News

 

AMERICAN IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY NAMES BONO ITS 2002 GOLD MEDAL RECIPIENT

 

http://www.aihs.org

October 3, 2002

 

RCN Corporation Chairman and CEO David C. McCourt To Chair

Society's Annual Dinner Honoring Bono

 

NEW YORK, June 6, 2002-Bono, lead singer of Irish rock band U2 and social crusader and humanitarian, will be honored as the 2002 Gold Medal recipient of the 105-year-old American Irish Historical Society, the Society's President-General Kevin M. Cahill, M.D., announced today.

 

Dr. Cahill also announced that RCN Corporation Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David C. McCourt will serve as the chair of the Society's annual dinner, which will be held on November 7th at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. In making the announcement, Dr. Cahill cited Bono's unwavering commitment to many important worldwide humanitarian causes. "Bono serves as an inspirational role model to the youth of both America and Ireland," said Dr. Cahill, "He has effectively parlayed his rock star fame to bring notice to such issues as Third World debt relief and the African AIDS epidemic. We are delighted that Bono will attend our dinner to accept this award."

 

The Society, whose founding members included Theodore Roosevelt, is a non-sectarian and non-partisan center of American-Irish history and  culture. Previous Gold Medal recipients have included former President Reagan, Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan, notable mystery writer Mary Higgins Clark, Cablevision Chairman Charles F. Dolan, and ballerina Suzanne Farrell. Bono was born Paul David Hewson on May 10, 1960 in Dublin, Ireland, to a Protestant mother and Catholic father. His nickname "Bono Vox," given to him in high school, means "good voice." He got tagged with the name because of his high energy, not because of his singing ability. Not only has Bono's distinctive voice made a mark in the music world as leader of the Irish rock group U2, but he has also developed a distinguished reputation over the years for giving voice to many good

causes, such as Third World debt elimination, the African AIDS epidemic, world hunger, Bosnia relief aid, and the Irish civil war.

 

About the American Irish Historical Society.

 

The American Irish Historical Society was founded at the close of the 19th century to inform the world of the achievements of the Irish in America. Based in New York City, the Society is a national center of public scholarship and education, where current issues are explored and where the great renaissance in Irish culture is celebrated.

 

The Society's Library houses more than 10,000 volumes, the most complete private collection of Irish and American Irish history and literature in the United States. It is open to the public five days a week. As well, the Society hosts a full schedule of evening readings, lectures, and concerts throughout the academic year.

 

Contacts: American Irish Historical Society, (212) 288-2263, ext. 11

Kevin M. Cahill, M.D., President-General

William Cobert, Executive Director

 

 

U2's Bono the Most Powerful Man in Music - Poll

Thu Oct 3, 8:42 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - U2 front man Bono is rated as the most powerful man in music and not just because of his soaring vocals, according to a poll of top music industry executives.

 

Irishman Bono tops the list, to be published in British music magazine "Q" next week, because of his high profile pronouncements on political issues ranging from Third World debt to the enlargement of the European Union ( news - web sites).
 

The 42-year-old singer, real name Paul Hewson, has used his fame to gain access to the world's political leaders and has even met the Pope. Earlier this year Time Magazine's cover had the banner headline: "Can Bono Save the World?"

The singer, usually seen with his trademark wraparound blue sunglasses, not only makes a success of lobbying politicians but his band continues to enjoy worldwide hits 25-years after it was formed.
 

Runner-up in the poll was Doug Morris, 64, head of the world's largest record company Universal.

Third was controversial rapper Eminem -- seen as influential for his challenging song lyrics -- while at number four is L Lowry Mays the founder of U.S entertainment giant Clear Channel.

Also in the top ten are the late Kurt Cobain who was seen to have taken underground rock into the mainstream, Sir Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono and Simon Fuller -- creator of the Spice Girls.

At number 11 is Dr. Dre, well ahead of Robbie Williams at 24 who recently signed an 80 million pound ($125 million) music deal, a record in the UK.

Simon Cowell, famous for his role as a judge on singing competition "American Idol" and Britain's "Pop Idol" was placed at 28, ahead of Kylie Minogue (29), Moby (30) and Madonna (31).

Elvis Presley, whose songs are still topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic 25 years after he died, was ranked at 44, one behind the Gallagher brothers of Oasis fame.
 

 

U2 "THE BEST OF 1990 – 2000" - DVD
 

Thanks to www.u2tour.de

 


TRACKLISTING

Even better than Real Thing
a) Godley Clip + Commentary
b) Smyth Dance Version Clip

Mysterious Ways
a) Sednaoui Video + Commentary

Beautiful Day
a) Akerlund Clip + Commentary

Electrical Storm
a) Video (Director’s Version: No Shower Scene) + Commentary
b) "Making Of" Documentary

One
a) One – Anton Corbijn + Commentary
b) One – Phil Joanou + Commentary
c) "A Story of One" - a combination edit of all the various "Makings of One" shot for and broadcast on Channel 4. The explanation as to why so many versions including maybe a previously unseen clip of the Buffalo + The Band version (Mark Pellingtons attempt to include the band with the buffalo)

Miss Sarajevo
a) Linnane Clip + Commentary
b) "Missing Sarajevo" - road to Sarajevo mini documentary. To be cut from footage gathered in the run up to and including performance footage from the concert in Sarajevo.

Stay (Faraway, So Close)
a) Wenders clip + Commentary

Stuck in a Moment
a) Kahn Clip + Commentary
b) Godley Clip + Commentary

Gone
a) Live from Popmart

Until the End of the World
a) Kevin Godley Special (Line from Zoo TV)

The Hands that Built America
a) Studio Video

Discotheque
a) Sednaoui Clip + Commentary

Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
a) Godley/Linnane + Commentary

Staring at the Sun
a) Scott clip + Commentary
b) Steinberg

Numb
a) Godley Clip + Commentary
b) EBN version

The Fly
a) Smith/Klein – Lounge Lizard Mix – the original video had a musical intro featuring Bono interfering with the pedestrians down Soho way. It was a piece that TV stations could either include or not. Most didn’t. + Commentary (x2).

Bonus Tracks:

• Please
Anton Corbijn’s Version + Commentary

• If God Will Send His Angels
Phil Joanou + Commentary

• Wild Horses
Phil Joanou + Commentary

• Lemon
Mark Neale Version + Commentary

• Last Night on Earth
Richie Smyth Version + Commentary

• Mofo
Phunk Force Mix – Linnane Version

• Ground Beneath Her Feet
Wim Wenders Version + Commentary
 

September 30, 2002

http://www.rollingstone.com/

From the latest Rolling Stone magazine:

 

#70 U2 - Zooropa 1993

''When we start records, Edge is a slow starter. But at the end, he's the guy who's up all night for weeks.'' -Bono

During a two-month vacation from the Zoo TV Tour, U2 improvised some of their strangest songs. Essential track: ''The Wanderer'', with lead vocals by Johnny Cash.

Chart Peak 1. Sales 2 million.

 

#53 U2 - The Unforgettable Fire 1984

''The greatest threat to the career of this band, or any other band, is financial success.'' - The Edge

The band's first collaboration with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois traded in martial guitars for murky soundscapes.

Essential track: ''Pride (In The Name of Love)'', even though it got the time of Martin Luther King Jr's death wrong.

Chart peak 12. Sales 3 million.

 

#49 U2 - War 1983

''Sadomasochism is not taboo in rock & roll. Spirituality is.'' - Bono

To get the drums to boom properly, the band recorded them under a staircase behind the studio receptionist's desk.

Essential track: ''Sunday Bloody Sunday'' -- even if you don't what it's protesting (the death of Irish civilians at the hands of British soldiers in 1920,

and again in 1972), it makes you want to storm the ramparts.

Chart peak 12. Sales 4 million.

