You may know that the Soweto Gospel Choir does a cover of “One” on its new album, African Spirit. And you may know that Bono is a special guest on the track.

Someone please tell Amazon … not that Bono!

(Thx Collin)

Thanks to U2Log for pointing this out - Willie Williams has surfaced on YouTube over the past few months, sharing with the world his special view on things during his time with U2 and the 5th leg of the Vertigo Tour.. Besides putting up videos of U2 performances taken with his secret agent surveillance camera, he’s also put up little videos like this one showing how his creative mind gets inspired (well, sort of!).

It helps if you’ve read all of his diary entries at U2.com to put some of these videos into context - especially the ones where he’s showing his various meal choices whilst travelling.

To view more of his videos, check them out here.

Thx to U2tour.de for pointing us toward this recent article in The Guardian where various artists and writers reveal their favorite gig(s). Somewhat predictably, Bono chooses a 1977 gig by the Clash in Dublin. I say “somewhat predictably” because Bono has spoken on this topic before, and about his belief that U2 wouldn’t exist if not for The Clash and the impact of this gig.

Here’s what he wrote in The Guardian:

Can’t remember the set list, can’t remember much about the music, to be honest. I just know that everything changed that night, and I’m sure it was not just for me. Year zero. The shock of the new, where everything reconfigured. The venue was the exam hall of Trinity College, founded by Bishop Berkeley 300 odd years previously … the man who spent his entire existence trying to prove the existence of existence. I’m not kidding. He also had a corner of San Francisco named after him. Other reconfigurations, other revolts.

It wasn’t so much a musical event. It was more like the Red Army had arrived, on a cold October night, to force feed a new cultural revolution, punk rock. Marching boots and the smell of sulphur. Not weed or speed but fear, fear of the future, no future. And the delight, so much delight. All kinds of symbols pinned on jackets, some ridiculous swastikas, Red Brigade t-shirts, hand made knock-offs of extremely expensive Seditionaries threads fromLondon. But as there was a war going on 100 miles from here, in a strange way, the Clash made more sense in Dublin than anywhere.

As I sat in the box room and stared out the window the next day, it was very clear. The world is more malleable than you think; reality is what you can get away with.

My greatest gig ever? Hmmmmmm…

That would have to be U2 in San Jose, April 20, 2001.

And you?

The @U2 Calendar shows that U2’s music will be featured on the CBS television program Cold Case on January 28. In this week’s TV Guide, writer Stephen Battaglio reports that CBS is going to do something that other networks haven’t done - start up its own label as a cost-cutting measure so that the network does not have to pay upwards of $25,000 in royalties for the use of a song. The article states:

CBS thinks TV can be the new radio. That’s why the network’s parent company has started up its own record label that will develop artists whose music can be used on its shows. Music is an increasingly important element on network dramas, but when shows have to pay up to $25,000 for a track - like CSI:NY recently did for the use of a Bruce Springsteen tune - the costs can add up. CBS Records figures it can give producers a lower-priced alternative if it develops its own artists. And if viewers like those tracks, they’ll be able to buy them as digital downloads or old-fashioned CDs. Of course, CBS had been in the record business for decades before selling it off to Sony in 1988. Too bad. One of its artists was Bruce Springsteen.

What a great way to earn a few more quid! U2’s music has also been featured on CSI: Las Vegas when How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb was first released.

@U2 reader Eric alerted us to the fact that the U2 documentary Rattle and Hum is now available for purchase on iTunes. For $9.99 you can legally download the widescreen version of the 1987 film in its entirety. Visit the iTunes music store to view a trailer of the movie and read user reviews.

This morning’s broadcast of NBC’s The Today Show featured a story on celebrity impersonators who roam around at the Universal Studios theme park in Los Angeles. Among the impersonators interviewed was Pavel Sfera, an actor who portrays Bono. Not a bad body double, although I don’t think Bono would wear the type of earing he does in the piece. Check it out for yourself here. (As a side note, it doesn’t surprise me that Universal Studios would have a Bono impersonator given that U2’s record company is part of Universal.)