Guess the title of U2′s upcoming tour

Live on French radio station NRJ on Monday night, U2 were asked what the title of their upcoming tour will be. Bono replied – excusez his French:

“It’s something to do with kissing the future and fucking the past…”

Can you guess the title?

Continue for a summary of (part of) the interview

Bono attends Bruce Springsteen concert

Our Bruce Springsteen fanatic on staff spotted Bono with Christy Turlington at Madison Square Garden for Springsteen’s concert this evening. There just as a “regular” fan, Bono sang along to the songs in the stands with the rest of the audience. During “Born to Run,” Springsteen acknowledged his Irish friend’s presence, and Bono flashed the peace sign at the Jersey boy in return.

Bono reads Yeats at National Library

Bono, Jeremy Irons and Sinead Cusack read the poetry of Yeats for a select audience of around 100 people, at the National Library in Dublin on Wednesday evening. Bono read ‘The Host Of The Air‘, ‘When You Are Old‘ and ‘He Wishes For The Clothes For Heaven‘ and parts of ‘No Second Troy‘. The evening was hosted by author Josephine Hart.

It was a special birthday tribute to the Irish poet, who was born in Dublin on June 13, 1865.

Listen to the event on RTE Rado 1′s Eleventh Hour. The morning after, Bono talked about language and poetry (Real Audio, 20 mins in) to BBC Radio 4.

Read more.

Bono is honored by NAACP

Last night Bono received the NAACP Chairman’s Award at the NAACP Image Awards in Los Angeles. Before giving a moving acceptance speech that lead the audience to give him a standing ovation, Bono drooled over supermodel Tyra Banks and uttered a strange noise while praising Prince.

‘Window in the Skies’ premieres in Japan

U2′s first Vertigo tour show in Japan was so special that the band actually took Promo Bono’s advice and performed “Window in the Skies” for the first time live. My human counterpart introduced the song by telling the audience, “If this doesn’t sound good, blame Edge.” The warning turned out to be completely unnecessary, as the song and the Edge sounded fantastic.

Setlist
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo (She Loves You snippet)
Elevation
I Will Follow
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Beautiful Day (Sgt. Pepper’s & Blackbird snippets)
Window in the Skies
Walk On (Acoustic — dedicated to the oldest Japanese fan club)
Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own
Bad (40 snippet)
Sunday Bloody Sunday (Rock the Casbah snippet)
Bullet the Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride (In the Name of Love)
Where the Streets Have No Name
One

The Fly (Satisfaction snippet)
Mysterious Ways
With or Without You
The Saints Are Coming
Angel of Harlem
One Tree Hill

U2 to record with Green Day ?

Well, that is what Bono told Michka Assayas, author of the book Bono on Bono, this afternoon over the phone. Bono sang an old Skids song to him, explaining that U2 will record it soon with Green Day.

Bono also told Michka that everything is going well with Rick Rubin, and that they are all still working in London for another three weeks. Apparently, most of the work is being done out of the studio for the moment: Rick Rubin is expecting U2 to hold “extraordinary songs” before actually recording them. This approach, which seems to be more “artistic” than “scientific,” may put The Edge in a brand new situation.

This phonecall follows a funny episode that happened yesterday evening, during the Zoo TV DVD launch event at the Olympia theater in Paris. As the special guest of the night, Michka was passionately answering fans’ questions on stage when he suddenly decided to call Bono on his cell phone. Was he inspired by the Zoo TV phonecalls Bono used to make at the time? Bono didn’t answer the call; however, the audience had an opportunity to leave a huge screaming message on his voicemail.

Bono kindly returned Michka’s phonecall today, assuring him that he would definitely have picked up the phone if he had been able to.

(Many thanks to Michka for this news.)

Flag day the Polish way

On the 5th of July 2005 at the Slaski Stadium in Chorzow, U2 played their only second ever concert in Poland to the 70’000 excited fans. Never mind the heavy rain, minutes before the showtime, what happened when The Edge hit the first notes of New Year’s Day meant that not only “The sky fell in Poland”.
The Audience stunt – the “White and Red campaign” caused lots of mouths to fall open, including the Band’s and Willie Williams’ himself.

Polish fan Zbych tells ‘The Story of the Flag’ on U2tour.de.

Coretta Scott King dead at 78

Bono and Coretta Scott King, Atlanta, January 2004. Photo ©Ruth Barohn/U2log.com.

Coretta Scott King , wife of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., died on Monday, a spokesperson for the King family says. She was 78 and had been recovering at home since suffering a stroke and heart attack in August.

Flags at the King Center were lowered to half-staff on Tuesday morning.

In January 2004, when Bono was awarded for his humanitarian efforts, he praised Mrs King’s civil rights efforts and said: “I haven’t had a mom in a long time, she volunteered to be mine.” Mrs King told the audience: “This is my son.”

• AP obit
• Reuters: Coretta Scott King is dead
• CNN: Widow of civil rights leader devoted life to his legacy
• MSNBC: Coretta Scott King dead at 78
• U2log.com: King Center’s Annual Salute to Greatness Awards Dinner

Bonos Aires, part 2

Tickets for the second Vertigo concert in Buenos Aires on March 2nd will go on sale tonight at midnight through www.ticketek.com.ar. The only credit card allowed to purchase tickets is a VISA, as this is the main sponsor of the tour in Argentina. The other sponsors are Coca-Cola and Movistar.

Franz Ferdinand will open for the band at both shows.

It is rumoured that local TV channel Telefe will broadcast the second show for the Argentinean audience.

Merry Christmas, Boston!

Tonight’s show in Boston had U2 feeling a little ho-ho-ho, and it was all Santa’s doing. Early in the show, Bono spotted a fan dressed as Santa Claus, which inspired the U2 frontman to sing a snippet of “Baby Please Come Home” during “Beautiful Day,” shout out Christmas caroles and messages (Jingle bells, war is over), and then tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas: 5 million people to sign up for the One campaign, a fire truck, more time to spend with his children, and for The Edge to get a train set.

Santa was later pulled on stage, as was Elvis, during “Mysterious Way.” The strange trio — the U2 singer being the strangest one of them all — danced around the ellipse while wishing the audience “Merry Christmas.”