As reported over at @u2, Steve Lillywhite has stated that the new album is finished. He says its their greatest work. And Edge is on fire and Bono’s never felt more alive. Time shall tell, kids.

It seems that the weekend of July 19 is the Aussie release date for the Boy, October and War remasters. Sanity has the standard formats available for preorder for $29.99 and the 2CD releases for $64.99 with a shipping date of July 19. In what is far better value, JB Hi FI is offering the 2CD releases for $54.99 with a ship date of July 18. If ordered online you will also get a free album badge.

While Bono spreads the word on Africa to the Japanese and the G8 Summit… and hams it up a little…

… we seem to be no closer to the new album- it can’t be finished can it?

In some good album related news U2.com have finally announced details of the July remastered releases of Boy, October, and War. We all know the tracklisting for the albums, but here are the details of the bonus material on the deluxe versions of the releases:

Boy Tracklisting:
1. I Will Follow (Previously Unreleased Mix) 2. 11 O’Clock Tick Tock 3.
Touch 4. Speed Of Life (Previously Unreleased Track) 5. Saturday Night
(Previously Unreleased Track) 6. Things To Make And Do 7. Out Of Control
8. Boy-Girl 9. Stories For Boys 10. Another Day 11. Twilight 12.
Boy-Girl (Live at The Marquee, London) 13. 11 O’Clock Tick Tock (Live at
The Marquee, London - Previously Unreleased Version) 14. Cartoon World
(Live at The National Stadium, Dublin - Previously Unreleased Track).

A 16 page booklet features unseen photos, lyrics and liner notes from Paul Morley. Edge,
who has overseen the remastering of the album, has contributed notes on
the bonus material.

October Tracklisting:

1. Gloria (Live at Hammersmith Palais, London) 2. I Fall Down (Live at Hammersmith Palais, London) 3. I Threw A Brick Through A Window (Live at Hammersmith Palais, London) 4. Fire (Live at Hammersmith Palais, London) 5. October (Live at Hammersmith Palais, London) 6. With A Shout (Richard Skinner BBC Session) 7. Scarlet (Richard Skinner BBC Session) 8. I Threw A Brick Through A Window (Richard Skinner BBC Session) 9. A Celebration 10. J. Swallo 11. Trash, Trampoline And The Party Girl 12. I Will Follow (Live at Paradise Theatre, Boston) 13. The Ocean (Live at Paradise Theatre, Boston) 14. The Cry/Electric Co. (Live at Paradise Theatre, Boston) 15. 11 O’Clock Tick Tock (Live at Paradise Theatre, Boston) 16. I Will Follow (Live From Hattem, Netherlands) 17. Tomorrow (Bono & Adam Clayton, Common Ground Remix).

Also includes a 32 page booklet with previously unseen photos, full lyrics, new liner notes by Neil McCormick, and explanatory notes on the bonus material by The Edge.

War Tracklisting:

1. Endless Deep 2. Angels Too Tied To The Ground (Previously Unreleased Track) 3. New Year’s Day (7” single edit) 4. New Year’s Day (USA Remix) 5. New Year’s Day (Ferry Corsten Extended Vocal Mix) 6. New Year’s Day (Ferry Corsten Vocal Radio Mix) 7. Two Hearts Beat As One (Long Mix) 8. Two Hearts Beat As One (USA Remix) 9. Two Hearts Beat As One (Club Version) 10. Treasure (Whatever Happened to Pete The Chop).

Also includes a 32 page booklet with previously unseen photos, full lyrics, new liner notes by Niall Stokes, and explanatory notes on the bonus material by The Edge.

From the ABC

A small flick went from refugee camp to red carpet as Sean Penn, backed by rock star Bono and filmmaker Michael Moore, brought an Australian aid worker’s tsunami film to the Cannes Film Festival overnight.

The politically-minded Penn won special agreement from the Cannes festival organisers for a special one-off red carpet screening of The Third Wave - a film he told the crowd was “as provocative and inspiring as anything I’ve ever seen.”

