rock band

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.

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?