Latest U2 News & Information

What a Night. What a City. What a cheeky-chancer you have for Taoiseach! Bono and the normally shy other members of U2; namely The Edge, Larry Mullen Jr, and Adam Clayton, brought the U23D European Premiere to their home manor this week…

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Rocker faces opposition over hotel renovations and plans to erect `egomaniacal’ U2 Tower

U2’s Bono helped persuade George W. Bush and Tony Blair to increase African aid and cancel a portion of Third World debt.

But Ireland’s most famous rock star is finding it harder to charm Dublin preservationists as he seeks to expand the 177-year-old Clarence Hotel.

The singer failed to win over opponents with several bottles of wine and lunch at the Clarence in September, said Michael Smith, former chairman of An Taisce, an independent planning watchdog. The $224 million (all figures Canadian) project would triple the hotel’s size and top it with a panoramic glass bar. Read the rest of this story »

The biggest stars in Irish music appeared on ‘The Late Late Show’ tonight in a special tribute to legendary singer Ronnie Drew.

Tonight’s performance is the first time that the song, written by Robert Hunter (Grateful Dead) with Bono, The Edge and Simon Carmody, has been aired on Irish television.

Award winning director and ex-Frames bass player John Carney has directed the video for The Ballad of Ronnie Drew.

Filmed over two days at Dublin’s Windmill Lane studios in January, Carney and his team were on hand to document the recording and the video magically captures this unique tribute to the legendary Ronnie Drew.

The result is a fly-on-the-wall- video; Christy Moore, Shane MacGowan, Damien Dempsey, Andrea Corr, Sinéad O’Connor and Moya Brennan among others are seen at work, along with members of The Dubliners, Kila and U2.

Produced by John Reynolds, “The Ballad of Ronnie Drew” will be released on digital download from February 22nd and a CD single will follow on February 29th in Ireland only. Profits from the release will go directly to the Irish Cancer Society here.

Visit U2.com to watch the video.

The biggest stars in Irish music will appear on ‘The Late Late Show’ tonight in a special tribute to legendary singer Ronnie Drew.

U2, Andrea Corr, The Dubliners, Sinéad O’Connor and Kíla are among the acts confirmed to perform the specially composed ‘Ballad of Ronnie Drew’, which is released as a digital download today and as a CD single on 29 February.

All profits from the release of the single will go to the Irish Cancer Society at the request of Ronnie Drew.
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Tonight’s performance is the first time that the song, written by Robert Hunter (Grateful Dead) with Bono, The Edge and Simon Carmody, has been aired on Irish television.

Commenting on tonight’s show, host Pat Kenny said: “This will be an unmissable one-off performance of a very special song by some of our most talented and most famous musicians. It’s another first for ‘The Late Late Show’.” Read the rest of this story »

The well-oiled musical machine known as U2 is currently cooped up in Dublin with longtime cohorts Briano Eno and Daniel Lanois working on its forthcoming album, according to Billboard. The iconic Irish rockers have spent time prior to this amassing new material on three separate occasions in other exotic locales, such as Morocco and France, and Lanois purports the results to be “prolific.”

Moreover, Lanois hinted at the much-speculated notion of a double disc due to the luxuriant nature of these sessions. The yet-to-be-titled album will serve as the follow-up to the band’s 2004 release, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.

In addition to the aforementioned news, U2 has revealed a new charity single titled “The Ballad Of Ronnie Drew,” which will initially be available in Ireland only this Friday, February 22 and a week later on CD. The song boasts appearances by the Pogues’ Shane MacGowan, the Frames’ Glen Hansard, Sinead O’Connor, Andrea Corr, Damien Dempsey, Ronan Keating, Chris de Burgh, Gavin Friday and members of the Dubliners. At the request of Ronnie Drew himself, all proceeds collected through this tributary endeavor will go to the Cancer Society.

Story by: Joshua Pressman