Today is the 60th Anniversary of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The members of U2 have been strong supporters of this Declaration.
Fans may recall this during the Vertigo Tour:
During the Los Angeles rehearsals leading up to the tour’s beginning, there was much more of the Declaration provided with the audio and video. I suppose in the interest of keeping the show’s flow as smooth as it can be, they made the decision to only use the first six articles.
This is a post from the @U2 blog.
60th Anniversary of Declaration
They were the first band to play in the Point Theatre two decades ago
and now U2 have become the first act to perform in it since its re-
birth as the O2.
Well, half of them have played it. Bono and The Edge both played
guitars and sang to a handful of people, including owner Harry
Crosbie, the other night.
The first concert lined-up for the new, expanded venue is the
Childline Charity gig next Tuesday, but rumours had been doing the
rounds that U2 were going to slip in ahead of everybody. There was
even a rumour that they were going to go on as an unannounced support
act to The Kings Of Leon there before Christmas.
The pair strolled into the venue with their guitars to film part of a
new TV tribute show to the late Ronnie Drew that will be presented by
Gerry Ryan over the Christmas period. The pair played to 15,000 empty
seats.
The first time U2 were in The Point they were filming parts of their
movie ‘Rattle And Hum’, as well as recording some of the album,
including the hit single ‘Desire’. So this week they decided to play
two songs from the movie and album of the same name. They ran through
‘Van Diemen’s Land’ with The Edge on lead vocals and ‘Desire’, with
Bono back in control.
Bono once referred to the late Ronnie Drew as “the king of Ireland”.
He also co-wrote the number one single ‘The Ballad Of Ronnie Drew’
earlier this year and was delighted to take part in the musical tribute.
By RICHIE TAYLOR
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U2 make a point with first O2 show
Richie Taylor, Irish Independent
They were the first band to play in the Point Theatre two decades ago and now U2 have become the first act to perform in it since its re-birth as the O2.
Well, half of them have played it. Bono and The Edge both played guitars and sang to a handful of people, including owner Harry Crosbie, the other night.
The first concert lined-up for the new, expanded venue is the Childline Charity gig next Tuesday, but rumours had been doing the rounds that U2 were going to slip in ahead of everybody. There was even a rumour that they were going to go on as an unannounced support act to The Kings Of Leon there before Christmas.
The pair strolled into the venue with their guitars to film part of a new TV tribute show to the late Ronnie Drew that will be presented by Gerry Ryan over the Christmas period. The pair played to 15,000 empty seats.
The first time U2 were in The Point they were filming parts of their movie 'Rattle And Hum', as well as recording some of the album, including the hit single 'Desire'. So this week they decided to play two songs from the movie and album of the same name. They ran through 'Van Diemen's Land' with The Edge on lead vocals and 'Desire', with Bono back in control.
Bono once referred to the late Ronnie Drew as "the king of Ireland". He also co-wrote the number one single 'The Ballad Of Ronnie Drew' earlier this year and was delighted to take part in the musical tribute.
© 2008 Independent.
A couple weeks ago, Caroline posted a YouTube video on U2log.com that I just now finally got around to watching.
This is an interview from when Bono was appearing on Dave Fanning’s radio show to play the band’s first three songs, and Fanning’s listeners were being asked to vote which one of the songs should be the A-side to U2-3, which was released a month later.
There are lots of clues in the interview that have me thinking it happened late night (after midnight) on August 20, 1979, but I’ll have to listen again to make sure. The whole interview is pure gold and I’m stoked to write this up for a possible future update of U2 - A Diary.
Quick note that I’ll be on WXRX-FM in Rockford, Illinois, today to talk about U2 - A Diary. I’m calling in to the station at 4:00 pm CT, but don’t know if it’s a live interview or will be taped.
They have a Listen Live page if you’re interested.
Thx to Donal for letting me know that NME.com is running a 21-picture collage of fan photos taken straight from the book:
Shame they got a lot of photographers’ names wrong, but cool to see everyone’s photos like this. Thanks again to everyone who shared photos!
If you go to Google and do a search for [worst band in the world], you’ll actually get an answer. Have a look:
(found here)
This is a post from the @U2 blog.
Google Names the Worst Band in the World
It has come to my attention that, in the March 1-2, 2006, diary entry, I refer to football legend Diego Maradona as “Brazilian.” He is, of course, an Argentinian football legend.
If I ever get the chance to visit your beautiful country, I do hope you’ll still allow me in. 
By the way, if you find any typos or errors in the book, please contact me with as much detail as possible.
Would you believe Greg Lake, founding member of the legendary King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, and now famed solo artist and producer, heard U2’s cover of his song for the first time on the same day as the rest of us?
In this exclusive for @U2, Lake shares his reaction to hearing it with the rest of us earlier this week, on December 1, World AIDS day.
I woke up this morning to the sound of my Blackberry bleating away on my bedside table. With bleary eyes I fumbled with the buttons and saw that an email had just come in entitled “U2 Father Christmas?” I then clicked on the YouTube URL and started hearing this very distinctive and remarkably familiar guitar sound and the sound of Bono singing the words to “I Believe in Father Christmas.”
