“The History of Rock ‘N’ Roll” covers the landmark moments in musical history. From rhythm and blues to Elvis and the Beatles, Woodstock, punk, hip hop, and much more, this 10-episode rockumentary is essential viewing for anyone who cares about music.
U2 should be included in both the 8pm & 11pm portion of the program on March 2nd 2010 on Fuse. Use the channel finder to location your station.
Here’s an update to an earlier post about Steve Lillywhite’s pitch to be the next Simon Cowell: He really, really wants the job!
Lillywhite has hired the public relations firm Blake Zidell & Associates to help him with his campaign. Not that he wasn’t doing a good job already, but in response to all the “urging” he is getting from fans, he’s now making this more than a one-man, one-YouTube video effort.
BZA sent out this release, which says there’s another video coming on March 8.
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For Immediate Release
February 26, 2010
AT URGING OF FANS, LEGENDARY RECORD PRODUCER STEVE LILLYWHITE CAMPAIGNS TO REPLACE SIMON COWELL ON AMERICAN IDOL
* Producer of U2, Dave Matthews Band, the Rolling Stones and Many Other Eminent Artists Promises to Bring Credibility and Vision to the Star-Making TV Show *
Steve Lillywhite, perhaps the most accomplished producer of the last three decades, might at first seem an odd candidate to host one of the most popular TV shows in history: While he has been responsible for countless records that are both critically acclaimed and commercially successful — from U2 to Peter Gabriel, the Rolling Stones, the Talking Heads, Dave Matthews Band, Jason Mraz and 30 Seconds to Mars — his reputation is for landmark works and career artists, rather than pop ephemera, and for being behind the scenes, rather than a star himself.
Yet, when a fan made a Facebook page suggesting that Lillywhite should replace Simon Cowell on American Idol, he — along with other fans, industry colleagues, blogs and newspapers — began to contemplate the idea. And he decided that he not only would love the job, but also would be an ideal choice for the position. He has always had the foresight to choose artists who would become superstars, and been sure enough of himself to direct them in the making of their albums, many of which have led to Album of the Year and Producer of the Year GRAMMYs. Furthermore, has an exuberant, funny, over-the-top personality, which can be heard in his popular shows on National Public Radio and East Village Radio, both called The Lillywhite Sessions.
His self-assuredness and sense of humor are on display in the YouTube video he made to stump for the Idol job. Among his many qualifications, he notes, “I have a great accent (listen to me), and I have great credibility among millions of music buyers.” He adds, “I can be firm: I have spent 30 years telling Bono what to do,” referring to his discovery of and longtime collaboration with U2. He also shores up his current relevance by pointing out that he produced the 30 Seconds to Mars single that holds that #1 spot at alternative radio, and that he is beginning work this month with the band Evanescence.
Since Lillywhite posted the YouTube video, there has been a growing groundswell of discourse about the prospect of his replacing Cowell, including preliminary coverage by USA Today, Rolling Stone, Perez Hilton and UK’s The Guardian, among others. Lillywhite plans to post a follow-up video on Monday, March 8.
This is a post from the @U2 blog.
Lillywhite Cries “Uncle,” Ramps Up Idol Bid
Photograph: Anton Corbijn
I’d been working with U2 for four years when we did this picture. The working titles for their new album were “the two Americas” and “desert songs”, so I went looking for deserts in California. The shots which include the actual Joshua Tree were shot in Death Valley, the cover shot was at Zabriskie Point. The tree is named after the biblical Joshua. I suggested it to Bono, and he came back the next morning with a bible in his hand saying we’d go for it.
I came to England from Holland in the late 70s and started working for the NME. The interesting thing is that the two groups I’m most associated with – Depeche Mode and U2 – are both bands I was not a fan of at first. I turned Depeche Mode down for five years because I thought they were too poppy. With U2, they were playing on a boat moored on the Mississippi and I thought, “OK, I’ll listen to a couple of songs just to prove I was there then I’ll leave.” I didn’t realise the boat would set off, so I had to stay for the gig. I liked the guys and ended up travelling with them and did more pictures. It was the beginning of a friendship.
When the Joshua Tree album came out and became so big I felt very removed from it. I looked at the billboards and it didn’t feel like the little picture I printed in my dark room. It became this other thing.
Photographing U2 has become more difficult as they have become more well known. The Joshua Tree was taken over a period of three days travelling through the desert. It’s unthinkable for U2 to do that now. For their last album I had two hours in bad weather.
Even after 28 years I always try to take a different picture of U2. If I’m stuck, I’ll go to Holland, smoke a joint and come back with new ideas.
