Bono admits: U2 are ‘on the verge of irrelevance’

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U2 FRONTMAN BONO has admitted that he feels his band are “really close to the edge of irrelevance” – saying they need to play music “for radio” again “if we are to survive”.

Speaking at the Toronto International Film Festival last night – where a documentary on the band was shown on the opening night – the singer appeared to give a rare acknowledgement that the band could soon call it a day.

“There’s a giant chasm between the very good and the great, and U2 right now has a danger of surrendering to the very good,” music website Spinner quotes the 51-year-old as saying.

“20 years ago and before that, we were crap and we were great. There wasn’t much very good and I think that I was reminded of how crap we were, watching the film… When it gets comfortable, it’s not as interesting. So there may be more crap coming up.”

The U2 documentary opening the festival, ‘From The Sky Down’, deals with the making of Achtung Baby in Berlin in 1991 – with Bono saying the band had agreed to allow the film be released because the band were “at that moment again where U2 has dodged being irrelevant”.

But the singer – real name Paul Hewson – appeared to now have second thoughts about this:

This moment where we’re at, to me, feels really close to the edge of irrelevance.

We can be successful, we can play big music in big places, but whether we can play small music, for radio or clubs, remains to be seen. And we have to get to that place again, if we are to survive.

The LA Times summarises that ‘From The Sky Down’ deals with how the Dublin fourpiece clashed over how experimental the music of Achtung Baby should be – and whether the experimental failure of Rattle Hum should be jilted in favour of ‘traditional’ work like The Joshua Tree.

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• Frank2521 8 hours ago #

  My God bono has woken up. There will be world peace after all.

  Reply

  • Brian Ward 8 hours ago #

    Now if he’ll just just shut up we’d all be happy!

  • Cormac Flanagan 8 hours ago #

    Amen to that. He’s fair annoying.

  • Declan Carroll 7 hours ago #

    Aye ! Stick to the music shut up annoying us all with the rest.

• Michael Flanagan 8 hours ago #

  I think it’s just post tour depression

  Reply

• Gis Bayertz 8 hours ago #

  Great, he figured it out.

  Reply

• Jimmy Bolton Jnr 8 hours ago #

  Obviously none of the above have been to u2 concert. Best live band on the planet by a long shot. They’ll always be great!

  Reply

  • Cormac Flanagan 7 hours ago #

    Think the comments are more directed to the bull bono speaks rather than his music.

  • Christopher O’Toole 7 hours ago #

    Now you’re talking. They are peerless

• Frank2521 7 hours ago #

  Simply because he is a showman does not mean he has a brain. Imagine one of the most famous sports people like Phil Taylor giving his opinions on world issues – he wouldn’t as he is too smart. He is the best in the world at his trade and bono is probably in the top ten of his chosen career. He would be better if he committed to paying his tax in Ireland. I hope if he or his family need a hospital, a policeman , a teacher, a road to drive on, etc. he calls up the country he supports. The fact that the Irish taxpayer subsidised all of the public services for his family use and that they the band was tax exempt for years is really a bad reflection on the people who decided to deny other services suffer while these privileged few just kept taking it. Bono thanks for showing us normal people by example how the greedy and the cheats just keep being such great citizens. I hope you don’t behave at home like this and your poor children have the same value system.

  Reply

  • Gerard Murphy 7 hours ago #

    Well said Frank, ignore the D4 hero worshippers! its a well known fact that one of the biggest problems that the third world faces is in the area of tax evasion/avoidance, of course all these people are been set a great example by the tax avoiding members of U2. Perhaps they should change their name to ME2, more suited to their me fein ideology

• fitszpatrick 7 hours ago #

  the mealy mouthed morons are out in force. Thank you U2 for helping to save Ireland form morons. See above

  Reply

• fitszpatrick 7 hours ago #

  Where are all the miserable tax whingers, I didn’t think they’d miss an opportunity

  Reply

  • Gis Bayertz 4 hours ago #

    Tax bandit!
    Happy now?

