U2’s “Spider-Man” Musical Loses Star Evan Rachel Wood
Posted on March 10th, 2010 by Jonathan
Pete The Chop
U2 News Aggregator
U2’s “Spider-Man” Musical Loses Star Evan Rachel Wood
Posted on March 10th, 2010 by spun2u
The delayed Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark Broadway show featuring music by U2’s Bono and the Edge will have to find a new Mary Jane. Producers have confirmed that Evan Rachel Wood, the actress originally cast in the role of Peter Parker’s love interest, has left the musical, Variety reports. Wood exited the production due to a “scheduling conflict”; financial troubles pushed Turn Off the Dark’s opening well beyond its original February 25th preview premiere date. Variety writes that Spider-Man will likely begin its preview run in late summer and open around Halloween, though those dates remain unconfirmed by the show’s production team.
“She’s the greatest actor of her generation, she’s the one to watch,” Bono said of Wood after her casting was announced. “She happens to sing like a bird, it’s like a true voice. She’s a very pure spirit and a very bright mind and she brings the part of MJ to life, really.”
As Rolling Stone previously reported, a “cash flow problem” temporarily shut down production on Spider-Man in August, just two months after it was revealed that Wood, who previously worked with Turn Off the Dark director Julie Taymor in Across the Universe, would play Mary Jane and Alan Cumming had been cast as the musical’s villain, the Green Goblin. Singer Reeve Carney of the band Carney was later added to play Peter Parker, or Spider-Man without the mask on, in the show.
The budget for Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has reportedly grown to about $50 million dollars, making it one of the most expensive shows in Broadway history. The official Spider-Man on Broadway site hasn’t been updated yet to reflect Wood’s departure. Fans who previously bought tickets to Spider-Man’s received refunds after the show was delayed.
- RollingSt
Kiss Challenge U2 And Rolling Stones To Stadium Duel
Posted on March 9th, 2010 by Rashas W.
In an interview with London radio station XFM 104.9, Gene Simmons challenged U2 and The Rolling Stones to a stadium-off. In a clearly combative mood, Kiss’s God Of Thunder wanted to show Bono, Jagger et al how to rock an enormodome.
“I would love to play on the same stage as U2, The Stones and anybody out there who considers themself a world champion.
“You come on up on that stage with us baby. Show me what you got, and then we’ll show you what the big boys do.”
[My note to Gene: Real "big boys" don't require a bunch of gimmicks in order to perform, such as elaborate makeup, costumes, pyrotechnics, aerial apparatus -- and tongue extensions.]
This is a post from the @U2 blog.
Kiss Challenge U2 And Rolling Stones To Stadium Duel
‘Africa Rising, Angelique Kidjo’
Posted on March 9th, 2010 by U2.COM News
Bono and John Legend collaborate with Angelique Kidjo on a classic track for her new album. Take a listen.
Bono’s rosary beads and Larry’s Bible in U2 auction
Posted on March 8th, 2010 by spun2u
Bono’s rosary beads and Larry’s Bible in U2 auction
Fancy owning a piece of U2? Well, fans of Bono and the boys can scoop a number of unique items in an online auction expected to raise £36,000.
Whether it’s a pair of used shoes, backstage passes or candid Polaroid shots of the rock legends, fans can get their hands on all things U2.
But the items, auctioned on the New York website gottahave-rockandroll.com, come with a hefty price tag.
Former U2 stylist Lola Cashman has put the 16-item collection up for auction in the US, including Bono’s rosary beads and a Bible belonging to Larry Mullen for the combined price of £6,300.
Cashman was previously involved in a high-profile court case dubbed Stetsongate, for selling items belonging to the rock legends she had collected while joining them on their Joshua Tree tour from 1987 onwards. After losing her appeal against a judge’s decision that the items were not hers to sell, she is now auctioning off band items that were personally inscribed to her.
All the items up for grabs hail from the band’s early days, with the rosary beads expected to make up to £3,500.
Amy Fans U2
Posted on March 8th, 2010 by spun2u
U2 delighted Scottish singer Amy MacDonald when they revealed they were big fans and asked to meet her recently.
