Glen Hansard, Bono, Damien Rice & Mundy busk on Grafton St!
Glen Hansard, Bono, Damien Rice & Mundy busk on Grafton St!
24 Dec 2009
Grafton Street came to a standstill late this afternoon when a group of superstar buskers gathered to give a unique performance.
Bono, Glen Hansard, Damien Rice and Mundy made up the remarkable group, who joined other volunteers who were busking to raise money for the Simon Community. Hot Press caught them performing three songs, before the set finished, prompting a huge and sustained round of applause from astounded passers-by.
“That was incredible,” one stunned onlooker told Hot Press. “I was out innocently doing my shopping when I saw a crowd gathered. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I had a closer look – you might expect to see someone like Mundy doing something like this for charity, but there were three huge stars there, giving it loads. It really added to the Christmas eve atmosphere. The only problem is I had one more present to get but the shop is closed now!”
By the time the set was finished, Bono had dematerialised into the night air, but Hot Press chatted to Glen Hansard, who had clearly enjoyed the opportunity to return to his roots, in a reprise of his role in the Oscar winning Once. He signed autographs, had his picture taken with kids and chatted to fans.
Among other songs, the superstar buskers played Bob Dylan’s ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’ and ‘You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere’ and a version of Mic Christopher’s ‘Heyday’, which had hundreds singing along, with Glen Hansard – Mic’s best friend – leading the line. The crowds responded by donating generously, with one Grafton Street shopper happily handing over €50 for the privilege of having seen one of the most star studded busking sessions in aeons.
Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad; Bono on Elvis Costello’s Spectacle
Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad; Bono on Elvis Costello’s Spectacle
Bono sings “Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad” with Steve Nieve and Pete Thomas on Elvis Costello’s Spectacle Dec 10, 2009
Bono Receives the RFK Ripple of Hope Award
Bono Receives the RFK Ripple of Hope Award
Bono speaks at the RFK Center For Justice & Human Rights 2009 Gala in New York City after receiving the organization’s Ripple of Hope Award. For more information about the RFK Center, visit http://www.rfkcenter.org./
Bono Receives the RFK Ripple of Hope Award (Pt 2.)
Bono Receives the RFK Ripple of Hope Award (Pt 3.)
Nike x (RED) – Lace Up. Save Lives
Nov 30 · Nike x (RED) – Lace Up. Save Lives
Nike x (RED) Lace Up. Save Lives
Tomorrow is World AIDS Day and Nike is stepping up to do their part, recently announcing that they will be joining the (RED) project to help fight AIDS in Africa. Yesterday, U2 frontman/global crusader, Bono joined some of the world’s best soccer players to announce the noble endeavor. The first step for the Nike (RED) partnership will be the sale of red (RED) laces, with 100% of the proceeds from each set sold being donated to programs that help fight the deadly disease in Africa. Not only does Nike hope to help financially with the “Lace Up. Save Lives” project, but by using the world football/soccer forum, the brand hopes that the popularity of the sport will help bring awareness for this worthy cause to fans all over the world. Get involved yourself by picking up a pair of the Nike (RED) laces at NikeStore and other select retailers beginning tomorrow, December 1st, and keep an eye out for more Nike (RED) products coming in the near future. Keep reading after the jump for more info and some pics of Bono with some world soccer stars, including the United States’ own Clint Dempsey.
London, UK (November 30th, 2009) – On the day before World Aids day some of the world’s best footballers joined Bono at announcement of partnership between NIKE, Inc. and (RED).
Didier Drogba (Chelsea), Joe Cole (Chelsea), Andrei Arshavin (Arsenal), Marco Materazzi (Inter Milan), Denilson (Arsenal), Lucas Neill (Everton), Clint Dempsey (Fulham) and Seol Ki-Hyeon (Fulham), came together in London today to announce a partnership between NIKE, Inc. and (RED).
This unique partnership delivers a two-pronged approach to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa by delivering funds to support programs that offer education and medication on the ground and will harness the power of sport to engage youth around the world in the fight against AIDS in Africa.
In making the partnership announcement, Mark Parker, President and CEO of NIKE, Inc., Susan Smith Ellis, CEO, (RED) and Professor Michel D. Kazatchkine Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS , Tuberculosis and Malaria were joined by footballers from around the world and U2 vocalist and (RED) co-founder Bono, to emphasize the need for global action and participation to eliminate AIDS in Africa.
“The fight against AIDS in Africa needs great brands to drive awareness and engagement,” said Susan Smith Ellis, CEO, (RED). “Nike is the right partner to connect education with sport, and in so doing help drive social change, prevention and understanding of HIV/AIDS. We are thrilled to have them with us.”