• Mike Dowling 7 hours ago #

  He probabaly meant irreverence …..

  Reply

• Graham Kavanagh 6 hours ago #

  Uwho?

  Reply

  • Guinness Follower 2 hours ago #

    Very camp.

• Pilib O Muiregan 6 hours ago #

  u2 are a corparation at this stage, they changed there country they pay tax too so they pay less, isnt google, ebay, amoung others doing the exact same thing by locating in ireland

  Reply

• Joan Featherstone 5 hours ago #

  Adore them, but wish he’d put a sock in it!

  Reply

• pagan 4 hours ago #

  Love U2.But please bono.SHUT UP and keep to the great music.

  Reply

• Torpedo 3 hours ago #

  Bye bye

  Reply

• Oil Foster 2 hours ago #

  Bye bye Bono

  Reply

• Tony Mcintyre 2 hours ago #

  Achtung Bono.. that was ur finest moment since War and the rest was just (un) forgetable crap Pop…

  Reply

• Maria Griffin 11 mins ago #

  If only he’d slip into irrelevance quietly “yawn”

  Reply

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Article source: http://www.thejournal.ie/bono-admits-u2-are-on-the-verge-of-irrelevance-222751-Sep2011/

Toronto: Film Critic Betsy Sharkey on U2, Clooney and Pitt

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To begin the day with coffee, Bono and U2 and end it ’round midnight with George Clooney, and spend time with Brad Pitt along the way … with apologies to Rebecca Black (or is she still supposed to be apologizing to us?) it’s Toronto, Toronto, gotta get down. Sorry, film festivals are an easy place to lose your mind in.

Ahem. So just two days in and it’s hard not to get excited about what is coming to theaters in the fall. After a very cotton-candy summer, the autumn is shaping up to be dark, rich and full-bodied (really when you’re averaging four to five movies a day, coffee literally and metaphorically becomes a constant thread in your life).

Here are some snapshots of a few favorites thus far: With David Guggenheim’s new documentary on U2, “From the Sky Down,” the band gets introspective about their time in the spotlight. If you’re a U2 fan (and I am), this film will only make you appreciate the group more. And that they stayed together to keep making music is something of a miracle.

“Drive,” starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan, proves that less is more and that director Nicolas Winding Refn is going to be a force in the future. The film has such an exceptionally strong voice and style that it is likely to send you to Netflix for his previous films as it has me, with “Bronson” and “Valhalla Rising” awaiting me when I get back. (See our Sunday Calendar feature on “Drive” here.)

Sure, Brad Pitt and George Clooney look good on the red carpet –- especially when their arrival is projected on the massive screen at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall where Pitt’s “Moneyball” and Clooney’s “Ides of March” premiered Friday to, as they say, standing O’s. But they are also increasingly putting their imprint on the cinematic world. These films were both passion projects for the actors, “Moneyball” a baseball as a love and science story, and “Ides of March” on the politics of politics. If they’re not already on your fall to-do list, well, grab your favorite writing implement. Now.

RELATED:

Toronto 2011: Six juicy storylines worth following

Toronto 2011: Our guide to festival films, in photos

Toronto 2011: Brad Pitt’s ‘Moneyball’ looks to get on base

– Betsy Sharkey in Toronto

Top photo: Brad Pitt, right, and Jonah Hill, who star in “Moneyball,” at the Toronto International Film Festival. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

Bottom photo: George Clooney, left, and Ryan Gosling, who costar in “Ides of March,” also at Toronto. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

Article source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/09/toronto-film-critic-betsy-sharkey-on-u2-clooney-and-pitt.html

Toronto Film Festival Dispatch: Give Me U2 Or Give Me Death

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Cameras shooting Lt. Damon Hall at the lake in Werner Herzog’s INTO THE ABYSS.

