The U2 band is pondering on ways and means to bring out their next studio album and is determined to make it mind blowing for their fans as well as music lovers all over the world. The work for the new album by U2 is going on a hectic schedule in their Dublin studio and word is that the album is expected to hit the music stores in October 2008. The producers for this new studio album by U2 are believed to be Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. So far, there has been no mention on the name of the album as well as the formats and track lists, but the buzz is that “No Line on the Horizon” is one of the likely songs that will be present in their new album.

The lead singer of U2, Bono as well as Edge played this song to an interviewer during the Sundance Film Festival and there are rumors that numbers are a significant part of all the songs in the album. The possible tracks that may be included in the new studio album by U2 are “It’s six o’ clock”, “If I could Live My Life Again”, inspired from the works of the famous Argentinean poet Jorge Luis Borgre, “North Star”, acknowledging the efforts to Johnny Cash, “Mercy”, an U2ish song and “Love Is All We Have Left”, that sounds similar to a Broadway tune.

The first ever live – action movie U23D is creating history in Ireland by breaking the box office records. This movie is special, as it is in the 3D format and this concert film collected €89, 538 in its first three days from eight venues. Last weekend U23D had the highest collection average in Ireland. The managing Director of Revolver Entertainment, Justin Marciano, who is distributing this film in U.K and Ireland, is of opinion that there is enormous need for this type of film making and his company is waiting to see how people are reacting to this new technology in other parts of the country as well.

The filming of this movie was done in South America while U2 were doing their “Vertigo Tour”. This film is co-directed by Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington. Catherine is working as the visual content director of U2 for more than 15 years and Pellington has already directed the video for U2”s “One”. The 3D technology has made the graphics and videos advance towards the spectator and give spectator the feeling that he is experiencing a live concert by U2. Catherine has put her heart and soul in to this film and the gang has decided not to release it in 2D version.

U23D, a 3D film by the band U2 started off with a bang at the recently held Sundance film festival. The band is scheduled to go for a general release in Canada and the United States. It would reach UK and Ireland as well. The international Herald Tribune has declared the film to be remarkable. The movie is not only technically excellent but also an aesthetic feel to it. The movie has earned rave reviews and has been hailed widely by the critics and the fans alike. The New York times have said that it is the first IMAX film that can be labeled as a “work of art”.

The film has been directed by Mark Pellington and Catherine Owens. It has been made during the visit of the band to South America. It was shot during the Vertigo tour. Owens, one of the directors has remarked that the movie “was the ultimate challenge in presenting U2″. The movie shuffles between the onstage presence of the band and the offstage presence. It is a marvelous technical achievement. This is the first live-action movie to be telecast wholly in 3D. The focus of the movie is almost entirely on the concerts. The subject of the film revolves around shows in Argentina, Mexico, Chile and Brazil.

U2, along with its collaborators Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno started the work for their next album at the studio in Dublin. Lanois said this time they are trying for something different to create a masterpiece by trying the latest sonic techniques. Bono, the group member has already come up with the lyrical part of the album. The team had three earlier meetings to discuss about the work in France and Morocco and Daniel Lanois is happy about the outcome of these meetings. Lanois said they have enough and more materials to bring more than one album and are working on it really fast.

The Jam sessions had provided some exciting start to the group and are yet to decide about the type of music. It may be either melody or riff-based but are sure to create excitement among the U2fans. The band is not decided the release date for this project, which is supposed to be the continuation of their album “How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb” released in 2004.The U2 has done a noble gesture by doing “The Ballad of Ronnie Drew” to help Ronnie Drew the Irish artist who is suffering from cancer. The amount generated from this charity single will go to Drew for his treatment.

U2’s charitable contributions are sometimes close to home, not far away for a big charity. They knew of a lady that was homeless after she had to leave her husband for domestic reasons. Brigid Mooney was the recipient of a home in 1993 until she died this past year in October at eighty two years old. It happened that the housewife decided to go back to work. She found a job at Windmill Lane Studios as a bookkeeper. Brigid never told anyone about her troubles but U2’s manager Paul McGuiness knew what was going on with her and told the band. They walked up to her and told that everything was going to be OK. They took her to pick out any home that she would like and they would see that she got it.

They didn’t charge her anything for the home, but she always paid them something. She was quite happy when they made it big and she never told anyone except close family what they had done for her. She was quite secretive about who she worked for and what they did for a living. U2 was not available to talk to after her death, but they certainly appreciated all the work Brigid had done for them over the years. She is listed in the credits in two of their albums: The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby.The house is said to be worth over sixteen times what they paid for it. They bought it for 35,000 pounds and will wind up selling for 775,000 pounds.

The U2 band’s well known rocker Bono along with artist Damien Hirst have been instrumental in raising a sum of over $40 million through an art auction conducted on Valentine’s Day in New York. The auction is considered to be one of the biggest charity events to take place all over the world and the proceeds of the auction will go to the United Nation supported Global Fund to fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis and this fund is to be mainly used to fight AIDS in Africa. The RED campaign, one of the largest fundraising company for the consumers who need humanitarian assistance, started by Bono and Bobby Shiver in 2006 had organized this art auction charity event.

A huge medicine chest sculpture that had hundreds of HIV pills made of metals titled “Where There’s a Will There’s A Way” was the top money grosser which fetched $7.15 million. Some of the popular celebrities who visited the Sotheby’s house of auction to bid for the art work of about 100 artists were Michael Stipe, Martha Stewart, Helena Christensen, Christy Turlington and Queen Noor. The Global Funds executive director said that the event has shown the trust that the people have on the organization as well as the humanitarian efforts taken up by the organization and the RED money collected will be invested directly into the AIDS programs in Africa

Paul Mc Guinness, the veteran manager of the U2 band announced his dissatisfaction about the internet and technology using undue advantage of the singers and music bands and asked them to share the profit with the real owners of the money, the singers and the song writers. Paul was particularly attacking the broadband internet service providers for allowing the music piracy to rule the roast on their networks and this has affected the sales of the records and albums considerably. He particularly criticized the technological giants like Apple, Dell, Oracle and Microsoft for repealing millions of dollars by allowing the public to hear the compositions of their favorite stars over the internet without paying any royalty to the artists.  

Mc Guinness and the U2 band group have had close working relationships with Apple and they were the first to sell an U2 branded iPod. According to Mc Guinness, the best business model is one where music is allotted to the internet service providers and the revenues generated out of it be shared by the distributor as well as the owners of the content. He also said that the global industry sales of music have fallen by about 45% to 50% in the last ten years and corrective steps have to be taken in order to stop this recession

U2 3D, the concert film featuring the members of the band U2 is released in 2008 and the specialty of this film is that it is completely filmed in 3-D format. The film mainly has footages from U2’s live shows, especially their Vertigo tour. There are fourteen songs included in the film which is screened as live performances in the concerts. This film has been awaited by the U2 fans as it made by using the so called “in-camera motion control” and special image processing using real time. The film is an outcome of hard work from the members as well as the crew of the footage.

A short pre-screening of the film was done at the Cannes festival in 2007 and the completed version was premiered on 19th of January 2008 at the Sundance Film Festival. The international release of the U2 3D is expected on 22nd of February 2008. U2 is releasing this film as an experiment and profits are not their intention. The film will be released only in 3-D format in 3-D theatres. The new unit of National Geographic namely National Geographic Cinema Ventures has taken the distribution rights of this film. The U2 is confident that their fans can get the energy and enthusiasm of the live U2 performance through this 3-D film.

U2 is now presenting their first ever action digital 3D film LIVE, premiere will be at Tennessee Aquarium IMAX 3D theatre on the “giant screen”. 3ality Digital has produced this film and it got distributed by National Geographic Entertainment. It will be the most popular show in IMAX history. The live excitement of a U2 concert is captured by multi channel surrounds sound and innovative digital 3-D imagery. It is shot in South America during their “Vertigo” tour. The viewers will experience the memorable rhythmic force of the stadium concert by the world’s most popular bands. U2 3D has a running time of 1 hr and 25 minutes and the MPAA rated it G. There is the largest collection of 3D camera technology to be used on any project. There are many famous hits of U2 “New Year’s Day”, “one”, “Sunday bloody Sunday” and “Pride”. Along with there recent tracks like, “Love and Peace or Else”, “Beautiful Day” and “Vertigo”.U2 is recognized all over the world for their splendid music and the incomparable gift to reach million of fans through new technology. People experience multi-sensory emotional and exceptional feeling in the live shows of U2 just one U2 concert in a lifetime is never enough on the other hand; it will just leave you craving for more.

U2 fans would be glad to know that Bono went to the Pentagon last January 23 to meet with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates. They met to talk about Africa and poverty around the world. Nobody knew (or at least the media didn’t know) that the meeting would take place since it was not previously announced. The meeting lasted 20 minutes. According to Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell, the meeting became an avenue for Bono and Gates to discuss their common interest to help solve the problems in Africa. Among those that Bono and Gates talked about were the plans to set up a new US military command in Africa.
Kathy McKiernan, DATA spokeswoman, also said that Bono and Gates met to talk about poverty in other parts of the world, and how the fight against poverty is related with global peace and stability. DATA is a group co-founded by Bono to address poverty in Africa and to fight against AIDS in that continent.

This was Bono’s first meeting with the US Defense Secretary, but it may not be the last. Bono is at present known to actively meet with world leaders as he advocates for debt relief and calls for foreign aid.