Bono, George Lucas and Cate Blanchett are amongst guests at the Vanity Fair Party in the Eden Roc hotel during the Cannes Film Festival, May 19, 2008. (click for full size)
News
Top Story - June 30, 2008
U2 to Mandela: Sorry
Stephen Maguire
U2 were forced to pulled out of a planned trip to help Nelson Mandela celebrate his 90th birthday party -- to concentrate on their latest album.
The supergroup were due to join a host of other stars at London's Hyde Park on Friday for a special concert.
But the group backed out at the last minute -- with Bono and the Edge sending a video message instead.
The millionaire rockers are holed up in their Hanover Quay studios in Dublin putting the final touches to their new album which is expected to be released in October.
A source close to the band said they were bitterly disappointed they couldn't make the party.
"The band have always been supporters of the anti-apartheid movements and became personal friends with Mr. Mandela. They wanted to go but are simply snowed under," said the source.
11 years and counting, the U2 Station has served millions of U2 fans on the net. We are here to constantly improve this website and provide you with world class content on U2. Please email us If you would like to become a contributing writer to this website.
Thanks to the technology of YouTube, watching videos and movie clips online is a
breeze. Here within this section, we have painstakingly put together a list of
over 80 U2 music videos that you can watch instantly for free. Chronologically
ordered (cleverly separated by decade) and featuring video information and unique
commentary from various directors, you now have access to the power of YouTube
right here on the U2 Station. Additional links to films and other videos from U2
will be added below. Please note that the quality of video will vary between
each selection and most are of lower quality (U2Station.com unfortunately has no
control over this).
From the soundtrack to the movie "The Million Dollar Hotel". The Ground Beneath
Her Feet was written by Salman Rushdie and he appears at the beginning of the video.
Video filmed at Charles De Gaulle Airport, Paris, August 2000.
"U2 invited me to listen to the album before it was even finished. It was
fantastic to follow the process and to develop the video with the band. Never
did I feel so close and involved in a release. We had many discussions and
directions before we all agreed on a performance video at Charles De Gaulle
airport. The album cover was shot at the new terminal 5 and it was a perfect
space to shoot the video. We had a great location, a kick ass track and the best
rock band in the world. It couldn't go wrong. And then, a week before our shoot,
the last Concorde departed from Paris and tragically crashed less then a mile
away from the airport. Everything changed. Red tape all over the airport, and
the shoot became a struggle. My crew and I were running around like crazy with
the band for two days. Like kids running from grown ups to get our shots. Two
long days and 100 rolls of film. Never before, or after, did I work with a band
willing to go through what we did for the art of a video. A memorable time and a
memorable video." - Jonas Akerlund
"LA - Shoot night: It was freezing cold and I distinctly remember everyone being
tired and tetchy. We'd been working, all night, between two lanes of scabby
warehouses on the outskirts of the city. We were behind schedule and losing the
dark but things had been going well. Enter Murphy's Law. How appropriate.
Picture this... The hero van somehow collides with the techno crane. The chilled
out German DOP loses his rag with the battle-scarred, gun toting, biker 1st AD
and, as we're concentrating on pulling them apart, the fog rolls in, behind us,
compromising the continuity of the final, crucial, vocal shot. And that's about
it. After that it gets a bit hazy but it was definitely freezing cold and I
distinctly remember everyone being tired and tetchy. We'd been working, all
night, between two lanes of scabby warehouses on the outskirts of the city..."
- Kevin Godley
This music video was filmed in London, February 2001.
"When I spoke to Bono on the phone, he told me this song was anthemic. And the
thing about anthemic songs is that you have to be careful: they can either be
"Hey Jude" or "We Are the World". Shit, I thought, the pressure is on. We were
rained out for three days in a row, winter in London. We pushed the final day of
shooting to a Sunday, which everyone told me was a bad idea. We were shooting
the end of the video, pulling out of one personIs eye to reveal a huge crowd. I
was blocking the crowd for this final shot. Making sure everyone was in perfect
position. I was thinking to myself how this would be anthemic in the best
possible way. When I turned around to tell the crane operator that we were
finally ready to shoot, the ENTIRE crew was gone. All gone to the pub around the
corner to watch a soccer match. Ah, I thought to myself, so this is why English
crews never shoot on Sunday. I love this video because the truly great anthemic
song carries the visuals on its back the whole way through." - Liz Friedlander
Filmed in Los Angeles, California, April 2001, for the Lara Croft Tomb Raider movie.
"The good news was I was finally going to get a chance to make a U2 video. The
bad news was I had to put film footage into it. I hate film footage videos, I
really hate them. But if U2 wanted to splice in baboon sex, I would have figured
out a way to make it work. Anything to work with the greatest living band in the
world. So I figured let's make the GREATEST FILM FOOTAGE VIDEO EVER: Good U2
versus Bad U2 blowing the world to bits with the power of RAWK. I like to think
Elevation wooed the film out on a date, got it drunk, and then sexed it silly
and left it wandering off in the morning with its make up smeared. And right
after Bono saw it, he said I'm the first director he wasn't screaming at after
watching the edit. How awesome is that?" - Joseph Kahn
"There is much to say about shooting with U2 as the whole process was a
tremendous, thrilling experience for us. It was a BIG shooting! So, after having
had the privilege to get the job awarded in person by the band, we found
ourselves in the middle of nowhere in Spain. The first day was great, sunshine,
wind in the air, the perfect set. But the next day when we came up at 6 in the
morning, a windstorm just "erased" our 50m coloured sand target. Desert sand was
covering the different circles. It had to be done again! The whole crew had to
work on it with sweepers, brooms and all. We even had to create a wall of sand
to keep the circle protected from the wind. That's how you get to see 40 people
at sunrise/sundown/dusk sweeping a very windy desert in the most surrealistic
way. Finally the day was great and the guys performed under a 100km/h windstorm.
Kinda cool!" - Alex and Martin
"Bono wanted to shoot in the Gaiety Theatre, where his dad once sang... and we
went from there. With such a personal song, I was nervous about capturing how
emotional and vulnerable it felt. For some reason I kept seeing Bono walking the
streets of Dublin alone, the camera close, leading him as he sang. After a long
night's discussion, it was decided - shoot in the home where Bono grew up, then
walking the streets, and onto the theatre stage where he'd join the band. It was
a simple idea, but with the amazing Harris Sevides shooting for us, and the
incomparable Ned O'Hanlon beside me, we had a chance... On a cold December
morning, Bono walked out onto Sheriff Street, and gave the best single-take
performance that I have ever had the honor to film. The entire song, without a
cut, singing live - incredibly powerful, staggering. It came from someplace very
deep inside. All I did was document it. Bono put every ounce of the song's
emotion, his heart and soul, into his performance. Larry turned to me after the
final take and quietly nodded - I knew we had something special." - Phil Joanou
"Technically and logistically this was destined for disaster, but this was New
Orleans one year on and we had the strength of an entire city within each of us.
I had never heard a crowd so FUCKING LOUD, so raw and passionate, some screamed
remembering the anguish of one year prior, some were lost in the pride moment,
and others chanted in hope of a new dawn. In the dome where so many had lost,
wept and contemplated a future of shattered dreams a new and loud collective
spirit was stirring. Two punk rock bands played, The Saints overcame and 80,000
people tasted hope, joy and success. An emotional demonstration of the power of
music, sport and the human soul." - Hamish Hamilton
