Coldplay, Killers, U2 Share Stage, Avoid Ego Explosion

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Whoever booked this show is playing with fire. Don’t they understand that even if it’s for a good cause, like War Child‘s 15th anniversary, putting Chris Martin, Brandon Flowers and Bono all on the same stage could cause a horrifically destructive chain reaction, as their gigantic egos compete for the limited photons, ultimately exploding in a massive wave of highly-charged self-importance particles? Coldplay had just lost every Brit award they were nominated for in London on Wednesday night, so the be-tassled Martin was extra mopey as the band made their way over to the O2 arena for the charity event. Perhaps this meant his ego was “in check” enough to make room for the Killers and U2 frontmen (as well as Snow Patrol Take That’s Gary Barlow, whose ego size has not yet been determined). But here’s another baffling thing: despite the long list of quality songs between those four bands, what did this supergroup decide to perform? The Killers’ bombastic, overwrought “All These Things That I’ve Done.” (Watch above). Yeech! HuffPo calls it “The Best Encore Ever,” but even if you’re a fan of these blowhards, shouldn’t this be “The Biggest Missed Opportunity Ever”?

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate