Bono: Last News

U2 guitarist The Edge has discussed frontman and fellow bandmate Bono‘s political “superpower” – and how he was right in becoming a high-profile political activist.In an interview with MOJO,  The Edge shared that U2’s music and extra-curricular political campaigning have become “so intermingled” with the band over time that it would now be “very hard to imagine one without the other”.“There’s obviously been challenging moments, particularly when Bono was making great strides in America and realised his superpower was being able to work both sides of the aisle and persuade politicians from different parts of the spectrum to work together,” he said.“But that meant he was having meetings with people like [right-wing US Senator] Jesse Helms, who famously dismantled the National Endowment for the Arts because of Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs and made some terrible early comments about the AIDS pandemic.He continued: “So, that was hard. But we understood the logic.

U2’s latest album ‘Songs Of Surrender’ is currently selling more copies than the rest of the Top Five in the charts combined – and fast on the way to becoming the band’s 11th Number One album.Released last Friday, the album saw the Irish rock veterans return with a series of re-recorded and re-interpreted songs from throughout their 40-year career, including fan favourites, ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ and ‘With Or Without You’.Sharing its name with Bono’s 2022 memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, the album is already performing extremely well on the charts and, as of yesterday, outselling the rest of the Top Five combined, according to The Official Charts Company.If it were to peak at the top position, it would mark the band’s 11th number one album, and the first to reach the summit following their 2009 LP, ‘No Line On the Horizon’. Previously, U2 have scored consecutive Top 10 entries over the past decade, with 2014’s ‘Songs Of Innocence’ and 2017’s ‘Songs of Experience’ peaking at Number Six and Number Five respectively.Additionally, their greatest hits album, ‘U218 Singles’, has also resurfaced and is on its way to reaching the Top 40 for the second time.

U2‘s Bono and The Edge have become the latest stars to perform for NPR‘s Tiny Desk concert series – check out their concert below.The pair performed stripped down versions of four of their hits: ‘Beautiful Day’, ‘In A Little While’, ‘Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of’ and ‘Walk On’. They were accompanied by the Duke Ellington School of the Arts choir.Before playing ‘In A Little While’, The Edge joked: “All of these years trying to avoid a desk job.

U2 performed orchestral renditions of ‘Vertigo’ and ABBA‘s ‘S.O.S’ for BBC Radio 2’s Piano Room – check out the videos below.The Irish rock band are gearing up for the release of new album ‘Songs Of Surrender’, out tomorrow (March 17), which will feature 40 of their past songs “reimagined and re-recorded”.So far, they have shared new versions of ‘Beautiful Day‘, ‘One’, ‘With Or Without You‘ and ‘Pride (In The Name Of Love)‘.For a special Radio 2 Piano Room performance, which aired today (March 16), frontman Bono and guitarist The Edge also performed ‘One’.Listen to the full episode here and watch the performances below.“There is something about ABBA. I can remember ABBA as like the national anthem for young mothers,” Bono told Radio 2’s Gary Davies.

U2 frontman Bono has revealed that at some point throughout their career, every member of the band had “thought about walking away”.Speaking on the band’s upcoming Disney+ documentary A Kind Of Homecoming, Bono shared candidly that he had “certainly” entertained the idea of leaving the band, per a Daily Mail report.“I have certainly thought about walking away from U2, every member has. We have all thought about it,” he said, adding that thinking about leaving was “the right instinct to question whether this should still be going and what it demands of all four members.”Bono would go on to say that he’s stayed due to “the desire to write songs we don’t have yet. We are chasing the dragon of the song we can’t get.”Daily Mail reports that Bono further reflected on how he had “tested the patience” of his bandmates: “Friendship is deeply part of who we are, but you could lose that along the way.

“Pride (In the Name of Love)” to “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” to “Beautiful Day,” U2 has made a legendary career out of its super earnest and passionate anthems.And their fearless leader Bono doesn’t care if his band’s unforgettable fire comes off as corny.“Brian Eno … said to us, ‘You know, you should not be concerned with things like being cool. That would be uncool for you.

U2‘s The Edge has said that he and Bono are “anxious” to release a new guitar-driven album – and has confirmed that the band will play ‘Achtung Baby’ in full at their Las Vegas residency.The band’s guitarist said in a new interview that they have “an embarrassment of riches of new material” in addition to the reimagined originals appearing on their forthcoming album ‘Songs Of Surrender‘ (out March 17).The Edge told Rolling Stone that fans can expect new songs, which Bono recently said will make up “a noisy, uncompromising, unreasonable guitar album”, in the near future.“As soon as possible,” The Edge told the publication of the album’s expected release window. “But, of course, that’s just who I am.

