Bono on German Radio

Bono was interviewed by German Radio (SWR3-Morningshow).
Here is the complete interview. 


http://www.swr3.de/

The Edge Interviewed by Alan Cross

Alan Cross (The Edge-102.1,based in Toronto, Canada) chats with The Edge of U2 about longevity, Apple and the new album, Songs of Innocence.





https://soundcloud.com/1021theedge

Bono On Jo Whiley Show

Bono was interviewed by Jo Whiley show on BBC 2 on September 18th . Here is the complete interview:





https://soundcloud.com/u2community

Bono's interview at KROQ

In an interview this morning with Kevin & Bean, the U2 frontman opened up about the band’s release method.

“The punk rock thing to do is annoy people and get in their faces,” he said. “If people have a problem with the way we released the album, I’m sure they’ve read about it online.”
Bono’s talk of punk rock didn’t end there. He also explained the band’s Songs of Innocence tribute to Joey Ramone, “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone).” Apparently, when Bono was just starting out, he had the realization that his singing voice wasn’t very masculine — an asset that ended up helping him front U2 — and Joey Ramone’s music made him feel like it was okay.

Listen to the interview : 



source: https://soundcloud.com/u2radio

Adam interviewed by Argentinian Radio

Adam Clayton was interviewed by Argentinian radio programme "Perros de la Calle".  He talks about the band, the beginnings, their dreams, what he likes playing live and of course, "Songs of Innocence". It is a very complete and excellent interview.

https://www.facebook.com/PerrosdelaCalle
http://media.metro951.com/

Exclusive: U2 and Apple Have Another Surprise for You

The four members of the legendary Irish band tell TIME about another new album in the works—and its secret Apple project that might just save the music industry

Many, many people really, really like U2. It hasn’t always been easy to remember that fact amid the caustic—and often hilarious—responses to the band’s Sept. 9 release of Songs of Innocence. U2’s decision to team up with Apple to deliver the new album to every iTunes subscriber, unasked, raised valid questions about consumer choice and personal space in a world that routinely infringes on both. Moreover, while Apple paid U2 for the album, critics of the deal suggest this point may have been lost on iTunes customers who got it for free. If so, that messaging is certainly at odds with U2’s intentions.

As an article in the new issue of TIME reveals, Bono, Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr believe so strongly that artists should be compensated for their work that they have embarked on a secret project with Apple to try to make that happen, no easy task when free-to-access music is everywhere (no) thanks to piracy and legitimate websites such as YouTube. Bono tells TIME he hopes that a new digital music format in the works will prove so irresistibly exciting to music fans that it will tempt them again into buying music—whole albums as well as individual tracks. The point isn’t just to help U2 but less well known artists and others in the industry who can’t make money, as U2 does, from live performance. “Songwriters aren’t touring people,” says Bono. “Cole Porter wouldn’t have sold T-shirts. Cole Porter wasn’t coming to a stadium near you.”

TIME has been spending time with U2 in the studio, in London and Malibu and accompanied the band to the Apple launch in Cupertino. During the days that followed the launch, the band members maintained a semblance of cheer and they had reasons to feel good. Controversial as it was, the rollout of Songs of Innocence catapulted the band’s back catalogue into the charts again. By Sept. 18 Apple said that 38 million people had accessed Songs, downloading the album or streaming it. For every scathing tweet, U2 got positive feedback from a happy fan or a new listener. The band is—rightly—proud of its latest work, yet the backlash didn’t go unnoticed. “It’s like everyone’s vomiting whatever their first impression is,” said Clayton at one point, bemused rather than self-pitying.

U2 could always have expected something of a rough ride for this, the band’s 13th studio album. For one thing, Songs was bound to be measured against earlier output, including Achtung Baby, U2’s extraordinary 1991 album which won over critics who had previously dismissed the foursome as stadium balladeers. For another, it can be hard to hear U2 through the static that its singer’s campaigning sometimes creates. In working to alleviate extreme poverty through ONE, the advocacy organization he co-founded, and to fight AIDS through his (RED) initiative, Bono has helped many to the potential detriment of a few—himself and his bandmates. His impulses may be public spirited—and they are, though Bono’s detractors prefer to burlesque his philanthropy as self aggrandizement—but hey, banging on about development economics isn’t exactly rock ’n’ roll.

