6/01/2007

JUNE 1: Ireland Games / "Street Mission" / "Contraception Action Campaign" / "Passenger" / "Rattle And Hum" / ...Thank you for trusting us... / "September 13" to the end of "Love Is Blindness" / "Batman Forever" / 1st "Staring At The Sun" acoustic / "Sweet Caroline" / Monaco-F1-GP / Bono in Dublin: Dismissing reports about a Live Aid II - billions, not millions to aid Africa !

"Bono plays chess" - summer 1976 - Paul Hewson plays in the All Ireland Games. His sport is chess.

"Early Ireland" - june 1, 1978 - Ireland - Youngline - Irish TV - U2 perform "Street Mission".

"Contraception Action Campaign" - summer 1978 - U2 perform in Dublin, Ireland at Liberty Hall, for the "Contraception Action Campaign". The Campaign protests Ireland's strict anti-contraception laws. The stage is covered with slogans such as "Free Legal and Safe Contraception", and the band stops their set to let women from the campaign make speeches.

"Passengers in Dublin" - summer 1995 U2, Brian Eno, Howie B, and other passengers spend five weeks recording in Dublin.

"Finishing Rattle And Hum" - june 1988. U2 return to Los Angeles, California to finish the production and sound work on "Rattle & Hum".

"War" tour - june 1, 1983. U2 perform in San Francisco, California at the Civic Auditorium. The band restarts "Out of Control" after The Edge's guitar malfunctions. At the end of the show, Bono thanks the crowd, "There's a lot of cities in the world that if you started a concert and these machines broke down, that would be the end of [the concert]. Tonight it was only the start for us. Thank you for trusting us." Support is "Romeo Void" and "The Alarm".

"The Unforgettable Fire" tour - june 1, 1985. U2 perform in Basel, Switzerland at St. Jacob's Fussbalstadion. Other notable performers include "The Alarm", Rick Springfield, Joe Cocker, and headliner Chris de Burgh.

"ZOOTV" tour - june 1, 1992. U2 perform in Birmingham, England at the National Exhibition Centre. The show is very well recieved by the crowd, and Bono reminices about the early days of U2: "The first time we played Birminghham we played to about 22 people. It was great then, but we like this better. There's probably more Irish people in Birmingham than there are in Dublin, is that right? At least you built Birmingham properly!" Bono introduces "Bad" and claims that "Micheal Jackson ripped me off, man! Now who's bad?" he mocks. Bono adds the first verse to Yeats' "September 1913" to the end of "Love is Blindness" : "What need you, being come to sense/ Having a finger in the till and adding the halfpence to the pence/ And a prayer to shivering prayer/ Till you drive the marrow from the bone/ Romantic Ireland's dead and gone/ It's with O'Leary in the grave..." Support is B.P. Fallon and "Fatima Mansions".

"Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" - june 1, 1995. U2 release their first single of the year, "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me". The track is featured on the "Batman Forever" soundtrack. It eventually peaks at #2 in the UK, #16 in the US and #1 in Australia and Ireland.

"POPMart" tour - june 1, 1997. U2 perform the second and third concerts in New Jersey at Giants Stadium. East Rutherford, during their second show at the Meadowlands, Bono sings a brief portion of "Hallelujah," in memory of folk-singer Jeff Buckley, who has drowned recently in Memphis. During "Where the Streets Have No Name," Bono spots two stadium security men roughly handling a female fan and he races toward the end of the b-stage, telling them to let go of the girl. He brings her on-stage and briefly dances with her; this also marks the first show in which Bono and Edge perform an acoustic version of "Staring at the Sun" on the b-stage, the song that has given the band trouble since the PopMart Tour's opening night in Las Vegas. On the first night, Edge performs "Sweet Caroline" as the karaoke song.

"Bono: A Day at the Races" - june 1, 2003. Bono attends the Formula 1 Monaco grand Prix today, presumably as the guest of fellow Irishman and F1 racer Eddie Jordan, who is also his neighbor in Killiney.

Bono in Dublin: Dismissing reports about a Live Aid II - billions, not millions to aid Africa - June 1, 2004 - Dublin - Charity will not solve the problems of African poverty, was the message Bono delivered to EU development ministers in Dublin (June 1, 2004). And in an open letter to UK PM Tony Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown, Bono has joined a group of celebrities demanding an increase in aid to the poorest countries. Actors Jude Law and Helen Mirren were among more than 20 stars to sign the letter, which lists the problems faced by the world's poor and asks the UK to donate 0.7% of its income to help. Read the letter, here. Speaking in Dublin Bono said that charity is no longer enough because Africa is "bursting into flames". "We are after billions, not millions - and that's what it's going to take to sort out the problems of our next door neighbour. "There's a general feeling in some camps that because they are doing well their economies can't afford the commitment of 0.7% and it's going to be more money than they thought. "A lot of these people are doing some great things, but there are promises being broken and that's unacceptable." Dismissing reports that a Live Aid II is being planned, he said "there's an emergency going on and for me it's not really about charity at this point, it's about justice." He said he did not want to see again the shocking images from Africa that were beamed around the world 20 years ago. "There are plans being discussed here today that would mean we wouldn't have to see those awful pictures again," he added. "There are bureaucratic bottle-necks going on. People have pledged 14 billion dollars to the EU but the EU haven't found a way of spending it. "At a time when 6,500 Africans are dying every day of AIDS that's not the Europe I want to be in."

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