What does Bono think is sexy ?

“It is sexy to want to change the world.” Bono

December 1st is World AIDS Day – a time to honor all who are affected by AIDS. Cities, brands, organizations and people are coming together from all over the world to make one statement. That ONE COLOR UNITES US. And that color is (RED).

Here’s how you can get involved. Help us turn Facebook & Twitter (RED) on December 1st:

Facebook: Share our video & make your profile picture (RED).

Twitter: We’ve been working with our good friends at Twitter to do something really exciting. We’re turning the color of tweets red for the day! Just use #red or #laceupsavelives to turn your tweets red. Find out more at: @joinred or @U2TOURFANS #U2TOURFANS

What else can you do on December 1st? This World AIDS Day, (RED) partners are making increased contributions to help fight AIDS in Africa:

Starbucks: 5 cents for every hand-crafted beverage in US & Canada, and 5p/5 Euro cents for every espresso-based beverage bought in UK & Ireland.

Gap: 1% of all revenue at participating US and Canada stores.

Dell: Doubling their contributions on DELL (PRODUCT) RED™ products in US, UK and Japan. Until December 2nd.

Bugaboo: As always Bugaboo will be contributing 1% of their total revenue to the Global Fund.

Click here to see all (RED) partners.

33 million people in the world have HIV. 22 million live in Africa. It costs around 40cents a day for the 2 pills that are needed to help keep someone living with HIV alive. Yet, more than 70% of the people in sub-Saharan Africa live on less than $2 a day. Because of you, to date $140 million has been sent to Africa through (RED) partners and events, which has supported programs that have helped reach 4 million people.

Thank you for fighting AIDS in Africa. Being (RED) is sexy.

ONE COLOR UNITES US on December 1st

Cyber Monday News: Rumors say U2 to head to Bonnaroo

Awesome arguments abound for why U2 should headline Bonnaroo 2010, and any arguments against the proposition could be turned into reasons why it’s still a great idea.

The best case for bringing the boys to Bonnaroo might be how infrequently U2 have ever played the Volunteer state: opening for J. Geils at UT Knoxville in 1982, headlining the Murphy Center at MTSU in Murfreesboro on the Joshua Tree tour in 1987 (around the same time they Rattle and Hum film crew went to Memphis), and bringing the spectacle of Popmart to Memphis in 1997. Atlanta has always been U2’s mid-south staple, and the current 360 dates for summer 2010 only include one southern date in Miami.

The second best case for U2 addressing the throng that assembles each summer in Manchester would come from the Bonnaroo organizers and their commitment to attracting top-tier rock performers. If U2 does not get the nod and play their first Tennessee show in over 13 years, whoever takes the What Stage on Saturday night will likely be one of U2’s elder peers like The Stones, The Who, or Paul McCartney, a true peer like Green Day or R.E.M., or one of the younger pretenders to their throne, a band like Coldplay or The Killers. Tennessee homeboys Kings of Leon have already played day set on the mainstage at Bonnaroo, and it’s likely too soon to bring them back as the main act.

The third premise for U2 at the ‘roo has already been floated to defend the Glastonbury decision: reaching out to a younger audience and even expanding the band’s already enormous fanbase. Clearly, Bonnaroo goes for the righteous blend of hippie and hipster, adding to its jamband roots a plethora of jazz, world music, reggae, electonica, and indy-rock; U2’s globally-minded musical and social spirit could actually do quite well at such a gig. If sluggish sales for No Line On The Horizon and casual demographic surveys of the crowds at 360 shows are any indication, it would not be all wrong for a band with U2’s impressive resume to reach out to the crowd that comes from around North America to for this top-shelf event.

Bonnaroo regulars return each summer not just for the impressive array of artists but for the experience itself, its particular convergence of the communal and the cosmic, from the sometimes treacherous logistics to the frequently transcendent memories. Many of us would love to add a U2 set to a long list of Bonnaroo bests.

