Latest U2 News & Information

Behind the glitz and glitter of the 50th annual Grammy Awards, there is something special going on to help victims of the 2005 hurricanes in the Central Gulf region. Founded by U2’s the Edge, Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz and legendary producer Bob Ezrin, Music Rising is an organization dedicated to replacing musical instruments lost in the devastating storms.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today without the unique musical heritage that is New Orleans,” said U2’s the Edge. “So much has come from that part of America. From the birth of jazz, the roots of R&B and Rock ‘n’ Roll, to the traditional celebrations in the streets, New Orleans has provided all of us with so many traditions.” Read the rest of this story »

Stars combine efforts for New York charity event

U2’s Bono and British artist Damien Hirst have teamed up to help organise an art auction in New York to raise money for the United Nations‘ HIV relief program in Africa.

There will be an auction on February 14 in the Gagosian Gallery in Manhattan, New York City, during which 83 pieces of art will be auctioned off.

Damien Hirst has contributed seven of his works to be auctioned at the event, which was conceived by himself and U2’s frontman Bono.

Hirst’s sculpture, ‘Where There’s A Will There’s A Way’, a depiction of a medicine chest with hundreds of metal HIV pills, is expected to raise up to $7 million.

- NME

U2 frontman BONO has compared environmental campaigner AL GORE to an Irish priest to whom he can confess his ecological sins. The With Or Without You hitmaker shared the stage with the former U.S. vice president at a conference in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday (24Jan08) - Bono was there to promote his campaign to alleviate world poverty, while Gore was continuing his plea for the reduction of global carbon emissions. And the singer insists he can’t help feeling guilty about his lavish lifestyle when around Gore.

He says, “It’s like being with an Irish priest. You start to confess your sins. Father Al, I am not just a noise polluter, I am a noise-polluting, diesel-soaking, gulfstream-flying rock star. “I’m going to kick the habit. I’m trying father Al, but oil has been very good for me - those convoys of articulated lorries, petrochemical products, hair gel.”

Gore was one of the key figures behind 2007’s Live Earth concerts to raise awareness about climate change. He won an Oscar for his 2006 environment-focused documentary An Inconvenient Truth and he was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (07) for his dedication to green issues.

- ContactMusic

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Microsoft and Dell on Thursday joined U2 band front man Bono’s “RED” charity effort with a line of red personal computers.

Dell and Microsoft promise they will contribute a combined 50 to 80 dollars to The Global Fund to battle AIDS in Africa every time a “RED” computer is sold.

Eighty dollars can pay for someone with AIDS in Africa to have more than six months of life-sustaining antiretroviral medicine, according to RED.

“The computer has revolutionized our lives,” Bono said in a written release.

“It’s a truly beautiful idea that the purchase of a stylish PC can put someone on lifesaving ARV treatment for six months.”

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Proceeds Benefit African Cotton Farmers and Build Trade in Africa

ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 2 /PRNewswire/ — U2’s Bono is recognized as one of the world’s greatest performers and activists. Now, through edun LIVE’s partnership with Hard Rock, Bono is combining his love for music with his wife and EDUN co-founder Ali Hewson’s work toward sustained development in Africa. Hard Rock International is proud to launch its latest Signature Series, featuring an edun LIVE t-shirt, adorned with an image by Bono.

Hard Rock’s Bono Signature Series T-shirt combines EDUN’s Trade for Aid ethos and conscious consumerism with raising funds to benefit African cotton farmers, while creating jobs for African garment workers. Proceeds from the T- shirt 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.Since it was established in 1971, Hard Rock has been committed to a wide variety of philanthropic causes and activities around the world. In 1990, Hard Rock International developed the concept of partnering with world- renowned musicians and bands, who create and donate imaginative designs to be reproduced onto T-shirts to benefit the artist’s charity of choice. Bono is the 25th artist in Hard Rock’s Signature Series, and joins music icons and legends, including Sting, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Green Day, Ozzy Osbourne and Shakira, helping to raise millions of dollars for a number of charitable causes worldwide, such as Crossroads Centre Antigua, World Hunger Year, Amnesty International and more.

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Last year, a special issue of The Independent, edited by Bono, introduced a new way of raising money to fight HIV/Aids. Since then, the (Red) initiative has raised more than $50m and helped more than one million people. In an exclusive interview, Bono tells Paul Vallely why people in rich nations can make a difference to the Aids disaster

(01 December 2007) In a world of calibrated cynicism here’s something unabashedly positive to celebrate today to mark what is the 20th occasion that people across the globe have commemorated – if that’s the right word – World Aids Day. The words come from the man who is now as honoured as a campaigner against extreme poverty as he is as front man for the world’s biggest-selling rock band. “Three years ago,” says Bono, the lead singer of U2, “there was virtually no one in Africa on antiretroviral drugs. Now you’ll have two million by the end of this year.”Two million is, of course, only a fraction of those affected by the disease which has to date killed more than 25 million people – making it one of the most destructive epidemics in human history. Another estimated 40 million people are now living with HIV.

But the international community is, for the first time, showing real signs of progress in combating the disease on a significant scale.That fact is, in no small measure, down to the campaigning of the impassioned Irish vocalist, who has lobbied governments for action and corralled some of the world’s biggest businesses into playing their part – which is why this newspaper, for the fourth time, turns itself (Red) today.

Since it was founded 20 months ago, (Red) has donated an extraordinary $50,005,410 (£24,324,379) to the Global Fund to fights Aids, TB and Malaria. “Do the maths,” says Bono. “It costs about $5 a week to pay for the two pills a day it takes to keep someone with HIV alive.”

Aids is no longer a death sentence. Antiretroviral medication will bring someone who is at death’s door back to virtually full health. Doctors call itthe Lazarus effect.

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