U2 40th anniversary: 15 things you probably didn't know about Dublin's greatest band

Rock giants U2 are celebrating their 40th anniversary this month.

The Dubliners have enjoyed worldwide success since forming in 1976.

And despite being idolised by so many people on these shores, there is a still a bit of mystery surrounding the lads.

So here are 15 things you probably didn't know about U2.

1. Joshua Tree running order

Friend of the band and singer Kirsty MacColl chose the running order on U2's iconic album The Joshua Tree, the band told her to put Where The Streets Have No Name first and Mothers of the Disappeared last. and the rest in order of her preference.

2. One of a kind

Bono is the only person to be nominated for a Grammy, Oscar, Golden Globe and a Nobel Prize.

3. Sir Bono

Bono was awarded an honorary knighthood by the Queen in 2007, it was for his efforts as a humanitarian.

4. Grammy Awards heavyweights

U2 have won more Grammy Awards than any other band with 22.

5. Bono Vox

Bono got his nickname from his friends while growing up in Dublin, it derived from 'bono vox' which means 'good voice' in Latin and it came from a local shop that sold hearing aids.

He also considered the names Steinvic von Huyseman, Huyseman, Houseman and Bon Murray.

6. Hatless Edge

The Edge has only gone hatless a number of times, whilst performing Miss Sarajevo at the Pavarotti And Friends concert in 1995 and the video for Discotheque in 1997.

7.Those glasses aren't for show

. Bono wears glasses because he has glaucoma, a condition that can can damage the optic nerve and permanently impair vision - the glasses are to protect his eyes.

Larry Mullen posted a note on Mount Temple Comprehensive School's notice board in search of musicians for a new band when he was 14.

Setting up in his kitchen, Mullen was on drums, with Bono on lead vocals, The Edge and his older brother Dik Evans on guitar, with Adam Clayton on bass.

10. Larry Mullen injects bull's blood into his body

Larry Mullen suffers with severe back pain due to an injury he sustained on The Joshua Tree Tour. According to Billy Flanagan's 1995 book U2 at the End of the World, he treated his problem by injecting bull's blood.

The author wrote: "Bono says Larry tried different doctors without success until he went to a German who brought in a holistic healer who started giving Larry shots of bull's blood.

"That did the trick! Larry's Irish doctor refuses to accept it - he looks at X-rays of Larry's crooked spine and says it's impossible, but Larry feels fine. He flies to Germany for shots of bull's blood regularly."

11. Adam Clayton has had the same bracelet on since he was 21

Adam Clayton has never taken off the jade bracelet he wears on his left arm, the bracelet is woman's size and he forced it on when he was 21. He hasn't been able to take it off since.

12. Fourth band to grace Time Magazine cover

Following The Beatles, The Band and The Who, U2 were the fourth band ever to be on the cover of Time Magazine. They also made the cover for a second time in 2014.

13. The Dalton Brothers

Three times on The Joshua Tree tour, The Dalton Brothers opened for U2. It was actually U2 dressed as hillbillies doing country standards.

14. High praise indeed

U2 were inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2005, their first year of eligibility. Bruce Springsteen also inducted them.

15. The Boy

The child on the cover of Boy is Peter Rowan, a nephew of a friend of the band. He was also used for the cover of U2's third album War.

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Frank Kearns talks about being in school with U2 and how the band formed

FRANK Kearns can claim to be U2’s very first fan.

He saw their first rehearsal at Mount Temple school as best pal of drummer Larry Mullen.

Inspired by Edge, he took up the guitar himself, supported U2, and later signed to U2’s own Mother Records, and shared a stage with them at Self Aid.

His band Cactus World News were once hailed as the future of music by Lou Reed.

But now Frank, quietly releases records, the latest 2016’s acclaimed album Speed of The Stars with Steve Kilbey of The Church, and runs Rockschool.ie in Dublin.

It was 40 years ago that Frank found himself watching the very first rehearsal of U2 as a schoolmate in Mount Temple .

Frank said:”I remember sitting on a table with my legs swinging underneath watching the new group jamming. I had no doubt they would make it. I thought they were absolutely brilliant. I wasn’t a musician at that stage, and he said to come along and watch. I remember hearing Adam always having rows with Edge about what key they were in, and Edge arguing back, the usual banter within a band.

The rehearsal came after Larry Mullen places his famous note on the noticeboard at the school.

So after Bono, Larry, Adam, Edge and his brother Dik. joined forces at their first meeting, the next thing was to ask at school if there was somewhere they could rehearse.

Frank recalled: That’s how U2 ended up playing in Mr McKenzie’s famous music room at Mount Temple. Walking past you would heard a loud drone then bursts of feedback from the vocal mic.

Frank Kearns talks about being in school with U2 and how the band formed

FRANK Kearns can claim to be U2’s very first fan.

He saw their first rehearsal at Mount Temple school as best pal of drummer Larry Mullen.

Inspired by Edge, he took up the guitar himself, supported U2, and later signed to U2’s own Mother Records, and shared a stage with them at Self Aid.

His band Cactus World News were once hailed as the future of music by Lou Reed.

But now Frank, quietly releases records, the latest 2016’s acclaimed album Speed of The Stars with Steve Kilbey of The Church, and runs Rockschool.ie in Dublin.

It was 40 years ago that Frank found himself watching the very first rehearsal of U2 as a schoolmate in Mount Temple .

Frank said:”I remember sitting on a table with my legs swinging underneath watching the new group jamming. I had no doubt they would make it. I thought they were absolutely brilliant. I wasn’t a musician at that stage, and he said to come along and watch. I remember hearing Adam always having rows with Edge about what key they were in, and Edge arguing back, the usual banter within a band.

