WE WANT YOU FOR THE NEXT PODCAST
July 25, 2006
posted by: m2
We want you for our next podcast! Podcast #19 will be available right
before The Edge's birthday, and so our theme for that podcast will
be...The Edge, of course! As you may know, we've done special "birthday
edition" podcasts already this year for both Adam and Bono, and now
it's Edge's turn.
You can be part of the podcast by sending birthday wishes for Edge --
write something brief and email it to us, or better yet, record your
message and email us the audio file! (Please keep it to about 30
seconds or less.) Deadline for submissions is August 6th. Send your
email to podcast [at] atu2.com and please put BIRTHDAY in the subject
line.
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
nice piece on tonights 60 Minutes spotlighting U2 .
It is a repeat,..& from the previous tour,...
7PM / Eastern CBS
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
u2s last album sucked. i wish theyd just give it up or only play their older stuff. vertigo was embarrasing to hear when it first came out on those itunes commercials.
U2 DOES A JACKNIFE (LEE)
August 18, 2006
posted by: m2
Hot Press are reporting the following today:
Garrett ‘Jacknife’ Lee’s management company, Big Life, have confirmed
that the producer is about to start work on the follow-up to How To
Dismantle An Atomic Bomb with U2.
Lee has production credit on seven tracks from How To Dismantle an
Atomic Bomb. According to the Big Life web site, Lee "will rejoin U2
for a month in September for what is sure to be another highly
creative recording session." September is also when recent reports
have producers Rick Rubin and Greg Fidelman headed to Abbey Road
Studios to work with U2.
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
BONO: NEW ALBUM IN 2007
August 22, 2006
posted by: m2
While in Sarajevo this week (see item below), Bono announced to
Bosnian TV that the band plans to release a new album next year. He
also put the cliché police on red alert with the standard comments
about what Edge is doing these days.
"I would like to think that we're doing our best work now. We're
about to make a new album for next year, and it's the most important
thing. We like being in a room with each other. We like playing.
Something happens when we play, we have some sort of chemistry. And
Edge, right now, is on fire. He's really rockin'. He's playing guitar
like I've never seen him playing guitar. So, I like to think that the
best is yet to come."
Use the link to watch the interview in Real Video. The new album
comments start at the 13:40 mark, but the interview as a whole is
good -- especially his comments about the PopMart Sarajevo show.
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
BONO: NEW ALBUM IN 2007
August 22, 2006
posted by: m2
While in Sarajevo this week (see item below), Bono announced to
Bosnian TV that the band plans to release a new album next year. He
also put the cliché police on red alert with the standard comments
about what Edge is doing these days.
"I would like to think that we're doing our best work now. We're
about to make a new album for next year, and it's the most important
thing. We like being in a room with each other. We like playing.
Something happens when we play, we have some sort of chemistry. And
Edge, right now, is on fire. He's really rockin'. He's playing guitar
like I've never seen him playing guitar. So, I like to think that the
best is yet to come."
Use the link to watch the interview in Real Video. The new album
comments start at the 13:40 mark, but the interview as a whole is
good -- especially his comments about the PopMart Sarajevo show.
The cliche police remark is funny ... Ever since the Zooropa days, Bono has been commenting pre-album release on Edge "rediscovering" his guitar prowess.
U2 DOES A JACKNIFE (LEE)
August 18, 2006
posted by: m2
Hot Press are reporting the following today:
Garrett ‘Jacknife’ Lee’s management company, Big Life, have confirmed
that the producer is about to start work on the follow-up to How To
Dismantle An Atomic Bomb with U2.
Lee has production credit on seven tracks from How To Dismantle an
Atomic Bomb. According to the Big Life web site, Lee "will rejoin U2
for a month in September for what is sure to be another highly
creative recording session." September is also when recent reports
have producers Rick Rubin and Greg Fidelman headed to Abbey Road
Studios to work with U2.
I'm not sure this is good news. I think even people who loved the last two albums would agree that it's time for a new direction. Hiring the same producer doesn't bode well for that happening.
Willie Williams, U2's longtime Show Designer, scores a short feature in
the new issue of TIME magazine, which is coming out this week. He's
profiled in a feature called "Innovators: Forging The Future" about
visual and aural artists who are "showing us new ways to see and hear."
Williams, 46, has moved with U2 from clubs to arenas to stadiums,
revolutionizing concert visuals at every step. From the seven Trabants
(compact cars built in East Germany) he hung from the rafters of U2's
early '90s Zoo TV tour to the giant beaded LED curtains of the recent
Vertigo shows, he has turned concrete caverns into spaces that drip
with mood. And when the music starts, Williams, who pioneered the
integration of video and light into a single element, turns the sets
into an extravaganza that enhances but never competes with the sound.
read the full article at Time.com >>
Food for the Eyes and Ears
Whether illuminating rock concerts or lighting up Scottish highlands,
they are showing us new ways to see and hear
Posted Sunday, Aug. 27, 2006
A PLACE CALLED VERTIGO
Willie Williams never intended to change the way people watch rock
concerts. Growing up in the late '70s, all he really wanted was to get
out of Sheffield, England. "So I ran away to London to join the
circus," says Williams, "and the circus at that time was punk rock."
Punk rock had a visual aesthetic, but it started and ended with the
pierceable parts of its players' bodies. At 19, Williams, whose love of
music trumped his aptitude for it, cozied up to his favorite band,
Stiff Little Fingers, and talked the group into letting him design its
stage show. When the Fingers broke up in 1982, he called his new
favorite band. "They happened to be named U2."
Ever since, Williams, 46, has moved with U2 from clubs to arenas to
stadiums, revolutionizing concert visuals at every step. From the seven
Trabants (compact cars built in East Germany) he hung from the rafters
of U2's early '90s Zoo TV tour to the giant beaded LED curtains of the
recent Vertigo shows, he has turned concrete caverns into spaces that
drip with mood. And when the music starts, Williams, who pioneered the
integration of video and light into a single element, turns the sets
into an extravaganza that enhances but never competes with the sound.
In addition to his rock work, Williams has taken on the Kronos Quartet
("The equipment can't be merely quiet, it has to be silent") and is
brainstorming ways to light the revitalized South Bank Centre on the
Thames. But he still gets his greatest thrill watching people watch his
work. When Williams went to a Vertigo concert with artist Julian Opie,
whose minimalist figures were incorporated into the show's visuals,
Opie couldn't disguise his envy. "No one," he said, "ever applauds at
an art gallery."
