U2 have run into controversy over their plans to build an enormous high-rise skyscraper in their native Dublin (“It will be an incongruous blot on the skyline," raged one national heritage officer). If construction goes ahead, though, the £100 million U2 Tower will be Ireland’s tallest building when it opens in 2011: some legacy.
Of course, Bono and co are by no means the first musicians to plough their riches into property. Here are few more landed rockers…
Vanilla Ice
The much-mocked Ice Ice Baby star, real name Robert Winkle, attempted suicide in 1994 after his reggae-tinged comeback album, Mind Blowin’, bombed disastrously. He’s faring better these days, as the owner of a lucrative land development company in Florida. He says, "I made some foolish decisions but now I build and sell houses, and I'm loaded, man." Wonder if he still looks like Guile from Street Fighter 2.
Chris Martin
He and wife Gwyneth Paltrow reportedly own four properties on the same road in North London’s swanky Belsize Park, with a combined total value of £10 million. Pete Doherty and Kate Moss were planning to buy a £5 million mansion in the same area before they split. Probably just as well: can’t really imagine Martin and Doherty nattering over the back fence, can you?
Phil Collins
Licensing his music to oddball ad campaigns is only one of many ways the ex-Genesis man rakes in the cash. He’s also part of a property development consortium, whose portfolio includes a 19th Century warehouse in Liverpool’s Parr Street that houses the renowned Parr Street recording studios, as well as an upmarket restaurant where, one assumes, a jacket is required.
Paul McCartney
He might be worth over half a billion, but there are limits even to Sir Paul’s property ambitions. For example, in 2006, he had to pull down a timber lodge in the grounds of his country estate in Rye, East Sussex, when it transpired he’d failed to get planning permission. Wonder if it was made of Norwegian wood (sorry).
David Bowie
Not content with owning a mansion or estate, in 2005 the great eccentric set his sights on owning an entire island, albeit the rather tiny Thorne Island fortress, off the Pembrokeshire coast. The purchase fell through in the end, although it can’t have been on account of the price tag. The island was on sale for a mere £150,000 – surely within the price range of a Thin White Duke?
5:47 PM | 06/12/2007
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