The rehearsal came after Larry Mullen places his famous note on the noticeboard at the school.

So after Bono, Larry, Adam, Edge and his brother Dik. joined forces at their first meeting, the next thing was to ask at school if there was somewhere they could rehearse.

Frank recalled: That’s how U2 ended up playing in Mr McKenzie’s famous music room at Mount Temple. Walking past you would heard a loud drone then bursts of feedback from the vocal mic.

Bono Remembers David Bowie: 'He Is My Idea of a Rock Star'

David Bowie and Bono at Royal Festival Hall in London in 2002. "I'd like to consider myself David's friend, but I'm more of a fan," Bono told us. Kevin Mazur/Getty

"He was so vivid. So luminous. So fluorescent. The sky is darker without him"

In Rolling Stone's new David Bowie memorial issue, out January 29th, various artists pay tribute to the late singer, songwriter and pop innovator. In this exclusive recollection, Bono reflects on the way Bowie helped him find "doors into ... other worlds."

I've played at being a rock & roll star, but I'm really not one. David Bowie is my idea of a rock star. Right now, I'm in Myanmar, a little cut off from the reaction to David's passing, but I can assure you the sky is a lot darker here without the Starman.

The first time I saw him perform was on Top of the Pops in 1972, singing "Starman." He was so vivid. So luminous. So fluorescent. We had one of the first color TVs on our street, and David Bowie was the reason to have a color TV. I've said he was our Elvis Presley. There are so many similarities: the masculine-feminine duality, the physical mastery of being on a stage. They created original silhouettes, shapes now seen as obvious, that did not exist before.

They both had that otherworldliness. With Bowie, you had this sneaking suspicion that if you hung around him, you might find some doors into those other worlds. In my teenage mind, "Life on Mars?" was much more about, is there life on earth? Are we really alive? Is this really all there is?

And some of the doors Bowie opened led to other artists. He opened doors for me into Bertolt Brecht, and William Burroughs — and, by the way, Bruce Springsteen, who he was on very early. And for me, the most important door he opened was the one with Brian Eno behind it.

I'd like to consider myself David's friend, but I'm more of a fan. He came and visited us when we were mixing Achtung Baby — and, of course, he had introduced us to Berlin and to Hansa Studios. We had a playful sort of banter — he would really go there in conversations, and we would even occasionally hurt each other's feelings. He took his daughter to a matinee to see Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, and he sent me the reasons he didn't like it. And everything he said was really helpful, because it was in the early days of the show.

I’ve been talking with Brian Eno about this, because David sent Brian a goodbye note, and he shared the contents with me. It was so amazing, and it’s so funny. It’s a really surreal, defiant type of goodbye letter, a kiss-off. And I was saying to Brian that David had been on our minds. Over Christmas, my oldest daughter Jordan and I were listening to Blackstar a lot. David met her when she was two. He called her "Pixie," and she’s been a lifelong Bowie fan. 

I like Bowie when he’s evenly pulled in the direction of being a pop star and Picasso, where he’s right down the middle. That’s usually my favorite, when the songwriting is disciplined but the recording is not. I love when he’s pulled equally in the directions of art and populism. Blackstar is much more art, so I shouldn’t like it as much as I do. But I really loved it. And so did my daughter Jordan.

I sent him a picture of myself and Jordan toasting him on his birthday this year. I sent him a long email, and I sent him a beautiful poem by Michael Leunig called "Love and Fear" — one line goes, "there are only two feelings/love and fear." I didn’t hear back, but I was told he got it.

Ultimately, as a songwriter and as a performer, your currencies are thoughts and feelings. Some people may have original thoughts, but the musical landscape is not that unique. Bowie's musical landscape affected you in a way that is completely different from all the other music around it. You have to close your eyes, imagine you don’t speak English and just feel the songs and say, "What part of me is being played by those notes?" Or "Who else plays them?"

And in his case, the answer is nobody. That part of me is only played by David Bowie. So that part of me is now a void — I have to find other ways to wake it up. But it woke me up when I was 14.

As told to Brian Hiatt

 http://www.rollingstone.com/

Bowie’s influence on U2

Planet earth is blue- Bono (U2 twitter account)

Back in 2010 , Rolling Stone magazine did a special “Playlists” issue where popular artists listed their favorite songs from other artists. Bono gave the magazine a 15-song playlist of his favorite David Bowie songs. The top five:

1. “Space Oddity”
2. “The Man Who Sold The World”
3. “Changes”
4. “Five Years”
5. “Life On Mars”

In his write-up, Bono talked about Bowie’s influence on U2 — and note the talk about concert-as-drama, which is something U2 has incorporated into its live shows since day one.

"U2 owe him a lot. He introduced us to Berlin and Hansa Studios, to collaborating with Brian Eno. It’s the high singing, beyond your ‘man’ voice into the feminine. And there’s the staging, the attempt to be innovative. It has been pointed out that the Claw [the 360 stage] looks like the Glass Spider. Bowie wasn’t afraid to use scale, to dramatize things. His set list was not just a jukebox he could run through. It was drama.”

Rolling Stone put Bono’s full Bowie playlist on Spotify. 

http://www.atu2blog.com/

Happy New Year from Cedarwood Rd. Gang!!!

Photo: Edge

Eagles of Death Metal Talk Sharing Stage With U2

A little over a month has passed since an Eagles of Death Metal concert in Paris was the target of a deadly terrorist attack. Since then, frontman Jesse Hughes has been in awe of the outpourings of support his fellow musicians have shown him. "If I get emotional, I apologize," he says, as tears well in his eyes and his voice deepens with emotion. "It's not in a bad way. I really am very touched by the true sense of community that I've experienced in rock & roll."

