From

http://www.irishcentral.com/ent/Bono-to-mi...-121049569.html

 

 

Bono to miss Monaco royal wedding

By

CATHAL DERVAN

,

 

Bono is the latest Irish celebrity to turn down a royal wedding invitation – from Prince Albert of Monaco.

 

The U2 frontman has declined the invitation just 48 hours after Ireland rugby captain Brian O’Driscoll missed Britain’s royal nuptials.

 

The 52-year-old Bono and his wife Ali were invited as VIP guests to Prince Albert’s big wedding in an outdoor ceremony in Monaco on July 2nd.

 

But touring commitments in America mean Bono will have to decline the offer.

 

A U2 spokesman said: “The band are playing in Nashville that night so Bono won’t be able to attend.

 

“He has been unable to attend several big functions this year due to the tour but that’s the price they must pay for being the hardest working rock band in the world.

 

“Bono has sent the Prince a note and a present and has promised to catch up when the tour finishes.”

 

Prince Albert, son of Hollywood star Grace Kelly, and his bride to be Charlene Wittstock visited Ireland last month, where they included a trip to his late mother’s ancestral home in Mayo.

From

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irelands-...-121488364.html

 

 

Ireland’s richest people named-- Liam Neeson, U2 on list

Van Morrison, Riverdance creators, Bob Geldof also make cut

By

JAMES O'SHEA

 

 

 

The list of Ireland’s richest people are out and to no one’s surprise the big losers are developers and speculators. Gone is Ireland’s richest man for many years, Sean Quinn, once worth $10 billion now bankrupt.

 

Top of the list is Dublin-born Hillary Weston married to Canadian billionaire Galen Weston who have a combined wealth of over $13 billion. The only criteria was that people have Irish citizenship or residency.

 

In second place is mobile phone entrepreneur Denis O’Brien of Digicell at an estimated $5 billion.

 

Biggest loser apart from the property developers is Sir Tony O’Reilly, of Independent Newspapers and Heinz fame , who the list compilers say lost $400 million of his fortune last year and is now worth $628 million.

 

Some notable names well known in America include Liam Neeson, the actor worth $100 million says the list and U2 who the list says are worth $1.1 billion.

 

Bob Geldof, the Live Aid creator whose production company has a license on ‘Survivor among other reality shows is worth $1.2 billion according to the list.

 

Van Morrison is worth an estimated $100 million says the Sunday Times compilers , a staggering sum for an entertainer.

 

Also making major money is Moya Doherty and John McColgan who invented Riverdance who are worth an estimated $200 million.

 

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary is said to be worth $750 million.

 

Other famous names include ‘Lady in Red’ Chris De Burgh worth $64 million , Currency trader JP McManus at $360 million and pop sensations Jedward who creep into the list at the $2 million mark.

From

 

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/irelan...4296282365.html

 

Music projects get U2 support

 

 

PROJECTS IN Louth, Mayo and Sligo are to receive musical tuition worth €1.6 million from a scheme part-funded by U2.

 

The three counties were successful in the first round of applications for Music Generation, the €7 million national music education programme, which includes a €5 million grant from U2 with the rest coming from the Ireland Fund.

 

The money will be used to fund up to a dozen musical partnerships, involving local authorities, schools, individual music teachers and music schools, between now and 2015 when the Government has pledged to continue funding it on a national basis.

 

U2 agreed to step in after a successful Music Network pilot, which funded an expanded musical education programme in Donegal and Dublin, could not be rolled out nationally because of a lack of funding.

 

The money will allow structured tuition for thousands of young children who would not otherwise have access to voice or instrument training.

 

Music Generation director Rosaleen Molloy had described the initial response as “phenomenal” with expressions of interest from all 34 local authorities which translated into 23 bids for funding. Each local authority has to come up with matching funds.

 

Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn said the Government was committed to continuing the partnership after the Music Generation money ceases.

 

He said music education plays a role in promoting creativity and self-expression while also improving children’s cognitive and affective skills.

 

 

 

 

Dublin venues considered for Obama public address

 

 

 

THE PHOENIX Park, College Green and the GPO are among the Dublin venues under consideration for a planned public address by US president Barack Obama when he visits Ireland later this month.

 

Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the Dáil yesterday Mr Obama was likely to deliver the speech as part of a “major entertainment event” in Dublin.

 

Sources said the White House was “very keen” to include a public address in the president’s itinerary.

 

The event, expected to take place on the evening of May 23rd, is envisaged as something similar to the gathering Mr Obama addressed as a presidential candidate at Berlin’s Tiergarten park in July 2008.

 

In 1995, then US president Bill Clinton addressed a crowd of tens of thousands at College Green.

 

It is understood a major Irish music promoter is involved in planning the Obama event. There has been some speculation that U2, who played at Mr Obama’s inauguration in 2009, may perform.

 

According to their website, U2 are touring the US later this month. They are due to play a concert in Denver on May 21st, followed by a May 24th concert in Salt Lake City, which would leave a small window of opportunity for the band to perform in Dublin on May 23rd.

 

The Taoiseach said entrance to the Dublin event would be free.

 

An advance team of US officials is due to arrive later this week to finalise details of Mr Obama’s itinerary, which will include a meeting with President Mary McAleese at Áras an Uachtaráin, a meeting with the Taoiseach, and a visit to Moneygall, Co Offaly, where one of his ancestors was born.

 

Mr Kenny added that “[the public event] is not actually agreed yet because the US personnel have to look at the sites in question and give their view on the range and extent of the numbers who might turn up.”

 

Meanwhile, Westlife, the Chieftains, the National Symphony Orchestra, X Factor star Mary Byrne :unsure: , and former Eurovision winner Eimear Quinn are among the acts due to take part in a show to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Ireland next week.

 

The queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will join President McAleese and 2,000 guests drawn from Irish sport, culture, politics, entertainment, business and charities at the event, to be held at the Convention Centre in the Dublin Docklands. B)

 

The evening will also include a performance by Riverdance, readings from Irish literature, and a fashion show featuring designers from Ireland and Britain, such as John Rocha, Louise Kennedy and M&S.

 

Source Irishtimes

From

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...0f1G_story.html

 

 

U2’s Bono meets with Mexico’s president, talks drug violence and poverty

 

By Associated Press, Published: May 13

 

MEXICO CITY — U2’s Bono has met with President Felipe Calderon and the two discussed the drug violence and poverty affecting Mexico.

 

Bono is in Mexico in the final leg of the Irish rock band’s 360 Tour.

 

 

Mexico’s president thanked the lead singer of U2 for sending a message to victims of drug violence during his performance Wednesday.

 

Bono visited the presidential residence Los Pinos on Thursday. The politically active Bono has been known to meet with world leaders.

 

A presidential statement said Calderon and Bono also discussed global warming and Mexico’s opportunities as the host of the G-20 reunion in 2012.

 

Calderon congratulated Bono for his 51st birthday on Tuesday.

Bono & The Edge On American Idol

 

 

 

 

Joining a bevy of stars on the American Idol finale stage were Bono and the Edge of U2 performing Rise Above from their Broadway show Spider-Man.

In one of the strangest performances of the night, Bono and the Edge from U2 played the American Idol finale and performed a song from their beleaguered Broadway show Spider-Man -- along with show star Reeve Carney -- on a stage done up like a giant web.

 

 

 

The song seemed lackluster -- not Broadway, and if U2 recorded it for one of their albums it wouldn't be released -- and Carney's facial expressions alternated between intense boredom and nauseated, not the excitement one would expect from the American Idol finale performances.

 

Regardless, Carney seemed to enjoy himself. Right after his performance he tweeted, "Had the BEST time on Idol. What an honor it is 2 perform w/ your heroes. And even better when ur heroes are the nicest guys on the planet..."

 

As long as someone had a good time...

 

Source..sheknows.com

Edited May 26, 201114 yr by Sacramento

Hmmmm

 

That song doesn't exactly set the heather on fire does it? Spiderman is kinda cute though :P

From

http://thecelebritycafe.com/feature/maria-...bono-05-27-2011

 

 

Maria Shriver lunches with U2's Bono

5/27/2011

Gina DiFalco

 

In the midst of a very public scandal involving her estranged husband Arnold Schwarzenegger’s discretions being splashed on the cover of every magazine and newspaper, Maria Shriver decided to have lunch with U2 frontman Bono.

