nme.com: U2 representatives have taken action to stop an internet shop selling tickets for a tour the band claim is not happening.

Earlier this week it was possible to buy tickets online for huge stadium shows in Dublin (Croke Park, June 26-27), London (Twickenham Park, July 2) and Paris’ Stade De France (early July, 2005).

However, the tickets - which ranged in price from £125 to £295, were removed when the site received a "letter" refuting the dates. [ more]

abacausa.com: Irish band U2 in Monaco filming for UK television. The group rented a vintage Cadillac which soon brokedown and could not be used. Instead of the Cadillac Bono used his BMW and filming was resumed. [ more]

u2.com: Vertigo has gone straight to No.1 in the UK official download chart – and has broken weekly download records in the US.

The digital version of Vertigo has sold sold more in the past week than any track in download history!

nypost.com: Music piracy may be running rampant online, but the success of U2's latest single shows that there is a healthy market for legitimate downloads.

This week, consumers' clamored to download U2's "Vertigo" from iTunes, with the song skyrocketing to No. 1 in hours.

The numbers are still small — approximately 20,000 copies sold — most of the 99-cents price is profit for U2's label, Interscope. [ more]

q4music.com: U2's track-by-track guide to How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb:

Vertigo
U2 as garage band. Over power chords, Bono sings about boys who play rock and roll. Adam Clayton: "It was originally called Native Son and had a very different feel. Bono and Edge rewrote it when we started work with Steve Lillywhite. The bass and drums have a little bit of Echo & the Bunnymen in there - a nice wink to where we came from."

Miracle Drug
The sort of wide-eyed anthem that should by now carry a U2 patent. Bono: "It started off being about the Irish writer Christopher Nolan, who was at our school (Nolan, who was born with cerebral palsy, won the 1988 Whitbread Prize for his autobiographical novel ’Under The Eyes of the Clock’). But in a more oblique way it’s probably as much about Aids and the drugs developed to arrest it. I couldn’t write specifically about that without feeling an idiot."

Sometimes You Can’t Make it On Your Own
Bono on his father’s death. As stately and emotive as One. Bono: "There’s a line, ’You’re the reason I have the operas in me.’ My old man was a beautiful tenor. He was this working-class guy who loved opera. He used to sit conducting the stereo with knitting needles."

Love and Peace or Else
As close as U2 have come to being Led Zeppelin The Edge: "I’m delighted about this one. It’s been around since the last record. All we had was an amazing keyboard part of Brian (Eno)’s and a rhythm section Larry and Daniel (Lanois) had worked up. I fought for hours trying to figure out what to do with this fantastic raw track. We cracked it this time."

City of Blinding Lights
Back to the wide-open terrain of The Unforgettable Fire, via a vintage Edge motif. Bono: "It’s a New York song. About going there for the first time. We were the first band to play Madison Square Gardens after 9/11. During Where the Streets Have No Name the house lights came up and there were 20,000 people in tears. It was beautiful."

All Because of You
Three minutes of gleeful stomping and a likely single. Sample lyric: "I like the sound of my own voice." Adam Clayton: "Often when we have something which is straight rock it never goes anywhere - we just keep churning it around. But this was one or two takes."

A Man and a Woman
Motown by way of The Rolling Stones’ ’Waiting on a Friend’ Bono: "The sound of sitting on a stoop in New York in the summer. I wanted a song that rolled up The Clash and Marvin Gaye into one."

Crumbs from Your Table
The Edge breaks out I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’s ringing guitar. Bono rails at the Aids crisis. Bono: "I went to speak to Christian fundamentalist groups in America to convince them to give money to fight Aids in Africa. It was like getting blood from a stone. I told them about a hospice In Uganda where so many people were dying they had to sleep three to a bed. Sister Anne, who I mention in the song, works at that hospice. Her office is a sewer."

One Step Closer
Bono ponders the meaning of death over a hushed backdrop Bono: "Noel Gallacher gave me that line. We were in Birmingham on the last UK tour. I was telling Noel that my old man had lost his faith and didn’t know where he was going. And Noel just said (adopts passable Mancunian drawl), Well, he’s one step closer to knowing, isn’t he?"

