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AS if we hadn’t seen enough ways to make an extra buck from U2, it seems they’ve come up with yet another one.

But now they’ve just been given a hammering for their latest idea — and “ripping off” fans — by legendary pop impresario Harvey Goldsmith.

The band, it would seem, have plans to cash in on a new-found way to soak music fans: “reselling” tickets for gigs by auction to get more than their face value.

Goldsmith bumped into Paul McGuinness, the “fifth band member” of U2 (and presumably one of the five mystery employees who were each paid €5m last year by U2’s parent company), at a music industry festival in France last month.

McGuinness had just given a speech lambasting internet service providers (ISPs) as thieves for allowing music piracy traffic by their users. With declining album sales internationally, he was doing his job and protecting his band’s revenue stream. Fair enough.

But when Goldsmith — who is one of the world’s most famous promoters of live music — met McGuinness for a drink afterwards and discussed how the internet has effectively legalised ticket touts, he was shocked at the response. So much so that Goldsmith used the conversation as an anecdotal intro for a “keynote address” at the Concert Industry Consortium in Los Angeles. Read the rest of this story »

Dubliners like a good debate and a recent hot topic of discussion has been the U2 Tower, the development in the city’s docks area that has earned its nickname through the involvement of Bono and other members of the Irish rock band.

Prices have been falling across most of Ireland, but in the capital developers have not lost their appetite for looking skywards. Dublin, the argument runs, is suffering from urban sprawl. Traffic is clogging up and polluting the city and surrounding suburbs. The city council says that it has been losing tax revenue as business park and retail developments have been built outside the city. So the developers’ solution is to build tall in the city centre - a decision that has caused considerable local controversy, as similar schemes have done in London.

Last October Geranger, a consortium consisting of Ballymore Properties, Patrick McKillen and August Partners (representing U2 band members and management), were selected by the docklands authority as provisional preferred bidders for the U2 Tower, which will have a recording studio for the band at the top. Foster & Partners, the consortium’s architects, have proposed a 130m (430 ft) mixed-use tower on the landmark site at the meeting point of the River Liffey, the River Dodder and the Grand Canal. This scheme replaced a proposal for a 60m tower; some were annoyed that the first scheme was so unceremoniously dropped in favour of the Foster design. On the other side of the river, another 100m-plus structure is planned, the Point Village Watchtower, which will combine with the Foster tower to create a gateway. Read the rest of this story »

Glen Hansard, winner of the Oscar for Best Original Song, has revealed that U2’s Bono sent him a text message congratulating him.

Hansard won the Oscar in Los Angeles on Sunday along with his partner Markéta Irglová for their song ‘Falling Slowly’, which appears in the movie, Once.

“What was really amazing for me was getting texts from family and friends, it was amazing beforehand, and then I got a text from Bono and I was like ‘Ah, my God, that’s just amazing,’” Hansard told Irish radio station, RTE.

- Gigwise

The music of U2 spans decades. Since its formation in the late 1970s, the band has released 11 studio albums, produced several chart-topping hits and won countless awards on its way to earning a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. People don’t refer to U2 as the biggest rock band in the world for nothing. Read the rest of this story »

It’s a beautiful day for U2 fans everywhere as their long-awaited 3D concert movie opened in theaters nationwide this past weekend, and what a great movie it was. For a much cheaper price than one would pay for a terrible ticket in the back row of some arena, fans are given a front row seat that literally puts U2 front man and longtime political activist Bono in their laps for a fraction of the cost. Read the rest of this story »

No matter how good they are, concert films always seem like films of concerts. U2 3D puts viewers at the concert.

Seamlessly blending footage from several shows during the “Vertigo” tour, U2 3D was shot primarily in South America at packed stadiums bursting with energy. Read the rest of this story »

February 25, 2008 — BONO can’t even eat in peace. When the U2 frontman tried to have a quiet dinner of pizza and wine with his wife, Ali Hewson, their kids and model Helena Christensen at Serafina Broadway in the Dream Hotel, it turned into pure chaos. “The paparazzi were hounding them and banging on the windows so much to get a shot while they were eating [that] the restaurant had to close the doors and put down the window shades,” said a source. “They still acted extremely nice, like very simple and easy people.”

- New York Post

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…

continue on to ShowbizIreland for more photos >>

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 »