2010 April | U2Exit.com News Blog

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U2’s Bono promoting World Cup soccer ahead of tour

Posted by SPun2U on Apr 24, 2010 in News & Rumors | Comments Off

In between promoting U2’s latest album No Line On The Horizon and his various charitable efforts around the world, lead singer Bono has found the time to provide the voice over for a television advertisement for the upcoming World Cup Soccer (an ad which ran continuously during this weekend’s NFL Draft, leading one to wonder whether perhaps ESPN had gotten the two kinds of “football” confused). Set to the backdrop of current U2 Magnificent, Bono begins the ad with “It’s not about politics or religion or the economy…” and continues on from there.

The 2010 World Cup will take place in South Africa, running from June 11th through July 11th – right around the time that fans of “American football” will be wishing their 2010 season would hurry up and begin. U2 is gearing up for May’s release of Artificial Horizon before touring the U.S. on its “U2 360″ tour beginning June 3rd in Salt Lake City, then heading overseas in August.

- Beatweek magazine

SPIN: U2, Achtung Baby #1 most influential release

Posted by SPun2U on Apr 24, 2010 in News & Rumors | Comments Off

SPIN’s editors rank the most influential releases since the magazine’s beginning in 1985.

SPIN's editors rank the most influential releases since the magazine's beginning in 1985.

With the middling reaction to last year’s better-than-you’ll-admit No Line on the Horizon, U2′s chest-heaving big-box spectacle seems to be fatiguing more of pop’s body politic than it’s inspiring. Weirdly, this was exactly the case more than 20 years ago. After the critical and commercial sweep of Joshua Tree, the Irish conglomerate followed its bombastic muse with the ponderous 1988 docu-fiasco Rattle and Hum, which featured a Bono mot that would haunt many of us for years to come: “Okay, Edge, play the blues!” Flailing and directionless, the band retreated and reconsidered whether it was time to fold up their flag for good.

Instead, three years later they emerged with the album — Achtung Baby, cheekily titled as a nod to German reunification — that would energize their career and genetically engineer rock music into the hybridized mutant we know today. Initially recorded at Hansa Studios, a former SS ballroom near the reopened Berlin Wall (and later completed back home in Dublin), Achtung was an effort, stoked primarily by Bono and the Edge, to “deconstruct” the band and rewire it with jolts of beat-generated clutter and collage, nicked from industrial music, hip-hop, dance remixes, and the Madchester scene. That method almost collapsed the band — bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr., as well as coproducer Daniel Lanois, were left bewildered and cranky.

Read the complete story

U2 May Release New Album at Year’s End

Posted by SPun2U on Apr 20, 2010 in New Album News | Comments Off

U2′s longtime manager, the aptly named Paul McGuinness said that it is becoming “increasingly likely” that the band will release a new album by the end of 2010. The new longplayer will follow up No Line on the Horizon.

No other information about the album is available, such as the title, track titles or which format it will be released in in this digitally-minded era. But anytime there are rumblings of a new U2 album, our ears perk up, that’s for sure.

- ArtistDirect

U2 announce DVD release of ‘YouTube’ Rose Bowl gig

Posted by SPun2U on Apr 13, 2010 in Releases | 1 comment

U2′s 2009 ‘YouTube’ gig from California’s Rose Bowl stadium is to come out on DVD.

‘U2360° At The Rose Bowl’ will be the band’s first live release available in Blu–ray, and deluxe editions also feature a new documentary called ‘Squaring the Circle: Creating U2360°’. It’s out on June 7.

The gig, which took place on October 25 last year, was broadcast over YouTube live at the time.

The tracklisting is:

‘Get On Your Boots’
‘Magnificent’
‘Mysterious Ways’
‘Beautiful Day’
‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’
‘Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of’
‘No Line On The Horizon’
‘Elevation’
‘In A Little While’
‘Unknown Caller’
‘Until the End of the World’
‘The Unforgettable Fire’
‘City of Blinding Lights’
‘Vertigo’
‘I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight’
‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’
‘MLK’
‘Walk On’
‘One’
‘Where The Streets Have No Name’
‘Ultra Violet (Light My Way)’
‘With Or Without You’
‘Moment Of Surrender’

- NME

U2′s Bono set for multi-million pound Palm windfall

Posted by SPun2U on Apr 12, 2010 in News & Rumors | Comments Off

U2’s Bono looks set to collect a multi-million pound windfall from the sale of Palm, the beleaguered smartphone maker.

Bono’s private equity company Elevation Partners is a major shareholder in Palm, which has put itself up for sale.

Elevation bought a further $100m (£64.8m) Palm shares at $3.24 a share in December 2008 to take its stake to 41pc. Palm, which saw its shares jumped 32pc to $5.16 last week, is reportedly seeking bids for the company.

Rival phone makers HTC and Lenovo are said to have already made offers for Palm, which recently sought to revitalise its fortunes with the launch of the Pre and Pixi range of high-end smartphones based on the WebOS operating system.

While the handsets have received critical acclaim, sales of the devices have been disappointing, and the value of the company has plunged, with Palm posting 11 straight quarterly losses.

“Palm still has quite a good brand in the US market and some strong technology,” Frank He, an analyst with BOC International Holdings told Bloomberg. “You can do something with it. The share have gone down a lot and the company may become attractive to anyone looking for a turnaround play.”

Both Palm and Goldman Sachs have declined to comment on the reports.

Palm, which made its name making personal digital assistants in the 1990s, had hoped the launch of the Pre would reinvigorate the company. The device, which used the innovative WebOS operating system to enable users to send emails, surf the internet and use dozens of applications at the same time, was touted as an iPhone killer. But the critical acclaim did not translate in to solid sales, and Palm is currently ranked sixth in the US smartphone market, behind rivals such as Research in Motion, makers of the BlackBerry, and Apple.

Elevation bought a 25pc stake in the company for $325m in 2007 and has installed Jonathan Rubinstien, a former head of Apple’s iPhone division, as chairman.

- Rupert Neate and Claudine Beaumont, Telegraph.co.uk