Bono sings like a girl

“Some male and female singers have exactly the same voice, just shifted in pitch.” DJ Danny Baker coined the phrase the “Seven Percent Solution” for the phenomenon as described by Brunel University engineer and designer Dan Lockton.

What on earth are we on about? Check it out on Dan Lockton’s audio projects page which includes many U2 examples and audio of Danny Baker discussing the U2 tracks with Bob Geldof.

The Ubiquitous Singer

Among the books U2 fans can look forward to reading in the coming year is one that pokes fun of Bono’s accessibility and visibility to the public. Everyone’s Got a Bono Story, the debut novel from Irish journalist Anne Marie O’Connor, is a fictional comedy that centers on how everyone in Dublin has met Bono at one time or another. The book will be released on Gill & Macmillan’s new imprint Tivoli in spring 2004.

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On yer bike, it’s magic

One of Bono’s earliest influences was a book on cycling called “Merlyn the Magician and the Pacific Coast Highway” by journalist Tom Davies, he told Underworld’s Karl Hyde in Uncut magazine.

The Western Mail tracked down Davies, their former employee, who says:

“We met about 20 years ago when the book first came out.Bono invited me to one of his gigs in the Hammersmith Odeon and I went backstage afterwards and we both got quite tipsy drinking red wine and discussing St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

He likes to study the Bible regularly and at the time I had just left The Observer and was also studying at the London Bible College. But U2 weren’t quite as famous then, that meeting was before The Joshua Tree and Live Aid.”

Read the full quote at ic Wales.

Le Nozze di Pavarotti

Bono, The Edge and their wives Ali and Morleigh attended Luciano Pavarotti’s wedding to Nicoletta Mantovani in Modena on Saturday, December 13.

According to AFP, Bono sang “Stand By Me” with Zucchero, joined by Edge on guitar, at the end of the wedding ceremony. The Scotsman reports: “At one point during the reception, Bono took to the microphone and sang.”

U2world.com have collected reports and pictures: