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PM Influenced U2 Tour
OTTAWA (CP) — You too could get U2 to play your town, if you were PM.
Irish superstars U2 have added Ottawa to their worldwide Vertigo tour after a phone call from Prime Minister Paul Martin to lead singer Bono.
The two have been on first-name basis since Martin cut debts owed to Canada by Third World countries when he was Liberal finance minister.
Bono is a strong campaigner for debt relief.
Radio station BOB-FM lobbied Martin last month to get U2 to play Ottawa and promised to rename itself PAUL-FM for a day if he was successful.
The Prime Minister’s Office said Bono just happened call Martin prior to the station’s campaign.
Martin returned the call and told Bono about the drive to get the band to Ottawa, said Martin spokeswoman Melanie Gruer.
“Another promise made, another promise kept,” Gruer joked, echoing the Liberal slogan on the federal budget heard repeatedly at the party’s convention last weekend.
U2 added 33 cities to the tour Sunday, including Ottawa, which it will play Nov. 25 — the day the station plans to call itself PAUL-FM.
The band also announced it will play two concert dates in Toronto and another in Montreal, in addition to the previously announced Vancouver show.
Tickets for the Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa shows go on sale March 19. Tickets range from from $50 to $176.
The quartet is using Vancouver’s GM Place as rehearsal base for the tour, which begins at the end of March in San Diego.
Gruer said Bono told the prime minister the band really likes Ottawa and was eager to add it to the tour.
Martin’s office says he hopes to attend the Ottawa concert.
OTTAWA (CP) — You too could get U2 to play your town, if you were PM.
Irish superstars U2 have added Ottawa to their worldwide Vertigo tour after a phone call from Prime Minister Paul Martin to lead singer Bono.
The two have been on first-name basis since Martin cut debts owed to Canada by Third World countries when he was Liberal finance minister.
Bono is a strong campaigner for debt relief.
Radio station BOB-FM lobbied Martin last month to get U2 to play Ottawa and promised to rename itself PAUL-FM for a day if he was successful.
The Prime Minister’s Office said Bono just happened call Martin prior to the station’s campaign.
Martin returned the call and told Bono about the drive to get the band to Ottawa, said Martin spokeswoman Melanie Gruer.
“Another promise made, another promise kept,” Gruer joked, echoing the Liberal slogan on the federal budget heard repeatedly at the party’s convention last weekend.
U2 added 33 cities to the tour Sunday, including Ottawa, which it will play Nov. 25 — the day the station plans to call itself PAUL-FM.
The band also announced it will play two concert dates in Toronto and another in Montreal, in addition to the previously announced Vancouver show.
Tickets for the Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa shows go on sale March 19. Tickets range from from $50 to $176.
The quartet is using Vancouver’s GM Place as rehearsal base for the tour, which begins at the end of March in San Diego.
Gruer said Bono told the prime minister the band really likes Ottawa and was eager to add it to the tour.
Martin’s office says he hopes to attend the Ottawa concert.
