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Yahoomc: The moment has arrived!
Yahoomc: Bono is joining us LIVE!!!
bono_live: Help! I'm at Adam Clayton's
40th birthday, and, as they say in Dublin, I have drink taken!
bono_live: Everybody, the whole band, is here, and a lot of friends, a
lot of people we've grown up with, a lot of
people from the family, Elana Christensen, Daniel Lanois...
bono_live: Just a lot of people here, and I might not be making much
sense because we have been
celebrating since midday and it's now about 10 PM, so patience..!
bono_live: Adam, oddly enough, is the only one not drinking! He's
resting, having a bit of a sleep.
bono_live: Edge is about two feet from me now, he's down on his hands
and knees with a screwdriver
drinking to make sure that the telephones work.
bono_live: Gavin Friday is here, Googie, Dick Evans, all the people
from the family, if you like.
magnus_sjoeholm asks: I was a bit surprised when I heard
that the film really was on it’s way. I must
have heard about this title and you writing it, several years ago. Has
it been a long process from idea
to finished product or is it just as it always is? Have you been
involved a lot during the process or
did you just leave the script and left?
bono_live: Originally the Million Dollar Hotel was to be a
stage play.
bono_live: Set on the roof, in the lobby and one room of the Million
Dollar Hotel.
bono_live: The Million DOllar Hotel, if you don't already know, is a
real place, still operational.
bono_live: In the twenties it was the swankiest hotel in Los Angeles.
bono_live: In the Golden Era of Hollywood, it was the place to be.
bono_live: Now it's a halfway house for a lot of different kinds of
folk.
bono_live: People who have come to LA and who need reasonable
accomodation at a reasonable price.
backstage_guest: sebastian
bono_live: There are some people who would not fit in with most hotel
management policies - they're pimps,hookers...
bono_live: Some of the outcasts.
bono_live: I discovered it in 1988.
bono_live: Began the story on the roof. WHile I was talking with Edge.
bono_live: The idea was about a character who jumps off the roof...
bono_live: The first line of the movie is "After I jumped, it occurred
to me. Life is perfect. Life is the best. It's full of magic and
beauty, opportunity."
bono_live: And from that opening line began the script.
yahoomusic: How did Wim Wenders get involved?
bono_live: Usually I'm used to singing
our own songs.
bono_live: To write a song for somebody else to sing was a new
experience for me.
bono_live: My thinking was, if you are going to give your song to
somebody else to sing make sure it's Frank Sinatra.
bono_live: Or Miles Davis.
bono_live: Well Wim Wenders is both.
bono_live: In the audio visual world he's Frank Sinatra and Miles Davis.
bono_live: I hooked him by asking for his advice on the script.
bono_live: WHat did he think?
bono_live: Did he think I had something going here?
bono_live: And the more he read, the more he felt disappointed that he
wasn't involved.
bono_live: It was a trap, and I set it.
bono_live: And he fell into it.
Sinatra121215 asks: Bono, what did Frank Sinatra mean to you
and do you ever think there will be
fitting tribute to him?
bono_live: I love Frank Sinatra. I loved
singing with him. I wrote a song with Edge for him called Too Shots Of
Happy One Shot of Sad.
bono_live: He never covered the song.
bono_live: But I sang it into his ear one night in a Mexican restaurant
in Palm Springs.
bono_live: He could outdrink, outtalk, out maneuver most Irish, and
most Irish people, in fact most people.
bono_live: He's the reason I swore and used bad language at the
Grammy's in 1990-something, after he fixed me a very, very, very,very
strong drink,
bono_live: There will never be a tribute that could equal the man.
bono_live: Interestingly enough, I rode with him once in a limousine.
bono_live: We were being filmed from the passenger seat.
bono_live: When Frank leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Bono, roll
down the window about an inch".
bono_live: I rolled down the window about an inch and I looked at him.
bono_live: Like, What are you getting at Frank?
bono_live: And he said, you need some fill, not just key lighting. It's
an Irish face.
bono_live: And I burst out laughing to think that Frank Sinatra, even
in his late seventies as he was then, was art directing an Irish pop
star.
bono_live: And he was actually trying to make me look -- he was
lighting me!
joyce_ic asks: What do you sing in the shower?
bono_live: Joyce, I do sing in the
shower. I sing in the bath. Like my father and his father.
bono_live: I wake up pretty much every morning with a smile on my face.
bono_live: Sometimes I struggle to keep it there.
bono_live: BUt in the shower, which is a natural echo chamber, I sing
like I never have sung on a record.
bono_live: But the way I always try to sing on records.
