Tag: U2

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Musique

U2 announces new dates

U2 lead singer and frontman Bono is still recovering from emergency back surgery. His injury forced the cancellation of several North American shows and thousands of fans were left holding tickets.

There is news today that fans will have to hold on to those tickets for a whole year. The North American leg of the 360 Tour will begin next year on May 21 in Denver and end on July 23 in Minneapolis.

U2 is returning to Canada for four shows in 2011. They will play the Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton on June 1, two shows at the Hippodrome in Montreal on July 8 and 9 and, finally, the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on July 11.

The European leg of the tour is still on this year and kicks off August 6 in Turin, Italy.

If there are fans out there who don’t feel like holding on to their U2 ticket for a year, a refund is available at the point of purchase.

 

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Musique

Simon & Garfunkel cancel tour

Billboard reports the duo Simon and Garfunkel announced on their website that their upcoming summer tour is on hold indefinitely.

Art Garfunkel is continuing to recover from a vocal paresis, a serious condition that affects the vocal chords. He is expected to make a full recovery but the duo is not rescheduling any dates just yet.

Simon & Garfunkel were supposed to play a number of shows in Canada and the United States in April. Those shows were postponed until July and now have been put on ice completely.

Art Garfunkel sends his apologies to fans: "I do feel bad about disrupting so many people’s plans but, as I continue to mend, I can’t yet bring my ‘A Game’ to a tour, and I would not perform for you with anything less."

Last year, Simon & Garfunkel toured Australia, New Zealand and Japan. They appeared alongside Bruce Springsteen, U2 and Eric Clapton at the 25th anniversary concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame held at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Before that, the last time the North American public saw Simon & Garfunkel live was in 2003.

 

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Musique

U2 loses nearly $150 million

Sometimes people wonder why concert tickets are so expensive. Numbers released by U2 manager Paul McGuinness shed a bit of light on the massive sums that certain bands shell out during a tour.

U2 will lose around $150 million since it was forced to postpone the North American leg of its 360o tour after singer and frontman Bono underwent emergency back surgery.

The manager reveals, "If we play or not, touring still costs us £500,000 a day."

A member of the group’s entourage adds: "Bono and the band are covered by insurance but the cost of overheads and missed revenue could easily reach £100 million by the time he’s fit enough to tour again."

U2 will be announcing some new dates in 2011 to replace the shows that had to be cancelled this year.

In the meantime, Bono is making a speedy recovery from his back surgery. He was spotted last week driving himself to dinner with friends in France, near the villa where he is recuperating.

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Potins

Bono is out and about

U2 lead singer Bono is back on his feet and seems to be recovering well from emergency surgery he underwent last month, Orange News reports.

The musician was spotted dining out in the south of France where he is recuperating.

U2 was forced to postpone the North American part of its 360o tour after the singer was rushed to hospital for emergency back surgery.

U2 also had to cancel its headlining performance at the 40th Glastonbury Festival on June 25.

Bono is now recovering at a luxurious villa in France. He proved Tuesday (June 8) that things are going well health-wise by driving himself to La Voile d’Or hotel in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat to share a meal with friends.

It was his first public appearance since the surgery.

Bono is supposed to take eight weeks to recuperate, until July 19. All U2 concerts up to this date were postponed until sometime in 2011.

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Musique

New Interpol album coming

New York’s Interpol was supposed to open for U2 this summer at several of its North America shows, including two in Montreal. The show goes on for the band without U2 now that Bono needs to recover from back surgery. Interpol is also working on its next album that should be released sometime in September.

Interpol must now cope without bassist Carlos D who just announced his departure from the group. The band recorded with Dave Pajo, a bassist formerly with Slint, and the songs will appear on its upcoming eponymous album. The lack of a title on this new album reflects Interpol’s new beginning without one of its most recognizable faces.

The album was recorded at the Electric Ladyland studio in New York. The studio was founded by none other than Jimi Hendrix. The rock legend recorded the third of his three albums with The Experience there, the infamous Electric Ladyland.

The studio has seen many of music’s biggest names pass through its doors, including Led Zeppelin, John Lennon, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, The Clash and David Bowie, to name just a few.

The group produced the album themselves. According to singer and head guitarist Paul Banks, this album will have an orchestral side and marks a return to the darker sound of their first release, Turn On The Bright Lights, that came out in 2002. That debut album was received very favourably by critics.

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Musique

U2 postpones North American tour

Bad news for hundreds of thousands of U2 fans this morning (May 25). The band has postponed the entire North American leg of its 360o tour following lead singer Bono’s back operation last week.