The day after the November 13th assault, in which ISIS terrorists took the lives of 89 concertgoers and one of the band's crew members at Bataclan, help from fellow rockers came immediately. "Bono called me to check in on me and was praying with me on the phone," Hughes says. And then, three days later, Duran Duran spoke up. Eagles of Death Metal had covered the New Wave group's haunting and now prescient 1982 single "Save a Prayer" on this year's Zipper Down. Now Duran Duran singer Simon LeBon was telling the world they'd donate all earnings from the cover to charity. "[We are] considering options that are useful, peaceful and uniting," LeBon tweeted. When Hughes and Eagles cofounder Josh Homme heard this, they were moved by the band's selflessness and decided to create their own charitable campaign, Play It Forward, for which they asked other bands to cover their catchy, feel-good Zipper Down track "I Love You All the Time."

On December 18th, Eagles of Death Metal launched their Play It Forward website, which features 13 cover versions of "I Love You All the Time" by bands as diverse as Imagine Dragons and Savages, as well as Florence and the Machine and My Morning Jacket. For each song, the band provided links to iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and its own Play It Forward store in an effort to make it as easy as possible for fans to listen to the songs and, by proxy, send the band's royalties to the Sweet Stuff Foundation, an organization that regularly assists musicians in need and is currently allocating all donations to give to victims of the Paris attack. Pearl Jam also recorded a version of Eagles of Death Metal's "I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)" live in Rio de Janeiro, which they put out as a single benefiting Play It Forward. What has astounded Hughes and Homme is the breadth of artists who submitted songs.



The Play It Forward campaign and the support of Eagles of Death Metal's peers and inspirations have not just created a way for the group to raise money for those affected by the attacks, Hughes says they've been "critical" in inspiring him to perform live again. The group that perhaps has been most encouraging in that regard has been U2, who were in Paris at the time of the attack and, even before that, had been longtime friends of the band and shown what Hughes describes as a "mutual love."

"Bono knows that I'm a Christian, and he also knows I'm a mama's boy," the singer says, holding back his emotion. "The very next day [after the attack], a courier came with a phone that had a note that said, 'This is from Bono. Make sure you call your mom.' I thought that was awesome. It was the first time that I really got to talk to my mom without being in a police station, and that meant the whole world to me at that moment.

"Then Bono called because I needed advice," Hughes continues. "I felt like the best person to ask for advice on how to deal with this is someone who's rubbed elbows with world leaders. And he just prayed with me on the phone. He kept my head off of things, and then U2 visited the memorial site and delivered lyrics of ours that he thought were appropriate. And that particularly was important to me because I really wanted to be out there. I didn't want to be in some safe house. I take personal pride in being really close to my fans. I knew a lot of the people personally that didn't make it, and that little detail, just on a personal note, is something that nobody else would ever know that it mattered, but it mattered to me. I didn't know how I was ever going to get back onstage again."

Eagles of Death Metal's next live appearance took place in Paris less than a month after the attack — at a U2 concert. "They were robbed of their stage, so we would like to offer them ours," Bono told 10s of thousands of fans at the AccorHotels Arena on December 7th. Each of the Eagles, sans Homme, then came out and stood next to their instrumental counterparts in U2 and performed Patti Smith's "People Have the Power." Hughes dressed head-to-toe in white.

When the tune ended, U2 left the stage and Eagles of Death Metal took the opportunity to play an ebullient rendition of "I Love You All the Time" as the final song of the night. As it wound down, Hughes walked to center stage with his right arm in the air, like a preacher reborn. "We love you so good," he told the crowd. "We hope you know this. Thank you, Paris. We will never give up rocking & rolling." Then, the five members joined arms and bowed.


He didn't show it that night, but Hughes admits now that he was afraid to go back. When it was done, he was glad he did. "U2 were trying to make sure we didn't have something in us killed," he says through tears. "They would have accomplished their goal if they had just performed the song with us. They didn't have to give us the stage for the last song. And they did. They took care of us completely. They were genuine and sincere, and they were very proud of our accomplishments after the fact. That was such a beautiful way to put training wheels on for performing."

Homme agrees. "I think for those boys that were in Paris to go back and play right away was really important," he says. "If you're going to let something build, it should be that confidence to go right back up there. I know that must have been difficult to do, and I was proud to watch those guys do that. It was really … " He stops. "Sometimes there's not words made yet to describe how you feel about something, and watching them, I wish I knew what letters to put together to explain how I felt. Can you imagine how tough that was?"

That show on U2's stage, Hughes says, instilled a sense of responsibility in him. "I know this sounds corny, but I feel bound to France forever now," he says. "The reaction of the country in general was wonderful to me, and so U2 gave me the opportunity to come back and go through my mourning process a little more naturally instead of feeling like I left my heart there."

It also gave the group the motivation it needed to tour again. On February 13th, they will kick off what they've dubbed their Nos Amis tour in Stockholm. Three days later, they will once again play Paris, this time at the Olympia, and they will continue to tour Europe through the first week of March. They've even planned a return trek to the continent in August. They will play the U.S. and, as Homme says, tour for the life of the record over the next couple of years.



Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/

BACK TO PARIS

We want to introduce some people whose lives will forever be part of this city…’ explained Bono. 'These are our brothers, our fellow troubadours they were robbed of their stage three weeks ago. We would like to offer them ours tonight. Welcome The Eagles of Death Metal.'