U2 send fan letters to their favourite singers.
The ‘One’ hitmakers delighted Scottish star Amy MacDonald when they sent her a hand-written request for a meeting at a recent awards ceremony.
Speaking ahead of her performance for the Absolute Radio sessions at London’s Hard Rock Cafe, Amy told BANG Showbiz: “I met U2, they sent me a letter to my dressing room, we were doing an awards ceremony. It said, ‘To Amy, come and say hello to your fan club’ and was signed by all of U2! I was like ‘Wow’.
“I’ve still got the letter, I had it framed.”
Despite enjoying every minute of the encounter, the ‘Don’t Tell Me That It’s Over’ singer admits she couldn’t wait to say goodbye to the rockers – because she wanted to tell her loved ones all about it.
She added: “I was there in the dressing room, Bono was pouring me a glass of wine and we were having a conversation abut my videos – they knew all my music, I couldn’t believe it.
“I couldn’t wait to get out of there so I could tell everyone – I was like, ‘Yeah, alright, can I get out of here now and go phone my mum?’ ”
Listen to Amy’s Hard Rock Cafe performance on Geoff Lloyd’s Hometime show on Absolute Radio today (08.03.10).
13 Tracks, 13 Remixes
Posted on March 8th, 2010 by U2.COM News
Artificial Horizon, the limited edition CD produced for subscribers to U2.com, is now released. Got your copy yet? Post your own reviews.
Bono’s gamble costs him
Posted on March 5th, 2010 by u2star
Irish rocker Bono is feeling the effects of the struggling economy thanks to his multi-million dollar investment in smart telephone maker Palm Inc. after stock shares have plummeted a staggering 35 percent since January.
In December 2008, bosses at the U2 frontman’s Elevation Partners company announced they would make the investment to save the debt-riddled firm, [...]
The Edge attended a Jeff Koons-curated show
Posted on March 4th, 2010 by spun2u
“Of the dozens of art world events happening as part of Armory Arts Week in New York right now, one of the most buzzed about was last night’s New Museum’s opening of a controversial show that features highlights from the personal collection of Greek billionaire Dakis Joannou, curated by artist Jeff Koons.”
…
U2’s the Edge, in his telltale black beanie and a plaid shirt, seemed to offer the most distraction from the artwork for star-struck onlookers. “He’s still so cute after all these years!” said one young female gallery wanderer, within earshot of the musician. Standing near a tall rock-like sculpture by artist Dan Colen, decorated with graffiti-style writing and wads of chewed gum, the Edge, who’s real name is David Evans, told us that he was impressed by the size of Jaonnou’s collection. “It’s incredible to see it all in one exhibition,” he said. Though he wouldn’t call himself a major collector of art, Evans told us he does own works by Jean Michel Basquiat and Damien Hirst, whom he calls a friend.
Read the complete story at The Wall Street Journal
U2 Unleash ‘Pop’
Posted on March 4th, 2010 by spun2u
U2 Pop
U2 are a profoundly polarizing band. They are simultaneously easy to love (they make wonderfully glorious rock anthems, put on ridiculously great concerts and have been consistently good for 30 years) and extremely difficult to love (they’re constantly experimenting and circling back, and Bono’s politics sometimes eclipse everything else about the band).
Musically speaking, the band was probably at its most polarizing on this day in 1997, when they released Pop. After dropping the watershed album Achtung Baby in the beginning of the ’90s and embarking on a game-changing worldwide stadium tour, the group spent the next few years experimenting with just about everything. The odd, electronic Zooropa set the table (as did the truly odd Original Soundtracks, the album credited to the Passengers that was actually just a U2 record), but Pop was an entirely different reality for the group. With dance music making a bid to take over the airwaves and influencing rock artists left and right (even the Rolling Stones were sampling), U2 decided to go all the way with Pop.
