Did you know this ?

Bono has admitted he suffers from severe stage fright - despite the fact he’s been playing to packed stadiums for 25 years.

The U2 frontman says he still feels "nervous" and "sick" when he wakes up on the morning of a gig, even after quarter of a century.

"The morning before a show I get nervous. I can wake up with a sick feeling," he told Harper’s Bazaar.

The 46-year-old Irish star also worries he might let the crowd down by giving a less than perfect vocal performance.

"I have to hit very high notes and if you hit them wrong you can put your throat out," he said.

"So there’s a ‘Will I? Won’t I?’ aspect to it.

"It used to worry me sick. That sense of, how could I meet the levels of anticipation?

"If you’re a rock star and need 25,000 people telling you they love you, obviously you must be a very insecure person," he joked.

Bono Favors Performance Rights Act

Bono is the latest artist to speak out in favor of the Performance Rights Act, which would call for radio stations to pay roylaties to artists for playing their music. Bono joins other supporters such as Smashing Pumpkins founder Billy Corgan, will.i.am, Sheryl Crow, Herbie Hancock and Emmylou Harris, who have all joined the musicFIRST Coalition on Capitol Hill to lobby in favor of the Performance Rights Act.

Bono released a statement on the matter via musicFIRST, which is an advocacy group for artist rights. “While we have many friends at radio, and appreciate the many things that radio has done for our band over the years, we believe it’s only fair that when radio makes money by playing a recording artist’s music and selling advertising, the recording artist should be compensated just as songwriters are already,” said Bono. ”This is a principle accepted by radio broadcasters in virtually every country in the world. The music business is in a state of freefall at the moment, and while, thankfully, this no longer really affects us - there are many young recording artists out there who can no longer earn a living from the sale of their music, or from touring or selling merchandise… yet they remain a vital part of radio playlists throughout the USA. They should not be denied their fair share. In this time of so much positive change coming from Washington, we hope this bill will be embraced and become the law.”

In response to Bono’s statement, NAB EVP Dennis Wharton commented, “The irony is that it will be the less-established performers who will be hurt most by a performance tax. If radio stations are forced to pay to play music, program directors will be less likely to take a chance playing unknown artists and will instead stick with established musicians like Bono. New artists and niche formats will suffer, and Bono and Britney Spears will become wealthier.”

The House Judiciary Committee has been holding hearings on the legislation, and numerous broadcasters have testified that radio is facing an extremely difficult time in this economy as it is, and enacting a performance royalty would be devastating to the industry

Blackberry the Smart Choice

WHEN Bono strides onto the stage at the Nou Camp stadium in Barcelona on June 30, Jim Balsillie will be a happy man.

The beginning of U2’s world tour marks the start of a high-profile sponsorship for BlackBerry. This tie-up is designed to speed up the journey of the gadget from the businessman’s briefcase to the pocket of the ordinary consumer.

For Balsillie, the joint chief executive of Research in Motion (RIM), BlackBerry’s parent company, it shows he intends to do more than simply defend his patch in the battle with Apple and Nokia for supremacy in the growing smart-phone market, where the mobile phone has morphed into a handheld computer.

What started life as a portable e-mail device, wrecking family weekends, has become something the younger generation uses to listen to music through applications such as Pandora and Slacker. Pictures of Barack Obama clutching his BlackBerry while on the election trail have only burnished its credentials.

U2 Stage Video

Following on from news that U2 will embark on an extensive worldwide tour, the design for the band’s “ambitious staging” has now been revealed. Bono and co. will play inside a towering structure nicknamed ‘The Claw’, with four legs and speakers mounted on each side.

According to a cover feature in the US Rolling Stone, the stage set was dreamed up by U2 ‘show director’ Willie Williams. ‘The Claw’ stands at 164 feet tall, which – crucially – is twice as high as the stage set used by that other world’s biggest band The Rolling Stones on their A Bigger Bang tour. “Theirs would fit underneath this one,” Williams bragged to the magazine. It’s unclear yet whether this is a stroke of genius or something of a sci-fi Spinal Tap, but you can’t say U2 aren’t trying.