The Eagles of Death Metal were the surprise guests at the end of tonight’s final show in Paris.

Three weeks after the deadly attacks at their show at Le Bataclan, the band were back on stage in Paris, receiving an ovation to raise the roof, they joined U2 to perform Patti Smith’s The People Have The Power. They then stayed on stage to perform a track of their own, 'I Love You All The Time.'

Tonight's show was one of the two rescheduled from U2's visit to Paris last month and the seventy sixth and final show of the iNNOCENCE & eXPERIENCE Tour (seventy seven if you include the club night at the Roxy in LA ) which opened in Vancouver back in May.

Another highlight tonight came when the band played the e stage, where all tour long different fans have joined them on stage for Mysterious Ways. Following a competition on U2.com, tonight nine of those fans, from different cities in North America and Europe, had flown in to Paris to be at the show.

One of them, Trish, found herself up on stage again, grooving gracefully through Mysterious Ways and then shooting the Meerkat moment... at which point all the stage-divers were up with the band and rocking the joint through Elevation. 'What a collection you are,' said Bono 'Thank you all.'

And what a great way to mark the close of the 2015 shows, the Fourth Wall well and truly down again.

Update:

 Message from  Eagles of Death Metal via Facebook:

We want to offer our heartfelt thanks and appreciation for everything our brothers in U2 did for us in the aftermath of the November 13 attacks. They reminded us that the bad guys never take a day off, and therefore we rock ’n rollers cannot either…and we never will. We are incredibly grateful to U2 for providing us the opportunity to return to Paris so quickly, and to share in the healing power of rock ‘n roll with so many of the beautiful people – nos amis – of this great city. Thank you to Bono, The Edge, Larry and Adam, thank you to their wonderful management, thank you to France, and thank you to everyone in the world who continues to prove that love, joy, and music will always overcome terror and evil. We look forward to fighting the good fight on many more fronts very soon, especially when we pick up our tour in 2016. See you again in February, Paris

www.u2.com

U2 Returns to Paris for Concert Called Off After Terrorist Attacks

U2 performed at the AccorHotels Arena on Sunday in Paris, invoking the memories of victims around the world.CreditThomas Samson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

PARIS — The Irish band U2 returned to Paris on Sunday night to play the first of two shows that had been postponed in the wake of the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks that left 130 people dead, including 89 at the Bataclan, a music hall where the American band Eagles of Death Metal were playing when it was stormed by gunmen.

It was the first large-scale cultural event in the city since the attacks, and security at the AccorHotels Arena, just a few miles from the Bataclan, was tight, with concertgoers undergoing full body searches as they entered and a heavy police presence outside.

“Tonight we are all Parisian,” Bono, the band’s frontman, said in French to the sold-out crowd of 17,000, adding in English, “If you love liberty, then Paris is your hometown.” Near the end of the set, he retrieved a French flag from the crowd, draping it over his shoulder and later placing it in front of the band’s drums.

U2 had been set to play at the arena on Nov. 14 and 15 on its “Innocence and Experience” tour, but called off the shows, citing the state of emergency that had been put in place across France. The tour will end Monday night in Paris, with a show scheduled to be broadcast by HBO at 9 p.m. Eastern.

There had been reports that U2 would be joined onstage in Paris by Eagles of Death Metal, but earlier on Sunday U2 posted on its website: “This is not the case. We have another surprise guest planned for tonight’s show.”

That guest turned out to be Patti Smith, who closed out the 27-song concert with her 1988 song “People Have the Power,” with its refrain “The power to dream, to rule/To wrestle the world from fools.”

In an interview ahead of the concerts, Bono said it was important for the band to return to the stage as soon as possible. “Terrorism relies on people being terrorized, and we were not going to be,” he said. “We felt the biggest and the only real contribution we can make at moment like that is to honor the people of Paris, who brought us the concept of liberté, égalité, fraternité.”

Nonetheless, the show included an acknowledgment that Paris still remained on edge less than a month after the attacks. The simulated bomb meant to mark the band’s transition from innocence to experience (the album pegged to the tour is “Songs of Innocence”) in recent concerts remained part of the show, albeit with a warning: Before the band took the stage a voice over a loudspeaker announced that the explosions “are part of the show, are safe and are nothing to be concerned about.”

Bono made repeated references to Paris throughout the show, and the five-song encore opened with “City of Blinding Lights” as huge screens in the background showed images of the capital by night followed by the names of the Nov. 13 victims. The song ended with Bono singing lyrics from the Jacque Brel song “Ne Me Quitte Pas” (“Don’t Leave Me”).

The rest of the encore included the band’s early anthems “Beautiful Day,” “Bad,” and “One,” which was modified to include the chorus from another U2 song “Invisible”: “There is no them. There’s only us.”

This is not the first time that U2 has paid tribute to the victims of terror. When the band played Madison Square Garden a few weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, it honored emergency services workers onstage and also projected the names of those killed.

The band touched on other highly charged topics in Sunday’s show, with references to H.I.V., the war in Syria and the European migrant crisis, displaying the hashtag #refugeeswelcome on large screens at one point.

Few fans apparently were deterred from attending the rescheduled shows. Of the 34,000 tickets sold for the November concerts, just 2,000 were refunded and resold, according to the band.

Stephane Le Bozec, 47, who drove more than five hours from the Brittany region to be in Paris for the concert, said that the idea of not attending never crossed his mind, “not for a second.” He added: “We’re not afraid. Music is my passion and the attacks make it even important to be here, to share our passion for music and for U2.”