The album’s first single, “Discotheque,” set the tone. It was essentially a club song based around a thumping disco beat that featured shimmery guitars and keyboards and nary a mention of a blue collar uprising. Instead, the group decided to party. Was it ironic? Perhaps. Probably. Actually, nobody was entirely sure. The rest of the album stretched even deeper into the dance music abyss (especially the house-influenced “Mofo” and the beat-mining “Miami”).
Pop became one of the most-debated albums of 1997 and holds an odd place in the band’s history (as in, they tend not to bring it up). Still, there were tremendous songs lurking under all that electronic slop — like the effervescent “Staring at the Sun.”
- Kyle Anderson MTV
Live Aid Funds Spent On Guns
Posted on March 4th, 2010 by U2isABLE
Almost twenty-five years ago, Live Aid brought together many to raise a great deal of cash to help people who were starving in Africa. While it’s been said that one of the issues about Live Aid was that it raised approximately the same amount as one week’s worth of service debt and the funds raised really didn’t bring the relief it was designed to do, the BBC reports that Ethiopian rebel leaders “siphoned” millions raised by pretending to be merchants and bought guns with the funds.
The BBC story states:
But the merchant Mr Peberdy dealt with in that transaction claims he was, in fact, a senior member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
“I was given clothes to make me look like a Muslim merchant. This was a trick for the NGOs,” says Gebremedhin Araya.
Underneath the sacks of grain he sold, he says, were sacks filled with sand.
He says he handed over the money he received to TPLF leaders, including Meles Zenawi – the man who went on to become Ethiopia’s prime minister in 1991.
Mr Meles, who is still in office, has declined to comment on the allegations.
To an extent, the global focus on Ethiopia and other parts of Africa came partially as a result of Live Aid. Perhaps this is why the ONE Campaign’s approach makes more sense than just giving donated cash to these unstable countries.
From a fan who supported the Live Aid / Band Aid cause, I am disappointed to find out that the good will of the people who contributed was met with such fraud. However, it just underscores the issues happening in these countries and the reason why activism is so important.
This is a post from the @U2 blog.
Live Aid Funds Spent On Guns
Jeff Koons Curates New Museum Show; Says U2’s The Edge: ‘It’s Incredible’
Posted on March 4th, 2010 by Jonathan
Ticket Scammers Beware!
Posted on March 3rd, 2010 by U2isABLE
It looks like Ticketmaster is starting to really go after ticket resellers who circumnavigate their security measures to ensure ticket buyers legally buy their tickets.
A 43-count indictment has been handed down to the owners of California-based Wiseguys Ticket and two others who prosecutors claim hacked into Ticketmaster’s ticketing system to buy large sums of tickets only to resell them illegally.
According to New Jersey’s The Star-Ledger, “Kenneth Lowson, 40, of Los Angeles, is the co-founder of Wiseguy Tickets Inc., which authorities said used software that impersonated individual ticket buyers and bombard online ticket services including Ticketmaster and Major League Baseball.” The report goes on to state, “authorities said Lowson and his three co-defendants committed fraud by using 100,000 internet protocol addresses, a variety of company names, hundreds of e-mails and a web of credit-card numbers to hide the fact that all the tickets were being bought by a single company — not individual fans. According to the indictment, they also committed a variety of computer crimes by using an army of online drones to circumvent security systems and enter ticket-selling websites ahead of fans. When Ticketmaster and other companies beefed up security, Wiseguy devised different ways to break through, authorities said.”
The New York Daily News reported, “The defendants figured out a way to automate CAPTCHA, allowing them to complete a blizzard of purchases in seconds and beat fans to good seats, the feds said. They made $29 million reselling 1.5 million prime tickets to ticket brokers, sometimes at $1,000 markups, prosecutors said.”
CNN reported “The indictment alleges the men were aware the specialized network “made it nearly impossible for the average consumer to buy the best seats to the most popular events,” the release says. Prosecutors cite a July 2008 Bruce Springsteen concert at New York’s Giants Stadium in which they say Wiseguys bought up nearly half the 440 floor seats made available to the public. According to the release — citing internal company reports — the Wiseguy employees gloated over the massive purchase, calling the success “straight domination,” and saying they bought the “best ringsides by far.”