Nike has a proven history of elevating global causes to create consumer awareness and participation. “As a global brand and creative company, Nike can play a role in amplifying this important issue,” said Mark Parker, President and CEO of NIKE, Inc. “With football as the catalyst, Nike is joining the (RED) movement to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa.”
The Nike and (RED) concept is a simple one that invites people to “Lace Up. Save Lives” by purchasing a pair of NIKE (PRODUCT)RED™ laces. One hundred percent of the profits from (NIKE)RED laces will be split equally between The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which funds AIDS programs that provide medicine for those living with HIV, and football-based community initiatives that deliver education and understanding around HIV/AIDS prevention. This unique partnership delivers programs that both medicate and educate.
Progress has been made in the drive to reduce HIV infections in Africa, with fourteen countries reporting a decline in the prevalence of the disease. This is great news and proves the fight can be won. But AIDS remains one of the greatest challenges facing the world today. An estimated 3,800 men, women and children die in sub-Saharan Africa every day, in addition to 6,000 new infections every day among 15-24 year old men and women.
“The (RED) Nike laces can tie athletes around the world together with people living under threat from HIV in Africa in a beautiful way ,” said Professor Michel D. Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “Wearing these (RED) laces is a sign that you care about others – and it helps us to protect and treat millions of people who every day risk infection or struggle with the effects of HIV.”
“(RED) has created a sustainable way to engage business in funding the fight against AIDS in Africa on a grand scale. Its partnerships not only deliver funds to buy medicine to keep people alive but also provides the leverage needed for us to demonstrate to the public sector that this partnership works and to garner additional support,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Minister of Health of Ethiopia and Chairman of the Board of Directors, The Global Fund. “The addition of Nike to the (RED) initiative will only strengthen this impact as it will help us take this message to millions of football fans around the world and engage them in this issue through their passion for sport.”
(Nike)RED laces will be available December 1st at Nike Store locations and key retailers worldwide. In addition, (Nike)RED laces will be available at nike.com for purchase. And additional (NIKE) RED products will be introduced in the coming months.
http://sneakernews.com/2009/11/30/nike-x-red-lace-up-save-lives/
Why do U2 want to play Glastonbury?
Why do U2 want to play Glastonbury?
By Neil McCormick Music Last updated: November 24th, 2009
U2: ultimate outsiders?
U2 are to headline Glastonbury this year, on the festival’s 40th anniversary. There has been some predictable scepticism expressed about this from the anti-U2 brigade, although it seems a bit of a no-brainer to me: rock band plays rock festival – let the controversy begin!
Like last year’s headliners, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, the Irish group have a long established reputation as outstanding live performers, which has helped make them one of the most consistently popular live attractions of the last few decades. It was probably a given that U2 would get to Glastonbury sooner or later (The Rolling Stones are really the only other band of that stature never to have played the festival), the real question being why has it taken them 26 years.
The answer lies partly in the fact that U2 just don’t need Glastonbury, or any other festival. They are one of the few bands who can pull mass crowds under their own steam on a regular basis anywhere in the world. And, certainly since they ascended to stadium status with The Joshua Tree in 1987, they have put a great deal of care and effort into creating their own unique and artfully integrated live environments. Whenever the issue of Glastonbury has arisen within the U2 camp, the same questions tend to arise, which, if I might paraphrase the succinct directness of their very pragmatic drummer, boil down to: “So, if I understand this correctly, we wouldn’t be playing to our fans, right? It’s not our sound system? It’s not our lighting rig? And we would be doing this for a fee that would be less than we would make on the gate at our own gig? And the point of this would be …?”
So what has changed? Well, Glastonbury itself, for one thing. It has become a kind of something-for-everyone entertainment smorgasbord. There may still be a quasi hippy ideal of the Pyramid stage headliner connecting to the audience in a mystical way as the sun goes down and the lights go up, but you can’t have Radiohead every year. It’s hard to see how having one of the world’s greatest rock bands at the top of the bill is any more unlikely to appeal to the mass of festival goers than other recent headliners, such as Jay Z or Sir Paul McCartney.
But the whole music business has changed, beset by technological challenges that have not just damaged recorded music sales but provided so much choice that it is becoming ever harder to achieve the kind of universal, crossover audience that U2 are used to. They may have a huge fan base, but for them to remain a truly effective force in the wider world of popular music, they need to find new ways to reach out to people who are not, perhaps, their natural listeners.