Léa Vlaeminck, 19, a student from New Caledonia who was at the concert with her boyfriend, said she was proud to attend. “It’s how we can fight terrorism, by continuing to go to concerts,” she said. “I feel it’s our duty to be here.”

'We Stand Together…'

'We stand together with the families who have lost lives here in Paris,

'We stand together with the families who have lost lives in San Bernardino, in Damascus and Beirut

We stand together with the families whose children have been taken hostage by an ideology 

that  shows none of the mercy or compassion of the God they deem to serve….'

An emotional night in Paris as the band returned to France, three weeks after the devastating terrorist attacks.

'Oh, you look so beautiful… in this city of lights…'   and never more so than at the end of City of Blinding Lights, as images of Paris on the huge screens gave way to the names of those who lost their lives.

The massed cheering in solidarity was one more sign of an extraordinary atmosphere of celebration and defiance tonight. 

As Bono had said, introducing Iris, it felt like the whole world was in the city.

'Tonight we are all Parisiens. 

'Ce soir nous somme tous Parisien...

If you love liberty – Paris is your hometown.'

What a show, all the way from The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone) to One and Bad and the surprise arrival on stage of Patti Smith and 'People Have The Power' to close a remarkable evening.

http://www.u2.com/

video:U2gigs.com

U2 perform live with Patti Smith at London gig

U2 were joined by Patti Smith during their concert at London's O2 Arena on Thursday night (October 29).

The Irish band are currently enjoying a six-night residency at the London venue, having kick-started the stint on Monday and performed with Noel Gallagher earlier in the week.

At Thursday's show, Patti Smith was invited onstage to perform U2's 1981 song 'Gloria' as well as Smith's own 'People Have The Power'. 

Noel Gallagher recently described teaming up with U2 at one of their London gigs earlier this week as a "dream come true".

The former Oasis guitarist joined the band onstage during the band's O2 Arena show on October 26, performing their hit 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' before segueing into a cover of The Beatles' 'All You Need Is Love'.

Speaking to Audioboom, Gallagher said: "It was a dream come true to be asked to get up [on stage] with them and then it was a dream come true to be asked to sing that song ['I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For']."

"They're friends of mine. I've been friends with Bono for about 20 years. It was a great moment. I was stood in the wings and they were introducing me and I was thinking 'This is actually going to happen now, this is amazing'. They are one of my favourite ever, ever bands and that's one of the best songs ever written. It was a blast, a real honour."

Gallagher added: "I thought my catering was pretty good until I was at U2 the other night, which was honestly something else."

 http://www.nme.com

U2 Play Old Hits, Share Stories at Thrilling 500-Capacity Roxy Gig

U2 paused their Innocence + Experience Tour for rare, thrilling club show at L.A.'s Roxy Theatre.

Bono knows how to work a room, only for decades he's been working arenas and stadiums, offering sweeping gestures on the most epic stages. Last night at the Roxy Theatre on L.A.'s Sunset Strip, U2 showed they could still dial things down to the most intimate level, playing a thrilling set for 500 ecstatic fans.

The band is currently in the middle of five shows at the 17,000-capacity Forum. Their Innocence + Experience tour is high-tech and high-concept, but here they seemed excited to deliver a straight-ahead rock show of passion and drive with a set list that included four songs from their 1980 debut, Boy. Even the band's first L.A. show in 1981 was at the old Country Club in suburban Reseda – a venue with about twice the capacity of the Roxy.

Things kicked off with the post-punk swirl of "The Ocean" before the Edge's slicing guitar signaled the transition to "11 O'Clock Tick Tock." Bono stood centerstage in black motorcycle jacket and shades, leaning into a forest of hands aiming cell phone cameras at his face. He was soon splashing water into the crowd as the band dove into U2's explosive first U.S. hit single, "I Will Follow."

The group played another cut from its debut album, "The Electric Co.," and here Bono kneeled while the Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. stretched out on a fitful instrumental break. Midway into the song, Bono introduced the three musicians he's played with since they were Dublin teenagers, giving Clayton a long hug. "Who am I? What am I?" he then asked the crowd, singing of fools and regrets via the melancholy lyrics of Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns," which the band has quoted within "The Electric Co." since that first U.S. tour.

The club show was a kind of local make-up gig after U2 bowed out from last year's KROQ "Almost Acoustic Christmas" show following Bono's devastating Manhattan bike accident. Tickets were distributed free to listeners by the station, a crucial early radio supporter of U2 in the U.S. Also in the room were fans like Jack Nicholson, Tom Morello, Aaron Paul and Courtney Love.

Bono has been pulling people onstage for years, but the gesture seemed more tender at the Roxy, where he brought a young woman up from the front row and put an arm around her to sing "Beautiful Day." It was a truly emotional moment, and she sang along when not overcome by the experience.

The night got even more emotional when U2 dedicated two songs to their longtime road manager, Dennis Sheehan, who died suddenly in his hotel room the day before. First was "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of," originally written as an imaginary conversation with INXS singer Michael Hutchence after his 1997 suicide.

"He actually lived the dignity that our music aspires to," Bono said of Sheehan. "You fight with your friends. You love your friends. You die for your friends. You work with your friends. It's kind of a dysfunctional family in U2 . . . but actually quite functional in other ways because we do look after each other."

The military beat of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" followed as Bono sang for his fellow Irishman on a stage lit up in deep red. The song, about the 1972 massacre of unarmed protesters in Derry, Northern Ireland, was despairing and defiant. Fans bounced hard to the beat, and Bono's wail led into the Edge's splintering, confrontational solo.

U2 began their encore with 2004's "Vertigo" as the crowd counted off the opening: "Uno, dos, tres . . . catorce!" Singing at the edge of the stage, Bono slowly fell forward, then backward onto the outstretched hands of fans for a brief moment of crowd-surfing.

At night's end, he spoke of U2's first trip to Los Angeles and a visit to Zuma Beach in search of Brian Wilson's house. He noted there was a Beach Boys album at U2's first rehearsal in 1976. "We heard he had a piano in a sand pit and we just thought this man had the music of the spheres," Bono said as the band eased into Songs of Innocence's celebratory "California (There Is No End to Love)." They added a bit of the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" and closed a short but potent set with a forceful, mystical sound of their own.

Set List:

"The Ocean"

"11 O'Clock Tick Tock"

"I Will Follow"

"The Electric Co."

"Beautiful Day"

"Elevation"

"Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of"

"Sunday Bloody Sunday"

"Out of Control"/"Iris (Hold Me Close)"

---

"Vertigo"

"Song for Someone"

"California (There Is No End to Love)"

 http://www.rollingstone.com/

"One of the Best shows I've ever seen .Sounding better than ever."
Julian Lennon in his Instagram account: https://instagram.com/julespicturepalace/

Noel Gallagher on U2's show: It's a psychedelic experience

Noel Gallagher, currently touring the US with his High Flying Birds, was at the second show in San Jose last night.

Afterwards he spoke to U2.com. Here's what he thought of the show.

'I thought it was as great a leap forward as it was when I saw ZOOTV the first time, which itself was a great leap forward from Rattle and Hum. If it's at all possible to get a great leap forward from that, then tonight was it.

It was theatre.

It starts off as a punk rock gig but then it gets intimate, there's a lot of truth in it about where they come from and the people that they are.

At points it's quite touching when you see footage of people like Bono's mum and his kids, stuff like that, walking up the street they grew up on.

Visually the band were explaining it to me for a good six months but I still had no idea about this screen they were talking about, it didn't make much sense to me at all - most things don't with Bono at four o clock in the morning. But tonight, I don't like to use the phrase, but this is a game changer, not only for them but for shows in general. It is something competely different.

You don't expect to have that screen in that position and doing that thing... and the beauty of it all is that it still does not take away from what a great band they are.

It was always going to be a contentious thing what they did with the album release but I think it paid off tonight because the stories of the songs have been told visually and it works, I really do think it works in a visual sense.

For people who haven't seen it, they play inside of a video screen and it's something else, it's like watching a television but you kind of forget sometimes that they are actually there on stage and they are playing live. It's a psychedelic experience.

I've been a fan since hearing 'New Year's Day' in 1983 and I've seen them loads of time. With the greatest respect in the world when I saw the 360° Tour I thought that was the end of something, and not in a bad way. I thought, this is so staggering and huge and tall, so amazing, I thought this was the end of something and I wondered what the beginning of the next thing will be - and here it is.

It was staggering - and only the fourth show. I can't wait to see it again.'

www.u2.com

Dave Fanning Declares War On U2 Begrudgers

Bono may have said sorry during the week, but not everyone thinks that there was a need! in fact the 2fm star has some choice advice for the begrudgers... -

Over a month has passed since U2’s Songs of Innocence was made available to over 500 million iTunes customers – and the controversy over the strategy rages on, with Bono apologising earlier this week to those critics of the band, who took umbrage at receiving the gift!

In a characteristically forthright broadside, longtime friend and supporter Dave Fanning has added his voice to the many supporting the band. “In this day-and-age, if you don’t make a big noise when you release something, you’re fucked,” he told Hot Press. "Like, Stephen Spielberg spends 100 million on making a movie and then he spends 500 million promoting the movie. People don’t complain about that!

“At this stage, 38 million people have downloaded the U2 album on their phones, or their computers or whatever – so that whole thing worked a treat,” he added. “It was brilliant!! And as for those who weren’t able to hit 'delete' – I say fuck off! Just fuck off! I’ve never heard such a load of rubbish.

“Should I give out to The Sunday Times because last week they had an eight-page rugby pullout? ‘How dare they put this into my Sunday Times! I’m going to complain!’ I just throw it in the bin! Get over it!”

http://www.hotpress.com/

Bono & Ali Arriving at Venice Airport for Clooney's Wedding

U2 frontman , Bono  , accompanied by his wife , Ali,  landed at Venice airport .He was greeted by fans and he stopped for a few minutes to sign autographs and taking a selfie. Then  they got on the taxi to reach by sea the hotel where George Clooney hosts the guests at his wedding.

http://video.repubblica.it/

Bono and The Edge serenade Clooney and fiancée

George Clooney and new fiancée Amal Alamuddin were serenaded by U2’s Bono and The Edge at a family party at Malibu’s Cafe Habana.

Clooney and Alamuddin joined his Casamigos Tequila partner Rande Gerber and wife Cindy Crawford Sunday afternoon at the oceanfront café.

A source reports that many of the stars joined in the karaoke session that had been specially set up for the party.

The insider said, “The party was a combined celebration for a number of people’s birthdays and Mother’s Day. It was George’s birthday, Rande’s birthday, Bono’s birthday and Bono’s daughter Jordan Hewson’s 25th birthday. The Edge sang the Oasis song ‘Wonderwall,’ then Bono and his daughter performed a duet of ‘Something Stupid.’ Even Cindy sang, but George and Amal — while having a great time — declined to sing.”

Clooney and human rights lawyer Alamuddin got engaged last month, and sources said the couple looked happy, while the British beauty showed off her enormous diamond engagement ring.

