Concert or record featuring likes of Lauryn Hill, R.E.M
Beastie Boys being considered.

Contributing Editor Brian Hiatt reports:

U2 singer Bono has lined up support from such artists as
Lauryn Hill, R.E.M., the Smashing Pumpkins, the Beastie Boys,
Oasis and opera singer Luciano Pavarotti for a campaign to
persuade the world’s richest nations to cancel the debt of the
world’s poorest.

Bono and the nonprofit organization Jubilee 2000 have yet to
say what exactly he and the other artists might do for the cause,
but they have made it clear the effort will be musical and most
likely done on a large scale.

“Bono and ourselves are discussing how we can be creative,
have fun, make some noise,” said Jamie Drummond, a Jubilee
2000 spokesperson. Read the rest of this entry »

U2 star Bono and his wife Ali are expecting their third child.

Ali, the inspiration behind the U2 hit “Sweetest Thing”, is due to give birth this summer (99). The couple already have two children – Jordan, 10, and Memphis Eve, eight.

But while the couple’s family and friends are reported to be thrilled, the news will come as a shock to the organisers of a charity auction four years ago (95) – where Ali bought her husband a voucher for a vasectomy.

She paid $320 for it at the auction in aid of the Dublin AIDS Alliance. It was never disclosed if the singer took up the offer. (@U2 note: Bono later donated the vasectomy to a Dublin man who explained on national radio that he needed the surgery, but couldn’t afford it.)

Bono and Ali have been married for nearly 17 years and have lived in a luxury mansion in Dalkey, Co Dublin since the early 1980s. Ali is a volunteer worker with the Chernobyl Children’s Project and has made several mercy missions from Ireland to Belarus to help chronically sick children.

© 1999 WENN. All rights reserved.

Ed Barrett on the blood, toil, sweat and tears of U2’s lead singer and enemy of the world’s bankers

by Ed Barrett

When Bono attended Tuesday night’s Brit Awards, it was not on behalf of his band of global gypsies U2, whose forthcoming album will doubtless be honoured at next year’s ceremony, but as a representative of the Jubilee 2000 campaign to cancel Third World debt. We, the public, he demanded, should tell them, the politicians, to sort out the bankers. Then he walked into the select section of the public gathered in the London Arena and presented Mohammed Ali (also there to promote the cause) with something called the “Freddie Mercury Award”.

We have become used to such things. Stand-up comedians pontificate on Question Time panels. The Prime Minister announces his views from the daytime TV sofa rather than the parliamentary front bench. Every showbiz ceremony worth its salt has a keynote speech or a launch of another worthy initiative. And when it comes to this kind of public speaking, Bono has been centre stage a full decade longer than Tony Blair. Read the rest of this entry »

Bono is on the campaign trail again. This time it is Third World debt. But is it a crusade too far, asks Michael Rose in the Sunday Times.

How do you upstage Robbie Williams, England’s greatest show-off? Answer: you go on stage with Muhammad Ali. At the Brit awards in London on Tuesday night, Bono was one of the few stars with neither a new single nor an album to promote. He came to speak on behalf of the latest pop humanitarian cause, Jubilee 2000, which is campaigning to get Third World debt written off.

At a cost rumoured to be in excess of £20,000, and at Bono’s request, U2’s record label Polygram jetted in Ali. Who needs idols when you can have The Greatest? Once again Bono had proved that pop may be pop but – hey, the grand gesture rocks. Especially when the record company is footing the bill. Read the rest of this entry »

Oh no, not another rock star with a conscience? But the good – bad? – thing about Bono is that he actually means what he says.

by Stewart Hennessy

You could hear Britain groan last week as Bono stepped up to the microphone at the Brit Awards. The show that in previous years had delivered classic moments, most notably John Prescott being covered in water and Jarvis Cocker wiggling his bony derriere, was now serving up a decent family man to fret about Third World debt.

He told the organisers in advance he was going to be dull. He was using pop’s Oscars to speak on behalf of the three-year-old Jubilee 2000 coalition, which wants wealthy countries ‘to make a millennium gift to the poorer nations’ by writing off their debts next year. It’s an interesting idea, a challenging proposition and a fine sentiment, but it ain’t rock’ n’roll. It seems unlikely that Robbie Williams fans, even in their wildest hormonal frenzy, will work up a passion about Eritrea’s finances. It seems likely that Africa will continue to repay a Live Aid-sized sum, every week, even after Bono’s speech.
Read the rest of this entry »

IRISH GROUP

1. U2
2. The Corrs
3. Ash

IRISH MALE SINGER

1. Bono
2. Jack L
3. Neil Hannon

IRISH SINGLE

1. U2: “Sweetest Thing”

IRISH ALBUM

1. U2: Best of

IRISH LIVE ACT

1. U2

IRISH SONGWRITER

1. Neil Hannon
2. U2/Bono

IRISH MUSICIAN

1. Donal Lunny
2. Edge
3. Sharon Shannon
4. Tim Wheeler
5. Van Morrison
6. Larry Mullen

IRISH SLEEVE

1. U2: Best of

IRISH VIDEO

1. U2: “Sweetest Thing”

OVERALL BEST POLLING ACTS

1. U2
2. REM
3. Ash

© 1999 Hot Press. All rights reserved.