 

The two met on Thursday in Santa Monica, California at the Ivy at the Shore restaurant, and according to The Gossip Girls, Shriver was in good spirits.

 

According to EntertainmentWise, the former television news anchor has hardly been in hiding since news broke that her husband of 25 years fathered a child with the couple’s maid out of wedlock over a decade ago.

 

She’s been keeping busy with her friends and now lunching with Bono!

 

The Hollywood Gossip reports that at one point during the meal, Bono consolingly held Maria’s hand and patted her arm. :(

The Spiderman song performed on American Idol is now available for download from Itunes.

 

Story here

 

http://www.nme.com/news/u2/56926#

From

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13...o=feeds-newsxml

 

 

Bono hitchhikes! U2 frontman picked up on side of road by ice hockey player after he loses himself in the summer rain

 

By Paul Bentley

 

Last updated at 9:05 PM on 2nd June 2011

 

 

 

He is a worldwide rock star known as well for his music as he is for his enthusiastic attempts to save the world.

 

But U2 frontman Bono showed he is not averse to receiving the occasional bit of charity either, when he was picked up from the side of the road in West Vancouver in the pouring rain.

 

Canadian ice hockey player Gilbert Brule spotted the singer while driving with his girlfriend and gave him a lift in the back of their car snuggled in by the couple's pet dog - a gesture which earned Brule free concert tickets and a shout out from the rock star at his gig.

 

 

Brule, 24, was being driven to a park by his girlfriend, Kelsey Nichols, to take their German Shepherd for a walk when the hockey player was convinced he saw Bono with his hand out by the side of the road.

 

While Nichols at first refused to believe the world famous 51-year-old would be hitchhiking, she was eventually convinced by Brule to turn around and pick him up.

 

 

'I didn't want to stop, but they waved and [Gilbert] yelled: "That's Bono,"' Nichols told the Edmonton Journal. 'I didn't believe him so I kept driving.'

 

When they eventually turned around, they found Bono and an assistant still waiting by the roadside.

 

The Irish rockstar sat in the back with the dog and chatted to the couple about ice hockey, Dublin and his love for Vancouver.

 

To thank the couple for the lift, Bono offered them backstage tickets to see U2 play in Edmonton.

 

 

At the gig, the rock star signed their passes with the messages 'My hero Gilbert' and 'thanks for the ride', according to the Journal.

 

Bono then interrupted the gig to tell the story of how he was saved from the rain.

 

He told the crowd: 'I like ice hockey because people who play ice hockey are the kind of people who pick up hitchhikers.

 

'I know this from personal experience because I was hitchhiking in Vancouver just yesterday[...]

 

'Kelsey, his girlfriend, she was driving, and Gilbert, they picked up this Irish hitchhiker and I'm ever so grateful, I've decided that now I want to be Gilbert Brule. I do.'

 

Brule simply said: 'We go to walk our dog and Bono ends up in our car.'

 

 

Video of Bono talking about his hitchhiking escapade here

 

 

 

 

Former Nobel Peace Prize frontrunner not living up to his reputation

 

Bono has come under heat lately for going against his humanitarian image for his band, U2, moving the location of their music publishing to the Netherlands, known by many to be a tax haven.

 

Slate points out that Bono had previously talked about how lax taxes were on music publishing in his native Ireland – and then when that changed, U2 moved its publishing headquarters.

 

Many fans then saw the need to protest in concert, led by activist groupm Art Uncut, according to The Daily Mail.

 

Considering the massive national debt in the UK, and how Bono is known to call on nations to fight against poverty, it seems odd that he would take away the state’s tax money (which could have aided that cause).

