Bono to crash into Dave Matthews set

An insider with the New Orleans Jazz Festival has shared with us that Bono is expected to join Dave Matthews during his band’s set at the festival this afternoon.

Consider it a rumor, but have your camera ready if you’re going to be there.

Update: The Edge, not Bono, joined the Dave Matthews Band during their set at the festival to perform “Smooth Rider.” Earlier in the afternoon, Edge joined the New Birth Brass Band for a performance of “Stand by Me.”

Photo: Associated Press

It’s no sekrit, BBC’s 6music plays U2

When software designer Matt Biddulph (incidentally, one of the people behind the new online BBC programme catalogue prototype), worked at the BBC, he had access to experimental data feeds generated by 6music radio station’s digital broadcast studio systems. For fun, hooked those feeds up to Last.fm.

Last.fm uses music profiles (like mine) to make personalized recommendations and generate charts from the collected data. Anyone can sign up and start groups, in a similar way to ‘Flickr’ or ‘YouTube’, but instead of photos, or videos, Last.fm revolves around the music you listen to. By adding a plug in to your player (iTunes, WinAmp, etc.), the system collects data from every track you play.

To put it simply, what Matt did was add a profile (by the name of ‘sekrit’) to Last.fm, but instead of adding a real person, he hooked up the radio 6fm playlist.

Matt’s left the BBC, but a year later, ‘sekrit’ had accumulated a record of more than 50,000 tracks played on BBC 6Music.

So guess which band was played the most? You guessed right. U2, although they share the top spot with Interpol.

At least four of U2log.com’s staff have profiles on Last.fm. It’s fun to be able to keep track of what you listen to, and to watch patterns emerge from your stats.

There’s a u2log group there too. If we can get 15 members together, Last.fm will start creating charts for our group. Join up and we can soon find out which U2 songs get played the most, and which other bands we listen to.

U2 in Nawlins

Two members of U2 are currently visiting the great city of New Orleans. Last night (April 27), The Edge made an appearance at the reopening of Preservation Hall, an historic jazz club located in the French Quarter (the landmark location suffered damage during Hurricane Katrina). Edge performed “Vertigo” with local musicians Clint Maedgen, Benjamine Jaffe, and Lucien Barbarin.

Also last night, Bono was spotted at a show by funk band Galactic at Tipitina’s Uptown, another well-known music club in the city. After the show, Bono chatted with fans, who were very surprised to see the U2 frontman there.

Bono and Edge are likely to be seen again in the city at other shows, which there are plenty of during the New Orleans Jazz Festival.

(Photo: Associated Press)

It’s not too late to get tickets

Bono’s May 5th lecture nearly sold out

Rescheduled shows

Honolulu stadium manager says: December 9

U2 on the beeb

BBC – Programme Catalogue – Search for u2. Surprisingly few results, considering the catologue goes back 75 years

Legendary Eno

Eno on BBC 6 Music’s Tom Robinson show

U2 photo auction is a huge success!

Photo auction raises big bucks for African Well Fund

The residents

‘Bono’s late finish forces an early end to summer gigs’

The history of U2: 1986

‘Twenty years ago, U2 was fronted by Davy ‘Northside’ Crocket and the bass player’s choice of hair colour was black. Things only really took off for the band when their guitarist started wearing tighter pants.’

… can anyone even hear B’s guitar?