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New Stories:
NY Daily News: Viva La Vargas! (11-21-2002)
London Evening Standard: Bono among Sexiest Man Alive candidates
(11-21-2002)
The Stage: U2 stay in docklands despite plans defeat (11-21-2002)
Irish Examiner: Celebrity art makes waves at charity auction
(11-21-2002)
YouTwo.net: Lego Numb (11-21-2002)
Manchester Online: Must have albums (11-21-2002)
AP: Anniversary of Band Aid (11-21-2002)
Malaysia Mail: Staying Big (11-21-2002)
Houston Chronicle: Site changes script for breaking into movie biz
(11-21-2002)
Salon: Part 2 - All that you want to leave behind (11-20-2002)
Salon: Part 1 - All that you want to leave behind (11-20-2002)
U2.com: On The List (11-20-2002)
NME Originals: At last we've found what you're looking for! (11-20-2002)
Star Bulletin: U2's best from the 90s should satisfy most fans
(11-20-2002)
YouTwo.net: Bono interviewed by Larry King (11-20-2002)
WENN: Judd And Bono Team Up (11-20-2002)
The Mirror: Ali Gets Her Charity's Cards Marked (11-20-2002)
Daily Record: The Aids Team (11-20-2002)
Irish Times: Review of Wyclef Jean at the Ambassador (11-20-2002)
Jam!: Eminem polishes off 'Shiny Tunes' (11-20-2002)
Wiesenthal.com: Simon Wiesenthal Center Honors U2 Lead Singer Bono With
Humanitarian Laureate Award (11-20-2002)
Wiesenthal.com: Part 1 - Rabbi Marvin Hiers Remarks on Bono (11-20-2002)
Wiesenthal.com: Part 2 - Rabbi Marvin Hiers Remarks on Bono (11-20-2002)
This Is Lancashire: Even better than the last best-of (11-20-2002)
BBC: Vivendi takes music sales online (11-20-2002)
MTV: U2 'Best of 1990-2000' drops to #34 (11-20-2002)
Rolling Stone: Jay-Z Ousts '8 Mile' (11-20-2002)
Witnness: Review of Dublin Wyclef Jean Concert (11-20-2002)
State Hornet: Dance group pays homage to U2 (11-20-2002)
Daily Nebraskan: Bono's appearance not set in stone (11-20-2002)
YouTwo.net: Private Remix of Discotheque (11-20-2002)
Billboard: Aguilera Finds New Life On U.K. Chart (11-19-2002)
U2.com: Bono Meets Larry (Not That One!) (11-19-2002)
U2.com: Who You Might Be (11-19-2002)
U2Christmas: Holiday Card Exchange (11-19-2002)
Digital Freedom Network: Bono urges action for Africa at awards dinner
(11-19-2002)
Newsday: Liz Smith meets Bono (11-19-2002)
Omaha World-Herald: Bono to be in Lincoln for World AIDS Day
(11-19-2002)
North Shore News: Review of 'U2 - The Best of 1990-2000' (11-19-2002)
YouTwo.net: U2 Figurines (11-19-2002)
Dotmusic: Stars Come Out For Elvis (11-19-2002)
ShowBiz Ireland: Wyclef Jams with The Edge in Dublin (11-19-2002)
YouTwo.net: UK Chart Info (11-19-2002)
Neumu.net: U2, Metallica, Tom Waits Pay Tribute To The Ramones
(11-19-2002)
Launch: U2's Bono To Receive Human Rights Award Monday (11-18-2002)
The Province: U2 leaves Pop album behind (11-18-2002)
Press of Atlantic City: Eminem still tops chart (11-18-2002)
Daily Nebraskan: Bono, Judd considering Lincoln stop for Thompson Forum
(11-18-2002)
AP: Singer Bono to visit for World Aids Day (11-18-2002)
Maclean's: Living the Beat (11-18-2002)
Newsday: Bono to accept Humanitarian Laureate Award tomorrow
(11-17-2002)
IRMA: Irish U2 chart info (11-17-2002)
Forbes: Bono's Penthouse (11-17-2002)
London Times: 20 questions -- Trivial Pursuit style (11-17-2002)
Rolling Stone: Part 1 - Bono's Scrapbook (11-17-2002)
Rolling Stone: Part 2 - Bono's Scrapbook (11-17-2002)
YouTwo.net: Wyclef Jean & The Edge WOWY (11-17-2002)
YouTwo.net: Canadian DVD misprint (11-17-2002)
Rolling Stone: Part 3 - Bono's Scrapbook (11-17-2002)
Ottawa Sun: U2 Can Own This CD (11-17-2002)
SCMP: Review of 'The Best Of 1990-2000' (11-17-2002)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NY Daily News: Viva La Vargas! (11-21-2002)
From The New York Daily News:
Viva La Vargas!
Elizabeth Vargas can deliver the news to Bono anytime.
The ABC News anchor did such a fine job of introducing the U2 singer at
the Simon Wiesenthal Center dinner at the Marriott
Marquis the other night that Bono exclaimed, "Elizabeth, what a
gorgeous, sexy mama you are!"
Bono went on to speak about subjects ranging from Third World
debt-relief to "bad ideas from the '80s," including mullets and
silk bomber jackets. Turning to the African AIDS crisis, he recalled
speaking to Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), a Holocaust
survivor. "We were talking about [him] being on the trains to go to
Auschwitz," said Bono. "I said to him, respectfully, 'Sir, are
we not watching people on the trains again?'"
--
YouTwo.net Note: This article does not state that Elizabeth Vargas is
very pregnant. She wore a black evening gown
that showed every curve of her pregant body, which is why Bono called
her "a gorgeous, sexy mama."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
London Evening Standard: Bono among Sexiest Man Alive candidates
(11-21-2002)
From The London Evening Standard:
J-LO IS RIGHT. BEN AFFLECK IS THE SEXIEST MAN ALIVE
BY JAMES LANGTON
JENNIFER Lopez says she has known it all along - and now it's official:
Hollywood star Ben Affleck is the Sexiest Man Alive.
Affleck will be awarded his title tomorrow by People magazine which
describes him as 'tall, dark and handsome, smart and
talented - and not afraid to express his love''.
Pearl Harbor star Affleck announced his engagement to Lopez this month
after the two had been spotted in passionate clinches
in New York and Los Angeles. The couple are reported to be planning to
marry on St Valentine's Day next year and will star
together in two new films, Gigli and Jersey Girl. Lopez says she 'didn't
need People magazine to tell me he's the sexiest man
alive'. She also hits back at critics who have suggested that after her
two failed marriages, their relationship might not go the
distance. 'The difference between me and People magazine is that he'll
still be the sexiest man alive in my eyes when he's 100
years old,' she says.
The magazine says Affleck, who was paid GBP 8 million for his new action
thriller Daredevil, has 'more than good looks'. It notes
his ' plain old brains, that attractive but all too rare accessory of
brawn and a $ 350,000 Bentley''.
Affleck, 30, won an Oscar for Good Will Hunting in 1997, and began a
two-year on and off romance with Gwyneth Paltrow. He
has also been linked to Baywatch star Pamela Anderson and singer
Courtney Love. Last year he checked himself into the
Promises clinic in Malibu saying he was worried that he was drinking too
much.
He began his relationship with 32-year-old Lopez after the end of her
10-month marriage to dancer Cris Judd. She was married
before, for 13 months, to waiter Ojani Noa. She and Affleck were first
seen kissing on the beach in the Hamptons in July. They
have also been spotted driving together in Affleck's Bentley convertible
and staying at a GBP 6 million 11-bedroom home in
Miami owned by the singer.
After much speculation, two weeks ago Lopez announced they were engaged,
saying Affleck had proposed in a 'traditional but
also in a very spectacular way' that included a pink diamond platinum
ring. He calls Lopez 'a truly graceful beauty with an artist's
soul'' and says he is 'the luckiest man alive'.
Other candidates for the Sexiest Man Alive title in the magazine's
latest issue are a varied bunch. They include US Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, 70, Briton Simon Cowell, 42, who gained fame
as the scathing judge on the US version of Pop Idol,
rock star Bono, 42, lead singer of U2, and Friends star Matthew Perry,
33.
Affleck is the 16th holder of the title. Previous winners include James
Bonds Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan, Tom Cruise,
George Clooney and Brad Pitt.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Stage: U2 stay in docklands despite plans defeat (11-21-2002)
From The Stage:
U2 stay in docklands despite plans defeat
DUBLIN, EIRE -- New recording studios are to be provided for U2 in the
heart of Dublin's docklands - and the band is to be given
a say in the design of a landmark high-rise tower in which they will be
housed.
Earlier this year U2 lost a planning battle to save its existing studios
in the area, which have been compulsorily acquired by the Dublin
Docklands Development Authority and will eventually be demolished to
make way for a 2 billion euros waterfront scheme.
The authority has announced an international architectural competition
for a 60-metre tower to be built as part of the development plans,
with U2's new recording studios on the top floor. At a press conference
in Dublin to announce the competition, it was confirmed that the
band will be represented on the jury which selects the winning design
for the tower. Lead singer Bono said the group's representative
will probably be Adam Clayton "because he would be very good at it. It
is important this tower is very imaginative and qualifies as a
great building". He expected it would take three years before the new
tower was completed.
In the meantime the band will be staying in their old studios, where
they have recorded since 1994. Their last album, All That You Can't
Leave Behind, was recorded there.
"It is hard to quantify what these studios mean to us, " said Bono. "You
can't really put a price on it - and whatever the DDDA could
offer us would never be enough. But we just have to get out of the way.
It's not the best thing for U2 - but it is the best thing for the city."
DDDA chief executive Peter Coyne welcomed the fact that U2 will be
staying in the docklands. "We are hugely excited, " he said. "They
add value to the whole area in the broadest sense and are part of its
energy."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Irish Examiner: Celebrity art makes waves at charity auction
(11-21-2002)
From The Irish Examiner:
Celebrity art makes waves at charity auction
By Colette Keane
SHE'S got the looks and the body, and the Princess of Pop even knows her
way around a tube of glue and some glitter.
Giving Bosco's helpers a run for their money, Britney Spears has
produced a piece of art fit for any make-and-do show.
Among a host of celebrities asked to donate a piece of art for a charity
auction held in Dublin last night Britney created a
beach scene with some glitter and glue.
Celebrities from the world of film, music and TV were asked to create a
piece of art on the theme of seaside memories, in
aid of Icross, an organisation working to provide home care for AIDS
orphans in east Africa, hoping to raise more than
E100,000.
More than 400 people attended the gala evening.
Britney wasn't the only celeb who dived in with a seaside scene, boxing
legend Muhammad Ali drew a ship, as did Roman
Polanski.
Award-winning actress Cate Blanchett followed in the footsteps of
Britney and drew a picture of a beach, while Bono and
Angelica Heuston came up with a mermaid theme.
All credit to Roy Keane, at the end of the day. He was also on the ball
with his painting of ... a beach ball.
Jeffrey Archer found time to put pen to paper while behind bars. He sent
a picture of a lighthouse with a note apologising
for his lack of colour, but, he said, there is no colour in prison.
Other contributors included Janet Leigh, Sarah Jessica Parker, Mathew
Broderick, Micheal Winner, Richard E Grant and Phil
Collins.
Even Bertie Ahern, Charlie Haughey and Tony Blair all signed a seashell
for the event. But all three are well used to
weathering storms.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YouTwo.net: Lego Numb (11-21-2002)
Thanks to Leah for the following link.
The Lego Numb video can be found in Real Media here:
http://www.studet.fh-muenster.de/~ellow/lego/lego.shtml
Click on the Lego_Numb.rm file.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manchester Online: Must have albums (11-21-2002)
From Manchester Online:
Must have albums
Everyone has a musical preference. However, there are certain albums
that can't be ignored. ManchesterOnline's must have albums are...
David Bowie - Best Of, because he is a true rock and roll star.
Underworld - A Hundred Days off, because they have stood the test of
time and continue to blow people away.
The Very Best of The Stone Roses - Stone Roses, because Madchester
will never be the same again.
Nirvana - Nirvana, just because.
Free Association (David Holmes) - Free Association, because it's a
hidden gem.
Jill Scott - Experience, because the lady can sing.
Robbie Williams - Escapology, because he's a born entertainer.
Roots Manuva - Dub Come Save Me, because it's the most under-rated
Hip-Hop album ever.
Various: Music And Movement Volume 2, because you won't be
disappointed.
Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head, because it's an emotional
rollercoaster ride.
U2 - The Very Best of 1990 - 2000, because they are worthy of
listening time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AP: Anniversary of Band Aid (11-21-2002)
Condensed from The Associated Press:
In 1984, the Ethiopian famine relief song ''Do They Know It's
Christmas''
by Band Aid was recorded. Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof
organized the session, which included George Michael, Bananarama,
Duran Duran, Bono and Sting.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Malaysia Mail: Staying Big (11-21-2002)
From The Malaysia Mail:
Staying big
And what with the huge success of 2000's All That You Can't Leave
Behind and the new release of their second compilation U2: Best of
1990-2000, it looks like The Edge, Larry Mullen, Bono and Adam Clayton
have got the job. Electrical Storm, their first single one of two new
songs on the latest album is making dents in the worldwide charts and
receiving rave reviews. The video too where actress Samantha Morton
(of Minority Report) peels off Larry Mullen's shirt and smooches the
normally outside-the-limelight drummer passionately has made fans
sit up.
Nope, U2 has not turned porn. The song was actually inspired by the
pensive post-9/11 mood. The Edge explained: ''Electrical Storm is
about a sense of foreboding, a sense of jeopardy in the air, that
kind of electricity, that sense of something. But ultimately, the
tune is a love song.'' Twenty-four years, 13 albums and uncountable
No. 1s later, the band is still far from going extinct.
But as close to perfection as U2 devotees pronounced it to be, the
band made mistakes with Pop to be precise.
After the success of 1991's Achtung Baby and 1993's Zooropa, Pop was
to be big.
But it made a mistake.
Mullen, founder of the band, said: ''We did that thing we always tell
younger bands not to do. Which is, book a tour before the record's
finished.'' That backed the band into a corner.
With concerts coming up and a release date looming, U2 released
Pop in 1997 knowing the album had not received the members' 100 per
cent attention.
The band was experimenting again. They hired Massive Attack's producer,
Nellee Hooper, whose ideas Clayton didn't always agree with.
While Achtung Baby came up tops despite similar experimentation and
production and personnel difficulties, the dance elements in Pop
fell flat.