 

U2 is one of the highest-earning bands in the world

 

 

It's Ireland's national debt I am worried about , not the UK darling <_<

 

 

Celebritycafe.com

Edited June 6, 201114 yr by Sacramento

How much is your national debt now Tess? Is it still rising? :unsure:

Back in the USA: U2's Victory Lap , Behind the scenes on the 360 Tour's final leg. Plus: Inside the next album

 

After U2 clattered through a sped-up, revamped version of "Magnificent" at the kickoff of the final leg of their 360° Tour, Bono smiled and offered an apology to the Denver crowd: "It's in development, that one," he said of a song they've played more than 100 times over the past two years. With 7 million fans in attendance, the 360° Tour is the most successful of all time, beating the Rolling Stones' record with a $700 million gross. But with fewer than 20 dates to go, the band still considers it a work in progress. "We'd like to get it to the place that we want it to be," says the Edge. "The final one or two shows, I'm sure, is where we'll fully realize the 360° Tour. This show is still being born, even if it's two years in."

 

After the band flies to Vegas following the Denver show, Bono dashes over to an elliptical machine set up in his hotel room and gives it a little hug: "Hi, honey, I'm home," he says, cackling. He feels lucky to be able to work out—and to walk without a limp, for that matter. The current U.S. and Canadian dates were scheduled for last summer, until Bono needed surgery for a serious back injury. "There were some terrible things that could have happened," he says. He's fully recovered, but the tour has now gone on so long that multiple members of the crew have conceived and given birth to babies during its run.

 

 

With so much time to evolve, the set list is dramatically different from what U.S. audiences last saw, in 2009. Instead of the No Line on the Horizon track "Breathe," the show now starts with a blazing "Even Better Than the Real Thing." U2 are preparing to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Achtung Baby in the fall, so they're in a Nineties mood—"I'm blown away by how productive and creative that time was," says the Edge. They've also added the rarely played "Zooropa" and even a welcome snippet of "Discotheque."

 

U2 are happiest about a change involving the Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been placed under house arrest by that country's military regime for 15 years: Each night during "Walk On," the band would make a dramatic call for her release—and in November 2010, she won her freedom. Now, in a video freshly shot in Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi herself addresses the crowd before "One" (Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who previously had that slot, popped up during "Magnificent"). "If you demand it, change will come," she says. "It starts with just one person. One."

 

 

Even as it embarked on the biggest tour ever, the band was trying to record a new album, and Bono and the Edge were also trying to save their troubled Spider-Man Broadway musical. "Our drug of choice in this band is doing really difficult things," says Bono. Longtime manager Paul McGuinness puts it more simply: "The expression is to bite off more than you can chew," he says. Bono acknowledges that a new U2 album probably got snagged in the web. "But we don't tell Larry and Adam that," he says with a laugh. "It's not like songwriting has stopped. We're crushing tunes every day."

 

It wasn't until early this year that the group abandoned the idea of getting an album out before the end of the tour, after working on separate sets of songs with Lady Gaga producer RedOne and Danger Mouse. "We had to have a meeting and look at the schedule to see if we could pick up any extra time to work on it," says Adam Clayton, "and we just realized that we couldn't. To be honest, everyone was a bit gutted. But it was the only sensible decision."

 

 

When the tour ends, the three 150-foot-high stage sets that the band has been dragging around will survive: McGuinness has been negotiating to "recycle" them as permanent event spaces around the world. The band will return to the studio, with the expectation of releasing an album toward the end of next year, most likely from the Danger Mouse sessions. "We have to focus on what we do best, and the work we did with Danger Mouse came closest to that," says Clayton. "We want to be in the clubs and make pop music as well as the thing U2 does, but in the end, the thing we did with RedOne doesn't feel like the right fit."

 

U2 are looking forward to moving on.

 

"It's making me giddy," says Bono, "the idea that this thing will be over in August. I will be sad to say goodbye to the space station, but I'm very excited about the free time to finish these songs." How about some rest? "I'm not tired at all," says Bono, taking a gulp of beer. "But I'm looking forward to, as Johnny Cash said, 'Walking barefoot in my yard.'

"

You have a couple more months of the 360 tour left. What is the mission statement for the remaining dates?

 

The Edge: We'd like to finish the show. We'd like to get it to the place that we want it to be. The final one or two shows, I'm sure, is where we'll fully realize the 360 Tour. I think Dylan wrote, "He not busy being born is busy dying." This show is still being born, even if it's two years in.

