BONO RECEIVES LIONHEART AWARD AT CANNES LIONS CONFERENCE

Bono collected the first Cannes Lionheart Award today and also spoke at the Cannes Lions creative/advertising conference in France.

The speaking appearance was a sit-down conversation with another guest, Apple's Jonathan Ive, where the two spoke about the (RED) organization and the successful auction that Ive and Apple helped with late last year. Based on some of the live-tweeting from the interview, Bono re-used some of his more common phrases about (RED) and the effort to fight poverty in Third World countries.

http://news.u2fanlife.com//https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWDU-s81RRI//http://www.atu2.com/

Letter from Bono on Chess and Meeting Garry Kasparov

Thinking ahead, thinking around corners, guessing somebody else’s next move… these were the pleasures of chess for me… my greatest childhood pleasure. In Ballymun we had a chess club, like so many kids at the beginning of the 70s, I fell head over heels for this dizzy strategic game.  I have fond memories of the Phisboro club also where myself and my friend Joseph Marks were let play with the grown ups.

Part of our passion was to study the great masters.  Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky were virtual pop stars at the time.  Everybody knew them. Anatoly Karpov, the Russian grand master, was my favourite.  Later, Garry Kasparov would unseat him in my own mind as the best of the best.  I admired his nagging intellect.  I still do.  He continues to ask the most difficult questions about the world, about Russia, human rights, the injustice of extreme poverty.   He is passionate about teaching the game of chess to children.  Not just because of its role in exercising the brain, but because of the confidence it gives kids in thinking through the future.  And his belief that that future can be better than the one presently on the board.

I met the great man recently in Dublin, and heard he was running for President of FIDE. I can’t think of a more luminous mind to take that position.  I became a child again in his company. I badgered him about the titanic match of 1984 between himself and Karpov – while all he wanted to talk about was Ireland and sub-Saharan Africa.   Looking back, the arrival of puberty and learning to play the guitar may have hampered my dexterity in the game.  It is not like riding a bike, I have recently discovered.  But sitting there in the Clarence across the table from Garry Kasparov, inside my head I found myself rattling through my game-plan, my opening strategy, and calculating just how many moves I could hold out before his check-mate.  Three.

Bono, 2014

Note from Garry Kasparov:

It was a great pleasure to meet Bono during my visit to Dublin. I was not sure what to expect considering our different backgrounds but we had a fascinating conversation. And despite his self-deprecation, I could see from the fire in his eyes when he spoke about chess that perhaps it might not be too hard to convince him to return to the board, even if just for a charity exhibition. And I’m sure he’d last much longer than three moves!

http://kasparov2014.com/

Bono, The Edge Collaborating With ‘Once’ Director on New Project

Photo by Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

Bono and the Edge will contribute a handful of songs to Once director John Carney's upcoming film, Sing Street, which takes place in Dublin in the 1980s and tells the story of a teenager who starts a band after switching from private to public school.

"They already have been extremely helpful in discussing the musical aspect of the film and what the sound is going to be like," Carney tells Rolling Stone. "It's going to be set in the Eighties; obviously U2 were extremely prolific then, so they'll bring that, and they’ve just been great sounding boards. Bono has been very helpful with character and story as I've sort of pitched the project to him over the last few months."

While Bono has helped Carney flesh out Sing Street's story, the director noted that the singer wasn't exactly pulling from his own experiences of forming U2 while still in high school. Still, Carney praised Bono's knack for story, which he believes comes not just from a love of film, but from his storied music career as well.

"I think a lot of musicians know about story, because I think a gig is a story," Carney said. "And I think that an album is a story, and most people that write albums have some sense of a three act structure. So he's been very helpful with how much music he's done, but also I think he watches movies closely. He's been helpful with beginning with a strong opening scene and character development. He's just generally a guy that knows his movies."

Carney added that Bono and the Edge won't appear in the movie itself, and while their official role or level of involvement remains to be seen, the director said they will likely serve as some sort of executive musical producers, and pen two or three tracks for the film. U2 certainly know a thing or two about writing for movies too: The band scored their second Oscar nod for Best Original Song last year for "Ordinary Love" from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.