--By Josh Tyrangiel
___________________
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
I'm not sure this is good news. I think even people who loved the last two albums would agree that it's time for a new direction. Hiring the same producer doesn't bode well for that happening.
another band that just dosn't know when enough is enough.
Wouldn't we all be happier if U2, Metallica, Aerosmith and The Rolling Stones
stoped making music?
Unlike pearl jam, some bands can not keep up with the quality of music they made when they were younger.
Oh god, grouping Aerosmith with the others on that list just totally disqualifies you from having any valid opinion..
From what I've heard of the new Rolling Stones, they're still writing some really good songs. The latest U2 is kind of boring but ok. Definately worth putting out.
NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- The NFL Network will mark the Sept. 11,
2001 terror attacks by re-airing the Super Bowl XXXVI half-time show
featuring Irish rockers U2.
U2 performing "Beautiful Day," "MLK" and "The Streets Have No Name"
with the names of the victims scrolling on a floor-to-ceiling banner
will be televised during "NFL Total Access," the network said in a news
release Wednesday.
"This is one of the most memorable and meaningful half-time
performances in the history of Super Bowl," the network's Charles
Coplin said. "As we look back on the five years since 9/11 we felt our
fans would enjoy this uplifting show."
The Feb. 3, 2002 championship game at New Orleans' Louisiana Superdome
saw the New England Patriots beat the St. Louis Rams 20-17. It was
originally broadcast on Fox TV.
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
WAKE US UP -- U2 AND GREEN DAY SET TO RECORD TOGETHER
September 08, 2006
posted by: m2
U2 and Green Day will get together soon to record a cover of The Skids'
song, "The Saints Are Coming." That's the word from Green Day's
official web site:
----
We were asked by U2 to record the song with them to benefit Music
Rising (http://www.musicrising.org), an organization that replaces instruments
musicians lost in Hurricane Katrina's wake. One year later, the
devastation is still fresh in our minds, and we'd like to keep it in
yours.
----
@U2 had heard rumors recently that U2 and Green Day would join forces
for something related to New Orleans -- specifically, a performance for
the Sept. 25th New Orleans Saints home game, the first NFL game to be
played in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. The note on GreenDay.com
doesn't say if this studio work is tied to that event ... though the
song title would seem to fit.
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
WHO NEEDS A 'SNEAK PEEK' WHEN YOU CAN BUY IT ALREADY?
September 07, 2006
U2 fan/blogger "C", who does the wonderfully-named "Scatter o' Light"
blog, has posted a half-dozen photos of her brand new copy of U2 by U2.
Use the link below to check 'em out.
Oh, yeah ... how'd she get the book already when it's not due on
shelves for a couple weeks? She found review copies (sent to
journalists and industry insiders, but not fan sites) for sale on
Half.com. And you can find them there, too. (Note: these are private
sellers, and anyone intending to buy should perform due diligence
first.)
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
U2 is working on material for its next studio album with producer
Rick Rubin, according to the band's Web site. The group has been at
work on the as-yet-untitled follow-up to 2004's "How To Dismantle an
Atomic Bomb" since last month. While in the studio, U2 will be joined
by Green Day to record a cover of Scottish punk band the Skids' "The
Saints Are Coming."
Proceeds from the track will benefit Music Rising, an instrument
replacement fund co-founded by U2 guitarist the Edge last summer in
the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
"One year later, the devastation is still fresh in our minds, and
we'd like to keep it in yours," Green Day said in a post on its Web
site. "New Orleans has always been a special city to us, being a
hotbed of music and creativity, and it's hard to believe parts of the
Gulf region still remain devastated. We feel that it's important to
continue to raise awareness."
Meanwhile, a DVD chronicling U2's Zoo TV tour will arrive Sept. 19
via Island/UME.
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
DAY-BY-DAY IN THE STUDIO WITH U2
September 12, 2006
posted by: m2
Big props to U2.com for coming through with a day-by-day account of
U2's first few days with producer Rick Rubin at Abbey Road Studios in
London. I love this kind of stuff -- visits from Paul McCartney and
George Martin, and some high praise from our normally reserved drummer,
who says of one new song, "...even in its most basic form you had the
feeling that something special was going on."
For a week U2 have been holed up in London’s legendary Abbey Road Studios with producer Rick Rubin. U2.Com brings you the inside track from behind the studio doors.
Tuesday, September5th
London, Abbey Road Studios: birthplace to most of the Beatles records, and countless other classic albums from Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ to Radiohead’s ‘Kid A’.
Larry and Edge have flown in from Dublin, Bono from France and Adam, already in the city, has taken the short drive across town. Waiting in the control room is the instantly recognisable figure of Mr Rick Rubin, a producer whose musical pedigree stretches from Justin Timberlake to The Mars Volta, from Johnny Cash to Metallica. Rubin met up with the band earlier in the summer down in France and word is that some of what was written and demoed then will be recorded properly in the coming days.
Whatever the heritage of the famous Studio 2, it wasn’t the spirit of the sixties blasting out when U2 showed… it was seventies punk. Barely had the band arrived than they were into a cover of ‘The Saints Are Coming’, a 1978 hit for The Skids.
‘The saints are coming, the saints are coming.
I say no matter how I try, I realise there's no reply’
Larry tells us they spent most of the day on this and were still working in the small hours of Wednesday. Green Day are arriving in a few days to work with them on a cover, a collaboration to benefit Music Rising.
Wednesday, September 6th 06
Back in the studio this afternoon, a late kick-off but now working on a new U2 track. Taping, as we used to call it, is briefly interrupted when Paul McCartney and Beatles producer George Martin drop by. U2 and McCartney were last in a London studio together in the summer of 2005, rehearsing ‘Sergeant Pepper’. Then playing Live 8 to a billion people next day. Bit of a moment to see Macca sliding down the bannister of the stairway from the control room to the studio floor. This place is like his second home. Then U2 got back to making music… and on into the night.
Thursday, September 7th 06
U2 were again at work by early afternoon, this time on a track that sounds like a U2 classic with an instant hook and a mesmerising chorus.
‘Bono had demoed it in Dublin,’ explains Larry. ‘Then brought it to the band and even in its most basic form you had the feeling that something special was going on.
‘It felt that maybe this time we were not going to be pushing a rock up a hill as we do a lot of the time with new material.’
Another late night finish but the vibes are good.
