U2NEWS: January 24, 1998 Part I


Who needs bathrooms? ([email protected])
Sun, 24 Jan 1999 08:55:33 -0700


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Releases:

Across The Bridge of Hope: The Omagh Tribute Album, NA March 17, 1999
(rumoured)

"The Ground Beneath Her Feet" -- Bono/U2 single written by Salman
Rushdie, April 13, 1999.

RUMOUR: U2 B-sides 1980 - 1990 (1CD) release date TBA.

Concerts/Live Events:

Confirmed: March 24, 1999 Hits Under The Hammer Auction,
Bono's original lyric sheet for "Sweetest Thing" to be included in
the auction

U2 at Johnny Cash Tribute, April 6, 1999, at the Hammerstein
Ballroom, New York City.

Rumour: U2 to headline at Slane Castle,Ireland, August 28, 1999
(this rumour makes it's way around every year -- Personally, I
doubt it and will check with sources at PM/P-gram...err...Universal
in the next week)

Rumour: U2 at Millenium Concert, Dec 31, 1999 - Jan 1, 2000

Confirmed: U2 at my house. Today. :)

Television/Radio Events:

BBC: Straight from The Edge's mouth -- The BBC are working on a
special for "Classic Albums" about the Joshua Tree. Airdate TBA
Network TV:
FOX:
MTV:
MuchMusic/MuchUSA:
MuchMoreMusic:
VH1: Legends will air Thursday, January 21st at 10:00pmET, and will
be followed by "Under a Blood Red Sky" at 11:00pmET.
   
Net Events:
44k Present Howie B Live from the Kitchen on Fri 5th Feb
at 23:00 GMT plus Glen Brady [Dj Wool]

http://www.44k.com or http://www.thekitchen.com
--------------
U2 is nominated in the category "Artist that should Retire" at
ATN's 1998 Poll. http://www.addict.com/Reader_Poll
--------------
The Irish Website Oh Yeah is holding an online vote for the
best musical events of 1998. Amongst the nominations are
the U2 "Yes" concert held in Belfast, and the Omagh
Tribute album.

You can vote at http://www.ohyeah.net
--------------
Paramount Video is holding a vote to see which movies should
be released on DVD. You can vote for "Rattle And Hum"
at http://www.dvdfile.com/request_infoline/poll_booth/paramount.html
--------------
Official Omagh Album Tribute Site http://www.omaghcd.com
--------------
Vote for U2 at DotMusic's Top Albums of All Time
--------------
Vot for U2 at http://www.bradfitz.com/votingbooth?schwag402
--------------

Fan Club/WIRE/U2 nutzoid meetings:
Coming Soon : U2 Internet Fan Club(WIRE, EXIT, One, U2Lemon,
etc.) Convention -- Calgary, Alberta, Canada
--------------
January 29, 1999, 8:00 pm U2 coverband "Vorsprung durch Technik"
Bremen, Germany. Email [email protected] for more information.
--------------
Brazilian U2 Fanclub meeting, February 6, 1999 in San Paulo.
Contact [email protected] for more information.
--------------
A SORT OF A HOMECOMING 99-The second annual gathering of U2 fans
anywhere and everywhere! July 22-25, 1999, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
For info, e-mail Liz at [email protected] or checkout the webpage at,
 http://members.aol.com/conguero/asoh.html
--------------
   
NEWS dates:
Rushdie/U2 lyrics added Jan 23
Another U2/Rushdie added Jan 23
U2 on Dance added Jan 23
Lansdowne added Jan 23
Rushdie/U2 with date error added Jan 23
Another Rushdie/U2 with important info in last line! added Jan 22
Million Dollar Hotel shoot info added Jan 22
Underworld on working with U2 added Jan 22
Lansdowne no longer needs planning added Jan 22
Rushdie/U2 happens added Jan 22
Bono writes for Rushdie added Jan 22
Manuel responsible for U2? added Jan 22
Howie B's latest reflects porn added Jan 22
Cuts at Universal added Jan 22
Another U2/Cash Tribute added Jan 21
New U2NEWS Poll added Jan 21
U2NEWS Poll results added Jan 21
Howie B live on the 'net added Jan 21
Cutbacks have started at Universal added Jan 21
Another U2/Cash Tribute added Jan 21
Another U2 at Cash Tribute in NYC added Jan 20
Keating and other U2 - related to work on TV special added Jan 20
U2 to appear at Cash Tribute in April added Jan 20
U2 appears on WBCN CD added Jan 20
Ava Mullen added Jan 18
Earth Love Fund Homepage added Jan 18
Howie B set to release 3rd album added Jan 18
US Senator Paul Wellstone speech on MLK added Jan 18
Hurricane Mitch album added Jan 18
The Jeopardy! questions added Jan 18
MLK used at Hume speech added Jan 18
Best of goes Double Platinum in US added Jan 18
MTV Awards Confirmed for Dublin added Jan 18
MTV Awards, Guitar Tech Wedding, and The Corrs added Jan 18
Simpsons added Jan 17
PopMart Video review added Jan 17
Bono contributes to Whoseday Book added Jan 17
Falsetto voices added Jan 17
Universal to cut jobs next week added Jan 17
Ash on U2 and YES concert added Jan 17
Hot Press interview available(not with U2) online added Jan 17
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Parts of Rushdie's "Ground Beneath Her Feet", performed by
U2(Taken from The Guardian):

"All my life I worshipped her.
 Her golden voice, her beauty's beat.
 How she made us feel, how she made me real,
 And the ground beneath her feet."

"Go lightly down your darkened way,
 Go lightly down underground,
  I'll be down there in another day,
 I won't rest until you're found.
 Let me love you true,
 Let me rescue you,
 Let me lead you to where two roads meet.
 O come back above, where there's only love,
 And the ground's beaneath your feet."
------------
Jam! has a article on the Rushdie/U2 collaboration. You can
read it at:

            http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusic/jan22_u2.html
------------
>From The Irish Times:

Dance demons

Bono and The Edge's continuing quest to 'stay tuned in to what's
happening' has led them to launch their own dance label. The
future, they tell Jim Carroll, is all about co-operation

The Joshua Tree National Park would make a grand place for a
wild party. A good location, it has plenty of wide-open space and
is far away from anyone who would complain about the noise of
a few hundred sound-systems blasting out any variety or amount
of dance music. But when U2 posed for Anton Corbijn's cameras
under the Joshua Tree back in 1987, they hadn't come to party. No
siree, U2 had come to pout.

The thought of these four individuals on the cover of The Joshua
Tree, sporting standard-issue rock-star clobber and expressions,
one day embracing the groove would have been amusing, unlikely.
Fast-forward 12 years and much has changed. The dance bugs
which seemed mildly contagious in the late 1980s have become
full-blown phenomena, changing everything from the way you dance
to the way you dress.

And U2? Yes, they've changed too. Sitting in the study of the
Clarence Hotel, Bono and The Edge are about to launch their
second label, with manager Reggie Manuel. Unlike Mother,
the label set up to release singles in the 1980s by the likes of
Cactus World News, The Subterraneans, Roger Doyle's Operating
Theatre and The Word, Kitchen Recordings is a dance label.
The first release is from prolific Dublin producer Rob Rowland,
an artist who specialises in spatial, minimal techno which is more
Detroit than Detroit itself. The second release will be from Belfast
duo Basic, an act who stretch the breakbeat blueprint in new and
fascinating ways.

U2 and dance music? It's a good story which begins when they
snogged the groove with the help of Paul Oakenfold and
discovered a new lease of life. From that eyeopening remix of
Even Better Than The Real Thing, they have toured with DJs,
recruited Howie B, opened The Kitchen club in Dublin and
now launched a new label.

Kitchen Recordings will be run by Reggie Manuel, long-time
pal and the person who persuaded the duo to take on the
Rowland release. "It's Reggie's show," Bono explains. "We
are the bouncers but he has to open and close the doors and get
the show on road. We've known him for years and years. He has
no experience really of how to deal with the music business but
he brought us Rob Rowland and he knows his turf. Some people
will be very confused by it all!"

Of course, some people will ask whether it's merely some
ploy for credibility. "What would you do if you were in a big
band with loads of money?" asks Edge. "You have to stay
alive, you have to stay tuned in to what's happening and this is
the perfect way for us to do that. It's our way of keeping on top
of everything that is happening. It's not just going off buying
loads of 12-inches but having our own label to release stuff
which catches our attention."