The Edge said: ''We really felt, after the tour that followed, that we
had figured the songs out, that they were pretty much there but maybe
we didn't fully appreciate every aspect of the songs when we made the
final mixes.'' Tight deadlines also affected the Pop tour. During
the opening night at Las Vegas in 1997, fans saw the rare sight of
ill-prepared U2 members struggling with instruments.
The album was also produced while Mullen was recovering from a back
injury and a more liberal use of drum machines was employed. That
effectively killed some of the U2 magic.
Only too aware of what Pop could have been, U2 revisited the album
while deciding on the tracks for the Best Of album. In the end,
three songs from Pop Staring At The Sun, Gone and Discotheque make
appearances as re-mixes. As The Edge put it: ''I suppose we ultimately
just believe in revisionism.'' The album also features songs from
Achtung Baby, Zooropa, Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1, Pop and
All That You Can't Leave Behind.
The other new song is The Hands that Build New York, from the
soundtrack of the upcoming Martin Scorsese movie The Gangs Of New York.
So, it looks like U2 is alive and ready. Walk on!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Houston Chronicle: Site changes script for breaking into movie biz
(11-21-2002)
From The Houston Chronicle:
Site changes script for breaking into movie biz
By CHERYL CURRID
Are you an undiscovered movie producer? Do you have a screenplay
written that delivers more power than War and Peace, but no agent to
sell it and no money to fly to Los Angeles and pitch it?
Well, thanks to actor Kevin Spacey and a team of benefactors, there's
a place to show off your masterpiece. Triggerstreet.com, a new and
free Web site, has opened its virtual doors to let anyone share a
great idea.
In an effort to encourage the creative process of filmmaking and
screenwriting, people can upload their work to be seen and reviewed by
other people. What they get back is hands on, peer-to-peer, objective
criticism, that lets the material be judged on its own merit.
TriggerStreet allows movie viewers and producers to review and rate
short films and screenplays. Ultimately, the ratings of the viewers
will create the 10 best entries that will be reviewed by a panel of
celebrity judges. The judges initially include top name celebs such
as Mike Myers, Annette Bening and U2 lead singer Bono.
The judges will select the top slot. Although Spacey hasn't revealed
the prize for the best work, for most people it's not about the gift --
the reward is having their work publicly viewed and recognized.
Before this site was opened, if you wanted to share an idea, you had
to go through hoops before industry professionals would be able to see
it. If you sent an unsolicited work to an actor or movie production
company, you'd get it back -- unopened. They couldn't read or see
it for fear they'd risk a lawsuit if they ever used a similar idea
to yours.
But TriggerStreet changes that. It provides a demilitarized zone
between the people with ideas and the people who want to see them.
In the first week of operation, TriggerStreet.com brought in 10,000
new registered members. Over 150 films were posted, and the ratings
process is up and running.
At the recent Comdex show, Spacey showed off some of the work submitted
already. It's amazing to see what someone can do with a video camera,
computer editing software and a little imagination.
The site offers an engaging avenue of exploration for first time and
veteran film directors, writers, enthusiasts or anyone at all. If
you have a great idea, you can bring your vision to the screens of
industry members.
This site isn't for or about money -- but it did take money to create
it. Budweiser backed the site financially as an extension of its
efforts to showcase its products. This extends the brand into a new
forum -- not a commercial or a TV placement.
The people at Real Networks lent a few hands to support the video
streaming for the site. All movies are compressed and delivered with
Helix, the latest streaming software from Real Networks. Yahoo movies
group also brings support from its site.
For my take: This site will unearth people who have talent but not
the right connections. It will also help those with the ideas and
skills to hone them. It's likely to encourage people to keep going
when they would have given up. And, ultimately, give great actors
like Kevin Spacey more unique stories and characters to bring to life.
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Salon: Part 2 - All that you want to leave behind (11-20-2002)
While not terribly groundbreaking in terms of danceable electronica,
these songs nevertheless are a more honest
representation of U2's music from the 1990s. The samples and big beats
twist the band's comfortable sound in
new directions. The songs aren't always successful, but hearing them
now, warts and all, is a welcome diversion
from the frustratingly simplified recasting of the band on the A-sides
disc.
The main thing "1990-2000" reveals is that U2 seem trapped by the
mythology of their own earnestness. This
carefully selected A-side collection feels like the members of the band
have resigned themselves to the fact that
they are best when writing passionate, uplifting songs. With the
exception of bonus disc innovations, even their
attempts of rebellion -- "Miss Sarajevo's" arias and the glitzy keyboard
explosions on "pop" -- feel sanitized,
occurring within the constraints of their larger-than-life, iconic image
so that the compilation will flow well.
This is interesting because the oddball deviations and experiments on
the bonus disc are more valuable than the
limited edition availability. It proves that U2's club kid and jaded
hipster phases just led them right back to the end
of the 1980s -- right back to the type of music that made them
successful and famous in the first place. The
problem is that now U2 is trying to rewrite that story. Because
"1990-2000" is the band's version of themselves
as they want to be remembered. Burn those yearbook photos, ignore the
wraparound shades and toss out that
giant citrus fruit, because the 1990s were simply a wrong turn down an
otherwise straightforward path. No harm
done, no integrity damaged, right?
Well, no. Unfortunately, "1990-2000" also shows that the earnest U2 of
2002 isn't the same earnest U2 of 1987.
The two new songs on the collection, "Electrical Storm" and "The Hands
That Built America" (from the upcoming
Leonardo DiCaprio movie "Gangs of New York") buttress the point. Both
are gorgeous: The William Orbit mix
of "Storm" swells with choruses that climax in a crash of guitar and
Bono's yearning falsetto, and "Hands" screams
with cinematic schmaltz and sweeping strings. At the same time, the
emotional content of both songs is abstract,
tugging at the heartstrings with vague declarations like "Storm's"
"Let's see colors that have never been/ Let's go
to places no one else has seen." These songs are cookie-cutter U2: Start
with guitar chime, cue grand choruses,
now end with a big crescendo and universal revelation. Despite how
moving they sound, they emerge somewhat
hollow and empty.
Even more disheartening, they sound contrived and somewhat complacent,
which was what U2's changes in the
1990s were supposed to prevent. The band members said they didn't want
to become caricatures of
themselves, spitting out the same echoey chords and 4/5 songs album
after album. Striking those ironic poses
had its price -- it stole the innocence and purity that made the
earnestness of their early music so magical and true.
The forced solemnity found on "1990-2000" is a sort of conformity that's
antithetical to what the band has always
stood for, and negates the limitless freedom of sound that made U2 great
in the first place. Pass me some
Maybelline and crank up that Bauhaus; I feel like a couple of spins of
"Pop" are in order.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Salon: Part 1 - All that you want to leave behind (11-20-2002)
From Salon:
All that you want to leave behind
U2 spent the '90s making rebellious music that strayed into weirdness
and irony, but a new compilation sticks
to the band's trademark earnestness.
By Annie Zaleski
Nov. 19, 2002 | Underneath U2's patriotic flag-waving and global
peacemaking, at heart the four lads still want
to be rebellious Irish teenagers. What other explanation is there for
what happened to them during the 1990s?
During the '80s the band was scrappy and brash, steadfastly ignoring the
plastic passion of new wave with
politically charged idealism and tilting activism. After conquering most
of the free world with "The Joshua Tree" in
1987, the band members fit comfortably into their roles as
straight-faced rockers, saving humanity with soaring
anthems and bleeding hearts on their sleeves.
Then, in their version of getting a tattoo, staying out all night
drinking cheap beer and skipping out of gym class
for a smoke, the foursome spent the next decade running away from a
reputation. No longer the polite young
men you could proudly take home to Mom, their very public descent into
irony and weirdness was fascinating to
watch. The band released the electro-buzzed "Achtung Baby" (1991) and
Bono transmogrified into a debauched
devil on the Zoo TV tour. On "Zooropa" (1993) the Edge mumbled the cold
"Numb" to a keyboard line borrowed
from proto-new wave band the Normals' "Warm Leatherette." And then there
was the Popmart extravaganza, a
Day-Glo train wreck of synthesizers, larger-than-life Golden Arches and
a mechanized lemon -- a sort of experiential
version of the kaleidoscopic and commercially sour "Pop" (1997). After
the long-haired, doe-eyed earnestness and
genuine faith of '80s warhorses like "With or Without You" and "Sunday
Bloody Sunday," U2's winking excess and
ironic, "Is this a joke?" sensibility were difficult to swallow.
All said, U2's "The Best of 1990-2000" should be less cohesive and a lot
harder to digest than its predecessor,
"The Best of 1980-1990." The techno-fried tracks on a bonus 13-song disc
of B-sides that was packaged with
"1990-2000" during the first week of release are certainly patchier.
However, the 16 songs included on the single-
disc A-sides compilation are surprisingly much tamer than the four
full-length albums from which they are plucked.
Call it revisionist history or selective remembering, but "1990-2000"
has obviously been processed and
manipulated through a massive earnestness filter. In a way, this
collection exposes an all-new irony: That for all
their slick-sell posturing, U2 was pretty serious all along. Or at least
that's the intended message.
Instead of "Zooropa's" trance-inducing title track or the hectic urban
chaos of "Lemon," we hear the dreamy, tick-tock
lullaby of "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)" and a delicate, almost a cappella
"The First Time." "Pop" is similarly pruned:
The new mix of "Gone" is closer to the band's loose live version,
minimizing squealing synths in favor of sparse
piano chords and Adam Clayton's bass. "Staring at the Sun," often
reworked into an acoustic tune in concert,
emphasizes Larry Mullen Jr.'s drums and random dapples of guitar and
synth high in its own remix, underscoring
its desolate atmosphere. While first-rate compositions, both give little
hint of "Pop's" messy bursts of mechanical
fireworks.
Of course, some of U2's bizarre artifacts just can't be swept under the
rug. The new version of "Pop's" glittery all-
night party "Discotheque" -- heavier on the funk -- and a slightly
tweaked remix of "Numb" both betray their
automaton origins. And you wouldn't want to change a few relics, such as
"Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me,"
their excellent "Batman Forever" soundtrack contribution that oozes
lust, pulsing with a jagged riff.
As a whole, "1990-2000" accurately delivers the essence of "Achtung
Baby," reproducing its vulnerable
declarations of love, erotic dance-floor artifice and doses of decadent
seduction. All of that is included here in three
songs: the ballad "One," the apocalyptic come-on "Until the End of the
World" and the hypersexual "Even Better
Than the Real Thing." The goal with the rest of the collection seems to
be to amass something as undated, as
unembarrassing even, as "Achtung" as a whole.
This likely explains why all three songs from "Pop" appear remixed.
Stripped away to chords and lyrics, "Pop" is
quite possibly one of U2's most gut-wrenching albums; its cheesy
electronics fail to hide the anguish of "Wake Up
Dead Man," "Please" and "Mofo." But today it also seems like the musical
equivalent of U2's goth phase, the band
awkwardly trying out keyboards and vocal distortion like a teenager
messing with fishnets, dyed black hair and the
Sisters of Mercy.
In retrospect, U2 didn't waver as much as we thought during the Clinton
years. For a rock band, they were properly
unconventional -- even rebellious. Just as grunge rock began to grumble
with angst, Bono stretched into the top of
his vocal range on "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)." Later, their spate of
"Achtung"/"Zooropa" remixes predated the
short-lived electronica boomlet in the States by almost five years. And
then, when boy band and Britney fluff
infested the pop charts with disposable confections, U2 arrived with
"All That You Can't Leave Behind," a no-frills
rock celebration of guitars, bass, drums and vocals.
Oddly enough, there are only two tracks -- "Beautiful Day" and "Stuck in
a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" -- from
"Behind," both trumpeted as a return to their guitar-band roots. (What
about "Walk On" and "Elevation," the
epitome of the uplifting songs picked for "1990-2000"?) Maybe that's
U2's mischievous rebelliousness peeking
through serious passion. That would help explain the inclusion of "Miss
Sarajevo," their collaboration with Luciano
Pavarotti from the "Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1" fake film score
album.
But judging from the flashy techno populating the bonus B-sides disc, U2
prefer to hammer home their defiant
teenage outlaw side on this half of the collection. "Salome (Zooromancer
Remix)" sounds vaguely like Duran
Duran's "Save a Prayer" after an extended bit of chilly disco, while
"Dirty Day (Junk Mix)" is an odd collage of
sound with old pal Brian Eno on keyboards. "Even Better Than the Real
Thing (Perfecto Mix)" and "Numb (Gimme
Some More Dignity Mix)" are saturated with gospel choir vocals of early
'90s house music, and "Discotheque
(Hexidecimal Mix)" cribs a crash-and-burn synth echo from the Chemical
Brothers' "Setting Sun." Only a few
tracks -- in particular the hushed "North and South of the River" and
"Your Blue Room" -- tone down the frenzy for
more solemn reflection.
(Continued)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
U2.com: On The List (11-20-2002)
From U2.com:
On The List
U2.Com has been shortlisted for a prestigious online music award in the
UK - and voting is now live.
We've been shortlisted in the BT Openworld 'Interactive Music Awards
2002' - vote for the 'artist you think has done the most to reach their
fans
online over the past year.'
Fans can also wield their online power in the 'People's Choice Award'
- you can vote here: www.dotmusic.com
Voting for the Interactive Music Awards 2002 closes next week -
November 24.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NME Originals: At last we've found what you're looking for! (11-20-2002)
From NME Originals:
At last we've found what you're looking for!
The fifth issue of NME Originals devoted to the career of U2 is onsale
in the UK now, priced £4.99
''We were put on the cover of NME before we had a record deal. There
are a lot miserable c**ts there, but I would like to say that we are
what you made us. Thank you.'' - Bono on NME
This 148-page magazine follows on from the hugely popular NME Originals
featuring The Beatles, Punk, Oasis and Manic Street Preachers.
Once again it's the definitive magazine for a fan - packed with all
the U2 interviews, reviews, news stories and rare photos which ran
in the pages of NME from their first Musicians Wanted ad in January
1978 to receiving their Godlike Genius Award at the NME Awards in
February 2000, all reprinted for the very first time since their
original publication.
From '11 O'Clock Tick Tock' to 'All That You Can't Leave behind' via
'The Joshua Tree' and 'Achtung Baby', NME Originals U2 is a whirlwind
journey from the pubs and clubs of Dublin to the biggest stadiums
on earth.
An essential read for all U2 followers and fans of music that can
move mighty mountains.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Star Bulletin: U2's best from the 90s should satisfy most fans
(11-20-2002)
From The Star Bulletin:
U2's best from the 90s should satisfy most fans
Review by Gary C.W. Chun
This is the Irish band's second best-of compilation. While the group's
1980-1990 collection boasted strong songs but was underwhelming
overall, this new collection's attractions are two new songs and four
new mixes of older material by producer Mike Hedges.