 

#15 U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind 2000

''Joy in our group comes out of vowels, words with very few consonants, words that form when you're singing.'' - Bono

''Beautiful Day'' was once a surf-punk song, then a New Age hymn. Then The Edge added a guitar part that the group dubbed ''the Classic Coke riff.''

Essential track: ''Elevation'', built around one of The Edge's most sinuous licks.

Chart peak 3. Sales 3 million.

 

#10 U2 - Achtung Baby 1991

''U2's records take a long time to make not because the band members are stuck for ideas but because they never stop talking about them.'' - Brian Eno

U2 arrived in Berlin the night before the Wall came down and stuck around to make their darkest album -- which they obscured with a goofy title.

Essential track: ''One'', which became a standard done by everyone from Guns'N'Roses to Michael Stipe to Johnny Cash.

Chart peak 1. Sales 8 million.

 

#4 U2 - Joshua Tree 1987

''Marvin Gaye, Patti Smith, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Steve Wonder -- gee, I don't think there's anyone in rock & roll that isn't as screwed up as me in

this area [religion]. I stared realizing that rock & roll devoid of that spiritual confusion

is the rock & roll that I don't like anyway.'' -Bono

 

On their fifth album, U2 leapt into the arms of America and landed their first Number One record. Before the Edge performed the guitar solo in ''Bullet The Blue Sky'', Bono told him, ''Put El Salvador through your amplifier.''

Essential track: ''Running to Stand Still'', a steel- guitar ballad about heroin addiction.

Readers said: ''It was pure beauty in an age of pure shit.''

Chart peak 1. Sales 10 million.

 

26-08-2002

U2 Shoots 'Electrical Storm' Video On French Beach

 

 

From Yahoo News / Launch Music

Sun Aug 25, 4:57 PM ET

(8/25/02, 7 a.m. ET) -- U2 shot video footage for its forthcoming single, "Electrical Storm," on a French Beach in Eze, near singer Bono's home there on Wednesday (August 21).


According to an eyewitness report posted on U2France.com, Bono and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. were both dressed in black, with Mullen standing at the edge of a tub filled with water and a bathing mermaid. Scenes were also shot of the mermaid on a garden swing.


The Irish Echo newspaper identified the mermaid as 25-year-old actress Samantha Morton, who co-starred with Tom Cruise and Colin Farrell in the film Minority Report as a futuristic oracle.


Recorded in Dublin, London, and France, "Electrical Storm." is one of the new tracks slated for U2's Greatest Hits 1990-2000 collection, scheduled for release on DVD and CD in November.


U2 has also recorded "Beat On The Brat" for the upcoming Ramones tribute album, We're A Happy Family. During the band's 2001 Elevation tour, Bono played the Ramones' "I Remember You," several times on acoustic guitar and also often dedicated U2's "In A Little While" to the late Joey Ramone, who loved the song.


-- Darryl Morden, Los Angeles
 

 

25-06-2002

U2 Guitarist The Edge Ties The Knot

Tue Jun 25, 2:57 PM ET

(6/25/02, 3 p.m. ET) -- U2 guitarist the Edge celebrated his marriage to longtime girlfriend Morleigh Steinberg in a Jewish ceremony over the weekend. The wedding, held in the south of France in the village of Eze-sur-Mer, was the culmination of a bond that was sealed at a private ceremony at a Dublin registry on June 18. A honeymoon destination was not known at press time.

The Edge met Steinberg when the former belly dancer was hired to dance with U2 singer Bono for the Zooropa tour in the early '90s. Bono was the best man at the wedding and bandmates Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. were in attendance. Also helping to celebrate the union were R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe, supermodels Christy Turlington and Helena Christensen, Lenny Kravitz, and Dave Stewart.

The couple has two children, 4-year-old Sian and 2-year-old Levi. The Edge divorced his previous wife, Aislinn O'Sullivan, in 1996.

