Random Quote

"I didn´t actually like much guitar when I was growing up,I really didn´t .

So I just knew I didn´t want to sound like anyone else." Edge

CNN Interview:Bono praises McCain, Obama and Americans

Bono attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York to push world leaders to join his ONE campaign in fighting disease, poverty, and hunger. Yesterday, he talked to CNN's John Roberts on "American Morning" about recent successes and what's next.

ROBERTS: All this talk has been about the economy collapsing, $700 billion bailout. Congress is absolutely absorbed with that. Did that in any way affect what you were trying to do this week? Are people more focused on this economy than in helping out developing nations?

BONO: We got good news this week. I know normally I'm on your program with bad news -- the whingeing rock star -- but it's great. There's a disease, malaria -- it's 3,000 African kids die every day of mosquito bites. Sounds mad, but it's true. And people have committed and it looks like the funds are on the table so that that disease will be no more by 2015. That makes people like me punch the air and everyone who wears a ONE T-shirt and all our white band campaigners on college campuses all over the country -- it was a great day for them yesterday so we're celebrating that. I know it's extraordinary, that while you're having this meltdown on the markets, that people could even concentrate on this stuff, but I'm really grateful that they did. We had both [presidential] candidates make very powerful statements about the necessity for nonmilitary tools, for instance, in foreign policy. This is an America that both candidates want to show to the rest of the world -- the greatness of America.



source:http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/26/bono.qanda/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

Outside is America!!!

Bono´s blog in the Finantial Times encourages America to have a look at the rest of the world and talks about the issue of poverty in the US candidates´agendas.

"The ONE campaign has two and half million members, who urge us to make the case for increased aid as a key plank in America’s new foreign policy. ONE T-shirts have been turning up in town hall meetings for 18 months now, haranguing, hassling, but ultimately endearing themselves to all the presidential campaigns. They want the world to see what America has to offer the billion people who live on less than a dollar a day - practically speaking: medicine, new seed varieties, technology, know-how; policy speaking: what should America do more of? what should America do less of?
They want the world to understand that America is not just a country but an idea, a contagious idea, committed to promoting the inalienable right that all men and women are created equal; that your street address should not be a death sentence in what Warren Buffet refers to as the “ovarian lotto”; that love thy neighbour is not advice, but a command.
ONE members are thrilled that Barack Obama and John McCain both have an open door policy with the our campaign. But I must admit, today, as I step through one of those doors to talk with Senator McCain and Governor Palin, the Irish rockstar in me is a little nervous about the circus rolling over the town rather than through it. We know the flash bulbs and hysteria around the presidential campaign make it hard to concentrate on the substance of the ideas we’ve got to discuss ie development as an essential third plank of foreign policy, along with diplomacy and defence.
It’s a tribute to the generosity of Americans that they let this Irishman get away with quoting back at them The Declaration of Independence like it’s the liner notes to my favourite Bob Dylan album (but it sort of is). Anyway we’ve now met with nearly a dozen of the presidential candidates in the course of their campaigns and of the four candidates left, three have declared their positions at onevote08.org/ontherecord, if you want to check them out.
On AIDS for example, Senators Obama and McCain both cosponsored the historic $48bn US AIDS initiative this year - an effort lead by Joe Biden - who I might add also fought in the trenches for debt cancellation for the poorest of the poor when I first started down this road. So it will be interesting to find out where Governor Palin stands.
Just a couple of years ago it would have been impossible for the issue of extreme poverty to play even a tiny role in the American political season. So far this year, all candidates have made positive noises, rooted in the most pragmatic of thinking about how America reintroduces itself to the world after the election. When even the defence minister pitches your roving rockstar the idea that an increase in aid is essential, you know something’s happening.
Anyway, I’ll let you know how I get on. Fingers crossed that the world’s poor do not become a pawn in any candidate’s game, but instead influence the players to make moves on their behalf..."

We´ll have our fingers crossed for your campaing and for good result!!! and for the issue of poverty become an oridnary issue in the most powerful country´s agenda.

source: http://blogs.ft.com/mdg/2008/09/24/a-tribute-to-the-generosity-of-americans/

Bono Writes a Blog for the Finantial Times

Bono and Jeffrey Sachs blog for FT.com from the Millennium Development Goals summit and surrounding meetings in New York.

The view from Manhattat

"As the sun arcs over the Manhattan skyline and the markets start dancing nervously out of time, the lyrics I’ve been scribbling over breakfast have been removed and replaced by spreadsheets with large numbers in tiny font as we wrestle with EU budgets in advance of meetings later today with Presidents Sarkozy and Barroso. It’s hard to fight for increases in aid at times like this - but that’s what I’m here for this week… stick with me, while myself and others make our case that now is precisely the time to invest in the world’s poor. I’ll keep you posted."

Meeting Sarkozy, and why Europe needs Africa
Tough meeting with the Président de la République of France. He’s a tough guy. We like tough guys because they get straight down to business. They don’t waste their time or yours. The French budget is out this Friday and in it we will see if France intends continuing its leadership role on the continent of Africa. In the last few years, French aid has been falling.
My point was that as much as Africa needs French aid and the energy that Sarkozy himself provides, he/we need Africa. Why? Africa has never been so strategically important as it is now, economically and politically. Just ask the Chinese. Over a million of them now live in the continent of Africa – their single biggest diaspora. Every time you make a cell phone call you make it with the help of coltan, an African metallic ore. It’s a rich continent: zinc, copper, oil, gas, silver, gold, diamonds… Just for its resources Africa will play a critical role in how the 21st century is shaped. If we want to breathe we’re going to need African cooperation on climate change (Congo is the second biggest rainforest on earth.) Anyway, I tell you all this to point out that while there is a meltdown happening on the markets and in our banking systems, you FT readers should keep one eye on the opportunity of Africa. Seventeen non-oil rich countries have had growth rates averaging 5.5 per cent over the last 10 years, etc etc.
The other eye should be on our moral obligation not to break promises that we’ve made to the poorest of the poor, if we expect the respect and the business of those same populations in the future.
Sarko is a real physical presence in a room. He might even be taller than me… animated, funny one minute; annoyed the next. I admire his energy and vision. We need him. His radical proposal for a Mediterranean union is an example of his thinking differently, challenging orthodoxy. We want him to apply his innovativeness to the business of aid… its time for some new ideas. But he’s also going to have to fund them. And there’s the rub. He’s not averse. At one point in the meeting he reached across and grabbed my arm: “You know, Africa is Europe’s next door neighbour… 13 kilometres from us… our fate is bound up in theirs… it’s in our own self interest.” The meeting started with the beautiful Carla Bruni, a great ally in our efforts to better our storytelling about the effectiveness of good aid. Both the first lady and the president change the molecular structure of any room they are in - he speeds them up, she calms them down. A great team.
Off to meet the head honcho at the EU, President Barroso, now. Let you know tomorrow how I got on. Other things to watch out for this week: Wearing my ONE campaign hat, I should be meeting up with Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin; hoping to see Senator Obama and Senator Joe Biden in the next few weeks. The ONE campaign has an ongoing relationship with Senators McCain and Obama. Both have agreed that increased and effective aid is a critical part of American foreign policy in a world where inequality conjures instability and where making friends is a lot cheaper than defending yourself against new enemies."

As usual Bono´s verbal banter helps to the understanding of a deep problem as the state of poverty in the world is. Today it is Africa, the apple of his eyes, but his plead can be extensive to many other Third World countries which ,although many are undoubtedly rich, their people are extremely poor.
Many can call him a demagogue or that he wants to attract attention to the band´s upcoming CD release, but I wonder how many of us even think about the poor around us.At least Mr Bono is thinking about the future, the lands that can become indispensable for the prospects of our battered old world .

