Bono, singer and songwriter

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2022

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bono is a singer, songwriter and the frontman of U2, one of the most recognisable and successful bands in music history. They have sold over 170 million albums, won 22 Grammys – more than any other band – and two Golden Globe Awards. Bono is also known for his work as an activist, especially in Africa where he has played a prominent role in campaigns which tackle poverty and HIV/AIDs. Bono was born Paul Hewson in Dublin in 1960. A schoolfriend named him Bono after a hearing aid shop in Dublin called Bono Vox, and the name stuck. When he was 16, Bono saw a poster on his school noticeboard posted by Larry Mullen Jr asking for people to form a rock band. He responded with enthusiasm and before long was rehearsing with his future bandmates Larry, who played the drums, guitarist the Edge and bassist Adam Clayton. The band’s debut album Boy came out in 1980 and five years later they made an impact at the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium when Bono disappeared from the stage for two minutes to get up close to the audience. One newspaper later described this incident as one of the 50 key events in rock history. U2's subsequent albums, including the Joshua Tree, Rattle and Hum and Achtung Baby, cemented their status as global superstars, filling arenas around the world. In 2004 Bono co-founded One, an international campaigning organisation which was set up with the aim of ending extreme poverty and preventable disease by 2030. Bono met his future wife, Ali, at school when they were both teenagers. They married in 1982 and have four children. DISC ONE: Show Me The Way by Peter Frampton DISC TWO: Every Grain Of Sand by Bob Dylan DISC THREE: Abide With Me by Emeli Sande and The Fron Choir DISC FOUR: Dead In The Water (Live At RTÉ 2FM Studios, Dublin) by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds DISC FIVE: Ice Cream Sundae by Inhaler DISC SIX: Agolo by Angelique Kidjo DISC SEVEN: Verdi: La traviata Prelude to Act 1, composed by Giuseppe Verdi and performed by Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, conducted by James Levine DISC EIGHT: Someone Somewhere in Summertime by Simple Minds BOOK CHOICE: Ulysses by James Joyce LUXURY ITEM: A Spanish guitar CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Every Grain Of Sand by Bob Dylan Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Paula McGinley

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:04.9	Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Deser Island Disks Podcast.
0:08.6	Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them
0:13.9	if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:16.5	And for right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:21.2	I hope you enjoy listening.
0:45.7	My cast away this week was born Paul Husson, but thanks to a nickname from a school friend,
0:51.3	he's one of a handful of global stars known by a single name, Bono.
0:56.4	He achieved that start and decades ago with a few piles from school.
1:00.4	Judged by any metric, you two are one of the most successful acts in music history.
1:05.8	They've sold over 170 million albums, 122 Grammys, more than any other band,
1:12.1	and exploded expectations of what stadium concerts could be, tour after record-breaking tour.
1:18.7	Even more remarkably, they're still together 45 years on.
1:22.7	But as it turns out, this wasn't all his life was destined to encompass.
1:27.9	Just as his creative dreams came true, he found another job as an activist.
1:32.8	His commitment to the Drop the Dead campaign saw him woo Presidents and slip a pair of
1:37.4	sunglasses to the Pope, eventually leading to the cancellation of many billions of dollars
1:42.9	owed by 35 of the world's poorest countries.
1:46.2	He says, when whoever said the job of the artist is to describe the problem,
1:51.1	not to solve it, I wasn't paying attention.
1:53.8	I want to be with the people who actually want to follow through and actually make things better.
1:59.4	Actually, Bono, welcome to Desert Island Discs.
	...

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