Fan-author and devout U2 follower Cathal McCarron understands the potential beauty of U2 bringing its noise to a major festival. He comments about the Glastonbury decision: “This is the best bad news I’ve ever heard. I’ve been to Glasto eight (or nine, it’s hard to remember) times. I’ve have been to the Pyramid Stage watching headliners like Radiohead, Coldplay, Paul McCartney, The Killers, The White Stripes, and God knows who else, and usually thinking about just how much U2 would demolish the place. And then they go and announce this for one of the two years when I’ve not got a ticket! The atmosphere by the Pyramid Stage for the headliner at Glasto is beautifully, almost indescribably, electric. It’s a genuinely magical experience; there really is something special in the air there—just a few days after the summer solstice and just a few miles down the road from Stonehenge. The atmosphere is going to be far and away better than the atmosphere at some regular U2 gigs.”

The common-sense argument against U2 joining the festival movement at this juncture seems to stem from the apparent incompatibility of U2 fans with the types of folks that go to festivals. Given my extensive experience at both Bonnaroo and U2 shows, there’s plenty of truth to this claim. But just this kind of cross-cultural experience (even if it is only across mostly white, privileged rock-fan subcultures) might serve both U2 fans and Bonnaroo fans very well.

Of course, some U2-haters would denounce such a decision, just as U2-hate is currently clogging the comment threads on some UK newsites where the Glastonbury tag has been noted. Doubt anything could rival the hate Bonnaroo fans had for Kanye in 2008. The worst U2 could get is a mediocre reaction like the Police did in 2007, but that was mainly because Sting was whiny from the stage and the set was criminally short.

notwithstanding, U2 are not hippies, and U2 fans are definitely not hippies. But Bono can certainly play well with hippies as he did as Dr. Robert in the film Across The Universe. If this rumor comes to pass and U2 are announced as Bonnaroo headliners, Maybe U2 Fans immediately starting another rumor. For a band that has been accused of safe, corporate business decisions, unclawing the megatour for some festival dates represents a brave move. For the true U2 fan, every day on tour is our own private Bono-roo, but going to Glastonbury is an Edgy decision of Adamic revelation and risk, taking our private Larrypalooza to a larger public.

Editor Note: It Cyber Monday and of course we would like to you to consider our gift shop or friends that support our site.  Or if you would like to donate to the site directly you an click on the button below. All donations go to the support of the site, writers, and staff that support the site.

The 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert

Hope you’ve got lots of space in your DVR for this one. It’s four hours long and packed with some of the most bizarre and potentially awesome (awful) pairings you can imagine, like Mick Jagger and Fergie, Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne, and Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel. I’m most looking forward to Annie Lennox and Aretha doing “Chain of Fools.”

Were  also excited because this never-ending format means that each performer will get to do more than one song, in fact, they get a whole set. It’s the aforementioned Bruce Springsteen, Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin and Metallica, plus Stevie Wonder, U2, Jeff Beck, Simon and Garfunkel and Crosby, Stills and Nash, who are featured and joined for a song by a variety of other contemporaries and current acts. It looks like there might be some great music to be had, if you can handle all four hours.

The concert special debuts on HBO at 8PM, and re-airs a bunch of times, so don’t fret if you miss it the first time around.

U2 Fan Christmas/Holiday Card Exchange

We thought we would pass this one along. If your a real U2 fan your aware of some of the other sites. In case your starting out as a fan. @U2 had this one posted today. - Of course full credit to them - Sign up and tell them we sent you.

It’s time for the 11th annual U2 Fan Christmas/Holiday Card Exchange, a chance for U2 fans to send greetings of the season to other fans worldwide!

To participate:

- Send a message to u2christmas@gmail.com and give us your snail mail (postal) address.

- In the e-mail, tell me what sort of card you’d like to receive (Christmas, Season’s Greetings, etc. or no preference). In early December, I will e-mail you the addresses of fellow U2 fans to send cards to.

- If you wish to participate, plan on sending at least 10 cards.

- Please write in BEFORE DECEMBER 9TH if you want to be part of the Card Exchange. That way there will be time for cards to get to their destinations around the world.

Thanks again for participating and have fun!

Rare Bono Interview

Thank you Wolf Gangs Vault for the greatest U2 fan deal available today. As we head into the holiday season and you begin to think about gifts check back with us often. We have a couple of “Friends of U2” stores that will be offering super deals for our followers. When you make a purchase from any our “Friends” your making  statement that you support our site and writers. This holiday season why not click on our “Friends” when your looking to buy gifts.