A couple of the defendants are currently out on bail, and prosecutors are trying to keep co-owner Lowson behind bars, arguing that he may be a flight risk due to his offshore accounts. The other defendant is currently in Indonesia, negotiating his surrender. If found guilty on all counts, they would spend five years in prison (conspiracy charge) and 20 years in prison on each of the wire fraud charges.
This is a post from the @U2 blog.
Ticket Scammers Beware!
Catch Neil McCormick Stateside This May
Posted on March 3rd, 2010 by calhouns
If you are in the Pittsburgh area this spring (May 27, to be exact), you can see and hear Neil McCormick in person, in concert, in color and in 3D! According to the press release below, he is this year’s LAVA Festival’s keynoter/performer.
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Noted Author and Musician – and U2 Confidante – Neil McCormick to Appear at Lincoln Park
Author of “Killing Bono” will be keynote presenter at this year’s LAVA Festival on May 27
The Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center is pleased to announce that internationally-known author and musician Neil McCormick will deliver the keynote presentation at this year’s Literary and Visual Arts (LAVA) Festival on Thursday, May 27, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for McCormick’s presentation are $5.00 and are available through the Lincoln Park box office, (724) 643-9004.
Neil McCormick is one of the UK’s best known music critics. His weekly column in London’s Daily Telegraph is syndicated around the world and he is a regular guest on BBC Television and radio. He is a prolific blogger (via www.neilmccormick.co.uk) and tweeter (@neil_mccormick). Neil started working for Hot Press music magazine in Dublin as a 17-year-old punk rock art school dropout in 1978. He was a schoolfriend and confidante of U2, and misspent most of his youth as singer in a succession of obscure bands, including Frankie Corpse and the Undertakers, The Modulators, Yeah!Yeah! and Shook Up!
McCormick’s musical misadventures are laid out in painful detail in the acclaimed 2003 memoir Killing Bono (published in the UK as I Was Bono’s Doppelganger) which Bono described as “Very funny, very moving.’ Indeed, Bono was so impressed with Neil’s autobiography, he asked him to collaborate on U2’s. Neil is the author of U2 By U2, the best selling music book in the world in 2006. He is currently working on his first novel. Killing Bono is in the process of being filmed in Ireland, with Ben Barnes (The Picture Of Dorian Gray and Prince Caspian in the Narnia film series) starring as Neil and Martin McCann as Bono, directed by Nick Hamm (The Hole, Godsend). It will be released late 2010. Despite the discouragement of some of his fellow critics, Neil continues to make music on the sidelines under the alias The Ghost Who Walks.
“I was Neil McCormick’s fan at school,” says Bono. “He was much cooler than me, a much better writer and I thought he’d make a much better rock star. I was wrong on one count.”
At his Lincoln Park appearance, McCormick will be taking a novel approach to reading from his work, discussing how his life and art intertwine, and performing some of his original songs.
Lincoln Park’s LAVA Festival (formerly “Synergy”) is a two-day celebration (May 26-27) of the literary and visual arts, featuring professional and student exhibitions and readings. Past keynote presenters have included New York Times #1 best-selling author Jeffrey Zaslow (The Last Lecture) and filmmaker Bill Hinzman, who appeared in and co-produced the original Night of the Living Dead. A complete schedule of this year’s events will be released soon. The student portion of the LAVA Festival is sponsored by the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School, under the direction of media arts instructor Scott Andrew, and Dan LeRoy, director of the literary arts department.
The Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center is located 45 minutes northwest of Pittsburgh in Midland, Beaver County. The $30M facility opened in 2006 and is home to the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School, a Pennsylvania public charter school providing a state-approved academic program along with professional training in music, theater, dance, creative writing, and media arts. The Center is also home to the Henry Mancini Arts Academy, and presents a variety of professional and student performances each year.
For more information contact Stephen Catanzarite, Managing Director, (724) 643-9004, ext. 1301.
This is a post from the @U2 blog.
Catch Neil McCormick Stateside This May