I almost did pay to hear just him talk, almost went down to Washington DC for his conference on AIDS and poverty, damn it didn't work out :( I rely on my concerts and podcasts for that! haha

Do you listen...City of blinding clocks???....Great song :cool:....Great mix....

Oh my god, no I haven't! :laugh4: I'm sure that's quite... interesting. I'd like to hear it, do you have a link for download? :)

Here's a link for "City of Blinding Clocks" - great mix, songs go together really well

 

http://rapidshare.de/files/30040229/City_Of_Blinding_Clocks.mp3

 

I've downloaded a lot of concerts by U2 and it's mainly to hear Bono talk! The songs all sound the basically the same - its his comments that are different (I feel the same way about Coldplay concerts and Chris Martin talking - that's why I download them, not really the music). After watching numerous interviews with Bono I believe he is very sincere. None of his projects are asking any of us for money, just help in lobbying the government. As he says, even Bill Gates' pockets aren't deep enough to solve this problem - no matter how rich someone is this problem will take the support of numerous governments to help, not individuals.

 

And do any of these people writing these articles pay more taxes than they need to?? I certainly try to reduce mine as much as possible, why shouldn't U2??

Thank you!! For both the download and your opinions, I completely agree! His speeches truly are always different, I know when I saw them in Boston in October he talked about Tom Brady being the millionth signature on the ONE petition. In December he spoke of guests at the gig, and in Hartford in December he spoke of John Lennon. It was always something different, and very intrigueing.

**Bump**

1 month till the new book comes out :)

I'm so excited, I just found that out yesterday believe it or not! There's been such talk about it for SO long I sort of lost all faith of it coming out in '06. So I stopped reading news about it. And now it's coming out next month!!!! This is awesome! I can't wait!

I read this on www.atu2.com, sounds good to me!!!!!:D :D :D

 

"I would like to think that we're doing our best work now. We're about to make a new album for next year, and it's the most important thing. We like being in a room with each other. We like playing. Something happens when we play, we have some sort of chemistry. And Edge, right now, is on fire. He's really rockin'. He's playing guitar like I've never seen him playing guitar. So, I like to think that the best is yet to come." - Bono

 

 

 

Can't wait for the new album!!!!!

what book?:dance:

what book?:dance:

 

 

Its a book called 'U2 by U2', set for release in September, written by the band themselves and Neil McCormick.....tells their story in their own words, it will be good!

Its a book called 'U2 by U2'' date=' set for release in September, written by the band themselves and Neil McCormick.....tells their story in their own words, it will be good![/quote']

then send link where i can buy it!whats your name?:smug2:

Here's a link to the book through Amazon.com ;)

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060776757/104-2059695-3153545?v=glance&n=283155

 

 

I'm so excited, I'm definately going to pick up my copy the day it comes out!!! :D Jeez, look at that deal on Amazon.com! Anton Corbijn's book (which cost me on it's own about 80 bucks) and that! That's a deal, I think... ahah

I ordered mine today along with the U2 & I book also - great deal I think! I'm looking forward to it.

 

What are some other people's favorite U2 books??

 

I really like U2 At the End of the World & U2 Propoganda - both great books. Has anyone read any other ones they'd recommend??

Here's a link to the book through Amazon.com ;)

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060776757/104-2059695-3153545?v=glance&n=283155

 

 

I'm so excited, I'm definately going to pick up my copy the day it comes out!!! :D Jeez, look at that deal on Amazon.com! Anton Corbijn's book (which cost me on it's own about 80 bucks) and that! That's a deal, I think... ahah

thanks,i will buy it in 1st day of September when ill get monthly cash from father & mother:D

I like the U2 Show book I got from a friend, I like the pictures a lot. Nice coffee table book, fun to flip through.

 

 

The best book is definately At The End of The World. I love it!!! Really great, and done very well. I love how it's not like some trashy ex-friend of the band novel that truly doesn't capture who they are. Quite the opposite, it made me love the band more! I really recommend it to everyone ;) Even if they're not U2 fans, it's fun reading.

 

I liked Bono In Conversation as well, it was a quick read. But then I'm the type who likes to listen to the man talk, and read what he says :laugh4: It was good though.

I like the U2 Show book I got from a friend, I like the pictures a lot. Nice coffee table book, fun to flip through.