Rare Bono Intereview

Only four years into their musical career, U2 found themselves at an artistic crossroads. Firmly established as a powerful rock ‘n’ roll combo by the live set Under a Blood Red Sky, the little Dublin four-piece could merrily continue pounding out spare populist anthems like their preceding efforts. Or they could consider the success of their recent EP the curtain drawn on the first act of a decades-spanning epic and lock themselves in a castle to create an atmospheric masterpiece that would find them heralded as the greatest band of the ‘80s and beyond.

When Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois assumed the controls for the sessions that would ultimately yield The Unforgettable Fire, the path chosen was resolutely the latter. It may seem outrageous to claim that such a plan was in place when recording began, but with an auspicious degree of talent gathered in a monument to Anglo-Norman nobility, the topic of conversation must have turned to global domination at least once.

Never at a loss for words, here Bono shares the intimate details of the recording process for their seminal work, the finer points and perils of live performing, and the beginning of a creative partnership with a legendary producing duo that would last for five more records, over nearly 10 years. Though political awareness and activism have always been a part of the U2 platform, it’s refreshing to hear the inexhaustible singer talking about music for a change.

If there’s a word that describes Bono it is energy. And his enthusiasm for life and art is always evident. For a dose of inspiration, tempered with some moderately convincing humility, let Bono bend your ear.

This interview is broken into two parts.

Part I:

Part II:

Bunnymen throw mud again !

Ian McCullochEcho and the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch has once again singled out U2 for a tongue-lashing, branding the Irish megastars’ music as “flag-waving” and “immature.”

McCulloch has regularly stated his aversion to Bono and friends and appears to love using the press to express his disdain. Last year he referred to them as “spud peelers” whose ambition was to join music’s elite stars like Bob Geldof, Sting and “all them c—-s who no one really likes.”

This time around, while he was slightly less vitriolic, McCulloch continued to ridicule U2 for appealing only to a younger, less-mature fan base and being nothing more than a commercial enterprise. “Bands all say they want to be as big as U2, but weirdly no one ever says they’re influenced by them,” he told New York magazine. “That’s because there’s nothing there, really.”

He continued, “They’ve got good tunes, and you can see that it works on 14-year-olds. But I can’t see mature people or kids, who are looking for something, something deep — something that you just know it’s art and it’s going to change your life — caring. For U2, it’s always flag-waving and ‘Yippee.’”

Not that McCulloch’s jealous of course. Echo & the Bunnymen begin a UK tour of mid-sized theatres in December, while U2 have recently concluded a tour of the world’s biggest sports stadiums.

Happy Thanksgiving from U2TOURFANS

Break time for the crew, the band and us too. As we kick back here in America grab some food and drink we are reminded of those that are in the fight of their lives. Aung San Suu Kyi and others like her fight for those rights which we enjoy. 

We are off for the holiday and shall return shortly after. - Cheers to all. We thank you for all your support and comments.

Bono Offers Some Drunken Words of Wisdom

As modern rock sages go, few equal the breadth (and ego) of U2’s Bono. So it’s nice to see when he’s not preaching about world debt, Catholicism or the bird-like qualities of Evan Rachel Wood’s singing voice, the Irish singer takes time to share his years of experience to a new generation of rock stars.

Such was the case at a recent party in New York when a rather inebriated Bono took drummer Dominic Howard from 360 Tour openers Muse aside for “a drunken chat about things.”

“We were just nattering on about music,” Howard tells Spinner. “He had a go at passing on his wisdom, though it was mostly a pat on the back, I think.

“There are a lot of similarities between our band and theirs,” Howard continues. “They took a long time to get to the big stuff in America, as well — ‘Joshua Tree’ was their fifth album. They spent years making albums and getting bigger and bigger and learning their craft before they got to the big stadium stuff and we talked about how that was the right way to go about that.”

Bono and “Special Friends” After listening intently to the elder Irish statesman, Howard eventually worked up the courage to tell the vocalist that, while he had been a fan for several years, he had never attended a U2 concert until his band began their tour with the rock behemoths at New York’s Giants Stadium.

“I told him my first time seeing his band was in New York and how I thought it was a great show. I could see that despite they’re on their 12th album or whatever they’re still enjoying it, still on top of their game. We just talked about how I was very impressed, genuinely, and he was saying similar things. He told me that if you stay together and keep on making music you can achieve what you want to achieve. You know, just wisdom.”