http://www.clashmusic.com/news/u2-surprise-london-show

 

Irish rock giants U2 have stunned an audience in London by making a surprise appearance at a celebration of Island records.

 

Island Records turns 50 this year. A distinctive voice in an industry often overwhelmed by submission to the status quo, the label began life as a small outlet in Jamaica. Moving to England, founder Chris Blackwell soon discovered a healthy market for reggae and other Caribbean forms.

 

Greats such as Bob Marley and Peter Tosh were soon whizzing through the offices of Island Records, not that it gained the founder much respect - Tosh soon began referring to Chris Blackwell as 'White-worst'.

 

With its seminal Witchseason offshoot Island managed to house albums by such stunning talents as Nick Drake and John Martyn, but remained wary of the punk explosion. In the late 70s an unknown group from the rock 'n' roll backwaters of Ireland came onto the radar of the label, who promptly snapped them up.

 

U2's determination to succeed was matched by Island's complete faith in their artistry. A perfect match of band and label, U2's partnership with Island has remained one of the strongest in the music industry.

 

The label is holding a series of concerts to celebrate its birthday, with acts from throughout its career performing sets. Their most recent success, Amy Winehouse, has already been forced to pull out, however.

 

U2 took to the stage at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire, joining Baaba Maal in a rendition of their 'Achtung Baby' classic 'One'. Playing acoustically, the stripped down version left audiences members stunned.

 

Bono had earlier introduced Mall onstage claiming "I have a friend a brother who really takes care of everything. We share the respect of Nelson Mandela's vision. We need people to understand. We didn't make it yet but we are on the way. As we continue fighting poverty especially on the continent of Africa."

 

The band then played short version of the Bob Marley classic 'Feel Alright' before climaxing with their own 'Vertigo'.

 

U2 are currently in the middle of their spectacular 'No Line On The Horizon' tour. Promoting their recent smash hit album, the tour has kept ticket prices low as a reward for fans in difficult economic conditions.

 

However this hasn't stopped the Irish legends from indulging in their usual tomfoolery - U2 are set to emerge onstage beneath an enormous claw.

Ticket prices low??? :blink: :blink: :blink: :blink:

 

 

 

-_-

http://www.herald.ie/entertainment/around-...ty-1757333.html

 

Waterford hosts a starry Street party

 

Monday June 01 2009

 

Two Corrie screen rivals temporarily laid aside their bitter feuding to party on these shores over the weekend. Actors Gray O'Brien, aka Tony Gordon, and Craig Kelly, who plays Luke Strong, may be arch enemies on the TV soap, but they're best pals in real life.

 

The two stars were down pressing the flesh at the Cove Bar in Waterford after being brought over by Valerie Roe for a rowdy bash. Among those who opted to head down for the weekend were models Nadia Forde and Louise Kavanagh, alongside Miss Waterford Universe Behinn McGrath.

 

Meanwhile, U2 superstar Bono was spotted enjoying a local pint in Dalkey over the weekend. He met up with his good pal, director Jim Sheridan, for a few sociables outside the Wine Not restaurant. The singer's wife Ali Hewson was busy raising funds for the Chernobyl Children's Project in Cork by abseiling down Ireland's tallest building -- the 17-storey Elysian Tower.

http://www.irishcentral.com/ent/U2-ready-t...c-360-tour.html

 

U2 ready to kick off epic 360 tour

Band plans to tell the world about Ireland, this 'little gem'

 

Published Wednesday, June 3, 2009, 3:11 PM

Updated Thursday, June 4, 2009, 8:20 AM

 

 

Irish chat show host Pat Kenny, who’s filled the chair of the country’s most popular program, "Late Late Show," for the past 10 years, retired last Friday night and received one heck of a going away gift – an appearance by U2 on his final broadcast, and the gift of a very rare guitar from The Edge.

 

The band performed their latest single, “Magnificent,” and chatted with Kenny about any number of topics, including, naturally, the upcoming tour which they intend to be groundbreaking in every way.

 

“We haven't seen (the stage) yet but we've seen some footage of it as it's been built in Belgium and I have to say I looked at it today and thought, 'Oh my God we've actually designed the Eiffel Tower!' It's this huge thing. It's pretty amazing,” Edge revealed.

 

Though the new tour has sold out pretty much all over the world, drummer Larry Mullen says that playing at home is an extra special event. They’ll get the chance to do that at Croke Park for three nights at the end of July. (“U2360” will make its world debut in Barcelona on June 30.)

 

“Expectations are always high, particularly in your homeland, but you know, that's what we do. We fly the flag wherever we can. And nowhere prouder than in our homeland,” said Mullen.

 

“So you take the pressure on, understanding that your family and your friends are expecting great things. They hear about all the stuff you do around the world and they want you to come home and show that you can do it for them as well.”