I imagine the band see Glastonbury as an opportunity to woo the sceptics, that increasingly shrill minority of mockers who loudly denigrate their every move. Bono has the instincts of a perennial suitor, a rock and roll travelling salesman who almost sees it as a matter of pride to be able to sell his wares to the most reluctant customer. The fact is the general public loves them, as their sell out live shows (this year alone, U2 have performed to over 3 million fans and grossed more than $300 million in ticket sales) and multi-million selling albums attest (although their latest ‘No Line On The Horizon’ has been widely perceived as a four million selling flop, low sales by U2’s standards, it is nonetheless amongst the best selling albums in the UK and the world this year). But somehow U2 have never belonged in the rock fraternity that seems to locate Glastonbury as its spiritual home. They have never actually been part of a British rock scene. In earlier days, U2 did play festivals. But never Glastonbury, probably because they were never invited. Coming from Ireland as post-punk rockers in the early 80s, they were critically aligned with the Liverpool new-psychedelic scene of Echo & The Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes, but were viewed suspiciously by those bands as over-eager Irish interlopers, rivals rather than peers. And while they have certainly had their champions amongst critics (in the UK, The NME’s influential, polemical and cerebral critic Paul Morley was an unlikely early supporter) they have always had their vocal denigrators, who use them almost as short-hand for naffness: too sincere, to epic, too ambitious to ever be cool. U2 achieved success on their own terms, almost completely outside of the framework of the British music scene, and actually more on an Irish-US axis.
There is still something about playing Glastonbury that is a badge of honour amongst British bands, and I know that is something that appeals to Bono. There is a fraternity that exists in at least the perception of a shared experience, where the bands not only mingle back stage, striking up new friendships and alliances, but are perceived to share the trials of the often embattled festival goers themselves. Indeed, the regularly appalling weather of the worst Glastonbury festivals seems to be a positive bonus in this regard. Bonds are formed in the mud and rain. Bands wear those wellies with pride.
U2 live are a fairly irresistible force. They have passion, commitment, charisma, imagination and the kind of songs you can find yourself singing despite yourself, delivered with the showmanship and warrior skills of a gang who have been playing together all their lives. And with Bono at the helm, they are a band of seducers: put them in front of even the most sceptical crowd and they will do everything in their power to win them over. It may be a greater challenge to perform to an audience that is not, naturally, their own, but if they deliver at Glastonbury, the ripples could spread out into the wider musical community of both fans and artists. For all their success, U2 have been outsiders in the British rock scene. On some level, Glastonbury still represents a kind of inclusion. With these kind of stakes, I think U2 at Glastonbury could turn out to be legendary.
And U2, Bono? Singer crosses divide
And U2, Bono? Singer crosses divide
Patrick Barkham guardian.co.uk, Thursday 8 October 2009 19.54 BST
Delegates watch singer Bono address the Conservative conference in Manchester via video link on 8 October 2009. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters
More than 30 years a rock star, Nobel peace prize nominee and honorary knight – but what does Bono have to do to become a Twitter trending topic?
The band’s frontman became a villain on the web today moments after he turned up as a support act at the Tory conference. While the Tories hoped Bono’s surprise address – via a giant videoscreen – would provide a shot of welcome celebrity pizzazz, the singer could hardly have imagined his appearance would have such a swift impact on his profile.
Many of the responses on Twitter were hostile as the tag #BonoToryScum quickly spread over the social networking site. “Look for U2’s new song called Where the Streets Have No Low-Income Housing,” tweeted Deadeye_Dick.
Captainrobs tweeted: “So, he’s appearing to talk about charity work for a party that has just announced poo-loads of spending cuts if they get in power?” Another said: “Let’s hope he does a duet with Phil Collins soon. Could swing the election.”
Introducing Bono, William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, teased the audience by promising someone “you don’t normally hear from at Conservative conferences”.
In a turn likely to prove less significant than the Sun’s shift of allegiance, Bono stopped short of endorsing the Conservative party, perhaps because he also popped up on video at the Labour party conference last week.
• This article was amended on 9 October 2009. The original referred to William Hague as foreign secretary. This has been corrected.
Bono sings the praises of Tories on foreign aid
Bono sings the praises of Tories on foreign aid
MARK HENNESSY
U2 LEAD singer and development aid campaigner Bono has clearly decided to have an each-way bet on the British election, judging by his appearance in a video message shown to thousands of Conservative Party supporters.
“Hello there, if you can swallow an Irish man saying what’s great about Great Britain, indulge me for a minute,” said Bono, who was introduced to the crowd by William Hague as “one we don’t hear from often at Tory conferences”.
“What’s happened over the last few years in Britain’s relationship with the developing world has been so inspiring to me,” said Bono, who praised the Conservatives for their pledge to safeguard international aid from spending cuts.
“It’s a brave thing: keeping Britain’s aid promise to the developing world, but it is the right thing to do and it is what’s great about Great Britain. I would urge you, conference, at a time of economic trauma to meditate on the idea that cutbacks must not cost lives.