Bono also celebrated his birthday at Guy Oseary's home in Beverly Hills. Apparently it was a pizza party from Freds Best Wood Fired Pizza , they posted the pic above in their FB account:

http://pagesix.com/https://www.facebook.com/pages/Freds-Best-Wood-Fired-Pizza/337198339633009?fref=photo

Adam Clayton gets down as Idris Elba hits the decks in Dublin

Adam Clayton and Idris Elba pictured Buck's Townhouse. International Super Star Idris Elba returned for his third DJ set at Dublin's Number 1 VIP venue. Photo: Patrick O'Leary

ICE-cool actor Idris Elba (41) joined Adam Clayton (54) for a surprise collaboration in Dublin over the weekend -- and to hit the town with a vengeance. The Herald can reveal how The Wire actor and U2's tee-total bassist met up in celebrity haunt Bucks Townhouse for an impromptu night out. British star Idris, who stars in BBC detective show Luther, came over to Ireland to guest DJ in the Leeson Street club. Under his moniker of DJ Big Driis, he got the revellers in a right spin as he belted out the hits for the Bank Holiday party crew. And they were even more delighted when the actor was joined on a rare night out by his good pal Adam, along with his stunning wife Mariana Teixeira de Carvalho. An onlooker said: "Idris got a brilliant reception from clubgoers -- they were all high-fiving him and looking to get their picture taken with him. No one could believe it when Adam just strolled into the club with his wife". The pair first met last year at the premiere of the Nelson Mandela movie, which saw Idris playing the part of the legendary leader.

It was a busy weekend for both stars, with Idris appearing on the Saturday Night Show ahead of his DJ stint while the U2 star was on the Late Late Show on Friday night.

He opened up to Ryan Tubridy about his lengthy battle with depression -- and credits Eric Clapton with helping him deal with his issues.

"From a teenager onwards I always had a low level depression and I found that music relieved that and I think that's why I went into music," he said.

When he was working with the band, he was able to put it to the back of his mind but he also began to drink heavily.

"My drinking increased and increased and because I kept being successful it was covered up and taken care of and I'm in a band with three great guys who put up with me."

His fellow bandmates eventually sat him down and told him to get his act together.

"I was lucky enough to take the hint," he added. Someone put him in touch with Eric Clapton, who said he had to go to rehab.

"He told me a place to go that he recommended was a good place and I said, 'well if he's telling me to go do that, that's what I'm gonna do' and that was when I started listening to what other people said to me instead of doing the exact opposite," he said.

http://www.independent.ie/

How We Met: The Edge & Howie B - "He worked with us on "Pop" and cost us an absolute fortune!"

The Edge:

It must have been the mid-1990s. We were making an experimental record called Passengers, with Brian Eno producing, and Howie was recommended to us as a potential collaborator because we were in a phase of exploring, looking for something different to inspire us. Howie, it is safe to say, inspired us. He came from a dance-music background, from club culture, and we were fascinated by that scene. We loved what he did musically but we also loved the man himself, his attitude. He has this infectious enthusiasm.

As for whether he was daunted by the idea of working with us, I think we are a lot easier than most people might imagine. You have to remember that U2 started out in a garage, so we are the quintessential garage band. We haven't really changed in our work approach ever since, so we're good at disarming people who come to us because there is no preciousness; everyone is part of the team. What we look for in collaborators are people who have a reserve of self-belief and stamina, optimism. Howie had all that in spades, and the most propulsive energy.

He went on to work with us on [1997's] Pop, and he cost us an absolute fortune! He'd encourage us to use all these samples, which we were happy to do, but we're a big band. We can't be using samples without clearing them first, without going to all these publishing houses and saying, "Excuse me, we are using an eight-bar bit of one of your tunes." We had to pay out loads of cash – but we didn't care, it was worth it. It was a wonderful opportunity to get to work in a completely different way.

He came on the PopMart tour with us, which really cemented our friendship. We would introduce him to our favourite night-time activities, and he did the same for us: tiny bars in Tokyo, the pubs of south Dublin.

I remember one date of the tour in particular. It was in Nuremberg. We were getting ready for the show – Howie was DJing before our set – when he came into the dressing-room, white as a sheet. He couldn't speak for a couple of minutes. Eventually he told us specifically where we were: the Albert Speer Stadium, where so many Nazi rallies were put on, and where Hitler made some of his biggest speeches. Howie is Jewish, so it freaked him out. His set afterwards was amazing, though: every song had a subtext, and he finished with the Three Degrees' "When Will I See You Again". We were sat backstage listening to it. It was so poignant.

We are in touch all the time, and he often visits us on holiday. We've had a lot of fun in a lot of exotic locations: Japanese hotels at the base of Mount Fuji; ski resorts in the Alps; and Dublin, of course – always Dublin.

Howie B:

It was 1994 or 1995, something like that, when I got a call from Island Records telling me U2 were recording an experimental album, and were looking for new people to work with. I was surprised they were interested in me, as I was from the dance-music scene and about as far from the guitar as possible.

I wouldn't say I was a huge fan: I didn't own their albums, but I knew all their big songs. Who didn't? So in many ways I was like a rock virgin, but the hungriest virgin you could imagine! For me, music is life, and as long as I'm making good music, with good people, it doesn't matter if it's coming from a violin or a guitar. And I knew that U2 were special, at the top of their game. I was excited.

I took the plane to Dublin to meet them straightaway. There must be about three or four days that register as the most important in my career, and that was probably the most important of them all, the defining one. I was about to walk into a studio where Brian Eno and U2 were waiting – for me! Eno was the man who had given me my driving licence, a major inspiration, and U2 were the biggest band in the world. I had to have a pint of Guinness beforehand just to calm down a bit.

