The non-profit ONE campaign, which was co-founded by U2’s Bono, has come under fire over a series of lavish gifts sent to journalists.
The organisation sent items including a $15 moleskin leather notebook and a $20 bottle of water to New York newsrooms.
ONE aims to increase government funding for and effectiveness of international aid programs.
The gifts were timed to arrive ahead of the UN’s Summit on the Millennium Development Goals, which began yesterday (September 20).
According to the New York Post, all of the packages were delivered by courier. Other items included a small tin of Band-Aids and two syringe-style pens.
A spokeswoman for ONE declined to comment on how much money had been spent on the gifts, but said they were aimed to attract journalists’ attention.
“We think it’s important enough to try and break through the clutter,” she said. “That’s why we sent the boxes.”
Daniel Borochoff, from the the American Institute of Philanthropy in Chicago, said the PR drive as a “risk”.
U2Chile.net Reports South American Dates (Rumor)
U2Chile.net has reported on their web site 6 dates for a series of South American concerts.
March 25 & 26, 2011: Santiago, Chile
March 31 & April 1, 2011: Buenos Aires, Argentina
April 7 & 8, 2011: Sao Paolo, Brazil
This is not official. There’s been nothing confirmed by U2 or Live Nation.
Producer to Mentor American Idol Contestants
Legendary record producer Jimmy Iovine (U2, Tom Petty, Dire Straits) has signed on as official mentor to the contestants on American Idol.
Iovine is Chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M Records and his role is part of a new deal announced last month between Universal, 19 Entertainment and Idol creator Simon Fuller. The labels will market, promote and distribute CDs form the TV show’s finalists. Previously American Idol was affiliated with Sony.
The new season of American Idol will begin January 12, 2011 on Fox with new judges Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez and without Simon Cowell.
Brussels Goes Crazy !
Even the rain could not stop a second show that was above amazing. The biggest show in the world landed and the boys played to amazing shows. Bad made its appearance the fans over joyed sang along most of the night. The setlist has been posted and videos keep coming in from you. If you have videos of the show let us know and we will be glad to post them.
The band came to the scene with all stadium lights on, enlarged at the huge oval video screen. There was something mythical. While the band “Return of the stingray guitar bets, a scorching piece of spacey blues, Bono strolled around those” claw “, as it is called innovation stage.
Then the lights really went out and ‘Beautiful Day’ and ‘I will follow “the attack. These are fast songs with great guitar work and it did not cope with the klankman. The more rock guitars and industrial sounds in the sound emerged, and the faster the rhythm, the harder it was to U2 sounding good.
The setlist was predictable, but does not say anything. There was a serious difference between the way Bono “I Will Follow” which he sang and ‘Magnificent’ bets. That first song is to certify that the youth ideals remain intact. But ‘Magnificent’ is U2 now: four late forties (Bono is already 50) that so much money that they challenge the spiritually searching. The song was the first great moment of the evening.
Meanwhile, everyone was admiring the claw and all its glory. This wonderful little stage below that giant spider structure. This video screen that gave everyone a good view. The arrangement, which allowed you through the stage also saw sitting audience, which reinforced the feeling that we are all ‘one’ are.
Bono felt it after about a half hour time to the Belgian contribution to the spectacle of the flower to turn. “There are more Belgians participate in this show than any other nationality. Today, the claw home, “he said.
It was followed by an ecstatic moment of “I Still Have not Found What I’m looking for ‘, and then Bono wanted something else. With just guitar in support he sang ‘North Star’, a new little song that the stadium was too small musical. It was the beginning of an intimate part, but also the beginning of the world-improving part.
Nobody takes the blame Bono that he wants to reduce debt of poor countries, but there is a lot of frustration about his preacher attitude. From “In a little while” went the open box of tricks: the first boy from the audience, Frank De Winne from space, a sermon by Desmond Tutu, and finally, well into the gad, a patch ‘Amazing Grace’. To take or leave, but the concert was a different style.
Here it was still hard, with “Vertigo” and “I’ll go crazy, but it was the oerriff of ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ muddle-headedness that emerging weather knocked out the stadium for U2 U2 to do what is good at: the passion, melody, great faith.
The end of the concert, including a long bisronde, was back in the positive atmosphere, with euphoric singalongs like “One” and “With or Without You” into a “Moment of Surrender ‘to come. The ovation sounded long, loud and very intense.
Yes, it was a good concert. Pioneering in technology. Inspired spiritually. Volatile musical. Moderate to aural. Overwhelming as mass spectacle.
Mexican Pre-Sale Codes !
U2 are taking the 360° Tour to Mexico.