U2 and the groove first clicked in 1982 when they worked
with legendary New York house DJ and producer, Fran�ois
Kervokian. "We did three remixes with him around the time of
Sun- day Bloody Sunday," Edge recalls. "I hung out with him in
New York and he turned me on to some fantastic stuff. We were
lucky because we were signed to Island Records and they were
very interested in sub-culture stuff so they introduced us to this
scene and these people like Fran�ois."

So you weren't checking out the discotheques and clubs in the
Dublin of the late 1970s and early 1980s? Bono smiles: "In the
1970s, club culture was the enemy. It was girls' music and we
were boys. I did buy Love Ma- chine. Was it by The Stylistics?
There was an instrumental on the B-side which had a serious
groove. I bought that record but I don't think I told anyone because
it was just at the time punk rock was breaking and punk rock
was about as male, white, hormonal music as you could find.

"It's funny - as you get older, the music you loved as a boy
now just sounds so wrong and especially so long! And the music
that was supposed to be so trivial and throwaway has lasted the
test of time. Pop music and dance music from then sound so cool
now, whereas progressive rock and the like, well . . ." He laughs.
"Rock and roll critics used to shit all over the Bee Gees. Fair enough,
the hair-dos were appalling but to think they were dismissed in
favour of" - his voice rises - "prog rock!"

U2 discovered rhythm in the strangest of places. "We didn't get
rhythm until we went on the road with B.B. King," Bono remembers.
"R'n'B was where we discovered rhythm and that wasn't until the
late 1980s. While everyone was doing drugs in the summer of love
in London, we were in Memphis hanging out with the Muscle
Shoals brass section, getting into rhythm that way."

It came as a surprise to Bono that they had a connection with the
then-burgeoning rave scene. "I remember Paul Oakenfold saying
to me: `Do you know what people are playing at the end of these
huge raves in the middle of nowhere outside the cities? They're
playing With Or Without You. And they were! But that was our
connection with that scene because our music was ecstatic. In the
1980s, U2 made ecstatic music.

Whether you want to call it a religious thing or not, the music
was big and universal and it was open in such a way that people
who were off their nuts and who were not in raincoats any more
and getting into all these drugs were completely thrown by it."

Did you ever get the urge to swap it all for a life as a DJ? Ever
fancied becoming DJ Edge, Edge? "I stood next to David Morales
for his whole set in a club in Toyko one night. Seeing the relationship
between a DJ and his audience up close for the first time and
the whole vibe to what he was doing - it was the only time I felt
I'd love to do this."

So what has dance music done for U2? "It made us jealous,"
Edge says, quietly. "It's wonderful to be in a rock 'n' roll band
but it is limiting in so many ways. There are so many more
possibilities with dance music as a form."

Bono, though, has other thoughts. "We have something that
dance music will never have because what we do is not off
the shelf. That's one of the things e realised when we were
making Pop. We could be like archaeologists digging for some
really rare sticky groove but why should we do that when we
have Larry Mullen? Larry can do beats like no one else. And
we have a bass player called Adam Clayton who is the only
bass player you would miss if he wasn't there. What I learned
from dance music is the value of what we do. At first, there was
jealousy but then we realised what we had ourselves. We're
a rock 'n' roll band at the end of the day."

You seem very certain about that. "Yeah, because at the end
of the day, what we're about is a much different thing than club
culture. Sure, we're going to work with beats and we're going
to work with beatmasters like Howie B and sure we have a
club with a beautiful sewer running through in the bottom of
this posh hotel! But you're not going to walk in there and hear
a lyric!" He laughs. "That's not going to happen and I don't
want it to.

"Up to recently, I thought one of the most exciting things
was going to be when rock 'n' roll hit club culture. Right
at that point, that was where it was going to be for the future.
Now, I'm not so sure. Now, I'm actually enjoying the difference.
Speeding up and slowing down is quite cool, we're digging the
friction."