But they were great, so down to earth, and there was a spark between us right off. We did all the hellos, then it was down to business. "What can you do for us?" was what they wanted to know, and what I liked about them was their desire to take risks, to listen to new ideas. It's like, they eat strawberries one day, blueberries the next, then blackberries, then bananas. They don't eat the same bloody fruit every day! I loved that approach, and the work we did together was some of the best work I've ever done.

The Edge has the most astonishing musical mind. He'd always have a Dictaphone with him, taping everything we did, eight, 10, 12 hours a day, five days a week. Then we'd be working on something when he'd say, "How about we go back to the riff we recorded three weeks ago, on a Thursday, about four o'clock?" And he'd go off and find it! I've got to tell you, it changed the way I worked as a producer. I thought to myself: I'm going to get myself a notepad! I'm going to keep notes, too!

After Pop, they invited me on tour with them, and we really bonded. They became my closest friends, all of them. I still send The Edge haikus and poems all the time; we're always in contact. I'll go and visit him on holiday with his wife and kids, like I'm part of the family. I was there at his 40th birthday and his 50th, and I'll be there at his 60th.

http://www.independent.co.uk/

U2 pay surprise tribute to The Alarm’s Mike Peters at concert last night

The Irish rockers surprised the singer with a special message during the performance with BBC National Orchestra Of Wales.

Irish superstars U2 were the surprise guests as Mike Peters recorded a special concert for BBC Radio Wales at Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff last night.

Alarm frontman Peters joined forces with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Acquire Choir from Rhuddlan in North Wales for a performance to be broadcast on BBC Radio Wales Music Day.

The concert also marked 30 years since The Alarm’s debut album Declaration was released and Swansea-based conductor John Quirk worked with Mike Peters to orchestrate the celebrated Welsh band’s back catalogue for the first time.

And it was Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen and Adam Clayon who were keen to join in the celebration – recording a video message from their studio in Dublin for a musician who they admire greatly – ending their heartfelt message with an impromptu rendition of Declaration fan favourite, Blaze Of Glory.

In the video, Bono starts off by saying: "Congratulations, 30 years..."

Both bands have history and have built up a firm friendship forged through playing and touring together in the early ‘80s, when both groups were starting out their illustrious careers in rock ‘n’ roll.

Running through a set list that including many of the rousing anthems from The Alarm’s debut album that included 68 Guns, The Deceiver and Where Were You Hiding When The Storm Broke reworked to a stunning effect by BBC NOW, there were also a selection of the band’s classic songs such as A New South Wales, Rain In The Summertime and Spirit Of 76 which similarly pulled at the heartstrings on a night of great emotion for everyone in the Hall.

You can hear the concert in full on BBC Radio Wales on Friday, April 25 at 9pm.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/

The fifties club! Bono, Sean Penn and Julian Lennon enjoy a boys' night out in Dublin

Bono leaves Cleaver East in Clarence Hotel, Dublin, where he dined with pals Sean Penn and Julian Lennon wearing his trademark tinted glasses

They're in Ireland for some high-powered political talks.

But U2 frontman Bono and Hollywood star Sean Penn, 53, made sure there was space in the diary for a boys' night out and were joined by musician Julian Lennon, 50, for supper and drinks in Dublin on Friday night.

The trio headed to the smart Cleaver East eaterie in the Clarence Hotel in Temple Bar, formerly owned by the Bono and his musician mate The Edge, until they both stepped down as directors last year.

Sated and content, they then sauntered off to Bagots Hutton Wine Bar for drinks and to chat some more into the early hours.In his signature tinted shades, Bono, 53, looked smart in a black velour jacket with long sleeves, black trousers and shiny shoes.

He wore a V-neck jumper and chain and sported a sprinkling of fresh facial hair around his chin.

It's a boys' night: Sean Penn (left) left girlfriend Charlize Theron back home in LA and joined U2's Bono and musician pal Julian Lennon (right) at Cleaver East in the Clarence Hotel where they had supper

The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty star Sean Penn, who was in town as the guest of honour at the Front Line Defenders Awards, looked every inch the scruffy Hollywood star in a leather jacket, baggy jeans and scuffed walking boots.

He made a low-key appearance in the Irish capital without his A-lister girlfriend, Academy award winner Charlize Theron, who stayed at their LA home.

Musician Julian, the only child of Beatles' John Lennon and Cynthia Powell, joined the pair looking equally sombre in black woollen coat and boots.

Let's shake on a great night! Bono thanks the doorman at Clarence Hotel before heading off to Bagots Hutton wine bar

Meanwhile, Bono was back on home turf to address the European People’s Party in Dublin.
Bono addressed the centre-right leaders - including German chancellor Angela Merkel - at the summit of Fine Gael’s European affiliate.
He told the summit: 'I want to give an enormous, enormous shout out. The biggest shout out I have in my heart, to the Irish people for coming through. I’d love to say it was the Troika but I think it was despite the Troika. The Irish people bailed the Irish people out,' he said.


Bono attended the event on foot with EPP leaders as part of his ongoing dialogue with global leaders.
He was a representative of the One campaign against extreme poverty, a group which argues that it is crucial for European leaders to introduce measures to make it more difficult to move money secretly around the world.

The One campaign believes money secretly moved from sub-Saharan Africa through the financial system amounts to some €38.6bn per year, greater than the €29.8 billion the region receives in developmental aid from wealthy western countries.

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