50 Days to the start of the world tour

So in honor of hitting the official 50 day mark. Here are 50 things you did not know. (well maybe)

BONO, 44

1. Dropped out of school at 16

2. Sleeps four hours a night

3. Is a fan of George Bush (and finds him very funny); also likes Condoleezza Rice and is pro-Tony Blair

4. Wears a replica of a rosary given to him by the pope, who he calls "the funky pontiff"

5. Regrets having a mullet in the '80s

6. Gets in shape by boxing

7. Drives a beat-up Volvo

8. Keeps his beloved trademark bug-eyed "Fly" sunglasses he wore on the 1993 Zoo TV tour in safe storage in Dublin

9. Years before he was born, a psychic told his mother she would have a son who would be famous in whatever profession he chose

10. Got into so much trouble in high school that he was called "the Antichrist"

11. Gets late-night "firing squad" phone calls from the band after jumping into the audience or climbing scaffolding onstage

12. Is working with Brooklyn-based designer Rogan on a new line of blue jeans

13. Says he needs to be told he's loved 12 times a day

14. Has been married to his high school sweetheart Alison Stewart for 22 years, though she once threw him out of the house during a rocky stretch in their marriage

15. Was a character witness for R.E.M.'s Peter Buck when Buck was on trial for an air rage incident

16. Keeps an apartment on Central Park West

17. Has four children, ranging in age from 2 to 13

18. Gave Christy Turlington away at her wedding to Ed Burns

19. Is allergic to red wine

20. Quit dying his hair jet black because he was "starting to look like Roy Orbison"

ADAM CLAYTON, 44

21. Doesn't drive at night since he had Lasik surgery

22. Though he's not married, he was once engaged to Naomi Campbell

23. Served as best man at Bono's wedding

24. As a teenager, was kicked out of two schools for smoking, drinking and streaking

25. Kept the band together in the early '80s, when the three other members wanted to quit and devote their lives to God

26. Was charged with drunk driving in 1984 and marijuana possession in 1993

27. Says he is now completely sober

28. Admits that he hates responsibility

29. Was so wasted on the Zoo TV tour that the band's bass technician was forced to take his place for a whole show

THE EDGE, 43

30. Was the first member of the band to get married, to high school sweetheart Aislinn O'Sullivan, in 1985 (they're now divorced)

31. Now lives in Europe and in L.A., because his current wife, a belly dancer, is an American

32. Doesn't think Bono should allow himself to be photographed with the pope and George Bush, "and he knows it"

33. Wanted to be a doctor or an engineer growing up

34. U2 lore has it that he actually left the band in the early '80s for religious reasons

35. For years was teased about his record collection, which included nothing recorded before 1976

36. Is so proper that he calls Larry Mullen "Lawrence"

LARRY MULLEN, 43

37. He hates cats (he had a bad experience with one as a child)

38. Is called Dorian Gray by Bono because he has yet to age

39. Loves Echo & the Bunnymen

40. Like the Edge, has a son named Aaron

41. Considers Bono his best friend

42. Is teased for being cheap; U2's manager says Mullen "still has his First Communion money"

43. Worships Elvis Presley

44. Loves to hang out in secondhand record shops

45. Like Bono, he's been with his high school sweetheart since they were 13, although they're not married

46. Is a huge Irish football fan

47. Was painfully shy and still is the quietest member of the band

48. Suffers chronic back pain because he was never taught how to sit correctly at the drums

49. He "cannot tell a lie," according to Bono

50. Has been known to shun the tour bus in favor of traveling alone, on his motorcycle

Bono and the King

A POEM Bono wrote about Elvis in 1995, which he read aloud during an interview two years ago, is going to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 this week. "So what?" you might say, on the grounds that we've often heard slightly nonsensical garbage coming from his mouth in the past, why not a poem which was described by its initial audience of one as being "effective, but bonkers"?

Elvis: American David is the title of the U2 front man's ode to The King, and aside from its iambic pentameter which, to use a term from classical literary theory, is off the hook, the poem makes several claims that not only rhyme but are also enlightening, even to the most ardent Elvis fan. "Elvis grew sideburns as a protest against Tom Jones' hairy chest," Bono states at one point in the poem, which is all written in lowercase, prompting some suggestion that it may have been composed on a mobile phone.
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Now playing: Goo Goo Dolls - Here Is Gone
via FoxyTunes

Happy Birthday Bono -

Happy Birthday Bono. U2 Fans we welcome your greetings below. Post a note to the man the changed the face of music.

As the lead singer of U2, one of the most popular and influential rock bands of the last 30 years, Bono is a figure adored and admired both within and outside of the music industry. As a rock star, his music with U2 has earned him legions of devoted fans across the world, whilst as a humanitarian and crusader for the world's poor, co-founder of organisations such as DATA and the ONE Campaign, he has gained deep respect from politicians and global statesmen as well as music fans. His rare ability to effectively straddle the spheres of both entertainment and politics remains rivaled by few in the realm of popular culture, and his determination to change the world for the better continues to inspire millions on both sides of the political divide.