Read the full article at Guardian News >>
U2's 360 tour
If money makes the world go round, then U2’s latest tour, which is dubbed “360 Degrees,” proves this saying true.
The veteran act leads Billboard’s 2010 Money Makers list, earning more than $108 million in 2009.
Bruce Springsteen is second with $57 million and Madonna follows with $47 million. AC/DC and Britney Spears round out the top 5 with $43 and $38 million, respectively.
Billboard compiles the list from monies earned through tours, CD and digital sales, publishing royalties and more.
Madonna topped the list last year; Springsteen came in third. Both U2 and Madonna have touring deals with Live Nation.
- ABCnews
A couple weeks ago on the main site we posted news about U2 appearing on a new documentary called Music of Ireland. Part One will premiere in the U.S. next month, but U2 won’t show up until Part Two later this year.
Not to worry, as the producers have posted a sneak peek on YouTube that includes Bono chatting and U2 performing Gavin Friday’s song, “King of Trash.”
This is a post from the @U2 blog.
Video: Bono talks, U2 does ‘King of Trash’
Last week, noted producer Steve Lillywhite made an impassioned video plea to be considered a potential replacement for “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell, a job he’s certainly qualified for, having worked on some 30 game-changing albums in just as many years, from his early New Wave days with Siouxsie and the Banshees and Talking Heads to Peter Gabriel and U2′s formative years to current chart-toppers like 30 Seconds to Mars.
The man also has a British accent (Lillywhite grew up outside of London and is currently based in New York), a strong opinion and loads of charisma, so why did some think the video campaign was a joke?
U2 Tap Lenny Kravitz, Interpol, and The Fray for 360 Tour was a top story for this week. Here it is again: U2 are bringing their 360 World Tour back to North America in June and on Saturday they announced some of the support acts for several of the dates. Here is what they had to say:
When the 360 Tour returns to North America in June, Lenny Kravitz will be first up on stage each night for the shows in Salt Lake City, Anaheim and Denver. (Tickets for the June 3rd Salt Lake City show go on sale this Monday.)
The Fray will be opening in Oakland, Seattle and Edmonton. Interpol will be on the bill for the shows in Minneapolis, E.Lansing, Toronto, Chicago, Miami and Philadelphia.
Photo:Michal Czerwonka for The New York TimesDavid Evans, better known as U2's the Edge, right, and Stephen Billings, a landscape architect, walking on the property Mr. Evans owns above Malibu.
MALIBU, Calif. — The house that the U2 guitarist longs to build here would have a copper roof, fashioned to resemble fluttering leaves. Boulders that dot the property would be left in place and assigned charming names like Dinosaur Vertebrae and Cistern. The dirt dug up to build would be reused, when possible.
Yes there would be a pool, but its central purpose would be to ward off fire should the local native plants not do the job. And every imaginable green building technique would be used.
But all of this does not mollify those who police the mountainside along one of the most gorgeous stretches of American coastline, where public access versus exclusive seclusion is an ever-raging debate that even a member of the most vocally earth-hugging rock band on the planet cannot escape.
Standing high above the Pacific Ocean, wearing his signature black beanie, David Evans, or the Edge, his nom de guitar, made the case for his proposed 156-acre development that would include five houses, his own among them. The project would “respect and honor the landscape,” he said, and set a new standard for building in remote areas by incorporating the environment rather than mowing it down.
“We just had this dream of building a house that was in perfect harmony with these hills,” Mr. Evans said. “We see it as something that could be a bench mark of sustainability.”
But Mr. Evans’s vision has attracted the ire of his potential neighbors in an exclusive enclave below, as well as the Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy, who together deplore the road that would be built to get to the development — one that would snake up with switchbacks — and the amount of dirt trucked in and out of the site.
Other critics are also not fond of the homes themselves — ranging from 7,317 square feet to 12,004 — which they argue would diminish the skyline, one already pocked by the homes of some of those who are raising objections.
“What is so silly is they say it is so green,” said Paul Edelman, the chief of planning and natural resources for the conservancy, which has drafted a letter opposing the development. “But every time you drive up there, any savings you would have are shot by fossil fuel.”
The future of the project rests with the California Coastal Commission, a mighty and aggressively view-preserving state agency that has jurisdiction over most development near the coast; it is expected to rule on the proposal this summer.
The mountain skirmish features both traditional adversaries — those who would like to live in remote areas and those who would like to preserve them — as well as new and increasingly visible foes: green on green.
On one side are conservationists and the state agencies charged with preserving public spaces, views and access. On the other, Mr. Evans with his green building plans and U2 environmental credibility, enhanced with the blessing of Mark Massara, an environmental lawyer and former Sierra Club official.