Original of the Species
A strident torch song. Contains the lines, "Some things you shouldn’t get too good at/Like smiling, crying and celebrity." The Edge: "The last time I cried was listening to that song. It was a song Bono started on the last record about my daughter Holly. He’s her godfather. The lyric became more universal. About being young and full of doubt about yourself. He probably won’t agree, but I think it has connotations for Bono, looking back to when he was 20."

Yahweh
Quintessentially U2 - from soaring chorus to a title that co-opts the Hebrew word for God. Bono: "I had the idea that no one can own Jerusalem, but everybody wants to put flags on it. The title’s an ancient name that’s not meant to be spoken. I got around it by singing it. I hope I don’t offend anyone."

Fast Cars
Bizarrely, U2 come on like the house band in a Morrocan bazaar. Bono: "We did this on the very last day in the studio. It was really just for fun, but it came out so well it’ll be an extra track on the record in some countries."

timesonline.co.uk: JIM SHERIDAN, the Oscar-nominated director, is turning his hand to something new — rock music. The country’s leading filmmaker has agreed to help U2 make videos for their forthcoming album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

Bono has described Sheridan, 55, as a “mentor” and the two have been friends for more than 25 years. The U2 lead singer penned one of the theme tunes for Sheridan’s recent award-winning film, In America, and also worked on his 1993 hit, In the Name of the Father.

“He’s a mentor to me,” said Bono, who performed rock songs as a teenager in a theatre owned by Sheridan. “It’s like he’s always been a presence in my life.”

A spokesperson for Sheridan’s Hell’s Kitchen company told The Sunday Times: “Jim is a great admirer and friend of Bono and the Edge. He enjoys working with them. Vertigo (U2’s single) is already shot, and he has given the lads some advice on certain aspects.” [ more]

u2.com: ‘It’s Such a Personal Record, It May Just Be Our Best,’ claims Bono in the new edition of Q Magazine.
In a lengthy interview covering ten pages of the November edition of the UK music glossy, the band muse on each track of the forthcoming release of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.

Edge has no doubts that the album has some showstopping tracks.

‘This is going to be a great live record,’ he says, before confirming that lemons have no planned role in future U2 shows. ‘If memory serves, the lemon is a pretty lousy form of transport. It was for sale on eBay for a while but I don’t think there were any takers.’
[ more]

emediawire.com: As the buzz begins to swirl about the real Irish super group U2 and their first album in four years, "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb". Fans all over are anxious to hear and see the group soon.

Well, at least U2 fans in Phoenix area will be able to get their fix until the real "U2" arrives some time next year during their upcoming tour. Maesche Entertainment Group is proud to present the Ultimate U2 Tribute Experience, "Elevation"! They don't hail from a small Irish town, nor have they played in front of millions of fans, but if you look past the small stage, study the mannerisms of the groups exact look alike of "Bono," and closely listen, "Elevation" comes across as smooth as a live performance by the real U2. [ more]

kino.de: U2 haben die Songliste ihres mit Spannung erwarteten Albums "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" bekannt gegeben. Nicht dabei sind die Tracks "Tough" oder "Full Metal Jacket", die Bandmitglieder vorab als mögliche CD-Titel genannt hatten.

Unter den neu angekündigten Titeln sind "Miracle Drug", "One Step Closer" und "Love and Peace or Else". Die erste Singleauskopplung "Vertigo" soll nach drei Tagen Radiopräsenz schon diese Woche in die Top 20 der Billboard Modern Rock Track Charts und die Top 30 der Mainstream Rock Tracks aufsteigen. [ more]

undercover.com.au: U2 fans will gather in Los Angeles in October to take attend a U2 Convention.

The convention at the Ontario Convention Centre will give fans a chance to buy, sell and trade collectibles and view a collection of U2 photographers from famed photographer Otto Kitsinger. [ more]