Bono's Peter and the Wolf book

By Independent.ie reporters
Friday Feb 3 2012

THE website for the Irish Hospice Foundation crashed last night when Victoria Beckham tweeted a link to the charity after receiving a gift from Bono for baby Harper of a book he did in aid of the charity in 2003.

Victoria Beckham tweeted last night: “Thanks Bono and Ali for Harper’s supercool Peter and the Wolf book!” The fashion designer then gave a link to the book cover and tweeted a link to the Irish Hospice Foundation website to her two and a half million Twitter followers. The Irish Hospice Foundation tweeted the designer “We hope you and David enjoy reading it to Harper.”

Caroline Lynch of the Irish Hospice Foundation confirmed that after the fashion designer tweeted the link and it was retweeted on Twitter, the charity’s website crashed under the high volume of traffic from people trying to get onto the site and find out about the book. “The site went down from the number of people who were trying to get on and make enquiries.” she said.

The book produced in 2003 by Bono and Gavin Friday contains 64 pages of Bono’s original paintings and illustrations from his daughters Jordan and Eve. Since 2003, Peter and the Wolf has raised €993,006 for the hospice foundation. The charity is hoping the Beckham tweet will help them to raise the additional €7000 needed to bring them over the €1 million mark.

Meanwhile Bono is set to enjoy a beautiful payday with a reputed windfall of €1.1bn from his Facebook investment it was reported this week.

For details of the book conact: 01 679 31 88 or email fundraising@hospice-foundation.ie to place an order.

Read more: http://www.independent.ie

“Summer Wine” is a song written by Lee Hazlewood. It was originally sung by Suzi Jane Hokom and Lee Hazlewood in 1966, but it was made famous by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood in 1967. This version was originally released as the B-side of “Sugar Town” the previous year, before featuring on the Nancy & Lee LP in 1968. It was the first of Sinatra and Hazlewood’s string of popular duets.

Lyrically, “Summer Wine” describes a man, voiced by Hazlewood, who meets a woman, Sinatra, who notices his silver spurs and invites him to have wine with her. After heavy drinking, the man awakens hungover to find his spurs and money have been stolen by the mysterious woman; the subtext of which being they experienced intercourse and as repayment she misappropriated them (them being his “silver spurs a dollar and a dime”).

Song info sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/
The duet by Andrea Corr and Bono appeared on The Corrs Live in Dublin Album, 2002.

Facebook’s pending float on the stock markets is all over the news as is Bono’s interest in the company.

Bono is listed as a managing director and co-founder of Elevation Partners which spent $210m buying Facebook shares in 2009 and 2010, which represents about 1% of the company.

Facebook is estimated to be now valued at between $80bn – $100bn which would give Elevation a huge paper profit when the shares start being publicly traded.

By now you’re all probably tired of reading about how much Bono is set to earn if and when Elevation Partners put their shares in Facebook up for sale.

However, it just goes to show what a shrewd businessman Bono’s turned out to be.

Following on from the recent success of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark as the biggest grossing show on Broadway, his interests in Facebook look likely to cement his place as a sensible investor.

A far cry from the initial concerns about his credibility in business when both these ventures were first reported.

Friday, January 27, 2012, 19:17

Pitt thanks Bono for humanitarian advice Washington: Brad Pitt has credited Bono for helping him become the man he is today with his humanitarian advice. The movie star admitted to a leading daily that he “sought out” the U2 singer after a visit to Morocco made him realise just how severe poverty was in certain areas of Africa.

The life-changing trip forced Pitt to “get off the couch” and join Bono and the other celebrities who attempt to make a difference in the world. “I sat down with him a few times and got involved in some of the stuff he was doing,” a website has quoted him as saying.

And Pitt reveals it was shortly after that he met his current partner Angelina Jolie on the set of ‘Mr ‘n’ Mrs Smith’. “That may have been one of the things that brought us together. Certainly, I’ve met very few people more dedicated than she is. She is always studying issues, daily. She has such compassion for the people she works with,” he revealed.