bono_live: Completely bollocks naked!
amibugginyou asks: Hi Bono, I was just wondering, was there
any particular reason for not releasing
Ground Beneath Her Feet as a single? And is there a chance that any
other song from the MDH
soundtrack (Stateless perhaps) will be released as a single?
bono_live: The record label, as much as
they love Ground Beneath Her Feet, as much as they love the
soundtrack to the MDH, are afraid that people will think it's the next
U2 album.
bono_live: So, we've had to make it's release very discrete.
bono_live: I understand this.
bono_live: Having been through passengers in 1997 or 1998, but never
the less, I'm disappointed because the Ground Beneath Her Feet is such
an extraordinary song.
bono_live: I think it would do well in the pop charts.
bono_live: But on another level, it's incredible to me and the band
that it's so popular without being
commercially released.
bono_live: That there is so much interest in this soundtrack album.
bono_live: In fact the soundtrack album has had better reviews than any
U2 album.
bono_live: It's something all of us are very proud of, but we
understand it's got to be a quiet release because the next U2 album is
going to be very noisy.
bono_live: It's bursting with vitality and life force.
yahoomusic: When should we expect the next U2 record?
bono_live: Our problem is that we love starting things and hate finishing them. We have 15 of the best U2 songs ever written. But we get bored with the technical side of things, like finishing the lyrics. But in the next two months we've committed to choosing the best 10 or 12 songs and to have them out by September-October of this year.
rockstar_79 asks: I've heard that the forthcoming U2 album
is a return to a more acoustic style. Any
truth to that, or are you going to make us wait and see?
bono_live: We have no reverse gears on
our tank.
bono_live: So the idea of "a return" to basics is not on the cards.
bono_live: We advance towards simplicity.
bono_live: We advance towards a stripped down sound.
bono_live: That is the essence of U2.
bono_live: On pop we're interested in assimilating the music we were
all listening to in clubs, at home, at
house parties...
bono_live: with the music U2 made as a band.
bono_live: On this record, it's not about assimilation, it's about
differentiation.
bono_live: Stressing the differences between dance music, club culture,
and being in a band.
bono_live: There is stuff that we can do that no DJ can touch.
bono_live: And vica versa.
bono_live: It was a DJ, Howie B, who was listening to us rehearse on
the last tour, who kept reminding us how unique the band was.
bono_live: ANd how we didn't need to connect with a hip hop or a dance
audience. That within both, there was a U2 audience.
bono_live: That U2 was an original of the species at a time of karaoke,
at a time of parody and pastiche.
bono_live: That gave us the confidence to make this next record.
bono_live: A record I don't have a name for.
bono_live: But I dare anyone to make a better rock record this year.
bono_live: What do you think Edge? Edge says, Right on!
bono_live: Daniel Lanois, what do you think? I'm going to put you onto
Daniel Lanois? As Bob Marley would say, he's the dread at the controls.o
bono_live: Don't ask too personal questions....
bono_live: D. Lanois: Hello! We're here celebrating!
bono_live: I guess we have something to live up to after that comment!
We're well on our way!
bono_live: We certainly are going to give it our best, we have a lot of
inspiration already in play, and now we need to flesh them out.
bono_live: It's usually a combination of fun and hard work.
bono_live: We've had fun, we have more hard work ahead of us.
yahoomusic: Are you going for a very specific sound on this album?
bono_live: Personally, I'm very selfish
about the approach. I wanted to make sure we heard Larry on the record.
bono_live: The presence of hand played drums is very important in these
times of canned beats and easy access to them.
bono_live: What's become a rare commodity is the presence of humanity
and the feeling of people in a room playing off each other.
bono_live: We want to make sure we get that. Of course, the technology
is there and is part of the
technologoy.
bono_live: But when you got four people in a room who can give it hell,
we want to get it on the hard drive!
bono_live: Bono has gone to the bathroom, here's Edge!
Yahoomc: Edge is joining us now...
bono_live: Edge: Hello?!?
bono_live: Edge: I'm very, very excited about the work. I think it's
some of the best things we've done in many, many years. And I'm just
dying to finish the record and get it out there.
bono_live: Adam is 40 today, he's the first grown up in the band!
bono_live: We got him a piece of art, made by an Irish artist, Louis
Lebrocquay.
luvu2abe asks: Hey Edge, was imitating Neil Diamond the highlight of Popmart for you?
bono_live: Edge: Good question! The
highlight of the tour was playing Sarejevo. I met Neil Diamond in the
lift in New York.
bono_live: I was leaving the 23rd floor heading for the ground floor,
he got on at 17.
bono_live: And I was dumbstruck.
bono_live: We both got out at the ground floor, but I traveled 17
floors with him in the elevator and couldn't pluck up the courage to
say anything to him. Not a word!
sah383steve asks: Hey Edge, your singing is good nowadays. Lessons?
bono_live: Edge: LOL! I had about 20
years lessons watching Bono.
bono_live: I'm back to the beanie hat at the moment.
crissyboylan_90210 asks: Edge, do have a new signature hat these days?
bono_live: I'm back to the beanie hat at
the moment.
Yahoomc: Bono is rejoining us now...
Bonofyd asks: Bono, first I'd like to thank you for all that
you do for humanity. I'm sure it's being
noted... Anyway, how is the World Debt gig going? Any progress?
Anything I can do?
bono_live: With regards to debt
cancellation that I've been involved with the last couple of years, it
has gone beyond my own wildest dreams.
bono_live: In the United States on Wednesday of this last week, a
committee of six Republicans and five Democrats recommended
unanimously, to drop the debt for the US of 41 of the poorest countries
in the world.
bono_live: Which is an increase of five from where we stood the week
before.
bono_live: Italy, Canada, Norway, the UK, everybody is rising to the
challenge.
bono_live: Of the Millenium year.
bono_live: I can assure you that by the end, by December, we will
definitely have cancelled billion of debt.
bono_live: If things keep going this way, maybe twice that.
bono_live: The way you can help is by calling your local congressman,
politiican, MP, and telling them this is important to you.
bono_live: By beautiful wife Ali has just walked into the room. I'm
going to pass you to Anton Corbin, who, more than anyone knows, has
designed the way U2 look, and sadly - feel!
bono_live: Here he is!
bono_live: Anton: Hello everybody!
yahoomusic: Hey Anton do you have a website?
bono_live: Anton: The website is
designed, but I'm a little slow in making the text for it. It will be
up by the first of April.
bono_live: The address is www.corbijn.co.uk
yahoomusic: are you working on any film projects at the moment?
bono_live: I am just doing photography, I
have a large exhibition coming up of 25 years of photography. Bono is
doing the opening.
bono_live: On the 8th of April, in Holland, in a museum called
Groninger Museum in Groninger.
keerwallis asks: Anton, which is your favourite photo of the band?
bono_live: It's hard, because different
periods have different favorites. But the museum will have a separate
room of 18 years of photography of Bono and the band.
bono_live: I think the highlight is a photo of Bono in a golf cart in
Mexico with a haircut like Robert Deniro in Taxi Driver.
The_Ryan_King asks: Anton, will U2 have a new look on this tour?
bono_live: We are still discussing that.
bono_live: But I've worked with them now for 18 years. Which is, I
think, in music photography unique. I've never heard of a photographer
who worked for this long a time with a particular band.
bono_live: And I'm very grateful for it. They've allowed me to grow
within their framework.
bono_live: Adam is here!
bono_live: Hi this Bono, Adam won't actually pick up the phone...
celia_from_eze asks: I'm reading Rushdie's book at the
moment : what stroke you most : the pop
world in which it was set or the identfication of great pop artists
with the myth of Orpheus ?
bono_live: Good question. What I was
surprised by in the novel was not the minutia, the detail, of the so
called Pop Life, which was pretty good considering Salman Rushdie is
not known to hang out at raves or own a Marshall stack.
bono_live: But what he captured was the heady confusion between the
real and the surreal, between the imagined and the actual.
bono_live: Of a songwriter's and performer's world.
bono_live: This is really impressive.
bono_live: And believe me, I would love to tell him if he flunked.
bono_live: Somebody has just walked in and poured me a glass of
wine...one of the most beautiful women I've ever met...she happens to
be my wife....I'm a lucky man!
nooga01 asks: Bono, you've had great success in your
campaigns lately. Does it make you feel
uneasy that your voice is stronger that any politician, who is elected
to look after their people?
bono_live: Well, I have a new found
respect for politicians. I think they work very hard. They're not as
corrupt as I thought. They'd make much more money if they went into
business, a lot of them.
bono_live: ANd - shock, horror - a lot of them genuinely see their role
as public service.
bono_live: The boring thing about them is their lack of imagination.
bono_live: THat's where we come in.
bono_live: At first I thought musicians, artists, novelists, painters
should not be in the same company. Now I think we need each other.
bono_live: In fact, as an Irishman, I've learned the importance of such
connections in the success of Ireland coming out from under the hoof of
colonization and Great Britain.
bono_live: It was painters, poets, that gave us a sense of who we were.
bono_live: We are part of the family.
bono_live: Politicians shut us out at their peril.
ms_pitstop asks: Will you be running for mayor of Dublin
when you retire from your position of
international rock god?
bono_live: I wouldn't move to a smaller
house!
bono_live: Adam is unable to come to the phone himself, because he's
dressed in pajamas somebody gave him as a birthday gift. The Hugh
Hefner Playboy look is not something I'd recommend!
bono_live: But he's beaming from ear to ear...