 

Though Ireland’s Celtic Tiger economy of a few years back has certainly taken a lickin’, U2 fully intends to spread the word about their country during their travels – they’ll be on the road for nearly two years when all is said and done.

 

“Larry was saying just a few days ago...I thought it was smart...that we have to, wherever we go, whether it's Barcelona, whether it's Chicago, just tell people about this little gem, this little jewel on the north Atlantic and how extraordinary its people are and how innovative and how smart they are and they'll get their way out of this mess. We're just going to tell them that nightly,” Bono says.

 

http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainmen...3708554893.html

 

Have U2 have lost their edge?

 

The legendary rockers are in danger of becoming golden oldies, writes John Harris.

 

POETICALLY, as the era of New Labour, the old British Labour party repackaged by Tony Blair in the 1990s, draws to an inglorious close under Gordon Brown, that regime's rock band of choice, the supposedly godlike U2, are having a just about comparable career wobble. In both cases, power and influence are ebbing away, and once loyal admirers are suddenly restive and disconnected.

 

In U2's case, this isn't necessarily the stuff of a terminal crisis, but you never know. Their last single, the unfortunately titled Magnificent, sold a mere 4000 copies in its first week and crept into the British charts at a miserable No. 42, their worst performance since 1982. No Line On The Horizon has reportedly sold fewer copies than the latest effort by those popular but not exactly titanic dance music veterans the Prodigy. U2's run of British concerts has largely sold out, and will doubtless be feverishly received, but that isn't really the point: these are proud men, and a life as an oldies act is surely no life at all.

 

U2 have long been so ubiquitous that their music has threatened to lose all meaning - for me, it happened around 1988 - but of late, they have truly excelled themselves. Some questions: when Bono is photographed going to church in New York with Blair, what does that do the idea of rock as The Other? Is their slide heartening proof that, after years of handwringing about music becoming so pan-generational and pro-establishment it had lost all meaning, there may actually be a point where the great unwashed realise a group stands for absolutely nothing, and recoil? If so, watch out Coldplay.

 

So what next? Should they wish, the three members of the group of whom the public may only be dimly aware surely have enough money to retire, or start new projects. In Bono's case, though his halo deservedly slipped when they were caught shifting money to the Netherlands to avoid Irish taxes, his brand of heavily compromised philanthropy would surely fill up his diary from now to the next century.

 

Here, for what it's worth, is my advice, based on a career option cruelly denied to politicians: breaking up, letting the dust clear, and then announcing your reformation. They should pencil it in for 2019, prepare the offshore accounts, and plan for the mother of all nostalgic celebrations; Gordon and Tony will surely be down the front.

 

Guardian News & Media

 

 

:arrr: :arrr: :arrr: :arrr: :arrr: :arrr: :o :o :o <_<

 

Jups, sounds like that stuck up poofter has something stuck up his caboose sideways.....seems like the press enjoy bashing those they don't agree with, or, can't find anything bad to write about whatever celeb the story is about....the press, Irish press especially, seem yo like beating up Enya in their reviews of her music.....seems like they (the press) don't even bother listening to the music, and pan it anyways.....or the artist....

 

 

Enough of my little rant.....

Jups, sounds like that stuck up poofter has something stuck up his caboose sideways.....seems like the press enjoy bashing those they don't agree with, or, can't find anything bad to write about whatever celeb the story is about....the press, Irish press especially, seem yo like beating up Enya in their reviews of her music.....seems like they (the press) don't even bother listening to the music, and pan it anyways.....or the artist....

Enough of my little rant.....

 

 

Biggie! :o

 

 

:lol:

Biggie! :o

:lol:

 

 

I could really go off on that tosser whose article you last posted, Jups.....but, that'd be stooping to his level....

http://www.whatsontv.co.uk/reality/britain...th-u2-guru/6028

 

Boyle signs deal with U2 guru

 

07/06/2009 - 21:43

 

 

Britain's Got Talent star Susan Boyle has signed a management deal - with the man who turned U2 into multi-millionaires, according to the papers.

 

The Sunday Mirror reports that the 48-year-old, who finished second in the final of the ITV1 show, has appointed Ossie Kilkenny to mastermind her career.

 

This means that while Simon Cowell's Syco record label will release her first album, Kilkenny will manage her and organise her finances to ensure every deal she signs is a lucrative one.

 

The appointment comes after he met with Susan and her family in her home town of Blackburn, West Lothian, last month.

 

"Susan wants to work with Simon but she and her family have also chosen to bring in Ossie Kilkenny as manager. So the record will be with Simon’s label, but Ossie will look after her management," an insider told the paper.

 

Kilkenny has also worked with such superstars as Tina Turner, The Verve, Van Morrison and Bryan Adams.

