(Yet another article.. U2 IS INDEED BACK IN THE STUDIO!)
By Ken Sweeney Entertainment Editor
Wednesday Mar 21 2012
THESE shoes are made for rocking. Long known as the shyest man in music, U2′s Adam Clayton let his footwear do the talking yesterday.
The bass player took time out from recording the group’s 13th album to help launch ‘Walk In My Shoes’, a new initiative from St Patrick’s University Hospital in support of positive mental health for young people.
Wearing a pair of eye-catching Christian Louboutin black studded shoes, the 52-year-old was following in the footsteps of his mother, Jo Clayton.
Mrs Clayton was a founding member of the Friends of St Patrick’s and a tireless fundraiser for the Dublin hospital, located between Heuston Station and St James’s Hospital, until her death last year.
Essential
“I think it is essential to take care of people with mental health problems. Money raised will be used to help put young people back on the road to mental health,” Adam told the Irish Independent.
Eimear Keohane, fundraising manager of St Patrick’s, praised the guitarist for taking on the role as ambassador for ‘Walk In My Shoes’.
She revealed he was carrying on the good work done by his late mother who passed away, aged 77, last August after a battle with cancer.
“We are honoured today that Adam is continuing in his mother’s footsteps by promoting the ‘Walk In My Shoes’ campaign,” she said.
“Jo Clayton was a valued fundraiser for the St Patrick’s Hospital Foundation for many years, from the early 1970s.”
Sarah Surgenor, communications manager of St Patrick’s University Hospital, said the presence of the famous rock musician at the launch would help raise awareness of the need for funds to support young adults in need of mental health services.
Mr Clayton last wore his black studded Louboutin shoes, worth €500, at a party he hosted to celebrate his 52nd birthday last week.
RTE’s John Murray and Daithi O Se, rugby pundit Brent Pope, snooker player Ken Doherty and ‘Dragon’s Den’ member and publisher Norah Casey were among others who took part in the launch.
Snooker player Ken Doherty, who wore striking spats, said his motivation for getting involved was the loss of so many young lives. “I have been to eight funeral in the last two years, and seven of those were suicides. The most important thing is that people in difficulty talk and don’t bottle it up,” said Mr Doherty who said there was a lot of “pressure” on sports stars.
‘Dragon’s Den’ star Norah Casey, who walked into the Four Seasons wearing two odd shoes, said that as CEO of Harmonia, Ireland’s largest magazine publishing company, she made a point of taking on employees who were open about suffering from depression.
“I think it’s brave of them to own up to it, and therefore I should be brave as an employer. But I think sometimes employers are scared of taking on people with mental health issues,” said Ms Casey, who at one point in her career nursed in a psychiatric hospital.
John Murray of RTE Radio One, the official radio partner of the campaign, said life had grown “more difficult” for young people in recent years.
“Young adults once moved from school to college to work but things aren’t like that any more, which has a lot of parents worried. Any campaign that helps to raise awareness of how young people cope with issues they may be struggling with is worth highlighting”
The campaign name originated from a young service user at St Patrick’s University Hospital who said he wished his “friends could walk in my shoes” so they could understand his mental illness.
Taking place on April 26, ‘Walk In My Shoes’ will see people all over Ireland wearing unusual or mismatched shoes while donating €2 to provide mental health services to young adults aged 18 to 25 years.
More details can be found on www.walkinmyshoes.ie
- Ken Sweeney Entertainment Editor
Irish Independent
Read more: http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/independent-woman/celebrity-news-gossip/get-on-your-boots-adam-steps-into-limelight-for-charity-3056299.html#ixzz1qARg8pvp
Eve Hewson in This Must Be the Place
INTERVIEW : Eve Hewson is making quite a name for herself – despite being born with a famous one – and now she’s set for the big time, writes TARA BRADY
IT’S SPRING BREAK and if MTV has taught us anything it’s that American students will put on bikinis, rock on down to the beach and get rowdy. Not so for Killiney girl Eve Hewson. The NYU (New York University) student has, indeed, headed for the Pacific coast for her mid-term. But, in common with all good students, she’s cramming as she zigzags across LA for meetings and auditions.
“It’s a really tricky business,” she says, with a wisp of the transatlantic in her south Dublin brogue. “My school is very strict. If you miss more than two classes they dock your grades and they might fail you. So if you have to leave to do an audition it’s not very news for my grades.”
At 20, Hewson is in the final year of a theatre major with a minor in child psychology. She went straight to New York after completing her Leaving Cert at St Andrew’s College, Dublin.
She has seldom been homesick; her older sister Jordan (22) had already crossed the Atlantic to study at Columbia when Eve made the trip.
“She was there for a year when I got into NYU,” she explains. “And my best friend since I was in junior infants lives with me. And another best friend is at college here. So there is a really strong Irish set.”
And Facebook for everybody left behind? “Oh, I don’t have Facebook. Which is kind of hard because my friends are crap at emailing. They want me to get Facebook: I want them to check their emails.”
It’s tough being in demand when you’re trying to buckle down at school. But casting directors are apt to come a-calling when a young actor earns rave notices. Doubly so when the young actor is starring alongside Sean Penn and Frances McDormand in director Paolo Sorrentino’s This Must Be The Place, one of the most talked-about pictures of the year.
“I am working with Sean Penn,” Eve repeats carefully. “That is like saying ‘I am training for the Olympics’. He is a tip-top actor. Sean Penn and Frances McDormand are the greatest actors of our generation. I have only done one movie and suddenly I am doing all these scenes with them.”
Was it scary? “I was terrified. People keep saying: ‘She wasn’t star-struck by Sean Penn’. That’s an absolute lie. I was totally petrified to meet Sean. I love him as an actor. And I’d never met him until the screen test. “I was dressed up in my gear. And he was in his outfit. We just met as our characters. We were asked to turn and face one another. So we did and he said, ‘Hi’. And we looked at one another for a really long time. Absolutely scary.”
This Must Be the Place is virgin territory even for a veteran like Penn. A defiantly eccentric portrait of an ageing rocker turned Nazi-hunter; cult director Sorrentino’s film sees Penn channelling The Cure’s Robert Smith. Hewson plays his devoted Goth fan with a tragic past.
“Some of the first scenes we did with Sean in character. I suddenly realised: this is not just working with Sean Penn, this is working with Sean Penn doing something he’s never done before. Now that is really exciting. I have never seen anybody do this sort of performance before.
“And he was generous in every way. He became such a good friend. I really, really loved him. He is so much fun. He didn’t have to give me all that. And he did.”
Hewson’s own canny performance gives depth to a teen that might otherwise be a blob of eyeliner around the margins. She was, in the parlance of red-top newspapers, “the toast of Sundance” at that film festival earlier this year.
“She has such sadness about her,” says Hewson. “The story of her family: her brother missing and her mom losing her mind basically. I wanted to make sure that she had some joy in her. I wanted to make sure she is not just a saddo.
“When I first read about this girl, there were aspects of her I could relate to. Being a 16-year-old girl and being confused and uncomfortable in your own skin; any teenager can relate to that. But the loss of her brother, the violence – those parts I couldn’t relate to. I had to step out of myself to connect with that.”
This is only Hewson’s third proper gig as an actor following on from The 27 Club, a student feature, and The Script’s 2010 promo video for For The First Time. She landed that job without the casting director knowing that she is the second daughter of Bono and Ali Hewson.
So what’s all this acting nonsense about? Can’t she get a proper job like rock star or activist?
“I know. I don’t know anybody in my family who was an actor. Maybe like a great grandparent might have been. But I was always surrounded by really artistic people, really inspiring people. And that really rubbed off on me.
“It’s the same with my brothers and sister. We are all quite eccentric in our own ways. We’re all doing our own thing. We all play music. We all did so many extra-curricular activities after school it was sickening.”
Still; it’s tricky trying to strike out on one’s own when your dad is the lead singer of U2. She’s keenly aware, she says, that everyone is watching.
“People always say: ‘Oh, of course you are going into the entertainment business with your dad there already.’ But it is really natural and really common for kids to follow their parents in any profession.
“I get given a hard time but I guess I have that performing gene. It’s hard to be around a family like mine where there is so much going on – so much art happening – and not get that bug.”
Her parents, though not initially thrilled by the idea, have warmed to Eve’s new profession. Younger brothers Elijah Bob Patricus Guggi Q (12) and John Abraham (10) are also cheering Eve on from home.
“My brothers are the cutest about me being an actor,” she says. “They are so desperate for me to get a job. Even if I do an audition and don’t get it, my younger brother John will be like: ‘Don’t worry. You will get a job. I promise.’ They are all really supportive. It’s so sweet.”
This Must Be the Place is on general release
MARCH 2012 BY COURTNEY LAVENDER
Photo © Elizabeth Gipson; all rights reserved
After an extensive 2-year tour (interrupted by Bono’s back surgery), U2 are in their Dublin studio recording what will presumably become their 13th album.
Bassist Adam Clayton spoke Tuesday to John Murray of RTÉ Radio 1 in Ireland.
He was there promoting the Walk in My Shoes campaign to raise money for those suffering from mental health issues, inspired by work his mother did with St Patrick’s Hospital Foundation until her death last year.
When asked what’s on the horizon he answered:
“I’m back in a project making another record. According to Bono it’ll be in the shops tomorrow but I think it’ll take a little bit longer than that.”Additional confirmation comes from The Edge’s long-time guitar tech Dallas Schoo, in a note he sent to Sadowsky Guitars Ltd, who posted his thank you to their Facebook page:
Just received this report from Dublin where U2 is in the studio!
“Just a heads up on how wonderful your 4 basses are….beautiful instruments and so much “weight” and deep tone with a very light weight bass……amazing. The Will Lee is killer and the PJs so balanced. Adam has been tracking away and not having to break the momentum dialing in his sound…..Just a very good marriage of effortless tone that seems inherent with the overall design. The entire band and the production team could not be happier.
Nice one,
Dallas Schoo/U2?
Notorious for their time spent tinkering, who knows how long U2 will take on this one. As they have reportedly have three finished albums under their collective belt left over from the last sessions, maybe it won’t be quite so long. Then again, it probably will.
Source: ROCK CELLAR MAGAZINE
Bono’s PE Firm Seeking $1bn for Second Fund
The private equity group co-founded by Irish rock star Bono has approached investors seeking $1 billion (629.5 million pounds) for its second fund, writes Reuters. Elevation Partners invests in the media, entertainment and technology industries. The firm is hitting the fundraising trail as Facebook, its most high-profile investment, prepares for a $5 billion initial public offering (IPO).
Reuters – The private equity group co-founded by Irish rock star Bono has approached investors seeking $1 billion (629.5 million pounds) for its second fund, buoyed by its success with investments in Facebook Inc and Yelp Inc, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Elevation Partners LP, which shares its name with a hit song released by Bono’s U2 band in 2000 and invests in the media, entertainment and technology industries, is hitting the fundraising trail as Facebook, its most high-profile investment, prepares for a $5 billion initial public offering (IPO).
Elevation invested $270 million in the world’s biggest social network in three instalments between 2009 and 2010, valuing Facebook at $16 billion, the source said, setting it up for huge gains, as the IPO could now value the company at between $75 billion and $100 billion.
The firm also committed $100 million in an investment in consumer review website Yelp in 2010 on the basis of a valuation of $500 million, the source said. Yelp completed its stock market flotation earlier this month and currently has a market capitalization of $1.4 billion.
Not all of Elevation’s investments have been as successful. A quarter of its first $1.8 billion fund invested in smartphone maker Palm Inc, which yielded just a 1.5 percent return once it was sold to Hewlett Packard Co in 2010, the source said.
But overall, the first fund, which was launched in 2004, managed a net internal rate of return of 11.1 percent as of September 30, according to Washington State Investment Board, one of its investors. Its returns are set to be boosted by Yelp’s and Facebook’s IPO.
Bono became a founding partner in Elevation after he was introduced to Roger McNamee, a technology guru who co-founded private equity firm Silver Lake Partners LP, by Sheryl Sandberg, currently Facebook’s chief operating officer.
