Bono Reveals Secrets of U2's Surprise Album 'Songs of Innocence'

In his only pre-release interview, Bono takes us inside the story of the band's 13th album, which was released today for free on iTunes

By Rolling Stone | September 9, 2014

U2 surprised the world today by releasing Songs of Innocence, their first album in five years, as a gift from Apple, available for free immediately to anyone with iTunes. The band made the announcement with Apple CEO Tim Cook at a Cupertino press conference for the new iPhone 6, capping the event with a performance of the album's first single, "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)." After a standing ovation, Cook said, "Wasn't that the most incredible single you ever heard? We would love a whole album of that."

"The question is now, how do we get it to as many people as possible, because that's what our band is all about," Bono said. "I do believe you have over half a billion subscribers to iTunes, so — could you get this to them?" "If we gave it away for free," Cook replied. And five seconds later, the album was unleashed in the largest album release of all time.

"We wanted to make a very personal album," Bono told Rolling Stone's Gus Wenner the day before the press conference in an exclusive interview. "Let's try to figure out why we wanted to be in a band, the relationships around the band, our friendships, our lovers, our family. The whole album is first journeys — first journeys geographically, spiritually, sexually. And that's hard. But we went there."

The band worked on Innocence for two years with producer Danger Mouse (a.k.a. Brian Burton), then brought in additional help: Flood, their collaborator since 1987's The Joshua Tree, plus Adele producers Paul Epworth and Ryan Tedder. "I think having them around really helped," says Bono, "Some of the music out there now that people call pop, it's not pop – it's just truly great. And we wanted to have the discipline of the Beatles or the Stones in the Sixties, when you had real songs. There's nowhere to hide in them: clear thoughts, clear melodies."

To begin, the band went back to its roots: Bono says the group listened to the music they loved in the Seventies, from punk rock to Bowie, glam rock, early electronica and Joy Division. The album kicks off with "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)," a loping pop song laced with distinctly punk-ish power chords. "I found my voice through Joey Ramone," says Bono, "because I wasn't the obvious punk-rock singer, or even rock singer. I sang like a girl — which I'm into now, but when I was 17 or 18, I wasn't sure. And I heard Joey Ramone, who sang like a girl, and that was my way in."

The driving, reggae-tinged "This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now," is a tribute to the Clash, with slinky guitars from the Edge that nod to Sandinista!. "After we saw the Clash, it was a sort of blueprint for U2," says Bono. "We knew we couldn't possibly hope to be as cool, and that's proven to be true, but we did think we could get behind a sort of social justice agenda."

There is also an intensely personal song about Bono's mother, Iris Hewson, who died when he was 14. "Forty years ago, my mother fell at her own father's funeral, and I never spoke with her again," he says. "Rage always follows grief, and I had a lot of it, and I still have, but I channeled it into music and I still do. I have very few memories of my mother, and I put a few of them in a song called 'Iris.'"

The most joyous track on Songs of Innocence is "California (There Is No End to Love)," which unexpectedly nods to the Beach Boys in its intro. "It's like the sun itself," says Bono. "It's about our first trip to Los Angeles." The darkest track, meanwhile, is "Raised by Wolves," which tells of a deadly car bombing in Dublin. "It was a real incident that happened in our country where three car bombs were set to go off at the same time in Dublin on a Friday night, 5:30," says Bono, "On any other Friday I would have been at this record shop, just down the corner, but I cycled to school that day."

At times Songs of Innocence feels almost like a concept album about Bono's early years – there's even a track named after the street where the singer grew up, "Cedarwood Road." "It has a lyrical cohesion that I think is unique amongst U2 albums," says Bono, "I don't want it to be a concept album, but the songs come from a place. Edge laughed and said this is ourQuadrophenia. We could be so lucky."

 http://www.rollingstone.com

A Long Gestation for U2’s Next Album

U2 has been working on a new album since 2009, with detours for other projects, like a Broadway musical and a stadium tour.Credit Brantley Gutierrez

U2, the Irish band formed way back in 1976, has long been feeling like a lonely upholder of the mantle of the Big Rock Band: the kind that headlines stadiums and lodges songs deep in the public consciousness. Its pealing guitars and martial beat have cast a long musical shadow over all the bands in its wake — from Coldplay to OneRepublic to Imagine Dragons — who strive to write high-minded rock anthems. Yet U2 has also sought to expand, and at times escape, its own signature sound.

U2 tends to labor extensively over its albums, and the one it has promised to release in 2014 — with its title still a secret at press time — has been in the works since U2 offered “No Line on the Horizon” in 2009. There were detours for Bono and the Edge to write the music for the ill-starred Broadway show “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” and for U2’s worldwide stadium tour, with sets that often included unreleased songs. The band has also been announcing, and changing, plans for the new album since 2009, at times considering the release of both a second album from the “No Line on the Horizon” sessions or an album of club-oriented music.

The two new songs to emerge recently from U2 have stayed in anthem mode: “Ordinary Love,” from the biopic “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” and “Invisible.” But there’s no guarantee that these songs define the album. The long list of producers that U2 has been working with over the last few years could also point elsewhere. It includes not only Danger Mouse of Gnarls Barkley and Broken Bells, Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic and Adele’s collaborator Paul Epworth, but also will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas and dance-music specialists like RedOne and David Guetta (whose own single “Lovers on the Sun” has more than a hint of U2 in it). U2 has revitalized itself before with electronic dance music; that’s what it did in 1991 with “Achtung Baby.” But until the full album emerges from its long gestation, it’s anyone’s guess how U2 hears itself in the 2010s.

http://www.nytimes.com/

U2's Pride Among the Greatest Guitar Riffs

BBC Radio 2   has published the 100 Greatest Guitar Riffs of all times and U2 with Pride (In the name of love) is in the 66th position.

