Larry Mullen Jr & Juliette Binoche

Larry Mullen Jr and Irish actress Maria Doyle Kennedy (Downtown Abbey) have joined the cast of Erik Poppe’s ‘A Thousand Times Good Night’, which began shooting in Dublin last week.

They join a previously announced cast that includes French actress Juliette Binoche and Danish ‘Game of Thrones’ actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. Young Irish actress Lauryn Canny has also been cast as Binoche’s daughter Steph.

The role is the second acting job for U2 drummer Mullen, whose first film role was in Irish director Mary McGuckian’s ‘Man on the Train’ with Donald Sutherland in 2011.

‘A Thousand Times Good Night’ is inspired by Poppe’s own experiences as a war photographer. It tells the story of a photographer, Rebekka, who is torn between the job and the family she loves.

Binoche and Coster-Waldau play the photographer and her husband, while Mullen Jr and Kennedy play their best friends in the drama, which will move to Morrocco following a five-week shoot in Dublin.

‘A Thousand Times Goodnight’ has been written by Harald Rosenløw Eeg and is a co-production between Ireland’s Newgrange Pictures, Paradox in Norway and Zentropa International Sweden.

Jackie Larkin and Lesley McKimm will produce for Newgrange alongside Norwegian-based Finn Gjerdrum and Stein Kave for Paradox.

The feature’s budget is reportedly around €5m with the project having been offered €300,000 from the Irish Film Board in the last round of funding. The Norwegian Film Institute is also supporting the feature.

Medicore New Album Blues

Has U2 been overly candid during their last interview? ‘We realized people who want exciting, revolutionary, important music aren’t buying latter-day U2 albums are they?’ said Bono

Comments from The Edge "it’s the least adventurous album we’ve ever made’ he said. "Over the last few albums I’ve added more and more guitar pedals to find new sounds, the pedals were beginning to look like a keyboard." Asked about his lyrical direction on this release, Bono blows a raspberry  and laughs while the rest of the band make armpit fart noises. ‘Really now’ says Bono ‘if you’re concerned about my lyrical direction then I’m concerned about you.

We can only assume that this was an interview that strayed from the stated promotional machine course, it clearly make no fucking sense that the boys would be doing any interviews prior to a release announcement.

Hey who the fuck are we to say what is real or not. We call Bullshit on this interview.  

Adam Tries to Exit Eldorado

For many years, the twin towers of the Eldorado on Central Park West have been a quiet refuge for Bono and Adam.

Bono, sold his co-op there in 2008 after buying a bigger apartment farther down the street. Now Adam Clayton, has put his own three-bedroom co-op at the Eldorado on the market for $8.695 million.

The listing, by Emma and Michael Kerins of Halstead Property, shows a large co-op on the fourth floor with a 38-foot-long gallery, a formal dining room and seven large windows facing Central Park.

That large space was re-created by Mr. Clayton. During weaker times when the apartment was a rental, it had been chopped up into two separate units.

Mr. Clayton bought them in two transactions in the early 1990s and recombined them, according to Linda Reiner, a broker at Warburg Realty, who has lived at the Eldorado for three decades.

One apartment was purchased for $620,000 in 1993 and the other went for $430,000 the following January, according to transaction records compiled by Jonathan Miller an appraiser and president of Miller Samuel Inc.

The co-op was listed without fanfare earlier this month by Ms. Kerins, who declined to discuss it. A representative of U2 referred a caller to Ms. Kerins.

When Mr. Clayton renovated, he modified the apartment's original layout. He eliminated one small bedroom in what had been a four-bedroom apartment to create a master-bedroom suite, with a large bathroom and a 9-by-10-foot dressing room.

Two maids' rooms were replaced with a 22-foot-long eat-in kitchen with a butler's pantry.

Lawson the next U2 ?

Lawson admitted that they like to compare themselves to U2 because they are a "real band" who play their own instruments but make pop music.

When asked who they compare themselves to, the band's Joel Peat told BANG Showbiz: ''U2. They're a proper playing band playing pop music. Even though they're rocking out and stuff, it's still pop music at the end of the day.''

Lawson, which also includes Adam Pitts, Andy Brown and Ryan Fletcher, have supported a variety of acts including The Wanted and Bruce Springsteen, and are now confident in their ability to work a crowd.

Adam added: "We're a band. We can rock out even though we play quite poppy music, but when we do a live show, it's a rock show.''

Lawson were originally called The Grove, but changed their name in honour of Doctor Lawson, the man who treated Andy, 25, after he was diagnosed with a brain tumour when he was just 19 years old.

Andy explained he still suffers as a result, adding: ''I'm deaf in one ear. The only really worry is that I really have to protect my good ear 'cause if I damage that then I'll be deaf by the time I'm 40.''