''Electrical Storm'' and ''The Hands That Built America'' (to be
featured on Martin Scorsese's ''Gangs of New York'' soundtrack)
are produced by William Orbit. The dance-influenced sound man adds
a moody, ambient feel to both tracks. The new mixes of ''Numb,''
''Discotheque,'' ''Staring at the Sun'' and ''Gone'' sound like, to
these ears, six of one and half a dozen of the other. One of these
could have easily been sacrificed to include ''Walk On,'' an important
recent song that's not included in this collection.
The decade that's documented here was bookended by two of U2's better
albums, 1991's ''Achtung Baby'' and 2000's ''All That You Can't Leave
Behind,'' and the important songs from those albums are included here.
The rest of the collection is filled out with some of the stronger
songs from the band's lesser albums, ''Zooropa'' and ''Pop,'' and
the tracks ''Miss Sarajevo'' (from the Passengers side project that
included a guest vocal by Luciano Pavarotti) and ''Hold Me, Thrill Me,
Kiss Me, Kill Me'' (from ''Batman Forever'').
This U2 best-of collection should satisfy most of the band's fans.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YouTwo.net: Bono interviewed by Larry King (11-20-2002)
Larry King announced at the beginning of his show today
that he had interviewed Bono during the day. The show will air
December 1st, World AIDS day.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WENN: Judd And Bono Team Up (11-20-2002)
From WENN:
Judd And Bono Team Up
Nov 20, 2002 (WENN via COMTEX) -- Hollywood actress ASHLEY JUDD is
planning to
join U2 rocker BONO's charity tour of America.
The WHERE THE HEART IS star - who is married to Scottish racing driver
DARIO FRANCHITTI -
hopes to unite with the singer when he visits US colleges to promote
DATA, DEBT AIDS, TRADE
FOR AFRICA.
The campaign is currently being negotiated with Universities stateside.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Mirror: Ali Gets Her Charity's Cards Marked (11-20-2002)
From The Mirror:
Ali Gets Her Charity's Cards Marked
By Michael Doyle
Ali Hewson yesterday launched the Chernobyl Christmas card in Dublin.
The wife of U2 superstar Bono was joined by fellow Chernobyl campaigner
Adi Roche to announce
the special edition cards. Proceeds from the sale of all cards sold will
go to the Chernobyl Children's
Project, which was founded by former Presidential candidate Roche.
Anti-nuclear campaigner Ali
helped organise the sending of around 1.3million protest postcards last
April calling for the Sellafield
plant to be closed.
The cards, which highlighted fears about pollution from the plant, were
sent to British PM Tony Blair,
Prince Charles and British Nuclear Fuels boss Norman Askew.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daily Record: The Aids Team (11-20-2002)
From The Daily Record:
The Aids Team
Ashley Judd and Bono are in talks to team up -but not in song, or on the
big screen. The
Hollywood star is understood to have told the U2 frontman she is keen to
support his latest
good cause - DATA (Debt Aids, Trade for Africa). Bono intends to tour US
colleges to raise
awareness about the Aids and economic crisis in the continent and
Ashley, who is married to
Scots racing ace Dario Franchitti, is apparently interesting in joining
the tour.
The unlikely couple are believed to have contacted universities across
the States and
appearances are likely to be confirmed this week.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Irish Times: Review of Wyclef Jean at the Ambassador (11-20-2002)
From The Irish Times:
Wyclef Jean
Ambassador
By KEVIN COURTNEY
Bling bling! It's Wyclef in da house, representing on the mic for
Witnness, and playing all the hits for the Dublin
peeps. Boyakasha! Wyclef Jean is black, one fifth of the audience at the
Ambassador is black, but don't be
fooled: the former Fugee is playing purely for us white folks,
distilling rap, hip-hop and soul into bland mix of
pop standards, rock classics and party favourites. It's Caucasian
Oriented Rap, aimed squarely at the Ali G
generation, and the crowd is lovin' it, lovin' it, lovin' it. Wyclef's
DJ warms us up with some nifty mixing, scratching
and spinning, and then the man himself takes the stage with his
three-piece band to perform No Woman No
Cry, the first of many Bob Marley pastiches throughout the evening.
He gives a big shout to all the "refugees" in the house, and plays a
Fugees medley - or rather the DJ spins a
couple of Fugees tunes while Wyclef and the band play along. Wyclef
never seems to finish a cover version,
knocking off Pink Floyd, Elvis and U2 riffs on the electric guitar
before skipping onto something else, like a busker
who can't remember the rest of the song.
In between the sloppily-played classics, Wyclef performs his own hits,
Gone Till November, 911 and Perfect
Gentleman, but the biggest applause of the night comes when The Edge
joins him on stage for an extended
jam of With Or Without You. The sponsors must be delighted at this coup,
but U2 should pray this doesn't end
up on CD.
Instead of taking his bows, Wyclef lets his DJ loose on a cheesy 1980s
set, and we exit to the terrible strains of
A-ha and Cyndi Lauper. Now that's just plain patronising.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jam!: Eminem polishes off 'Shiny Tunes' (11-20-2002)
From Jam!:
Eminem polishes off 'Shiny Tunes'
By JOHN WILLIAMS -- JAM! Showbiz
The latest edition of MuchMusic's popular compilation ''Big Shiny
Tunes'' seems to have lost its lustre, and all signs point towards the
''Eminem'' factor.
''Big Shiny Tunes 7'' entered the charts in second on sales of 25,100,
however, it was a far cry from last year's edition which debuted at
No. 1 on sales of 68,500.
Meanwhile, it didn't take long for Eminem to climb back on top of
the Canadian album charts. The soundtrack to his film ''8 Mile,''
anchored by his hit single ''Lose Yourself,'' found itself back at
No. 1 this week on sales of 37,700, according to data compiled by
Nielsen SoundScan Canada.
The album knocked U2's compilation ''Best Of 1990 - 2000'' down to
third and once again gave Slim Shady two albums in the top 10 --
his previously released ''The Eminem Show'' (10,100) placed 10th.
Of note, U2's greatest hits package sank dramatically this week with
sales of just 22,100, compared to the 55,900 it rang up last week in
attaining the No. 1 spot.
Pearl Jam's new album ''Riot Act'' (20,000) debuted in fourth,
the french compilation ''Mixmania'' (16,900) fell one position to
fifth, Avril Lavigne's ''Let Go'' (14,400) remained in sixth, while
Elvis Presley's ''Elvis: 30 No. 1 Hits'' (11,300) dropped two spots
to seventh.
New York rapper Jay-Z made his mark on the charts, debuting in
eighth with his latest album ''Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse''
(11,100), and french artist Francois Perusse's ''L'Album Pirate''
(10,900) entered the charts in ninth.
Notable chart movement included Justin Timberlake's solo debut
''Justified'' spiralling to 14th from third and Christina Aguilera's
''Stripped'' falling from eighth to 15th. Other chart debuts included
Missy Elliott's ''Under Construction at No. 24, 3 Doors Down's ''Away
From The Sun'' at No. 25, Phil Collins's ''Testify'' at No. 27, TLC's
''3D'' at No. 31, and O-Town's ''O2'' at No. 38.
In the U.S., Jay-Z debuted at No. 1 on sales of 545,100, ''8 Mile''
(400,200) slipped to second, Missy Elliott (258,800) entered in third,
Justin Timberlake's ''Justified'' (188,600) dropped from second to
fourth, and Pearl Jam (165,900) debuted in fifth.
Here are the 10 best-selling albums in Canada, according to Nielsen
SoundScan:
1. VARIOUS ARTISTS -- ''8 MILE OST'' (37,700)
2. VARIOUS ARTISTS -- ''BIG SHINY TUNES 7 (25,100)
3. U2 -- ''BEST OF 1990 - 2000'' (22,100)
4. PEARL JAM -- ''RIOT ACT'' (20,000)
5. Z-VARIES -- ''MIXMANIA'' (16,900)
6. AVRIL LAVIGNE -- ''LET GO'' (14,400) (13,900)
7. ELVIS PRESLEY -- ''ELVIS: 30 #1 HITS'' (11,300)
8. JAY-Z -- ''BLUEPRINT 2: THE GIFT & THE CURSE'' (11,100)
9. FRANCOIS PERUSSE -- ''L'ALBUM PIRATE'' (10,900)
10. EMINEM -- ''THE EMINEM SHOW'' (10,100)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wiesenthal.com: Simon Wiesenthal Center Honors U2 Lead Singer Bono With
Humanitarian Laureate Award (11-20-2002)
From Wiesenthal.com:
SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER HONORS U2 LEAD SINGER
BONO WITH HUMANITARIAN LAUREATE AWARD
The Simon Wiesenthal Center honored Bono, lead singer of the Irish rock
band U2, with the Centers highest honor, its Humanitarian Laureate
Award, at its annual dinner on Monday, November 18, 2002 in New York
City. The Master of Ceremonies was Elizabeth Vargas of ABC News.
Bono came to the world stage in 1980 as the lead singer for the
Irish rock group U2. Since that time the band has sold over 100
million records and have received the highest accolades from the
recording industry. However, his international presence does not end
there. Since 1998, Bono has been an active supporter of the Jubilee
2000 Drop the Debt campaign, which campaigned for the unpayable debts
of the worlds poorest countries to be written off. He has met with the
worlds most powerful leaders and politicians to discuss the issues
of poverty and AIDS in Africa. A champion of the people of Africa,
Bono recently spent two weeks there with U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul
ONeill to make the case for more money for fighting AIDS and poverty
on that continent. Bono is now in the process of setting up a network
called DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa) that will target wealthy
governments to increase resources and improve their policies toward
African countries.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, Dean and Founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center
said, Bono is to be congratulated for his tireless work on behalf
of many humanitarian causes, from fighting to alleviate famine and
poverty, the scourge of AIDS in Africa, and for using his talent and
influence to fulfill the prophetic vision of Tikkun Olam, of helping
to mend and repair the world.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is an international human rights
organization dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust,
and to fostering tolerance and understanding through community
involvement, educational outreach and social action. The Center, along
with its Museum of Tolerance, confronts important contemporary issues,
including bigotry, racism, antisemitism, terrorism and genocide.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wiesenthal.com: Part 1 - Rabbi Marvin Hiers Remarks on Bono (11-20-2002)
From Wiesenthal.com:
RABBI MARVIN HIERS REMARKS - NEW YORK ANNUAL DINNER Honoring BONO
The Simon Wiesenthal Center honored Bono,
Ladies and Gentlemen: first let me take this opportunity to congratulate
our honoree Bono, this year’s recipient of
the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Humanitarian Award, for his tireless work
on behalf of many humanitarian causes;
from fighting to alleviate famine and poverty, the scourge of AIDS in
Africa -- and for using his talent and influence
to fulfill the prophetic vision of tikkun olam, of helping to mend and
repair the world. To paraphrase the words of the
Job, ‘whoever heard of me spoke in my favor and those who saw me bore
witness to my merit. The poor man,
when he called the orphan who had no protector. Righteousness was my
garment, justice the cloak, I was eyes to
the blind, feet to the lame and father to the needy’. Congratulations --
may your work be a call and inspiration to
others.
My friends, we live in unsettling times. Since 9-11 life has changed for
all of us, and nothing can be taken for
granted -- not in Bali, not in Jerusalem and not anywhere in America.
But it is not only the phenomena of terrorism
that the world faces, but also the reappearance of the old scourge of
antisemitism. Not since the end of the Second
World War has there been such a campaign of vilification directed
against Israel and her supporters worldwide.
Many international forums have been hijacked and turned into hate-fests
against Jews. As an NGO of the United
Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe, our delegation served as
Chair of all the Jewish delegations
present at the U.N. Conference on Racism and Xenophobia in Durban.
There, Jewish delegates were spat upon,
shoved and asked to leave public sessions.
Of course every country, including Israel, must be subject to criticism.
And surely the current situation in the Middle
East is a contributing factor to the hysteria. But still let us not
confuse legitimate criticism with what is really
happening – nothing less than a manifestation of hate and antisemitism.
What can we say of the cartoons that continue to be published worldwide,
that cannot be distinguished from the
cartoons of Der Stuermer edited by the infamous Nazi Julius Streicher in
the 1930s? A cartoon in a leading
newspaper in Greece shows two Jews in Nazi uniforms with Stars of David
on their helmets stabbing two Arabs.
The caption reads: “We were not in Auschwitz and Dachau just to suffer,
but to learn”.
In the March 15, 2002 Spanish daily, El Periodico showing Nazis
massacring Jews in Warsaw in 1940, while the
other part of the cartoon depicts Israelis doing the same in Jenin, with
the caption reading: “But we are the Chosen
People”.
And the cartoon in the Italian daily La Stampa, which depicts an Israeli
tank rolling up to a manger (mainger) with little
baby Jesus staring up in horror -- and crying out, “Do you want to kill
me once more?”
This new attitude recently drew the attention of the President of
Harvard University, Larry Summers -- who wrote, “I
never thought I’d become seriously worried about the issue of
antisemitism… In my lifetime antisemitism has been
remote from my experience. But today I’m less complacent because there’s
disturbing evidence of an upturn in
antisemitism globally.” He goes on to warn, “Where antisemitism and
views that are profoundly anti-Israel have
been the primary preserve of poorly educated right-wing populace,
profoundly anti-Israel views are increasingly
finding support in intellectual communities”.
The most pervasive attacks have occurred in the Arab world, where they
have the tacit approval of the official
newspapers and governments as well.
(Continued)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wiesenthal.com: Part 2 - Rabbi Marvin Hiers Remarks on Bono (11-20-2002)
In Egypt, a new series began last Wednesday night entitled, “Horsemen
Without a Horse”. This series is showing
now, during the Moslem holy month of Ramadan, with a potential viewing
audience in the tens of millions. The
theme: a worldwide conspiracy of Jews to control the world. Reacting to
the criticism that the series is based on
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious antisemitic canard
written in the late 1800’s by the czarist police and
exposed as a fabrication by the London Times in 1920, the producers
replied that even if that were true, “Zionism
exists and it has controlled the world since the dawn of history”.
Not a single word of criticism has been heard from the President of
Egypt, from leaders of academia or the arts.
Clearly this 41-day hate series, which will also be broadcast throughout
the Arab world, doesn’t disturb President
Mubarak even though it incites hatred in direct violation of the Camp
David Accords, which Egypt signed.