Friday, September 8th 06
Bono often talks of U2’s approach to creating new material as ‘songwriting by accident’. But there’s nothing accidental going on today. Adam, Larry, Edge and Bono are seated around the control room chatting to Rubin who sits on a sprawling leather sofa. They play back their latest take and go through it passage by passage.
Bono has three quarters of the lyric written out on a large pad of white paper – alternative stanzas scribbled alongside the main theme. Two key lines in the verses are missing – to which Bono is la’ing and humming on each take – and it needs some kind of pay-off at the end. It’s a song with no name at the moment.
Larry suggests hearing the first half of one verse segued into the second half of the next. Edge comes up with a missing line - using the world ‘apologise’. If you’re a rap star, says Rick, who knows about rap stars, you get extra points for getting a four-syllable word in your song. Lyrical ideas fly round the room with Bono scribbling them down. Every now and then he goes to the mic, the engineer brings the track up and he tries out a new line. Edge lays down some backing vocals. Larry and Bono swap Oasis anecdotes while Rick talks bass-lines with Adam. Edge scribbles another pair of lines on the back of an envelope.
By early evening Abbey Road has emptied of musicians, engineers and producers but U2 are on a roll. By ten pm many of the missing elements in the song have been added. Everyone listens back again. Nowhere near finished but now with a complete lyric, a new opening and a different ending.
‘It’s been a good day,’ says the singer. ‘This is one that could take the roof off! Let’s call it a night.’
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
This is all very exciting! I cant wait to hear the new songs and seeing them live again with Bono even sporting a real head of hair this time around!!
he looks 10 x better with the natural , short, cropped hair.
that stragley jet black hair- dont ( as opposed to hair- do ) he sported for the Vertigo tour was just awful .
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
Apple has quietly updated its U2 iPod, bringing it in line with its
recently revealed and 60 percent brighter iPod range.
As revealed by iLounge, the company has reduced the cost of the device,
which now has a capacity of 30GB. This model iPod now costs £209
($265), down from its launch price of £239 ($303).
Like all the latest iPods, the new U2 model also manages three and a
half hours of video playback on one battery charge.
U2 signatures are engraved on the back of the specially marked black-
and-red iPod, which ships with a special code users can redeem for an
exclusive 30-minute video made by the band.
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
U2 guitarist the Edge described the band's performance with Green Day
in New Orleans on Monday night as "amazing."
The Irish band and the American punks teamed up to reopen the
Louisiana Superdome 13 months after the stadium was hit by Hurricane
Katrina.
The bands played a cover of the Skids track "The Saints Are Coming"
before the American Football clash between New Orleans Saints and
Atlanta Falcons -- and the Edge insists it was an incredible
occasion.
He told MTV: "It was one of those moments where the heart and the
soul of the occasion was just so amazing.
"And the reaction from the crowd -- who were there to see a football
game -- they went nuts. They got it. They knew what we were trying to
do and the spirit of the event. It was very moving."
The Edge added that the band are rushing to release the song as a
single to raise money for his Mercury Rising charity.
"Everything is happening so quickly," he added. "We're scrambling to
get it all together, but we're going to try and get the studio
version to radio and then see what happens."
He also confirmed U2 are set to record their new album with producer
Rick Rubin, but added they had no definite plans for its release.
He said: "We've been doing a lot of work with Rick, and at this
point, it seems to be going very well, so my guess would be yes, he's
going to be producing our new record.
"We're still in the early stages, so it's difficult to say what will
happen or what it will be like, but we've really been enjoying the
sessions, and I don't see any reason why they should stop."
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
New Song, Green Day Collab To Enrich U2 Best-Of
October 03, 2006, 1:10 AM ET
Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
A new song and a cover of Scottish punk band the Skids' "The Saints
Are Coming" with Green Day will be found on a U2 compilation due Nov.
21 via Interscope. The as-yet-untitled set, which will also be
available in a deluxe edition, will feature "16 of U2's best-songs,"
according to the band's Web site.
Both the new song and the Skids cover were recorded last month at
London's Abbey Road Studio with producer Rick Rubin. U2 and Green Day
debuted the cover live last week at the re-opening of the New Orleans
Superdome; it is available for download exclusively until Oct. 30 via
Rhapsody, after which point it will hit additional download
retailers. A CD single will follow on Nov. 6.
U2's most recent compilation, "The Best Of 1990-2000," was released
in December 2002 and included material up through the 2000 album "All
That You Can't Leave Behind."
As previously reported, the band will resume its Vertigo tour Nov. 7
in Brisbane.
U2.Com has announced that U2 will release their third "Best Of" CD on
November 20th. The album will contain sixteen previously released
tracks and two new releases, one of which is the U2/Green Day
collaberation "The Saints Are Coming". According to the story, both
new songs were recorded at the recent Abbey Road sessions with Rick
Rubin.
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
I love U2 but this is stupid. The album serves no purpo$e.
Release the new song with a couple b-sides and the Saints/Green day song through iTunes or limited release and be done with it.
A one CD "cream of the crop-super-ultra-elite-limited-deluxe-edition" greatest hits collection trying to cover a 20+ year career is dumb, esp when you are still an active band (and already have two greatest hits CD's).
i'll probably still buy it ( cuz i have the other 2 ) , but c'mon fellas .
the duet of the coversong ( " Saints " ) with greenday is cool also, will like to hear the studio version, especially if its mixed by rick rubin .
persoanlly, im looking more forward to this supposed DVD package of greatest hits & band history , rumored on U2.com.
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. must have signed a
deal with the devil. Even after all these years together, the four
Irish fellows who make up U2 are still on fire!
Last weekend in Dublin, so many fans arrived at the band's private
signing of its new book, "U2 By U2," which went on international sale
on Sept. 21, that organizers were forced to restrict access to the
250 people who previously won tickets to the event.
And, you're not going to believe this disgrace: The band asked that
the media be barred from the event! (Must be part of the fine print
of the contract they drew up with Satan.)
This year, the legendary rock quartet is celebrating its "pearl"
anniversary. (Pearl = 30 years, for all you men who forget to buy
your dear wives anniversary gifts year after year.)
The group formed back in September 1976, when drummer Mullen, then
14, posted a notice on his secondary school's bulletin board seeking
musicians for a new band.
Just imagine: Lead singer Bono's voice probably hadn't changed yet
during the time of the auditions.
Just as they've shown to each other, the bandmates demonstrate a real
commitment to the women in their lives. (Must be in the Irish blood,
or drinking water.)
Though, according to the band's official Web site, Bono was a bit of
a player in the early days and "had many girlfriends who adored his
romantic, sweet-talking ways."