The U2 360° Tour will visit Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca on May 14th, 2011 - just over five years since the band last played in Mexico, on the Vertigo Tour in 2006.
From Friday, ahead of next week’s public onsale, U2.com subscribers can enter a special advance presale.
The subscriber presale for Group 1 (Horizon, Breathe, Magnificent, Boots) begins this Friday, September 24th at 11AM and is open until next Tuesday, September 28th, 10AM (local time).
You’ll be able to purchase up to FOUR TICKETS for the Estadio Azteca show in May in a single transaction.
We have two pre-sale Codes -
Bono's Special Video Message
Bono: “Here’s a thought to leave you with: By 2015, we could live in a world where no kids are born with HIV. The first born AIDS-free generation of our lifetime, by 2015. That’s a thought, right? Every day, 1,000 mothers give birth to a child with HIV. And it doesn’t have to be, so sign up to the ONE Campaign, choose RED, support your First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and the Global Fund. They’re here tonight. This is for them. Thank you, you’re our heroes.”
70K Brussel Fans in Ecstasy
Darkness fell upon Belgium as U2 began their first of two nights in Brussel. Tonights crowd which was about 70,000 fans had a chance to see the “The Claw” up close and personal. Kicking off the show was “Return Of The Stingray Guitar” some consider it to be a song rather than intro music we are yet to define it. For Brussells the first of two shows on this beautiful summer night as the band sang “Beautiful Day” it was clear that the fans came to party. So right away they seemed to be in pure ecstasy as the boy drove thru with “I will Follow”. Interpol started the night off as the crowds began a sort of Mexican Wave, as to say HOLA Mexico your tun is soon to come.
Boino Brussels U2TOURFANS U2 360 TOUR The band would play 25 songs. It was a festive outlook. But the atmosphere came mainly from the stage, with its walkways in the audience off and where singer Bono tirelessly trotted back and forth. He has always been a bit wild, but this was just athletics. In the audience, a mix of at least four generations, it was a party to any critical thought about the large footprint of this event obsolete.
For U2 singing titles like “Magnificent” and “Mysterious Ways’ and ‘Elevation’ only contiued to drive the fans to ecstasy.
Welkom U2 naar Brussel
BRUSSELS - The two concerts in Baudouin Stadium are much more than a musical event. This technology is the future of the live events.
Jake Berry shines. The production manager of the 360 ° tour expects to have nice weather in Brussels and he heard that today will be even better. The first U2 concert in Brussels will be perfect.
Behind him, on one half of football, is “the claw” up, colloquially known as the enormous stage. It is 65 meters wide, 27 meters high, with a “cigar” in the middle which, 45 meters high above the stadium overlooking Baldwin. Tonight, this bizarre structure, almost walked away from a comic strip, the main character in a U2 concert.
The 360 ° tour was launched last year in Barcelona and was immediately hailed as a revolutionary step for the live entertainment. “Bigger is not,” Berry put on a high chest. Somewhat misplaced, since the characteristic of U2 is that the ‘sky’ never ‘the limit’ is. The band always wants to evolve, innovate, continue.
Between Irish supergroup and some Flemish companies over the years has grown a warm story that both parties have pushed forward. The stages of Stageco have been used on pretty much all world tours since 1992, all U2 video screens made in Belgium, and every concert of the band live is portrayed by XL Video, from Ghent.
Frederic Opsomer Technologies of Tait is the man behind the innovative oval video screen, and fold-in and also transparent. Whether it’s been down more often than that for the first time in Barcelona, I ask him? “You’ll see tomorrow,” he grins. But seriously: “When that screen to expand the stage, this should be a moment of magic. The idea is that you will be surprised, not that spectacular a yo-yo is. “
Hedwig De Meyer, the patron of Stageco, hesitates, but calls “the claw” still “the strafste we ever did.” Special thanks to U2: “The producer Willie Williams showed me at the end of the Vertigo tour has a picture of a spider-like structure, asking if I could make such a stage.
That’s the good thing about that band. Of course U2 is a good customer, but he always asks again for a revolution. Live entertainment has become essential for the income bands and so we need to innovate, and it is good that such large developments help pay bands. “
The two Brussels concerts are the 16th and 17th in the second part of the European tour. Constant three stages on the road in Europe right now are the last parts in Paris again in one of forty trucks loaded, while the stage in San Sebastian is built to be ready by September 26.
Its steel structure is heavy and costs a lot to transport, but according to him, the greatest environmental nuisances caused by millions of fans who come to the concerts. That’s in line with what guitarist The Edge said. He thinks it is unfair to rock ‘n’ roll laden with sins that others commit regularly. Soccer Matches example.