 

:blink:

 

Tell me she ain't gonna be a Support Act on their Tour :lol: :lol: :lol: :o

 

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

 

Perhaps she may do a duet with Bono :P

Edited June 9, 200916 yr by Sparkle

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/a...6To6vg7YBeDEooA

 

Bono in radio boycott complaint?

 

 

U2's Bono is rumoured to be the unnamed musician who claims to have had his new single yanked from some US radio station playlists in retaliation for supporting royalties for musicians.

 

No one involved will name which artist it is, but the no-play treatment by several radio stations is alleged in a complaint filed with the Federal Communications Commission.

 

It claims recording artists are being threatened and intimidated.

 

Copyright © 2009 The Press Association. All rights reserved.

 

 

:o

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/ga...ty-1773281.html

 

 

GAA museum to close as U2 elevate concert security

 

Sunday June 14 2009

 

Security at the U2 concerts in Croke Park next month will be so tight that even the GAA's museum will have to be closed down for the three dates.

 

As the band's 360 Degree Tour kicks off in the Nou Camp in Barcelona on June 30, it has emerged that extra security has been brought in by the U2 organisation.

 

During their last tour the band were plagued with fans trying to pilfer trinkets from their private backstage compound.

 

It was reported last week that the band have become so fed up with the invasion of privacy that they have asked for increased security this time round.

 

Croke Park Stadium Director Peter McKenna confirmed that the GAA museum would be closed for the band's eagerly anticipated dates in Dublin.

 

He said a factor that needed to be considered was the proximity of patrons who wanted to visit the the museum and the large number of vehicles involved in the U2 concerts. "There is a health and safety element to the decision," he said.

 

U2 will rock Croke Park on July 24, 25 and 27.

 

Fans are travelling from Brazil, Canada, Australia and Japan and almost every country in Europe for the Dublin concerts.

 

The U2 360 Tour has now sold an amazing 2.5 million tickets throughout Europe and North America since the tour was announced in March.

 

More than 160,000 tickets for the Croke Park July 24 and 25 dates sold out in just 40 minutes. However, tickets for the third and final date were slower to shift.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/ga...ty-1773281.html

GAA museum to close as U2 elevate concert security

 

Sunday June 14 2009

 

Security at the U2 concerts in Croke Park next month will be so tight that even the GAA's museum will have to be closed down for the three dates.

 

As the band's 360 Degree Tour kicks off in the Nou Camp in Barcelona on June 30, it has emerged that extra security has been brought in by the U2 organisation.

 

During their last tour the band were plagued with fans trying to pilfer trinkets from their private backstage compound.

 

It was reported last week that the band have become so fed up with the invasion of privacy that they have asked for increased security this time round.

 

Croke Park Stadium Director Peter McKenna confirmed that the GAA museum would be closed for the band's eagerly anticipated dates in Dublin.

 

He said a factor that needed to be considered was the proximity of patrons who wanted to visit the the museum and the large number of vehicles involved in the U2 concerts. "There is a health and safety element to the decision," he said.

 

U2 will rock Croke Park on July 24, 25 and 27.

 

Fans are travelling from Brazil, Canada, Australia and Japan and almost every country in Europe for the Dublin concerts.

 

The U2 360 Tour has now sold an amazing 2.5 million tickets throughout Europe and North America since the tour was announced in March.

 

More than 160,000 tickets for the Croke Park July 24 and 25 dates sold out in just 40 minutes. However, tickets for the third and final date were slower to shift.

 

Now !!! How a U2 fan would want to steal any GAA trinkets :o is beyond me ......I think they are getting a little carried away.... :huh:

 

We'll steal anything, us lot :P

The joys of pinching a ticket....cd....vinyl...t-shirt.....a kiss from the lads, by the ladies..... :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianp...UE-NnC_HjODhJeQ

 

Barcelona authorities may fine U2 for excess noise in their tour of Spain

 

By Harold Heckle :lol: – 2 hours ago

 

MADRID — Barcelona authorities might fine U2 for rocking too long and loudly during rehearsals for their latest world tour, the city council said Thursday.

 

While the city said it is proud to host the beginning of U2's world tour, it also said that one of its districts received a formal complaint by residents about the band playing after permitted hours and making noise.

 

"The District of Les Corts has fulfilled its duty in attending to neighbours' complaints and has acted administratively in the face of a possible failure to comply with time and noise creation regulations," the statement said.

 

The council said they had given the band permission to rehearse until 10 p.m., limiting the amount of sound they could make.

 

Regional newspaper El Punt said the band had rehearsed till midnight at sound levels measured at 70 decibels - the equivalent of a vacuum cleaner at one metre.

 

When called by The Associated Press, city authorities would not say how much a possible fine could add up to. But newspaper El Mundo said on its website that under current noise pollution legislation, fines of up to 15,000 euros were possible.

 

The Irish quartet kicked off their "360 degree" tour at Barcelona football club's Camp Nou stadium by playing 22 songs in front of 90,000 fans on Tuesday.

