THE POWER OF MUSIC TO SUSTAIN THE SPIRIT

A very interesting article published in www.theage.com.au about Bloody Sunday and the U2's song inspired by such terrible event in Irish history.

 FEW songs take their title from that of a historical event, the occasional mining disaster aside. Even fewer can draw a line directly to that event and yet resonate in the wider world. Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2 is a child of its time, yet its themes enabled it to survive, indeed grow stronger, in the years afterwards.


It was recorded in the depths of the Troubles - 1982 - and released as the opening track on the 1983 album War. Two years before its recording, Irish republicans had begun the latest wave of hunger strikes, this time in protest at their loss of status as political prisoners. Bobby Sands was the best known of the 10 who took their own lives through starvation. A couple of months after War's release, Gerry Adams was elected member for West Belfast for Westminster. In 1984, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher narrowly survived the Brighton bombing by the IRA.


Bloody Sunday occurred on January 30, 1972, in Londonderry. British troops shot dead more than a dozen civilians and wounded many more during a civil rights protest. In the aftermath, the Widgery report cleared the army.


This week, a report by Lord Mark Saville, commissioned by then prime minister Tony Blair in 1998, brought down its findings: the shootings were unjustified; the dead and wounded were not to blame for their fate.


U2's Bono was 11 at the time of the killings. Then he was just Paul Hewson. The Edge, then David Evans, was 10. They lived in the south of the island. Tony Blair was 18.


When their paths crossed later in life, all three were leaders: Blair of one of the most powerful countries in the world, and the others as part of one of the most powerful republics on earth - the empire of the song.


To quote Australian singer-songwriter Graham Lowndes: ''Survival's a song.'' It sustains the spirit. African-American chain gangs knew this.


One of Blair's favourite songs, reportedly, is U2's Where the Streets Have No Name. Bono also became a knight of the realm under Blair's watch.


It's ludicrous to think the song would have had a causal link in the chain that led him to appoint Saville to investigate Bloody Sunday. Indeed, there's no hint of it in his speech to the Commons on January 29, 1998. Nor should there have been. The inquiry was the result of tireless work by many parties to have the scales of justice reweighed. New evidence was presented to the British government that couldn't be ignored.


The wheel of history was being pushed by an invisible hand. Its force can't be quantified, but governments have risen and fallen by its touch. Mass movements have felt it, embraced it.


When the Saville findings became known in Derry this week, people gathered in the town centre broke out into We Shall Overcome, the anthem of the oppressed.


Four years before Bloody Sunday, civil rights protesters sang it on a march from Coalisland to Dungannon in Northern Ireland. The organisers had modelled their campaign on the US movement (300,000 sang it, led by Joan Baez, at a march on Washington in 1963). Thus the song flew across the Atlantic. It would also have blown through the corridors of power, too. Truncheons and bullets cannot stop it until every voice is silenced.


Artists know this.


When U2 wrote Sunday Bloody Sunday, they would have known they were getting into dangerous waters. Indeed, mentioning paramilitary groups such as the IRA and the UDA didn't last long in the performance.


Bono also prefaced it at times with ''This is not a rebel song''. But by making it more universal, while retaining its core theme, the band gave it a greater depth and strength.


Bono has made activism an artform. The band's concerts are in part high-volume, large-screen information nights. It's mass awareness. It's watering the garden. From little things big things grow.


It's true few people would sing Sunday Bloody Sunday on marches, but just in the listening, cogs are turning. Midnight Oil, and before them Redgum, used song not only as entertainment but as mass awareness campaigns. There are many bands and solo performers in America and Britain, for instance, who use their medium as the message.


Critics rail against the irrelevance of the effort. After all, an artist rarely has a voice in the boardroom or cabinet. But they miss the point. Survival's a song.

Warwick McFadyen is a senior writer.


source:www.theage.com.au///www.telegraph.co.uk

The Top 10 Songs About NYC

Consequence of Sound lists the their top 10 songs about the world’s cultural mecca. U2's "The Hands That Built America" is ranked  Nº 2 following close not other than the ultra famous and iconic Sinatra's "Theme From New York, New York" .

Here's the complete list:


Frank Sinatra – "Theme From New York, New York"
U2 – "The Hands That Built America"
The Velvet Underground – "I’m Waiting For The Man"
John Lennon – "New York City"
Interpol – "NYC"
Beastie Boys – "No Sleep till Brooklyn"
The Ramones – "53rd and 3rd"
Billy Joel – "New York State of Mind"
Bob Dylan – "Talkin’ New York"
Jay-Z and Alicia Keys – "Empire State of Mind"





"The Hands that Built America" was released on the soundtrack to the film Gangs of New York.It was one of two new songs on their The Best of 1990-2000 compilation. It was nominated for Best Original Song at the 75th Academy Awards which didnt win but got the Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

WAKA WAKA: Let's All Dance For 1GOAL

Shakira has a challenge for all of us: can you do the Waka Waka dance? They´re looking for as many Shakira fans as possible to do the dance for the organization 1GOAL in support of their project to promote universal education.

U2 BASSIST ADAM CLAYTON SUES BAND'S MONEYMAN FOR 'NEGLIGENCE'

U2 bassist Adam Clayton is launching a High Court legal war which could rip the world's leading rock band apart, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Clayton is suing the band’s financial mastermind Gaby Smyth for alleged negligence in a case that  could see U2's labyrinthine finances exposed before the world.

Dublin-based Smyth is often described as 'financial controller' of all U2 group companies and knows every detail of the band's earnings.

He is also thought to have masterminded the highly controversial decision to avoid Irish taxes by moving the U2 publishing operation to Holland, which has a far lower rate of tax on royalties.