McNamee is also a musician and performs 100 shows a year in the band Moonalice, where he plays bass and guitar. Moonalice’s single, “It’s 4:20 Somewhere” has been downloaded more than 960,000 times, according to Elevation’s website.
Other heavy hitters involved in setting up Elevation include Apple Inc veterans Fred Anderson and Avie Tevanian, and former Blackstone Group LP senior managing director Bret Pearlman.
Elevation declined to comment. The launch of its second fund was first reported by Thomson Reuters peHUB.
(Editing by Andre Grenon)
Conservative Activist Fails to Notice Bono Impersonator Is Not Bono
By ROBERT MACKEYJason Mattera, a conservative activist known for ambushing liberalcelebrities and politicians — by pretending to be a fan in search of a picture, and then firing off confrontational questions at close range — was forced to retract a video interview with Bono he unveiled with some fanfare this week, when it emerged that the man he mistook for the lead singer of U2 recently was, in fact, a Bono impersonator.
Mr. Mattera’s interview, in which he chastised a Bono lookalike named Pavel Sfera for U2’s attempt to avoid paying taxes in Ireland, has been removed from Breitbart.com, where it was originally published, and no longer appears on the activist’s YouTube channel, but copies remain online. As the Washington Post blogger Erik Wemple explains, the video reveals that Mr. Sfera did not speak in an Irish accent and seemed to drop some clues that he was not the singer.
In a part of the interview that can still be seen, Mr. Sfera, whose Web siteBonoDouble.com notes that even the singer’s wife agrees that he bears a striking resemblance to Bono, can be heard repeatedly denying that he has any control over the band’s tax arrangements.
Mr. Mattera: Hey, by dodging taxes on royalties, are you raiding the poverty programs you purport to champion?
Mr. Sfera: No.
Mr. Mattera: No? Don’t you want governments to be generous with other people’s money and not yours?
Mr. Sfera: I don’t have control of that.
Mr. Mattera: But you moved your shop from Ireland to Holland… to get a better –
Mr. Sfera: I didn’t.
Mr. Mattera: You didn’t? Your company did it.
Mr. Sfera: I didn’t do it…. I don’t have control over that….
Mr. Mattera: How do you not have control over that? It’s your company.
Mr. Sfera: It’s not my company.
Mr. Mattera: You’re not in charge of your own company?
Mr. Sfera: It’s not my company.
Mr. Mattera: You have no say in what U2 does?
Mr. Sfera: Not particularly.
Mr. Mattera: You don’t? You don’t have a say in what U2 does?
Mr. Sfera: No.
After an editor’s note was posted on Glenn Beck’s Web site, The Blaze, explaining that “The original Breitbart.com story has been removed, and the Jason Mattera videos have now been moved to ‘private’ on YouTube,” Mr. Wemple managed to ask both Mr. Mattera and Mr. Sfera about their conversation.
A screenshot from Google’s cache of Breitbart.com’s promotion of the interview. The video was later removed.Even though Mr. Sfera insisted, “I wasn’t pretending to be Bono,” as he stood outside an event Bono that was scheduled to attend in Los Angeles last month, Mr. Mattera told Mr. Wemple, The Post’s blogger: “I got punked. I thought I got Bono. I didn’t. I got his impersonator apparently. Hats off to him. He got me — and how!”
He added, in reference to a similar video he made recently, “I’m now left to ponder: was that really Vice President Joe Biden I talked to?”
Mr. Mattera also tried to laugh off the mistake on Twitter and in an appearance on Sean Hannity’s radio show, a day after he had boasted on the same program that he had managed to secure his Bono interview though “basic shoe-leather journalism.”
I promise to ambush every impersonator until I get to the real Bono
washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wem…
Jason Mattera@JasonMattera
Mr. Hannity, who apparently failed to ask himself why Bono no longer spoke with an Irish accent, could have been spared some embarrassment if he had been a more loyal viewer of the Fox News affiliate in Boston, which reported in 2007 on an appearance by Mr. Sfera in Swampscott, Mass., where he had been hired to perform at a bat mitzvah.
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