U2’s new album has a whole strategy behind it. This has nothing to do with the music, which is great. But U2 (read Bono) has a vision for the band. They want to become the biggest new band with the biggest album in the world. And right now, in a time of major transition for the music business, it is especially difficult to be relevent and to make a mark on the market. It’s just different now than it was when the band first started doing their work. With iPods and mp3s changing how we listen to music. We don’t listen to full sized albums anymore, but little pieces of them, whatever we happen to prefer. It’s really unfortunate for those who can’t shift their styles to fit the new system. But Bono is going to try, continuing to promote the new album in innovative ways. How fun to watch him go around that way.

The battle is on, and Kelly Clarkson is the one trying to knock our beloved band off the top of the charts. Already! You’d think she would have the decency to wait a few weeks to let us stay at the top of the Billboard charts for a little while longer. And Bono, et. al., have done so much to get the word out about No Line. They’ve really been working hard, from their evening on the Grammys, to the Letterman show and a couple of hardly-announced performances. Combined, Clarkson and U2 are trying to pull the world economy for music back from the breaking point. There are discussions about the digital age and who is losing money from youtube and other programs. This is a bigger topic than we can fully talk about here, though. But start buying those CDs to hold Clarkson down!

U2 played a free concert this weekend at Fordham University in the Bronx. It was apparently a great concert, but mainly just for students and faculty at the University itself. The article in the NYTimes is about those who wanted to get in from the city itself, but weren’t connect to the university. Some of them were able to get in, but other ones weren’t able to do so. Staff seemed to be able to get in, which was nice. Lots of local people were kind of upset that they couldn’t go. After all, they might live right next door, but they weren’t allow to enter. Anyway, it’s just another indication of how excited people are about this upcoming tour!

A few tidbits about U2, in case you wanted to know some trivia.

1. U2 has been actively involved in human rights and social justice campaigns over the years, including Amnesty International and the ONE Campaign.

2. U2 has won 22 Grammys over the course of the group’s decades-long career.

3. The band comes from Ireland orginally.

U2 is the first band slated to perform at the new revamped Point, O2. Owner Harry Crosbie has big plans for the Dublin venue and wanted to reopen the venue with a bang. And after being revealed that he was close with both the band and the manager Paul McGuinness, it was little surprise as to who would play first. U2 has been using this venue for rehearsals before it even opened, so the history should set in nicely with their plans to grab the headlines in December. Fans in the Dublin area are very excited for U2 to perform and it should be another amazing performance from the legendary band.

The lead singer of the world famous U2 band, Bono, celebrated his birthday last Friday night at Sass Café in Monaco and it was not an ordinary birthday party at all. The list of the invited guests to the birthday party goes like this: Brad Pitt, the U2’s lead guitarist The Edge and Prince Albert II of Monaco. The café manager said that it was a surprise party as they received a call to organize the same late on that afternoon. The dinner was all arranged by Bono’s wife Ali Hewson and the guests were treated with red wine at the dinner table. A champagne toast for Bono and a candle lit strawberry cake followed right after the meal.

There are news filtering through that the construction of the proposed landmark U2 tower Liffey high-rise is all set to commence by the end of the year after plenty of discussions, deliberations and rowing between the U2 members and the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA). The DDDA spokesperson said that the negotiations between the DDDA and the potential bidders are nearing completion and Geranger Ltd, a conglomerate of developer Paddy McKillen, Ballymore Properties and members of the U2, has been chosen as the preferred bidder. Geranger Ltd will be building a skyscraper that is about 60 m higher than the Spire and Dublin’s U2 fans will soon be able to see the landmark tower erected.

The U2’s lead guitarist David Howell Evans who is popularly known as The Edge and the lead man of the U2 band Bono spent the last weekend at a beach in Southern France with one of Hollywood’s most famous celebrity couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Brad Pitt and his pregnant colleague Jolie were on a family outing to the beach on May 4^th with their adopted children Zahara, Maddox, Pax Thien and their biological daughter Shiloh. Bono and The Edge were there in France last weekend for recording their new album.

The U2 musicians were staying in a shared villa in a place called Eze in France and they took photographs with the celebrity couple near their villa. All of them enjoyed the weekend thoroughly in each other’s company and Jolie had spent a lot of time discussing with U2 guitarist the Edge over their latest album and concert tour.

The Edge, U2’s guitarist extraordinaire has emerged to announce that he will be hosting the Icons of Music Auction II on the coming May 31, 2008. This auction is expected to feature some of the most sought after music collectibles ever to provide much needed help to MusicRising.org, a charitable campaign that was also co-established by The Edge himself. This organization was created with the aim to assist musicians who originate from the Gulf Coast Region to get back on their feet after the terrible Hurricane Katrina and Rita tragedies. Aaron Neville, renowned for winning the Grammy four times throughout his career, will also be doing his part to support the auction by performing at the high profile event.

Among items belonging to The Edge that are up for auction include a 1976 Gibson Explorer Guitar and a blue colored Gibson Les Paul. Bidders are also expected to take home a bass guitar belonging to Kurt Cobain, Slash’s Gibson Les Paul guitar as well as a Johnny Cash guitar.

The concert promoting company, Live Nation Inc. has signed a 12 year deal with U2 which gives the company the exclusive rights for the production of concerts for U2 and to manufacture and trade its merchandise, to run the U2 website as well as the online fan club. The new deal will guarantee the required inventory for the ticketing service which will be launched in 2009. The deal will not involve the distribution and publishing of the U2’s recorded music.

The Live Nation and its allies had produced and publicized almost all the world –tour of U2 from the year 1997 and a subsidiary of Live Nation was managing the fan club and website of U2 already. U2 has the potential to draw large number of fans to the concert and their last world tour grossed about $ 389.4 million which is the highest grossing tour in the history of box-office. The U2 fans believe that the new deal will remove the problems that the group faced during last tour.