Which brings me to Syria. On October 18, 2002 the Syrian Defense
Minister, Mustafa Tlas, announced the
publication of a new edition of his book The Matzah of Zion, in which he
accuses Jews of murdering a Catholic
priest, Father Toma, in Damascus in 1840 and then draining his blood to
bake matzah with Christian blood on the
festival of Passover. 18 thousand copies of The Matzah of Zion were sold
at this year’s International Book Fair in
Damascus, where Tlas announced the publication of English and French
editions.
When The Matzah of Zion was first published in 1985, the Syrian Defense
Minister claimed that his research had
been done at the American University in Beirut. But the President of the
American University responded to the
Wiesenthal Center’s inquiry on the matter that no such archives exist.
When we received word that the Sorbonne
was planning to award Tlas an honorary doctorate, the Center forwarded
all our material on the matter to the
Sorbonne who reviewed it and decided to cancel his doctorate.
In the new edition of the book, Tlas attacks the Wiesenthal Center
directly for trying to discredit him. He calls us
Mossad agents. In the introduction, he writes, “my intention in
publishing this book is to bring to light some of the
secrets of the Jewish sect… The hateful fanaticism and the
implementation of the teachings of the Talmud.”
Tlas is the third highest-ranking official in the Syrian government and
he is propagating the blood libel in the 21st
Century. There is no doubt that the government of Syria condones this,
otherwise they would have prevented
him from writing it. All this while his country sits on the United
Nations Human Rights Commission and is a
non-permanent member on the United Nations Security Council. Finally
last week a senior U.N. official, on behalf
of Kofi Annan, responded to our protest and called Tlas’ book, “contrary
to the basic ideas of the United Nations,”
adding that, “In the Middle East context, inciting hatred against Jews
or any other people only adds fuel to the fire
and makes the search for peace even more difficult”.
The singling out of Israel applies even to the field of book publishing.
In England the Saint Jerome Publishing
Company terminated its contract with Bar llan University in Israel,
refusing to sell them textbooks. There’s no such
ban against Saudi Arabia where human rights are consistently violated,
where women aren’t even allowed to
drive to seek medical help unless accompanied by a male -- no ban
against the Iranians -- not a word against the
North Koreans. If Iraq wants books, they’ll send it to them by the
carload. Only Israel is the world’s problem.
And, last week the Vice Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare in Japan,
Yoshio Kimura, said, “… social welfare is
said to be important, but there are those in society who espouse the
principle of market economics. There are
many Jew-like self-serving ghouls waiting to pounce on the 30 trillion
yen medical care market. We must join
forces and do our best to confront them.
If we are to stop this plague, these attitudes must be confronted. But
more than that, we must find solutions by
expanding our reach and by building important coalitions against the
purveyors of hate.
We are pleased to announce that because of our international work in the
field of tolerance education, we have
been invited to jointly sponsor, with UNESCO, an international
conference on the recent upsurge in antisemitism.
The conference will be held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris on May 13th
& 14th.
Sixty years ago, the world appeased Adolf Hitler. The results were
devastating. Golda Meir used to say that if
the people of Israel were ever destroyed, the most eloquent eulogies
would be delivered from the rostrums of
the international community. But rather than wait for those eulogies, we
choose to live by confronting the haters
and bigots now.
Or as Theodor Herzl put it, “A people can only help itself - If it
cannot, that people cannot be helped at all.” That
is the mission of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This Is Lancashire: Even better than the last best-of (11-20-2002)
From This Is Lancashire:
Even better than the last best-of
NOT only have U2 been at the centre of the music world for more than
two decades now, but Bono was recently voted most powerful figure in
the music industry by Q magazine.
So it is with great timing that the Irish rock stars release the
Greatest Hits package, U2: The Best Of 1990 - 2000.
Always one of the most prolific of bands, Bono and chums have plenty to
choose from for this collection which features hits from albums such
as Achtung Baby, Zooropa, Pop and All That You Can't Leave Behind. It
will also feature their current single Electrical Storm and new track,
The Hands That Built America, as well as old favourites such as Even
Better Than The Real Thing, Mysterious Ways, Beautiful Day, Stuck In
A Moment You Can't Get Out Of and The Fly. And if this is all a bit
mainstream for diehard U2 fans, then never fear - there is a limited
edition set containing a B sides album with such tracks as Lady With
The Spinning Head, Summer Rain, Happiness Is A Warm Gun and If God
Will Send His Angels.
Since their debut album, Boy, in 1980 singer Bono, guitarist the Edge,
drummer Larry Mullen Jr. and bassist Adam Clayton have been leading
figures in the rock world. This Best Of release shows just how many
hits they have had, following on from The Best Of 1980-1990, which
the band released back in 1998.
But if this new release doesn't sate your thirst for all things U2,
here's something to put on your Christmas List: A Best Of 1990 to 2000
DVD, released on December 2, which will feature promo films, commentary
and specially chosen tracks. So, ahem, U2 can have a Merry Christmas!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BBC: Vivendi takes music sales online (11-20-2002)
From BBC:
Vivendi takes music sales online
Vivendi Universal has launched into the online music market, laying
claim to part of the market left by now-defunct song swapping site
Napster.
Vivendi said it would make available for internet download about
43,000 tracks from the songs owned by its Universal Music Group unit,
with plans to take its entire catalogue online.
The tracks, from a UMG artist portfolio which includes Eminem, Shania
Twain and U2, will be sold for $0.99 when buying individual songs,
and $9.99 for albums.
''This is a watershed moment,'' said Larry Kenswil, president of
Universal Music Group's eLabs.
''Universal is committed to making every recording it controls
available for internet distribution.
''We have listened to the public, and we are offering the music that
people want at a reasonable price that fairly compensates the artists,
songwriters and the tens of thousands of hard-working individuals
who make their living in the music industry,''
Rise and fall
The announcement comes as Napster, the flagship for a fleet of illegal
song-swapping sites, is being sold to Roxio, which makes CD-burning
software, for $5.3m (£3.6m) in cash and shares.
Napster was once phenomenally popular, allowing music lovers to
download songs for free.
But it closed after a legal battle with music companies, including
Vivendi Universal, which were concerned over the loss of revenues
to individual users, and the threat Napster posed to efforts to
quell piracy.
Rival scheme
Vivendi claimed on Wednesday to be the first major label ''to offer
music fans such a broad catalogue of music tracks for preview and
purchase'' online.
But the initiative comes the week after EMI signed a similar deal
with nine US digital music distributors.
'This is the next step in our plan to give consumers our music in
the formats they are demanding today,'' said David Munns, head of
EMI Recorded Music North America, launching the initiative.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MTV: U2 'Best of 1990-2000' drops to #34 (11-20-2002)
From MTV:
All Goes According To Jay-Z's Blueprint On Billboard Albums Chart
11.20.2002 3:09 PM EST
... And in the 46th week, Jay Hova looked down from and above
and smiled.
Jay-Z's lofty point of view stems from his The Blueprint 2: The Gift &
the Curse selling more copies than any other album last week to top
next week's Billboard albums chart. Jigga's sequel to last year's
Blueprint sold more than 545,000 copies, according to SoundScan
figures released Wednesday (November 20).
Other notable debuts on next week's chart include Phil Collins'
first studio album in seven years, Testify, at #30; the single-disc
(sans B-sides) version of U2's The Best Of 1990-2000 at #34; Barry
Manilow's A Christmas Gift of Love at #71; the cinematic score
to ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'' at #81; the bonus
track-bolstered reissue of Shakira's last English-language album,
Laundry Service: Washed and Dried, at #112; the soundtrack to the
latest Bond flick, ''Die Another Day,'' at #156; and the Pretenders'
eighth studio album, Loose Screw, at #179.
Joe D'Angelo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rolling Stone: Jay-Z Ousts '8 Mile' (11-20-2002)
From Rolling Stone:
Jay-Z Ousts ''8 Mile''
Rapper scores fifth straight Number One record
Next week is technically Super Tuesday, the day the major record labels
release blockbuster albums in hopes of massive holiday sales, but this
whole month has been a thirty-day Super Tuesday. After a year of cruddy
album sales, the first week of the month saw some strong entries by
the likes of Justin Timberlake, U2, Jaheim, the Dave Matthews Band,
David Gray, Eric Clapton and the Wallflowers. This week, new albums
by Audioslave, George Harrison, Matchbox Twenty and Talib Kweli found
their way into stores, and next week Sum 41, Whitney Houston, Busta
Rhymes, Tim McGraw, Paul McCartney and Snoop Dogg join the fray.
Which brings us to last week's releases. And there were plenty. In the
Top Ten, only The Eminem Show (Number Nine with sales of 115,000) has
been in stores for more than a month. For that matter, only six albums
in the Top Twenty-five have been released for four weeks or more.
As for the top of the heap, Jay-Z's double-CD The Blueprint 2: The Gift
and the Curse ousted the 8 Mile soundtrack from Number One, with sales
of 545,000, according to SoundScan. It's the fifth consecutive Number
One for Jigga, a run of chart domination that suggests his blueprint
is a sound one. And for those who thought the 426,000 copies that The
Blueprint sold last year was a sign that his star was beginning to
dim, this week's tally falls just shy of his best first-week figure,
the 560,000 copies that The Dynasty: Roc La Familia sold in 2000. And
the sales spike suggests that Jay-Z's recording pace (eight releases
since 1996) has done nothing to water down his constituency.
Perhaps most impressive about The Blueprint 2's success was the crowded
playing field it drew. The 8 Mile soundtrack is still selling strong,
moving 400,000 units and marching towards the 2 million mark. Then
there were more newcomers: Missy Elliott's Under Construction sold
259,000 at Number Three, Pearl Jam's Riot Act sold 166,000 (Number
Five), TLC's 3D moved 143,000 at Number Six and 3 Doors Down also
cracked the Top Ten at Number Eight with 115,000 sales of Away From
the Sun.
There were plenty of additional freshmen: Elton John's Greatest Hits:
1970-2002 continued a yearlong trend of successful compilations,
selling 101,000 copies at Number Twelve. Saliva's Back Into Your
System (Number Nineteen with sales of 69,000), Sean Paul's Dutty Rock
(Number Twenty-six, 60,000), O-Town's O2 (Number Twenty-eight, 52,000),
Phil Collins' Testify (Number Thirty, 51,000) and Fat Joe's Loyalty
(Number Thirty-one, 45,000) also opened strong.
This week's Top Ten: Jay-Z's The Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse;
the 8 Mile soundtrack; . Missy Elliott's Under Construction; Justin
Timberlake's Justified; Pearl Jam's Riot Act; TLC's 3D; Christina
Aguilera's Stripped; 3 Doors Down's Away From the Sun; Eminem's The
Eminem Show; and Santana's Shaman.
ANDREW DANSBY (November 20, 2002)
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Witnness: Review of Dublin Wyclef Jean Concert (11-20-2002)
From Witnness:
Review of Dublin Wyclef Jean Concert
Sunday November 17 2002. Make a note of it people, because it's going
down in history as the date when Witnness and Dublin established
themselves proper on the hip-hop map. Man what a night it was, and
we can easily say that this was the best of all the Witnness gigs
to date. Big shouts out to Creative Controle and Stevie G who set
pulses racing and raised the stakes for Mr Jean, who did not fail
to blow us all away with his Refugee stylee. And if that wasn't
enough, the night's biggest secret saw Wyclef perform with The Edge
on stage. Together they rocked through a medley of U2 classics, and
a dub version 'Knocking on Heaven's Door'. Seriously if you didn't
make the gig, you have to tune into TV3 next Sunday 24th November
at 10.55pm to see what happened. Don't take our word for it, check
it out yourself. Anyway here's our minute by minute walk through
(or what we can remember of it) of Sunday night.
Queuing to get into the Ambassador, the crowd was looking pretty
bling-bling (well, as bling-bling as we could considering that
temperature dictated wearing a parka). There was definitely a bit of
a buzz in the air - Wyclef Jean was in the house and you could bet
your low-slung jeans, it was going to be one mutha of a gig.
If Dublin is the new East Coast, isn't Corkman Stevie G throwing a
spanner in the geographical works by championing the Leeside cause? One
of the finer R 'n' B/hip hop DJs in the country, he set about warming
the crowd up with admirable skill, dispensing the rough with the
smooth, throwing out glistening morsels, from Aaliyah, and Busta
Rhymes, and getting our hips swaying to ''Everyday People''. Setting
the stage for the Amadeus of hip hop might be a daunting task but
Mr G delivers an impeccable set and takes some of the November chill
out of the crowd. Big thanks to Stevie from Witnness.
Next up was Dublin outfit Creative Controle, who bowled onto the stage
with a potent mix of enthusiasm and belligerence. Judging by tonight's
performance, all the positive press they've been receiving of late
is quite justified. Messiah J is an already masterful MC, aided and
abetted by The Expert, DJ Flip, KY and bassist Paul Dunne. Rhymes,
beats, anger and intensity - it's all there, marking them out as
Dublin's finest hip hop offering, but equally as definite contenders
on the international scene. They're not polished by any means but
it's the very rawness of their sound that makes for compelling
listening. They finish on the excellent ''Bloodrush'' - a tune that
reverberates to the core - and it seems as if they'd only started
their set a nanosecond ago. Expect great things from their debut album.
At approximately twenty minutes past nine, enter the Wyclef. The crowd,
naturally, go ballistic. ''DUBLIN, CAN YOU HEAR ME?'' he bellows. The
town of Navan can probably hear his aural assault as he launches into
''No Woman, No Cry'', an appropriate choice for the man oft touted
as the next Bob Marley. For the first time that evening, the punters
relax properly; secure in the knowledge that everything really is
going to be all right.
He's many things - producer, rapper, composer, love god - but Wyclef
Jean is a showman first and foremost. He plays the audience as
well as his guitar, mischievously thanking us all for ''giving me
my bling-blings tonight''. What then follows is a right rollicking
gig. This night, he may have been preaching to the converted, but
even hardened old hacks were soon involuntarily shaking their thangs
at the sheer exuberance of it all. Rapping in Japanese and German,
he ups the ante with an inspired version of ''Jump Around''. As we
are soon to learn, Clef's set is anything but predictable. We're
as likely to get ''Two Wrongs'' from his latest album, Masquerade,
as something from The Score. The man is a sound Viking, pillaging,
looting and merrily fornicating with all musical genres and mixing it
together with buckets of wit, talent and charisma instead. Classic
anthems like ''Fu-Gee-La'' and ''Ready Or Not'' are as thrilling as
ever, and we don't miss the presence of a Lauryn or Pras. ''Gone
'Till November'' meanwhile, is a slightly jazzier interpretation
of the ballad, but still retains its pathos. The sense of timing is
immaculate, and for every ho-happy ''Perfect Gentleman'', there's a
poignant 'Diallo' to temper things.