In March TIME watched Bono share a podium in Dublin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to deliver a sharp speech to delegates from the European People’s Party, the bloc of center-right parties in the European parliament. He has always tried to mobilize support for his causes from people who can deliver change, even if that creates some uncomfortable juxtapositions or, in Dublin, found him playing to a room full of conservatives in suits, who then mobbed him as he left the stage. (It bears repetition: many, many people really, really like U2.)

Edge, Clayton and Mullen aren’t always ecstatic about Bono’s extracurricular activities, but as TIME also discovered, they are fully supportive, of him and each other. Perhaps the most surprising thing about the quartet—and in lengthy and frank conversations they served up many surprises, about everything from their attitudes to money to their religious beliefs—is how much they still enjoy each other’s company.

As Bono and Edge bantered affectionately at a celebratory lunch straight after the Apple launch, the band’s old friend and former producer Jimmy Iovine, whose company Beats was acquired by Apple for $3 billion in May, observes “You wouldn’t see Mick and Keith doing that.” Jagger and Richards, in harmony on stage, discordant off stage, are more typical of rock partnerships than Bono and Edge. After years on the road and cooped up in studios, long-established bands often reach saturation point with each other. By contrast, the four schoolfriends that formed U2 in 1976 are closer than ever.

And their ambition burns just as bright. There’s more music on the way, not just an acoustic version of Songs of Innocence and bonus tracks but also a whole new album and a world tour. Plus there’s their not inconsequential plan to save the music industry, news that will doubtless draw more 140-character darts in their direction.

http://time.com/

Bono is the greatest Irishman of this generation

Bono, Lead Singer of U2: Carping critics look very small in comparison. Photo by: Moritz Hager / Wikimedia

What is with all this U2 bashing since the band decided to release their album in iTunes to coincide with the iPhone 6 launch?

Since then there has been a backlash, culminating in another great performer, Paul Brady, slamming the band for making it even harder for ordinary musicians to shop their wares. Social media is full of angry auteurs decrying what the band has done to launch their new album.

There is a high degree of Bono hatred in many of the comments, a sense that the Dublin performer has for far too long been too big for his high chair.

There is some classic Irish – and elsewhere – chip-on-both-shoulders stuff here. Bono is accused of everything from being a tax dodger to being obsessed with himself.

To which I say 'Good for him and his band mates.'

There was a time in America when Ireland meant thatched cottages and "Quiet Man" reruns. U2 was the first to smash that stereotype and gave us all some breathing room to be considered part of the modern world.

Bono and the boys could have grown drunk with riches, played bad boys all their working lives and still received the adulation and screaming-fans-everywhere treatment.

The fact that he decided he had a debt to repay for all his success and a moral obligation to use his fame to try and help starving Africa or peace in Bosnia seemed to offend a great number of people.

Sure he could adopt a hectoring tone when addressing the AIDS crisis; sure he often came across as too self-important.

But wasn’t it better he appeared so, addressing the global AIDS crisis or trying to make the world better for starving people or to remove crushing Third World debt from countries that could not afford to repay?

The alternative was a Rolling Stones style drift into irrelevancy with youthful rebellion songs being played by elderly men long since a parody of themselves.

Bono, The Edge and the other band members never fell into that trap. Even today, long past the time when band members their age are gone to seed or playing oldies but goldies the band retains a relevance and presence as the iPhone 6 launch proved.

I met him once, back in the band hotel in Manhattan after a Meadowlands concert. What struck me was how quickly the man who was a God on stage just an hour before was utterly down to earth, ordering pizza sipping a beer listening intently to a discussion on Northern Ireland.

I think he deserves not brickbats but a Nobel Prize for his efforts on behalf of the less well off. I think that would send a wonderful signal that the world of pop culture and the world of politics and philanthropy are not worlds apart

He has gone where few performers before or after him have gone and he will leave the world a better place if he never sings another note. How many of us can claim that? I think he is the outstanding Irishman of this generation.

He has been the man in the arena suffering the slings and arrows for decades now but soldiering on.

He once memorably described his critics as "cranks carping from the sidelines. A lot of them wouldn’t know what to do if they were on the field. They’re the party who will always be in opposition so they’ll never have to take responsibility for decisions because they know they’ll never be able to implement them.”

Amen to that I say.

Irish Voice Editorial

http://www.irishcentral.com/