PopUlrick asks: is Israel Goldkiss a symbolic character that
represents in the film the person of
Jesus Christ? Because the film says , speaking of israel, that his life
was like shit but his death
seemed to bring everybody together?
bono_live: It's an interesting question.
But Israel, Izzy as he's known in the movie, is more Barrabas than
Jesus. Tom Tom is the Christ-like character, the accidental Christ.
bono_live: Tom Tom played by Jeremy Davies, is the one who loves
Eloise, played by Milla Jarovich so
purely, that the bruises and callouses of abuse that she has suffered
in her past, seem to melt away under his gaze.
Miss_Terious_Ways asks: Did you have any specific actors in mind when writing the script?
bono_live: No. In fact, when Wim Winders
called me and said Milla Jarovich would be his choice for Eloise I was
nervous.
bono_live: I thought to myself, she's too beautiful, she's a model,
she's a super model, she won't be believable in downtown LA on 5th and
Main. She'd look like she was just slumming it.
bono_live: It's a credit to her as an actor that that question never
comes to mind.
bono_live: She has the thing that makes a woman so beautiful. She's not
vain.
bono_live: Almost an impossible achievement for an actress.
bono_live: Who looks that good.
poloshore asks: How did Mel Gibson get involved?
bono_live: Mel Gibson heard about the
script through somebody who worked in his office, and he offered to be
our bodyguard, our 365 pound gorilla.
bono_live: His company, Icon, were prepared to pay for the making of
the movie.
bono_live: The cream on the cake was when Mel Gibson, not just a star
but a great actor, offered to play the role of Skinner, the detective.
bono_live: For considerably less than he's normally paid.
bono_live: A minor role, it's a much more michievious role than you've
ever seen him on the screen.
etrit asks: Your work for erasing debt is honorable. Are you
going to get involved in freeing political
prisoners as well, such as Kosovars in Serbia, Chinese dissidents, and
others?
bono_live: I've never thought of myself
as a celebrity.
bono_live: I like to believe that I'll be a rock n roll star as long as
I don't become a celebrity.
bono_live: So, if I'm going to throw a punch in a worthy direction, I
think carefully about it.
bono_live: The debt issue was an issue that affected almost a billion
people on this earth who live on less than a day.
bono_live: I'm involved in Amnesty International. We are, as a band,
involved with Greenpeace, but it is rare that you have a chance to
affect the lives of so many people.
bono_live: I couldn't walk away from this one.
bono_live: I think I'm getting too much credit for the success.
u2conga asks: Bono, what do you think of Pinochet returning to Chile?
bono_live: Pinochet, I have a lot of
thoughts. And having played in CHile in 1998. And having addressed Mr.
Pinochet directly from stage with the Mothers of the Disappeared
standing behind me, live on national television, we asked him a simple
question.
bono_live: Where, tell us at least where, are the bodies buried? We
know you can't bring them back to life. But you alone can tell us, can
tell us, can tell these mothers where their sons are buried.
bono_live: God alone is your judge, but you alone can give them can
give them a corner of peace. Why won't you?
yahoomusic: Are you still involved with Amnesty?
bono_live: Amnesty International is a
very practical and simple way of being politically effective.
bono_live: You send a stamped addressed postcard of your point of view
to a political prisoner, saying we know where you are and we won't
forget you.
bono_live: The more that arrive, the better the conditions that the
prison rewards the prisoner.
bono_live: It is a remarkable thing to think that we can, if we get up
off our ass, change the world.
bono_live: Make it better.
bono_live: For more people.
bono_live: It's laughable people will point their finger at you as you
walk down the street, it's extremely
unfashionable and unhip, but it's true.
paceyloverinthehouse asks: bono, do u believe that aliens exist ?
bono_live: I'm going to pass you onto
Helena Christiansen who is the nearest thing....
bono_live: Helena: If we exist they probably do too. Do we exist
though?!?
yahoomusic: What did you get Adam for his birthday?
bono_live: I got him a pajamas. Really
comfortable pajamas, and silk slippers.
bono_live: He got three pairs of pajamas, and three hammocks. HE's a
very lucky guy!
