U2.COM : 'Manzone' [video]

'I'm just getting my head around being a man.'

Photoshoot for the cover of GQ's 'Men of the Year' Issue.

U2.COM : 'More Than A Rock Band'

'The album revealed they were more than a successful rock band… they were Artists.'

In the run-up to the the twentieth anniversary re-releases of Achtung Baby we're inviting a series of guest writers to reflect on what the album originally meant to them, why it's so significant  in the U2 canon and how it fits with their own story as a fan of the band.

First up, Dutch writer Caroline van Oosten, author of 'U2 Live – A Concert Documentary', who's been listening to the album again and thinks that 'Twenty years after the release of Achtung Baby, I’m finally ready for it.'

VIDEO: Watch Larry Mullen in Man On The Train movie trailer

U2 & Friends Tribute Party!

U2.COM : Q The Greatest

2011 marks the 25th anniversary of  Q Magazine and, to celebrate, they've  launched a vote to discover 'The Greatest Act of the Last 25 Years'.

All the 25 shortlisted acts have been Q cover stars and you cast your vote by  moving the covers around the screen.  So if you want to vote, say, for U2, you drag the Q U2 cover and drop it at the top of the page.

The winner is revealed at the annual Q Awards in London next month.

Here's where it's all happening - your vote counts!

U2.COM : Which One ?

Twelve timeless tracks, twenty years old next month. But which is the one song from Achtung Baby that will always have a special place in your life ?

The single releases from the album colonised the airwaves in the early 1990's while tracks like Ultraviolet  and Until The End of the World have become live mainstays.

The Fly will always signal the moment when The Joshua Tree started toppling, Mysterious Ways has that unforgettable groove and One... what else is there to say about One?

But there are twelve tracks on this album and maybe your own Achtung Baby moment is none of these.

Which one song will always make it onto your U2 greatest hits collection - and why does it means so much to you ?

Who does it make you think of? Where were you when you first heard it? What is it about for you...  and why can you never let it go?

U2.COM : In Conversation, In Toronto

As From The Sky Down opens at the Toronto International Film Festival, director Davis Guggenheim joins Bono and Edge in conversation.

Thanks to Toronto International Film Festival for hosting this broadcast which has now ended. If you caught it, add your comments below. If you missed it, we are hoping to rebroadcast it soon .

U2.COM : Red Carpet in Toronto

From The Sky Down opened at the Toronto International Film Festival tonight with hundreds of fans turning up as Bono, Edge and director Davis Guggenheim walked the red carpet.

'Did anyone tell you this was a documentary?' joked the director, before thanking Paul McGuinness, Brian Celler and U2's management team for their commitment to the project.

Davis welcomed Michael Brook, the composer and J Cassidy, editor of the movie, before introducing 'Mr The Edge and Mr The Bono.'

U2.COM : Preview: 'From The Sky Down'

'Something happened on Achtung Baby that was the pivot point...'

Exclusive trailer of Davis Guggenheim's documentary, as the band return to Hansa studios in Berlin to discuss the making of the album.

'Making Achtung Baby was the reason we're still here now...'

U2.COM : 'Band of the Year'

U2 were awarded Band of the Year at Tuesday's British GQ Men of the Year 2011 in London.

Bono, Adam and The Edge went along to accept the award from friend and writer Salman Rushdie at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

The room was filled with famous faces including Stephen Fry, Tinie Tempah, Keith Richards, Bradley Cooper, and even Miss Kylie Minogue (who asked Bono to help her with her microphone).

In accepting their award Bono joked, “Growing up is not what is meant to happen to a rock band. It has happened, we are now men”, while Adam called the stylish GQ Men of the Year Awards "my world".

The band are on the cover of the October issue of British GQ, out now.

Bonio U2 frontman's GQ Awards confession

YOU might imagine a summer holiday for Bono involves sleeping in an oxygen tent at Cannes or counting his collection of hats. 

But at the GQ Awards last night the U2 frontman confessed to a far less glamorous activity — walking his new pet dog around Dublin.
I say walking. It was more a case of the chart-topping rock star being dragged around by his pet pooch.

He told me: "I've been in Dublin for the last week or so. I was in France but came home for a while.
"I rang some pals and asked what they thought I should do to keep busy. One said, 'Just walk the dog.' So I took the dog out with my wife. It's a mongrel and a really strong animal.
"It dragged us through the streets and some little kid shouted, 'Is that dog walking you, or are you walking the dog, Bono?'
"I knew I was home. You can't beat it."
The U2 star and bandmates Edge and Adam Clayton were at the GQ bash to receive the Band Of The Year gong at the Royal Opera House in London.
It certainly has been a stellar few years for U2. They earned the most money ever from a rock tour with their epic 360° series of concerts.

source : http://www.thesun.co.uk/

U2.COM : #THESKYDOWN

On Friday  Edge and Bono join director Davis Guggenheim to discuss his documentary  From The Sky Down, which opens The Toronto International Film Festival this week.

Got a question for Edge, Bono or Davis about the making of Achtung Baby?  Post it on Twitter using  #THESKYDOWN.

Questions need to be submitted before 12noon Friday (EST) and we can't guarantee how many we'll get through.

You'll be able to tune in for the live chat here on U2.com  from about 1.30pm (EST), finishing 2:15 approx.

U2's Bono Defends Jobs After Criticism About His Philanthropy

Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Bono, U2 rock band's lead singer, defended Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs after a New York Times columnist wrote the former chief executive wasn't a prominent philanthropist.

Jobs said there was "nothing better than the chance to save lives," when Bono approached him about a campaign to fight AIDS in Africa, according to a letter the singer wrote to the New York Times yesterday. Through the sale of red-colored products, Apple was (Product) RED's largest contributor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, giving tens of millions of dollars, Bono wrote.

"I'm proud to know him," Bono wrote about Jobs. "He's a poetic fellow, an artist and a businessman. Just because he's been extremely busy, that doesn't mean that he and his wife, Laurene, haven't been thinking about these things."

The participation was "invaluable" and helped transform the lives of more than 2 million Africans, Bono wrote. Bono sent the letter after Andrew Ross Sorkin wrote in a column that Jobs wasn't a "prominent philanthropist" even after accumulating $8.3 billion through his holdings in Apple and Walt Disney Co.

There was no public record of Jobs giving money to charity and he wasn't a member of the Giving Pledge, founded by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates to persuade America's rich to give away at least half their wealth, Sorkin wrote.

The lack of public giving by Jobs is "curious," Sorkin wrote. In 1986, Jobs started the Steven P. Jobs Foundation and closed it a little over a year later, Sorkin wrote.

Apple gives a portion of the purchase price from consumers choosing (Product) RED special edition iPod models and iTunes gift cards toward the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa, according to the company's Website.

Jobs resigned last week as the chief executive officer of Apple, a company he co-founded. Jobs, who will become chairman, had been on medical leave since Jan. 17, following a 2003 cancer diagnosis and a liver transplant in 2009.

Bono is co-founder of the (Product) RED group.

source : http://www.businessweek.com/