The singer will be in full recovery mode for the next eight weeks. This means that all shows originally planned between June 3 and July 19, 2010 are not happening. Tour promoter Live Nation announced these concerts will be rescheduled for some time in 2011.

Four Canadian shows are affected. Fans should cross the following dates off their calendar: June 23 at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, July 3 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, and July 16 and 17 at the Hippodrome in Montreal. Redeveloping that location to add additional seating will cost the group around $3 million.

U2 also had to bow out of participating at the Glastonbury Festival. It was supposed to headline the 40th edition of this festival on June 25. Coldplay is rumoured to be a possible replacement.

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Musique

The best album of the last 25 years

Popular U.S. music magazine Spin is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. It compiled a list of the best albums of the last 25 years.

The coveted best album prize was awarded to Achtung Baby, U2’s seventh studio album released in November, 1991. Recorded in Dublin, Ireland and Berlin, Germany just after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this  album relaunched U2’s fortunes after the not-so-successful Rattle and Hum.

Second place on Spin‘s list went to Prince’s Sign O’ The Times. The album came out during the magazine’s infancy in 1987. The double album was Prince’s ninth release in nine years.

The Smiths grabbed third spot with their album The Queen Is Dead (1986), followed by Nirvana’s Nevermind (1991). Radiohead landed in fifth place with OK Computer (1997). This is the most recent album among the Top 10. Outkast’s Stankonia (2000) is the first album made in the new millennium to make the list. It ranked #12.

The list of the best 25 albums of the last 25 years appears in a special June edition of Spin magazine.

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Musique

Talk about an evolution

Rapper Jay-Z wants his shows to be more visual than hip hop shows normally offer. The mega star gets rave reviews on all his studio releases and his numerous collaborations but feels something is missing. Jay-Z wants to push the live performance envelope and see how far he can go.

Live hip hop show and great performance are not usually found in the same sentence. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Jay-Z talked about where he looked for inspiration: "In hip-hop, there’s not many great performers. I look outside the genre, measuring myself against others. I look at Madonna’s production and envy that."

He goes on to say: "Daft Punk’s set, I’m like, what the. . . . And I look at the way U2 can command an audience. Bono’s a performer pretty much like I am. He’s not a dancer; he’s not jumping around. He’s having a conversation. He’s using his stillness as movement."

The rapper will be performing at a few festivals in England this summer. He wants to make a favourable impression on people who may not have heard his music before. He is thinking about ways to improve his stage presence.

Jay-Z summed up his thoughts: "If you want to be a headliner, you better put on a headline show."

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Potins

Bono buys Facebook shares

U2 frontman Bono invested $90 million US in the popular Facebook social network site through his private equity firm, Elevation Partners.

The Irish singer secretly bought 1% of Facebook shares at the end of 2009, for a reported $20 per share.

Bono is a co-founder of California-based Elevation Partners, an investment fund worth $1.8 billion that specializes in media and entertainment.

Bono hopes that this investment will enable Elevation to regain some value following some unsuccessful investments.

One of those major bombs was a $460 million investment in 2007 to obtain shares of smart phone maker Palm Inc. The downtown in the global economy caused share prices of this company to drop by 35%. 

Last month, editors at the financial journal 24/7 Wall Street gave Bono the dubious title of Worst Investor in America. They based their choice on "an unprecedented string of disastrous investments which even bad luck could not explain." They also said that Elevation Partners is "arguably the worst run institutional fund of any size in the United States."

This investment in Facebook might cause editors at this journal to change their tune next year.

 

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Musique

Bon Jovi opens digital doors

It looks like U2 started a new trend when the band streamed its concert in Pasadena live online last October 25. Now more and more groups are following suit.

Bon Jovi announced its plans this week to stream one of its concerts live for fans. On the band’s website, a press release says, "Fans worldwide can tune in and rock out along with the group and their sold-out Texas audience, courtesy of a webcast powered by Ustream, the leader in live video. Along with four, live, streaming songs, this free concert webcast will also feature a special pre-taped concert reel that includes exciting footage of Kid Rock joining Bon Jovi on stage in Detroit, plus numerous Bon Jovi TV episodes."

Kid Rock is the artist opening for Bon Jovi on several dates during The Circle Tour this summer. That includes four stops in Canada. The press release also says: "Kid Rock will appear at … Rogers Centre in Toronto, ON; Canad Inns Stadium in Winnipeg, MB; Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, AB and Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field in Regina, SK."

The Sunday streamed show will be available to online fans on the band’s website (bonjovi.com) starting at 9pm EST.