Then Pitt knew exactly what to do when Hurricane Katrina swept through his adopted New Orleans, Louisiana in 2005. “There was a responsibility to make it right, which was not being answered wholly, so I decided to make that a focal point and help families return home, and in the process we started discovering the inadequacies of low-income housing,” he stated.

Later the actor co-created the Make It Right Foundation in 2007 and began designing and building cost-effective housing for those left homeless by the storms.

ANI

http://zeenews.india.com

I bet you thought it was nothing but serious talk from Bono about aid on his latest trip to Africa. Well apparently not, a short video posted on the Telegraphs’s website yesterday, shows himself and his wife Ali in attendance and enjoying themselves the Mali music festival.

Attendance at the festival was down on previous years due to the high security threat in the area.

The Mali Desert music festival used to be a major world music event but al Qaeda threats have kept crowds away as it is feared Western hostages will be kidnapped and used for ransom.

You can watch Bono on stage and dancing with the crowd in a short clip from The Telegraph below.

In an interview that took place in Ghana during their recent trip there, Bono and Jeffrey Sachs spoke to Guardian Observer editor John Mulholland about the politics and economics of aid.

Bono had this to say when asked what will you be saying to world leaders to try to secure the funding commitments they have made to the Global Fund – and which now look under threat?

It’s really not a time to be a rich rock star talking about poor people, I’ll tell you that, or a film star, or a first lady or a … – there’s just something… it’s like “Why don’t you just piss off back to your chateau” – and so I’m kind of delighted that people keep doing it. Outside the UK, we won’t get much coverage for these issues without famous faces – and without coverage, politicians are less supportive.

Also in the interview Bono spoke in glowing terms about British Prime Minister David Cameron and the British people. This is what he had to say of both:

The reason why David Cameron can be so brave on behalf of the world’s poor and commit to UK aid at 0.7% of national income is because he has a mandate. People in the UK give a shit about this stuff and know a lot about it.

The British people, at a time of real austerity, have decided to stand by their principles and promises to the most vulnerable in far-off places, but they need to know exactly what they are achieving and how much it’s costing.

Bono and Jeffrey Sachs were both asked to respond to the rise in opposition to aid spending and what would they say to its critics. This is what they said. First Bono:

There’s one thing that might help with aid cynics. Because clearly no one likes the culture of dependency. No one’s arguing for it. We’re arguing to end it. I think there’s something a bit funky about aid as it stands right now. The two most important parties involved in the transaction – the taxpayer who’s providing the resources and the person who needs those resources to stay alive or keep their family alive – are the two people who know the least about what’s going on. So that has to change.

Jeffrey Sachs had this to say:

There are good ways to do things and bad ways to do things with aid. Aid works when it’s practical, when it’s focused, when it’s targeted, when it’s an investment, when it is part of a strategy; and aid does not work when it’s money handed over in an envelope to a friendly ally, especially in a war zone or when it’s a payoff for some other diplomatic support. It needs to be seriously managed, professionalised, results-based – and I’m very happy that the Department For International Development (DfID) is really exemplifying that approach right now. What’s the bottom line? What are the results? What are we getting out of it? And it’s being made into a very practical contract, in essence, between donor and recipient.

You can read the interview in full on Guardian.co.uk

SINGER Damien Rice paid almost half a million dollars at a charity auction at the weekend for a signed guitar that belonged to Bono, which the U2 star donated to raise funds for earthquake-stricken Haiti.

“The Blower’s Daughter” singer Damien Rice bid for the signed guitar of Bono’s at the the Cinema For Peace event held at the Montage Hotel in Los Angeles on Saturday night last in aid of the J/P Haitian Relief organisation.

The charity event was attended by a host of A-list stars that included George Clooney, Hillary Swank, Oprah Winfrey, Demi Moore, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Julia Roberts and Kim Kardashian.