However, the instant popularity that comes with the bragging
rights, "I'm dating the lead singer of a band," must have been a
motivating factor for the girls as well.
"Although," Bono's bio continues to read, "it was the feisty, no-bull
nature of his dark-haired sweetheart Alison Stewart which eventually
got him to become a 'one woman' man."
Bono, then 22, married Ali in an Anglican ceremony at a chapel on the
Guinness family estate in 1982. (We can't fault Bono for uniting his
two loves, that for his lovely bride and that for his beer, on the
most romantic day of his life.)
It seems even rock stars sometimes forget about the loves of their
lives. While recording "The Joshua Tree" with the band in 1987, Bono
overlooked Ali's birthday.
But, neglectful husbands are not off the hook: Bono realized a trip
to the gas station for a $12.99 bouquet of roses wouldn't cut it. To
make amends, he wrote and dedicated "The Sweetest Thing" to Ali.
In 1983, the band's lead guitarist, the Edge, married a high-school
sweetheart, Aislinn O'Sullivan, with whom he fathered three
daughters.
Their love was not a lasting one and the couple separated in 1991,
instead of divorcing, since it was illegal at the time in Ireland.
(Goodness, that law would have been a real problem for Elizabeth
Taylor if it had existed in America.)
When divorce finally became legalized in their country in 1995, the
couple made their split "official."
The Edge soon found love again with Morleigh Steinberg, a belly
dancer and choreographer from the band's Zoo TV Tour, in 1993.
Guess the couple had a lot of fun making babies backstage -- they had
a son and a daughter in the late '90s before they officially tied the
knot in June 2002.
Just as the Edge was finding a second chance at romance during the
international tour, Clayton was on a downward spiral.
In the aftermath of a romantic breakup and his increasing dependence
on alcohol, the bass player missed a gig. For the first time ever, U2
went on stage without one of their own.
But, we say, if he was MIA because of his split with Naomi Campbell,
well, we sympathize with him: She can get real nasty with her
employees -- so just imagine what she'd do to an ex!
Fortunately, Clayton managed to escape without serious bruises and
has found true love in his middle age. On the band's Web site, http://www.U2.com, it was announced that he is engaged to Suzanne "Susie"
Smith, a record company executive based in London and a former
assistant to U2 manager Paul McGuinness.
The couple, who had dated for 10 years, is planning to marry next
year. Guess Clayton wanted to be sure divorce was a tried-and-true
option in Ireland before making this sort of commitment.
Interestingly, Mullen, too, doesn't seem to want to take the wedding
plunge. The drummer is still not married to his 20-year partner, Ann
Acheson.
But, we understand completely. With Irish weddings costing an arm and
leg -- as well as a torso due to the amount of beer and whiskey
guests are known to quaff -- it's no wonder the couple decided to
hold off on a big reception.
That didn't stop them from having a family, though. The lovebirds are
parents to three children, the third of which was rumored to be a
daughter named Anya. But, as the new book points out, the child is a
son named Ezra.
It's unclear why Mullen never corrected the rumors earlier. But, we
think it was a wise move. Tabloids are known for forever slipping up
and reporting the exact opposite. So, perhaps, he just wanted to save
time.
(Elise McIntosh is the Relationships editor with the Staten Island
Advance.)
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
Apple has quietly updated its U2 iPod, bringing it in line with its
recently revealed and 60 percent brighter iPod range.
As revealed by iLounge, the company has reduced the cost of the device,
which now has a capacity of 30GB. This model iPod now costs £209
($265), down from its launch price of £239 ($303).
Like all the latest iPods, the new U2 model also manages three and a
half hours of video playback on one battery charge.
U2 signatures are engraved on the back of the specially marked black-
and-red iPod, which ships with a special code users can redeem for an
exclusive 30-minute video made by the band.
"Uno, dos, tres, catorce. That translates as one, two, three, fourteen. That is the correct math for a rock and roll band. For in art and love and rock and roll, the whole had better equal much more than the sum of its parts, or else you're just rubbing two sticks together searching for fire.
‘A great rock band searches for the same kind of combustible force that fuelled the expansion of the universe after the big bang. You want the earth to shake and spit fire, you want the sky to split apart and for God to pour out. It's embarrassing to want so much and to expect so much from music, except sometimes it happens: the Sun Sessions, Highway 61, Sgt. Peppers, the Band, Robert Johnson, Exile on Main Street, Born to Run... whoops, I meant to leave that one out... uh... the Sex Pistols, Aretha Franklin, the Clash, James Brown; the proud and public enemies it takes a nation of millions to hold back. This is music meant to take on not only the powers that be but on a good day, the universe and God himself, if he was listening. It's man's accountability, and U2 belongs on this list.
‘It was the early '80s. I went with Pete Townshend, who always wanted to catch the first whiff of those about to unseat us, to a club in London. There they were: a young Bono (single-handedly pioneering the Irish mullet), the Edge (what kind of name was that?), Adam and Larry -- I was listening to the last band of whom I would be able to name all of its members. They had an exciting show and a big, beautiful sound. They lifted the roof. We met afterwards and they were nice young men. They were Irish. Irish. Now, this would play an enormous part in their success in the States. For what the English occasionally have the refined sensibilities to overcome, we Irish and Italians have no such problem. We come through the door fists and hearts first.
‘U2, with the dark, chiming sound of heaven at their command which, of course, is the sound of unrequited love and longing - their greatest theme. Their search for God intact, this was a band that wanted to lay claim to not only this world but had their eyes on the next one, too. Now, they're a real band; each member plays a vital part. I believe they actually practice some form of democracy - toxic poison in a bands’ head. In Iraq, maybe. In rock, no. Yet, they survive. They have harnessed the time bomb that exists in the heart of every great rock and roll band that usually explodes, as we see regularly from this stage. But they seemed to have innately understood the primary rule of rock band job security: "Hey, asshole, the other guy is more important than you think he is!"
‘They are both a step forward and direct descendants of the great bands who believed rock music could shake things up in the world, dared to have faith in their audience, who believed if they played their best it would bring out the best in you. They believed in pop stardom and the big time. Now this requires foolishness and a calculating mind. It also requires a deeply held faith in the work you're doing and in its powers to transform. U2 hungered for it all and built a sound, and they wrote the songs that demanded it. They're keepers of some of the most beautiful sonic architecture in rock and roll.