“In lieu of the fact that governments don’t seem to be able to help, this film gives an indication of how you can help yourself,” he said.

The Oscar-winning actor saw the film by Sydney-born Alison Thompson six months ago, but said that given the disasters currently unfolding in China and Burma, the film is “even more important now.”

Shot in 2004 in Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami that left some 170,000 people dead across Asia, The Third Wave recounts how Thompson and her partner Oscar Gubernati took off from New York with little more than a handful of dollars to try to help the victims.

Picking up a couple of extra pairs of hands, they headed for the coast with a van of supplies and stopped in the village of Peraliya, where 2,500 people had died, including hundreds travelling on a smashed train.

Thompson, who had basic first aid training, took care of the wounded as the team helped stunned survivors to begin clearing the chaos.

“People were too lethargic to clean up, doing a little bit kept people motivated,” one of the team said.

Week by week they dug toilets, collected corpses, played with children, built shelters, found food, got the school going and tried to restore morale.

By the third week, the volunteers numbered 10 as other Westerners signed on.

By week seven they were 40, including voluntary doctors.

The group was never financed, getting help from time to time from organised aid associations, who donated medicine or food, or from passers-by who left what cash they could.

“It was giving hope and reintroducing normalcy”, one volunteer in the film said.

By the time the group left after several months, 520 homes had been rebuilt with no organised outside financial help.

Penn saw the film on the behest of Czech model Petra Nemcova, who was in Thailand on holidays when the tsunami struck and survived by clinging to a tree as her fiance was swept to his death.

Funds raised by the film would go to Sri Lanka, Nemcova said.

Thompson, who was present at the screening, said she was hoping to go to Burma to help in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.

“If anyone wants to come, you can come and see me,” she said.

Former Australian Army engineer Donny Paterson was also in the first group of volunteer helpers.

“It’s easy to do … You don’t need great skills, only your heart.”

Penn heads the Cannes jury that will award this year’s coveted Palme d’Or prize for best film, and on day three of the world’s biggest film fest critics are already tipping the trophy could go to a film with a conscience.

From the Herald Sun

U23D, a full-length concert by the Irish musicians shot entirely in three dimensions, makes it cool to go to a rock concert in a pair of glasses.

Midway through U23D there is a stunning shot of Bono standing on a small stage in front of a sea of people holding aloft mobile phones.

The crowd stretches into the distance and spotlights beam down on the U2 frontman from an angle, with the impression of depth magnified by smoke drifting through the shafts of light.

It’s the perfect illustration of how 3D can turn an ordinary concert film into something spectacular. Co-director Catherine Owens, whose day job is being U2’s art director, says it’s one of her favourite moments in the film.

‘‘There’s also this fantastic shot where you’re zooming over Larry’s (Mullen Jr) drum kit and you get this incredible depth and then the camera pulls down and you can see the crowd in front of him,” Owens says.

‘‘And of course there’s the shot of Bono where he reaches out and it looks like he’s touching you.”

U23D is billed as the world’s first digital 3D live action movie — it was made before the recent Hannah Montana concert film — and was filmed during the South American leg of the Vertigo world tour in 2006.

Though it looks and feels very much like a single concert, U23D was actually made during seven dates with the close-ups filmed during a run-through of the concert played to an empty stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Owens says the band was determined to minimise the disruption for the fans who had shelled out their hard-earned cash for the concerts. ‘‘They don’t like to come the whole way to a country and have fans pay for tickets and have to look at the backs of cameras,” she says, adding that the concert run-through wasn’t actually played to no one.

‘‘U2’s rather large crew are there and then outside the stadium walls are all the kids who’ve been camped out for days on end, so we got some wonderful reactions from them out there in the dark.” Of the 24 songs that were shot, 14 made it into the finished film. They include newer hits Vertigo and Beautiful Day alongside classic U2 moments Sunday Bloody Sunday, One and Where the Streets Have No Name.

Though some songs were cut for technical reasons, Owens says the band was particularly ruthless in ditching songs in which they felt their performance wasn’t up to par.

