Bono, Geldof to edit Globe for a day

The Globe and Mail Bono and Bob Geldof will edit the Globe and Mail newspaper for one day later this month in a special edition devoted to the future of Africa, the Globe announced Tuesday.

The two want to explore the issue of extreme poverty in Africa ahead of the G8 and G20 meetings, which will be held in the Toronto area in June.

Kenyan activist and blogger Ory Okolloh will also be part of the team editing the May 10 issue of the Globe.

It is the first time the Toronto-based paper has invited guest editors into its newsroom.

U2 lead singer Bono is the founder of One, an advocacy group that fights poverty and disease, particularly in Africa. He also has led a global campaign urging world leaders to forgive African countries’ debt.

Bono has been a guest editor at London’s Independent newspaper and at Vanity Fair.

Geldof, an activist and musician formerly with the Boom Town Rats, organized the Live8 series of concerts in 2005 and also lobbies world leaders on poverty issues. He was editor of the Georgia Strait in Vancouver 36 years ago.

“The Globe and Mail, one of the world’s great papers of record, has, in a mad rush of blood to the head, agreed to let two Irish pop singers edit their august journal for one special day, one special edition,” Geldof said.

The two will take questions online from readers.

The special edition will feature content and commentary from African political leaders, business owners and grassroots activists and from the Globe’s Africa correspondent, Geoffrey York.

Okolloh, who is a frequent public speaker on the role of technology in Africa’s future, will oversee stories and participate in a series of online discussions.

The G8 summit in Huntsville, Ont., will deal with controversial issues such as how to improve maternal health and aid for the developing world. The G20, to be held later in June in Toronto, is expected to focus on financial reform.

Bono and President Obama Update

Bono was in Washington on Friday and visited the White House to meet President Obama to fill him in on his recent trip to Africa.

It appears the meeting was not on Obama’s official itinerary for the day, but a National Security spokesman told CNN what the two talked about.

“[They discussed] ways to make sure our foreign aid is effective, and the opportunities for innovation and technology to change the development landscape in Africa,” he said.

The Bono-founded charity organization ONE released a statement about the visit, in which the U2 front man went over some of the issues discussed.
 
“With the first Blackberry president, we discussed the power of new technology to empower activists and entrepreneurs across Africa, part of a new rising generation that’s boosting growth and governance and defying stereotypes,” read the statement.



U2 360 Tour 1 Month Away

U2 360 Tour is exactly one month away. Thats right if your reading this, its after midnight in the US and we are offically one month away from the start of the tour. U2 Fans all around the world are waiting for the start of the tour. We posted a video from the past leg to get your “BIG FAT ASS UP” and ready for some great music. ( Hey Bono said, we have no idea if you have a big fat ass !)

 

Bono gets Oval Office meeting with Obama

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and U2 lead singer Bono have met in the Oval Office to discuss the administration’s development work in Africa.

The White House says the social activist singer joined with Obama, along with members of his national security staff, to talk about ways to make sure U.S. foreign aid is effective. They also discussed opportunities for using innovation and technology to drive economic growth in Africa.

The meeting Friday comes as the administration prepares for several international summits where development will be on the agenda.



McKinley High and U2 ?

Glee U2 could be the next best-selling artists to get the Glee treatment by the talented stars of McKinley High.

Fresh from the success of the Fox series’ recent ‘The Power of Madonna’ episode, a homage to the queen of pop, there has been speculation that the Dublin rockers could be next to have one of their songs featured on the show.

The Herald can reveal how the new CD from the award-winning series, to be released on May 18, features 19 songs and will include a track entitled One. A song of the same title, taken from U2’s best-selling Achtung Baby album, has regularly featured in Greatest Songs Of All Time lists and has been played by the band at every one of their concerts since 1992.

Entitled Glee, The Music: Volume 3 Showstoppers, the CD includes reworked versions of songs such as Pokerface and Bad Romance by Lady Gaga, alongside Beck’s Loser and Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler.

However, show insiders are keeping tight-lipped on whether the famous U2 song appears or not, given that Creed and Metallica have both released tunes with the same name.

A publicist for U2 said they weren’t aware of any collaboration with Glee, but the band could still have given the go-ahead for its material to be used.

U2 30 Years later - New Song Released

An unreleased song composed by U2 around 30 years ago is to be revealed in the new film Killing Bono. The song, Secret Mission, was recorded by the band shortly after they formed but it has never been heard by the public before.

Despite being three decades old, the song is only coming to light now because of the film’s music producer, Ciaran Gribbin, who was given the thumbs- up by the band to rework some of their earliest material for the actors to perform. The Derry singer said he was brought in as a music supervisor and producer for the highly anticipated film and found it a “dream come true” to work with the raw song.

“Hopefully everyone will be really happy with it,” he said. “It’s an absolute dream come true. I’ve been writing music for a long, long time - I did eight songs for the movie - but it remains to be seen how it came out in the end. I hope the public will get it. I’m confident with what I’ve got though. “It was written before U2 ever existed. They never officially released it, they recorded it when they were teenagers and called themselves The Hype.

“They were probably 16 or 17, it’s one of their first ever songs. You can hear where they were going with it though. It has that early punk angst that you would find in a teen band - but there are hints of where they were going with October in there also.

Gribbin said the majority of people involved in the film have close ties to the legendary band. “There’s a strong U2 connection with the team actually making the film. One of the producers was U2’s agent when they first got signed, so they obviously know and trust him,” he added. He approached them saying they needed an early song for that first school gig scene, and they were happy to oblige.

 The singer, who performs under the stage name Joe Echo, said that he hopes his version does U2 justice. Killing Bono just been picked up by Paramount Pictures and is set for release in the UK by the end of the year.

U2 Random Tuesday

Alan Cumming has left the production of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, a Broadway musica with a score co-written by U2’s the Edge and Bono. Cumming, who was set to play Spider-Man’s nemesis, the Green Goblin, has dropped out of the play due to scheduling conflicts.

Cumming claims that with the production delays on the musical, his CBS show The Good Wife will conflict with his role in Spider-Man.

The Scottish actor said in a statement, “Obviously, having waited over a year for Spider-Manto be greenlit, I am very disappointed that I will not have the chance to collaborate with Bono and the Edge, and to work with [director] Julie Taymor on the stage.”

The Spider-Man project has been beset with problems from the beginning. Production delays, cast turnovers (Evan Rachel Wood, who was set to play Mary Jane, left the production last month), and money problems have plagued the production.

U2 welcomes Drew along

WHEN rock band U2 embarks on its five-month world tour in June, Bono and the gang will be accompanied by Melbourne security company boss Andrew Wolveridge. A regular and trusty face guarding red carpets across town, Wolveridge worked with U2 during the Australian leg of its 2006 Vertigo tour and was approached by the group’s head of security to co-ordinate the 2010 shows. Wolveridge will oversee logistics at stadiums in the US, Helsinki, Moscow, Istanbul, Paris, Rome and many more stops in between. What to pack for the northern hemisphere summer? Definitely Bono-style sunnies.
 

BBC Tops U2 on Money List

U2 and their manager Paul McGuinness top the Irish Sunday Times Music Millionaires Rich List.

Their combined wealth is estimated at £429m, a rise of 1% on 2009. In second place is Lord of the Dance star Michael Flatley, with his total wealth calculated at £241m. The paper said his fortunes have dipped by 2% in the past year because of a fall in the value of the Lord of the Dance brand. Dublin-based singer Enya is third in the list, with a fortune believed to be £85m. All three retain the same top three positions from the 2009 list. Northern Irish singer and songwriter Van Morrison is fourth with his wealth listed at £50m.