The Edge has spoken about U2’s bond and their ongoing commitment to the band, saying it would be “very difficult to break up” the group.The Irish band formed in 1976 and are set to release ‘Songs Of Surrender’, a new album featuring reimagined takes on some of their most iconic work, this month.In a new interview, the guitarist spoke about rumours that U2 could be nearing the end of their time together. Drummer Larry Mullen Jr will not join the band for their upcoming Las Vegas residency due to requiring surgery and will be replaced temporarily for the shows by Bram van den Berg.“No one is more disappointed than us that Larry won’t be joining us in Vegas,” The Edge told the Telegraph.

U2 have shared a new version of their 2000 hit single ‘Beautiful Day’, taken from their forthcoming album ‘Songs Of Surrender’.The record, which will be released on March 17, will see the Irish band re-record 40 songs from across their back catalogue, reworking and reimagining them in the process.The new version of ‘Beautiful Day’ finds U2 delivering rearranged takes on its instantly recognisable melodies and instrumental layers, while Bono’s vocal performance finds new dynamics and emotion. Listen to the track in full below, alongside the original version.At the time ‘Songs Of Surrender’ was announced, The Edge explained that much of the band’s work “was written and recorded when we were a bunch of very young men” and that the songs had changed over the years to “mean something quite different to us now”.“Some have grown with us,” he wrote.

U2 documentary special that will see Bono and The Edge show David Letterman around Dublin is coming to Disney+ next month – check out the trailer below.The documentary, titled Bono & The Edge: A Sort Of Homecoming, with David Letterman, will see Letterman travel to Ireland for the first time to meet up with Bono and The Edge, who he later helps with a live performance. In a press release, it’s described as “part concert movie, part travel adventure plus a whole lot of Bono and The Edge, with Dave’s humor throughout.” [via Stereogum]The documentary is set to land on March 17 to coincide with the release of ‘Songs Of Surrender’, a compilation album of 40 “reimagined and re-recorded” songs from across their catalogue.

Super Bowl 2023 commercial featuring spheres in the sky.“An unidentified object has been spotted over the skies,” the ad proclaimed. While the commercial is advertising “U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at the Sphere” — a series of concerts that marks the band’s first live shows in four years — many on social media were quick to point out the similarities to the Chinese spy balloon that has been making headlines.“Did you guys make this commercial before last week?” one person asked.“Read the room.

U2 frontman Bono has opened up about alleged death threats he received in his new, soon-to-be-released memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.In the book, Bono speaks about numerous threats the band received from the IRA, gangsters and some far right groups throughout their career.Bono claims in the book that Gerry Adams, the late, former Sinn Fein leader, said he “stinks” because of their pro-peace stance. “U2’s opposition to paramilitaries (of all kinds) had cost the IRA valuable fundraising in the US,” the book alleges.The musician spoke about the book for the first time yesterday (October 16) at The Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, and recalled how special branch officers said that /his wife, Ali Stewart, was the more likely target than him.

Bono made a surprise visit to his old secondary school in Clontarf, Dublin this week, where he read from his forthcoming memoir.According to the Irish Independent, the U2 frontman stopped by Mount Temple Comprehensive on Tuesday (October 11). It’s reported that sixth-year students were treated to a private audience with the singer.Bono is said to have been accompanied by a professional film crew, suggesting that a documentary project could be in the works.He also took a tour of the school, visited its music department and met with some pupils and teachers.“It definitely gave everyone a bit of a buzz,” one student told the Irish Independent. “A few teachers came in to stand at the back and listen to him speaking so there was a good group there listening to him speaking for about an hour.”A photograph of Bono with a group of Mount Temple students was shared on U2’s official Twitter page.

Shane MacGowan has admitted that he used to “wave his willy” at passing trains while living in Bono‘s house.The U2 frontman has a guest house at his home on the south coast of Dublin, overlooking the bay and the railway line.“Bono put in a glass roof and wall,” MacGowan explained in an interview with The Times. “I used to wave my willy at the train as it passed and hope that they thought it was Bono’s.”The Pogues frontman was interviewed alongside his partner, Victoria Mary Clarke, who elaborated further on the story.“Bono was very patient,” she said.

U2‘s Bono has announced a worldwide book tour in support of his forthcoming memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story – find full details and tickets below.The 576-page volume is due to land on November 1 via publishing house Alfred A. Knopf (and in audiobook form via Penguin Random House) and, as its title implies, will explore the origins of 40 key songs in U2’s discography.