Tonight U2 plays about 25 songs, interspersed with about half as many quotations from other songs. Except that the summer weather and music fans will carry, the main thrill in life, however, that anyone anywhere a good view of the live action, and to each other. The revolutionary 360 ° to the production is that a football stadium for concerts once a living place is slowly.
Both concerts were sold out. Interpol is the schedule.
Promoter Live Nation advises the public to carpool to and asked to come to Brussels.
U2 Comes to Mexico 2011
Just reported U2 360 Tour will visit Mexico CIty’s Estadio Azteca on May 14th 2011. It will be over 5 years since the boys have played in Mexico. Remember the Vertigo Tour of 2006. Tiickets will go on sale to Banamex Cardholders on Tuesday 28th at 11 am (local time) and the general public on Thursday September 30th at 11 am (local time)
U2.com subscribers can enter a special advance presale ahead of the public on Friday September 24th at 11:00 AM ( local time) Subscribers should watch their email for details on the whole pre-sale process.
(F)UCK BONO !
Fuck Bono the email starts off ! As I click to open the email send to our office late yesterday afternoon I wondered what the hell this was going to be about. You see its not the first time that in the millions of emails sent to our fan email box that we have someone posting their vents and making a statement. This one was different. This one really stirs up some interesting hate, anger and disrespect. We warned you in advance that this is an open letter to Bono. Colorful. We of course invite you to comment and speak up.
Dear Bono:
I find you to be nothing more than a mouth piece for your ownself. I really hate you. I saw you at the G8. You had the gall to knock our PM ‘cos he wouldn’t agree to meet you.
It’s not so much that Bono thinks he has the right to influence democratically-elected World leaders, but that he thinks he speaks for the conscience of everyone under 40. What a prat. (And his music’s shit!)
Bono does not speak for me. I wish I could take those annoying wrap-around shades of his and shove them up his pompous poo-hole. I truly despise the certainty that the policies of the world’s biggest economies have been swayed by this self-appointed tit.
I was thinking about writing this letter to tell you that your a fucking asshole the way you treat countries that do not agree with your views. Yea sure the world needs some improvement who the fuck are you to push your ideas on everyone. Your a guy playing in a fucking band. So fucking what asshole. You should give your music away at this point since you have said time and time again you have more money that you will ever need.
Now I did not write the 10 reasons to hate you and your band but shit they do read pretty fucking good.
1. They have a guy in their band named Larry.
2. They still haven’t found what they’re looking for? Would it kill them to ask a clerk?
3. “The Edge” sounds like a disposable BIC product.
4. How awful is Bono? If given the choice of sparing either Sting or him, we would actually have to think about it.
5. In the name of love? How about in the name of God?
6. Bono is an anagram of Nobo, Noob, and Pompous Dickhead.
7. They care so much it makes our teeth hurt like we’re chewing tinfoil.
8. If given the choice of sparing either Bono or Oprah, we would actually have to think about it.
9. James Joyce counseled his fellow Irishmen to adopt “silence, exile and cunning.” In Bono’s case, we’d have settled for the silence.
10. They’re going to be around forever, aren’t they? Like a turd stain on a gas station wall.
U2 Fans: What I find amazing about this letter is the fact that this person sat down and typed out all of this hate for one person. Also that he did do his homework to find some other people to share in his hate. We support the idea of freedom of expression however we can not publish letters that are harmful or suggest to harm anyone. We also have editoral right to slim down the language as we see fit - Dre
Julian Lennon and U2
Lennon says U2 approached him earlier this summer looking for a studio to finish some tracks. He offered at his 14th century home in the South of France. “The Edge came to me and said ‘Please take some pictures,” Lennon recalls. Displayed were several intimate black-and-white shots of the band: a close-up of Bono’s weathered-seeming face, a candid of Adam Clayton sitting alone on a white stairwell, and the Edge sitting in a booth on a plane, with a lyric sheet in front of him. “To a degree, it’s a side of the boys that hasn’t been seen before … I just didn’t want to get in the way,” Lennon said. “The moment I thought there was any heavy air, I would clear out.”
One of the most striking U2 shots is of Bono in the studio, sitting underneath a headshot of John Lennon in his early greaser days. “Initially, I called it a Lennon sandwich,” Julian said. “Now I call it ‘Someone to Look up to.’ Bono was there, and I look up to him, and he looks up to dad.” Lennon also shot the band onstage in Vienna in late August. “They’re mates, so if they’re on the road and I’m in the neighborhood, I’m there.”
Rolling Stone does not have any of the photos we are looking around for them.
96,000 French Fans Love U2
U2 in concert is always a great show, but yesterday the group reached the summit. At the Stade de France, with 96,000 persons, the public has experienced a great moment in rock tour 360 ° Tour of way for the third time in two years in Paris.
The group has not disappointed and Bono who had back problems showed that he was in great shape.
Previously, Bono had gone alone to the Elysee Palace to meet with Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni. They discussed the summit “Millennium” which takes place this weekend in New York. Bono also discussed efforts against AIDS with the first lady of France. And he specifically requested help more African populations affected by this scourge.
Interpol opened the show and played for about an hour. Fans screaming BONO, BONO it was pretty clear that that Paris was ready to be rocked. The setlist was pretty much the standard as the boys have settled into their show. Starting at 21:30 the intro pulls the fans from their seats that the crowd begins to swell as the Bono and the boys entered the stadium. The sound of the crowd was deafening, the walk in was pretty much a non event. Beautiful day starts off the 2 hour show. Bono is in great shape, the boys Adam Larry and The Edge all ready to take the French down a musical road of bliss.
“I Will Follow”, Get on Your Boots and Magnificent have the audience ecstatic and yet you can sense that the boys may be playing for something they have yet to find. North Star and Mercy should be considered as testing songs. We have heard that we can expect a release 2010 (Late)
The band followed with a moment of atmosphere. Militant first with the classic Sunday Bloody Sunday when Bono and his band were introduced a few words of Get Up Stand Up by Bob Marley. And the public has not hesitated to use these words to heart, the little Irish recalling that France was the country of Human Rights and should not be forgotten. Then came the moment when the stadium became the largest nightclub in the world. Chaining City Of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, and a remix of I’ll Go Crazy If I Do not Go Crazy Tonight.
The screens came down full length and it surprised many, as they chained some of their classics; One, Where The Streets Have No Names and With or Without You.
Before leaving, Bono asks the Stade de France to make a vow that by 2015 no child in the world are born with the AIDS virus, especially in poor countries…
We will always have Paris – As the Boys move forward in during this massive tour
Paris Show Starts
The shift began in the early 1990s with the Zoo TV tour Tour: the group that had previously built his career on stage benefits minimalist emphasis on wireless communication device with the audience began to give his shows in pride of place to latest technology. U2 became one company very big shows where the music was just one element among others.
In this genre, no one is more massive than themselves and their scene today to 360 degrees - the very one who baited the beginning of the break between Johnny and Jean-Claude Camus, Johnny accepting someone evil make greater than he - is, in itself a good reason to come see them tonight. Obviously, there’s always music, but it involves so many mixers and sound engineers that it is difficult to distinguish between what is actually live, which is remixed and what has been preregistered. This would have shocked the past, present, it is accepted without problem by a public that understands that the Irish group makes the junction between the classic rock of yesteryear and the technological, the twenty-first century.
U2 to reissue 'Achtung Baby'?
U2 could be set to reissue their 1991 album ‘Achtung Baby’.
According to singer-songwriter John Vanderslice, the Irish group’s seventh studio effort was being remastered in the next room to his in a Los Angeles studio.
“They’re remastering ‘Achtung Baby’ in next room,” he said on his Twitter page - Twittter.com/JohnVanderslice, before later asking his followers. “Any suggestions for witty opening salvos to drop on U2 crew when I barge in on ‘Achtung Baby’ remastering session?”
Confirmation on the reissue has yet to be announced, but a 2011 remastered edition of the LP would coincide with the 20th anniversary of it’s release in November 1991.
Peru, Argentina and Brazil Expect U2 in 2011
Peruvian fans are crossing their fingers and keeping hopes high about actually attending a U2 concert in Lima, since many rumors say that the famous Irish band may perform in Chile and Argentina during their Latin American tour.
As we have stated rumors keep coming in about next years possible shows in South America, we have yet to hear anything offical. The rumor suggests that March 31st could be the date for Argentina. Which than makes way for a South American tour that would include Brazil, Chile and possible Peru.
U2-Konzert in München
U2 Concert the Irish rock band U2 has thrilled thousands of fans in Munich on Wednesday with the 360-degree stage. Bono thanked extensively with his German doctors and nurses that he had emergency surgery about four months after a herniated disc in Munich. This has become part of the show, remember “I’ve been rebuilt by German engineering “
“They have made it possible that we can make the show,” he called to the 75 000 fans at the sold out Olympic Stadium. He then voted “I still have not found what I’m looking for” and showed the audience with show and dance that is left of his back pain anymore and he is doing well.