‘The Edge, the Edge, the Edge, the Edge. He is a rare and true guitar original and one of the subtlest guitar heroes of all time. He's dedicated to ensemble playing and he subsumes his guitar ego in the group. But do not be fooled. Take Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Neil Young, Pete Townshend - guitarists who defined the sound of their band and their times. If you play like them, you sound like them. If you are playing those rhythmic two-note sustained fourths, drenched in echo, you are going to sound like the Edge, my son. Go back to the drawing board and chances are you won't have much luck. There are only a handful of guitar stylists who can create a world with their instruments, and he's one of them. The Edge's guitar playing creates enormous space and vast landscapes. It is a thrilling and a heartbreaking sound that hangs over you like the unsettled sky. In the turf it stakes out, it is inherently spiritual, it is grace and it is a gift.
‘Now, all of this has to be held down by something. The deep sureness of Adam Clayton's bass and the rhythms of Larry Mullen's elegant drumming hold the band down while propelling it forward. It's in U2's great rhythm section that the band finds its sexuality and its dangerousness. Listen to "Desire," she moves in "Mysterious Ways," the pulse of "With or Without You." Together Larry and Adam create the element that suggests the ecstatic possibilities of that other kingdom -- the one below the earth and below the belt -- that no great rock band can lay claim to the title without.
‘Now, Adam always strikes me as the professorial one, the sophisticated member. He creates not only the musical but physical stability on his side of the stage. The tone and depth of his bass playing has allowed the band to move from rock to dance music and beyond. One of the first things I noticed about U2 was that underneath the guitar and the bass, they have these very modern rhythms going on. Rather than a straight 2 and 4, Larry often plays with a lot of syncopation, and that connects the band to modern dance textures. The drums often sounded high and tight and he was swinging down there, and this gave the band a unique profile and allowed their rock textures to soar above on a bed of his rhythm. Now Larry, of course, besides being an incredible drummer, bears the burden of being the band's requisite "good-looking member," something we somehow overlooked in the E Street Band. We have to settle for "charismatic." Girls love on Larry Mullen. I have a female assistant that would like to sit on Larry's drum stool. A male one, too. We all have our crosses to bear.
‘Bono, where do I begin? Jeans designer, soon-to-be World Bank operator, just plain operator, seller of the Brooklyn Bridge - oh hold up, he played under the Brooklyn Bridge, that's right. Soon-to-be mastermind operator of the Bono Burger franchise, where more than one million stories will be told by a crazy Irishman. Now I realize that it's a dirty job and somebody has to do it, but don't quit your day job yet, my friend, you're pretty good at it.
‘And a sound this big needs somebody to ride herd over it, and ride herd over it he does. His voice, big-hearted and open, thoroughly decent no matter how hard he tries. Now he's a great frontman. Against the odds, he is not your mom's standard skinny, ex- junkie archetype. He has the physique of a rugby player... well, an ex-rugby player. Shamen, shyster, one of the greatest and most endearingly naked messianic complexes in rock and roll. God bless you, man! It takes one to know one, of course.
‘You see, every good Irish and Italian-Irish front-man knows that before James Brown there was Jesus. So hold the McDonald arches on the stage set, boys, we are not ironists. We are creations of the heart and of the earth and of the stations of the cross. There's no getting out of it. He is gifted with an operatic voice and a beautiful falsetto rare among strong rock singers. But most important, his is a voice shot through with self-doubt. That's what makes that big sound work.
‘It is this element of Bono's talent, along with his beautiful lyric writing, that gives the often-celestial music of U2 its fragility and its realness. It is the questioning, the constant questioning in Bono's voice, where the band stakes its claim to its humanity and declares its commonality with us. Now Bono's voice often sounds like it's shouting not over top of the band but from deep within it: "Here we are, Lord, this mess, in your image."
‘He delivers all of this with great drama and an occasional smirk that says, "Kiss me, I'm Irish." He's one of the great front-men of the past 20 years. He is also one of the only musicians to devote his personal faith and the ideals of his band into the real world in a way that remains true to rock's earliest implications of freedom and connection and the possibility of something better.
‘Now the band's beautiful songwriting -- "Pride (In The Name of Love)," "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," "One," "Where the Streets Have No Name," "Beautiful Day" - reminds us of the stakes that the band always plays for. It's an incredible songbook. In their music, you hear the spirituality as home and as quest. How do you find God unless he's in your heart, in your desire, in your feet? I believe this is a big part of what's kept their band together all of these years. See, bands get formed by accident, but they don't survive by accident. It takes will, intent, a sense of shared purpose and a tolerance for your friends' fallibilities and they of yours. And that only evens the odds. U2 has not only evened the odds but they've beaten them by continuing to do their finest work and remaining at the top of their game and the charts for 25 years. I feel a great affinity for these guys as people as well as musicians.
‘Well, there I was sitting down on the couch in my pajamas with my eldest son. He was watching TV. I was doing one of my favorite things: I was tallying up all the money I passed up in endorsements over the years and thinking of all the fun I could have had with it. Suddenly I hear "Uno, dos, tres, catorce!" I look up. But instead of the silhouettes of the hippie-wannabes bouncing around in the iPod commercial, I see my boys! Oh my God! They sold out! Now, what I know about the iPod is this: it is a device that plays music. Of course, their new song sounded great, my guys are doing great, but methinks I hear the footsteps of my old tape operator of Jimmy Iovine somewhere. Wily, smart.
‘Now, personally, I live an insanely expensive lifestyle that my wife barely tolerates. I burn money, and that calls for huge amounts of cash flow. But, I also have a ludicrous image of myself that keeps me from truly cashing in. You can see my problem. Woe is me. So the next morning, I call up Jon Landau (or as I refer to him, "the American Paul McGuinness"), and I say, "Did you see that iPod thing?" and he says, "Yes." And he says, "And I hear they didn't take any money."
And I said, "They didn't take any money?" and he says, "No."
I said, "Smart, wily Irish guys. Anybody - anybody - can do an ad and take the money. But to do the ad and not take the money... that's smart. That's wily."
I say, "Jon, I want you to call up Bill Gates or whoever is behind this thing and float this: a red, white and blue iPod signed by Bruce 'The Boss' Springsteen. Now remember, no matter how much money he offers, don't take it!"
At any rate, after that evening for the next month or so, I hear emanating from my lovely 14-year- old son's room, day after day, down the hall, calling out in a voice that has recently dropped very low: uno, dos, tres, catorce. The correct math for rock and roll. Thank you, boys."