Early on in the gig, Wyclef's proved to us how much Brooklyn and
Ireland (and more specifically, Wyclef and Bono) have in common by
treating us to some ''Sunday Bloody Sunday'' riffs. But further,
entirely unsuspected delights lie in store. Apparently, there is a
Mr. Dave Evans in the house. He's here as Witnness' guest and not in
any kind of professional capacity. Wyclef says that although he has
not discussed this with the Edge, it would be his dream come true if
the Edge were to come on stage and perform with him... ''Go on the
Edge'', the crowd urges as all eyes turn towards him. A few minutes
later, and nobody can quite believe it - the Edge has joined Wyclef
and they're making the most beautiful guitar noises the world has
ever heard. It's amazing. For fifteen solid minutes, Wyclef and the
Edge wield their instruments, playing classic U2 and they're enjoying
it more than the audience is. Musical event of the year? Do you even
need to ask that question?
There's no stopping him after this. Wyclef is a powerhouse of rap
and rhyme, buzzing off the crowd, getting acquainted with 'the black
stuff' and making sure those on the balcony weren't feeling neglected
by paying them a little visit. He also lives up to his reputation as
a laydeez man - one young lass certainly got her money's worth when
she became the lucky recipient of a special Wyclef dance. He even
creates an on-the-spot ode to his newfound favourite drink, Black
Velvet (champagne topped with Guinness). The crowd wanted it to go
on forever, and for a while, it looked like he would oblige. But
master showman that he is, he knows when to whip us into a frenzy
and when to pull the plug. It was probably a good thing too - we
might have died of over-excitement otherwise. The gig of the year
(and no arguing with that please) is over and a few hours of booty
shaking has left the crowd looking slightly less bling-bling than
when they arrived. But, as one who knows might say, it doesn't matter.
For those few hours on Sunday, November 17, 2002, there was no East
Coast, no West Coast, no P Diddy, Snoop or any equivalent. There was
only Wyclef Jean lording it over the hip hop capital of the world,
Dublin. And we were there to witnness it.
http://youtwo.net/pictures_archive/wyclefjean_theedge.jpg
Photo of Wyclef Jean and The Edge
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State Hornet: Dance group pays homage to U2 (11-20-2002)
From The State Hornet:
Dance group makes ''Take 3'' unique Dale Scholl's Dance/Art group
pays homage to U2
by Lauren Robeson November 20, 2002
[article main image] Dancers from L to R: Johnathan Cameron, Joseph
Candelaria, Michelle Horner and Jennifer Morsilli. Photo courtesy of
Dale Scholl
The Irish band U2's songs are gaining new meaning through the powerful
dancing and choreography in Dale Scholl's Dance/Art company's latest
production, ''The U2 Experience: Take 3.''
In their latest show, four choreographers and 10 dancers groove to
21 of the group's songs, like the 1980's hit ''With or Without You''
and the more recent ''Beautiful Day.'' The show's choreography works
well by subtly infusing each song with political and social overtones.
The dancers perform spectacularly. Each has studied their craft for at
least 10-15 years, and it shows. The tone of their dancing is emotional
and passionate, as can be seen in their spirited performances of
''Elevation'' and ''Beautiful Day,'' and the calm songs in the
''Torch of the Revolution'' set.
The lighting and costumes contribute much to the show. Joan Liddicoat,
who teaches technical production classes in the dance department at
Sacramento State, acts as the production's lighting director. She uses
different shades of light to mirror the emotions and tones evoked by
the songs. Blue and purple lighting accompany calm and sad songs, while
more passionate, upbeat songs are framed by red and yellow lights.
The costumes provide much eye-candy to the show as well. The dancers
change their clothes after each set, with the new outfits corresponding
to the set's design. For example, camouflage is worn for the songs
in the revolutionary ''Torch of the Revolution'' set and slightly
more daring clothes are used for the closer ''That One Beautiful Day.''
While all of the songs and sets were extremely well done, two sets
in particular stand out. ''Wake Up,'' a set by Joseph Candelaria,
was phenomenal. This set showcased most of the show's female
talent. Candelaria's choreography captured the song's themes the best
by pumping them full of vigor. This set also had some of the best
songs and performances of the show, featuring ''Pride,'' ''Numb''
and ''With or Without You.''
Another good set was ''That One Beautiful Day,'' which was, without a
doubt, the most exuberant group of songs in the show. While some of
the pieces in the show can be a little somber and depressing, most,
like the 2000 hit ''Beautiful Day,'' are very spirited and fun. This
set is the perfect lighthearted entertainment to end the show with.
''The U2 Experience: Take 3'' continues from Nov. 21 through Nov. 23
at the Dancespace in Solano Hall, room 1010. All shows begin at 8
p.m. Tickets are available from the Sac State ticket office or online
from Tickets.com Prices range from $16 for the general public, $13
for students and $8 for children.
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Daily Nebraskan: Bono's appearance not set in stone (11-20-2002)
From The Daily Nebraskan:
Bono's appearance not set in stone
By MELISSA LEE
November 20, 2002
Hold the ticket stampede: Bono's appearance in Lincoln is no surefire
deal.
Despite some reports the Irish rock star would be stopping on the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus Dec. 1, university officials
say nothing's been nailed down yet.
''At this moment, we're hopeful, but we're not for sure,'' said NU
spokesman Dave Fitzgibbon. ''It sounds promising, but who knows?''
If a contract is finalized - that likely would happen sometime this
week - Bono, who is the lead singer of the rock group U2, would come
to the Lied Center for Performing Arts as part of the E.N. Thompson
Forum on World Issues. He would appear to raise funds for Save
Sub-Saharan Orphans, a local volunteer group that sends money to
African orphanages.
Bono has fought for some time to help relieve the country's AIDS and
economic crises.
He's expressed an interest in coming to Lincoln, said Annette Wetzel,
director of special events at NU, but nothing can be confirmed at
this point.
Fitzgibbon said plenty of details still needed to be ironed out before
Bono's appearance could be certain.
''We're really scrambling to get things worked out,'' he said.
Free tickets would be available as soon as a contract is
finalized. Information on how the tickets could be obtained is pending.
As for reports that Ashley Judd also might come to Lincoln, Fitzgibbon
said she could be involved, but he hadn't heard her name come up at
all. Officials are mainly focusing on Bono's trip, he said.
''It would be really cool if he could come. I think there'd be a lot of
interest,'' Fitzgibbon said. ''I'm really hoping we can pull it off.''
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YouTwo.net: Private Remix of Discotheque (11-20-2002)
Andrea's remix of Discotheque called the "Better Than The Real Mix" mix
is located at:
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Billboard: Aguilera Finds New Life On U.K. Chart (11-19-2002)
From Billboard:
Aguilera Finds New Life On U.K. Chart
Christina Aguilera's contrasting transatlantic chart fortunes
were highlighted yesterday (Nov. 17) as her single ''Dirrty'' featuring
Redman (RCA), which ran out of steam at No. 48 on the Billboard Hot
100, debuted at No. 1 in the U.K. But her album ''Stripped,'' which
entered The Billboard 200 at No. 2, continues its decline in the U.K.,
where it debuted at No. 19, but this week dropped 29-39.
There was also mixed news for Irish pop favorites Westlife, whose
''Unbreakable'' single (S/BMG) fell 1-4 to make way for Aguilera, while
its ''Unbreakable -- The Greatest Hits Vol. 1'' album went straight to
No. 1 on the U.K. album chart. Elton John's latest Mercury compilation,
''The Greatest Hits 1970-2002,'' opened at No. 3, notably outselling
Craig David's ''Slicker Than Your Average'' (Wildstar), which came
in at No. 4. His first album, ''Born To Do It,'' debuted at No. 1 in
the U.K. in August 2000.
Phil Collins' ''Testify'' (Face Value/East West) also made a more
modest chart debut than he would have liked, opening at No. 15. The
low debut places the set in danger of becoming his first solo album
not to reach the top-10. Other album chart debuts yesterday included
Missy Elliott's ''Under Construction'' (Elektra) at No. 23 and Diana
Krall's live set ''A Night in Paris'' (Verve) at No. 30.
Elsewhere on the singles chart, British R&B acts Blazin' Squad
and Sugababes scored new hits. The former entered at No. 6 with
''Love on the Line'' (East West), the collective's follow-up to the
August No. 1 hit ''Crossroads.'' Sugababes arrived at No. 7 with
''Stronger'' (Universal Island), the latest single from the female
trio's platinum-certified album ''Angels With Dirty Faces.'' Kylie
Minogue's ''Come Into My World'' (Parlophone) debuted at No. 8,
followed by labelmates Coldplay at No. 10 with ''The Scientist.''
On Music & Media's pan-European charts, Las Ketchup's ''Asereje/The
Ketchup Song'' (Columbia) tops the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles tally
for the 10th straight week, while U2's ''The Best Of 1990-2000''
(Island) soars 74-1 to replace Santana's ''Shaman'' (Arista) atop
the European Top 100 Albums chart.
-- Paul Sexton, London
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U2.com: Bono Meets Larry (Not That One!) (11-19-2002)
From U2.com:
Bono Meets Larry (Not That One!)
Bono will be the guest on Larry King Live on Sunday, Dec. 1st to mark
World AIDS Day.
In an exclusive profile, Bono will be talking to the host of the
CNNs highest rated programme about his life, the band and the ongoing
campaign against crippling debt payments and the HIV/AIDS crisis in
the developing world.
Larry King Live airs nightly from 9-10 p.m. (ET).
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U2.com: Who You Might Be (11-19-2002)
From U2.com:
Who You Might Be
Anton is about who you might be, says Bono of Anton Corbijn in the
new Rolling Stone. You're always more in his photographs, rarely less.
''This is the first time I've ever done an interview like this, and
it's a lot of fun,'' U2's Bono says cheerfully to David Fricke of
Rolling Stone. He is sitting at my desk in the Rolling Stone offices
with a cigarette, a cup of coffee and a pile of pictures of his band,
taken in the 1990s by acclaimed Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn. In
celebration of the release of U2's new greatest-hits collection,
The Best and the B-Sides of 1990-2000, Bono is walking through U2's
last decade via Corbijn's unique, intimate portraits of tbe group.
Eight of Corbijn's photographs, with commentary by Bono, are featured
in the current issue of Rolling Stone but Bono talked for nearly
two hours, going over more than twice as many shots and reminiscing
freely about U2's recent adventures in fame and of his admiration for
Corbijn, who has been shooting the band for twenty years. ''A lot
of photographers feel their art is to discover who you are,'' says
Bono. ''Anton is about who you might be. I don't mean in terms of the
different characters that lie under the skin -- I mean your potential
as a person. You're always more in his photographs, rarely less.
''I actually started to think, 'Gosh, I might really be this
interesting,''' Bono adds, laughing, ''until I saw a photograph he
took of a waitress, which had the same gravitas. But that's a powerful
thing. Anton was really a part of bringing us out of ourselves.''
Read this great story for more great U2 shots and Bono's commentary
here: www.rollingstone.com.
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U2Christmas: Holiday Card Exchange (11-19-2002)
December draws near, and you know what that means. It is time once
again for the fourth annual U2 Fan Christmas/Holiday Card Exchange!
This is what you should do if you want to participate: Send a message
to u2chr...@hotmail.com with your snail mail (postal) address.
In the email, say what sort of card you'd like to receive (Christmas,
Season's Greetings, etc. or no preference). U2Christmas will email
you with the addresses of fellow U2 fans to send cards to. If you
wish to participate, plan on sending at least 10 cards. Those who
wish to send more cards should indicate in their email how many they
would be willing to send. Please write in BEFORE DECEMBER 1ST if
you want to be part of the Card Exchange. That way there will be time
for cards to go to the very many countries represented in U2 fandom.
Any questions? Email u2chr...@hotmail.com.
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Digital Freedom Network: Bono urges action for Africa at awards dinner
(11-19-2002)
From Digital Freedom Network:
Bono urges action for Africa at awards dinner
by Robert Lebowitz, Digital Freedom Network
(November 19, 2002) The Simon Wiesenthal Center last night presented its
Humanitarian Laureate Award to
Bono, frontman for the rock group U2, at its Eastern office's annual
awards dinner. The Center honored the Irish
musician for "his keen sense of social justice and his tireless efforts
on behalf of the underprivileged and
disenfranchised of the world.''
The awards dinner was also attended by CEO of Universal Music Group Doug
Morris, ABC news anchor
Elizabeth Vargas, and economist Jeffrey Sachs, whom Bono has consulted
on issues related to debt relief to
Africa.
In his acceptance speech, Bono exhorted the audience to use the power of
American democracy to assist
suffering people in failing African countries.
"Next year, 2.5 million Africans will die for stupid reasons," Bono
stated. "They won't die because the drugs are
not available; they won't die because it's too expensive to get drugs to
them; they'll die because it's difficult to
get drugs to them. And, yet, we can get cold, fizzy drinks to the
farthest reaches of the world.
"I truly believe God is on His knees, begging us to do something. We
cannot choose the benefits of globalization
without the responsibilities. The AIDS emergency will be much more
difficult the more we leave it alone."
Bono dismissed the notion that Americans are isolated from the despair
and crises of Africa, stating that
September 11 dispelled the idea that the United States will be
unaffected by the problems of struggling nations.
"The crisis in Africa presents an opportunity for this country. The war
on terror is bound up with the war against
poverty."
His own organization, DATA, is dedicated to canceling the debt owed by
Africa's poorest nations, providing
appropriate resources for AIDS treatment, prevention, and education, and
lifting global trade rules and restrictive
import policies which currently limit Africa's economic growth.
Finally, Bono placed the crisis in context of the work of Simon
Wiesenthal, the celebrated Nazi hunter and namesake
of the Center. The singer compared the global neglect of suffering
Africans to Nazi victims transported to concentration
camps during World War II.
"I recently spoke to Congressman Tom Lantos [who was interred in a
Hungarian fascist forced labor camp during
World War II]. I said to him, 'Respectfully, sir, are we today watching
people being put on the trains?' He said, 'Yes.'
"'Can I quote you?' I asked him. He said, 'Yes, you may. Today we are
watching people being put on the trains.'
"I just want to offer my services to lay on the tracks," Bono concluded.
Photo: http://youtwo.net/pictures_archive/dfn_swc.jpg
U2 frontman Bono explained the urgency of aiding suffering nations to a
young acolyte at the Simon Wiesenthal
Center's Awards Dinner on November 18, 2002.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsday: Liz Smith meets Bono (11-19-2002)
Condensed from Newsday:
Down Memory Lane
By Liz Smith
'I had a great idea this morning, but I didn't like it," said the fabled
producer Samuel Goldwyn.