 

Adam was saying that you're at the point where it's impossible to imagine the next tour. He can't wrap his mind around starting another one.

 

I say it will be a while before anyone wants to think about it, but I'm sure the next time we go out, it will be quite different. That, I'm pretty confident about, but what that might be, there really is no clue at this point.

 

Not that long ago you let go of the idea of getting out an album before this set of dates.

Yeah. I think we all understand that we'd probably have to tour another album, so I wouldn't rule out the possibility of early next year, but thinking practically, I imagine that Bono's right – probably next fall.

 

I saw a bunch of shows early on in the tour, but this show feels like a whole new thing.

 

It's changed quite a bit since the first show, and I think there's a whole bunch of new songs we're playing, and that's the way it always goes with us. The minute a show actually gets to a place where it's reached a peak, it's like we immediately want to start planning for something new, because we just get bored. It just gets stale so quickly for us that we can't really let it become static.

 

How has it been to work in the face of of the negativity surrounding the Spider-Man musical?

 

I don't really care that much about the negative media. In this instance, we were the junior partners and composers, but not the director and not the producer. We really didn't have that much significant input or control over the way things went. But we did realize there were problems. The show was actually a good show, it just wasn't great. It didn't quite work as a story. Some aspects of it were amazing. Some journalists called it one of the worst Broadway shows ever, and I think that's complete nonsense. But was it where it needed to be? No, it wasn't. So I didn't have any complaints with the bad reviews. I was furious, mind you, that they all showed up virtually the same day. That raised a few eyebrows.

 

 

 

 

 

RollingStone.com

Edited June 10, 201114 yr by Sacramento

U2's Bono to face tax protest at Glastonbury

 

 

NO prizes for guessing why Bono, the lead singer of U2, might not be looking forward to the band's headline gig at Glastonbury next week.

"Saint" Bono, champion of Africa's poor, is to be shown up as a little bit of a hypocrite.

 

As his band strike up, they will be greeted not just by applause but by a giant banner reading: "Bono Pay Up!" Protesters also plan to wave bundles of oversized fake cash to represent the money lost to the Irish exchequer through the group's tax avoidance - and by extension, to the developing world. <_<

 

"This isn't just about having a dig at someone. Christian Aid estimates that $ 160 billion - more than the total global aid budget - is lost through unpaid tax each year," says Philip Goff, founder of Art Uncut, which is organising the protest.

 

"The way people like U2 arrange their affairs puts pressure on the Irish government and governments around the world to lower their tax rates and try to undercut each other's rates, the result being less money for schools and hospitals or overseas aid."

 

Bono, 51, has become as famous for his work as a humanitarian and philanthropist as for his music. Less well known, though, is that when Ireland ended its zero-rate tax for artists in 2006 - instead charging tax on any earnings above $250,000 a year - U2 shifted part of their business to Holland to lessen the tax burden.

 

U2's explanation is that the band do 95 per cent of their business outside Ireland. "But I'd like to know what their motivation was," says Goff. "Did they not approve of the Irish government's decision?"

 

Goff, 32, an academic at Hertfordshire University, admits that until recently tax avoidance was "the province of socialist vicars".

 

"Most people don't understand tax," he says. "What the recent protests by UK Uncut have been amazingly successful in doing is showing people that there is a direct relationship between money lost through tax avoidance by the rich and cuts in services.

 

"People get passionate about cutting aid budgets, but they don't think about tax and it's so important. Ultimately, if we're going to allow poor countries to develop, they are going to have to get tax from profits that are made by homegrown businesses and we need to lead by example. Tax isn't a sideshow; it is a crucial aid issue."

 

UK Uncut (Art Uncut is an offshoot) began its protests in response to the coalition's $124 billion, four-year program of cuts in public services. It claims that tax avoidance by corporations and the rich outstrips that budget, amounting to $146 billion a year.

 

Protesters staged sit-ins at Vodafone and Boots stores and invaded Fortnum & Mason as well as Topshop, owned by Sir Philip Green. His wife, Tina, who received a $1.8 billion dividend from his company in 2005, lives in the tax haven of Monaco. "All the emphasis in the government's plans to tackle the deficit seems to be on benefits," says Goff.

