Clueless

U2 are reportedly agonizing over the title of their much-anticipated new album. Bono told the Sunday Mirror that he “doesn’t have a clue” what to name the album.

“I still don’t know if it is a boy, or a girl, or an elephant, which is always a difficult birth,” he told the tabloid.

Not only is the band supposedly having difficulty with coming up with a title, but they are also having problems deciding on the final track list. While “Tough” seems to have secured its spot on the new album, “Full Metal Jacket” and “American Prayer” have not been so lucky. The two tracks are rumored to have been discarded.

How Bono staged the Hume and Trimble handshake

A new unauthorised biography of David Trimble details how Bono got the Northern Irish Unionist leader to shake hands with his political opposite John Hume.

Initially contacted by the SDLP to lend support to Hume and the 1998 ‘Vote Yes’ campaign, Bono recognised it was the Unionists that needed to be embraced in the run up to the Peace agreement referendum:

“John, I don’t feel that our value here is to reinforce you with the nationalist community,” Bono recalls telling Hume. “It’s to reinforce Trimble with the Unionist community. If you can put something together, we’ll be happy to interface.” (Full article)

From the Belfast Telegraph three part series of extracts from the as yet unpublished ‘Himself Alone: David Trimble’ by The Daily Telegraph’s political commentator Dean Godson. Out in March 2005.

  • BBC: U2 set to rock the vote (1998)
  • BBC: Trimble and Hume centre stage for referendum
  • CNN: U2’s Bono helps promote Belfast peace agreement
  • Counterculture Club

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    Fans will have the opportunity to understand what Bono means when he says U2 come from punk rock with the future release of Punk: An Attitude. The DVD and TV documentary traces the history of the punk movement and chronicles the music of such artists as The Velvet Underground, Iggy and the Stooges, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, and U2. (Yes, they are punk rock!)

    Don Letts, former DJ at The Roxy (the punk club in London in the day) and member of Big Audio Dynamite (who opened for U2 during the Joshua Tree tour), will direct the documentary, featuring rare and famous archive footage of punk’s greats. Because the documentary is currently in production, a release date has not yet been scheduled.

    Bono denies Live Aid II rumour

    Bono has dismissed reports earlier this week that he’s planning to organise ‘Live Aid II’:

    “At this point there are no plans for a Live Aid 2. It’s always there in the background but right now, no. Right now we’re after billions (of dollars) not millions. A Live Aid 2 would help, but it wouldn’t fix the problem.” (source: NME)

    Bono was speaking to the press in Dublin on Tuesday where he met with Development ministers of the 25 EU member states. Bono urged the ministers to reform aid development.

    You can watch Bono talking to the BBC about these issues at Macphisto.com.

  • DATA: Official statement on Live Aid 2 rumour (pdf)
  • Reuters: Bono denies plans for a Live Aid 2
  • Eupolitix.com U2’s Bono attacks EU aid failures
  • IOL: Bono calls for aid reform