Bono’s star-studded famine commercial has been banned from airing on U.K. TV – because broadcasting officials fear the clip breaches rules regarding political advertising.
The U2 rocker shot the minute-long advert with a slew of his celebrity pals, including George Clooney, Jessica Alba and Colin Farrell, to raise awareness about the famine crisis sweeping across Eastern Africa.
The F Word: Famine is the Real Obscenity, which was produced by Bono’s One charity, is aimed at urging government officials to do more to tackle the hunger issue, but the TV commercial has now been taken off the airwaves by bosses at governing body Clearcast amid worries its message could potentially conflict with the terms stated in the 2003 Communications Act.
A Clearcast spokesperson tells BBC News, “These rules ensure that adverts aren’t being broadcast by bodies whose objects are wholly or mainly political.”
“One (charity) appears to be caught by this rule as they state that part of their raison d’etre (reason for existence) is to pressure political leaders. It also appears that a number of the claims made in the version of the ad that we have seen are directed towards a political end, which is again against the rules.”
Music is my lifeblood. It’s a plain and simple fact. From Bowie to The Cure to Nirvana to U2 and well beyond, I listen to a very eclectic group of genres. However, I’m no longer a consumer of music like I was in my post-college years. I still “listen” to newer bands, but have not been very impressed with recent releases. The last time we had a major shift change in music was in 1991.
Call me old, but is was a vintage year. I believe it was the last great year of musical releases. R.E.M., The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana and U2 all put out records that changed music and all of those works have stood the test of time.
There haven’t been too many runs since then that have made such an impact. Yes, I may be naïve to the fact that other great albums have come out, indie or otherwise, and changed the world, but these were commercial releases.
Releases that took risks, bore their soul and stood out of the crowd. Of the three, Out of Time by R.E.M. is the weakest. I would call it a filler album in R.E.M.’s catalog as they began to wander through their Warner Brothers contract. Not so with The Red Hot Chili Peppers whose work on Blood, Sex, Sugar, Magic stands tall amongst others in their catalog. It’s their brilliant masterpiece, which was aided by producer Rick Rubin. Another producer, Butch Vig, worked with a little known Seattle band, Nirvana, who would make as much of an impact on the musical world as the Sex Pistols did 14 years earlier, with their album Nevermind. Added to the mix was the debut release of Pearl Jam’s Ten, which aided in exploding the flannel wearing Seattle grunge scene into the musical landscape of America at the time. And then came Achtung Baby, U2’s long awaited release.
For this U2 fan, Achtung Baby was one of the most anticipated albums. We had no Internet back in 1991. One had to stay in touch with “someone in the know” in order to get release information. My insider worked for Rose Records here in Chicago.
I can still remember the day I bashfully set foot into her store looking for answers to my questions about U2. I had not heard news of them for a while and feared that they may have split up. I would have been heart broken if that had happened. I walked into Rose Records on Sherman Avenue, in Evanston, on a late spring day in 1991.
I asked the store clerk about U2. She asked me if I was a fan. I said yes and she proceeded to review her cluttered surroundings for a release list. Her search ended with success. She gave me the date and then introduced herself as Phyllis. She became my “someone in the know” as she settled the unease in my stomach.
I was now filled with anticipation. What I wasn’t prepared for was how much of a metamorphosis would take place in Hansa Studio where the Irish quartet initially recorded the album.
On the day of the U2 release and with a mouth full of Novocain, I bought the newly minted U2 disc and headed home with wariness and excitement. I put the CD into my player with trepidation. I turned off all the lights in my apartment and let the gray, overcast sky outside my window blanket my room. What seeped out of my stereo moments later was something so different and transformative that I asked myself if this was still U2.
I would come to learn that Bono and Edge were knee deep into the Manchester dance sound.
Those influences can be heard on Even Better Than the Real Thing and Mysterious Ways. By the end of the first run through of the disc, including a couple song repeats, I wanted to hear it again. U2, like Nirvana and all of the other releases that year, were transforming music. The likes of which have not been seen since.
U2 fans have a special love for Steve Jobs. It was October 26, 2004 when Apple introduced the IPOD U2 Special Edition as part of a partnership between Apple, U2 and Universal Music Group (UMG) to create innovative new products together for the new digital music era.
The new U2 iPod holds up to 5,000 songs and featured a gorgeous black enclosure with a red Click Wheel and custom engraving of U2 band member signatures.
“U2 and Apple has a special relationship where they redefined the music business,” said Jimmy Iovine, Chairman of UMG’s Interscope Geffen A&M Records. “The iPod along with iTunes is the most complete thought that we’ve seen in music in a very long time.”
“We want our audience to have a more intimate online relationship with the band, and Apple can help us do that,” said Bono. iPod and iTunes look like the future to me and it’s good for everybody involved in music,” said The Edge.
“U2 is one of the greatest bands in the world and we are floored to be working with them,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We just wanted to make some innovative products together, and we hope U2 fans will love having their very own special edition iPod.”
U2 Ipod Limited Edition
The new U2 iPod was introduced as the band prepared to release their new album “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” in late November. In addition to the new U2 iPod, the results of the U2, Apple and UMG partnership included:
• U2’s single “Vertigo” from their upcoming album “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” is available exclusively in the US through the iTunes® Music Store;
• Apple and U2 have created a breakthrough television ad featuring U2 band members performing their new single “Vertigo.” The ad is a cross between Apple’s award-winning “Silhouette” ads and a music video; and
• Apple has created the online music industry’s first-of-its-kind “Digital Box Set.” The first digital box set, “The Complete U2,” will contain over 400 tracks including all of the band’s albums and over 25 rare and unreleased tracks. U2 fans where able to purchase and download The Complete U2 with just one click on the iTunes Music Store in the US and Europe.
How many of you own a copy of Achtung Baby ? You could own the Vinyl, CD, or Digital copy at least once over the last couple of years. So when you heard about the release or we call it a reissue you really had only one major question right ? Well the bonus stuff is pretty interesting and of course we will provide you the full details of everything that is avialable on all verisions. Check out our special Achtung Baby section which will break down everything for you.
For example: Extremely limited numbered Uber Deluxe Edition is a magnetic puzzle tiled box contains six CDs including the original Achtung Baby album, the follow-up album, Zooropa, b-sides and re-workings of previously unheard material recorded during the Achtung Baby sessions. Four DVDs including “From The Sky Down”, Zoo TV, all the videos from Achtung Baby plus bonus material. Also includes five clear seven inch vinyl singles in their original sleeves, 16 art prints taken from the original album sleeve, an 84-page hardback book, a copy of Propaganda magazine, four badges, a sticker sheet, and a pair of Bono’s trademark “The Fly” sunglasses. Band members sold separately.
Song Highlight:
“One“ It is the third track from their 1991 album Achtung Baby, and it was released as the record’s third single in March 1992. During the album’s recording, conflict arose between the band members over the direction of U2’s sound and the quality of their material. Tensions almost prompted the band to break up, until guitarist The Edge composed a chord progression that inspired the group to improvise the song, which was written as a ballad. The band worked on the mix for “One” throughout the remainder of the album’s sessions. The lyrics, written by lead singer Bono, describe fracturing interpersonal relationships, but they have been interpreted in other ways.
“One” was released as a benefit single, with proceeds going towards AIDS research. The song reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart and number ten on the Billboard Hot 100, and it topped the US Billboard Album Rock Tracks and Modern Rock Tracks charts. In promotion of the song, the band had several music videos filmed, although they were not pleased until the third video was created.
The song has since been acclaimed as one of the greatest songs of all time, and it is consistently featured in listener and critic polls. The song has been played by U2 at every one of their tour concerts since the song’s live debut in 1992, and it has appeared in many of the band’s concert films. In a live setting, “One” is often used by the band to promote human rights or social justice causes, and the song lends its namesake to Bono’s charitable organization, the ONE Campaign. In 2006, U2 re-recorded the song as part of a duet with contemporary R&B singer Mary J. Blige.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” trailer was just released. On a U2 song, we are introduced to the life of a family who lost a member in the 9/11 tragedy. Tom Hanks, Thomas Horn and Sandra Bullock walk us around the Central park and the World Trade Center Towers, offering a glimpse of the action.
“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” is a drama movie which tells the story of a boy who is only nine years old, but who is already an inventor, a jewelry designer and a tambourine player and is confronted with a tragedy. His father died in the 9/11 attacks. Now, he found a key he does not know anything about but the fact that it matches a mysterious lock somewhere. He goes in search of the lock in the hope that he will find out what it hides and that maybe it has something to do with his father. A significant detail is that, in fact, it was his father who gave him the key, prior to the day of his death.
The movie is adapted from the book with the same title, written by Eric Roth and Jonathan Safran Foer. In the book, the boy, Oskar Schell discovers the key in a vase in his home. The action starts two years after his father’s death in September11, 2001.
At the beginning of every October, I play this track. I don’t know why, but I just do. The song is a haunting song, consisting of 26 words and two themes.
The first theme has to do with death. Obviously, it’s Bono’s reflection of a tree losing its leaves, which I think is a metaphor about losing his mother. The mother I feel he is speaking of is Mother Nature, stripping us bear of our emotional being as we take on winter. As I listen to the track, I envision a heavy, grey sky above me, almost suffocating. A lone tree, away from the forest on the horizon, stands naked before me.
The image is not in color but in high contrast black and white. The starkness reminds me of those days trekking across the University of Iowa campus as fall slipped into winter. Harsh wind, howling through the through the streets flanked by buildings made of brick and limestone, wisps dry leaves from unsecured spot to another.
The second theme spoken here is one of kingdoms and very little has been said about this other that it may be a reference to the Russian revolution. It’s interesting how these two themes meet in this song, especially when the band was still in their religious phase as the album October was being worked on. Kingdoms could also loosely refer to the Kingdom of God or Jerusalem or Babylon or Rome for that matter. Yet, it is has been said that Bono was reflecting on the Bolshevik October uprising and how that intertwines with the emotions of losing a mother is the biggest mystery here.
I will say this, October, for this U2 fan, has been the biggest month of my life. I saw th Irish quartet in concert for the first time on October 20th, 1987. I was just a sophomore in college at the University of Iowa when Bono et al came to Iowa City to play on the Joshua Tree tour. Our campus wasn’t on the initial tour schedule. We got the show by default thanks to the University of Northern Iowa not allowing the band to set-up their outdoor stage.
It was a stroke of luck that they came and played Carver Hawkeye Arena on that foggy night where trees were stripped bare of all they wore much like in the song. A year later, I relived my Joshua Tree tour experience when the band released Rattle & Hum on compact disc. It would be another three Octobers before their next release, Achtung Baby, and I waited them out – patiently and impatiently.
Eric Shivvers is the author of I’m a Fan: How I married U2 into my life without going to the altar. You may find him on Facebook: I’m a U2 fan or on Twitter: @iamau2fan. His book is available at Amazon.com.
Larry Mullen Jr and Donald Sutherland / Man on the Train The English-language remake of Patrice Leconte’s award-winning French film of the same name, Man on the Train stars Donald Sutherland and musician Larry Mullen, Jr. in his acting debut.
A mysterious criminal (Mullen Jr.) rolls into a small town planning to knock off the local bank, assuming it will go off without a hitch. But when he encounters a retired poetry professor (Sutherland), his plans take an unlikely turn. With no place to stay, the professor generously welcomes him into his home. As the two men talk, a bond forms between these two polar opposites, and surprising moments of humor and compassion emerge. As they begin to understand each other more, they each examine the choices they’ve made in their lives, secretly longing to live the type of lifestyle the other man has lived, based on the desire to escape their own.
A superb re-make of Patrick Leconte’s 2002 film, Man on the Train is a scrumptiously literate character drama. Starring Donald Sutherland and Larry Mullen, Jr., this well-crafted entertainment’s appeal will be to a mature, intelligent demographic.
In this re-incarnation, Sutherland stars as a retired literature professor, who, in his own parlance, seems cut out of the mold of J. Alfred Prufrock. Throughout his cautious life, he’s been a man who did not “dare to eat a peach.” Refined and restrained, he lives alone in the posh home his mother left him. Amid his books and protected by his reserve, he is, as Eliot’s poem goes, “full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse.”
The stale professor, however, is stirred by a chance meeting with his psychological and professional opposite, a laconic criminal (Mullen) who rides into town on a train. This mystery man is in cahoots to rob the local bank, the very day that the Professor is to have heart surgery. Opposites do attract in this witty character study as the Professor takes in the itinerant to stay a few days in his comfy manse.
Their polar differences spark a friendship: Each learns from the other’s point-of-view and way-of-life. Under Mary McGuckian’s perceptive hand, we’re treated to an unlikely personal bonding of two divergent personalities.
Man on the Trainis a ripe illumination, buoyed by the sterling lead performances of Sutherland and Mullen. Sutherland lays out the rich inner life of a man who holds disappointment for the cautious existence he has maintained. Wondrously, the uneducated blunt stranger’s probes and blunt observations jolt the professor from his self-constraining views. From this uneducated bloke, he becomes aware that, in his own way, he has led a rich life, albeit manifested by his inner being.
In exchange, the detached professor enriches the straightforward criminal to an alternate appreciation of life, as well.
Cinematographer Stefan von Bjorn’s silken hues and production designer Jennifer Carroll’s vibrant furnishings are precisely right for this full-bodied film.
Venue: Cannes Film Festival Based on the 2002 Patrick Leconte film Cast: Donald Sutherland, Larry Mullen, Jr., Paula Boudreau, Graham Greene, Kate O’Toole, Greg Byrk, Samuel Jephcott
October has been a music industry month. Releases from all your favorite bands have been scheduled for October. You have heard the term Rocktober. What’s so special about October.
U2 fans know that October has some special meaning. We thought we would celebrate October with a new selection.
October will be U2 authors month. Yes if you have written a story about U2, U2 fans or about your experience and have a published book we want to share your work with U2 fans around the world.
Contact us this week September 26 - 28th to be selected. You will be offered a weekly or daily byline where you can share your work and gain some new found support for your work.
Currently we are interested in the written word, however we will consider photo collections, audio collections for the next phase of the project. We request all work to be submitted by the orginal writer. You will retain all rights to your book, story.
Don’t worry if you don’t have images, or web skills our crafty team will create everything for you. All you need to do is write. We look forward to reading your submissions and wish you all a very happy U2tober.
Please send all submissions to our editor in chief directly. We will do our best to contact every submission. However we will be contacting approved submissions first. Please submit all work during the week of September 26th -
Guidines: Submissions should be no more than 5000 englsh words or translated into english with the orginal lanaguage included. All work needs to be provided by the orginal writter.
Writters with a agent or part of a publishing house will need to have approval from their team prior to submissions.
Indpendent writters can submit without publishing house or agent engagements. If you have questions please submit them.
This is not a contest, no prizes will be awarded and all web content will be copy right retained by the author.