That decision, revealed by this newspaper three years ago, has led to furious and sustained criticism of the band -- especially given the anti-poverty campaign of their currently injured frontman Bono.

The prospect of Clayton lining up in court against the band's financial mastermind will alarm those who already fear that musical tensions, coupled with Bono's crippling back injuries, threaten to tear the group apart after more than 30 years together.

It will be 50-year-old Clayton's second High Court action in the space of six months.

In January, the High Court agreed to freeze the assets of Clayton's former housekeeper, Carol Hawkins, after the court heard claims that she had defrauded him of up to €1.8million.

Now Clayton has lodged papers at the High Court signalling his intention to bring a negligence claim against Smyth and two other accountants -- Jill Percival and Pat Cleary -- in Smyth’s company.

The papers, lodged by Clayton on June 4, confirm the plenary summons relates to alleged 'negligence.' However, the detail of the claim is not yet known, as Clayton has until July 4 to issue formal summons to Smyth and his co-defendants.

It's thought the case has its roots in issues brought to Clayton's attention in his case against Carol Hawkins.

The ease with which his former housekeeper was allegedly able to take €1.8million from his accounts, taking €600 a day from his debit and credit cards for up to three years, alarmed Clayton.

The housekeeper allegedly used the money to go on a spending spree, which included the 2007 purchase of a $465,000 New York apartment, cars and jewellery, as well as living a rock star lifestyle far beyond her means.

At one stage, she was spending €900 a month maintaining racehorses.

A source close to Clayton said: 'It would be unwise to assume that this case relates to the case against his housekeeper, but that's not to say it has nothing to do with her.'

In preparation for the case against Mrs Hawkins, Clayton instructed two accountants, including Kieran Wallace of KPMG, to review his financial arrangements and all his personal accounts.

While it is not clear if his negligence claim against U2's accountant relates to matters which arose in this review, the claim does concern investments made on the musician’s behalf, and professional advice offered by Gaby Smyth & Co. A fourth defendant in the case is Bank of Ireland Private Finance.

This branch of Bank of Ireland handles investments on behalf of high net worth individuals, offering 9 per cent annual returns on minimum investments of €250,000 or more.

Clayton has retained Gleeson McGrath Baldwin to act on his behalf against Smyth and the bank.

The managing partner at Gleeson McGrath Baldwin is Frank Murphy, an expert in commercial law, who specialises in media and entertainment contracts.

He was called as an 'independent expert' when celebrity chef Conrad Gallagher was sued by the Fitzwilliam Hotel over the alleged theft of paintings.

Mr Murphy's evidence proved crucial in the case, casting doubt over whether the hotel actually owned the paintings at the centre of the case.

It was that evidence which ultimately helped secure an acquittal for Gallagher.

Murphy is overseeing Clayton's case against U2's accountant and Bank of Ireland, together with Geraldine Clarke, head of the firm's litigation department and a former president of the Law Society.

In addition to Gaby Smyth and Bank of Ireland Private Banking, there are two other listed defendants.

Jill Percival and Pat Cleary are both accountants who work for Smyth, with the latter noted for his expertise in advising television and film industry executives about tax efficiency.

Smyth & Co. acts for Screen Producers Ireland as a tax adviser to producers and artists engaged in the visual arts.

© Associated Newspapers Ltd., 2010.

www.dailymail.co.uk

World Cup Craze

While we wait for tomorrow to see how the World Cup  kicks off, we can enjoy a version of "Get on your Boots" by the Soweto Gospel Choir .

Waiting for the World Cup

The greatest football tournament in the world gets underway tomorrow. ONE suggests that...


There is something  positive we can do to create a lasting legacy that could see millions more kids receive an education...


South African President Jacob Zuma has just announced that he will hold a global leadership summit during the World Cup. The aim? Push leaders to give the 72 million children still out of school an education by 2015. Something that’s not hard to support. So ONE is teaming up with 1GOAL, bringing together footballers and fans, to give world leaders the extra kick needed to make it happen.

Please join millions of people around the world by taking action:

http://www.one.org/international/actnow/1goal/?id=1718-3917844-hBeAnrx&t=3

Make sure to write your own personal message with the petition as 1GOAL will be delivering these ‘yellow cards’ to world leaders on 7 July.

Sign the petition and give your yellow card here:

http://www.one.org/international/actnow/1goal/?id=1718-3917844-hBeAnrx&t=5

Since 2000, 42 million more children are in school thanks to effective aid and other policies. As the world turns its attention to Africa for the first football World Cup held on the continent, let’s enjoy the game and help give every child a basic education.

Now wouldn’t that be a legacy for the World Cup.



1GOAL from ONE Campaign on Vimeo.

Join 

1goal.org
www.one.org

First Pics of Bono`s Recovery in his House in France

It seems our fave frontman is on his way to full recovery... Looking to be recovering quite nicely, Bono was spotted out for lunch with friends at La Voile d’Or in St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France on Tuesday (June 8).

The “U2” frontman seemed to be in good spirits as he made his way to his luxurious hotel after one of his first adventures out since his recent back surgery.

Hopefully, Bono will recover quickly and the tour will pick up again soon!

More pics in album .

source:www.gossipcenter.com

Unfortunately Daniel Lanois has canceled all upcoming tour dates after a motorcycle crash in L.A. this past Saturday, a press release announced today. “Lanois suffered multiple injuries but is expected to be released from intensive care soon,” the release states. “Due to the severity of the injuries, Lanois…will be recuperating for the next two months.” He had previously scheduled a European tour for this July.

We wish him to geet well soon as his friend and co-worker, Bono.

source:www.music-mix.ew.com