It´s good to know that someone who is rich and famous and can be at home watching the time go by, gets up and becomes the voice of the voiceless. Many of us appreciate your work...thank you.

source: http://blogs.ft.com/mdg/2008/09/22/

Bono and The Edge contributing to Tom Jones´s new album

The new Tom Jones album features a duet with Bono and The Edge, he has revealed.
The Welsh pop veteran returns with a collection of all original material later this year, his first since 2008's "Reload".
The U2 pair guest on "Sugar Daddy", while the rest of the record has been co-written by Jones or with other collaborators.
Bruce Springsteen's "The Hitter" and "I'm Alive" by Tommy James and the Shondells are the only covers on "24 Hours".
Speaking about his comeback, Jones, now 68, said he wanted to be "a contender" once again. "The fire is still in me", he explained.
Speaking about the album, he continued: "I wanted my voice to sound as natural as possible.
"The arrangements and the production needs to be modern, but the vocal needs to sound like me."
"24 Hours" is slated for a November release.

source:http://www.rte.ie/arts/2008/0918/u2.html

More Sayings about New Album

"This is our chance for us to defy gravity once again,"‘ explains Bono, calling in from a break in recording sessions in the south of France. " We have what it takes, we have the songs, new rhythms and a guitar player who is not ready to re-enter earth's atmosphere until he's taken a slice of the moon!"

'It's been fun, it's been maddening... there have been injuries and recoveries, no babies born that I know of, but this one is nearly ready for the new year of 2009.'

‘When we set out on this record it was Larry who came up with the plan not to have a plan. He put up this idea that wouldn’t it be great just to make music for its own sake, not for the purpose of a live show or on album but just to see what we’re capable of…’ says the frontman.‘We said to each other that if we got to the great place then we wouldn’t stop…’

‘We know we have to emerge soon but we also know that people don’t want another U2 album unless it is our best ever album. It has to be our most innovative, our most challenging … or what’s the point ?’

"It’s a brand new chapter for us, and everyone we’ve played the tracks to has said that musically it feels like another departure."

‘The last two records were very personal, with a kind of three piece at their heart, the primary colours of rock - bass, guitars and drum. But what we’re about now is of the same order as the transition that took us from The Joshua Tree to Achtung Baby.’

He also mentions that the recording in Morocco was the first time the band have worked in a studio open to the sky: ‘On that track you can hear the sound of a swallows nest close to the building - it’s beautiful.’

The more I hear the faster I want the new album to be realeased...is this all a great publicity stunt??? who cares??? I´m dying to listen to this new piece of genius!!!

source:U2.com

IN THE STUDIO- U2

Q Magazine phoned Edge to talk about the yet-untitled 12th U2 album.

He is delayed by half an hour while he lays down as an acoustic guitar overdub at the quartet’s Dublin studio on a new song called Get on your Boots.
“Then we can put the mix to bed,” the guitarists sighs with satisfaction. So this album is being completed as we speak?

“Yeah. It’s happening live in real time. It’s totally frantic.”

Having effectively abandoned their initial plan to work with Rick Rubin (although some material has survived), U2 tool the unusual move of bringing in their long-time producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois as co-writers early on.

“We thought, if we’re all writing together we’ll get more stuff and it’ll be a more fruitful use of time,” Edge says.

Experimental writing sessions held last year in Fez, Morocco, yielded numerous new songs. Some _with the introduction of local musicians_ bear a distinctly North African flavour. A visit to the World Sacred Music Festival enhanced what Edge calls the “religious sounding” tone of a few of the tracks.

“But we don’t want to be musical tourists,” the guitarists states. “We came back with a certain flavour and influence of that trip and a sense of freedom.”

As time went on, the music grew ever more diverse and spontaneous. “We wanted to give it some variety,” Edge says. “There is some dark, heavy stuff but there are also some lighter things. Some we’ve really had to sweat to get and just came so easily.” Work-in-progress highlights include “fuck-off live rocker” Breathe; For Your Love, which Edge says is one of the best-ever riffs; and the aforementioned Get on your Boots (“Eddie Cochran with barbershop harmonies”).
Other notable tracks include the eight-minute-long Moment of Surrender and No Line on the Horizon ,inspired by a distortion box called Death by Audio recommended by ex-Secret Machines guitarist Ben Curtis.

Opinion is currently divided as to whether the album will make a pre or post-Christmas release. Anticipation couldn’t be higher, however, with mixer Steve Lillywhite having already proclaimed the record “their best yet”.

“Trying to weave it all together into a coherent collection is the challenge,” Edge admits. “But, yeah, it has the potential to be our best.” Tom Doyle

Please, will you make the release pre-Christmas??? So U2 fans have something big to ask Santa!!!!!

source: Q magazine, Oct 08 issue.