-- Darren Davis, New York

 

Nobel Winner Thanks U2 For Song

The Sunday Mirror, June 23, 2002

Lynne Kelleher


A Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was held under house arrest for 19 months, has thanked U2 for highlighting her struggle. In her first interview after her release Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the opposition in military-ruled Burma, said she had been told "Walk On" was inspired by her fight for democracy.

The 56-year-old added: "I am very thankful to U2 for the consideration they have shown towards the Burmese people. I also admire them because I have learned that they are also engaging in many other humanitarian activities. Artistes like them are not only a credit to the arts but also to mankind. I respect and thank them very much." "Walk On" won the Best Song Musically and Lyrically Award at the Ivor Novello Songwriting Awards in London recently. Ms Suu Kyi and U2 received the Freedom of Dublin city two years ago.

Ms. Suu Kyi's son, Kim Aris, accepted the award for his mother, who was under house arrest. Bono paid tribute to Suu Kyi, and commended the city for bestowing such an honour on the leader of Burma's National League for Democracy. Ms. Suu Kyi became the leader of the pro-democracy movement in 1988 when the military -- which has ruled the country for 40 years -- bloodily suppressed anti-government protests. Her party won a victory in elections in 1990, surprising the military which refused to hand over power. She was placed under arrest from 1989 to 1995. Following her release then, her house on University Avenue became a rallying point for opposition to the junta. Thousands gathered outside to see her speak each week and the government returned her to house arrest in September 2000 after she defied orders not to leave Rangoon.

© 2002, MGN Ltd.

15-05-2002

 

From VH1.com

U2 Unveil New Song At New York Film Festival

'Hands That Built America' shown to attendees via satellite.

by Jon Wiederhorn

Grammy gobblers U2 debuted the new song "Hands That Built America" on Monday at New York's Tribeca Film Festival to promote the upcoming Martin Scorsese film "Gangs of New York," which features the track.

The festival's 15,000 attendees saw a simulcast performance of the tune as the band played in Ireland. Director Maurice Linnane shot the production for an upcoming video. Scorsese and "Gangs of New York" star Robert De Niro had invited the band to contribute to the festival celebration.
 

This report is from MTV News.

From VH1.com

U2 Recording New Material For Second Greatest-Hits LP

Album to include songs released between 1991's Achtung Baby and 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind.

by Jon Wiederhorn

They're in the studio recording new material, but U2 aren't working on a new album just yet. Instead, they're writing songs for inclusion on an upcoming greatest-hits package that will feature songs released between 1991's Achtung Baby and 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind.

The album is due out by the end of the year and will be a companion piece to Best of U2: 1980-90, which the band released in 1998. While some pressings of that record included an additional disc of B-sides, this next installment of greatest hits will likely be contained on a single disc, since the band didn't amass as much material in the past decade as in the one prior, a spokesperson at Interscope Records said.

The new hits LP may also contain the 1995 track "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" from the "Batman Forever" soundtrack; "Miss Sarajevo," which also came out in '95, on Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1 ; and the band's cover of Mac Gayden and Buzz Cason's 1967 hit "Everlasting Love," from 1999's "Forces of Nature" soundtrack. And if the studio sessions are especially productive, they may yield additional material for the group's next studio record, the spokesperson said (see "U2 May Have New Album Out By Year's End").

This report is from MTV News.

 

 

 

14-04-2002

From U2.com

Pimm Jal de la Parra 1966-2002

Pimm Jal de la Parra, U2 fan and live concert historian extraordinaire, has died.

Pimm Jal de la Parra was known to thousands of U2 fans as founder-editor of the Dutch U2 Magazine Collectormania and through his encyclopaedic book 'U2 Live A Concert Documentary'.

The book, which detailed U2 concerts from 1978 until the end of the POPMART tour in 1997, became a must-read not just for fans but even for members of U2's touring crew, checking details of previous U2 visits to towns and cities worldwide.

U2 fans have testified to the friendship and support they received when writing to or meeting Pimm Jal - many were inspired by his example to start their own U2 initiatives.
 

Pimm Jal de la Parra was also an authority on David Bowie and responsible for 'David Bowie - The Concert Tapes'. We pass our condolences to his family and many friends.

If you would like to pay tribute to Pimm Jal de la Parra, there is a tribute page running at U2log.com

 

07-04-2002

From U2.com

Feast of Unissued Songs, Rolling Stone

I hate to make predictions,' Adam tells Rolling Stone Magazine. 'If we get six tunes, maybe that will roll into a project.'

"I hate to make predictions," U2 bassist Adam Clayton says with a soft chuckle, as if he's afraid someone will hear him over the midday buzz in the lobby of his lower-Manhattan hotel. "If we get six tunes, maybe that will roll into a project." He pauses for emphasis. "Maybe."

As you read this, U2 are at work in their Dublin studio, where they plan to stay until June, jamming, writing and revisiting outtakes from their latest album, the Grammy-winning All That You Can't Leave Behind. Their intention: to start, and possibly finish, a new record this year. Clayton, singer Bono, guitarist the Edge and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. have already been in the studio twice since their last U.S. show on December 2nd, 2001, and Clayton claims that, even after a year of touring, U2 are anything but toast.

"One advantage of playing arenas is that the band is playing much better now," he says cheerfully, dressed with quiet style in a dark-red T-shirt, loose khaki slacks and a gray hooded jacket. "We can actually hear each other onstage. So the band sounds good." The same, he adds, goes for the feast of unissued songs from the sessions for Can't Leave Behind. "Everything we had left over was finished, which was unusual for us. There are maybe another ten pieces that are more immediate, slightly poppier, tunes that I know will turn up." Clayton smiles. "Because they're good."

He then explains what happens behind those studio doors: "Nowadays, Edge tends to do his homework and discipline some chord sequences. Then, as a group, we find an interpretation, a unique way they fit together. Or a sound will get thrown out from a jam, and we figure out a melody to go with it." Clayton cites two examples from Can't Leave Behind: " 'Elevation' came from a sound, that abrasive guitar: 'We've really got to do something with that.' 'Walk On' was two songs that both had great chords but weren't great songs." He laughs. "We sewed them together."

Clayton - the oldest member of U2 (he turned forty-two on March 13th) - remains amazed by the sustained power of Can't Leave Behind. It was a record written, he says, "about the journey we'd been through as a band, as men in relationships, as sons of mothers and fathers. It was about the baggage that you have to live with, the sense of loss, like the fact that Bono's father was terminally ill through that whole period."

September 11th changed that. "Suddenly, this happened to America as a whole," Clayton says with lingering shock, "which means people reassess your record and music in a totally different way." When U2 pulled into New York's Madison Square Garden in October, "it was like when we played Sarajevo [in 1997], where the act of the band being there was just a reason for everybody to come out. At the Garden, everyone turned up because they knew the band would be onstage at nine o'clock. But as crazy as those shows were, it was the audience taking us on a journey, not us taking them."

U2 are done with the road -- for now. But even with another record looming, Clayton does not fret about Bono's manic commuting between U2 and his twin crusades: third-world debt relief and the AIDS crisis in Africa. For instance, Bono spent most of his Super Bowl weekend, between rehearsals in New Orleans for U2's halftime show and the game itself, in New York at the World Economic Forum.

"We wouldn't get any more of him if he wasn't doing this stuff," Clayton says, noting that it's great fun to watch Bono turn his acuity and Irish charm on politicians and CEOs. "These guys don't expect him to have a grasp of the subject matter. He's able to go in with the facts and figures, talk circles around them, and suddenly, where they thought they were just going to get their picture taken with him, he's gotten something out of them before the picture.

"You can't deny the penetration he has achieved," Clayton says. "And it makes the rest of us realize that what we do is important to the group. We need to keep it going forward, to allow him to come in and out. Bono has a legitimate reason not to be around all the time. And we have a legitimate reason to make sure that the time we are all together is used wisely."

Full story in Rolling Stone dated April 25th

More at www.rollingstone.com