Name: BONO (PAUL DAVID HEWSON) Birth Date: MAY 10, 1960 Birth Place: DUBLIN, IRELAND Zodiac Sign: TAURUS His Family: *Parents: Bob and Iris Hewson (both deceased) *Brother: Norman Hewson (older brother) *Wife: Alison "Ali" Stuart (married since May 1982) *Daughters: Jordan (born May 10, 1989) , Memphis Eve (born July 1991) *Sons: Elijah Patricius Q Guggi (born August 1999), John Abraham (born May 2001)

Bono was born Paul David Hewson in at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin on May 10th 1960. He was the second son of Bobby and Iris, and a younger brother to Norman. For the first seven weeks of his life, baby Paul lived at the family house in Stillorgan, South of the River Liffey.  Then the whole family moved to a house to the northside of Dublin --10 Cedarwood Road in Ballymun. Paul's parents were a "mixed marriage", his father was a Roman Catholic and his mother was a Protestant.  Bono grew up with a strong religious faith but avoided becoming attached to one particular denomination. His mother died in 1974 (within days of thedeath of her own father) when Bono was just 14 years old, an event that was to have a strong influence on his later songwriting. Losing his mother at such a young age was something that he had in common with Larry.  

Bono	Young Bono

One of Paul's childgood friends was Derek Rowan who lived in a nearby street.  He was later to become a member of the Lypton Village which included Fionan Harvey (Gavin Friday),  Peter Rowan ("Guggi"), Paul ("Bonovox", which means good voice in latin) and later other members of U2. At St. Patrick's Secondary School, Paul was involved in sports and excelled in the game of chess.   But the school's stricter regime started to alienate Paul and soon his parents agreed to him moving to Mount Temple, Dublin's first comprehensive, co-educational and non-denominational school. Paul began studies at Mount Temple in September 1972.  At the new school, Paul enjoyed the subjects of art, history and drama.  In the autumn term of 1976, he answered the invitation from Larry Mullen, Jr. to meet at his house with the intention of forming a band.  Although Paul claimed that he could play the guitar, it was his way of organizing the group that endeared him to the others.  Paul couldn't yet sing to a decent standard, but his abilities of being able to communicate easily (the Irish gift of the gab) and write poetry made him a good choice for the role of front-man and songwriter.

Ally and Bono

From the earliest U2 shows, it would be Bono who would communicate with the audience in order to gain their attention, if not their acceptance of the band.  Like Adam Clayton, Bono was keen for U2 to succeed and went as far as going over to London in frustration at the lack of interest from the big London based record companies at the time, in order to stir up some interest in U2.  Whenever they played a gig, it would be Bono who was the link between the band and the audience.  At times this might be with just words, on other occasions it might be jumping into the audience or walking around the venue.  As U2's audiences got bigger, Bono's antics got more and more outrageous.  By 1983, Bono would regularly climb scaffolding at the side of the stage to wave a flag or jump up onto balcomies to sing.  More often than not, Bono would use his performance as a way of preaching to his audience about some event or issue that was in the news, such as the Enniskillen bombing speech during "Sunday Bloody Sunday" in the Rattle 'n' Hum film. 

Bono

Bono has had many looks and hairstyles during U2's career.  For any Bono/U2 fan it would be impossible to forget his 80s mullet style haircut, "War" leather boots or the various other wardrobe choices and personas he portrayed in later years (i.e. the Fly, Mr. MacPhisto, the Mirrorball Man, the blue-bubble suits and muscle shirts from Pop Mart, the many sunglass styles and the simple black leather jackets of the Elevation Tour).

Bono

Bono's humanitarian causes have developed via his Christian beliefs from an interest in human rights, through environmental issues, the Aids issue, the war in Bosnia, to Third World Debt and "Making Poverty History" via his organizations DATA (Debt, Trade and Aid in Africa) and the "One Campaign".  In 2005, Bono was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize (his third nomination) but the award was not to be.  Bono said during an interview with Conan O'Brien (the night before the winner would be announced) that he didn't think the award was going to be given to an Irish rock star, that he was honored with the nomination, but that there were other people out there that deserved it more than him. Needless to say, just to be nominated is a feat in itself --congratulations Bono. 

Since the end of the Elevation Tour, Bono has been in the company of various world leaders including ex-USA President Bill Clinton, current USA President George Bush, Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair and Vladimir Putin of Russia, seeking their commitment to dropping third world debt. In July 8th, 2005 the G8 summit took place in Gleanegles, Scotland and the world leaders agreed to lower the debt of the worlds poorest countries by 50 billion dollars.  Bono had a loud voice and influence in order for that action by the world leaders taking place. Whether Bono will leave music behind to work full time as humanitarian ambassador remains to be seen,  but certainly the call of Africa and humankind seems to be growing stronger day by day.

Bono and his friend Guggi

In all of this madness, Bono has remained married to his teenage sweetheart, Alison Stewart, for almost twenty three years.  Currently, Bono lives with her and his four children in the suburb of Killiney, near Dublin, Ireland.

Bono's house in Ireland and Clarence Hotel owned by The Edge and Bono

**Written and compiled by ZoraidaLu1 (Zory) from the entries on the book by Mark Chatterton: "U2: The Ultimate Encyclopedia", Fire Fly Publishing: London, 2004 (Revised Edition).