I was still half asleep and it felt almost as if I was dreaming. All of a sudden I realised what I had just heard! It was indeed U2 playing the song I had written was back in 1975.
A little later on I went down into my recording studio and played it once again, listening more carefully this time to how the whole thing had been performed. There is a strange thing about most cover songs in that they are usually never as good as the original version. However, just occasionally someone has the ability to come up with an original interpretation which they somehow manage to make their own. A case in point would be Joe Cocker’s version of the Beatles song “With a Little Help from My Friends,” and so it was with the version I was now listening to of my song recorded by U2.
In some ways, “I Believe in Father Christmas” is a very quirky song. It was never written with the intention of it becoming a hit single but was written, rather, as an album track making quite a serious comment about how Christmas had changed from being a celebration of peace on earth and goodwill to all men, into one huge and disgusting shopping orgy.
Although the basic song is very simple, the internal musical structure is actually quite complex and contains elements of classical music and folk music, and just about everything else in-between. It is not an easy song to cover without sounding either as if you were vamping out the original version but not quite as well, or doing some kind of “out there” arrangement purely for the sake of being different. In a way you are sort of damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
The clever thing about the U2 version is that it manages to capture both elements, the original and the inventive without really falling on one side or the other and in this way it is definitely unique. The guitar part is very clever and the vocal, as always with Bono, sounds sincere. That is the mark of a great singer.
Well done chaps! It is great to see the song serving such a worthy cause.
Best,
Greg
Thanks, Greg, for sharing your reaction with us. Visit his site for more information about this extraordinary musician.
This is a post from the @U2 blog.
… I highly recommend taking a half-hour out of your day to see the World Vision Experience: AIDS exhibit, which travels around the U.S. and is in my hometown at the moment. “Step Into Africa” is the theme, and if you’ve paid attention to what Bono’s been talking about for the past 10 years or so, you’ll be right at home here.
This 90-second video gives a good overview of what it’s about. I wrote about my experience earlier tonight.
According to this page, the exhibit is in Washington, Ohio, and Georgia at the moment.
This is a post from the @U2 blog.
As promised it’s time to give away another copy of U2 - A Diary. Ready to win?? Hope so.
October’s contest was mainly for bloggers and web site owners. I invited those folks to do a 5-question interview with me, post it on their blog/site, and then everyone voted on which interview was best. Beth M. was the winner, and she’s reading through her copy of the book now from what I understand. And enjoying it, too.
This month’s contest is for anyone and everyone — you don’t need a blog or web site. You just need to have a curious mind and be willing to take part in a “Community Interview.” To enter the contest, all you have to do is ask me a question about U2-A Diary in the comments of this post.
If you’re wondering what my criteria are for the winning question … hard to say. If your question is particularly unique or challenging, that might be a winner. If it’s particularly funny, that might be a winner. My best advice is to try to avoid repeating any of the questions that were asked during the October interviews.
So … ready to try winning the book? Leave your question in the comments below and cross your fingers! I’ll approve questions as quickly as I can so they show up below.
Sometimes the music business feels as if it is all about artists on one side and suits on the other, locked in an antagonistic relationship of mutual dependency. Yet in the middle of it all are the unsung heroes, the real lubricators of the machinery, men and women who are primarily driven not by glory or money, but by their love of music.
Rob Partridge, who passed away on Wednesday at the age of sixty, after a battle with cancer, was one of those heroes. Involved in press and management, he was a good humoured adviser to many bands (including some of my own) really taking time to explain the workings of this business.
As head of press at Island back in the seventies, he was the earliest music business champion of U2, and helped persuade Head of A&R Nick Stewart that he should sign them when no one else in Britain thought them worth taking a chance on. His support was all about fandom, enthusiasm, instinct and generosity. As Bono has commented, “he was a nurturer… a person who would educate you about the kind of obstacles you were going to meet and how to get over them… a rare human being.”
It is really impossible to understate his importance in the U2 story. Mostly, as fans (and critics), we focus on the music and musicians who make it, and the impact they have on our lives. Yet without Rob it is likely that U2 might have fallen at the first hurdle, like so many other lost talents, and never even been signed to an international record deal at all. And it doesn’t stop there, because Rob became a vital ally of the band and manager Paul McGuinness in those early years, helping guide them through choppy waters, and supporting them within the record company when others were ready to drop them for poor sales. U2 went on to become the biggest rock band of our age, and everyone who has enjoyed their music (not to mention those who made fortunes from it) owes Rob a debt of gratitude.
Later Rob left to form the PR and management company Coalition, who have one of the best rosters of heartfelt, soulful artists you could ever imagine. Past and present clients include Tom Waits, The Verve, The Strokes, The Libertines, Franz Ferdinand, Marianne Faithfull, The Zutons, Kings Of Leon, Glasvegas, The Streets, The View, Bloc Party, Fionn Regan and Noah and the Whale. That’s quite a list.
I saw Rob a few weeks back, bald from chemo therapy, apparently stoically preparing for the worst, yet remarkably good humoured and upbeat.
Rob touched a lot of lives, and, if you are a music lover, he has probably touched yours, whether you were aware of it or not. We will miss him.
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Rob Partridge: an unsung hero of music