 

The show features a large, modernistic four-legged construction which houses what the band calls "a giant spherical screen."

 

Singer Bono told the audience after four songs, "This has been our neighbourhood for the last couple of weeks."

 

Some neighbours clearly were not impressed with the band's state of the art sound equipment and assiduous rehearsals.

 

"While business outlets cash in on fans flooding in, residents can't even open their windows at home," local businessman Alfons Huescar told journalists.

 

Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/artic...otprint_1109106

 

U2 BLASTED OVER TOURING CARBON FOOTPRINT

 

Campaigning rockers U2 are wreaking havoc on the environment by jetting around the globe on tour each year - according to eco experts.

Bono and his bandmates work tirelessly to help the poor in the developing world - but environment experts are calling on them to slow down their touring schedule because their jet-setting road trips are polluting the atmosphere.

Helen Roberts, environmental consultant at Carbonfootprint.com reveals, "The carbon footprint generated by U2's 44 concerts this year is equal to carbon created by the four band members travelling the 34.125 million miles from Earth to Mars in a passenger plane. You also have to add the carbon emissions from the same number of concerts again next year.

"Just looking at the 44 concerts this year, the band will create enough carbon to fly all 90,000 people attending one of their Wembley concerts (in London) to Dublin. To offset this year's carbon emissions, U2 would need to plant 20,118 trees." :rolleyes:

The Irish rockers are currently on their latest world tour, which kicked off in Barcelona, Spain last Tuesday (30Jun09).

U2 hoping €5m music tuition fund will give our children the edge

 

Irish Independent

By Katherine Donnelly

Tuesday July 21 2009

 

RATTLE and hum, class. Rattle. And then hum.

 

U2 are to donate €5m to a national music tuition programme that will offer schoolchildren the chance to learn a musical instrument or to take vocal tuition.

 

The band first came together via a notice on a bulletin board in a north-Dublin school way back in 1976, but went on to become the biggest rock group in the world and are currently preparing for the first of their massive hometown gigs in Croke Park on Friday night. It seems, however, that they haven't forgotten their roots.

 

"Being around music at a young age was important for us and we were lucky to have it at school," the Edge said. "We had been looking for some time for a way to get involved in an initiative in music education in Ireland.

 

"After talking to various people in Ireland about what to do, we came to the conclusion that the Music Network scheme is really well thought out and that we, in partnership with the Ireland Funds, should just get behind it."

 

Along with the money from the band, a further €2m will be contributed by the Ireland Funds, a philanthropic organisation dedicated to supporting a variety of programmes including arts, culture and education. It is anticipated that the scheme will involve a network of music schools in local communities and will continue until at least 2015.

 

To date, music education has largely been limited to pupils with access to urban centres of tuition, but the proposed scheme will see teachers engaged locally to provide tuition based on local demand, and at affordable prices.

 

In Ireland, only about 1pc of children of second-level age receive tuition in instrumental or vocal performance, compared with 6pc-8pc in other European countries.

 

The programme will build on two pilot projects, supported by the Department of Education and run by VECs in Dublin and Donegal for the past four years.

 

At Larkin Community College in Dublin it resulted in the introduction of music as a core subject and saw an increase in school attendance on days when music was offered.

 

Provide

 

Kingsley Aikins, chief executive officer of the Ireland Funds said the new scheme would operate a bit like the hedge schools "of bygone years, where teachers travelled to provide education".

 

Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe said they were very grateful to U2 and The Ireland Funds.

 

On September 25, 1976, a then 14-year-old Larry Mullen junior placed a hand-written ad on the notice board of his secondary school, Mount Temple Comprehensive on Dublin's Malahide Road.

 

U2 -- first named Feedback -- was born.

 

The school also served as the venue for some of their first gigs, beginning with one in the autumn of 1976, when they played four songs

 

I was always given the triangle to play. Funny that.... :unsure:

Wow. How amazing would this be! :w00t:

 

From

http://www.nme.com/news/brucespringsteen/46262

 

 

Springsteen, U2 for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame celebration?

Simon & Garfunkel, Aretha Franklin, Eric Clapton also rumoured to play

 

* Jul 22, 2009

 

 

Bruce Springsteen, U2, Simon & Garfunkel and Aretha Franklin are among the acts rumoured to be performing at a huge 25th Anniversary event celebrating the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in New York.

:wub: :wub: :wub:

The event is apparently taking place at Madison Square Garden on Oct 29-30, according to showbiz411.com and will feature slots from Paul Simon (also as a solo act), Stevie Wonder, Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young and friends, Metallica and Eric Clapton.

 

A DVD is reportedly being filmed over the two nights and four-hours of coverage will be shown on HBO in mid-November.

 

Paul McCartney, The Eagles and Prince are also among the acts tipped to take part.