 

 

The best book is definately At The End of The World. I love it!!! Really great, and done very well. I love how it's not like some trashy ex-friend of the band novel that truly doesn't capture who they are. Quite the opposite, it made me love the band more! I really recommend it to everyone ;) Even if they're not U2 fans, it's fun reading.

 

I liked Bono In Conversation as well, it was a quick read. But then I'm the type who likes to listen to the man talk, and read what he says :laugh4: It was good though.

oh,post link please

I like the U2 Show book I got from a friend, I like the pictures a lot. Nice coffee table book, fun to flip through.

 

 

The best book is definately At The End of The World. I love it!!! Really great, and done very well. I love how it's not like some trashy ex-friend of the band novel that truly doesn't capture who they are. Quite the opposite, it made me love the band more! I really recommend it to everyone ;) Even if they're not U2 fans, it's fun reading.

 

I liked Bono In Conversation as well, it was a quick read. But then I'm the type who likes to listen to the man talk, and read what he says :laugh4: It was good though.

 

Thanks - I was thinking of that one, but wasn't sure!

me too,hi Kaycee,how was Chris from 2nd row?

Mmmm.

U2.

 

Most excellent.

me too' date='hi Kaycee,how was Chris from 2nd row?[/quote']

 

It was absolutely FANTASTIC! This picture was right at the end and Chris looked right at me while I was taking it. We travelled about 1200 miles to get to Vancouver and saw both shows but had the 2nd row tickets on the second night. I have posted some photos and a bunch of short videos I took that night on a thread here - I'll look it up.

 

Here it is:

 

http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27965

[Article] Beautiful payday

 

 

Plea: The rock star pictured raising poverty awareness at the Live8 concert. But he has also been busy raising his business interests.

 

Superstar Bono is now as famous for fighting world poverty as he is for fronting rock group U2. But, as Andrew White reports, he has also built up a business empire, which now includes a stake in media giant Forbes.

 

Of the 3000 attendees that had crammed into the main ballroom of the Hilton Washington Hotel, few failed to notice US president George W Bush shifting uncomfortably in his seat. Before Bush, at the podium, a diminutive Irishman dressed in a cowboy hat and dark glasses was warming to a familiar theme.

 

“I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did - or did not do - to put the fire out in Africa.”

 

Bono is, of course, used to captivating far larger audiences. The U2 frontman, real name Paul Hewson, sells out huge stadiums each time he and his band embark upon a mammoth world tour. Last summer, they performed for 150,000 people in London’s Hyde Park, opening the Live 8 charity concert that was broadcast to an estimated three billion people worldwide.

 

Yet while February’s speech at the 54th Annual National Prayer Breakfast might have focused upon Africa, lately Bono has also found plenty of time to address the second of his concerns – that of “the digital revolution”.

 

Earlier this month Elevation Partners, a buy-out fund of which Bono is a founding partner, acquired a large minority stake in the Forbes family media empire. The 40% stake - estimated to have cost Elevation around US$250m - involves the formation of a new company, Forbes Media, which aims to drag the right-wing capitalist institution Forbes magazine into the digital age.

 

However, if the sale of part of the Forbes empire was not unexpected – JP Morgan had been touting the media giant to suitable bidders for months – Elevation’s involvement certainly was.

 

A two-year-old fund with US$1.9bn capital to invest in media and entertainment deals, the Forbes acquisition marked the third deal for the fund, after investments in videogaming partnership BioWare/Creative Studios and web-based real estate firm Move. It is now rumoured that the star is interested in buying a stake in US newspaper group Knight Ridder, to add to his well-publicised bid for BMG Publishing, which owns the publishing rights to music from top acts Coldplay and Christina Aguilera.

 

So why is the world’s highest-profile celebrity humanitarian taking a stake in Forbes, a magazine that proclaims itself the ‘capitalists’ bible’? Can Bono be the world’s first left-wing capitalist rock star?

 

His association with humanitarian causes, and in particular the famine and AIDS crises engulfing Africa, began with U2’s breakthrough performance at the original Live Aid event in London in 1985.

 

In the years since, as U2 have risen to claim the mantle of the world’s biggest rock band, Bono’s work to raise awareness of third world poverty has been unstinting. Alongside Bob Geldof, he has spent years cajoling US presidents and other world leaders into increasing debt relief to poorer countries, improving aid to Africa, and helping AIDS victims.