Bruce Springsteen : Induction of U2 into the R & R H O F - 2005
apparently, they didnt get paid for the ipod.
For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
"Uno, dos, tres, catorce. That translates as one, two, three, fourteen. That is the correct math for a rock and roll band. For in art and love and rock and roll, the whole had better equal much more than the sum of its parts, or else you're just rubbing two sticks together searching for fire.
‘A great rock band searches for the same kind of combustible force that fuelled the expansion of the universe after the big bang. You want the earth to shake and spit fire, you want the sky to split apart and for God to pour out. It's embarrassing to want so much and to expect so much from music, except sometimes it happens: the Sun Sessions, Highway 61, Sgt. Peppers, the Band, Robert Johnson, Exile on Main Street, Born to Run... whoops, I meant to leave that one out... uh... the Sex Pistols, Aretha Franklin, the Clash, James Brown; the proud and public enemies it takes a nation of millions to hold back. This is music meant to take on not only the powers that be but on a good day, the universe and God himself, if he was listening. It's man's accountability, and U2 belongs on this list.
‘It was the early '80s. I went with Pete Townshend, who always wanted to catch the first whiff of those about to unseat us, to a club in London. There they were: a young Bono (single-handedly pioneering the Irish mullet), the Edge (what kind of name was that?), Adam and Larry -- I was listening to the last band of whom I would be able to name all of its members. They had an exciting show and a big, beautiful sound. They lifted the roof. We met afterwards and they were nice young men. They were Irish. Irish. Now, this would play an enormous part in their success in the States. For what the English occasionally have the refined sensibilities to overcome, we Irish and Italians have no such problem. We come through the door fists and hearts first.
‘U2, with the dark, chiming sound of heaven at their command which, of course, is the sound of unrequited love and longing - their greatest theme. Their search for God intact, this was a band that wanted to lay claim to not only this world but had their eyes on the next one, too. Now, they're a real band; each member plays a vital part. I believe they actually practice some form of democracy - toxic poison in a bands’ head. In Iraq, maybe. In rock, no. Yet, they survive. They have harnessed the time bomb that exists in the heart of every great rock and roll band that usually explodes, as we see regularly from this stage. But they seemed to have innately understood the primary rule of rock band job security: "Hey, asshole, the other guy is more important than you think he is!"
‘They are both a step forward and direct descendants of the great bands who believed rock music could shake things up in the world, dared to have faith in their audience, who believed if they played their best it would bring out the best in you. They believed in pop stardom and the big time. Now this requires foolishness and a calculating mind. It also requires a deeply held faith in the work you're doing and in its powers to transform. U2 hungered for it all and built a sound, and they wrote the songs that demanded it. They're keepers of some of the most beautiful sonic architecture in rock and roll.
‘The Edge, the Edge, the Edge, the Edge. He is a rare and true guitar original and one of the subtlest guitar heroes of all time. He's dedicated to ensemble playing and he subsumes his guitar ego in the group. But do not be fooled. Take Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Neil Young, Pete Townshend - guitarists who defined the sound of their band and their times. If you play like them, you sound like them. If you are playing those rhythmic two-note sustained fourths, drenched in echo, you are going to sound like the Edge, my son. Go back to the drawing board and chances are you won't have much luck. There are only a handful of guitar stylists who can create a world with their instruments, and he's one of them. The Edge's guitar playing creates enormous space and vast landscapes. It is a thrilling and a heartbreaking sound that hangs over you like the unsettled sky. In the turf it stakes out, it is inherently spiritual, it is grace and it is a gift.
‘Now, all of this has to be held down by something. The deep sureness of Adam Clayton's bass and the rhythms of Larry Mullen's elegant drumming hold the band down while propelling it forward. It's in U2's great rhythm section that the band finds its sexuality and its dangerousness. Listen to "Desire," she moves in "Mysterious Ways," the pulse of "With or Without You." Together Larry and Adam create the element that suggests the ecstatic possibilities of that other kingdom -- the one below the earth and below the belt -- that no great rock band can lay claim to the title without.
‘Now, Adam always strikes me as the professorial one, the sophisticated member. He creates not only the musical but physical stability on his side of the stage. The tone and depth of his bass playing has allowed the band to move from rock to dance music and beyond. One of the first things I noticed about U2 was that underneath the guitar and the bass, they have these very modern rhythms going on. Rather than a straight 2 and 4, Larry often plays with a lot of syncopation, and that connects the band to modern dance textures. The drums often sounded high and tight and he was swinging down there, and this gave the band a unique profile and allowed their rock textures to soar above on a bed of his rhythm. Now Larry, of course, besides being an incredible drummer, bears the burden of being the band's requisite "good-looking member," something we somehow overlooked in the E Street Band. We have to settle for "charismatic." Girls love on Larry Mullen. I have a female assistant that would like to sit on Larry's drum stool. A male one, too. We all have our crosses to bear.
‘Bono, where do I begin? Jeans designer, soon-to-be World Bank operator, just plain operator, seller of the Brooklyn Bridge - oh hold up, he played under the Brooklyn Bridge, that's right. Soon-to-be mastermind operator of the Bono Burger franchise, where more than one million stories will be told by a crazy Irishman. Now I realize that it's a dirty job and somebody has to do it, but don't quit your day job yet, my friend, you're pretty good at it.
‘And a sound this big needs somebody to ride herd over it, and ride herd over it he does. His voice, big-hearted and open, thoroughly decent no matter how hard he tries. Now he's a great frontman. Against the odds, he is not your mom's standard skinny, ex- junkie archetype. He has the physique of a rugby player... well, an ex-rugby player. Shamen, shyster, one of the greatest and most endearingly naked messianic complexes in rock and roll. God bless you, man! It takes one to know one, of course.
‘You see, every good Irish and Italian-Irish front-man knows that before James Brown there was Jesus. So hold the McDonald arches on the stage set, boys, we are not ironists. We are creations of the heart and of the earth and of the stations of the cross. There's no getting out of it. He is gifted with an operatic voice and a beautiful falsetto rare among strong rock singers. But most important, his is a voice shot through with self-doubt. That's what makes that big sound work.
‘It is this element of Bono's talent, along with his beautiful lyric writing, that gives the often-celestial music of U2 its fragility and its realness. It is the questioning, the constant questioning in Bono's voice, where the band stakes its claim to its humanity and declares its commonality with us. Now Bono's voice often sounds like it's shouting not over top of the band but from deep within it: "Here we are, Lord, this mess, in your image."
