“We were trying to write an album with No Line on the Horizon that had a kind of narrative and if I look back on it now, it’s probably too long. Maybe just by one song or two,” Bono said. “It’s incredible that people think, ‘Oh gosh, I can put 17 songs on this’ … it’s like more corn flakes in a better box.”

In the meantime, the band are continuing to criss-cross the world on their 360° Tour. Bassist Adam Clayton shrugged off the idea that touring was becoming more important to U2 than creating new music.

“There’s a mythology within music is that you have to be young to create it,” Clayton said. “As musicians, I think we’re getting better. As a band we are getting better. We’re better at editing ourselves and performing so we’re in a much better place than we were when we made those early records.”

www.gibson.com

More of Cape Town Concert

The South African press is blooming with articles about the historical concerts in that country...

City’s Friday, rocking Friday

Cape Town fans roared a welcome to Bono and U2 as they bounded on to the giant Claw stage at Cape Town Stadium last night as part of their 360º world tour.

As cameras flashed around the stadium and Bono clapped his hands above his head, the sound of whistles, cheers and the unique U2 sound hit Cape Town.

The lifting of the turf to enable fans to occupy the field meant that last night’s concert accommodated 72 000 people, 8 000 more than any of last year’s World Cup matches.

Earlier, thousands of people stood along the Fan Walk, boogying to the sounds of U2 being blasted from speakers along the route, marching alongside the minstrel troupe and laughing at the antics of the U2-style stilt walkers.

As people streamed towards the stadium, bars along the route were packed, spilling out on to the pavement, while vendors moved among the people selling U2 caps and T-shirts.

Inside the stadium, people streamed to their seats awed by the enormous claw stage imported in 200 shipping containers.

Fans were still pouring on to the field as Arno Carstens and the Springbok Nude Girls electrified the crowd, dwarfed by the huge circular screen above them forming part of the Claw.

As they left the stage, the massive crowd erupted in applause. - Saturday Argus

http://www.iol.co.za

U2 give Cape Town, fans all over the world a concert to remember

U2 outdid themselves again last night, as they performed a truly memorable show in Cape Town for not only the fans cheering inside the stadium, but also the fans cheering from their homes.

U2.com gifted subscribers with a live stream of the entire show, which I think is fantastic. To unite fans from all around the globe and the audience rocking out in Cape Town to share in the same special moment of hearing U2 live is very generous. Let's hope they do it again for the shows coming up!

As for the concert itself, the band didn't disappoint and they also paid tribute to some honorable people. "Pride" was dedicated to Nelson Madela, as it was in Johannesburg. "To our brothers and sisters in Libya," Bono announced during "Sunday Bloody Sunday". Aung San Suu Kyi was celebrated before the band performed "Scarlet". Singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka joined U2 on stage for "I Still Haven't Found", which I'm hearing was amazing.

Bono was once again his comedic self during band introductions. Naming Edge the "ring tailed lemur and spider-monkey of U2", Adam the "llama", and Larry the "meerkat", he got a taste of his own medicine when Edge dubbed him the "wildebeest"!

As surprising as that sounds, another curveball the band threw was playing some of the stellar "Fez-Being Born" from "No Line" before they went into "City of Blinding Lights". The beautiful "North Star" was in the set, as was "I Will Follow", "Hold Me, Thrill Me", and a full version of "Stand By Me" with Yvonne Chaka Chaka.  I'm hoping that little "Fez" tease turns into an actual performance of it this summer!

U2 are back on the road in a little over a month, when they start the South American leg in Chile on March 25th.

by Jill Marino

www.examiner.com