Photo courtesy of CDTV/ A Sundance Selects release

So many choices. That’s the great thing about film festivals. Too many choices. That’s the terrible thing about film festivals.

The 36th annual Toronto International Film Festival kicked off last night with the premiere of From the Sky Down, a documentary (the first ever to open the fest) about uber rock band U2 and the making of its 1991 album Achtung Baby. Both Bono and the Edge were in attendance at the screening. Sounds exciting right? Yes, it sounds very exciting. Which is why I decided to go see a documentary about the U.S. death penalty instead.

(MORE: The 100 All-Time Best Movies)

Increasingly, Toronto has become a showcase for the upcoming Oscar season’s main contenders. In recent years, The King’s Speech, The Hurt Locker and Slumdog Millionaire all made splashes at Toronto on their way to Best Picture victories. The same is true for smaller films, which can also build steam coming out of Toronto. Werner Herzog, who leaps seamlessly between directing feature films and documentaries, has had a good little run up here with his fact-based movies. His last two, Encounters at the End of the World and Cave of Forgotten Dreams, were very well-received, which is why I chose to attend the screening—pretty much at the same time as the U2 premiere—of his new documentary, Into the Abyss.

Before the film, everyone was describing it as the Herzog movie about the American death penalty. Coming on the heels of the applause that followed Rick Perry’s answer about Texas executions during Wednesday night’s debate, it seemed a good time to watch the story of Michael James Perry and Jason Aaron Burkett, both convicted of a Texas triple homicide as young men, only one sentenced to Death Row (and since executed). The film looks at the crime, the victims’ families, and documents the words of the men themselves. It is the grimmest of topics, but the theater was full and quiet and everyone was rapt. I can’t imagine there was a single person present who would have preferred to switch places with anyone watching Bono across town. I certainly wouldn’t have.

In the end, Into the Abyss isn’t Herzog’s grand anti-death penalty movie. It feels a little baggy, a little loose, which makes sense, given that it’s one tale out of a larger project (he has interviewed, and is continuing to interview, many more death row inmates). And though he does his best to complicate the issue in his film (at points, I felt equally for the victims and the criminals), Herzog was very clear about his personal opinion during the post-screening QA. “None of them are monstrous,” he said of Perry and Burkett. “Their crimes are monstrous. But the perpetrators are human beings. Period.” A somber, but rousing end to Day One.

(Also, if you’ve never heard Werner Herzog speak, do yourself a favor and find a YouTube clip of him reading from the book Go the F**k To Sleep. There was a very large section of the audience tonight who took great joy from just hearing the man’s incredible Teutonic accent. I was among them.)

MORE: See TIME’s QA with Werner Herzog

Article source: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/09/09/toronto-film-festival-dispatch-give-me-u2-or-give-me-death/

U2′s Bono and the Edge on the Problem with Rock Bands (Video)

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What’s the problem with rock ‘n’ roll bands? It’s an ego thing, and a male thing.

So said U2′s Bono and the Edge at a press conference on Friday afternoon at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the long-running band’s singer and guitarist appeared alongside director Davis Guggenheim, whose “From the Sky Down” had served as the fest’s opening-night film the previous evening.

In a conversation moderated by TIFF documentary programmer Thom Powers, the musicians touched on a variety of topics, from the perils of the band dynamic — “it’s a strange thing, to be an artist and to collaborate,” said Bono — to the additional perils of being good at what you do.

“I found it a little humiliating to see that we were so inept,” said Bono of his first exposure to Guggenheim’s film, which chronicles the aftermath of the band’s breakthrough with “The Joshua Tree” and the strife-ridden recording of the 1991 album “Achtung Baby.”

“These days we’re a better band,” he added. “We’ve learned our craft, and therein lies the danger. There’s a giant chasm between the very good and the great, and U2 is now in danger of surrending to the very good.

“In those days [depicted in the film], we were crap some of the time, but we were also great some of the time.”