‘He delivers all of this with great drama and an occasional smirk that says, "Kiss me, I'm Irish." He's one of the great front-men of the past 20 years. He is also one of the only musicians to devote his personal faith and the ideals of his band into the real world in a way that remains true to rock's earliest implications of freedom and connection and the possibility of something better.
‘Now the band's beautiful songwriting -- "Pride (In The Name of Love)," "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," "One," "Where the Streets Have No Name," "Beautiful Day" - reminds us of the stakes that the band always plays for. It's an incredible songbook. In their music, you hear the spirituality as home and as quest. How do you find God unless he's in your heart, in your desire, in your feet? I believe this is a big part of what's kept their band together all of these years. See, bands get formed by accident, but they don't survive by accident. It takes will, intent, a sense of shared purpose and a tolerance for your friends' fallibilities and they of yours. And that only evens the odds. U2 has not only evened the odds but they've beaten them by continuing to do their finest work and remaining at the top of their game and the charts for 25 years. I feel a great affinity for these guys as people as well as musicians.
‘Well, there I was sitting down on the couch in my pajamas with my eldest son. He was watching TV. I was doing one of my favorite things: I was tallying up all the money I passed up in endorsements over the years and thinking of all the fun I could have had with it. Suddenly I hear "Uno, dos, tres, catorce!" I look up. But instead of the silhouettes of the hippie-wannabes bouncing around in the iPod commercial, I see my boys! Oh my God! They sold out! Now, what I know about the iPod is this: it is a device that plays music. Of course, their new song sounded great, my guys are doing great, but methinks I hear the footsteps of my old tape operator of Jimmy Iovine somewhere. Wily, smart.
‘Now, personally, I live an insanely expensive lifestyle that my wife barely tolerates. I burn money, and that calls for huge amounts of cash flow. But, I also have a ludicrous image of myself that keeps me from truly cashing in. You can see my problem. Woe is me. So the next morning, I call up Jon Landau (or as I refer to him, "the American Paul McGuinness"), and I say, "Did you see that iPod thing?" and he says, "Yes." And he says, "And I hear they didn't take any money."
And I said, "They didn't take any money?" and he says, "No."
I said, "Smart, wily Irish guys. Anybody - anybody - can do an ad and take the money. But to do the ad and not take the money... that's smart. That's wily."
I say, "Jon, I want you to call up Bill Gates or whoever is behind this thing and float this: a red, white and blue iPod signed by Bruce 'The Boss' Springsteen. Now remember, no matter how much money he offers, don't take it!"
At any rate, after that evening for the next month or so, I hear emanating from my lovely 14-year- old son's room, day after day, down the hall, calling out in a voice that has recently dropped very low: uno, dos, tres, catorce. The correct math for rock and roll. Thank you, boys."
Bruce Springsteen : Induction of U2 into the R & R H O F - 2005
Comments
podcast coincides with the edges birthday.
WE WANT YOU FOR THE NEXT PODCAST
July 25, 2006
posted by: m2
We want you for our next podcast! Podcast #19 will be available right
before The Edge's birthday, and so our theme for that podcast will
be...The Edge, of course! As you may know, we've done special "birthday
edition" podcasts already this year for both Adam and Bono, and now
it's Edge's turn.
You can be part of the podcast by sending birthday wishes for Edge --
write something brief and email it to us, or better yet, record your
message and email us the audio file! (Please keep it to about 30
seconds or less.) Deadline for submissions is August 6th. Send your
email to podcast [at] atu2.com and please put BIRTHDAY in the subject
line.
___________________
@U2
http://www.atu2.com
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
It is a repeat,..& from the previous tour,...
7PM / Eastern CBS
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
2010: Newark 5/18 MSG 5/20-21 2011: PJ20 9/3-4 2012: Made In America 9/2
2013: Brooklyn 10/18-19 Philly 10/21-22 Hartford 10/25 2014: ACL10/12
2015: NYC 9/23 2016: Tampa 4/11 Philly 4/28-29 MSG 5/1-2 Fenway 8/5+8/7
2017: RRHoF 4/7 2018: Fenway 9/2+9/4 2021: Sea Hear Now 9/18
2022: MSG 9/11 2024: MSG 9/3-4 Philly 9/7+9/9 Fenway 9/15+9/17
August 18, 2006
posted by: m2
Hot Press are reporting the following today:
Garrett ‘Jacknife’ Lee’s management company, Big Life, have confirmed
that the producer is about to start work on the follow-up to How To
Dismantle An Atomic Bomb with U2.
Lee has production credit on seven tracks from How To Dismantle an
Atomic Bomb. According to the Big Life web site, Lee "will rejoin U2
for a month in September for what is sure to be another highly
creative recording session." September is also when recent reports
have producers Rick Rubin and Greg Fidelman headed to Abbey Road
Studios to work with U2.
Hot Press article:
http://www.hotpress.com/music/news/2879729.html
Big Life web site:
http://www.biglifeproducers.com/producers2.php?fproducer_id=9
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
August 22, 2006
posted by: m2
While in Sarajevo this week (see item below), Bono announced to
Bosnian TV that the band plans to release a new album next year. He
also put the cliché police on red alert with the standard comments
about what Edge is doing these days.
"I would like to think that we're doing our best work now. We're
about to make a new album for next year, and it's the most important
thing. We like being in a room with each other. We like playing.
Something happens when we play, we have some sort of chemistry. And
Edge, right now, is on fire. He's really rockin'. He's playing guitar
like I've never seen him playing guitar. So, I like to think that the
best is yet to come."
Use the link to watch the interview in Real Video. The new album
comments start at the 13:40 mark, but the interview as a whole is
good -- especially his comments about the PopMart Sarajevo show.
watch the interview in Real Video >>
[url=rtsp://195.222.58.181:7070/ftv/sff0821.rm]rtsp://195.222.58.181:7070/ftv/sff0821.rm[/url]
you will need the most current realplayer
http://switchboard.real.com/player/email.html?PV=6.0.12&&title=Gost%2012.%20SFF%2Da%20%2D%20Bono%20Vox&link=rtsp%3A%2F%2F195.222.58.181%3A7070%2Fftv%2Fsff0821.rm
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
The cliche police remark is funny ... Ever since the Zooropa days, Bono has been commenting pre-album release on Edge "rediscovering" his guitar prowess.
I'm not sure this is good news. I think even people who loved the last two albums would agree that it's time for a new direction. Hiring the same producer doesn't bode well for that happening.