“Cutbacks must not cost lives. It’s not my line, by the way. It’s yours. It is from a Conservative Party paper on aid. It is a great line. It’s not a pop song, but it certainly sticks in your head,” he went on.
The singer made another video appearance at last week’s Labour Party conference in Brighton, when he said that prime minister Gordon Brown had “put the ‘great’ back in Great Britain”.
Last night, the Conservatives said Bono’s message was not an active political endorsement but it fuels the view that international aid campaigners are preparing for a change of leadership in No 10.
This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times
U2 travels with ‘The Claw’ to give all its fans a view out of this world
U2 travels with ‘The Claw’ to give all its fans a view out of this world
By Sean Daly, Times Pop Music Critic
In Print: Friday, October 9, 2009
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U2’s stage nears completion Thursday in Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. Nicknamed “the Claw,” the stage offers a 360-degree view of the Irish rockers. “]![[CHRIS ZUPPA | Times] U2’s stage nears completion Thursday in Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. Nicknamed “the Claw,” the stage offers a 360-degree view of the Irish rockers.](http://u2ol.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/b4s_concert1009a_88661c.jpg "b4s_concert1009a_88661c")
A worker tries to beat the heat while constructing the U2 concert stage. It takes 31/2 days to build the stage and 11/2 to tear it down.”]![[CHRIS ZUPPA | Times] A worker tries to beat the heat while constructing the U2 concert stage. It takes 31/2 days to build the stage and 11/2 to tear it down.](http://u2ol.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/b4s_concert1009b_88660d.jpg "b4s_concert1009b_88660d")
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Imagine a four-legged beastie from the nightmares of Tim Burton: a malevolent arachnid, an advancing reptile. Now breed that sucker with a metallic hulk from the Outer Limits, something Steven Spielberg would use to wage war on the world.
Now, for the finishing touch, stick U2, perhaps the only band brazen enough to conquer this leviathan, in the middle of it all.
Are you ready to rock?
Or run screaming?
When the Dublin Four invade Raymond James Stadium tonight — as the only Florida stop on the tour — they will do so via “the biggest rock ‘n’ roll production to ever tour the world,” says U2 360 tour director Craig Evans.
On Thursday, the 49-year-old Evans offered a sneak peek of U2’s setup, which reportedly costs the band around $755,000 a day during the course of the 44-show tour. (That includes off-days, too!) The idea for the stage — dubbed “the Claw” by designer Willie Williams and architect Mark Davis and the “spaceship” by the band — came from frontman Bono, as most of U2’s gaudiest ideas tend to do.
He “wanted to play in the 360-degree configuration,” said Evans, “so every seat would have an intimate view of the stage.”
“Intimate.” That seems like an odd word to use to describe That Thing, which takes 31/2 days to build — and 11/2 to tear down. The tour employs more than 350 staffers, traveling on 114 trucks; another 1,500 local workers will be on hand to make sure it’s all pulled off with panache.
The Claw — I prefer that vaguely threatening name better — stretches from Raymond James’ 50-yard line to its south end zone. It spreads sideline to sideline. Inside the Claw is a 54-ton high-def circular video screen that will “share our 3D vision,” Evans said. There is also a 160-meter runway for Bono to gambol and proselytize upon.
If you’re looking for deep philosophical meaning behind the structure, well, don’t. This is U2’s first stadium tour since ‘97; it wanted to give fans bang for their buck, in the nosebleeds or elsewhere. The design, explains Evans, “is not so much esoteric as functional.”
The basic structure is 90 feet tall, but my favorite touch is the center pylon, which is topped — at 165 feet — by a disco ball. Rest assured, that will not go unused.
For all the numbers Evans tossed out, the most impressive, and most daunting, was this one: 70,000. That, he said, is the record for attendance at Raymond James Stadium, set during this year’s Super Bowl. He expects U2 to draw even more. Live Nation, the promoter of the tour, won’t announce a sell-out yet — but it plans to.
Yes, the show will be majestic, but it will also be mayhem.
Be prepared.
The Claw awaits.
Sean Daly can be reached at sdaly@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8467. His Pop Life blog is at blogs.tampabay.com/popmusic.
If you go
Listen up, U2 Fans!
If you’re one of the 10,000 or so with general admission tickets, the first-come, first-serve line starts at 9 a.m. HOWEVER, they won’t start admitting people until 5 p.m. The temperature is expected to be a brutal 90-plus, so plan accordingly. And don’t worry about not bellying up to the stage; the sight lines will be great no matter where you stand.
Ready to rock?
U2, with opening act Muse, performs at 7 p.m. at Raymond James Stadium, 4201 N Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa. Doors open at 5 p.m. Tickets are $30-$250, if there are any left. Toll-free 1-877-598-8698; livenation.com.