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.

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.)