‘‘Mysterious Ways, which we really, really wanted to include in our set list, the band never felt the performance was believable. With Bono it’s all about: ‘Do you believe these people? Do I believe that guy? Do I believe that drummer?’

‘‘We even lost the opening song of the tour, City of Blinding Lights, based on the fact the band felt the song just wasn’t taking off.”

Having toured with the band since 1992, Owens says if she could pick any U2 tour to film in 3D, she would have picked 1997’s PopMart. ‘‘It was such a holy extravaganza,” she says. ‘‘But in saying that, musically where U2 were at in Vertigo really lends itself incredibly well to film.”

As spectacular as some of the visuals are in U23D, Owen believes it’s only the prototype for a new wave of cinema. ‘‘We have just opened a tiny hatch in a very big door,” she says.

‘‘We’re hoping that we’ve given a really good sample of what’s possible for 3D and we’ve crafted it very diligently, but at the same time we’re hoping that people will pick up from where we’ve left off.” U23D opens today.

From the Brisbane Times

As Norma Desmond and King Kong would tell you, size does matter. Imax has been making pictures big again for 37 years now, but this is said to be the world’s first digital 3D multi-camera production of a live event, a concert by the Irish superband U2.

Which of those qualifiers is the more significant could be debated, but I’m here to tell you that watching it on the biggest Imax screen in the world (here in Sydney) is quite overwhelming.

There have been a lot of great concert films, of the greatest bands, but it’s astonishing to see something this big, this loud and this close. There’s also the surpassing strangeness of being in a huge theatre full of people wearing silly glasses, watching Bono - a man who has made silly glasses his trademark - pontificating and prancing through 85 minutes of concert footage.

If you love U2 - and millions do - the film will probably rock your world. Even if you’re an agnostic about them, as I am, there are moments in this film of the purest rock’n'roll intensity, where the band reaches the transcendent heights for which it has always aimed. The 3D cameras are so close to The Edge’s guitar head that you have to duck when he moves. I could read the fine print on Larry Mullen’s snare-drum head. You feel you could reach out with both hands and touch the hem of Bono’s garment. Or if, like me, you’re irritated by the man’s pomposity, you can fantasise about reaching out and slapping him.

I would have paid money just for the crowd shots. Most of the concert was filmed at the River Plate stadium shows in Buenos Aires last year, but different shots are from different parts of their Latin American tour. The digital 3D camera rigs are so expensive and unwieldy, they filmed medium shots in Mexico City and mid-distance shots in Sao Paulo, etcetera. But it’s so well put together and so tight a show that it looks like one concert, in which everyone in the crowd is absolutely going off.

The 3D effect adds a beautiful dimensionality to the field of faces. At one point, they all seem to start moving as a whole, rippling and flowing like an ocean. It’s beautiful to watch so many people having so much fun, so connected. And most of them look to be under 30, which means they weren’t born when this band first picked up their instruments in Dublin in 1976. You have to hand it to U2: they have rewritten the rock’n'roll handbook in a lot of ways - not just longevity, but musical relevance and an ability to appeal to new audiences. And, of course, they were one of the first bands to ditch the sex and drugs image of rock and replace it with an interfaith message of love, peace and understanding.

This can be a problem for cynics such as I. I don’t object to their Christianity, but the combination of so much ego and earnest self-belief tends to make their music a tad self-important - like going to a really hip church, with Bono as chief happy clapper, whipping up the crowd to cheap ecstasy. Seeing the film made me revise my opinion - of their music, if not Bono.

I now concede that the ecstasy isn’t cheap. This band works hard at making the music soar and taking the crowd with them. And in a couple of points in the film, when The Edge’s guitar playing climbs to that high wide plateau of rock’n'roll exaltation where few are chosen, I too became a believer. The man is a genius with a Fender, and, in his church, I would happily dwell while he makes that guitar sing.

I was reminded of two other scenes from musical movies: the James Brown gospel number in the black church in The Blues Brothers, and the scene in The Commitments where Jimmy Rabbitte, the manager, explains to the band why they have a right to sing soul, because “the Irish are the blacks of Europe”.