I HAD a busy weekend in New York during the rainy season, and my shoes
squished everywhere
I went. ...In the Sherry-Netherland's Cipriani, which seems to be one
of the only New York places
open on a Sunday night, I met Bono, who was with Bobby Shriver. Andy
Stein was having dinner
there with the beautiful Peggy Lipton, who looks as good as she did when
she was Mrs. Quincy
Jones. Ron Perelman had Ms. Moore and his wife, Ms. Barkin, in tow. But
the star of the room was
Charlie Rose, who dined between two glamour-pusses, Barbara Walters and
Lauren Bacall. He
said to me that he was having one of his all-time fantasies. Oh, that
Charlie!
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Omaha World-Herald: Bono to be in Lincoln for World AIDS Day
(11-19-2002)
From The Omaha World-Herald:
Bono to be in Lincoln for World AIDS Day
By Corey Ross
Bono, lead singer of the rock group U2, will appear in Lincoln Dec. 1 in
conjunction with World AIDS Day.
According to Joe Gerstandt of the Nebraska AIDS Project, Bono and
several African colleagues will conduct an
evening program at the Lied Center for Performing Arts to raise
awareness of the growing public health crisis on the
continent. Bono chose Lincoln, Gerstandt said, because it's home to Save
Sub-Saharan Orphans, a volunteer group
that raises money for African orphanages.
AIDS and debt relief in Africa are Bono's chief political causes.
Details of the visit were still being worked out Monday, Gerstandt said.
This is the 14th World AIDS Day. It was started in 1988 to promote
understanding of the disease and to bring about
social tolerance.
Last May, Bono traveled to Africa with U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul
O'Neill to draw attention to the continent's needs.
The singer and activist is a member of Artists Against AIDS Worldwide, a
nonprofit organization dedicated to raising
awareness and money needed to help those affected by AIDS, especially in
Africa.
AAAW members raise money from the general public, governments and
corporations and encourage countries to
forgive debt of Third World nations.
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North Shore News: Review of 'U2 - The Best of 1990-2000' (11-19-2002)
From North Shore News:
U2 - The Best of 1990-2000 , 2 CD +DVD (Island)
Rating: 8 out of 10
I had virtually the same reaction to this best-of collection from the
Irish
tunesmiths as I did their first hits compilation (The Best of 1980-1990)
released in '98.
You want U2's best of the 1980s? Go pick up The Joshua
Tree. 1990-2000? Achtung Baby. End of story. Don't waste time sifting
through Zooropa or Pop. Go straight to the source and mine it.
But it's getting close to Christmas, and that means retrospective
best-of collections by myriad bands, so why should this supergroup
be any different? (Although I have to admit, only $20 for two CDs
and a DVD ain't bad these days).
This latest gathering of hits has a solid second disc collection of
B-sides and rare tracks, including the sharp Lady With the Spinning
Head, an early signal of the band's move toward the electronica-driven
tracks on Pop, and a marathon remixed session of the hyperkinetic
Even Better Than the Real Thing.
The first disc includes all the usual suspects off the band's four
most recent releases - 1991's Achtung Baby, '93's Zooropa, '97's
Pop and 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind - as well as two new
tracks (Electrical Storm and The Hands That Built America, the new
track from the upcoming Martin Scorsese epic The Gangs of New York)
and gems Miss Sarajevo (with Luciano Pavarotti) and Batman Forever
tune Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me.
It's a surprise that Tomb Raider soundtrack staple and massive hit
Elevation wasn't included, as well as the soaring Who's Gonna Ride Your
Wild Horses. All in all, a bit of redundancy for the dyed-in-the-wool
Bono/Edge aficionados, but a tasty little selection of tracks for
the rest of us more pedestrian fans.
- Jan-Christian Sorensen
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YouTwo.net: U2 Figurines (11-19-2002)
A set of 4 U2 figures (plus drumset) can be seen here:
http://youtwo.net/pictures_archive/u2dollies.jpg
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Dotmusic: Stars Come Out For Elvis (11-19-2002)
From Dotmusic:
STARS COME OUT FOR ELVIS
Bruce Springsteen, Norah Jones, Cher and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler are
among the stars lining up to appear at NBC's Elvis Lives! TV special.
Hosted by Chris Isaak, the tribute show airs on Thanksgiving night
(Nov. 28) in the US and other stars previously announced as performing
include Britney Spears, Bono, Tom Petty, Sheryl Crow, No Doubt,
Dave Matthews and LeAnn Rimes.
Each artist will sing one of Elvis' hits and comment on the impact
Elvis has had on their career.
This is the latest in a line of Elvis twenty-fifth anniversary
celebrations that have seen Elvis once again top the charts around
the world with his '30 No.1 Hits' compilation.
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ShowBiz Ireland: Wyclef Jams with The Edge in Dublin (11-19-2002)
From ShowBiz Ireland:
Wyclef Jams with The Edge in Dublin
Hip Hop and R&B star Wyclef Jean played the first Witnness gig in
Dublin's Ambassador last night, a surprise guest dropped in to give
him The Edge.
The multi talented singer and songwriter was joined on stage by U2
guitarist and close friend The Edge. To the delight of the crowd the
pair jammed out a selection of Bob Marley classics and Fugees hits.
But sadly ShowBizIreland.com got no photos of the two legends on
stage as we were only permitted to stay for the first four songs.
Apparently Bono could not join his friend Wyclef on stage as he is
currently out of the country.
The next Witnness gig will be in the Mandella Hall, Belfast and
playing together in a global first will be Suede and Doves.
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YouTwo.net: UK Chart Info (11-19-2002)
U2's Best of 1990-2000 is #6 on the UK charts, and Best of 1980-1990
is #71.
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Neumu.net: U2, Metallica, Tom Waits Pay Tribute To The Ramones
(11-19-2002)
From Neumu.net:
U2, Metallica, Tom Waits Pay Tribute To The Ramones
We're a Happy Family A Tribute to The Ramones is a 16-track
various-artists compilation, put together by former Ramones
guitarist/songwriter Johnny Ramone, that should make you, Mom and
Daddy cheery this holiday season when it hits the streets Dec. 24. It
features such high-profile artists as Metallica, U2, the Red Hot
Chili Peppers, Tom Waits and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder.
Johnny Ramone encouraged most of the artists to essentially reinvent
the Ramones song they chose to cover. ''Some bands are going to
be more Ramones-like,'' Johnny Ramone said in an interview that
appears on The Ramones' official site (www.officialramones.com),
''but with other people I said, 'Just try to pretend you wrote the
song and never heard the Ramones version.'''
Some of the approaches taken to songs are anything but
business-as-usual. Johnny Ramone calls both Marilyn Manson's
rendition of ''The KKK Took My Baby Away'' and Rob Zombie's version of
''Blitzkrieg Bop'' ''pretty bizarre.''
As for the collaboration between Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder and
Zeke on ''I Believe in Miracles,'' he said, ''[It] sounds like the
version I wish we would have done. It's just a punk version. We were
holding back. We were trying to make it commercial and this and that,
and Eddie just did a punk version of it and sings it great.
''It's what we would have done if somebody wasn't saying, 'It's
got to be this speed we got to get the click track and measure the
right speed,'' he continued. ''They were looking at it as a single
and doing it like that.''
He also likes The Pretenders' version of ''Something to Believe
in,'' which he called ''great,'' adding, ''I never liked the song,
but whatever they did to it is great.''
Other highlights on the collection, which will be released on
DV8/Columbia Records, include Garbage covering ''I Just Want to Have
Something to Do,'' Green Day doing ''Outsider,'' Rancid's rendition
of ''Sheena Is a Punk Rocker,'' The Offspring's interpretation of
''I Wanna Be Sedated'' and Kiss' version of ''Do You Remember Rock
'n' Roll Radio?''
The remaining tracks: Red Hot Chili Peppers, ''Havana Affair'';
Metallica, ''53rd & 3rd''; U2, ''Beat on the Brat''; Pete Yorn, ''I
Wanna Be Your Boyfriend''; Rooney, ''Here Today, Gone Tomorrow''; and
Tom Waits, ''Return of Jackie & Judy.'' There's also a limited-edition
bonus track from Vedder and Zeke, a cover of ''Daytime Dilemma
(Dangers of Love).''
The Ramones four young men from Queens who took on the surname Ramone
and dressed alike in black leather motorcycle jackets, ripped T-shirts,
jeans and Converse shoes released their debut album, The Ramones
(Sire) in 1976. Along with Patti Smith, Television, Richard Hell and
the Voidoids, and Blondie, they were a key band in the mid-'70s New
York punk scene; they performed in London to crowds that included
future members of both the Sex Pistols and The Clash.
Their influence on contemporary music was immediate, spearheading a
world-wide back-to-basics sonic revolution. Directly or indirectly,
they inspired such bands as the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Vibrators,
Black Flag, X-Ray Spex, Hüsker Dü, Sonic Youth, Mudhoney, Nirvana, X,
U2, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Green Day, The Queers, Fugazi, The Donnas,
Rancid, The Offspring, Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney and hundreds,
if not thousands, of others.
Following the recent deaths of two founding members singer/writer
Joey Ramone, born Jeffrey Hyman, died in April 2001 after a six-year
struggle with lymphoma, and bassist Dee Dee Ramone, born Douglas
Colvin, died in June 2002 from a drug overdose a tribute album seems
especially fitting. Partial proceeds from We're a Happy Family will
go to the Lymphoma Research Foundation in New York City.
Jenny Tatone
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Launch: U2's Bono To Receive Human Rights Award Monday (11-18-2002)
From Launch:
U2's Bono To Receive Human Rights Award Monday
(11/18/02, 12 p.m. ET) -- U2 frontman Bono will be honored Monday
(November 18) in New York City by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Bono
will receive the human rights organization's Humanitarian Laureate
Award ''for his keen sense of social justice and his tireless efforts
on behalf of the underprivileged and disenfranchised of the world''
at a dinner at Manhattan's Marriott Marquis Hotel.
Much of Bono's work has been with the Jubilee 2000 organization, which
focuses on convincing industrialized nations to forgive its Third
World debts in order to free up money to help those countries further
develop. Bono tells LAUNCH that, awards aside, the struggle continues.
''I have a feeling that the next step is realizing that debt
cancellation is only the door through to really dealing with the
responsibility the developed countries have for the state of the
developing nations. Because, you know, we raped them for 200 years,
and we sowed the seeds of their despair, and we will reap conflict
and disease. And, and the biggest threat to our own prosperity and
peace on the planet is that.''
Bono and U2 are in the midst of planning for a new studio album, and
the group recently released a new compilation, The Best Of 1990-2000.
-- Gary Graff, Detroit
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Province: U2 leaves Pop album behind (11-18-2002)
From The Province:
U2 leaves Pop album behind
By Tom Harrison, The Province
Monday, November 18, 2002
After nearly two years, U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind has
slipped out of the Top 100, to be replaced at No. 1 by the new U2:
Best of 1990-2000.
All That You Can't Leave Behind might be an awkward title but it's
a good album and it re-established U2 as the biggest band of the
past 20 years.
There were doubts U2 could sustain the prominence it had earned
through the '80s and '90s with The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby! The
Edge, Bono, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen seemed to have lost the
plot with the 1997 CD, Pop.
A not very enjoyable LP, Pop was U2's contrived attempt to
throw its lot in with the new record-making technology rising
as electronica. U2 and producer Flood came up with a dense sound
but weak songs. Electronica never really happened and U2 was left
holding a lifeless bag.
Worse, the group was alienating its fans. The Popmart tour was an
elaborate comment on consumerism. Here was U2 distancing itself from
its audience while being critical of it in a self-satisfied way. The
tour was announced at a press conference held at a K-Mart. U2,
by now a very successful band, was slumming.
Popmart was an expensive tour to mount. It was blighted by
cancellations due to poor ticket sales and it was ill-conceived. This
was the more-money-than-brains tour. U2 was shelling out for props
because it could, not because they added to the presentation.
After Achtung Baby and Zooropa, U2 appeared to be increasingly fond
of the high concept, which dictates that every album must have a
theme in order to justify the artistic effort (and expense). It's a
trap that has affected the work of Pete Townshend and Pink Floyd. If
the fans didn't understand Bono as Mephisto, on earlier tours,
they weren't going to get Popmart.
Fortunately, the Pop experience seemed to humble the band. It took a
step back to assess the damage and what had to be done to repair it.
The first thing was to release a greatest hits compilation. Taking
us through the first 10 years of the band up to 1990, this was a
reminder of how U2 had grown. The second thing was to get back to the
rock that had made U2 successful in that first decade. ''Beautiful
Day'' heralded the return of textured, layered and ultimately
seductive record making. It won three Grammys and provided an
opportunity at the 2001 awards for the band to pledge itself to
winning back its audience.
U2 backed its promise with All That You Can't Leave Behind. This is
a forceful, straightforward album blessed with powerful statements
such as ''Walk On'' and ''Elevation.''
The subsequent Elevation tour was, by U2 standards, a back to basics
affair. The band played its hits and there were no gimmicks. It
also had lowered its own expectations (and overhead) by scaling down
the production. Rather than play an enormodome such as B.C. Place,
U2 appeared at the relatively intimate G.M. Place. It was rewarded
with the most successful roadshow of the year.
Is U2 back? The longevity of All That You Can't Leave Behind
indicates it is. The album sold more than 600,000 copies in Canada,
compared to Pop's 300,000, and the band has followed its Best of:
1980-1990 (which sold 600,000) with the second hits package.
The reappraisal of U2 in the new millennium begins.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Press of Atlantic City: Eminem still tops chart (11-18-2002)
From Press of Atlantic City:
Eminem still tops chart
The bad boy rapper beat the boy band member in the battle for the
top spot on the album chart.
The soundtrack to Eminem's movie ''8 Mile'' remained at No. 1 for a
second week, despite competition from 'N Sync's Justin Timberlake.
''8 Mile'' sold about 508,000 copies for the week ending Sunday,
bringing its total to 1.2 million, according to industry figures
released Wednesday. The movie opened at No. 1 at the box office this
past weekend, grossing about $51 million and drawing strong reviews.
Timberlake's solo release, ''Justified,'' was a close second in its
first week in stores, selling about 439,000 copies. The R&B-tinged
album has gotten generally positive reviews, though some have
criticized him for ripping off Michael Jackson's sound.