Bono sees other lessons besides musical ones to be learned
from the dance world. "Club culture is much more democratic
than rock 'n' roll ever was," he enthuses. "It is much more about
a community. Rappers have a network and they want to big up
everyone in that network. So you have Snoop Dogg or whoever
and he's bringing the next Snoop Dogg into the system and into the
chain ...

"That's what we have to do, we've got to co-operate. We've
been tagged as white niggers so let's wear it well, let's be black
in that sense. We've got to start to break each other as well as
ourselves. It has to be a community in all senses of the word.
It's against our nature but it might just happen and that's where
dance music comes in. Like Donal Scannell has his Quadraphonic
drum 'n' bass label and he's been on to Reggie saying whatever
help he can need, he'll give it. And Nick at Pussyfoot has said
he'll do whatever he can. That's a start."

So what shades of dance music are you listening to and liking
at present?

Edge: "I like techno, I'm not big into drum 'n' bass, I like hiphop.
I like the fact that the Fugees clan are coming out with some
unbelievable stuff." Bono: "Lauryn Hill is just amazing, that
album, man, is just one of the defining records of the last few
years. Really, she's head and shoulders above the pack.
Autchere, I dig them. Squarepusher, those beats are mad.
I'll also go for Dave Angel and for Surgeon."

And what clubs have turned the pair of you on? "Toyko!"
Bono exclaims with some enthusiasm. "In Toyko, I learned
about one really important innovation - girls' music. Girls always
play the best party music, always. They know what to put on, they're
intuitive, they know what's going on in the room, they know where
people need to go and they have no rules about particular tracks or
styles. They play what works and they play what inspires.

"There was this club in Toyko and the people were just joyful
because the music was so up, so melodic, so right. You were just
lifted by these beautiful melodies, these amazing soulful strings,
soulful singing, hard-on grooves. Yeah, it was a sexual experience.
All this mixing and matching, it was post-modernism running amok.
That was something else."

"In New York on Puerto Rican day," Edge recalls, "there was this
club and I had never been in a club like it. Everybody was dressed
in the most incredible, exotic clothing but what was really cool was
that people were dancing sexily to Puerto Rican beats. The whole
place was just charged. I was thinking could I ever imagine this on
St Patrick's Day in a Dublin club? The vibe was just something else."

This sets Bono off. "The thing with clubs like that one Edge is
talking about is that you'll find three generations there. It's people
hanging out, from the mamas to the kids. Funnily enough, I used
to see that with the Pogues. What I loved about Shane McGowan
was that he brought three generations together. You'd have some old
geezer holding on to these young kids who were at their first gig in
some GAA hall or other."

For now, they will be trying their hand at overseeing a cutting-
edge dance label, while continuing the search for the sounds and
sources for the follow-up to Pop
The Irish Independent has an article on the Lansdowne
decision. You can read it at:

    http://www.independent.ie/1999/22/d07a.shtml
------------
>From Rolling Stone:

(Prarit's note: Note that the April 23, 1999 date is clearly an
error -- all other articles point to April 13...)

U2 have worked in the past with such unlikely collaborators as
Luciano Pavarotti and Boyzone, but this time they've outdone
their previous picks. According to The Guardian, controversial
author and sitting-duck-in-hiding Salman Rushdie recently gave
Bono the lyrics to a romantic song for the band's next album. U2
also hope to release the song, titled "The Ground Beneath Her
Feet" after the author's forthcoming book of the same name, as a
single in conjunction with the novel's release on April 23 . . .
------------
>From AFP:

SALMAN RUSHDIE WRITES BALLAD WITH U2

1/22/99 13:34

    LONDON, Jan 22 (AFP) - British author Salman Rushdie and Irish
rock group U2 are to collaborate on a new single, U2's record
company Island said Friday.
    U2 lead singer Bono wrote a score to the opening lines of
Rushdie's new novel "The Ground Beneath Her Feet", which tells the
myth of Orpheus in the Underworld against a rock and roll and Indian
setting, a spokesman said.
    Rushdie, whose "Satanic Verses" earned him a fatwa, or Islamic
death sentence in 1989 from the former Iranian spiritual leader,
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, first worked with U2 when he came out
of hiding and appeared live on stage with the band at a concert in
London in 1993.
    Teheran said last year it would not pursue the fatwa, but some
Islamic groups have since declared the fatwa can never be repealed
and should be carried out.
    "Bono and I have been friends for several years, and I sent him
the novel when I'd finished it, and he responded by coming up with
this beautiful melody," said Rushdie. "Simple as that, but of course
very pleasurable."
    Rushdie's text reads: "All my life I worshipped her. Her golden
voice, her beauty's beat. How she made us feel, how she made me
real, and the ground beneath her feet."
    Island currently plans to try to release the single on the same
day as Rushdie's book is due to be published, on April 13.
------------
Taken from a WIRE post by Lisa Miller:

The Million Dollar Hotel will be shot :

Date: February 2 - 4

Time: 6:00am - 6:00pm

Location: (Please don't make a nuisance of yourselves,
remember these people are working) 111 W. 5th Street,
Los Angeles, CA.
------------
>From BBC Online:

Underworld On Working With U2

Underworld, who've released a new album to coincide with
an extensive tour in March, have given The Net an insight
into what they've been doing during their 3 year absence
from the charts.

Darren Emerson has revealed they WERE working on a
project with Ireland's finest but unfortunately it didn't quite
work as planned: "We�ve been working with U2. We were
gonna do a collaboration with U2 but it didn�t really work.
We�re gonna do some work with Michael Stipe and, of course,
we�ve been doing the Danny Boyle stuff, like �A Life Less
Ordinary�." He says the band enjoy doing other projects: "We
do other things as well, not just the album stuff. We done the
track for �Batman and Robin�, which is going on this album as
well now. It�s been quite nice to get away from just doing
Underworld as well. It all helps".

The new album �Beaucoup Fish� has 11 tracks, including
one called �King of Snake� and another called �Winjer� featuring
a vocoder (the effect that gave Cher that warbly sound), a hip-hop
track called �Bruce Lee� and a techno track called �Moaner�.
The critics love it and Darren reckons it was time well spent:
"It�s good. It�s our third album and it�s very diverse. There�s some
like cool, laid-back tracks on there. Some more dancey numbers
like�King Of Snake�, which you�ve been hearing on the radio. I
think it is very typical of Underworld, really - just three years
down the line. You know, It �s very dance orientated".

And Underworld will be playing at the dance festival �Homelands�
during the last weekend in May.
------------
>From RTE:

(Prarit's note: Some of may/may not remember the big "to-do"
about U2 not being able to play in their own hometown
because of planning restrictions -- the following lawsuit
story deals directly with the issue and was brought on by the
August 1997 concerts at Lansdowne...)

GREEN LIGHT FOR LANSDOWNE RD CONCERTS

The Supreme Court has ruled that planning permission is not
needed for concerts at the Lansdowne Road rugby
ground in Dublin.
   
The Court overturned a High Court ruling that pop concerts
involved a material change of use of the grounds.
   
But the court said it was important that noise levels should
be observed, to preserve the rights of residents.
>From Bigmouth:

(Prarit's note: The last we heard was Bono had said he had
been invited to participate in the Rushdie project, but had not
yet agreed to do it -- well, it looks like Bono and the rest of
the band did :) )

Bono and Rushdie united in song
   
The long-standing friendship between, the notable novelist,
Salman Rushdie and Bono, the lead singer of, Irish band, U2,
has blossomed into a collaboration on a ballad bearing lyrics
taken from Rushdie's forthcoming book, 'The Ground Beneath
Her Feet' with music performed by the band. Bono and Rushdie
have been friends since the early 90's when Bono invited the
writer to appear on stage at Wembley Arena with the band
during their 1993 world tour and his, highly publicised, 'exile'.

There are plans afoot to release the track, via the Internet, at
around the time of publication of Rushdie's book, in April, an
advance copy of which he sent to Bono, who wrote the melody
for the song, also titled 'The Ground Beneath Her Feet'. Another
alternative is for it to be included as a bonus track on U2's next a
lbum, which is likely to be part II of their Greatest Hits compilations,
part I of which was released at the end of last year.

The Guardian newspaper has printed extracts from the song which
include the lines - "All my life I worshipped her, her golden voice,
her beauty's beat. How she made us feel, how she made me real,
and the ground beneath her feet."



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Sun Jan 24 1999 - 07:56:34 PST