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.

U2’s third album “War” is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and the producer of the album Steve Lilywhite is talking about his experience with the band while making the album. Steve remembers that he was hesitant to take up the third album with U2 as he has already done “Boy” and “October” with them and believed that it was good for the band to work with different producers. After, the bad performance of “October” they needed to come back and was well supported by Chris Blackwell. Steve remembers that the band members were more focused in the “War’ sessions and Bono wanted Edge to be more sharp and aggressive.

Steve said that, he tried to make War as different as possible from the two earlier albums as it was the same band and same singers. Steve is proud that he was able to do the Remix of “New Year’s Day” within 15 minutes. Steve has high regards for Bono and his ability to market his band. He believes that U2 has the power of making use of their inadequacies to their advantage. War, one of the best albums produced by U2, contained all the major ingredients for success of an album like commitment, passion and the power of music.

Ireland’s spiritual singing group Clannad is preparing for comeback to the spot light. The group member Sally Williams remembers the help of Bono in creating the super hit song “In a Life Time” by lending his unique voice about 20 years ago. Now, the Irish band is visiting Wales as part of their first U.K tour, but the fans will miss the U2 lead singer with this group. Bono was never comfortable in giving the live performance of this hit song said vocalist and guitarist Duggan.

The Clannad’s has performed it in Top of the Pops without Bono. Duggan informed that Bono is not ready to sing it because he feels that he doesn’t possess the voice to sing it anymore. In this U.K tour, the singer Bryan Kennedy is expected to perform it in Belfast. Duggan says that Bono is a real down to earth kind of man and he is very proud of his friend. The group Clannad consists of Duggan, his niece, Moya Brennan the lead singer, Ciaran Brennan and Padraig, Duggan’s twin brother. Duggan is now 60 years and still loves to perform on stage. The come back concert will give a rare chance for their fans to hear all the chart breaking songs.

The lead singer of the famous rock band U2, Bono, who is always in the news, has said that the new album that the U2 band is recording in their Dublin studio will be totally uncompromising as well as a far-reaching album. Bono said that he could not reveal much about the album right now, but opined that the album that the U2 band is currently producing will be no less than a great album. He says that the new album will be enjoyed by both the young and the old alike and that the band is working day in and day out to produce an album that is totally extraordinary.

Bono is pretty confident that the new album will definitely shock many people once it is released. Bono has hinted that the upcoming album will have Moroccan influence in some songs and also said that the listeners can feel a bit of the trance and the metal in the album. Bono felt that this new album will bring a few people on to the dance floor. The producer of the U2’s new album has confirmed that the Irish rockers have already started work on the follow up of the U2’s 2004 album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

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.

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.