Latest U2 News & Information

U2’s plans to turn the Clarence into "the most spectacular hotel in Europe" are on hold, after council officials issued a deadline to the supergroup to respond to a lengthy list of questions about the project.

Dublin City Council’s planning department says the status of the planning application is currently dormant, as it awaits a response from the owners, due before the end of September.

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U2 are in Africa, writing songs with Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno.

The band have set up a studio in Morocco’s medieval city of Fez where they have been writing and recording from morning till night for the past couple of weeks.

‘There’s no word on what the new material is for,’ according to one of the team in Fez. ‘But they’re on a roll and the ideas are coming thick and fast.’

The band met up with Eno and Lanois after flying down to North Africa from Cannes where ‘U23D’ was previewed earlier this month. It’s not the first time they have been in this ancient city. They visited in 1991 with director Stephane Sedanoui to shoot the video for Mysterious Ways.

More news from Morocco on the way. www.u2.com

The Grammy-winning rock star sang Bush’s praises Wednesday for his announcement that he would propose spending an additional $30 billion over five years to fight AIDS worldwide.

"Some of my activist friends will be jumping on one leg rather than jumping on two because it’s never enough and etc., etc.," Bono said in a phone interview with USA TODAY from Fez, Morocco, where he’s recording with his band, U2. "But I’m standing up and I’m applauding the president and Congress."

Since 1999, the Irish-born singer has become increasingly active in raising awareness of AIDS in Africa and campaigning for debt relief in the developing world. He is co-founder of an advocacy group called DATA, an acronym for Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa.

"I remember people literally laughing in our face as we walked around Capitol Hill, knocking on doors" in the early days, he said. He cited key support in Congress from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others and said it was notable that a conservative administration was moving on promises of aid.

"At a time when there’s very little good news coming in from foreign climes," he said, "this is great news." The announcement also will help press leaders at next week’s Group of Eight summit in Germany to act, he said. He’ll be there to lobby.

Bono has met with seven of the 2008 presidential contenders — including Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama and Republicans Rudy Giuliani and John McCain — to raise the issue.

He did note some disappointments with the U.S. program, including the limited funding for multilateral AIDS programs and the emphasis on abstinence education. "Condoms are a part of the solution," he said.

-Susan Page, USA TODAY

(AP) PHILADELPHIA Bono, the international rock star who has helped bring worldwide attention to medical and economic problems in Africa, will receive this year’s Liberty Medal.

The annual award given by the National Constitution Center honors an individual or organization that has "demonstrated leadership and vision in the pursuit of liberty of conscience or freedom from oppression, ignorance, or deprivation."

Bono and the organization he co-founded, Debt AIDS Trade Africa, will receive the medal at a ceremony in September, officials announced Thursday.
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U2 rocked Cannes’ famous red carpet, playing to thousands of filmgoers and fans before a late-night screening of their new concert movie, U2 3D.

The band performed a two-song set on the steps of the festival hall as thousands of people crammed the street in front of the seafront building.

"Happy birthday, Cannes," lead singer Bono said in French, saluting the festival’s 60th anniversary this year.

Bono led U2 through two of their biggest hits, Vertigo and Where the Streets Have No Name.

Directed by Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington, U2 3D captures the band during their Vertigo tour, performing hits that span their career, from Sunday, Bloody Sunday to Beautiful Day.

The film uses the latest 3D technology, and audience members watch through special glasses that resemble ordinary sunglasses, rather than the red and green 3D specs of old.

Band members appear to leap off the screen during the 55-minute film, due to be released later this year.

-Launch 

NEW YORK, May 16 (UPI) — U2 front man Bono’s latest battle over pollution is really close to home — chimney smoke flowing into his tony New York apartment.

Bono says his complaint about smoky fireplaces in the San Remo apartment building is a health question for his family, which includes an asthmatic child, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The dispute is over whether smoke from fireplaces, including fellow rocker Billy Squier’s, is drifting from chimneys into the penthouse duplex where Bono — real name Paul Hewson — lives with his wife and four children.

About a year ago, the co-op board banned the use of fireplaces throughout the building, the Times reported. The Hewsons approached the co-op board about the smoke and related chimney problems.

"Bono was so nice," said Leni May, whose husband Peter is a member of the board. "He said, ‘Listen, whatever I can do to get these things working, but it’s emptying into my apartment and I can’t have smoke like that.’"

A spokesperson for Principle Management, which manages U2, says, "This is not a Bono issue. It’s a building issue. It’s about health and safety regulations."