And U2's ''The Best of 1990-2000,'' which includes the hits ''One,''
''Mysterious Ways'' and ''Beautiful Day,'' debuted at No. 3 with
165,000 copies sold.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daily Nebraskan: Bono, Judd considering Lincoln stop for Thompson Forum
(11-18-2002)
From The Daily Nebraskan:
Bono, Judd considering Lincoln stop for Thompson Forum
By MELISSA LEE
November 18, 2002
Chances are good that rock star Bono and actress Ashley Judd will
come to Lincoln as part of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's
E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues.
''I'd say it's 50/50 - maybe more,'' said Patrice McMahon, a UNL
associate professor of political science who sits on the E.N. Thompson
Forum board. ''It's going to get pinned down this week.''
If a contract is finalized, the two would appear Dec. 1 to raise
funds for Save Sub-Saharan Orphans, a Lincoln volunteer group that
sends money to African orphanages.
McMahon said a possible stop in Lincoln was the stars' idea.
''They're looking to go to college towns, and they indicated a desire
to come here to Lincoln,'' she said.
Bono, lead singer for the rock group U2, has started a Midwestern
tour with the group DATA, which stands for Debt, AIDS, Trade for
Africa. He's looking to spread knowledge about the country's AIDS
and economic crisis, McMahon said.
''I just hope it promotes interest in Africa,'' she said. ''People
don't know about how many orphans there are. This would help promote
the organization.''
Bono and Judd's star power probably would help generate buzz on campus
about their mission, she added.
Some students already are gearing up for a Bono/Judd
appearance. Sophomore art majors Mike Vithoulkas and Aaron Bruner
said they'd consider attending the presentation.
''Yeah, I'd definitely be excited about that,'' Vithoulkas said.
It's a smart move on the stars' parts to use their fame to do good,
Bruner added.
U2 is one of the most successful rock groups to date. The band's 2000
album, ''All That You Can't Leave Behind,'' took home four Grammys
in 2002, including Record of the Year.
Judd's recent films include this year's ''Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya
Sisterhood'' and ''High Crimes.'' She is the daughter of country
music singer Naomi Judd.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AP: Singer Bono to visit for World Aids Day (11-18-2002)
From The Associated Press:
Singer Bono to visit for World Aids Day
LINCOLN, Neb. -- A rock singer known for his social activism will be in
Nebraska next month.
Bono, lead singer of the Irish rock band U2, will be in Lincoln on Dec.
1 for World AIDS Day, said Nelson Okuku Miruka, president of
Save Sub-Saharan Orphans, a volunteer group that raises funds for
African orphanages. Bono will present an evening program at the
Lied Center for the performing arts with some of his African colleagues
to raise awareness of the growing health crisis on the continent,
Miruka said.
Lincoln was chosen because Bono wants to work with Save Sub-Saharan
Orphans, Miruka said.
AIDS and African debt relief are two of Bono's top political causes.
Bono, whose given name is Paul David Hewson, traveled to Africa in May
with U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill to draw attention
to the needs of the continent.
Details of the Nebraska visit were expected to be announced Tuesday when
some of the singer's advance people will be in Lincoln for
planning, Miruka said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maclean's: Living the Beat (11-18-2002)
Condensed from Maclean's:
LIVING THE BEAT
At MuchMusic, writes SHANDA DEZIEL, there's room for journalists -- pop
culture reporters who can tackle hard news
"I tell kids Hank Williams was punk rock," says George
Stroumboulopoulos. "Jesus was punk rock. And all they did
was to be rebels. That's why Trudeau was punk rock." When
Stroumboulopoulos hosts Punkorama on the Toronto
radio station The Edge, he embodies the very soul of punk, taking down
the barricades in front of the building and letting
the kids on the street into the studio. He even plays tracks off the CDs
they make in their basements. Best known as a
VJ for Toronto-based Much-Music, the 30-year-old broadcaster is so
attuned to the renegade spirit of rock that even the
real rock stars have taken notice. As the story goes, after
Stroumboulopoulos interviewed U2, Bono called MTV and
said, "You have to hire this guy." "His group of people were talking to
MTV and saying they should be interested in what
I do," explains Stroumboulopoulos. "I bumped into Bono at a party in
L.A. after their tour and he sort of apologized to
me for doing that. He said, 'I don't want you to leave Canada.' I know
he likes what I do here. But I was touched, because
that's a pretty good reference. By the way, where did you hear about
that?" Actually, the info came from Dave Grohl,
former drummer for Nirvana, Foo Fighters front man and a
Stroumboulopoulos fan. "It's not often that you find someone
with integrity and knowledge of music that holds a position like he
does," says Grohl, who watches Stroumboulopoulos's
metal show, MuchLoud, on satellite at home in Virginia. "Usually they
just find a pretty face."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsday: Bono to accept Humanitarian Laureate Award tomorrow
(11-17-2002)
Condensed from Newsday:
TOMORROW NIGHT, Bono receives the Humanitarian Laureate Award at the
annual Simon Weisenthal Center dinner at the Marriott Marquis. U2's lead
singer
works tirelessly for the world's poorest. Doug Morris, Universal Music's
CEO, is
chairman and Elizabeth Vargas of ABC News emcees.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IRMA: Irish U2 chart info (11-17-2002)
U2's ''Electrical Storm'' is #14 on the singles
chart, and
U2's ''Best of 1990-2000'' is #1 on the albums chart in
Ireland.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forbes: Bono's Penthouse (11-17-2002)
From Forbes:
Bono's Penthouse
By Betsy Schiffman
Who's buying, who's selling in the world of high-end real estate.
Penthouse For Your Thoughts?
Bono and the members of U2 were not happy when they heard about a
developer's plan to tear
down the band's old Dublin studio in order to build a high-rise
building. They reportedly fought the
developer every step of the way, but they're singing a different tune
now that they have been
promised the two-floor penthouse of the new building to use as their
studio.
"The new Dublin is something I'm really excited about," Bono said at a
press conference. Hard not
to be excited when you've got a brand-new penthouse coming your way. The
financial details of
the deal were not disclosed.
The band members are said to own a good chunk of Dublin real estate--by
one estimate, their net
worth may reach nearly $700 million. In September, Bono and his wife,
Ali, received permission to
add a three-floor extension to their new home, and bassist Adam Clayton
has plans for an equally
extravagant renovation, according to The Irish Times. Also, Bono and
guitarist the Edge have bought
and restored a Victorian hotel, the Clarence.
Last year, Forbes ranked U2 No. 5 on its 100 Top Celebrities list. The
band's most recent tour
grossed $130 million, and they took home $69 million.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
London Times: 20 questions -- Trivial Pursuit style (11-17-2002)
From The London Times:
20 questions -- Trivial Pursuit style
EYE ON THE ARTS with Jerry Davich
1) On Nov. 8, at exactly 8:18 p.m. at the Portage Wal-Mart, this
Times columnist purchased the new Trivial Pursuit 20th Anniversary
Edition for $29.96. Name this Times columnist?
2) What tasteful Times reader should now scramble for a pen to answer
a few brand-spanking new questions from this new game? (All answers
appear at the end of this column.)
3) What new board game's questions are divided into six color-coded
categories -- titled Global View, Sound & Screen, News, The Written
Word, Innovations and Game Time?
4) Somewhere in the middle '80s, during a knock-down, drag-out Trivial
Pursuit marathon with his slightly high-twentysomething friends --
with the game on the line -- this bone-headed player thought John
Lennon's favorite self-written song was ''Imagine.'' Who was this
boneheaded player?
5) What year was Trivial Pursuit officially introduced? 1978? 1982?
1986?
6) What 65-year-old punk rocker's 2001 set list included the classics
''Howl,'' ''Beat Em Up'' and ''I Wanna Be Your Dog?''
7) What sport saw Brian Shimer qualify for his fifth Winter Olympics,
in 2002?
8) How many necks sprout from the guitar that Cheap Trick's Rick
Nielsen admits gets more applause than he ever will?
9) Which is heaviest -- a cup of brown sugar, a cup of confectioner's
sugar or a cup of granulated sugar?
10) What 2001 film spent $4 million to redo scenes after its star
insisted that his character needed a Scottish accent?
11) What white-haired comic called ''pure drivel,'' his collection
of ''New Yorker'' pieces, ''after-dinner mints to the big meal of
literature?''
12) What medium is Warner Bros. home-entertainment honcho Warren
Lieberfarb hailed as ''the godfather of?''
13) What celebrated teen and her family likely wee ratted out by
cleaning lady Lena van Bladeren Hartog, according to a Melissa
Muller book?
14) Who told Rolling Stone that U2's album title, ''The Joshua Tree,''
sounded like it ''would sell about three copies?''
15) What celebrated Pennsylvania town has an Iroquois name that
means ''place of gnats?''
16) What ABC talk show was hyped in 2001 with the new ad: ''New
president, new cabinet. So many new targets. So little time?''
17) What Curtis Armstrong character spent most of the time in ''Revenge
of the Nerds'' movies with his finger up his nose?
18) What armchair-adventure mail-order catalog sold chiffon blouses
with the breathless blurb: ''Fabiana whistled for the stable boy. He
came?''
19) What month serves double duty as National Oatmeal Month and
National Hot Tea Month?
20) What tasteful yet somewhat lazy Times reader wished he would have
gotten up to get a pen or pencil to compare answers?
The answers:
1) Jerry Davich 2) You 3) Trivial Pursuit 20th Anniversary Edition
4) Jerry ''Bonehead'' Davich 5) 1982 6) Iggy Pop 7) Bobsledding 8)
Five 9) Granulated sugar 10) Shrek 11) Steve Martin 12) DVD 13)
Anne Frank 14) Bono 15) Punxsutawney 16) Politically Incorrect 17)
Booger 18) J. Peterman 19) January 20) You?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rolling Stone: Part 1 - Bono's Scrapbook (11-17-2002)
From Rolling Stone:
Bono's Scrapbook
The U2 frontman looks back on ten years of rock & roll Babylon
"This is the first time I've ever done an interview like this, and it's
a lot of fun," U2's Bono says cheerfully. He
is sitting at my desk in the Rolling Stone offices with a cigarette, a
cup of coffee and a pile of pictures of his
band, taken in the 1990s by acclaimed Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn.
In celebration of the release of
U2's new greatest-hits collection, The Best and the B-Sides of
1990-2000, Bono is walking through U2's
last decade via Corbijn's unique, intimate portraits of tbe group.
Eight of Corbijn's photographs, with commentary by Bono, are featured in
the current issue of Rolling Stone
(RS 910) and here. But Bono talked for nearly two hours, going over more
than twice as many shots and
reminiscing freely about U2's recent adventures in fame and of his
admiration for Corbijn, who has been
shooting the band for twenty years. "A lot of photographers feel their
art is to discover who you are," says
Bono. "Anton is about who you might be. I don't mean in terms of the
different characters that lie under the
skin -- I mean your potential as a person. You're always more in his
photographs, rarely less.
"I actually started to think, 'Gosh, I might really be this
interesting,'" Bono adds, laughing, "until I saw a
photograph he took of a waitress, which had the same gravitas. But
that's a powerful thing. Anton was really
a part of bringing us out of ourselves."
Here are all the images and memories from our conversation.
DAVID FRICKE
(Story by BONO and Photographs by ANTON CORBIJN)
http://youtwo.net/pictures_archive/rs_901_image1.jpg
Good U2 vs. Evil U2
This is the video for "Elevation." It was done in the lot at Universal
Studios [in Los Angeles]. There was a
supersonic wind machine, creating some serious G force. That was really
a fun video to make. We got to
blow up cars. It was good U2 vs. evil U2. I think this is the good U2
here.
We're good at performance videos. But it's not easy for us to make
videos. We're not very telegenic. But
I love to get the chance to do something creative, like the video we did
for [the new single] "Electrical Storm.
" It's extraordinary: Larry walks out of the sea carrying a TV set, goes
back into the sea and comes out with
a suitcase, goes back and pulls out a bathtub. It's these bits and
pieces of a life that's come apart. Then he
walks out with a mermaid -- and it's Samantha Morton, a really brilliant
young actress. She really worked on
an emotional level for the clip. "She's not acting," Larry kept saying.
"She just bursts into tears and starts
screaming at me." It really turned Larry's head around.
The other thing about "Electrical Storm" is that it was shot in front of
my house in France. There were all these
kids looking over the wall, including Larry's kids going "What's Daddy
doing in a bathtub with that girl?" This
is the only video we've ever done, by the way, where Larry had to get up
at six in the morning to shoot --
and he didn't complain.
http://youtwo.net/pictures_archive/rs_901_image2.jpg
Chef's Special
If you were wondering what was going on during the making of Pop, I'm
sure this will help. There's Brian [Eno]
as the maitre'd. I don't think I make a very interesting chef -- I look
like I've just come back from the abattoir.
Adam is a pastry chef here, who's eaten a lot of his work. Edge --
definitely a pizza chef. And Larry seems
to be wondering, "Is this an album or a photo shoot gone too far?" I
think Larry had a different pop in mind --
putting a pin into it and bursting the bubble.
http://youtwo.net/pictures_archive/rs_901_image3.jpg
Flower Power
That's from Popmart. The show opened with "Mofo," and it was an
incredible opening. We came through the
crowd like boxers, and I had this hood on. I actually had Oscar De La
Hoya's boxing jacket -- that's what I was
wearing. I took that off, walked up to the microphone and the lyrics
were, "Looking for to save my soul/Looking
into the places where no flowers grow/Looking for to fill that
God-shaped hole/Mother, mothersucking rock & roll."
It's a blues. And it is a prayer. It was set in this kind of wind tunnel
of electronica. But it was black blues. One of
the most extraordinary things for me, in the last twenty years, was
walking through that crowd, punching the air,
and who are you going up against? Yourself. Then in the middle of it
all, the song just stops, and the middle
eight is, "Mother, am I still your son? I've waited so long to hear you
say so." Just like a child, in the midst of
burning Disneyland down.
I think U2 does opera very well on a grand scale. The fireworks from the
Elevation tour were internal, but
sometimes it's great to fill the sky with color.
http://youtwo.net/pictures_archive/rs_901_image4.jpg
Kind of Blue
This is me -- with a very severe haircut. We were in Mexico. We had five
days off, and we told our tour manager,
"Take us somewhere -- in the middle of a jungle, on a beach." He brought
us in the middle of the night to this
place, and we could tell quite quickly that it wasn't the jungle. We
were in the desert. We're thinking, "That's even
better. We're in the desert. We have these little houses. We'll have
some fun here. There'll be nobody around."
