Bits & Bytes

A collection of the latest U2 news and announcements posted by our staff.

Bono, Edge Doing Radio Rounds

Bono and Edge have been making the rounds on radio this week to promote the upcoming Australia/New Zealand tour dates. Today ... well, tomorrow, actually -- Sept. 3rd -- they did a short chat with New Zealand's The Rock radio. Edge talks about playing new songs on tour and the likelihod that "One Tree Hill" will be in the set list when the tour reaches Auckland. Bono says he's feeling better. You can listen on The Rock's web site here.

There's also some comedy in there, but not nearly as much as earlier in the week when Bono and Edge did a longer interview on Australian radio. Head on over to U2log.com to hear those clips.

Good luck to all the fans down under looking for tickets. The public on-sale begins in less than an hour. If you don't find what you're looking for, you can always post in our Ticket Sales/Trades board on the @U2 Forum.

@U2 Originals: August

Edge Joins Stand Up To Cancer Telethon

Edge is listed as one of the musical performers for next week's Stand Up To Cancer telethon. The one-hour event is scheduled for September 10th at 8:00 pm ET/PT and will be aired on all major U.S. TV networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) and many cable networks, too, in 195 countries.

We don't know if Edge's participation will actually be live; U2 have a day off on September 10 and are due to perform the following night in Zurich.

Edge has been a board member of the Angiogenesis Foundation, an organization dedicated to fighting cancer and other diseases, since 2007. In 2009, Edge revealed in an interview that his family had a "brush with cancer a couple of years ago." Though he didn't specifically say so, many have assumed he was referring to his daughter's illness that was discovered in late 2004.

Stand Up To Cancer says that one hundred percent of the donations at next week's fund raiser will go directly to cancer research.

@U2 Question of the Month: September 2010

Welcome to @U2's Question of the Month for September 2010: What would the ideal U2 fan club "free gift" CD or DVD contain? This question was submitted by @U2 reader Lance Schart.

Please send your responses to atu2.com@gmail.com by September 15. We'll post your answers -- and a new question -- on October 7.

Want to see what QOM is all about? Check out the responses to previous Questions of the Month in our News Database. And keep these guidelines in mind:

• Share your own experiences, not your friend's or some random stranger's. Also, a lot of people might read your answer if we post it on @U2, so please keep that in mind if you're sharing personal information.
• Please tell us your full name.
• Since we don't know how many responses we'll get, we can't promise to publish them all. You can improve your chances by being specific, personal and brief (200 words or less is best). We reserve the right to edit for grammar, spelling and length.

QOM -- where @U2 turns the spotlight on you!

U2 Set List: Vienna, Austria, August 30, 2010

U2 was back on stage tonight after a five-day break in the tour schedule. They played in Vienna, Austria, and the day's events were much less dramatic than everything surrounding last week's show in Moscow. You can see the full set list on U2tours.com, and if you were at the show, that's where you can post your review and/or photos.

Bono and Ali Appear in Louis Vuitton Ad

A "Core Values" campaign launched by fashion giant Louis Vuitton features a spread with Edun co-founders Bono and Ali Hewson.

They wear their own Edun label apparel in the ad, which reflects a new partnership between the line and the LMVH group. The photo was taken by legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz and will appear in several magazines and newspapers this fall.

Bono and Ali did not receive payment for appearing in the ads -- they donated their fees to the Chernobyl Children's Project International, Conservation Cotton Initiative and TechnoServe, which fosters enterprise in the developing world.

To learn more, follow this link.

Update: U2miracle.com has found and put a video on YouTube showing scenes from the photo shoot for this ad.

August Forum Recap

August has been another busy month with the band returning to the stage. While that is huge news in and of itself, the @U2 forum is now the place to be if you are looking to sell, buy or trade U2 tickets at face value only. You must be a member of the forum to participate or even see that portion of the forum. Once you've joined, click here. If U2 has returned to the stage, you can bet the set list is a topic of discussion. You can find one such example here. When Bono revealed that the band were working on four different projects at one time, it didn't take long for that topic to pick up steam.

We'd love to hear your opinion on these and other topics on the forum where a strong sense of community exists among the members. Why aren't you a part of it?

U2, NASA Collaborate on Video

U2 and NASA have had a partnership of sorts throughout the course of the U2 360 tour, with several live linkups to the International Space Station during concerts, a visit to Mission Control in Houston, and more. That relationship is celebrated in a new video made available today. It shows lots of live concert footage that you've probably never seen before, as well as a couple scenes from the band's rehearsals with the ISS crew. The video runs more than 14 minutes, but is worth the time. We've embedded it below. You can also download an HD version at NASA's web site.

U2 Ticket Swaps in Our Forum

Just a quick note that we've added a new section to the @U2 Forum: U2 Tickets - Buy/Sell/Trade. This is for registered forum users only, so you won't even see it if you click that link and you're not registered. You can post tickets that you're selling, tickets you're looking to buy, or tickets you want to trade. Face value only, of course. Be sure to read the rules for using that section before you post.

Music of Ireland, Part 2 features U2

U2 is featured in part two of the Music of Ireland documentary, which is coming to public TV stations in the U.S. this fall. Part one of the documentary debuted earlier this year and ended with U2 just starting out on its rise to international recognition. That's where part two of the documentary picks up the story. Bono and Adam are interviewed for the program, which also features live footage of U2 and friends performing at last year's An Evening with Gavin Friday and Friends concert.

Barnes & Noble stores will be selling CD and DVDs of the two-part documentary beginning next Tuesday, August 31st.

U2 Set List: Moscow, Russia, August 25, 2010

U2's first show in Russia is in the books, and while there were some problems outside the stadium before the show, the fans inside the stadium seemed thrilled to finally see U2 in their home country. In front of a new audience, U2 dropped all but one of the unreleased songs they've been playing and played more classics than normal. There was, however, a big surprise -- and a guest on stage -- near the end of the show. You can read all about that on U2tours.com, and if you were at the show, you can also post a review and photos there.

Police Incident Before U2's Moscow Concert

We're seeing reports via Twitter that police shut down booths/tables belonging to some of U2's favorite humanitarian groups before tonight's concert in Moscow, and that one volunteer may have been arrested.

This Greenpeace Russia blog post seems to be saying that information tents belonging to Greenpeace, the ONE Campaign, and Amnesty International were closed by police, who said that volunteers "staged a picket" unlawfully (via Google Translate) outside the concert. The post says that Bono has been informed and that U2 is "perplexed" over what happened.

There were articles in Russian media this week saying that 2,100 police officers and Interior Ministry troops would be handling security and, indeed, many of the fan photos being posted from inside the stadium (like the one above right from @kardanik) show security almost everywhere you look.

Update: This story from Gazeta.ru says "several" Amnesty International activists who were holding up signs with humanitarian slogans were detained.

Update #2: Amnesty International has posted this explanation of what happened before the U2 concert. Here's an excerpt:

Although no-one resisted the police's demands to close down the Amnesty International stall, Amnesty's Moscow office staff member and four volunteers were taken to a local police station. They were ordered to provide a written explanation for their actions, issued with an official warning for organizing a public action for which no prior official permission had been obtained, and released over an hour later.