I was bored....(Bono/Ali related)

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I like it, too. I think an Ali site should reflect the woman herself - classy, organized, with style and substance, but without unnecessary flashiness.
 
Zootomic said:
I like it, too. I think an Ali site should reflect the woman herself - classy, organized, with style and substance, but without unnecessary flashiness.

Well said! I will do my best...
 
kellyahern said:
Bono and Ali’s dream marriage
By Jon Myles

Bono's wife Ali Hewson has lifted the lid on their 23-year marriage and declared: “He’s the love of my life because he makes me follow my dreams.”

Ali, who met Bono in school when she was 12, said: “Our marriage has worked because we like each other, because we talk to each other and we are passionate about what we do. We allow each other to pursue our goals.”

The mother-of-four revealed it isn’t writing No1 albums and selling out world tours that motivates the couple — but bringing up their kids to appreciate life.

She is determined their children, Jordan, 15, Eve, 13, Elijah, five, and three-year-old John Abraham are not spoiled by the trappings of fame.

Ali said: “We have taken them to the townships in South Africa. And although they have much more than Bono and I did growing up — Bono’s dad was in the postal service, my mum and dad had an electrical business — we don’t spoil them.

“We also have two dogs and a rock band so we have plenty to look after.”

She says her and Bono have always taken world problems to heart.

“Even at school, Bono and I would talk about what was wrong with the world,” she said.

Meanwhile, Bono and Van Morrison are among the stars who will appear on a new album from blues legend BB King later this year.

King, who turns 80 in September, teamed up with U2 for When Loves Comes to Town in 1988.

That is the most sweetest thing I have ever read. Bono and Ali. :heart:
 
I've just added a bunch of articles and interviews (thanks Emilie!) to the Articles section. This was my first experience using HTML anchors so please let me know if any of the links on that page don't work right.

EDIT: I'm off to bed, but the Home, Biography, Articles, Links, Guestbook, Chat, and Contact sections should all be working now.
 
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LivLuvAndBootlegMusic said:
I've just added a bunch of articles and interviews (thanks Emilie!) to the Articles section. This was my first experience using HTML anchors so please let me know if any of the links on that page don't work right.

EDIT: I'm off to bed, but the Home, Biography, Articles, Links, Guestbook, Chat, and Contact sections should all be working now.

They all work great :up:
 
Thanks, will do!

Oh, and if anyone knows of any good articles from the time of the Shut Sellafield campaign, I need one or two of those b/c I've got some on the CCP and EDUN, but none really on the Sellafield postcard campaign.
 
Right, I'll start posting a few quotes on/from Ali that i got from my old puter. :D

Alison Hewson is perhaps better known as the wife of Irish rock band U2’s Bono. Yet, her concern for the world we live in takes her on missions across Europe and engages her in some very unusual cases. She started by doing some campaigning work for Greenpeace protesting against a nuclear reprocessing plant in Sellafield, on the northwest coast of Britain.
Today, at the age of 41, this warm-hearted brunette is the godmother of Anna, a child from Belarussia, who suffers from a rare disease. Her husband, Bono has been more than supportive. The couple had been seriously thinking of adopting a child. Bono’s international fame, however, would bring the child to the center of attention, so they decided not to proceed.
Alison is a woman who has worked hard to prove that life is giving and helping those in need. Everyone who has met her praises her for her courage, her strong sentiments of altruism and the low profile she keeps, despite being the wife of million-dollar star Bono.
 
1-"She's definitely the better half" ( Bono about her relationship with Ali)

2-"Bono and Ali's marriage is largely what keeps him sane.He not only loves her but is a fan of hers,admires her enormously.Should Bono ever wander into the clouds,Ali will bring him back down to earth,the soft punch if necessary.Her independence...you suspect Bono needs Ali more than she needs him" ( From the book "Far Away So Close")

3-"Ali and myself, we went down there ( Ethiopia) to do anything... The agencies...and we ended up putting ourselves to their disposal for a month and working in an orphanage with a hundred or so of kids......Ali wrote a labour play about childbrith,we had a big doll with a long umbilical cord...It was funny..." ( Idem 2)

4-"...El Salvador was a very dangerous place and i thought "I don't want to get Ali into trouble,maybe she wants to go somewhere else". I said "Ali,we can go anywhere in the world".But as usual she's up for whatever it takes,She's the one who finally saod "Let's go". ( Idem 2)
 
I need you more than you need me...Ali!" during Spanish Eyes at Barcelona

Alissoon... I know this world, is killing you..." during Bad at Boston4

"No. I definitely didn't want to get married. I just met this extraordinary woman who turned my world upside down. It wasn't in the game plan."
 
It's almost impossible to be married and on the road, but Ali is able to make it work. A year went by when I hardly saw her at all. I was coming in when she was walking out the door. Still she's a very strong person and she doesn't take any shit from me. - Bono

It was my missus's Ali's birthday at the time which I'd actually forgotten about, so I thought I can write her a song as I didn't have time to get a gift. When it came to be released, Ali said 'I own that'. - Bono talking about "The Sweetest Thing"
 
I am very privileged from that point of view. I would not feel right about taking money for anything I do. It's really nice to be able to get into something without having to feel I'm financially dependent on it." ~Ali Hewson

"It is very hard for him to come back home and say,
'Yeah, I'm normal.' He wants to climb on the table at 11 o'clock
every night and try to perform! He's wondering where are the 50,000 people.
We sort of laugh at it now."
-Ali, Bono's wife after ZooTV tour.
 
I usually find that after a long tour or separation the relationship jumps a bit. When you get back together, it has moved on. But it can be really difficult to re-adjust to having someone living back in the house," Ali, 40, muses. "You can't help thinking 'What are you doing in my bed?' or 'What are you doing in my bathroom?' Bono says he often feels like a piece of litter around the house... that I just want to tidy him away."


"Irish women are very informed and very vocal," Bono says, before
releasing his chesty laugh again. "And I should know, because I'm living
with one, and it's hard to keep up."

(O (magazine)
February 2002
 
At last, we can look sexy with a clear conscience

From The Irish Independent

BONO may be God, but Ali Hewson is God's gift to the planet. And God's gift to women, as well. I for one have taken down my Johnny Depp poster and replaced it with a picture of our unofficial First Lady.

I am not a lesbian (sorry, Nell) so maybe I had better explain this turn of events.

I am a decent-ish individual. I like to think I am, anyway. I put the lid back on the toothpaste and if I come to your house you can expect me not to leave piles of rubbish everywhere, for you to clean up after me. Similarly, I like to think that the planet I leave behind won't be totally traumatised by my having lived on it. I am not Duncan Stewart (as far as I know), but I do try to be eco-aware. Eco-friendly. The thing is, it's not easy.

Many of the problems that our environment faces are too grave and too huge for one person to solve. Global warming, climate change, water pollution, waste mountains, the disappearance of rain forests and the extinction of animals and birds: the list of horrors is endless.

It is possible to feel totally helpless, hopeless and overwhelmed in the face of all the imminent catastrophes and to just say to hell with it; to practice avoidance in the knowledge that even if the planet does only have 50 years left, we will all be old by then and we won't care. Our kids can deal with it. It is an understandable attitude, especially when you have more pressing concerns, such as what am I going to wear tonight.

In spite of the difficulties involved, I have made Herculean efforts to date, in my own efforts to save the planet.

In the morning, when I wake up, it is with organic toothpaste that I brush my teeth and likewise, it is with organic shampoos, conditioners, body lotions, deodorants, etc that I beautify my person for the cameras. Even my lipstick is organic, and as I swan about the place like an Eco-Nigella, it is with organic veggies that I prepare the soup and with environment-safe cleaning products that I perform the housework.

There is a stumbling block, however. I may be heroic, but like Achilles, I have a heel. Fashion is my downfall. Having been raised by hippies who wore only hemp, I am utterly repulsed by the prospect of having to wear ugly garments, even if this does mean I am killing the planet. Call it mindless vanity, call it whatever you like, I can't bear to wear clothes that I don't like.

I think that most women - unless they are total Earth Mother-types who knit their own yoga mats - will get where I'm coming from. Looking our best, for women, is a matter of life and death because that's how we are programmed. We need to mate in order to perpetuate the species and in order to mate, we must attract men. We must make ourselves look nice. Okay, there is a certain kind

of man who partners upwith girls in scratchy pants, but I bet even Zak Goldsmith hankers after sexy (nylon)lingerie.

Enter Ali Hewson, who is about to launch a range of wearable eco-friendly fashions, under her own label called Edin. Fashion is a fickle and unforgiving environment. Because most of us want labels that tell other women that we (a) have cash to burn and (b) we are the coolest thing on the street.

If we don't have cash to burn, we tend to go shopping every week and buy loads of trashy but high fashion items that will be out of date next weekend. This means that they have to be cheap, and in order to be really cheap, the person who made them has to be paid a pittance, in a country that doesn't bother about working conditions.

For Ali to produce clothes that say 'I am stylish' at a price we can afford is going to be one hell of a challenge.

When I first met Ali, back in the Eighties, she was a sweet-looking girl, with a beautiful face, but she wasn't what you would call stylish. In the Nineties, alongside Bono's mates Christy, Naomi and Kate, she looked like the girl next door, in clumpy shoes and long skirts that did nothing for her figure. Butrecently, something dramatic has happened to her. I don't know what it was, but now,in her 40s, she looks like a total babe. She's glossy and tanned and yoga-honed and she's 'youngified' by about 15 years.

