Countdown Day 8
Posted on July 29th, 2010 by U2.COM News
No need to wait until the end of the world. Just until the end of next week. Countdown Day Eight.
Pete The Chop
U2 News Aggregator
Countdown Day 9
Posted on July 28th, 2010 by U2.COM News
Anything in this scene seem familiar ? Nine days until showtime and the build is underway at the Stadio Olimpico in Turin.
Bono set to bring U2 back to Australia in December
Posted on July 27th, 2010 by Jonathan
The Courier-Mail
THE second week of December is firming as the window of U2's return to Brisbane, provided Bono bounces, ah... back from surgery.
Moves are under way to get the Irish rock monolith sorted for a Suncorp Stadium assault, the preferred venue after the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre left a bad taste in the group's mouth in 2006.
It's understood police licensing have signed off on the event, however, a well-placed industry insider said U2 management were still awaiting a medical report on Bono's back before locking a date in.
The frontman's slipped disc, injured during rehearsal in Germany in May, has cost his insurance broker more than $18 million, The Sun has reported. This forced the cancellation of the band's "360 Degrees" tour, which had already made them the music world's biggest earners in 2009-10 with $130 million according to Forbes magazine.
It's been widely rumoured the Irish touring juggernaut will restart in Oz, where the lack of AFL and rugby league games over summer make it easier to book stadium dates at short notice.
© 2010 Queensland Newspapers.
The Perils Of Outdoor Gigs
Posted on July 27th, 2010 by U2isABLE
As many of us caught Kings of Leon on the Vertigo Tour, this unfortunate story will be of interest. Apparently, KoL met some creatures who didn’t quite like their music. While performing at the Verizon Amphitheatre in St. Louis, Missouri, the band were pelted by nesting pigeons with poo. Yes, that’s right. KoL had to cut their set after only playing 3 songs because it was becoming quite unhealthy.
This was one of the top stories of the day at CNN.com, and after reading the full account of what happened, I just have to feel sorry for them. This is one complaint I don’t recall Bono talking about in his 30+ years of being on the road.
This is a post from the @U2 blog.
The Perils Of Outdoor Gigs
Countdown Day 10
Posted on July 27th, 2010 by U2.COM News
Final call for all passengers. Fasten your seatbelts please. Ten days to go until the opening night of U2 360° in Turin.
Scattered Thoughts: Questions For Leg 3
Posted on July 26th, 2010 by caravox
I’m pondering a few things as we approach the start of Leg 3 of the U2 360 Tour in Turin, Italy on August 6:
1. Have we seen the last of the steering wheel microphone? (Swinging on the hanging microphone, or even being tempted to do so doesn’t seem safe for B-Diddy in the aftermath of his back injury. Does it?)
2. If that is gone, or even if it is not, one could assume the band might change up the encore a bit anyway. How different will the whole vibe of the concert’s ending be?
3. At some point during the set, will U2 really be playing new, unreleased material to stadium sized crowds?
4. Will these songs be good? Great? Bad? Bon Jovi?
5. Desmond Tutu? Will he be back? Will *he* have new material?
6. WHAT WILL BONO’S HAIR LOOK LIKE?!?! (Woah, sorry, I almost put a very irrelevant question in there.)
6. WHAT WILL LARRY THE MULLEN JUNIOR’S HAIR LOOK LIKE? (Serious business: the Mullen hair seemed a tad darker in shade than usual in the “We’re Back” video. Or maybe it was just the lighting. Whatever. Rock bands need blonde dudes, Mullen. Get on it.)
7. If U2 chooses not to play songs from Pop, does that mean the album never existed?
8. House/Disco version of Cedars of Lebanon. Not a question. Just throwing it out there. Come on, people. Okay, that or Mofo. One or the other.
9. How about a song or two with The Edge on lead vocals? White As Snow? Not a joke. I think it could work. Stadium crowd will love it so hard! (Okay, last sentence was a joke.)
10. Hey you, jumping up and down and screaming louder for Vertigo than for any other song in U2’s set. STOP DOING THAT. Pretty please?
- sorry, I am clearly running out of steam here -
I am very much looking forward to seeing what the band has in store for this upcoming leg of the tour. Here’s to new songs in the setlist and, most importantly, to good health…
—This post brought to you by Scatter O’ Light.
This is a post from the @U2 blog.
Scattered Thoughts: Questions For Leg 3
Counting Down To Turin
Posted on July 26th, 2010 by U2.COM News
The band take the 360° show on the road again next week. Catch up on all the dates, news, video and chat.
U2360 the fever is raising! The Claw in Turin
Posted on July 25th, 2010 by u2star
The U2360 circus is coming to town! Bono’s back injury has been left behind and U2 are ready to rock this summer across Europe.
The tour will start the 6th of August in Turin, if you want to to keep an eye on The Claw as it’s being built you must check this Turin webcam. There [...]
U2 reworking hits with Blackstreet member
Posted on July 24th, 2010 by Jonathan
Dave Hollister, of the R&B act behind No Diggity, says he's in the studio with Bono and the Edge, 'redoing some classics'
Sean Michaels, The Guardian
If their Spider-Man opera wasn't already WTF enough, U2 are now apparently collaborating with a member of Blackstreet. Dave Hollister, one quarter of the 90s R&B group, is allegedly helping the Irish band "re-do" two of their earlier songs.
Hollister revealed his involvement on Monday, posting to Twitter: "In the studio working with U2! Man I'm excited! Bono baby!!!!!!!!!!!!" Despite 12 exclamation points, Hollister and U2's fans do not - for some reason - move in the same online circles, and it took several days for the Bonosphere to begin gurgling its incomprehension.
According to Hollister's subsequent tweets, U2 are "redoing some classics", and he is helping them rework two tracks: All I Want Is You, from 1988's Rattle and Hum, and Grace, from 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind. Neither much resemble No Diggity.
Although he is best known for his work in Blackstreet, Hollister quit the group after the release of their 1994 debut. He rejoined for 2003's Level II album, and is reportedly working with them again. Hollister has also released seven solo records, including a successful foray into gospel.
U2 fans are trying to remain level-headed about the band's choice of collaborators. "I wonder whether this is part of a conscious strategy to broaden their target audience demographic?" asked one supporter. "I can see them going more towards a gospel sound but not overly religious," suggested another. Bono has already described their next LP, Songs of Ascent, as a "ghost album of hymns and Sufi singing". Perhaps this includes gospel renditions of old songs. Sunday Holy Sunday, anyone?
Meanwhile, in New York, rehearsals have started for Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the superhero musical with songs by Bono and the Edge. The $50m (£33m) stage show spent a year in financial crisis, losing Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming as its leads. At long last, a spokesman for the show confirmed, yesterday, that their new Peter Parker, Reeve Carney, has started his singing, dancing and web-slinging practice. "Wow, man, I can't wait for the world to see this thing," Carney wrote on Twitter. "It's finally happening!" The Edge has previously described the production as "much more like opera than a straight musical".
Last week, Bono declared that he is "fighting fit" after undergoing serious back surgery. The band return to the road next month.
© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010
Bono’s Back Injury Cost Insurance Firm Millions
Posted on July 24th, 2010 by spun2u
Even though U2 topped Forbes’ recently released list of top-earning music acts of last year, the band’s insurance firm isn’t quite so lucky.
Bono (and U2) performs at Croke Park
Insurance broker Robertson Taylor incurred a bill of $17 million in the wake of the back injury Bono sustained during tour rehearsals, according to The Sun.
Bono required emergency surgery, and the band had to subsequently table their US summer tour and cancel their first-ever headlining appearance at the Glastonbury festival.
Along with Bono’s pain and suffering, and the band losing millions in tour revenue, the insurance company also took a hit.
Bono is currently focusing on his recovery and the band’s tour is being rescheduled for 2011.
Who is your favorite member of U2: Bono or The Edge? Who has a cooler name?
U2 redo two of their greatest hits
Posted on July 24th, 2010 by spun2u
U2 are reworking two of their classic songs in collaboration with Dave Hollister, a member of the American R&B group Blackstreet.
Hollister revealed his involvement with the Dublin band by posting on his Twitter page: “In the studio working with U2! Man I’m excited! Bono baby!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Apparently, the two tracks being reworked are ‘All I Want Is You’, from the 1988 album “Rattle and Hum”, and ‘Grace,’ from 2000’s “All That You Can’t Leave Behind.”
U2 will be returning to their tour next month following Bono’s back surgery. The rock star has declared he’s now “fighting fit” after undergoing the procedure.
Cleveland To Turn It Up To 2011
Posted on July 23rd, 2010 by calhouns
Achtung rock history geeks!
I’ve got nothing specifically U2-ey here to say, but man, oh man is this music to my ears. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, OH, plans to open a long-awaited library and archives that will make more of its stuff available to students, teachers and the public.
See, the RRHFM has stuff, stuff and more stuff, a lot of which has been sitting in storage for years in nearby Berea. It’s the kind of stuff that might not draw the masses into the museum, but it helps tell in detail the stories of the vast cast of characters in rock and roll history. It’s the kind of stuff that gets geeky fans, students and academics — not to mention the director of the U2 Conference — really, really excited.
Up to now, most of this stuff has not been on display or accessible to anyone save the Rock Hall’s curators and archivists. But come spring 2011, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library & Archives will open its 22,500-square-feet not far from the museum on the metro campus of Cuyahoga Community College, in 
Tri-C’s new Center for Creative Arts. One wonders what U2 goodies will come out of hiding in Cleveland?
There’s a great, informative write-up about all of this by the Beacon Journal’s popular music writer Malcolm X Abram, which you can read for all the details. I’ll share a few lines here that are almost (I said, almost) as thrilling as hearing leaked clips from a new U2 album.
“Upon completion, the facility will have two primary areas. The first is the library, a public resource that will house a plethora of books, periodicals and audio and video recordings in many formats that anyone can use. The second is the archives, which will house a permanent collection of papers, photographs, recordings, vintage posters, handbills and tickets, and other rock and roll ephemera. Access to the ‘white glove material’ will be more tightly controlled for preservation and security reasons.”
“Over the years, rock and roll and popular music in general have become an important part of American culture, not only reflecting the tenor of the times but often providing the soundtrack to movements advocating social change. This is one reason the academic study of rock and pop music has been growing. “ – Dr. Laura Onkey, rock hall vice president of education
“We wanted it to be for scholars and academics, but we also wanted it to be for fans and journalists who are interested in learning about the music. It’s not cordoned off for just people in universities. We think we have a chance to get a really wide audience as well as enhance what we do at the university level.” – Dr. Onkey
“To talk like an old DJ, we want to be the No. 1 destination in the nation for the study of this music, and the library and archives can really make that happen.” – Dr. Onkey
On that last note, I wonder how a little ol’ confab studying the music, work and influence of a little ol’ Irish band would fit in to their wish to be the No. 1 destination for the study of rock and roll?
This is a post from the @U2 blog.
Cleveland To Turn It Up To 2011
Carney Talks, Plays on Yesterday’s World Cafe
Posted on July 22nd, 2010 by calhouns
Marylinn M. and I both caught the interview with Carney on NPR’s World Cafe yesterday and thought it was worth at least a mention. Maybe you heard it too, but if not you can listen to the 26:18 minutes here.
Reeve Carney, who will be Peter Parker in the already notorious (David Dye just had to lead with the $50 million price tag), in-rehersal Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark by Julie Taymor, Bono & The Edge, didn’t say anything all that new about Spider-Man, but I’m guessing many U2 fans are still in the get-to-know-you phase with Carney (and might still be in denial that this musical is actually, probably, going to happen).
They play a few songs for the interview, the last of which is “Testify” and comes at about the 18:00 mark. It was the first time I had heard this one. Wow. What a great 7+ minutes of blistering rock ‘n’ roll. Some classic rock influences jump out right away (Zepplin and Hendrix) but the more the guitar took over on this version the more I was hearing the Edge from the mid-1980s, somewhere between the UF album and “Bullet The Blue Sky.” I listened around on-line for other versions and came to prefer this one they did in the studio for World Cafe.
This is a post from the @U2 blog.
Carney Talks, Plays on Yesterday’s World Cafe
Happy for Hilburn
Posted on July 21st, 2010 by Tassoula
Back in December, I reviewed Corn Flakes With John Lennon and Other Tales From a Rock n’ Roll Life and interviewed author Robert Hilburn. The book contains wonderful stories about U2 and other notable musicians, and since these pieces were published, I’ve probably purchased at least ten copies of the book to distribute as gifts—I like it that much.
So, you can imagine my delight when I read this Tweet from Robert just a moment ago:
Congratulations, Robert! I’ll be ordering more copies soon.
This is a post from the @U2 blog.
Happy for Hilburn
‘Changing Up…’
Posted on July 21st, 2010 by U2.COM News
It's getting closer. In just a couple of weeks the 360° tour opens up in Italy, at the Stadio Olympico in Turin. So how do you think the set list will be different this time ?