We got in very late, around 4 AM, after flying all night. At about 6 AM,
we woke up and saw that we were
surrounded by people. We looked out, and in fact, we were in the middle
of a golf course - not quite what we
expected. There's another shot of me robbing a golf cart, as Travis
Bickle in Taxi Driver. The haircut -- I did it for
a laugh, and then went out to scare the golfers.
http://youtwo.net/pictures_archive/rs_901_image5.jpg
When I Was Younger, So Much Younger Than Today
This is proof that being an activist is fairly unhip work. This was a
Greenpeace mission [in 1992] where we stormed
Sellafield, a nuclear reprocessing plant [on the west coast of England].
We were all dressed up in our radioactive
protection, and we were looking for a photo op. Our manager, Paul
McGuinness, had an idea that we should
parody the Beatles in Help! Here you have us trying to spell h-e-l-p
[laughs].
The Sellafield campaign continues to this day. My wife Ali organized
with the Irish post office to send free post
cards to Prince Charles and [British prime minister] Tony Blair -- a
post card of an eye that said, "Look me in the
eye, and tell me I'm safe." A million and a half Irish people sent post
cards to Number 10 Downing Street.
Sellafield is right across the Irish Sea, sixty miles from Ireland.
There have been all kinds of scares, where Downs
Syndrome children are being born in clusters that coincide with leaks
and two-headed fish being pulled out of nets.
The nuclear industry is making costly energy not only in financial terms
but in the risks they are taking with our lives.
(Continued)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rolling Stone: Part 2 - Bono's Scrapbook (11-17-2002)
http://youtwo.net/pictures_archive/rs_901_image6.jpg
A Little Bit Trotsky, A Little Bit Rock & Roll
This is Hansa Studios in Berlin. We went there at the end of the Cold
War -- the Berlin Wall had been pulled
down. We were having a bit of a cold war ourselves. Nobody was speaking.
We weren't getting very much done.
Until one day, this gift of a song came, and it was "One." I still don't
fully understand what that song is about. It's a
bitter pill. I'm confused as to why couples would want to play it as
they walk down the aisle. But it's a powerful
song, and it saved the sessions.
The chord progression looks like a middle eight to me. I don't know what
song. The beard -- I don't know what
was going on, maybe a little bit of East Berlin, a little Trotsky. Yes,
the Trotsky influence was there, and an icepick
was definitely on its way, from any member of the band [laughs].
But that record [Achtung Baby] had to have a comedic title, and the
dayglo dressing of Zoo TV, or else it would
have appeared so black: "Love Is Blindness," "Even Better Than the Real
Thing." "Mysterious Ways" has a joy
to it, and then you get to "Until the End of the World," a conversation
between Jesus and Judas. Not bad for a
pop group. It was really extraordinary: That album gave us a chance to
have a second act.
Our music from the whole of that decade -- most of it is like one long
quarrel, a series of arguments. The songs
often start in the middle of the action: "Haven't seen you for quite
some time." "Is it getting better?" It's a row
between flesh and spirit, friends and lovers. The Irish are good at
rows, the din of argument. Living in Dublin really
prepares you for being in a band. In U2, we beat the pulp out of the
material, and each other -- and these are my
best friends. I can't tell you how much these relationships mean to me.
But you're as good as the arguments you
get.
I know some people think being in a band is like holding on to some sort
of juvenilia. But as people get older
and rid the room of argument, they often get less interesting. Their
work gets less interesting. I'm nervous if too
many people agree with me. War is hell [laughs], but it is productive.
http://youtwo.net/pictures_archive/rs_901_image7.jpg
The Fly Arrives
"This is in New York during Zoo TV. In the 1980s, we had a lot of moral
baggage. We could be insufferable
little Jesuses. So we created an anti-Bono: the Fly. I always said
Achtung Baby was the sound of four men
chopping down The Joshua Tree."
http://youtwo.net/pictures_archive/rs_901_image8.jpg
Spice Girl It Up
"Anton was always trying to get us out of ourselves. I don't know what
happened here. Maybe this is us as
the Spice Girls. Larry [Mullen Jr., top], he's Baby Spice. Adam
[Clayton, left] is Posh Spice. Edge [right] is
Sporty Spice. And I'm doing my Liza Minnelli. Actually, I think Adam's
got a Carol Burnett thing going. And
Edge -- there is a Farrah Fawcett/Derek Smalls-from-Spinal Tap thing
happening. Zoo TV was about having
fun with the megalomaniacal aspect of being a rock star. It's a
ridiculous thing to be. So let's make it ridiculous."
http://youtwo.net/pictures_archive/rs_901_image9.jpg
A Little Advice From Sinatra on Lighting
"There he is, the Big Bang of pop. Frank asked me to be the president of
the Frank Sinatra golf classic in Palm
Springs. Now, no one in our group is allowed to play golf. However, I
said yes. How could you not? How do
you explain to the Chairman of the Board the golden rule? People said he
didn't like rock stars. He did glare a
couple of times at my earrings. But I got to know Sinatra. He sent me
some amazing gifts. I have a painting of
his -- an amazing bright-yellow painting with these concentric circles.
It's very, very out there. When you think
that his persona was so conservative, his paintings reveal a much more
surreal side to him and his imagination.
It's funny -- the day after this photo, we were riding in a car in Palm
Springs, and we were being filmed. There
was a cameraman in the passenger seat, and we were wired. And at one
point he reached over to me and
whispered, 'Roll down the window about an inch.' I said, 'What?' 'Roll
down the window about an inch.' So I
did. He looks at me and goes, 'That's better.' He was lighting me for
the camera -- old-school Hollywood."
http://youtwo.net/pictures_archive/rs_901_image10.jpg
Having Kids Did Not Chill Me Out
"This is my son Elijah -- Eli, we call him -- in the South of France. A
lot of people thought having kids would chill
me out. Far from it. I got more intense in a lot of ways about the way I
saw the world, my determination to get
to grips with it. It's the lengths you would go to protect your
children. My pacifism, my hallmark in the 1980s,
was challenged by having children. I try to channel that into activism."
http://youtwo.net/pictures_archive/rs_901_image11.jpg
Enter Bill Clinton
"That's in Chicago at the Ritz-Carlton in 1992, the day after we met
Bill Clinton. In the band, if you get the big
hotel suite, you have to have the meetings and after-show parties. When
Bill Clinton turned up, myself and
Edge had been up most of the night writing a song called 'Two Shots of
Happy, One Shot of Sad.' The place
was a mess. There's pizza boxes and beer cans everywhere, and I'm in
this robe. Here's this guy running for
office at the door, and I can either get out of the robe or tidy up. I
chose to get out of the robe. I put on the first
thing I could see, this crushed-velvet suit I'd been wearing the night
before. When Clinton walked in, it was rock
& roll Babylon. The faces of the people with him were like, 'Why would
we bring our guy here?' But Bill just
burst out laughing. He thought it was the funniest thing. Right there, I
thought if anybody can sort out the
Northern Ireland problem, it will be him."
(Continued)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YouTwo.net: Wyclef Jean & The Edge WOWY (11-17-2002)
Wyclef Jean and The Edge performed an instrumental version of U2's
''With Or Without You'' at Wyclef Jean's concert in Dublin this evening.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
YouTwo.net: Canadian DVD misprint (11-17-2002)
YouTwo.net has recieved information that the
4 Track DVD
that accompanied the Canadian numbered release of
U2's ''Best of 1990-2000'' occasionally turns out
not to play
U2 ... but does play Nick Carter.
The misprinted DVD's appear to have sold by HMV stories in
Canada.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rolling Stone: Part 3 - Bono's Scrapbook (11-17-2002)
http://youtwo.net/pictures_archive/rs_901_image12.jpg
No, It's Not a Bong
"This looks more avant-garde than it is. This is on tour. I'm singing
over two hours a night, notes I'm not really
able to hit, and it's expensive on the vocal cords. So during the day, I
can't talk at all. I use this humidifier to keep
my throat in shape. It's a pain in the ass for me. The rest of the band
thinks it's great, because I have to shut up
all day. I think that's one of the reasons why they like going on tour.
http://youtwo.net/pictures_archive/rs_901_image13.jpg
Channeling Elvis, Looking for Aspirin
"This one -- it all goes back to Elvis Presley putting on the blue
eyeliner. When rock & roll gets too macho, it's
not rock & roll. But I really cannot remember how this happened. It's in
my house in Dublin, after the end of the
Zoo TV tour. We'd had a party to celebrate -- the party had obviously
gone on and on and on. The dress
belonged to a girl who worked for us, Suzanne Doyle. I have no idea what
I'm doing in her frock. And I have
no idea who I might be calling. I might be calling my wife, Ali, for
some aspirin."
http://youtwo.net/pictures_archive/rs_901_image14.jpg
Masters of Our Own Destiny
"That's Chris Blackwell [of Island Records] with the camera. We owe a
lot to him. I met Prince some years back --
I believe in Prince almost as much as Prince believes in Prince, which
is saying something -- and he had 'Slave'
written on the side of his face. I asked him why he was doing that. He
said, 'I don't own my master tapes. I don't
own my copyrights.' Then he said, 'You do own your master tapes. You do
own your copyrights. How did you
do that?' I said, 'Lower royalty rate.' We had a manager [Paul
McGuinness] who believed it was a fundamental
right that eventually the stuff should come back to us. And it was this
man, Chris, who agreed to it. It means that
on big sellers like The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby we took a lower
royalty rate. But I will be eternally
grateful to Chris Blackwell for giving us those rights. Because I am not
a slave."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ottawa Sun: U2 Can Own This CD (11-17-2002)
From The Ottawa Sun:
U2 CAN OWN THIS CD
IF YOU CAN FIND ONE OF THE MILLION LIMITED-EDITION COPIES
DARRYL STERDAN, SUN MEDIA
U2: THE BEST OF, 1990-2000
U2
IF THERE'S one perk to this whole CD reviewer thing, it's getting all
those rare limited-edition discs. Like the new two-CD version of U2's
Best of 1990-2000.
We don't want to brag, but we got copy No. 222781. Yeah, it's a great
feeling to be in an elite group with -- well, apparently, another
999,999
people. OK, so maybe U2 don't quite grasp the concept of a "limited"
edition.
Still, if you're a fan, you might feel this 30-song affair is pretty
special anyway. Naturally, it has all their hits from the last decade,
like Beautiful Day,
Mysterious Ways, Even Better Than the Real Thing, One, Stuck in a Moment
You Can't Get Out Of and, um, Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me
(OK, so the '90s weren't their best decade).
Plus it has two new songs -- the typically anthemic and quite pretty
Electrical Storm and Hands that Built America -- along with B-sides,
covers
(including an edgy cover of Happiness Is a Warm Gun) and plenty of
remixes.
So many, in fact, that they start to feel like filler after not too
long. Another quibble: The Fly is only included on the single-disc
version of the set, so
you gotta shell out again if you want it.
Presuming, of course, that you can find it for sale anywhere.
Sun Rating: 4 out of 5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SCMP: Review of 'The Best Of 1990-2000' (11-17-2002)
From South China Morning Post:
Review by Stephen McCarty
U2
The Best Of 1990-2000
(Island)
Whatever you think of U2 - saviours of rock or bombastic throwbacks -
and whatever you think of Bono - saviour
or wannabe politician - theirs is a largely solid body of work that has
coloured a generation's musical doodlings.
Which probably means they deserve this monument to albums Achtung Baby,
All That You Can't Leave Behind,
Passengers, Zooropa and Pop. Monuments have been built to much less.
"Best of" selections used to be rip-offs: no new material and padded
with tracks you already owned elsewhere,
but which, as a fan, you just had to have. These days there are more
reasons to buy albums like this. As with U2's
The Best Of 1980-1990 double-disc collection, some of those reasons can
be found on the "A" CD: here, in
addition to familiar album tracks, are new songs Electrical Storm and
The Hands That Built America, from forthcoming
Martin Scorsese movie The Gangs Of New York, and Hold Me, Thrill Me,
Kiss Me, Kill Me, from Batman Forever.
Add to the shopping cart a handful of reworked standards and you have
your money's worth.
And that's before you tackle the really interesting footnotes on a
B-sides "B" disc peppered with tracks revitalised
by big-noise DJs and producers including Paul Oakenfold, Mark Stent and
Howie B. There's even a rendering of
the Beatles' Happiness Is A Warm Gun. But you'll have to hurry: the
double set and accompanying DVD comprise
a limited edition. Buy now, or it's eBay for you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Releases:
December 10 2002 NA/ December 9 2002 EUR "Best Of 1990 - 2000" DVD
release
Tracklisting:
Even better than the real thing
Even better than the real thing (The Perfecto mix)
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day
Electrical Storm
U2 at Eze-Sur-Mer (documentary)
One
One (version 3)
A Story of One (documentary)
Miss Sarajevo
The Road To Sarajevo (documentary)
Stay (Faraway, so close!)
Stuck in a Moment
Stuck in a Moment (version 2)
Gone (Popmart)
Until the End of the World (Live Zoo TV)
The Hands That Built America
Discotheque
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
Staring at the Sun
Staring at the Sun (version 2)
Numb
Numb (video remix)
The Fly
Please
If God Will Send His Angels
Who´s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
Lemon
Last Night On Earth
Mofo (Phunk Force mix)
The Ground Beneath Her Feet
Features promo videos of tracks from the A-sides cd, complete with
commentary
by the directors, who include Wim Wenders, Kevin Godley, Stephane
Sednaoui,
Anton Corbijn and Jonas Akerlund. Six bonus tracks are included on the
DVD -
Please, If God Will Send His Angels, Wild Horses, Lemon, Last Night On
Earth
and MoFo. In addition, many of the tracks feature alternative versions
of the
clips made for different countries, as early cuts or to accompany
different
mixes. Further exclusive content includes a mini documentary, The Road
To
Sarajevo, filmed in the Bosnian capital in the run up to U2's historic
1997
concert and complete with performance footage.
December 24 2002 "We're a Happy Family", Ramones Tribute Album
--------------
TV/Live Events/Appearances:
November 23, 2002 U2: Live at Slane, RAI, Italy
November 28, 2002 ''Elvis Lives'', NBC, USA includes commentary by Bono
November 29, 2002, U2: Live at Slane, CBS, USA
December 1, 2002 Bono on Larry King Live, CNN, USA
December 7, 2002 U2: Live at Slane, Canal+, France
February 21, 2003: Bono to accept 2003 MusiCares Person of The Year
Award at N. Y. Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City
February 23, 2003: Bono to accept special Grammy Award at 2003
Grammy Awards in New York City
---------------
Vote:
In Print:
Rolling Stone, Issue 910: Bono's Scrapbook, 3 pages of 1990-2000
pictures
Q magazine, December issue, U2 on cover
--------------
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