As a glamorous role model for women, Ali is now seriously sexy and sassy. And can now easily compete with the likes of Christy, Naomiand Kate. So if she is wearing Edin, I suspect a lot of women will be wearing Edin too. Because Ali is cool, other designers will follow her lead, which means that in no time she could make it the hippest thing on the planet to be an eco-babe.

Because we consumers currently spend billions and billions on clothes, worldwide, a trend for organically-produced, fairly-traded clothing could have an enormous positive impact on the working lives of millions of people in developing economies, and also on the environment. This could be the most important thing that happens in the environmental movement, the thing that makes it truly take hold. Which is why I now have to take off my (fashion victim) hat to Ali Hewson.

Victoria Mary Clarke
 
From Neil McCormick book:

"He could often be found hanging out in our common room because Paul was engaged in a vigorous,amorous pursuit of Alison Stewart, one of the most beautiful and universally admired girls in our year. Alison had thick,black hair,smooth,olive skin,dark,warm eyes and deliciously curled lips. Being a hormonal charged 15 year old boy, I could not help but notice this things. She was also smart, kind,good-humoured,strong-willed and,frankly,way out of my league. Actually, at that stage, you felt you might have half a chance. Alison had a sort of aura of impermiability about her. I never really felt she belonged in the same world as an ungainly youth like me. On principle, I was against older boys going out with girls in our class, since their seniority and bullish air of experience seemed to grant them unfair advantage, btu Alison and Paul seemed to fit. He wooed her over the course of a long year, until, when you saw them nestle intimately among the stark arrangement of chairs and lockers in the common room, it became apparent they were an item".
 
Ok, Ok I know this is not Ali related but I just had to post it.

"Dave (Edge) and I were rivals for the affections of certain schoolmates of the female persuasion. He caused me considerable torment when he succeeded in snogging Denis McIntery, the unwitting object of my adoration, whom I made a point of sitting next to in most classes. My distress when Denise blithely informed me of their brief encounter was only midly mollified by her appraisal of my rival as a "sloppy kisser"".

:laugh:
 
"There as a white screen set up at the side of th stage with lights projecting on it from behind. During "Stories for Boys", a snappy song about male-fantasy role models, Bono dragged Alison on stage and they disappeared behind the screen, where their silhouettes groped and snogged one another".
 
"Afterward, Alison ( or Ali, as everyone now called her, so Ali it shall be) approached me as I was chatting with some of the local fans, all of whom happened to be female (these were, to be honest, the only kind of fans I was remotely interested in).
"I'll have to keep my eye on you, McCormick", she said. "Every time I see you are surrounded by girls."
"It's your boyfriend's you should be watching out for," I said. "Bono's gonna be a big rock star."
"Ah, never mind him," said Ali. "He's always thought he was a star. It's my job to keep him down to earth.""
 
So there he was, being summoned for an audience with the master but afraid he might betray his ignorance. But Bono is both a natural born bluffer and a quick learner, and I think he figured with me there to back him up he couldn’t go wrong. While Bono, Ali and I were escorted to the sprawling backstage enclosure where performers were ensconced in gleaming Winnebagos, I gave Bono a crash course on the subject of Bob Almighty.

I had a lot of information to impart. Now that Lennon was gone, Dylan had ascended to primary position in my personal pantheon of living rock gods. His dazzling wordplay, connecting the emotional with the philosophical, was something I returned to again and again. Dylan was my idol and my inspiration. And now I was going to get the chance to meet him.

Or not, as it so happened. I got as far as his Winnebago where Ali and I were stopped by a mountain of muscle in a security jacket and Bono alone was ushered into the inner sanctum, where Dylan and Van Morrisson were sitting playing chess. I watched that door shut in front of me and felt a keen, sharp stab of exclusion. It was a reminder that I was in this VIP world as a guest, not an inhabitant.

Ali and I wandered about backstage, where people were milling around, preparing for the show. We were approached by an MTV airhead in micro-skirt and matching breasts who was in Ireland to film a segment for her programme, which, she assured us, was, like, totally cool, especially since she was, like, one sixteenth part Irish herself, though she didn’t reveal what the other fifteen parts were constituted from. Silicone by the look of it. Standing with her were two young Americans, Sam and Jake, both adorned in MTV passes, who Ali and I chatted with while Airhead practised pouting. It transpired that they were avid fans of U2 and wanted to talk about Bono and the Irish rock scene but I found it hard to concentrate. While they rattled on, I kept thinking ‘Bob Dylan is sitting in that caravan!’ It seemed wonderful and absurd, like discovering God had put up a tent in your garden.