To my ears, U2 does a kind of white neo-gospel music, and while Bono ain’t no James Brown, he’s no slouch at working a crowd either. Their ecstatic shows are a bit like an old-time revivalist tent show, without the tent. The 3D format fits them perfectly. If the old-style rock concert was the water, then U23D turns it into wine. This technology might well be the future of rock concerts on film (or hard drive, to be precise).

Greater Union is screening U23D in selected cinemas in Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane: 

• Brisbane - Megaplex Chermside, Megaplex Indooroopilly
• Adelaide - Megaplex Marion
• Perth - Megaplex Innaloo

Triple M Adelaide is offering a competition to win tickets. All you need to do is explain in 25 words or less how you believe U2 has changed the world for the better.

Finally, if you are a Sydneysider and don’t want to watch the film at Imax in Darling Harbour, Greater Union is screening the film in some suburban centres: Campbelltown, Megaplex Castle Hill, George St.
 

From Yahoo News

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Live Nation Inc said on Monday it has reached an agreement for a 12-year global contract to handle the merchandising, digital and branding rights as well as the touring of Irish group U2.

Live Nation has been expanding its business model to develop more far-reaching and deeper relationships with artists beyond just handling their touring. The deal with U2, one of the world’s biggest rock bands, comes just five months after Live Nation announced a comprehensive partnership with pop star Madonna, which included her coveted recording rights.

The company would not reveal financial terms of the U2 deal though analyst David Joyce at Miller Tabak estimated that the deal would “likely be in the $100 million range.” Live Nation said U2 will continue the band’s long-term recording and publishing relationship with Universal Music Group, a unit of French media giant Vivendi. “It’s not a do-or-die situation that we have to be involved in the recordings,” Live Nation Chairman Michael Cohl said in an interview with Reuters. “We’d prefer to, but it’s not always available.” The deal with Madonna, which included the recording rights, was estimated to be worth $120 million over 10 years including a three-album commitment after the artist submits her last album to her current music company, Warner Music Group.

Its partnership with U2 will now include merchandise and licensing rights, sponsorship and strategic alliances, digital rights, fan club/Web sites and other marketing and creative services. Cohl said the new model will help boost the overall company’s profit margins. Analysts have said that touring and ticketing have traditionally been a low-margin business. Several of the company’s executives had managed U2’s tours for more than 20 years.

Live Nation’s attempts to diversify its business and win artists from music labels come as the major recording companies are also trying to reinvent their business and win control of touring, digital and merchandise rights of their artists. Joyce, who rates Live Nation a “buy,” said that as the company tries to bolster relationships with its artists, this latest deal should help its efforts to retain live event market share from existing competitors such as AEG. But he said there is a question whether music labels will fend off Live Nation’s expansion attempts as they attempt to diversify themselves. The music companies are keen to replace lost revenue caused by falling recorded sales. Fans are buying fewer CDs and not purchasing enough digital music to make up for the shortfall.

The major labels have started signing some artists to so-called 360-degree deals which include recording as well as publishing, touring, digital and other rights. Cohl said his company will focus on signing other major artists rather than developing new acts such as a traditional music label or publishing house. “Our intention is to work with artists who are already making it or on their way to making it,” he said. Live Nation said its new strategy will also include its Web site LiveNation.com, which Cohl said was aiming to become the biggest music portal on the Web through a mixture of ticketing, merchandise sales as well as fan clubs and other features. Shares in Live Nation were up 3.5 percent, or 41 cents, to $12.24 in Monday morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

What this all means will come to light once U2 hit the road again. One thing for sure, we are likely to get a new U2.com and we will not all be buying concert tickets through the usual outlets like ticketmaster.

Cover Band Rattle and Hum will be playing at Darling Harbour from 5:30pm on April 9th to help mark the Sydney release of U23D at the Darling Harbour Imax.

Rattle and Hum are famous for appearing on Sunrise and recording a spot for the Chasers.

