U2 perform at last show for Hamish and Andy

THOUSANDS of Hamish and Andy fans were treated to a free mini U2 concert this afternoon when the band performed Desire and Vertigo live on stage at Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

The radio pair were performing their last national drive time show at the free event when the Irish rock stars made their surprise appearance while the boys were fooling around singing their own song, “We are better than U2”. 

Celebrating “pants-off” Friday, Hamish and Andy appeared on stage dressed in colonial style hats and jackets and short black boxers to begin the show

U2 then joined the duo on the couch on stage for a relaxed chat.

“The last time we spoke to you guys was on the phone in France, to actually meet you in the flesh… a bit too much flesh…” The Edge said.

Other special guests included Michael Paynter, John Farnham and Daryl Braithwaite. 

 

Farnham joked about following “you two and following U2 too,” before performing for the crowd. After Farnham wished them farewell, the boys teased about Farnham’s own farewell tours - at eight and counting.

At the end of the show the boys thanked their parents who sat in the audience and their girlfriends Megan Gale and Zoe Foster.

Hamish thanked Andy by giving him an “Andy” necklace and got himself a “Hamish” necklace.

Hamish told the crowd, “We really don’t know what it is we’re going to do next year,” before Andy added, “In the words of a great man, it’s far from over.”

The popular duo have been touring the country playing live shows for the past week as part of their farewell Thank You tour.

They announced their departure from the daily drive time show earlier this year to pursue their television careers, but are yet to announce any details.

But the boys won’t be gone from radio for good. They return next year with one drive show a week on Fridays for the national Today network. They will be replaced Monday to Thursdays by Fifi Box and Jules Lund.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/music/u2-perform-at-last-show-for-radio-stars-hamish-and-andy/story-e6frfn09-1225965373032#ixzz173DANt8v



Bono says financial woes hurting AIDS fight

U2 TOUR FANS 360 Show SYDNEY (Reuters) - Financial tough times in developed economies are undercutting efforts to stop the global spread of AIDS, U2 lead singer Bono said on Tuesday.

“Times are hard in the Western world,” the Irish rock star and campaigner told Reuters after launching World Aids Day, marked around the world on December 1, at Sydney’s Opera House.

Bono said agencies established to arrest acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) “were fighting hard for funding” nearly three decades after the disease was first diagnosed.

He added that more money was needed to meet a target set by the Global Fund to eliminate the transmission of HIV from pregnant mothers to their unborn children by 2015.

According to the United Nations children’s fund UNICEF, over a thousand babies are born each day in Africa with HIV and about half of the HIV-positive women in Africa do not get the drugs they need to prevent transmission of the virus to their babies.

“In recessionary times, people have to tell their politicians this is important to them,” Bono said.

An estimated 33.3 million people worldwide had the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS in 2009, according to the latest figures issued by UNAIDS. There were 26.2 million in 1999.

There is no cure and no commercially available vaccine but combinations of drugs called antiretrovirals can keep patients healthy. However, the virus stays in the body forever and can reactivate if people stop taking the drugs.

“Some people think that the pandemic is on its way out and it’s job done,” Bono said. “It is really not so.”

(Reporting by James Regan, editing by Mike Collett-White and Paul Casciato)



U2's massive first Melbourne concert

U2 has proven that size does matter in the world of rock concerts.

Their 360 Degrees Australian tour, launched in Melbourne tonight, revolves around a super-sized claw-shaped stage that managed to dwarf Etihad Stadium.

It was hard not to be in awe of the Claw; the kind of thing only the biggest band in the world could pull off - they have always dreamt large.

The structure - shoehorned in the middle of the venue - moved all the state of the art screens, lights and speakers above the band for the 360 degree view the tour boasts.

“What do you think of our space station?,” Bono asked the crowd.

No one works a stadium like Bono, dropping in shoutouts to Fitzroy, St Kilda and Richmond before lost single Magnificent.

But technology and stadium staging aside it’s those songs that drew 60,000 fans out tonight.

Beautiful Day and I Will Follow set the agenda; a clever mix of their biggest (I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, Mysterious Ways, Vertigo) and best (Bad, One, Miss Sarajevo) to appeal to their wildly diverse and wildly loyal fanbase.

It means Bono can quote Leonard Cohen in one song, AC/DC in another, even Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

Only U2 could manage to get rap icon Jay-Z to open for them, a man whose “limitless talent” Bono praised.

The rapper added a verse to U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday during their set.

While his lyrical skill was lost on some members of the crowd during his own set - hopefully some minds were opened as Jay-Z and his band showed how hip hop can work live.

His brilliant set featured anthems like 99 Problems, Run This Town and Dirt Off Your Shoulder but it took the instant classic Empire State of Mind to get the rapper the respect he deserved.

Sadly rumored appearances by Kanye West and Jay-Z’s wife Beyonce did not eventuate.

And luckily the predicted rain was another no-show.

Bono Comments on PM AU World Aids Day

THE rock singer and activist Bono took some time out from his tour schedule to meet the Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd, at the Sydney Opera House yesterday.

The pair had a 45-minute meeting with the co-chairmen of Make Poverty History, Andrew Hewett and Tim Costello, where they discussed Australia’s aid program and the challenge of global development.

A spokesman for Mr Rudd said Bono praised Australia’s bipartisan support to reduce poverty globally.



Slipped into Sydney

Slipped into Sydney on Saturday - as he has done many times before - and wasted no time heading out to some of his favourite watering holes.