Read the complete list here.

http://u2fanlife.com/http://www.bbc.co.uk/

The Edge Participates in Glenn Campbell's Documentary

The Edge, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney and many other stars are in a documentary about Glen Campbell's farewell tour called I'll Be Me.

The pop-country legend was diagnosed with advanced Alzheimer's disease in 2011. The film shows live performances from his Goodbye Tour along with moments from his career and battle against the disease.

The Edge shares his admiration for the singer, who continued to perform despite his health problems: "The audience being there somehow triggers his ability to access that other part of his brain, which is incredible."

I'll Be Me, directed by James Keach, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Nashville Festival and will be in theaters on Oct. 24.

http://glencampbellmovie.com/http://www.atu2.com/

Rumours, rumours, rumours: are U2 filming a new video?

The rumours started some days ago when the Samuel Becket Bridge in Dublin was closed for (apparently) the filming of a new U2 vid.
As usual, tweets galore started to appear with "evidence":

And the subsequent pics which leave  everything to the imagination of anxious fans.









The pictures don't say much but something was going on in that bridge!!!

“Samuel Beckett Bridge closed because #U2 are filming a video, according to security. They’ve obviously found their single”. @conor_pope

It seems that @conor_pope  knows better!!! 

But that's not enough for die-hard fans and soon the name of the (in)famous song came to our ears : "Summer Nights"
Luckily this time there was confirmation from Contact Music:


Dublin's Samuel Beckett Bridge has been closed off due to the reported filming of a U2 music video for their new single 'Summer Nights'. Security guards were seen wandering around the nearby quays to stop people taking pictures of the set. Director Mark Romanek - whose name appears on the project's clapper board - was also behind the music video for the band's latest single 'Invisible'. - Dublin Ireland - Sunday 24th August 2014 

 With pictures:





And the saga goes on, this time we travel to Lough Sheelin where ,apparently, U2 have not been fishing but filming (once again) the so much awaited upcoming new vid. This time, our news source comes from the local newspaper Anglo-Celt:

Was U2 video behind Lough Sheelin fireworks?

The strict secrecy surrounding filming over Lough Sheelin, which culminated in a fireworks display lighting up the night sky on Monday, August 25, has sparked rumours that the event was commissioned for U2’s latest music video. Rock legends Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen are currently working towards the release of their thirteenth studio album following a five-year hiatus. The band has, in recent days, been suspected of filming in Dublin, only for claims to be made that the closed set on Samuel Beckett Bridge at the weekend was for “an up and coming band” named ‘Summer Nights’. The phrase ‘summer nights’ is contained in the lyrics for ‘With or Without You’. The Cavan shoot took place over several hours at Kilnahard pier, on the northwestern shore of the lough. Cavan County Council have confirmed to The Anglo-Celt they were aware filming was taken place on the lake, that a two-day filming permit was attained, and that gardaí and the emergency services were also placed on notice. The Celt understands that filmmakers were forced to seek an alternative location for filming beyond the confines of the capital given the magnitude of the pyrotechnic explosion to be shot. -


And there's a video!!!! (of the fireworks)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpnAL8_RENU

Local man John Brooks, who lives on the banks of Lough Sheelin spent hours wading through soft swamp to catch a glimpse of what was taking place out on the lake. He adds that earlier in the day, after rumour first broke that U2 might be filming at the location, he saw a blacked out luxury bus type vehicle travel in convoy with other “expensive looking” cars. He described the fireworks show going on about for three-and-a-half hours, “in blasts of five a time or what have you. “The actual road down to the pier was closed off, so I spent hours standing in freezing cold water and in the reeds to get a good look at what was happening. “At one stage they had something like a laser show which took place, and big spot lamps which they were beaming right up into the sky. Whatever they were at, whatever it was for, it definitely was a big deal. "Apart from the rigs they had for letting off the fireworks they had two or three boats patrolling making sure no one could get near from the water”, he said.


Yet ,we mortal fans are still to wait...something that being fans of U2 we are used to doing.


http://u2fanlife.com/http://www.anglocelt.ie/http://www.atu2.com/

U2 and the Department of Education are teaming up to teach children music

THE DEPARTMENT OF Education in Ireland  is teaming up with U2 to teach music to children.

The Department will this month begin co-funding Music Generation’s Local Music Education Partnerships, which had been funded by a €5 million donation by U2 and a further €2 million from The Ireland Funds.In January 2013 the department announced it would begin, from the end of July of this year, the phasing in of its co-funding of Local Music Education Partnerships with a view to these partners completely replacing the original philanthropic donation by 2016.

The €7m donation from U2 (€5m) and The Ireland Funds (€2m) made in 2009 was the largest ever single philanthropic donation to music education in Ireland in the history of the state.

Since its foundation in 2009 the Music Generation programme has established Music Education Partnerships in 12 counties, creating access for up to 18,500 children and young people and providing employment for some 220 musicians.

U2 guitarist The Edge said that the band would not have gotten off the ground if not for a supportive school system.

“I believe it’s a documented fact that exposure to music makes a better society.

“We’re still practicing but we were lucky enough to attend a school with a great music programme and that is why Music Generation is so important to us. We are very proud of its success and the fact that it will continue into the future.”

The new Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan said that her department is committed to music education.

“My Department would like to thank U2 and The Ireland Funds for their philanthropic donation which has seed funded this remarkable initiative, and to also thank the Local Music Education Partnerships who have provided, and will continue to provide, 50% funding to ensure its success into the future.”

http://www.thejournal.ie/

Happy birthday, The Edge!!

Happy birthday to one of the best guitarrist of all times!!!