Bono has recalled losing his mother when he was just 14, and says she was ‘never spoken of’ after her death.The rocker, who fronts one of the most successful bands of all time, grew up in Dublin in the 1960s and 1970s, back when he was Paul Hewson rather than the one-word moniker he’s best-known for today.Bono formed U2 while he was still at school, along with his classmates the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr, with the group enjoying massive success in the almost 50 years since.Known for his philanthropy and charity work almost as much as for his music, Bono has led a rollercoaster of a life – which is now all set to be laid out in public.The vocalist is due to release his memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story in November, which details his life from his childhood in the Irish capital to his Band Aid activism, music career and everything in between.In anticipation of the memoir’s release, US outlet The New Yorker published an excerpt in which Bono reflects on the death of his mother, who tragically suffered a stroke on the day of his grandfather’s funeral.In devastating simplicity, Bono writes that he has ‘very few memories’ of his mother, and ‘the simple explanation is that, in our house, after she died she was never spoken of again.’He adds: ‘I fear it was worse than that.

U2 frontman Bono has opened up about the death of his mother in his forthcoming memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.The 576-page volume is due to land on November 1 via publishing house Alfred A. Knopf (and in audiobook form via Penguin Random House) – and, as its title implies, will explore the origins of 40 key songs in U2’s discography. Each chapter is named for the song it covers, with Bono’s life story weaved throughout the book.In a new extract published in the New Yorker, Bono opened up about the death of his mother Iris when he was 14 years old after she collapsed at the funeral of her father, “Gags” Rankin, in 1974.

Nick Cave and Jarvis Cocker will both appear at the Cheltenham Literature Festival 2022 this autumn.Set to take place from October 7-16, the event will welcome “the world’s foremost writers, thinkers and performers… for a jam-packed week of fascinating discussion and unforgettable memories”.From the world of music, Cave, Cocker, U2 frontman Bono, Mel C and Michael Ball will all appear at events across the Cheltenham Literature Festival 2022.Cave will speak with his friend, co-author and Observer journalist Sean O’Hagan about his book Faith, Hope and Carnage on October 14, while Cocker will “reveal secrets from his early life in Sheffield” from his book Good Pop, Bad Pop during an event on October 15.Bono will appear at the festival’s The Times & Sunday Times Forum on the final day (October 16) to discuss his upcoming memoir Surrender.

“Sesame Street” was honored. The Eagles were honored in 2016 and Led Zeppelin in 2012.Kennedy Center President Deborah F. Rutter said in an interview that her group has “worked really hard to think about ‘Are we including all of the performing arts?’” as it hands out its awards. She singled out Grant’s music in particular as a different genre being represented in the honors this year.“We’ve had gospel before.

U2 frontman Bono has opened up about the moment in 2000 when he first learned that he has a half-brother.The singer spoke about the family discovery in a new interview with BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs.“I have another brother, whom I love and adore, who I didn’t know I had,” he told host Lauren Laverne, before explaining that his mother Iris, who died in 1974, did not know her husband had had a child with another woman.“It’s a very close family,” Bono said. “And I could tell my father had a deep friendship with this gorgeous woman, who’s part of the family, and then they had a child.

U2‘s Bono and The Edge are reportedly working on new music for North Star, an upcoming biopic about the director Jim Sheridan.Sheridan, who is best known for such films as My Left Foot and In The Name Of The Father, will direct the semi-autobiographical feature, which will tell the story of the director’s early life in Ireland in the early 1960s.North Star is described as “the coming-of-age story of 17-year-old Sheamie Sheridan, who lives with his rough-around-the-edges father and younger brother Frankie”.“A journey into the heart and soul of a family, Sheamie finds his world turned upside down when a teenage orphan moves in to live with them, revealing the deeper and more complicated problems Sheamie has with his dad; secrets that now threaten to tear the family apart.”Variety reports that Bono and The Edge are “in discussions to compose original music” for Sheridan’s North Star, which is being produced by Spinning Gold director Timothy Scott Bogart.The U2 musicians are in talks to write and perform the original song ‘North Star’ in addition to collaborating on the score.Shooting on North Star is set to begin in early 2023 on location in Ireland.Bono, meanwhile, will publish his memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story in November.The book is set to span the singer’s career, “from his early days growing up in Dublin, including the sudden loss of his mother when he was 14, to U2’s unlikely journey to become one of the world’s most influential rock bands, to his 20 years of activism dedicated to the fight against AIDS and extreme poverty”.