 

This work has intensified over recent years. In March 2002 Bono travelled to Washington for a private meeting with Bush, who had just unveiled a US$5bn aid package for some of the world’s poorest countries. The star, dressed in customary cowboy hat and dark glasses, stood alongside the president on the White House lawn, and praised the administration’s “serious and impressive new level of commitment” to poverty eradication.

 

Later that year, Bono established an organisation named DATA – which stands for Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa – committed to raising awareness of the continent’s troubles, and in early 2005 he launched the socially conscious fashion label EDUN.

 

Last year, Bono’s humanitarian profile soared to new heights, as he played a fundamental role in the effort to organize and publicise Live 8, the successor to the concerts 20 years previously. Under the ‘Make Poverty History’ banner, he urged members of the G8 to write off Africa’s enormous debt, reform trade policy, and grant considerably more cash for crises such as the AIDS epidemic.

 

These humanitarian leanings, however, have not prevented Bono from acquiring a firm appreciation of the rock n’ roll business, and the financial rewards it offers. He has a property portfolio that includes a villa in the South of France and a lavish Italian-style palazzo overlooking the sea near Dublin, not to mention a US$28m penthouse on Manhattan’s Upper West side, which he bought from Apple supremo Steve Jobs.

 

There are also proposals to construct a so-called U2 Tower, which will be the tallest residential development in Ireland. The tower, a 31-floor construction on the banks of the River Liffey, will house luxury apartments and provide space for the band’s recording studios.

 

The band is worth upwards of US$890m, according to the most recent Sunday Times Rich List, and is the world’s most profitable, earning US$267m last year.

 

These record earnings were boosted by a huge deal with Apple to market the company’s flagship product, the iPod. A high-profile ad campaign for the MP3 player featured the band’s single Vertigo, and now Bono and the three other members of U2 - Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen and guitarist David ‘The Edge’ Evans - have also invested in Vertigo 3, an Airbus A320, to fly them around in style on their current world tour.

 

These luxuries have been acquired through a combination of canny investment and ruthless business decisions. When their label, Island Records, fell into financial difficulties in the mid-80s, the band loaned the label enough to keep it going, in return for ownership of the U2 master tapes. Thus, the band achieved that which the most successful band in history, the Beatles, had failed to – ownership of their own back catalogue. In addition, the band also got an undisclosed stake – believed to be around 20% - in Island, which turned a handsome profit in 1989 when Polygram paid US$300m for the smaller label.

 

Another of the key factors behind the band’s amassing of this enormous wealth was Ireland’s tax break for artists. The famously lenient tax laws, introduced in 1969, exempted U2’s huge royalty earnings, and allowed the band members to accumulate the wealth with which to fund a number of other investments, including the Clarence House in Dublin.

 

However, the relationship between Ireland and her most celebrated sons soured earlier this year, after the government decided to cap the artists’ exemption at US$320,000. The band, and Bono in particular, was accused of hypocrisy as they announced plans to decamp their main company, U2 Limited, to the Netherlands in order to avoid the taxman.

 

The Irish Labour party’s finance spokeswoman, Joan Burton, was bitter in her response to the move. “Having listened to Bono on the necessity for the Irish government to give more money to [official government development co-operation programme] Ireland Aid,” she said, “I am surprised that U2 are not prepared to contribute to the exchequer on a fair basis along with the bulk of Irish taxpayers.”

 

In addition, when Bono criticised the Irish government for not meeting the DATA target of 0.7% of GDP to be set aside for the Third World, another government minister suggested that if the star paid his taxes then the government would be halfway to meeting the figure.

 

So what does the future hold for Forbes, now that Bono’s hip outfit has bought their way into one of capitalism’s established bastions?

 

Sources close to the deal indicate that around two-thirds of the investment will be used to develop Forbes’s online capability. This strategy, after all, lies at the core of Elevation’s interest in Forbes. After all, whilst there is little chance that Forbes magazine will return to the glory days of the 80s and 90s, Forbes.com is in better shape than competitors such as CNN Money and BusinessWeek Online.

 

During the dot-com boom of the 90s, Forbes invested tens of millions of dollars in its digital operations, with an eye toward an initial public offering (IPO). Although the IPO failed to materialize, this investment nevertheless left the company strongly positioned for growth once the Internet became a viable advertising proposition. In June this year, Forbes.com welcomed 10 million unique visitors worldwide, according to comScore Media Metrix.

