The Dublin Legend Ronnie Drew was given homage by the firmament of musicians last week. The stars that came to sing the praises of Ronnie and his legacy included the rock band U2, Shane Mac Gowan, Andrea Corr, Sinead O’ Connor, etc. All these stars gave a fitting tribute to the music supremo of Irish music industry. The leader and the star singer from U2, Bono, described Ronnie as the “greatest voice in the world”. Ronnie Drew, the founder of the Dubliners band, was wearing a black suit and a patterned red scarf. This humble man told Pat Kenny that he does not deserve such honoring and is totally knocked over by the gesture.

The “late late show” saw the singers in a one–off performance. They sang the song written by Ronnie while he was undergoing treatment for throat cancer. The song was composed by Bono, Robert Hunter, Simon Carmody and the Edge and was titled “The Ballad of Ronnie Drew”. This was recorded at the Windmill Lane and will be released in March this year. Bono, paid homage to the Irish singer and praised the powerful voice of Ronnie by saying that after hearing Ronnie, the Nirvana sounds like a girl band.

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.

U2 and Kila are set to host a special tribute to Ronnie Drew along with some of Ireland’s finest singers. Some of the musicians work on ‘The Ballad of Ronnie Drew’ are Shane MacGowan, Christy Moore, Damien Dempsey, Sinead O’Connor, Andrea Corr, and Moya Brennan. This week producer John Reynolds said that the feeling was something very special as everyone came into Windmill Lane Rings End Road studios. After talks of poetry and lyrics singer Simon Carmody decided that they wanted to make a tribute to somebody that they truely admired as a musician. Carmody was excited when he approached Grateful Dead wordsmith (and fellow Ronnie Drew fan) Robert Hunter with the idea and he decided to become involved. The song ”The Ballad of Ronnie Drew’ became a joint effort between Hunter, Edge, Carmody and Bono with other artists signing on shortly after. The performances are amazing with Shane MacGowan, Bono, Christy Moore and Damien Dempsey all singing different verses while Sinead, Andrea Corr and Moya sing the choruses. Some of the other artists involved in the project are Brian Kennedy, Bronagh Gallagher, Billy McGuinness, Chris de Burgh, Eleanor McEvoy, Ronan Keating, Duke Special, Gavin Friday, , Jack L, Jerry Fish, Joe Elliott, Mundy, Mary Black, Mary Coughlan, Mick Pyro, Paddy Casey, and Paul Brady.

Front man of the U2 rock band Bono pressed French leader Nicolas Sarkozy to increase aid to developing nations, the aid advocacy group DATA said. The organization, co-founded by Bono has urged France to raise development assistance to 0.7 percent of gross national income by 2012 as agreed earlier. In 2006, French aid stood at 0.31 percent of gross national income.

The next month will be significant for the Irish band U2, for they will be featured in a new movie titled U2 3D. The movie will be screened at the Palisades Center mega-mall in West Nyack, Rockland County. The idea of the film is to link  3D imagery with 5.1 Surround Sound and to feature such U2 songs as  “Pride (In the Name of Love),” “New Year’s Day,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “Miss Sarajevo,” “Where the Streets Have No Name,” “With or Without You,” “The Fly,” “One,” “Beautiful Day,” “Vertigo” and “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own.”

U2’s latest album titled U218 Singles was released on 17 November 2006. The album contains singles recorded all the way from 1982 to 2006. To be exact, the album contains eighteen songs altogether—sixteen of their most well-known and successful singles, as well as “The Saints Are Coming” (in collaboration with Green Day) and a new song, “Window in the Skies.” By its 8th week of release, the album had sold 2,803,000 copies around the world, and on December 9, 2006 debuted on the Billboard 200album chart with sales of 134,000 copies.

U2’s new record will be influenced by the trance dance sub-genre of music. According to the band’s frontman, it will also feature “hardcore” guitars. U2 fans can expect a “dance floor shock” on the new record. The album contains some trance influences. There is “some very hardcore guitar coming out of The Edge”. Bono said the new album is not like anything they had ever done before. The band does not think the album sounds like “anything anyone else has done either.”

Bono and Damien Hirst, are backing a forty-million AIDS charity auction of art previewing today in London before heading for NY. The auction was devised by Bono and Damien Hirst to raise money for AIDS treatment in Africa. It features $8 million of works donated by Damien that include a heart-shaped butterfly picture entitled “All You Need is Love” with a top estimate of $1.5 million.

Bono has claimed that the band’s new album is going to be “extraordinary” and absolutely different from what it used to be before. The new album has been inspired by the band’s visit to Morocco last year. At that time, Morocco saw a religious music festival in Fez, and exactly this festival helped U2 to work out new extraordinary tunes.

The fifth studio album recorded by U2 and released on March 9, 1987, is titled “Joshua Tree”. The album was produced and engineered by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. Having tremendous success, the album is considered to be their opus, which has often been praised by music critics as the band’s best album and one of the best rock albums of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 26 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 1988, the Joshua Tree won the Album of the Year.