 

"It may be that pounds 1.5 billion a year is lost on benefit fraud, but even a conservative estimate of tax avoidance is pounds 42 billion.

 

"I recently heard a banker argue that the way to deal with this is to lower tax rates so people won't want to avoid taxes. Imagine if someone suggested we put up benefits so people wouldn't feel the need to make wrongful claims."

 

He cites JK Rowling as a multi-millionairess who could teach Bono a thing or two about social responsibility. The author of the Harry Potter books wrote before last year's election about why she was not a tax exile. When she had been a poor, single mother, the welfare state had supported her. "I cannot help feeling, therefore, that it would have been contemptible to scarper for the West Indies at the first sniff of a seven-figure royalty cheque," she wrote. "This, if you like, is my notion of patriotism."

 

The Glastonbury protest is Art Uncut's first big event, part of a Bono Pay Up! weekend. "We do have other individuals in mind with ethically suspect tax affairs," Goff says. He hopes socially conscious artists will offer their services and Art Uncut will attract people who are sympathetic but might never take part in a sit-in.

 

"I've got friends who are never going to go on a march. Actually, I'm not much good at direct action myself," admits Goff. "The first protest I went on was the Topshop one and I was terrified. Everyone was shouting 'Pay your tax' and I'm English and self-conscious and I had to force myself to do it. But I did it, because I believe it's right."

 

 

 

Source..The Irishtimes and the australian.com

From

http://www.nme.com/news/u2/57410

 

June 18, 2011 15:18

 

 

 

U2's The Edge barred from building Malibu mansion complex

 

Guitarist wants to build five 'environmentally sustainable' homes on Pacific coast

 

 

 

U2's The Edge has failed in a bid to build several mansions overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Malibu.

 

The guitarist - real name David Evans - has been battling to win approval from Californian officials since buying the 156-acre plot of land in 2005.

 

He has claimed that the mansions would be environmentally sustainable, and would include features such as solar panels, on-site electrical vehicle charging facilities and a rainwater catchment system.

 

However, the Californian Coastal Commission voted 8-4 to block the project at a meeting on Thursday (June 16), citing concerns from environmentalists that the mansions would blight the coastline.

 

A spokeswoman for The Edge told Reuters that he is considering a lawsuit to get the project going again.

 

"We'd like to be treated fairly, like any other applicant that comes before the Coastal Commission," she said.

 

U2 are due to headline Glastonbury on Friday (June 24), with Coldplay (25) and Beyonce (26) topping the bill on the Pyramid Stage on the following nights.

Bono Gives Thanks To Surgeons Who Fixed His Back

 

Rocker Bono has publicly thanked the German surgeons who mended his back last year (10) and gave him a new lease of life.

 

The U2 frontman was forced to scrap a series of U2 shows last summer (11), including a headlining slot at Britain's Glastonbury festival, after rupturing a spinal disc during a horrible fall.

 

He spent months in hospital and underwent extensive physiotherapy and the rocker is now more thankful than ever to be taking the stage again after briefly fearing he would never be able to perform again.

 

While rehearsing for the 2011 Glastonbury festival, the hitmaker has been making light of his scary injury, jokingly referring to himself as "Robo-Bono".

 

And in video footage captured by The Sun, he says, "So - Bono 2.0. Through the wonders of science I'm not just fixed, I'm better. Last year I came out of surgery in Munich and it went very well. If it hadn't then things could have been very different for me."

