U2’s Bono calls to ‘stop war’ as band perform Sunday Bloody Sunday at The Ivors
The performance came after the group became the first Irish songwriters to be awarded an academy fellowship.
U2 singer Bono issued a call to “stop war” ahead of performing Sunday Bloody Sunday at the Ivors award ceremony.
The performance came as the group became the first Irish songwriters to be awarded an academy fellowship at the 70th year of the awards ceremony, hosted at London’s Grosvenor House on Thursday.
Accepting the award from pop star Ed Sheeran, the group members each received an award with Bono – whose real name is Paul David Hewson – making a call for peace.
While the singer made his acceptance speech, The Edge, real name Daniel Evans, began to strum the chords of their war song Sunday Bloody Sunday.
The song references the 1972 Bloody Sunday shootings in Londonderry, where members of the British army’s Parachute Regiment opened fire at civil rights demonstrators.
He said: “I used to introduce this next song by explaining that it wasn’t a rebel song.
“It was because believing in the possibilities of peace was, then and is now a rebellious act, and some would say a ridiculous one, to believe peace was attainable between your country and ours, between our country and itself was a ridiculous idea that we’re pleased we hold on to very tightly right now.
“Peace creates possibilities in the most intractable situations. Lord knows, there’s a few of them out there right now.
“Hamas release the hostages. Stop war. Israel be released from Benjamin Netanyahu.
“All of you protect our aid workers, they are the best of us.”
The group ended the evening with a performance of their 1988 song Angel Of Harlem.
Hosted by The Ivors Academy, the award ceremony aims to recognise and celebrate “exceptional achievements in songwriting and screen composing”.
Pop star Robbie Williams took home the Icon Award at the songwriting award ceremony, describing it as a “beautiful thing to be given”.
He told PA news agency: “It feels all sorts of different things. It feels uneasy to receive, to be bestowed a ‘we love you’ or ‘we like you’. I don’t think that artists, singers, actors, I don’t think it sits very well with them, unless you’re a complete egomaniac and a narcissist, in which case you already think that and know that.
“It’s a beautiful thing to be given.”
The singer is due to release a new album, Britpop, in the autumn and is due to start his UK, Ireland and European tour on May 31 in Edinburgh.
Speaking about the new album, he said: “They (fans) can expect high octane guitars, at least for a few releases, until I jump back into pop, because we all get scared.
“The new music video features me being punkish. I hope people like it.”
Brat star Charli XCX was named songwriter of the year and gave an impassioned speech while accepting her award.
She said: “I feel like we live in a world right now where there are so many great songwriters who are undeniably technically brilliant, but will unfortunately never get a big enough platform for people to actually hear or possibly record their work.
“In my head, a great song alone has never actually been enough to captivate an audience, but instead, a song with a distinct identity coupled with a point of view, a potent culture surrounding it, and above all, conviction is what can catapult a songwriter from being technically good to globally renowned.
“As a songwriter, but above all, as an artist, conviction is everything. You literally die without it. It separates the frauds from the greats, the good singers, from the trendsetters. It’s an undeniable sense of style and personality and of course, it’s embracing the idea of daring to suck.
“In my opinion, from writing songs with no fear and no agenda other than making something totally reflective of who you are, come the best songs. Songs that can soundtrack a night out, a summer, possibly even define a moment in time.
The singer ended her speech calling out the songwriters in the room and encouraging them to “make what you want to hear”.
She said: “Make something with a niche and not something broad. Don’t try and be clever. Be dumb, have fun and play songs for your friends and above all don’t be afraid of yourself or of your own internal language, because it’s the thing that makes you distinctly you.”
