Meet the U23D film editor

Olivier Wicki, editor of U23D, talks to U2 Swiss Home, about his involvement in the movie and some of the technical aspects of shooting and editing 3D film.

So the film is going to be a mix of footage from a number of different locations?
Yes 5 countries.
Does this cause any problems with the editing?
Well! Well! Well! As the viewer you are going to be immersed in a 3D experience so fantastic that you will forget about any discontinuity. So let me know if you see any!

Read the full interview

Bono speaks on World Aids Day

Bono tells Paul Vallely of The Independent why people in rich nations can make a difference to the Aids disaster.

“Do the maths,” says Bono. “It costs about $5 a week to pay for the two pills a day it takes to keep someone with HIV alive.”

And, talking about the work the band has been doing on their new album Bono reveals, yes, here it comes, ‘The Edge is on fire’:

“World music this is not,” he says, though U2 fans will “feel the difference”. Polyrhythmic is the word he chooses with a self-deprecating laugh. “U2 in dancefloor shock. Normally when you play a U2 tune, it clears the dancefloor. And that may not be true of this. There’s some trance influences. But there’s some very hardcore guitar coming out of The Edge. Real molten metal. It’s not like anything we’ve ever done before, and we don’t think it sounds like anything anyone else has done either.”

U2log.com predicts the album will come out sounding just like U2, just the way we like it.

Read more and find out about Bono’s number one in Ghana…

U2′s new, very pretty, Joshua Tree

Here’s a picture (and here’s more) of the extra superduper edition of U2′s 20th anniversary Joshua Tree release. Did you get it, or did you stick to the ‘ordinary’ double CD? How are you liking it so far?

U2.com launches Joshua Tree minisite

U2′s official website, U2.com, is celebrating the 20th anniversary release of The Joshua Tree with a minisite containing tracklisting and details, scans of magazine articles published at the time of the original release, as well as audio and video previews. We’re getting a bit lost clicking around the minisite, but we blame our old age.

You’d probably already heard this, but the DVD in the package will contain the often mentioned but never seen, Neil Jordan-directed promo video for the song Red Hill Mining Town. Finally we’ll all find out what happend to the dwarf canary!

If we were organised, we’d treat you to a picture taken on the set of said promo video… but we’re having trouble finding it in our archives.

U2 Prepping Joshua Tree 20th Anniversary Edition

Only 20 years young, U2 are re-releasing The Joshua Tree to celebrate its birthday:

Though the always-exciting format details are still trickling in, we know this: new liner notes abound, and the CD/DVD combo contains five portfolio prints, whatever that might mean. The DVD supposedly sports both film from a July 1987 show at Paris’ Hippodrome and the documentary Outside It’s America, but, again, that’s tentative.

It’s set for release November 20th.

via PitchForkMedia.com

Biggest band builds biggest tower

The Geranger Ltd consortium, including U2 and management, has won the bid to build the 600ft luxury apartment block that is to be the tallest building in Ireland and the location of the band’s new recording studio.

The studio will be egg-shaped and placed at the top of the tower, hanging from a cluster of vertical wind turbines and a huge solar panel.

Although the majority of apartments in the building will be ‘luxury’ and a 5-star hotel will be built in an adjoining building, there’s also room for 34 ‘social and affordable flats’. Fans, start queuing now! Your new digs will be ready in 2011.

• Telegraph.co.uk: Bono’s U2 tower to be tallest in Ireland.
• Independent.ie: ertigo . . . U2 tower to rise over the city

Shop till ya drop at PopMart

To celebrate (and, let’s face it, promote) the release of U2′s ‘Live from Mexico City’ on DVD there a new dedicated site for it. Go check it out at popmart.U2.com and enjoy the 20 minute PopMart Rotterdam audiocast. Registered members can access all areas, including Willie’s diary and U2′s Sarajevo press announcement.

Give God a call, Pavarotti has died

Bono: “I spoke to him last week… the voice that was louder than any rock band was a whisper. Still he communicated his love. Full of love.”

The Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti died at his home in Modena today. He was 71 years old.

Pavarotti once famously asked Bono’s housekeeper to “Tell God to give me a call” when he found it difficult to get hold of U2′s singer. He was trying to get U2 involved in his charity concert ‘Pavarotti and friends‘ for Bosnia’s war children. When Bono did get involved, the collaboration produced the single Miss Sarajevo. Bono later duetted with the opera legend on various occasions, including the performance of Ave Maria shown above.

Pavarotti was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year.

Ave, maestro.

• Bono’s memories on U2.com (BBC audio)

Australian nurse inspired Bono

“As we went along Bono began chatting away, telling me he was a singer with a band called U2 and that he had only recently been in Adelaide. I had no idea who they were…”

The woman who hadn’t heard of U2 or Bono – to be fair, it was 1985 – is Australian nurse Sue Germein, who was part of the team Bono and Ali joined on their mission in Ethiopia. Bono now says she was the woman that got him fired up about the issues in Africa.

Read Sue’s story in the Sunday Herald Sun.

U2 in new Lanois documentary

Not to be outdone by Jacknife Lee, U2′s other collaborator Daniel Lanois has a documentary cooking.

This new film, ‘Here Is What Is’ contains footage of Lanois working with Eno and U2 in Morocco, as well as material shot with Emmylou Harris, Garth Hudson, Willie Nelson, Sinead O’Connor and Billy Bob Thornton.

‘Here Is What Is’ premieres at the Toronto Film Festival this September. A preview of the film can be seen on Daniel Lanois’ website.