Was Bono Being Self-Absorbed?

Immediately after the massacre in Paris, Bono, who with his bandmates in U2 had been due to give a concert in the city, described the atrocities as an "attack on music". This prompted a bit of a backlash on Twitter. "Yeah, right, Bono. It's all about you ..." But actually it is, isn't it? In the aftermath of any horror we relate it to ourselves and to our own experience and in our own, often trite way, try to offer sympathy and, where we can, solidarity.

For Bono, it's all about the band. For sports fans it's all about the crowd in the stadium. 

Bono Visits Burma

The Irish rock superstar Bono paid a holiday visit to Burma this week, including a tour of the ancient city of Bagan in Mandalay Division.

In a post on Tuesday to the Facebook page of U2, the Dublin-based band of which Bono is the front man, a photograph of the Bagan skyline dotted with hot air balloons, a popular means of taking in the sacred Buddhist site, was accompanied by the caption “Hot & cold air – Bono.”

Bono calls for 'Europe of Mercy'

Bono calls for 'Europe of Mercy'

Bono has called for a Europe of mercy to refugees as U2 played its first concert since the Paris attacks.

The Irish rock stars were among those to cancel high-profile gigs in the French capital following Friday's terrorist attacks, which saw at least 129 killed and hundreds injured.

If you don't know . . . electric co

Is it Getting Better?

Did you put it there with a magic marker?

I have no compass, and I have no map

Caught with My Pants Down and My Hands Up...My Hands Up

Baby Zooropa

January 4, 2016
Progress is being made on the companion to 'Songs of Innocence'

BODY:


The Edge has revealed that progress is being made on the next U2 album, and that it sounds like the band's 1993 album 'Zooropa'.

'Songs of Experience' is expected sometime in 2016, and is a companion record to 2014's 'Songs of Innocence', with the two titles combining to form the name of the Dublin act's recent world tour. 

In an interview with Q Magazine, The Edge reveals some details of the record, including that parts of it have been completed on down time in between tour dates. Bono also recently revealed that hewrote a song about the Paris attacks during the band's recent tour.

In the interview, guitarist The Edge first compared the record to Zooropa, and then said producer Brian Eno would like a similar path to the eighth album to be followed in the future. He said:

"I would love to see us making albums a bit more like that. Where we go, 'You know what? We"re not going to second-guess any of this. Let"s just go for it." I think there"s a quality you get when there"s a certain momentum to the process."

Bono, meanwhile, revealed in the same interview that the bike accident he suffered in New York around the turn of 2014/2015 has actually helped him with the record.

The frontman said "The gift of it was that I had time to write while in the mentality that you get to at the end of an album. There is a reason why all the great groups made their best albums while in and around touring, because the ideas have to come out of your head."

U2 finished their Innocence and Experience Tour with shows in Paris before Christmas, with Bonorounding off his year by busking on Dublin's Grafton Street with a host of other big-name local acts.

Commencing Countdown Engines On . . .

The Most Beautiful Sound I Ever Heard

Raised by Wolves

Dance for me, Theresa (beautiful young thing from Italy)