Looks like Bono is sitting behind Paul McCartney at the Grammys.

Today’s Inside Track column in the Boston Herald has the headline, “U2 guitar god brings band aid to Big Easy musicians,” outlining the charity work Edge is doing with Music Rising.

In between the information about the charity and Edge’s continued love of New Orleans there was a tidbit of information that I think many U2 fans missed 5 years ago:

“Edge told the Associated Press that he empathizd with the N’Awlins music men because U2 lost its own supply of instruments in a Dublin flood in 2001. Coincidentally, when the flood hit the Irish rockers were in New Orleans. ‘The storage area where we had all our equipment was completely flooded…but luckily my main guitars were with us in New Orleans…the Gibson Explorer that I’ve had since I was 17-years-old, and the amplifier I’ve used on every album for every show since we got a record deal.’”

My question is - if you have a studio on Hanover Quay with water surrounding you on a major side of the building, wouldn’t you sort-of-expect that there *might* be a chance of a flood?

To read the whole article, visit here.

Word on the street has a rumbling of an interesting fund raiser idea for the African Well Fund and annual Bono’s Birthday Well fundraiser.

Along with their current T-Shirt design contest, there are several U2 photographers banding together in conjunction with the African Well Fund to donate high quality concert photos to be auctioned off in conjunction with www.missionfish.org, with 100% of the sales going towards AWF.

These photographs are some of the photographers’ favorite or best work from several different tours. Most photos will be printed on high quality stock by professional photo printing companies.

This is a great opportunity for U2 fans to get some great prints of concert material and help support the African Well Fund. Keep an eye out on @U2 and www.africanwellfund.org for more details as they develop.

**UPDATE**

This morning, I wrote the blog article you’ll see below the stars. Later on in the day, word came that the 2nd show has been all but “officially” cancelled. (Of course you can’t cancel something that was never officially scheduled.) The reason: oversaturation of the marketplace. For whatever reason, Hawaii has turned into a concert mecca in a short amount of time and the tickets aren’t selling like concert promoters would like. Over a span of 3 weeks in April, Hawaii will host The Crater Festival with The Steve Miller Band, Linda Ronstadt and more acts to be announced.

You also have Elvis Costello performing with the Honolulu Symphony Pops, as well as the new music event called Kokua Festival starring Hawaii’s own native, Jack Johnson, along with Ben Harper and Willie Nelson (and others).

Match this with U2. For a state that very rarely ever gets major artists to perform, this is an amazing lineup of talent in a short amount of time. To put the concerts into perspective, U2’s ticket prices range between $49.50-$165. The Crater Festival is asking for $125-$175. Elvis Constello’s gig is pricing in at between $40-$90 and finally, Kokua Festival tickets range between a mere $35-$50.

That said, the ticket sales have been slow for U2 (you can *still* pull 4 tickets in a row for the 4/8 show on Ticketmaster). Early reports on ticket sales for the Crater Festival also show sluggish results. People may be choosing to go to the hometown gig for their own Jack Johnson, whose ticket prices are at most $50 and bypassing the more expensive tickets.

So, even though the local promoter wants to see a 2nd U2 show, the venue they’re holding the gig in has already been downsized to accommodate the smaller audience. At this rate, tickets still are not selling at the rate of speed TNA would like - and given TNA’s practice to not put on sale the full ticket allotment on the first date of a ticket onsale, one could approximate that there are still thousands of tickets available for U2’s show. Time, sadly, has not helped the ticket sales.

All of these elements need to be taken into consideration, and as of a few hours ago, the hope that there would indeed be a 2nd U2 show in Hawaii has just about completely faded. From a financial standpoint, it doesn’t make sense for the parties involved. From a PR standpoint, it would look really bad to have a less-than-favorable turnout for the last show of a very successful tour. We all remember PopMart’s third leg and the lack of ticket sales - the band vowed to never do that again. Those three points alone would point the decision in the direction of “no” in regard to the 2nd gig.

In the meantime, thanks to everyone who has been following the soap opera saga of the end of the tour. This has been a learning experience of how touch-and-go these decisions can be.
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From earlier in the day….
File this in the category of “make up your minds already!”

The proposed ticket onsale date for the proposed April 9 Hawaiian has been put on indefinite hold pending more details from U2 and their management, according to an industry source. Apparently, there are still concerns that the first Hawaiian date has not sold out and management is worried about the 2nd show not selling well at all and fear having U2’s best selling tour in history to end on a sour note. In the meantime, the promoter is still very much committed to bringing a 2nd U2 show to Hawaii.

I share the same feelings as many fans on the various mail lists and online chat boards: Hawaii is a destination where it’s a very far location to travel to for only ONE show; however if there are TWO, then it makes it far more appealing to travel out for.

More news as it comes along.

The National Prayer Breakfast kicked off today at the Hilton Washington Hotel with President Bush introducing Bono by saying: “You know, I was trying to figure out what to say about Bono.”
Bono remarked, ” Careful.”
President Bush continued, “And a story jumped to mind about these really good Texas preachers. And he got going in a sermon and a fellow jumped up in the back and said, “Use me, Lord, use me.” And the preacher ignored him, and finished his sermon. Next Sunday he gets up, and cranking on another sermon. And the guy jumps up and says, “Use me, Lord, use me.” And after the service, he walked up to him and said, “If you’re serious, I’d like for you to paint the pews.” Next Sunday, he’s preaching, the guy stands up and says, “Use me, Lord, use me, but only in an advisory capacity. So I’ve gotten to know Bono. He’s a doer. The thing about this good citizen of the world is he’s used his position to get things done. You’re an amazing guy, Bono. God bless you.”

Later in the speech, President Bush said, “We live up to God’s calling when we provide help for HIV/AIDS victims on the continent of Africa and around the world. In millions of acts of kindness, we have seen the good heart of America. Bono, the true strength of this country is not in our military might or in the size of our wallet, it is in the hearts and souls of the American people.”

For the full transcript of President Bush’s remarks, visit here.

Bono introduced himself to those in attendance as “a man of the cloth: leather” and went on to say “Please join me in praying I don’t say anything we all regret.”

For in-depth coverage, visit the following sites:
Washington Post msnbc.msn.com