As for their own material, U2 released the song "Invisible" — which premiered in a Super Bowl ad for Bank of America and the band's partnership with non-profit organization (Red) — and then performed the track on top of Rockefeller Center to help Jimmy Fallon ring in his tenure as host of The Tonight Show earlier this year. The track should also appear on the band's upcoming LP (their first since 2009's No Line on the Horizon), which they recorded over the past two years with Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton.

By JON BLISTEIN

http://www.rollingstone.com/

Bono: '10 bucks. A ginger. A red head. I’m in...'

Restaurateur Mario Batali is leading a campaign for (RED) as restaurants and bars add their support to the Global Fund to help fight AIDS . 

'10 bucks. A ginger. A red head....' Bono's in too. 

And you get a chance to go on a VIP Trip to NYC and cook and eat the #BestMealEver with Chef Mario. Here's how. 



http://www.red.org/en/eat//http://www.u2.com/

BONO TO RECEIVE INAUGURAL CANNES LIONHEART AWARD FOR AIDS ORGANISATION (RED)

The organisers of the 61st Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity are proud to honour Bono, the activist lead singer of Irish rock band U2, with the first ever Cannes LionHeart Award, for pioneering (RED), a creative fusion of branding, activism and philanthropy that has generated more than $250 million for the fight against AIDS in Africa.
The Cannes LionHeart recognises the person or organisation that, through innovative use of commercial brand power, has made a significant and positive difference to people or the planet.

Bono co-founded (RED) with Bobby Shriver in 2006 to engage businesses and consumers to raise money and awareness in the fight against AIDS.  (RED) partners with the world’s most iconic brands, which contribute up to 50% of profits from (RED) branded goods and services to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS TB and Malaria for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services. (RED) Proud Partners include: Apple, Starbucks, The Coca-Cola Company, Bank of America, Beats by Dr. Dre, Belvedere, Claro, SAP, Telcel and Live Nation Entertainment. (RED) Special Edition partners include: Jonathan Adler, Theory, HEAD, Kidrobot, Mophie, FEED, Sir Richard's Condom Company, Shazam, Square, Girl Skateboards, Nanda Home, Bottletop, Fatboy USA and Bed Bath & Beyond.

To date, (RED) has generated more than $250 million for the Global Fund to support HIV/AIDS grants in Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia. 100% of that money goes to work on the ground – no overhead is taken. The Global Fund grants that (RED) supports have impacted more than 40 million people with prevention, treatment, counselling, HIV testing and care services.



(RED) is a division of The ONE Campaign, a global advocacy organization which campaigns for government leaders to support programs and policies that save lives and improve futures in the poorest parts of the world. Also cofounded by Bono, ONE is nonpartisan and has more than 4 million members around the world. Together, ONE and (RED) are stronger than the sum of their parts. By increasing awareness of the Global Fund and the AIDS emergency, (RED) also helps ONE and other advocates ensure continued government support for The Global Fund.

“Bono has used his celebrity status to successfully establish a global brand, through which he has built unique relationships with other such brands, to raise awareness and funds for the fight against AIDS and achieve greater good for humankind,” says Terry Savage, Chairman of Lions Festivals. “We are delighted and privileged that Bono will share his inspirational story with our Cannes Lions delegates and we look forward to presenting him with the first Cannes LionHeart in recognition of his achievements.”     


Bono will be presented with the inaugural Cannes LionHeart, an honorary award presented in exceptional instances, on Saturday evening, 21 June, during the final awards ceremony of the festival week.



A Conversation with Bono and Jonathan Ive, moderated by Shane Smith


In an exclusive seminar for Cannes Lions delegates, Bono will join Jonathan Ive, Apple Inc’s Senior Vice President of Design, in a discussion moderated by Shane Smith, CEO and Founder of VICE Media, and introduced by Anne Finucane, Global Strategy and Marketing Officer of (RED) partner, Bank of America. Bono and Jonathan Ive will discuss the success of (RED) and it’s unique collaboration with global partners – including Apple, (RED)’s largest corporate contributor to the AIDS fight – and the record-breaking (RED) Design Auction curated by Jonathan Ive and Marc Newson.  The auction resulted in $44 million for the Global Fund on World AIDS Day last year.  This exceptional session will be held at 15:15 hrs, Saturday, 21 June.  

http://www.canneslions.com/http://www.red.org/

In Search of Star Power, Fender Enlists Members of U2

Few guitar makers can claim the same perch in the rock music pantheon as Fender, whose Stratocasters and Telecasters have been favored by musicians as diverse as Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain.