Damien is known to be a very good friend of Bono’s and back in November of 2011, he covered U2′s song “One,” for the compilation album “AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered” which was released to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of U2′s Achtung Baby.

And as recent as Christmas Eve last Damien took to the streets of Dublin along with Bono, Glen Hansard and Liam O’Maonlai to do some busking in aid of homeless charities The Simon Community and the Peter McVerry Trust. Also in December of last year, his song “Cannonball” was used as the winner’s single on The X Factor (UK series 8). Little Mix, the winners released the song.

The amount bid by Damien Rice was one of the highest paid for any of the items sold at the auction. Another item secured at the auction was a trip to Hawaii with Sean Penn, for which Julia Roberts’ husband Danny Moder placed a $50,000 bid on that was accepted.

Sean Penn also accepted the job of “ambassador at large” for the Caribbean nation of Haiti on the night – he was offered the position by the nation’s foreign minister Laurent Lamothe at the event and told the crowd: “I do accept [the job],” before adding it would be nice to be “called, ‘Hey Mr. Ambassador.’ ”

The New York Times reports that the event raised $5 million for Haiti, and this included a donation from Oprah Winfrey who offered to match any contributions up to $2.5 million.

As part of RTE’s TV50 Series – Ireland’s National Broadcaster has posted a clip of Bono speaking with Gay Byrne on The Late Late Show back in 1983.

In the clip Bono talks about making the video for ‘New Year’s Day, playing the Dandelion market and why he thinks drugs are boring. He also introduces his wife Ali.

You can watch it below via Youtube -

The clip is also available on RTE’s website in their Clip Of The Week Segment. The link below will take you there.

www.rte.ie/tv50/

Rock star offers to be ambassador in two-hour meeting with Taoiseach

WHEN Bono met Enda, the rock star presented the Taoiseach with a bottle of Mayo whiskey as the advisers were sent away and the pair discussed affairs of state.

By JODY CORCORAN, DANIEL McCONNELL EXCLUSIVE

Sunday December 25 2011

WHEN Bono met Enda, the rock star presented the Taoiseach with a bottle of Mayo whiskey as the advisers were sent away and the pair discussed affairs of state.

The duo had a two-hour private meeting in the Taoiseach’s office last Wednesday during which the U2 singer’s offer to act as an ambassador for Ireland was discussed, the Sunday Independent can reveal.

Bono presented the bottle of whiskey, believed to be the niche Inish Turk Beg, to the Taoiseach as a Christmas gift.

A Government spokesman last night confirmed that the meeting had been tentatively agreed at the Global Irish Economic Forum at Dublin Castle in October. At the forum, Bono said he was willing to “hit the road again”, not on a U2 world tour, but to resurrect the reputation of Ireland abroad.

The U2 singer told delegates at the forum that he was willing to work for the country in whatever role was asked of him.

Last night the Taoiseach’s spokesman said a “wide range of issues” were discussed by the two men during what turned out to be an extended meeting. Mr Kenny asked all staff to vacate the room while he and Bono discussed national and international events.

The meeting, which took place ahead of the U2 Christmas party in Dublin, is the first known occasion in recent years that Bono has had a one-to-one meeting with a Taoiseach. In the late Eighties, the rock star, who is from Glasnevin in Dublin, established a close relationship with the late Fine Gael leader Garret FitzGerald. Bono was also a member of Young Fine Gael in that decade.

He has since gone on to world fame, not only as a singer and musician, but as a campaigner against world poverty and a civil rights advocate. He is most notably associated with the ‘Drop the Debt’ campaign in the Third World.

At the forum in Dublin in October, Bono said the mood was “oddly optimistic” and referred to a “certain fighting spirit” which he found evident. He also praised the Irish people’s “anarchic spirit” and said the Government had been smart to fight for Ireland’s tax competitiveness.