 

 

Source...contactmusic.com

Deluxe reissue U2 Atchung Baby

 

 

It’s become apparent that the music of the ’90s will haunt us forever, in good and bad ways. For instance, this year both U2′s Achtung Baby and Nirvana’s Nevermind are celebrating their 20th Anniversaries. This should make many of you feel old. To help soothe your drying skin and failing memory, both are getting deluxe reissue treatments: Nevermind pops up in September (9/19 in the UK and 9/20 in North America) as a 4-CD/1-DVD “Super Deluxe Edition” via Universal: The CDs will include previously unreleased recordings, rarities, b-sides, BBC radio appearances, alternative mixes, rare live recordings and an unreleased concert in its entirety on DVD.” You can keep watch for additional events and releases at nirvana.com. As far as U2, they’re also going big with a reissue of Achtung as well as documentation of its related “Zoo TV Tour” and a reissue of the 1993 followup Zooropa. As Rolling Stone notes:

It’s likely there will be separate reissues of Achtung Baby and Zooropa, along with a deluxe box set that incorporates both albums as well as video and/or audio from Zoo TV [...] The band is also working on a U2 app for the iPad and other tablets that could be involved with the releases.

 

The group recently filmed a new performance of songs from the period in a Canadian theater, reportedly for use in a documentary directed by Davis Guggenheim, who worked with the Edge on the guitar doc It Might Get Loud. The band has also discovered substantial unseen footage from the early Nineties. “We were filming everything,” says [u2's manager Paul] McGuinness. “There’s a lot of material that has never really been seen, and seeing it will be quite startling.

 

 

Source...Stereogum.com

Edited June 24, 201114 yr by Sacramento

Oooooh my fav album :w00t: :w00t: :w00t:

U2 concert in Montreal: Band gives family front row seats

 

U2 was in Montreal over the weekend for some of the biggest shows the city has seen. With two knock out performances the band played to 160,000 fans who showed up for a special evening with the global band. For one family who had good tickets, the band gave them the best spot equal to front row seats.

 

The Green family came to see the band's performance with their three kids for the first time. Jamie, the proud papa had the entire family wear shirts that said 'My First U2 Concert.' While the placement of the family had the kids with not such a good view, the kids had a view on the shoulders of their parents just to check out the show.

 

The white shirts with black and red lettering were easy to spot over the crowd of heads watching the show and someone on the U2 crew saw the shirts. In what could be a once in a lifetime moment, the entire family were moved from those good seats in general seating to a section 122. So close that Jamie Green said he could see Bono sweat.

 

The U2 shows were a bigger success than anyone could have imagined in Montreal. While the first evening had public transportation problems and there was some rain for fans to contend with, the police reported there were no major issues for the 80,000 fans on Saturday.

 

 

 

 

Entertainmentgather.com

Edited July 11, 201114 yr by Sacramento

From

http://www.nme.com/news/u2/57929

 

 

NME.COM First For Music News

 

July 11, 2011 11:59

 

U2 manager Paul McGuinness has claimed that the "age of free" and illegal downloading of music is coming to an end.

 

In a column written for The Daily Telegraph, he welcomed internet service providers (ISPs) in North America for "taking on obligations to stop copyright thefts on their networks" as "good news", and insisted that the move from illegitimate to legal methods of purchasing music "will happen over time".

 

McGuinness, who has managed U2 since the start of their career, was writing in response to the news that some of the US’s biggest ISPs are set to introduce a system of "copyright alerts" with the music and film industries, which will urge broadband users "away from piracy towards downloading and streaming music from legitimate services". There will also be the prospect of "deterrent sanctions for those who repeatedly ignore the warnings."

 

 

He compared the new system to the ones currently used in France, South Korea and New Zealand, and also suggested that the UK, which recently passed its Digital Economy Act, would "go down a similar route."

 

McGuinness, who has been campaigning on this issue for the past three years and has previously called for ISPs to help stop illegal downloading, said: "This has been agonisingly slow in coming, but it is an important step forward in the international debate over music in the digital age. The idea of ISPs taking on obligations to stop copyright theft on their networks is moving into the mainstream."

 

He also claimed that "fighting free with free" was not a viable route to combating illegal downloading, and said that services such as Spotify and We7 had "not much hope of long-term success".

 

"For some years, 'fighting free with free' seemed the answer to all our problems," he said. "Today, that honeymoon is over. Spotify, in many countries the champion of the free-to-consumer music streaming service, is now cutting back on its free offering. It is trying to migrate its fans into payers, offering a £10 monthly subscription. That is a huge challenge."

 

U2 recently headlined Glastonbury festival, with singer Bono admitting that he felt "sick with nerves" before taking to the stage at Worthy Farm.