U2 3D – The Ultimate concert film in IMAX 3D

The world’s biggest band are set to become even bigger when they hit IMAX screens in 3D. With the Australian release confirmed for April 10, fans can get ready for an experience that will be ’even better than the real thing!’ 

The Australian U2 Show perform LIVE from 9pm – Bar Open from 9pm 

TICKETS NOW ON SALE!

Go to http://www.imaxmelbourne.com.au to secure these enviable seats!

Imax Melbourne, Imax Sydney and Brisbane’s Cineplex Australia all have officially confirmed U23D’s release date is April 10th. The Melbourne tickets go on sale March 12th and Brisbane’s release is set for the Victoria Point Cinemas.

From ninemsn:

U2 3D puts viewers within the pulsing energy of a live U2 stadium concert. Marrying innovative digital 3D imagery and 5.1 Surround Sound, it creates an immersive theatrical experience unlike any 3D or concert film that has come before. Shot in South America during the `Vertigo` tour, U2 3D continues the band`s use of technology to create exceptional multisensory experiences.

“Bono wanted to go somewhere magical” with the creation of “U2 3D”, says director Catherine Owens; he was seeking an intensity the already ecstatic feelings evoked by U2’s live concerts.

The film, primarily directed by Irish artist Catherine Owens, and Mark Pellington, who co-directed the live shoot and provided invaluable creative support throughout post-production, sets out to capture the band’s relationship with each other and the resonant repsonse of their fans.

The first digital 3D, multi-camera, real-time production, the film was brought to life by 3ality Digital, who shot over 100 hours of footage with the largest collection of 3D camera technology ever used on a single project.

“U2 3D” will be exhibited in Hoyts cinemas equiped with digital 3D projection systems!

Screening at NSW - Broadway and Penrith; VIC - Chadstone and Northland; ACT - Belconnen; WA - Carousel.

It has been a busy week for our favourite frontman. After the U23D opening at Sundance in Utah, which is getting rave reviews almost unanimously, Bono dropped in to the Pentagon to talk Africa with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Later in the week he appeared in Davos Switzerland with Al Gore at the World Economic Forum. Bono declared that in the aftermath of the good will surrounding Live 8, “The G-8 are not making good on their commitments. This is a scandal”. You can see a video of Bono commenting to journalists about this on You Tube. 

Bono has also used the World Economic Forum to launch a new initiative for the Red campaign in conjunction with Dell and Microsoft. You can see a good CNBC interview on the new initiative with Bono, Michael Dell and Bill Gates on You Tube. The new range of Red computers could be one of the first Red products available to Australians- most Dell computers can be ordered online.

From The West Australian

After a legendary career playing to sold-out stadiums, Bono and the Edge spent this weekend doing what their fans have done for years — standing in line to see a U2 concert.

That concert was “U2 3D,” a film of the band’s 2005-06 Vertigo tour, shot at several shows in South America with new 3D technology.

“I was really hoping we weren’t crap after all these years. Luckily we weren’t,” the Edge told the Associated Press before the band donned plastic glasses to watch the movie’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday night.

The band’s frontmen, joined by drummer Larry Mullein and bassets Adam Clayton, joked about the absurdity of seeing their own concert after playing together for over 30 years.

“It’s kind of horrific,” to watch himself on stage in 3D, said Bono. “It’s bad enough on a small screen. Now you get so see the lard arse 40-foot tall.”

The Edge said the cutting-edge 3D technology allowed “the songs to shine through,” though he was surprised to see the chemistry of the band in the details on screen, and how separate his band mates were on stage.

“Are you saying you felt lonely up there?” said Bono, smiling.

“No, I felt lonely for Larry,” the band’s drummer, the Edge replied.

“He likes being on his own,” said Bono. “Didn’t you bring him back a bottle of water?”

Bono said he loved playing to the enthusiastic audiences of Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Rio de Janeiro.