He said the most important thing to take from the forum was that it was “within us to make this country ours again so we’re not beholden to these financial institutions”.

In recent years, U2 was subjected to significant criticism back when it emerged that the band had relocated part of their rock empire to the Netherlands after the Government capped the artists’ tax exemption.

Bono’s offer to act as an ambassador to resurrect the reputation of Ireland abroad may be seen as an attempt by the frontman to restore a reputation which was somewhat damaged by the disclosure.

After his meeting with the Taoiseach, Bono joined his bandmates, management, staff and friends at Harry’s Bar at Hanover Quay in Dublin where they enjoyed the Christmas festivities.

The comedy rap duo The Rubberbandits were among those present at the Principal Management get-together. The bar’s owner, Harry Crosbie, also turned up for the occasion.

- JODY CORCORAN, DANIEL McCONNELL EXCLUSIVE

www.independent.ie

www.u2.com

Watch it below.

LUCK OF THE DEVIL: Bono was once called 'the worst investor in America'. But not any more

By Nick Webb

Sunday December 04 2011

ONCE dubbed “the worst investor in America”, U2 front man Bono is looking pretty shrewd these days.

Last week it emerged that social media giant Facebook is limbering up to raise €7.5bn in a stockmarket flotation early next year. This sale of 10 per cent of the firm would value the company at an extraordinary €75bn.

Bono is one of the key players in California private equity group Elevation Partners, which has spent over €156m for a 1.5 per cent stake in the social network.

Elevation spent €67m for 2.5 million shares in November 2009 and a further €89m for five million shares in June 2010. but since then, valuations of Facebook have exploded, with Elevation seeing its stake increase more than sevenfold in just over two years.

The shares are now worth around €1.1bn.

Facebook employs more than 300 staff at its Dublin base, many of whom may be in line for a major windfall when the company goes public next year.

- Nick Webb

www.independent.ie

www.u2.com

Rick Madonik, Toronto Star
Bono works the crowd outside Roy Thomson Hall during TIFF 2011

U2 singer Bono and guitarist The Edge were supposed to be part of our Friday feature asking about movies they’d recommend to aspiring young talent.

But, like Frank Sinatra, who Bono once sang a duet with, they did things their own way. They didn’t exactly answer our question — What one movie would you recommend an aspiring young actor or director see, and why? – but they spoke with conviction about two favorite albums (Torches and Horses) and one movie (It Might Get Loud).

Bono and The Edge were talking to TIFF’s Thom Powers during the festival last September. It was an on-stage interview to promote Davis Guggenheim’s opening gala film From the Sky Down, a documentary on the difficult creation of U2′s 1991 album, Achtung Baby.

The Star question was posed to them via Twitter. It might have been our fault for confusing them, because we expanded the query slightly to include both albums and films.

But even though their responses didn’t make our feature Friday, we thought you’d like to know what the two albums and one movie are that the U2 gents say rock their world.

Their responses can also be seen and heard in a TIFF video, which is available here, beginning about the 12-minute mark:

Bono, album: “For me, a seminal album for us would have been Patti Smith’s Horses. You talk about brutal honesty: that opening line, ‘Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine.’ When I was 16, I was like, “I do not know what this woman is on about, but I’d better find out.”

Bono, film: “It Might Get Loud. It’s a documentary Davis (Guggenheim) has made on folk music.” (Bono was being both diplomatic — Guggenheim was sitting next to him — and maybe a bit playful. It Might Get Loud isn’t about folk music, as the title hints.)

The Edge (album only, no film mentioned): “I think Torches by Foster the People is a very interesting new album. Very 21st century pop, but it’s beautifully made and thrilling. You see, we’re always interested in the new thing …. As a guitar player, particularly, it seems to me that the guy who has just picked it up for the first time and is learning the instrument might stumble upon some new angle. I’m always fascinated to see where it’s about to go.”

Peter Howell

http://www.toronto.com/

http://www.u2.com

Good news on the album front. And U2 one too. As reported in the article by the Irish Independent U2 headed back to the studio to work presumably on their next album. Details are still rather sketchy as the article picks up mostly on Bono being there. We have no idea if all the band were there photograph wise, however the article does states that U2 were there, so we’ll take that as a full band attendance. As soon as we get more information we’ll update this post. Meanwhile, we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief. The very fact Bono was seen at U2′s Hanover Quay studio and spent time chatting to fans there is such good news in itself.

Stay tuned.

By Peter McCluskey

Saturday November 12 2011

Novelist Peter McCluskey recalls his band supporting U2 in 1979

This photo really takes me back. It was taken in the dressing room of the Dublin venue McGonagles around Christmas 1979. That’s me with the glasses and blue windcheater, with Bono and Ali Hewson behind me. Ali is fluffing up Bono’s hair as he’s just about to go on stage.

The guy with his head down is Denis Rusk, the lead guitarist in my band The Strougers. I played rhythm guitar.

That year was one of the most exciting times in our lives.

I spent my youth on the Navan Road, hanging out with friends, but I was never any good at basketball or soccer.

Then punk rock came along and anyone could be in a band. Suddenly, all our friends were coming to see us play. By chance, we ended up doing a few gigs with U2 in places such as Howth Community Centre, and the Dandelion Market, as they were just starting out too.

You wouldn’t believe how many other Dublin bands hated U2 back then. They hated them because they thought they were loaded rich kids, or seemed arrogant.

Playing with them, I never found U2 like that. I suppose I was one of their first fans.

Bono was always very mannerly if we were chatting to him before a gig. I remember distinctly that if you spoke to Edge, he gave you his complete attention. He wouldn’t be messing, or getting distracted; he would listen to every word you said.

Then U2 would plug in and play. I can’t possibly explain how good U2 sounded playing to 20 people.

For a start, Larry Mullen had come out of the Artane Boys Band so he was a proper drummer. He could make this unbelievable racket. Edge had this very futuristic-looking Gibson Explorer guitar but he could really play it, and Adam completed the sound.

Towards the end of 1979, we ended up playing McGonagles the same night that U2 were doing the late show.

A friend took this picture on my Olympus camera, which I’d just bought. I remember taking lots of shots that night and Bono getting thrown by the flash constantly going off, but he never complained.

If you’re wondering why I’m wearing a blue windcheater if I was a punk back then, all I’ll say is it was a wet December night in Dublin and I wasn’t going to get drowned coming in from the Navan Road, new wave or no new wave.

Not long after this picture, things changed radically for U2. We stopped playing with them and they moved into a different league, releasing an album and touring America.

A couple of years later, myself and Strougers’ bass player Shay Hiney went to see U2 playing a huge gig at the RDS. We bumped into their manager Paul McGuinness and, remembering us, he gave us tickets to the aftershow.

We walked straight into Bono, who was now a big star. I remember Shay telling Bono that his girlfriend was on the way to the party, and that she was a huge U2 fan.

For a laugh, Bono starting asking Shay all these questions about ‘Jenny’, then disappeared.

We thought that was the last we’d see of him. But, later in the evening, he was back and straight over to Shay and his girlfriend. ‘You must be Jenny, Shay’s girlfriend,’ Bono said, and he started listing off all these things he knew about her.

Jenny couldn’t believe it because she was a massive U2 fan and Bono knew everything about her. We laughed and laughed.

People say to me, ‘Your band and U2 were playing around Dublin at the same time, yet they became global superstars and you didn’t’.

They expect me to be envious, but I’m not all. I was delighted U2 made it, because the night this picture was taken in McGonagles, I had already picked U2 out as a band with a future.

I think I got that one right.

Peter McCluskey’s latest book is called ‘My Little Lighthouse’

Interview by Ken Sweeney

- Peter McCluskey

http://www.independent.ie