hargreae asks: Helena, what's your favorite U2 song?
bono_live: It was on Red, Hot and Blue, and October. Oh, God, I can go on, but I must say Night and Day, that was the most beautiful version of that song ever.
randy_greencorn asks: Helena, what have you been up to lately?
bono_live: Well I had a baby! So that's
what I've been up to lately. And I have been up - all night long!
bono_live: Five months now!
bono_live: This is my first night away from him.
y_boland asks: Helena - have you ever had a broken heart like normal girls?
bono_live: LOL! Oh, yes, have I ever!
bono_live: I mean suffered.
bono_live: But it's a good thing, especially when you do meet the one
you do feel is your soul mate, it mends all the broken hearts.
ethan_strange asks: Helen....How do you describe the U2 guys all togheter....crazy kids?
bono_live: Helena: They can be both. They
can be totally crazy, like kids hanging around, they are very honest
and real guys.
bono_live: It's always a joy being around them, their wives and
friends, a great bunch of people.
bono_live: THey can also be serious, and you can have wonderful
conversations with them. They are very intelligent and very
knowledgeable.
bmohin asks: Do you believe in love at first site?
bono_live: Helena: LOL! Yeah, I do. If it happens, then I definitely believe in it. Sometimes it just happens. It took two hours with my boyfriend, so I think that's pretty much at first sight.
babyirisheyes asks: What did you name your baby?
bono_live: Helena: Mingus.
bono_live: Mingus Lucien Reedus.
bono_live: Helena: Mingus is for jazz musician, CHarles Mingus, the
bass player.
bono_live: Helena: I'm heading home, thank you, this is the first time
I've ever had anything to do with the internet!
bono_live: Bono: Hi all!
bono_live: I just passed Adam, I said, Adam, you're 40, do you have
anything to say?
bono_live: And he said, obscurely, How long do I have to sing this song?
kid_cyber_rock asks: Did you reaaly write the "sweetest
thing" because you forgot your
anniversary?
bono_live: It's close to the truth, not exactly the truth.
rafiki_84047 asks: bono, do you ever sell your art
bono_live: No. I love to paint. I don't
think it's just the fumes, but it might be.
bono_live: My best friend, Googie, is one of the best painters in
Ireland right now.
bono_live: My father was a great painter.
bono_live: Tonight we had one of the greatest painters, Louis
Lebraquay, who gave Adam this incredible tapestry he designed.
dirtgirl asks: bono, have you given up anything for lent?
bono_live: Do you all know about the
Christian practice of Lent? After the carnival - carne means meat,
flesh, the celebration of the flesh, then Lent comes, the denial of the
flesh.
bono_live: You give up something you love in order that when Easter
comes, after 40 days, it comes back at you with new appreciation. I was
following Lent until this afternoon.
bono_live: I have fallen off the wagon the world wide web. I'm sure God
will forgive me, I hope the rest of you will be as gracious.
bono_live: Thank you!!
yahoomusic: And Thank You Bono!
yahoomusic: That was absolutely amazing!
yahoomusic: That's all we have time for today!
yahoomusic: Thanks for all of your wonderful questions!
yahoomusic: there were sooo many of them...we're sorry we couldn't have
answered them all.
bonorome asks: BYE BONO
tweezer63 asks: Hey YahooMusic -- can we get a copy of the
chat..?
yahoomusic: You know you can tweezers!
yahoomusic: the transcript for the event will be posted in the next
couple hours
yahoomusic: in the transcripts section of Yahoo! Chat
yahoomusic: Thanks for checking out our chat with Bono
yahoomusic: and be sure to check out the movie,
yahoomusic: Million Dollar Hotel
yahoomusic: co-written and produced by Bono
yahoomusic: and directed by lengendary Wim Wenders
yahoomusic: The Soundtrack to the movie
yahoomusic: will be realesed in the US
yahoomusic: on March 14
yahoomusic: on Interscope Records
yahoomusic: The soundtrack features songs by Bono
yahoomusic: and by U2
yahoomusic: for more information on it
yahoomusic: visit the website
yahoomusic: www.milliondollarhotel.com
yahoomusic: you can listen to the audio
yahoomusic: and get additional info
yahoomusic: on the Million Dollar Band
yahoomusic: and guest performers
yahoomusic: such as Brian Eno
yahoomusic: Daniel Lanois
yahoomusic: Milla Jovovich
yahoomusic: and others!
yahoomusic: thanks for joinung us chatters
yahoomusic: we hope you've had as much fun as we have!
yahoomusic: as always stay tuned to yahoo! chat for all the biggest and
best celebrity chats