Here’s some video from an early portion of the press conference:

More rock ‘n’ roll is on the way at Toronto, including new films about Pearl Jam and Neil Young.

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Article source: http://www.thewrap.com/column-post/u2s-bono-and-edge-problem-rock-bands-video-30865

U2 donates to music schools; New Order bassist slams reunion; Ex-Oasis Noel …

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MANILA, Philippines — U2 is giving back millions to music.

The Irish superband is donating five million euros to fund music schools and education to Irish children.  The donation will given on a phased basis on through til 2015, and will be mainly usedto acquire musical instruments and as salaries for music teachers.

U2’s donation comes after major cuts in the Irish education budget was declared as part of the Irish government’s effort at an economic bailout. The band’s donation was programmed so that by the end of its five-year phased term, the government can take over the funding of the program. 

“While we have a very rich musical culture and heritage, access to music education is like a geographic lottery – it depends on where you live and if your parents can afford it,” said Rosaleen Molloy, director of Music Generation, a unit funded by U2 and international charitable network Ireland Funds.

“There is an assumption that music is being provided in mainstream schools, when the reality is it is not – U2 had been looking for some time for a way to invest and support access to music education in Ireland (as a way) to give something back,” Molloy added.

The band also donated an additional two million euros ($2.9 million) that will be given to Ireland Funds, another charitable group supported by people of Irish ancestry around the globe.

***

Synth driven, New Wave band and alternative rock pioneers New Order is reforming but their original bassist is not happy about it.

While fans welcomed the news that New Order is scheduled to play two benefit shows this year with original members Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert, bassist Peter Hook has expressed dismay that his bandmates have reformed without him.

The bassist said he wished that his former bandmates had consulted him about the reunion and in a statement, Hook said that, “I first heard about this on Monday and it has taken me completely by surprise! Everyone knows that New Order without Peter Hook is like Queen without Freddie Mercury, U2 without The Edge, Sooty without Sweep!”

Hook said that he “does not understand the decision” his former bandmates have taken, and that he was dismayed that he was not approached about the reunion. He added that “it would have been courteous and professional to have spoken to me in advance of the announcements. It is very sad.”

Peter Hook left the band back in 2007 following the release of the album “Waiting for the Siren’s Call.”

The newly reformed New Order will play Brussels Ancienne Belgigue and Paris La Bataclam on Oct. 17 and 18 respectively and proceeds will go to help out the medical expenses of the group’s friend Michael Shamberg.  The band’s hits include “Bizaare Love Triangle,” “Blue Monday,” and “Thieves Like Us” among others.

In the meantime Peter Hook is set to play in the US to perform the Joy Division albums “Closer” and “Unknown Pleasures” in its entirety and will feature guest Moby singing on a few songs. 

***

Ex-Oasis songwriter, singer and guitarist Noel Gallagher has called the work of classical playwright William Shakespeare, “f***ing gibberish.”

Recalling a time when he saw actor Jude Law in a production of “Hamlet,” the “Wonderwall” songwriter said that there “wasn’t one single minute that I know what’s going on” while he sat watching the four hour production. “I was thinking ‘I know they’re speaking English but it’s all f***ing gibberish’” said the Gallagher, who added that “I can appreciate the action and the way they learned all the lines but, what the (expletive) was going on?”

Noel Gallagher will be releasing his solo debut album titled “Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds” on Oct. 17. In the meantime, the singer-songwriter-guitarist will put out a new single this Sept. 11 called “AKA…What A Life!” The new song comes with a B-side titled “Let The Lord Shine A Light On Me.” These songs along his previous solo singles “The Death Of You And Me” and “If I Had A Gun” will all be included on his upcoming solo set which features some tracks written during his time with Oasis. The album will be released through his own label Sour Mash Records.
 

Article source: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/333845/u2-donates-music-schools-new-order-bassist-slams-reunion-exoasis-noel-gallagher-call