“Rather than fighting every project,” Mr. Massara said, “it’s a much more prudent exercise to try and inspire other landowners to do things that are not only in the best interest of the environment, but also to protect the homes and enhance the values here.”
Mr. Evans and his wife, Morleigh Steinberg, bought the five lots in 2006 with the Irish developer Derek Quinlan for $9 million. The designer of the houses, Wallace Cunningham, said his goal was to make them emulate their natural surroundings among the butterflies and rattlesnakes a few miles above the Malibu town center. He also wants to make them “biographical,” and to that end, he stayed with Mr. Evans, his wife and their two children to study how they live in their current Malibu home.
But the conservancy and residents in the canyon below want none of it. They have complained most loudly about the 20-foot-wide, 1,600-foot-long access road, which they argue would be an eyesore and geologically unstable, and the 70,000 cubic yards of dirt required for the project. Upsetting the ecosystem is also among the worries.
“This is the biggest and most problematic development we have ever had here,” said Lawrence Weisdorn, the president of the Serra Canyon Property Owners Association, which represents about 95 homeowners below.
There is also the question of whether the houses would be highly visible from the coastline — a big “no” under the state’s coastal act. Mr. Evans insists that concerns about visibility stem from misconceptions because the houses would actually be notched in the hillside, not standing on top. As for the road, he believes that an independent analysis conducted by the coastal commission would find it less onerous than some fear.
Steve Hudson, a district manager for the commission, described the amount of grading required for the project as “significant,” but said “the issues regarding geologic stability are still being evaluated.”
Mr. Evans said that fears about the size and scope of his project had been overblown, and that when people actually looked at his plans, “they completely mellow out.”
He added, “There is this myth about how this road is going to be an eyesore, but it is so much better than anything up here,” an allusion to the faux Italian villas and their nonnative, fuchsia flowers in the distance.
Bono opens this preview video of ‘Thank You Billy Graham’
Exclusive video features Bono, Pat Boone, Le Ann Rimes, Larry King and a host of other music personalities who pay tribute to Billy Graham.
Visit http://thankyoubilly.com for more information on the video.
When the 360 Tour returns to North America in June, Lenny Kravitz will be first up on stage each night for the shows in Salt Lake City, Anaheim and Denver. (Tickets for the June 3rd Salt Lake City show go on sale this Monday.)
The Fray will be opening in Oakland, Seattle and Edmonton.
Interpol will be on the bill for the shows in Minneapolis, E.Lansing, Toronto, Chicago, Miami and Philadelphia.
More news on these great acts as the 2010 dates get closer, meantime check all the tour dates here.
And let us know if your night out with U2 this summer just got even better…..
- U2.com
IT WAS a night of surprises at the Meteor Ireland Music Awards, with U2 going home empty-handed for the first time.
The band were beaten in all three categories: best band, best album and even best live performance.
It was a surprise in particular for The Coronas whose sophomore album Tony Was An Ex-Con was voted best Irish album ahead of U2’s No Line on Horizon by music fans.
“I know people say this all the time, but we really, really didn’t expect this,” said lead singer Danny O’Reilly. “We just assumed like everyone else that U2 would win. We hadn’t a clue.”
Expressing equal incredulity at their award was The Script, who won for the best Irish live performance of the year for their barnstorming set at Oxegen, even though U2 played three shows at Croke Park to nearly 250,000 concert-goers.
Drummer Glenn Power said they had not expected to win and had no script written. Snow Patrol was voted best band.
U2 bass player Adam Clayton was the only member of the band to turn up. He presented the industry award to Lord Henry Mountcharles, the owner of Slane Castle.
Singer-songwriter Wallis Bird followed up last year’s Hope for 2009 Meteor Award with the award for best female ahead of the favourite Laura Izibor.
An emotional Bird seemed genuinely shocked to win. “If I had known this was going to happen I would have written a speech and worn better shoes,” she said referring to the scuffed red brogues she wore, in contrast to the vertiginous heels which were most in evidence last night.
It was a bitterly cold night outside the RDS Simmonscourt, with many of the early arrivals shivering in their party dresses, but the awards attracted arguably the two hottest acts of the moment, Brit winners Florence and the Machine, who won a Meteor this year for best international band, and rapper Dizzee Rascal.
Dizzee Rascal said his duet at the Brits with Florence and the Machine lead singer Florence Welch earlier this week was “totally effortless”. You Got the Dirtee Love became one of the fastest selling downloads in history.
Dizzee also expressed a desire to record the Cranberries’ Zombie , a song he called a “massive tune”.
Veteran balladeer Christy Moore won best Irish male and, unsurprisingly, Westlife won the best Irish pop act for the tenth time.