After a while Bono returned. I immediately seized upon him, demanding to know what had transpired but he seemed uncharacteristically withdrawn. “He was … you know,” he said, which did little to assuage my curiosity. “I’ll tell you later.” By now, a crowd was milling around and there was a buzz of excitement in the atmosphere, when I noticed this weird looking fellow sidle up alongside us, his jowly face caked in orange make-up and baggy eyes ringed with thick black liner. I didn’t actually recognise him at first, perhaps because he bore so little resemblance to the skinny beatnik with the tangled psychedelic curls whose poster adorned my bedroom wall. “Hey, let’s get a picture taken here” he said in a stoned drawl, throwing one arm around Bono’s shoulder and the other around the MTV airhead, who squealed with delight. It finally dawned on me that this paunchy, wrinkled old peach was Bob Dylan. I gaped at the strange vision, simultaneously amazed and disappointed. “He looks so old,” I whispered to my new American buddies. Then, gripping his electric guitar, Dylan waved imperiously with one hand and declared, in that strangely flexible drawl of his, “Let’s go,” whereupon he began to head towards the stage, while a whole crowd trooped in his wake, until the only people left behind were Ali, Bono, the young Americans and me.

“ Is he stoned?” I said, unable to contain the anti-climactic sense of disenchantment welling up in my chest. “He sounds so out of it, I can’t believe he’s going to go onstage like that. He looks like shit.”

Ali fixed me with a fierce glare, but I was never one to shut up just because people didn’t like what I had to say. “It’s true what they say,” I glumly declared. “You shouldn’t meet your heroes.”

Ali kicked me fiercely but discreetly in one ankle.

“ What’s your problem?” I said.

Sam and Jake made their excuses and departed. As they wandered towards the stage, Ali started laughing. “Do you know who you were talking to?” she asked between fits of giggles.

I got a familiar sinking feeling.

“ They’re Dylan’s sons,” she said.

Oops.
 
Afterwards, at Bono's behest, he posed for some photos with his girlfriend, Bono with his white shirt buttoned up to the neck, Ali in a flowery print dress. You don't see them often photographed together and perhaps these rare pictures illustrate why. Bono si at ease with the camera, alternately playing to it and ignoring it completely, while Ali, as beautiful as she is, looks distinctly uncomfortable, either watching the camera with wary distrust or watching Bono perform with an air of suspicious curiosity. Ali was never a seeker of the limelight. She loved Bono (of that there could be no doubt). (...) Ali loved something different about him that the rest of us did, something vulnerable and unshowy, lurking deep within the extrovert exterior."
 
Bono: "(...) I'd love to do a single with Ali", he confided. "It would be great to go into a studio with someone who doesn't knwo anything about music but has got so much natural spirit and just try to see if we can capture that on record!"
Neil: "How does Ali feel about that?"
Bono: "Oh, she doesn't know!", he laughed. "She won't even sing in front of me. I'd have to sneak in and record her in the bath".
 
"...But it strucked me in Birmingham that Bono was lonely. Ali lived her own life in Dublin, refusing to become a satellite to Bono's star. She went to gigs when it suited her, rather than joining the entourage on the road. And Bono used to joke that she ocasionally threw him out, just to keep him in line. I think the truth was that when he returned from tour, all hyped up after months of adulation, she would insist he stay in a hotel for a couple of weeks to reintegrate with the values of her more ordinary life before he could come back home. "Ali will nto be worn like a brooch", was bono's admiring phrase. "She's her own woman". But I have also heard him complain, from time to time, that "it's almost impossible to be married and be in a band on the road"".
 
"Bono and Ali have 4 children. Two young teengae girls, Joran and Eve, and two infant sons, Eli and John. "I'm so lad I was able to give Bono sons", Ali once told me. "He's great with the girls but the relationship between father and son is very special and I don't think he really had that in his life".
 
"Ali was looking stunning. With her lustrous black hair, knowing eyes and smooth skin, the years had been extremely kind to her, perhaps aided by the kind of luxurious lifestyle that massive wealth can provide. Not that Ali lived a particularly pampered existence. BEsides being mother to 4 and wife to a force of nature, Ali had studied politics at university, attaining a social science degree, and had become a noted activist in enviromental causes. talking politics with Ali, though, was a slightly surreal affair, since she and Bono were acquainted with so many world statesmen. When she said, "I really like Tony Blair", you were never entirely sure if this was a policu or a personal endorsement. Discussing the American presidency, she said, as if it were the most unremarkable aside, "We flew to Africa with the Clintons last week to see Nelson MAndela". As you do. "Chelsea's the one to watch" advised Ali. "Bill and Hillary are incredibly smart but Chelsea's got both their brains".
 
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