Editorial Note: Okay, I was pushed back in my chair when I saw this news item come across the U2 Exit News desk, but should we surprised by much these days?! I guess not.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Rhinestone Cowboy is trying on some more fashionable threads.
Country singer/guitarist Glen Campbell is following in the footsteps of artists such as Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond by recording a new album designed to inspire a new generation of fans.

“Meet Glen Campbell,” due in stores on August 19, features covers of tunes originally performed by the likes of the Foo Fighters (“Times Like These”), U2 (“All I Want Is You”), and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (“Walls”), his Capitol Records label said on Tuesday. Read the rest of this entry »

Reports this morning say the Dublin super-group have a combined fortune of €618m.

Michael Flatley is the second-richest entertainer with an estimated €465m.

This year’s overall Sunday Times rich list is reportedly headed by Dublin-born model Hilary Weston, who married into a retailing dynasty in Canada, giving her an estimated fortune of €7bn.

- Independent News & Media

Rockers U2 are scrapping all the tracks they have written for their next album to start all over again – ditching a year’s worth of work.
The band has been working on the follow up to 2004 LP How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb for the past 12 months, but they’re far from happy with the results.
Guitarist The Edge reveals bandmembers have mostly messed around in the studio – and they have now decided to get stuck in and finish the record.
He tells CMUMusic.com, “We went into this project allowing ourselves the indulgence of making music without thinking about where it was going to end up. We’re starting to get serious now”.

- ContactMusic.com

By Sandy Cohen, AP Entertainment Writer
Guitarist the Edge takes a break from recording new U2 album to host charity auction

LOS ANGELES (AP) — For the second year in a row, the Edge is putting his money where the music is.

The U2 guitarist announced Wednesday he will donate two Gibson guitars and other items from his personal collection to the “Icons of Music” auction benefiting Music Rising, a charity the Edge co-founded to replace musical equipment lost or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Read the rest of this entry »

A T-Shirt, designed by Bono for Hard Rock International, will raise funds to benefit cotton farmers and garment workers in Africa. The design features a fish soaring through the moon and stars. With Bono’s signature.

The ‘Bono Signature Series T-shirt’ is set on a black 100% African cotton t-shirt (men’s) and on a white 100% African cotton t-shirt (women’s) and it’s produced by edun LIVE, the ethical t-shirt company, founded by Bono and Ali.

‘Proceeds from sales will benefit Wildlife Conservation Society’s Conservation Cotton Initiative, which helps lift African farmers out of poverty by providing education on proper land management, organic cotton growing techniques and wildlife conservation.’

Order yours here

More about the Wildlife Conservation Society and its Conservation Cotton Initiative, here

Check out edun Live here

THE architect at the centre of the 1990s regeneration of Temple Bar yesterday said if ambitious plans like those for U2’s Clarence Hotel were on the table back then he would have backed them.

James Howley, who oversaw much of the regeneration of the cultural centre of Dublin, told a hearing of An Bord Pleanala into plans to transform the Clarence site: “It is important to understand the meaning and essence of the term conservation, which is often mistakenly confused with those of preservation.” Read the rest of this entry »