The renowned Irish rock institution, who spent two weeks at Bungan Beach with his family in 2006 completely undetected, casually strolled into Rose Bay nosherie Catalina yesterday for a seafood feed with guitarist The Edge (aka David Evans) and the eatery’s owner, Michael McMahon.

Earlier in the day he had met with Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd to discuss poverty and aid.

On Saturday night, the sunnies-obsessed singer arrived unannounced at Icebergs Dining Room.

And, like all diners, he had to wait for a table at the “no bookings” restaurant.

“Bono was having a red cocktail but didn’t get to finish it because a table then became available,” said an onlooker.

Bono has been travelling with an entourage of five, including a burly Irish security guy.

While he will turn the Opera House and Harbour Bridge red tomorrow, the U2 360 tour actually will kick off in Melbourne on Wednesday night.

U2 By the Numbers

The tour, with a daily running cost of $850,000, arrived on six 747 jets to be assembled by a crew of 130.

“You compare a tour by the number of trucks they use,” production manager Jake Berry said. “The Rolling Stones ran 46 trucks. We are running 55. This is the biggest.”

The centrepiece of U2-360 is a so-called claw, an imposing bug-like structure that houses 200 tonnes of light, sound and video magic.

U2-360 stage designer Willie Williams said: “The breakthrough was to make it so big that it becomes part of the stadium. But, in a funny way, it’s invisible because the performance area is not connected to the structure.”

Indeed, the stadium of fans surrounding the claw and stage become part of the show, too.

“It’s a cross between a rock show and a sporting event because you can see the other people,” Williams says.

U2 redefined stadium rock with their ZooTV and PopMart tours. But U2 bassist Adam Clayton says U2-360 is revolutionary. “We know it’s a game changer,” he said. “These football stadiums can be quite imposing for music. But this has a different atmosphere. There is humour to it, almost something ridiculous about it. “You think ‘How is this going to work?”’

In terms of box office receipts, U2-360 is working incredibly well.

It took $123 million to be the highest grossing tour of 2009.

A back injury flattened the band’s lead singer, Bono, and tour profits, for most of this year.

U2-360 resumed in August with sellout dates across Europe. US dates are scheduled next year.

U2’s manager, Paul McGuinness, confirmed the $850,000 daily running cost of U2-360. “That’s the overhead cost of being out here whether we play or not,” McGuinness said. “It’s important we play regularly. There is a discipline involved.

“Even though we’re spending a lot of money, we’re making a lot of money.”

McGuinness knows U2-360 is a new model for stadium rock. “We’ve always done landmark productions, or so we think,” he said. “Being able to play in the round, in stadiums, is the holy grail.”

Put simply, in the round means up to 30,000 more seats, which equals lower ticket prices.

“I can assure you the costs of putting this show on are the highest in history,” McGuinness said.

“But the audience looks at the show and can see what we spent the money on.

“They see an incredible spectacle.”

Clayton agreed: “There is a financial risk when you do something that hasn’t been done before. It’s a bit like inventing the wheel.

“We’ve now proved you can do a show by hanging light and sound off a structure. But to build that structure is a very high price. You have to make sure your tour is doing all right.” Clearly, U2 are astute businessmen.

But McGuinness said the numbers must never get in the way of creativity.

“The reason for being good in business is so you can do what you like creatively,” McGuinness said.

“By and large, we have succeeded. There aren’t too many instances of the business getting the better of the creative process.”

Berry said U2-360 took the creativity of stadium rock to an end game – purely because of cost. “It’s like the Beijing Olympics,” he said.

Brazil and Argentina !

U2 will play Estadio Unico de la Plata in Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA on March 30th, and Estadio Morumbi, Sao Paulo in BRAZIL on April 9th, 2011.

Tickets for both shows go on sale to the general public on Tuesday December 7th but U2.com subscribers can enter a special advance presale for tickets beginning this Wednesday, December 1st and running until Friday, December 3rd.

Subscribers will be emailed ahead of this presale with details of timings.

Etihad Stadium No Rain Out

Regardless of the weather the boys will play !

The Irish band’s enormous “claw” stage sticks out of the top of Etihad Stadium, meaning the roof cannot be completely closed.

Fans should prepare themselves for wet weather, but possible thunderstorms and lightning will create more of a problem.

“If it rains we’ll get wet,” the band’s site manager Bart Durbin said.

“Unless there’s torrential downpours, that may affect it slightly, other than that the show goes on. The roof has to be open. We’ve done shows in the rain before. We get wet. It’s not the best thing but we’ll go on.”

The stage for the band’s 360 Degrees tour began being assembled inside Etihad on Friday. The weight of the stage, said to be the largest in touring history, has required extra reinforcement in the car park under the venue.

About 60,000 fans will watch tomorrow’s show, the first of U2’s Australian tour.

Three “claw” stages will criss-cross the country.

One is already being prepared in Brisbane for U2 shows there next week.

The tour, which ends in Perth on December 19, requires 48 trucks to transport the steel in the staging, 17 trucks for flooring and 60 trucks for the lighting and sound production.

Tickets are still available for U2’s shows tomorrow and Friday, with hip hop star Jay-Z as special guest.

Music fans will be hoping Kanye West, in town on a low-key visit to record an album with Jay-Z during down time from his U2 commitments, will join his fellow rapper on stage in Melbourne.