To find Bono a publicity hungry pillock?

[batshitlady]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35035025

I think he's seen the Paris shooting as a chance to grab the limelight and feed his bloody messiah complex.

Well, I personally think Bono is a massive prat. However you are completely incorrect in your claim that you never hear him 'speak out about Ireland' (what about Ireland, by the way? I assume you mean the Troubles, though it would be nice if you said 'speak out about the Troubles' instead of 'about Ireland', as though the Troubles are the only thing that define Ireland as a country). Here's a quote from him from a live performance of Sunday Bloody Sunday

'And let me tell you somethin'. I've had enough of Irish Americans who haven't been back to their country in twenty or thirty years come up to me and talk about the resistance, the revolution back home...and the glory of the revolution...and the glory of dying for the revolution. Fuck the revolution! They don't talk about the glory of killing for the revolution. What's the glory in taking a man from his bed and gunning him down in front of his wife and his children? Where's the glory in that? Where's the glory in bombing a Remembrance Day parade of old age pensioners, their medals taken out and polished up for the day. Where's the glory in that? To leave them dying or crippled for life or dead under the rubble of a revolution that the majority of the people in my country don't want. No more!'

So yes, he has spoken out about Ireland. I can't speak to the rest of the issues you claim he's had nothing to say about as I haven't clue what he has or hasn't said, but I can this. That live version of SBS always gives me goosebumps.

Yes, there are other bands that have had more to say about the Troubles, eg Stiff Little Fingers in 'Each Dollar A Bullet' or Runnin Riot in 'Right Thru You' (RIP Colin, he was a good friend of my BIL). Then, they are from Belfast, and Bono is not. They were much closer to the situation and better placed to comment on it, IMO.

Feck, I never thought I'd be defending Bono! Oh and Jump, I've been a fan of EODM for years. Their merch manager who sadly died was a friend of a friend who's worked with them for a long time.

Bloody can't stand the tax-dodging Bono. It's not my type of music and I've heard that he is very professional music-wise, but otherwise he's awful and from what I gather much loathed in Ireland

Cannot bear Bono but I think U2 judged the situation admirably and did a wonderful thing.

As for not hearing of EODM before the attacks......does that mean the posted who suggested this didn't? Because quite a lot of us did and enjoy their music....should we pretend we didn't for fear of being accused of bandwagon jumping?

It's actually hilarious, OP, that you can state so confidently that Bono/U2 don't 'speak out about Ireland.'

FFS, going on about Ireland is one of their calling cards!

TEODM supported The Killers on their last UK tour and appeared alongside Duran Duran on The Graham Norton show days before the Paris attacks, so hardly unknowns as if that's relevant.

I too find Bono very hypocritical, but I think they did the right thing with their Paris concerts. It was a lovely gesture to bring the band on stage with them and to honor each of the victims by name.

The EODM are clearly extremely traumatized, as anyone who was there must be, they all have a long road ahead of them and I think it was very brave for them to take to the stage in Paris.

Tram10 Simon Le Bon said EODM were in a bad way at the Glasgow DD show on Sunday. Agree what they did in Paris was very brave of them.

Yes, you could see from the Vice interview that EODM are in a great state of shock - naturally.

It was very brave of them to perform again so soon in Paris, and it was good of U2 to give them the platform and support.

The tax business also pisses me off - someone so altruistic about other nations not paying their dues in their own does rankle.

But I don't think he should be criticised on this one.

YANBU!

YANBU. he's a nob.
many people in ireland hate his guts.

loads of rumours around him too:

• he's rumoured to be an alcoholic. gore vidal wrote that bono turned up to a day time meeting in new york absolutely shit-faced with christy turlington and another supermodel draped off each arm. vidal said he stunk of boozy fumes and kept waffling on drunkenly.
• he's rumoured to have an open marriage and its rumoured that andrea corr was his mistress.

it is true though that he's unfaithful to his wife because my friend saw him in Bruxelles pub in dublin with his tongue down a 20-something blonde's throat.
and there's that photo of him on a yacht with a male friend. both of the men each had a young girl in a bikini sat on their laps. i wouldn't be happy if that was my husband or father doing that.

Well, if he has an open marriage then he isn't being unfaithful.

Ali Hewson is a successful woman in her own right, by all accounts she is a very strong and independent woman so I imagine if she wasn't ok with their marriage she wouldn't be in it. She is extremely smart and is well known to hate being referred 'Bono's wife' because she is her own person. She seems very grounded and describes herself as fiercely independent. It obviously works for them.

Some of Bono's behaviour might not be great but that doesn't take away from the good he has done or means he invited EODM up just for publicity.

yeah - that's true about the open marriage.
i'd say ali and bono have "an understanding". the sunday independent alluded to it a couple of years back and as you know, the irish press's hands are tied when it comes to U2.

it is a bit annoying to hear him carping on abut how we must all give to charity when he's a tax exile.
he also said, and its on record, that his fans wouldn't want him to give any of his money (€75 million) to charity.
considering how much people in ireland are suffering financially, i do find that kind of talk a bit sickening.

I agree. Just because someone can be an arse doesn't mean all their behaviour is arsey - or that everything they do is bad.

What's so bad about what he did here anyway? What would you have done? What are you doing that's so much better than what Bono is doing?

(These are rhetorical questions ;))

But he does give charity his money, a lot of it. He has done some amazing things. I totally understand that it rubs people wrong when he is riding in his private plane and preaching to others. But at the same time, who wouldn't make the most of all that money? Does the fact that he has all this money and stuff negate the good he does?

His charity work has been great, he doesn't just throw money at things.

People often jump on the Bono hate wagon, but know very little about him and what he has done. They see a gobby tax avoidant glasses wearing short twit but know very little else, or just take rumours for gospel and focus on the bad.

I was disappointed by the tax thing as well though, I admit.

It is also Bono who gets the stick but there are three other members who make the decisions as well.

Leave my Bono alone!!!!

Absolutely can't stand the fucker.

Bono is a twat.
I can't stand his preachiness and his 'all about me' attitude.
He pissed me right off in the days after the attacks too, made it all about Bono.
Knob.

I'm amazed you've only just noticed what a pillock he is, but it was a nice gesture to the band. I expect that getting back on the horse was a rather emotionally charged situation for them.

If I remember rightly he also promotes Monsanto

Charity in a lot of countries would have a much lesser burden if their citizens didn't evade tax.

Re: Monsanto - why am i not surprised? I didn't know he was in league with them.

George clooney is the same. all for world peace etc but happy to get his bit of cash from Nestle.

Perhaps Bono the Superhero might like to help out the people in the Shannon region who are blighted by flooding this week.......

Look, Bono is a twat. There is no way round that. His self aggrandising actions, lechery, tax avoidance and dumping shite music onto unsuspecting phones is evidence of uber twattery, without need for detail (Telephones, Trabants, lemons, popes etc).

However, he has been a great charity supporter since the very beginning of his music career. 3 Nobel Peace Prize nominations say something about him.

I dislike his music, well, anything after War, and found his big arena posturing toe curling. But, even with the best part of 30 years disliking the public persona, I can't fault his altruism.

That pp have asked why he does not do more for NI shows how little memory there is these days. He lived with IRA kidnap threats in his 20s, death threats in America for his anti activism. He has lived with that for decades.

Look, Bono is a twat. There is no way round that.

Made me .

YADNBU :) South Park lads did a great episode about him.
It's the sunglasses that give me the most rage, perhaps his massive halo is too bright and he needs to shield his peepers .