Now Fender, in the middle of a revival and expansion effort, is turning to two prominent musicians for help.

The company plans on Thursday to name Bono and the Edge from U2 to its board, both brought in by Fender’s majority owner, TPG Growth. Their challenge is to help Fender, which is 68 years old, thrive in a digital age, when Spotify is a more prominent music brand than the Strat

“I believe that guitars are here to stay and, far from digital technology being their death knell, I think it throws up some new ways to power creativity and give people greater access to the huge potential of the electric guitar,” the Edge wrote in an email from the studio where the band is recording its next album.

It is the latest twist for a company that helped give birth to the modern electric guitar, when Leo Fender fashioned a solid-body instrument that could be mass produced easily. The design gave rise to the Telecaster, the choice of Bruce Springsteen, and then to the world-famous Strat, the beloved instrument of Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan and the Edge and his famously minimalist playing style.

In his email, the Edge — who was born David Evans — noted that some of U2’s most popular songs, including “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Pride (In the Name of Love),” were recorded using Strats and Telecasters.

Two years ago, Fender sought to become a publicly listed company, hoping to raise as much as $160.5 million. But the stock sale’s prospectus revealed some signs of struggle under the guitar maker’s owner at the time, the investment firm Western Presidio. Among them were lukewarm financial results, with an $11.8 million loss for the three months that ended April 1, 2012, a reversal from a $6.5 million profit in the period a year earlier.

Beginning several weeks ago, Mr. McGlashan reached out to Bono through a mutual friend, and the U2 frontman in turn asked his longtime friend to join him in the enterprise. While Bono has had a history as an investor, including as a co-founder of Elevation Partners, the Edge had comparatively less experience. But after meeting with Fender’s owners and then touring the company’s factory in Corona, Calif., he signed on.

“It was the combination of time-honored traditions of guitar production with some very fresh ideas about what the company can do going into the future that hooked me,” the Edge wrote.

The U2 stars bring different qualities to Fender, Mr. McGlashan said. Bono brings a gut understanding of whether a brand is working, while the Edge can guide the company in innovating both its instruments and in helping to educate consumers.

The addition of the U2 members won’t change one thing, the Edge said: He will still use equipment from other companies, including an array of Gibson and Gretsch guitars and Vox amps.

“I’ll continue to use my favorite guitars and amps and effects units made by other companies,” he wrote. “I’m sure I always will, but I’m excited about what new instruments and hardware I can help create with Fender.”

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/

U2 and B.B. King's Incredible Collaboration

In the 1988 U2 concert film Rattle and Hum, the Irish rockers relish a special moment with a real legend when they share the stage with B.B. King, for whom they'd written "When Loves Comes to Town." Bono gets a chance to revisit that famous collaboration in the new documentary The Life of Riley, which traces the life and music of the blues icon from his birth "in a sharecropper's cabin over the cotton fields of the Missippi Delta" through his eventual stardom. Today we're premiering an exclusive clip from the doc, which includes incredible footage of U2 and King together.

fter the band and King whip through rehearsals of "When Love Comes to Town," the quick and lively King graciously tells Bono that he's "mighty young to write such heavy lyrics." In fresh interview footage, Bono recalls the band trying to show King the song's changes, to which the guitarist replied, "Gentlemen, I don't do chords."

"It was a lesson, in that he is as Keith Richards describes: a specialist," Bono says.

Life of Riley also features interviews from Eric Clapton, Santana, Mick Jagger, Derek Trucks, Dr. John and Susan Tedeschi, as well as a few quotes from the President Barack Obama.

The movie enters theaters on Wednesday, goes on demand on June 1st and will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 17th. The career-spanning soundtrack, meanwhile, will be released tomorrow. For more information on either, visit B.B. King's official website.

http://www.rollingstone.com/