“Irish people are essentially Latin people who don’t know how to dance,” he said. “When people are screaming and roaring and shouting, the humbling thing is to realize it’s not really for the band or artist on the stage. It’s for their connection with the songs. A song just can own you … . I think that’s why concerts are so powerful. If that song is such a part of your life, and you hear it, it’s too much almost.”

Bono also expressed hope that the film would allow more people to experience their music, especially teenagers and college students who might not be able to afford the pricey tickets to their sold-out shows.

The band is currently working with longtime producers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno on a new album that will merge Lanois’ respect for traditional music and Eno’s futuristic sound.

“Music like the band had formed on Venus, and somewhere between that is our next album,” Bono said. “Where they join, where something feels always existing but you never heard it before, that seems to be what the two of them bring out in us.”

Desert Morning News

PARK CITY — In the galaxy of stars that is the Sundance Film Festival, could there be any bigger than the supergroup U2?
Despite the international fame, fortune and name recognition, U2, the band, premiered “U23D,” the film, Saturday night at an independent film festival.

And the scene was as frantic as at any big premiere.

Major news outlets lined the red carpet. Fans screamed inside the auditorium, but others were almost as enthusiastic outside waiting for the midnight screening. Rumors had tickets being scalped for more than $1,000.

And while anything branded with the U2 label may not seem inherently independent, as the Sundance name generally implies, the 90-minute concert film experience is precisely that.

Financed by the group that owns the Baltimore Ravens and made without at distributor, “U23D” promises to raise the bar for both concert films and the 3-D experience, according to the brain trust behind the film, which opens in wide release Jan. 23. It will be screened in both IMAX and digital cinema, giving fans what they hope is an immersive concert experience.

“This film is a love song to Latin America,” said lead singer Bono from the red carpet. “We love playing for the people there. I really hope it communicates.”

The documentary was filmed in seven cities but primarily in Buenos Aires, Argentina, during a South American tour with crowds reaching sizes up to 100,000. It features hits such as “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “One,” “Vertigo” and “Beautiful Day.”

“Watching it gives a real perspective of being in the audience at a U2 show,” said guitarist The Edge. “So many concert films reduce the band. This one brings scale and grandeur.”

Because the film was shot with as many as nine digital cameras per show, The Edge felt much more comfortable than during other digital video concerts because the cameras were small and less intrusive, he said. “This technology made it a lot easier.”

Much of the talk of the film and the 3-D experience is how the technology is taking what viewers expected to be a marketing gimmick and making it into something that is easily viewed and enjoyed by a mass audience. Significant directors like Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson are embracing the technology that the crew behind the concert film developed.

The film is directed by Catherine Owens. It is her first feature, but the sculptor has a long history with the band and has directed some videos for them and their first four world tours.

Sandy Climan, a producer, said Owens’ background is apparent in the finished product.

“This film is different than any other 3-D film anyone might have seen. People want to dance in this film. People behave like they would if they were seeing them in concert. They hold up their cell phones to the band and dance.” He was excited to finally see the film with fans and related his experience when during a screening somebody stood up and blocked his view, which he then realized was part of the film.

David Model, an executive producer, tried to sum up Owens’ work.

“It seems as though Catherine has sculpted a fantastic 3-D film,” he said.

The team that developed the technology is not done improving and refining the way people experience 3-D films.

“Our goal in the end,” Model said, “is to shoot live and broadcast live to your home on your TV where you will see it in 3-D without glasses.”

U23D is set to screen in Sydney Imax in April 2008- exact details TBC.

Keep checking back for details of other cities around Australia.

Well hello, Mothers of the Disappeared, I never knew you existed!
The remastering is fabulous, as I’m sure many of you already know.

After much pain and anguish of trying to track down the last copy of the DVD Limited Edition of The Joshua Tree in Sydney, I finally got my hands on a copy.
This is most definitely the nicest package U2 have ever put together.
The remastering of the actual album is fantastic. Who knew that bass existed on Exit?