A Little Rattle A Little Hum

Rattle and Hum (10 Oct, 1988)

Track List

1. Helter Skelter Lyrics
2. Van Diemen's Land Lyrics
3. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For Lyrics
4. Pride (In The Name Of Love) Lyrics
5. Desire Lyrics
6. Hawkmoon 269 Lyrics
7. Bullet The Blue Sky Lyrics
8. All Along The Watchtower Lyrics
9. Silver & Gold Lyrics
10. Freedom For My People Lyrics
11. Angel Of Harlem Lyrics
12. Love Rescue Me Lyrics
13. When Love Comes To Town Lyrics
14. Heartland Lyrics
15. God Part II Lyrics
16. The Star Spangled Banner Lyrics
17. All I Want Is You Lyrics

Rattle and Hum is the sixth studio album by rock band U2 and its companion rockumentary directed by Phil Joanou, both released in 1988. The film and the album feature live recordings, covers, and new songs. To a greater extent than on their previous album, The Joshua Tree, the band explores American roots music and incorporates elements of blues rock, folk rock, and gospel music in their sound. The motion picture was filmed primarily in the United States in late 1987 during The Joshua Tree Tour and it features their experiences with American music. Although Rattle and Hum was intended to represent the band paying tribute to rock legends, some critics accused U2 of trying to place themselves amongst the ranks of these artists. While critical reception was mixed, the album was a commercial success, reaching the number one spot in several countries and selling 14 million copies. The album has also sold over one million copies in the US, and is certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA (each unit of Rattle and Hum is counted as two copies, because it is a double album).

“What other band in our position would learn the chords of ‘All Along The Watchtower’ five minutes before they went on-stage, play it live and record it ? No-one.’”

— Bono

Promotional  Release​

Rattle and Hum​ Flight Case Promo
Desire Promo Single
Angel of Harlem Promo Single
When Love Comes to Town Promo
All I Want is You Promo Single God Part II Promo Single
U2 2 Date Promo
3D Dance Mixes Promo
Excerpts from Rattle and Hum Promo​

​Liner Notes

All live recording by Remote Recording Services (The Black Truck) operated by David Hewitt with Phil Gitomer, Fritz Lang, J.B. Matteotti. Additional Engineers Don Smith, Rob Jacobs, Randy Staub, Bob Vogt and Marc De Sisto,assistant engineers Brian Scheuble, Ethan Johns. Additional overdubbing at Conway Recording with assistants Richard McKernan and GaryWagner. 

Mastered by Arnie Acosta, A&M Mastering Studios/LA. Studio Crew: Sam O'Sullivan, Cheryl Engels, Fraser McAlister, Des Broadbery. Music Production Co-Ordinator: Fregg McCarty. Product and Art Co-Ordinator: Anne-Louise Kelly. Principle Management : New York Director: Ellen Darst, Keryn Kapan, Sheila Roche, Debbie Bernadini. Dublin Director: Anne-Louise Kelly, Barbara Galavan, Suzanne Doyle, Jackie Bennett, Cecilia Coffey, Brigid Mooney, Cillian Guidear, Marc Coleman. Camp Commandant: John Clark Tour Manager: Dennis Sheehan. Assistant to Dennis Sheehan: Theresa Pesco.

Walk On, Hallelujah !

On its 2001 Elevation Tour, U2 sold out arenas and stadiums around the world, using in the process a surprising amount of religious imagery. The band usually closed with “Walk On,” a song from, All That You Can’t Leave Behind. Toward the end of the song, Bono would shout “Unto the Almighty, thank you!” and lead the crowd in a chorus of hallelujahs.

“And kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall”

— October

U2 does not seem to care whether churches accept the band. Over the years, U2 has grown uncomfortable with organized religion, calling church life “claustrophobic” and blaming Christianity, at least in part, for dividing Ireland. “I have this hunger in me…. Everywhere I look, I see evidence of a Creator,” Bono has said. “But I don’t see it as religion, which has cut my people in two.”

The question of U2’s religious beliefs, and the ways band members have expressed them, is the subject of a 2001 book, Walk On—The Spiritual Journey of U2 (Relevant Books), by Steve Stockman, a Presbyterian minister in Ireland. Stockman mines U2 interviews and books about the band and its music to write a spiritual companion to the band’s career.

Stockman wrote that in U2’s early days in Dublin, Bono, The Edge and Mullen embraced a charismatic evangelical form of Christianity unusual then for Ireland. They found like-minded believers in a small group called the Shalom Fellowship. In the early 1980s, one of Shalom’s leaders declared that U2 would have to give up rock `n’ roll to please God.

It was a crossroads for the band, and after deciding that God would rather have them play rock music than stay in the fellowship, Bono, The Edge and Mullen left. Never again would any members of U2 be formally aligned with a religious group.

“For Bono, The Edge and Larry, the God that they met and have pilgrimaged with down the amazing road is a God who is bigger than church or religious boundaries,”(STOCKMAN)

Chirstmas as Rita's

​You know its a very slow U2 news day when all we have to report is that  U2 have just booked their yuletide bash for Cafe H, the Mediterranean restaurant, in Dublin's Grand Canal Plaza, owned by Rita Crosbie, Harry's wife.

Rushdie and Bono Friendship Lasts

Rushdie the writer of “Santanic Verses” has many friends, including Bono. Joseph Anton writes in his new memoir that Bono and Salman go back many years. The story goes that Bono even offered shelter and support while he was under fatwa issued by conservative Muslims in 1989.  Bono at one time managed to smuggle Salman out of Ali’s mansion in Killney, Dublin to head to the bar for a few pints, all this while his body guards unaware of his departure.  Rushdie enjoyed the freedom and was all too happy to drink a few pints of Guinness while enjoying the conversation with Bono.

During Zooropa tour Bono and the boys wanted to show support for Rushdie and extended an invite to him during their London stop. The two became friends from that point. Bono extending a hand out to Rushdie a few more times during which they talked about Bono wanting to grow as a writer.

Rushdie and Bono did collaborate on music. “The Ground Beneath Her Feet” was based on an earlier novel by Rushdie.  Just this past month Bono presented Rushie with GQ magazine’s Inspiration of the Year award.

Music provides the platform for the strangest of bedfellows.