During the two-hour remake of the 2009 launched “360 degree tour” which already is considered one of the most successful ever, U2 also played hits like “Beautiful Day,” “Miss Sarajevo” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday”. The band members were fans from all sides on the round stage in the middle of the Olympic stadium. Bridge connected the main stage with an outer ring on which Bono, guitarist The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Junior running around. About the musicians floated a circular video screen and through the curved beam saw from the stage set like a giant octopus. At the end of the elaborate stage show, Bono thanked his fans - and showed up with red FC Bayern Munich jersey. dpa
360 ° Tour Degree: Yesterday was the Munich Olympics and the station has attracted a lot of music fans from near and far. While were at the Allianz Arena football fans visiting it said in the Olympic Stadium U2 Live. There, U2 gave their final concert of the current 360-degree tour.
U2 en Argentina
U2 arrives on March 31 2011 ? The Estadio Ciudad de La Plata is suggested by many as possible as a possible venue. Read More
Bono and The Edge Proud
Bono and The Edge have said they are “proud” of their involvement in the forthcoming Broadway musical adaption of Spider-Man. This fall’s Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark marks the first time that U2 frontman Bono and guitarist The Edge have written a score for the stage. But the rock stars’ love affair with musical theatre predates their involvement in the show, which begins previews Nov. 14 and opens Dec. 21. “A school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was where I first found my voice,” Bono says via e-mail from Europe, where the band is on tour. His father, moreover, “was a fine tenor and sang in many musicals.” Bono recalls him “dressed as a cowboy in ‘Oklahoma!’” Edge singles out West Side Story and The Music Man as “truly inspiring. The ambition for us was to write a score that matched the imagination of the best of contemporary music and the best of musical theater combined.” Bono and Edge’s music and lyrics accompany a book co-written by playwright Glen Berger and Julie Taymor, who also directs. Taymor sought to spin an original tale that retained the “essence of this myth” adored by comic-book and movie fans. “The basic story,” she says, “is this geeky boy (Peter Parker, who acquires a superhero alter-ego when bitten by a genetically altered spider), who could be anybody, acquires this great power. And with great power comes great responsibility.” Bono agrees that “what’s special is the very ordinariness of Peter Parker. It sounds odd to say, but Spider-Man is as important to the 21st century as the story of Ulysses was to the ancient Greeks. These are morality plays, where luminous characters duke it out in ways very revealing of the nature of who we are.” In Spider-Man, that battle is enhanced with spectacle. “We’ve got a great dance company, and there will be acrobatic circus feats and unbelievable action sequences,” Taymor says. “We’ll have (performers) flying over people in the audience, landing in the aisles and the balconies.” The technology and design accompanying such feats aren’t cheap. Though a publicist for Spider-Man wouldn’t comment on its budget, press reports have put the cost around $50 million. The show’s original producers ran short on money, prompting a long delay and fueling skepticism. “We’ve been on the receiving end of some cynicism from the Broadway media establishment,” Edge says. “But really, who can blame them?” He and Bono “are under no illusion about how hard it is” to craft a musical. “It’s down to words and melodies,” Bono says. “Are they memorable? Is it a fun ride, as well as a profound experience? I believe we are in with a chance.” ‘Boy Falls From The Sky’:
The pair have created the score for the production, which is due to open in New York at Christmas.
“We’re very, very proud of what we’ve got here,” Bono said during an appearance on Good Morning America
The Edge also praised actor Reeve Carney, who plays the lead role of Peter Parker.
“One of the great things about this casting is that we’ve got Reeve, who’s this amazing singer but we’ve also brought in his band,” he said.
“So we’ve got the sound of a real authentic rock and roll band performing at the show, which for us being a band, is great.”
You can watch a video of Carney performing ‘Boy Falls From The Sky’.
Preview performances for Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark will start on November 14 at Foxwoods Theatre, followed by the official opening on December 21.
Bono and Mrs Bono fashion mission
Zurich Take 2
Second show in Zurich, Switzerland updated setlist posted. This was the first time the boys performed 2 outdoor concerts in the same Swiss city, hum we may want to check the database on that one. Sound checks from yesterday include Mercy, Mothers of the Disappeared, Walk On and North Star with the full band.
Mercy did make its debut, right after North Star. The audience had a chance to see a totally different show. The rain fell upon the crowd U2 started the show off with Return of the Stingray Guitar with the mix in of “How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb and some Joshua Tree We have some interesting Adam photos for the fans that we will be posting later.
It was the first time that the new stadium was used Letzigrund for a major concert. For eight days it takes for the huge stage is being set up and broken down:50 meters high, 60 meters wide, 400 tons in weight is the giant octopus, the screw 360 degrees in the sky.