 

Enter Elevation, and its conviction that its edge lies in their ability to help old-line media companies, with strong brands, recreate themselves and thrive on the Internet.

 

“We are in the business of helping content creators in the traditional media world manage the transition imposed by the Internet,” states Elevation co-founder Roger McNamee. The media world, he continued, is “in the middle of a transformation and no one is in charge… Everyone can play and anyone can win.”

 

President and chief executive officer of Forbes, and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes magazine, Malcolm Stevenson “Steve” Forbes Jr., concuurs with McNamee’s assessment.

 

‘”No one is the master of their own universe. Time and circumstances change,” he said. “We wanted the wherewithal to pursue the enormous opportunities in front of us, and Elevation understands technology, media and print. They are not just a source of capital; they are a source of insight.”

 

In particular, the emerging markets of China, India and the Middle East are seen as key opportunities to develop local language print and online publications. In the latter region, the battle for the attention of the online business readership has already begun with the launch of Forbes Arabia, and the acquisition of regional business information site AME Info for US$29m by Emap earlier this year.

 

“We see enormous opportunities for growth on the web side,” added Steve Forbes. “There is a growing entrepreneurial community there and we believe who gets there first will do best.”

 

The final third of the investment will be used to pay members of the Forbes family, who had struggled to maintain profits at the magazine at a time when print advertising revenues across the industry continue to fall. The magazine industry is under intense pressure, with the internet continuing to draw advertising away from traditional media, and some analysts have questioned whether Forbes’s success online will be sustainable.

 

Competitors complain that the site has used pay-for-click alliances with AOL and Yahoo to build traffic artificially and in the short-term. Critics also contend that the website has revelled in editorial gimmickry in lieu of purely business stories. A recent feature, entitled ‘Top Topless Beaches’, is cited as an example.

 

However, one direction that Steve Forbes is determined to avoid is that of an IPO.

 

Whilst it is suggested that such a route might offer the family an easy exit from the firm they inherited, the Forbes’s are determined to retain control of their legacy. “I am the controlling shareholder and as long as I am alive, that is the way it is going to be,” he said.

 

He also revealed that the company had been looking for a partner on and off since 1999. Bono’s boys, he insists, came along at just the right time: “This was a very good time to get the kind of wherewithal we need for the kind of expansion we need to have,” he said. “This is a natural step for the company with the right people. Forbes has always been about entrepreneurial capitalists.”

 

So, is Bono a left-wing campaigner for social justice, or a committed entrepreneurial capitalist? When the history books are written, for which will he be remembered?

 

Steve Forbes, for one, doubts that his new partner will have any difficulties adjusting to life at the business end. Asked if Bono is a follower of the ‘capitalists’ bible’, Steve Forbes explains: “I’m told he was – and he certainly will be now.”

 

http://www.itp.net/business/features/details.php?id=4971&category=

It was absolutely FANTASTIC! This picture was right at the end and Chris looked right at me while I was taking it. We travelled about 1200 miles to get to Vancouver and saw both shows but had the 2nd row tickets on the second night. I have posted some photos and a bunch of short videos I took that night on a thread here - I'll look it up.

 

Here it is:

 

http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27965

thank you,sweet:kiss:

Ssshhhh don't tell anyone but for any of you interested I have a link to download the U2Love iPod video (just PM me)...I already have it on my iPod and i sooo love it..if I remeber well it includes:

Until the end of the world - Sydeny 1993 (part of it)

Mofo - Mexico City 1997

I will follow - Belfast 1981

God part II - Lovetown (can't remember the city) 1989

Where the streets have no name - Sydney 1993 (so a preview for the DVD coming out in a short time :nice: can't wait to see it)

Beautiful day - Boston 2001

City of blinding lights - Milan 2005 (I was almost crying at this one :rolleyes:)

 

So this means there are complete recodings for the Belfast gig in 1981 and the Lovetown tour gig of 1989...this makes me wonder...when will they ever be published as DVD? :thinking: I want them :rolleyes:

It was absolutely FANTASTIC! This picture was right at the end and Chris looked right at me while I was taking it. We travelled about 1200 miles to get to Vancouver and saw both shows but had the 2nd row tickets on the second night. I have posted some photos and a bunch of short videos I took that night on a thread here - I'll look it up.

 

Here it is:

 

http://www.coldplaying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27965

thanks for videos,but there are any pics:confused: