G8: Are you ready to Rostock?

Bono: “I missed Woodstock, and now I’m not going to miss Rostock! If
the G8 heads think that they can ignore this campaign, they are making a very big mistake.”

Bono, celebrating his 47th birthday today, is set to rock the German city of Rostock during the G8 summit on June 7. He’ll be sharing the ‘Music and Messages’ bill with Die Toten Hosen, Herbert Groenemeyer and other German artists. The gig, part of Germany’s ‘Deine Stimme Gegen Armut‘ movement has been dubbed ‘P8′. The musicians are urging the G8 leaders to keep their promises regarding commitments on aid to Africa. Tickets were sold online at the simply lovely price of 2.50 euros on May 2. Needless to say there are none left.

• Blogging G8: Missed Woodstock? Don’t miss Rostock!
• Konzert in Rostock (German)
• Official press release (English, pdf)

Eyes from the frontline

When you’re done reading all that, get your teeth in Bono’s poem/lyric penned for Gégé Katana, as published on U2.com. Bono read out his tribute at City Hall in Dublin on May 1st, as he presented the Front Line Award for Human Rights to Gégé.

Miss Katana works on behalf of victims of sexual violence and founded the Solidarity Movement of Women Human Rights Activists in Uvira in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Who knows, we may see these words again, on U2′s next album perhaps?

U2 and Green Day to perform in New Orleans

U2 and Green Day will perform together at a pre-show for a NFL game at the Superdome in New Orleans on September 25. This will be the first event at the Superdome since Hurricane Katrina. U2 and Green Day are expected to perform three or four songs, including The Skids’ “The Saints Are Coming,” which they recently recorded together.

The performance will air live on ESPN, as well as be streamed on the Westwood One World Network and Rhapsody.com. A download of “The Saints Are Coming” will be sold at Rhapsody.com to benefit Music Rising, an organization founded by Edge that aims to help musicians replace the instruments lost in Hurricane Katrina.

Bono advertises his thievery

In the current issue of Billboard magazine, musicians and actors pay tribute to legendary crooner Tony Bennett, who celebrated his 80th birthday earlier this month. Many of the musicians who collaborated with Bennett on his Duets: An American Classic album, which will be released on September 26, placed advertisements in the magazine to congratulate him on his successful career and wish him happy birthday. Bono, who sings with Bennett on the song “I Wanna Be Around” on Duets: An American Classic, took out a full-page ad that reads the following:

Tony,
Trying to sing with you was a humbling if not humiliating experience.
You’re like a house you can’t break into, at least
not by force. You can run at the door, but the doors
are locked…you can bang on the windows…
I got into the House of Bennett, but
only as the cat burglar…looking to steal a place in
this incredible legacy.
I’ve had the pleasure of singing with you, and for you…
I broke in through the bathroom window, up a
drainpipe…I’m not leaving.
Bono

U2 are the business

Excuse us while we have a laugh. U2 have made the list of The 10 Most Tech-Savvy Rock Stars in Business Week Online, featuring the musicians who ‘best harness technology, especially the Internet, to market themselves, their products, and their causes’.

In U2′s case, Business Week Online cite the band’s Apple alliance: what better way for a rock band to establish high-tech bona fides?

Since when does harnessing Steve Jobs make one tech-savvy? Surely that’s ‘business-savvy’ more than anything else? As for U2′s Internet presence… well, let’s not open that can of worms.

Bono also makes a solo appearance on the list, for launching RED and collaborating with companies such as Motorola on their special edition phone. Fair enough. But does he have the savvy to change its damn Crazy Frog ringtone all by himself?

Edge’s big ears

EDGE’S BIG EARS
In the latest edition of Audio Technology Magazine, ‘The magazine for sound engineers and recording musicians’….

…there’s an interview with Tim Palmer, one of the guys who mixed the final stages of ATYCLB.
Palmer talks about working with the band: “mixing isn’t necessarily a final stage for U2, it’s simply part of an evolving process”,“they’re open to new ideas” and “the band’s determination to better themselves is quite staggering”. He refers to The Edge as “Edge, Ears the Size of a Planet”

View the full article here [1,2,3,4]