It's perhaps unsurprising that Bono's unusual adult existence was preceded by a less-than-ordinary upbringing. Born in the north Dublin suburb of Ballymun, Paul Hewson was the second child of Catholic father Brendan Robert Hewson (always called Bobby), and Protestant mother Iris Elizabeth Rankin – a highly unusual arrangement in then deeply sectarian Ireland. As a child Paul Hewson was a precocious, outspoken and thoughtful boy whose early experiences did much to shape his later life as one of the most important figures in Irish history.

As a child, his education started at The Inkwell, a small Protestant Church of Ireland junior school, before eventually continuing on to St. Patrick's Cathedral Choir School. But his time there was unsuccessful; as Bono put it, "I spent a year at St. Patrick's, not being happy, and basically they asked me to leave." This was largely a result of the young Paul throwing dog feces at his Spanish teacher, which subsequently led to his enrollment in 1972 at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, a controversial establishment that was Ireland's first co-educational, non-denominational high school. Paul settled in very quickly and soon became well-adjusted and happy in his new environment.

But at the age of 14, he suffered a tragic and devastating loss when his mother died of a brain hemorrhage whilst attending the funeral of her own father.

From this point onwards, Paul's home life became considerably traumatic. Despite his father's attempts to hold the family together, Bono claims that he and Bob Hewson "didn't get on very well." As a result, father and son never enjoyed a particularly close relationship. In fact, Bono would later claim that the inarticulate Bob Hewson's unspoken message to his children was "to dream is to be disappointed." The singer has often cited this as a key reason for his forming such big ambitions and becoming even more determined to follow his dreams.

It was not long after his mother's death that Paul also got his new name. Originally 'Steinhegvanhuysenolegbangbangbang,' it evolved to 'Bonavox of O'Connell Street' after a hearing aid store in the centre of Dublin, before eventually being shortened to 'Bonavox,' 'Bono Vox' – cockeyed Latin for 'good voice' – and finally 'Bono.' Credit for this goes to his mate Guggi (real name Derek Rowan), a childhood friend, who along with Bono was a member of the group Lypton Village. This was a gang of disaffected-but-creative youths that included Gavin Friday (real name Fionan Hanvey), the man who would eventually go on to form the avant-garde rock band the Virgin Prunes. Bono has often cited Lypton Village as a key source of inspiration and support both before and during his time with U2.

At Mount Temple, Bono describes himself as being "a bit wide-awake, a bit bright, a bit experimental." Although he was far from exceptional as a student, he had a flair for history and art, and became a keen and expert chess player. However, he was perhaps the most adept at navigating the field of romance, entertaining many girlfriends. In 1976, he started dating Alison Stewart (b. March 23, 1961), commonly known as Ali, with the two eventually marrying on August 21, 1982. They went on to have four children: Jordan (b. May 10, 1989), Memphis Eve (b. July 7, 1991), Elijah Bob Patricius Guggi Q (b. August 17, 1999), and John Abraham (b. May 20, 2001). To this day, the family continues to make their home in Dublin.

Despite his initial ambition to be an actor, it was arguably Bono's tendency to be, in his own words, "promiscuous with my ambitions, flirting with all kinds of things" which led him to respond to a notice posted on the Mount Temple bulletin board appealing for musicians. Those interested were told to assemble at 60 Rosemount Avenue, Artane, the house of 14-year-old drummer Larry Mullen Jnr.

As well as Bono, the other boys who made it to that first session were 15-year-old guitarist David Evans (later nicknamed The Edge), 16-year-old Adam Clayton, who couldn't actually play bass guitar but certainly knew how to talk as though he did, Larry's friend Peter Martin, Ivan McCormick, and David Evans' brother Dick. Ivan and Peter were, to quote Adam, "weeded out" early on, whilst Dick eventually left the band to study engineering at Trinity College Dublin. The four remaining boys were initially named Feedback (supposedly after the ear-splitting wailing that always seemed to emanate from the guitar amps), before becoming the Hype, and then eventually U2.

Shortly after the band's formation, Bono, Edge and Larry became involved in the Dublin-based Christian group Shalom. From an early age, the controversy caused by the marriage between his Protestant mother and Catholic father had made Bono extremely suspicious of organised religion, with him later describing it as having "cut my people in two." Therefore, the non-denominational nature of the Shalom group provided Bono and the two other believing members of U2 with solace, harmony and strength.

However, Bono, Edge and Larry's involvement with Shalom later caused friction within U2, as the non-believing Adam felt that the latter three's more devout friends were trying to make them prioritise their faith over the band. The three believers did eventually leave Shalom, as they felt that the group was trying to force upon them the false assertion that a commitment to rock n' roll and a commitment to God were mutually excludable principles. Since then, Bono's Christian faith has played a big role in his life, but in a way that has largely been free from the influence of the mainstream church