The bonus audio is jampacked with unreleased tracks but its all the extras that make it all the worthwhile. The book of interviews and photographs, the photographic prints, the dvd (yet to be watched) and it all comes in the best packaging U2 has ever produced.
The cds are in individual cardboard sleeves with Anton Corbijn photography gracing them. The photographic prints come in a brown cardboard sleeve which has a joshua tree imprint on the cover, as does the gorgeous black book which is held in by a ribbon. The photographs are fabulous, especially the one of Bono as seen in the picture above.

This is a super impressive effort, U2.
Yay for Christmas.

Oh and if you haven’t found yours yet in Sydney, JB Hi Fi Bondi Junction had 2 left yesterday. They cost $59 form JB Hi Fi. JB will order them in for you, apparently.
Red Eye Records still have 2 copies but they are charging a whopping $100.
Good luck in your search!

Was Santa good to you this year?
Perhaps you had a little JT under the Christmas tree? And no, we don’t mean Justin.

If you were lucky like we villagers, you scored the ghetto, ‘Not for legal sale in the United States’ U2 calendar with Bono and the boys under the Harbour Bridge circa early 1980-tight leather pant era.
If you didn’t find it in your stocking, go out now and get at it 50% off. Seriously, who buys calendars before December 26?

In other exciting news of a personal nature, our wonderful contributor here, Wes and his lovely wife have had a baby girl. She should be at least a month old by now but on behalf of all the U2 fans and Lypton Village, I’d like to say congratulations Wes and Clare! I’d also like to thank Wes for constantly doing a great job on keeping the U2 fans around Australia updated. Thanks Wes!

National geographic have a website to promote the opening of the U23D movie in the US on January 25th 2008. The site has an awesome new trailer of the film to wet the appetite. At this point it does not mention release information for the rest of the world. We will keep an eye on the Sydney and Melbourne 3D IMAX websites for any Australian release details.

In other news this week the Recording Academy’s love affair with U2 continued this week with another two GRAMMY Nominations. ‘Window in the Skies’, is nominated in the ‘Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals’ category. U2’s cover of ‘Instant Karma’ is also nominated in the ‘Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals’.

Bono and Edge are also involved in one of the nominations for ‘Best Compilation Soundtrack Album’. The ‘Across the Universe’ soundtrack features Bono’s cover of ‘I Am The Walrus’ and Edge covers ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’.

From NME:

Upcoming record will have trance, metal and Moroccan influences

Bono has warned U2 fans they will “feel the difference” with the material they are working on for their next album.

The singer explained that the band are currently working in the south of France on the follow-up to 2004’s ‘How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb’. Following demo sessions in Africa earlier in the year, the singer reckons the new record will surprise people.

“We’re just beginning the processes,” Bono told The Independent. “We did some recording in Morocco last year. All the band went to an amazing religious music festival in Fez with some incredible sufi singers. It was a real humbling thing for a punk rock shouter, listening to these people who just close their eyes for 40 minutes and sing the most sophisticated melodies.”

He added: “We got this little riad, a small hotel with a courtyard in the middle and set up the band there, with a square of sky over our head. The two great catalysts of U2’s recording life, [producers] Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, joined us. We’d record during the day and then disappear into windy streets of the medina at night. It was an inspiring experience and a drummer’s paradise.”

The singer said the band are now working through those demos during the French sessions and that while the new record is not world music, he promised fans would “feel the difference”.

“U2 in dancefloor shock!” joked Bono. “Normally when you play a U2 tune, it clears the dancefloor. And that may not be true of this. There’s some trance influences. But there’s some very hardcore guitar coming out of The Edge. Real molten metal. It’s not like anything we’ve ever done before, and we don’t think it sounds like anything anyone else has done either.”

He explained that fans might even get more than they bargained for.

“We have enough material for two albums but it has to be extraordinary,” he explained. “And I think we’ve got that.”

The singer who was speaking to mark World AIDS Day on behalf of the (RED) campaign, insisted the campaign was making a different in Africa and called on the world to increase its efforts.

“Three years ago there was virtually no one in Africa on antiretroviral drugs,” he explained. “Now you’ll have two million by the end of this year.”

Note: Edge is not on fire- but he is playing molten metal. Moten is hotter than fire- right?