August 27, 2006
posted by: m2
Willie Williams, U2's longtime Show Designer, scores a short feature in
the new issue of TIME magazine, which is coming out this week. He's
profiled in a feature called "Innovators: Forging The Future" about
visual and aural artists who are "showing us new ways to see and hear."
Williams, 46, has moved with U2 from clubs to arenas to stadiums,
revolutionizing concert visuals at every step. From the seven Trabants
(compact cars built in East Germany) he hung from the rafters of U2's
early '90s Zoo TV tour to the giant beaded LED curtains of the recent
Vertigo shows, he has turned concrete caverns into spaces that drip
with mood. And when the music starts, Williams, who pioneered the
integration of video and light into a single element, turns the sets
into an extravaganza that enhances but never competes with the sound.
read the full article at Time.com >>
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1376241,00.html
Food for the Eyes and Ears
Whether illuminating rock concerts or lighting up Scottish highlands,
they are showing us new ways to see and hear
Posted Sunday, Aug. 27, 2006
A PLACE CALLED VERTIGO
Willie Williams never intended to change the way people watch rock
concerts. Growing up in the late '70s, all he really wanted was to get
out of Sheffield, England. "So I ran away to London to join the
circus," says Williams, "and the circus at that time was punk rock."
Punk rock had a visual aesthetic, but it started and ended with the
pierceable parts of its players' bodies. At 19, Williams, whose love of
music trumped his aptitude for it, cozied up to his favorite band,
Stiff Little Fingers, and talked the group into letting him design its
stage show. When the Fingers broke up in 1982, he called his new
favorite band. "They happened to be named U2."
Ever since, Williams, 46, has moved with U2 from clubs to arenas to
stadiums, revolutionizing concert visuals at every step. From the seven
Trabants (compact cars built in East Germany) he hung from the rafters
of U2's early '90s Zoo TV tour to the giant beaded LED curtains of the
recent Vertigo shows, he has turned concrete caverns into spaces that
drip with mood. And when the music starts, Williams, who pioneered the
integration of video and light into a single element, turns the sets
into an extravaganza that enhances but never competes with the sound.
In addition to his rock work, Williams has taken on the Kronos Quartet
("The equipment can't be merely quiet, it has to be silent") and is
brainstorming ways to light the revitalized South Bank Centre on the
Thames. But he still gets his greatest thrill watching people watch his
work. When Williams went to a Vertigo concert with artist Julian Opie,
whose minimalist figures were incorporated into the show's visuals,
Opie couldn't disguise his envy. "No one," he said, "ever applauds at
an art gallery."
--By Josh Tyrangiel
___________________
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
From what I've heard of the new Rolling Stones, they're still writing some really good songs. The latest U2 is kind of boring but ok. Definately worth putting out.
NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- The NFL Network will mark the Sept. 11,
2001 terror attacks by re-airing the Super Bowl XXXVI half-time show
featuring Irish rockers U2.
U2 performing "Beautiful Day," "MLK" and "The Streets Have No Name"
with the names of the victims scrolling on a floor-to-ceiling banner
will be televised during "NFL Total Access," the network said in a news
release Wednesday.
"This is one of the most memorable and meaningful half-time
performances in the history of Super Bowl," the network's Charles
Coplin said. "As we look back on the five years since 9/11 we felt our
fans would enjoy this uplifting show."
The Feb. 3, 2002 championship game at New Orleans' Louisiana Superdome
saw the New England Patriots beat the St. Louis Rams 20-17. It was
originally broadcast on Fox TV.
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
September 08, 2006
posted by: m2
U2 and Green Day will get together soon to record a cover of The Skids'
song, "The Saints Are Coming." That's the word from Green Day's
official web site:
----
We were asked by U2 to record the song with them to benefit Music
Rising (http://www.musicrising.org), an organization that replaces instruments
musicians lost in Hurricane Katrina's wake. One year later, the
devastation is still fresh in our minds, and we'd like to keep it in
yours.
----
@U2 had heard rumors recently that U2 and Green Day would join forces
for something related to New Orleans -- specifically, a performance for
the Sept. 25th New Orleans Saints home game, the first NFL game to be
played in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. The note on GreenDay.com
doesn't say if this studio work is tied to that event ... though the
song title would seem to fit.
read more at GreenDay.com >>
http://www.greenday.com/greenday.html
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
September 07, 2006
U2 fan/blogger "C", who does the wonderfully-named "Scatter o' Light"
blog, has posted a half-dozen photos of her brand new copy of U2 by U2.
Use the link below to check 'em out.
http://scatterolight.blogspot.com/2006/09/u2-by-u2-sensory-overload.html
Oh, yeah ... how'd she get the book already when it's not due on
shelves for a couple weeks? She found review copies (sent to
journalists and industry insiders, but not fan sites) for sale on
Half.com. And you can find them there, too. (Note: these are private
sellers, and anyone intending to buy should perform due diligence
first.)
http://product.half.ebay.com/U2-By-U2_W0QQprZ45590531QQtgZinfo
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
September 08, 2006, 10:05 AM ET
Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
U2 is working on material for its next studio album with producer
Rick Rubin, according to the band's Web site. The group has been at
work on the as-yet-untitled follow-up to 2004's "How To Dismantle an
Atomic Bomb" since last month. While in the studio, U2 will be joined
by Green Day to record a cover of Scottish punk band the Skids' "The
Saints Are Coming."
Proceeds from the track will benefit Music Rising, an instrument
replacement fund co-founded by U2 guitarist the Edge last summer in
the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
"One year later, the devastation is still fresh in our minds, and
we'd like to keep it in yours," Green Day said in a post on its Web
site. "New Orleans has always been a special city to us, being a
hotbed of music and creativity, and it's hard to believe parts of the
Gulf region still remain devastated. We feel that it's important to
continue to raise awareness."
Meanwhile, a DVD chronicling U2's Zoo TV tour will arrive Sept. 19
via Island/UME.
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
September 12, 2006
posted by: m2
Big props to U2.com for coming through with a day-by-day account of
U2's first few days with producer Rick Rubin at Abbey Road Studios in
London. I love this kind of stuff -- visits from Paul McCartney and
George Martin, and some high praise from our normally reserved drummer,
who says of one new song, "...even in its most basic form you had the
feeling that something special was going on."
read the full story at U2.com >>
http://www.u2.com/news/index.php?mode=full&news_id=1982
Abbey Road, Week One
For a week U2 have been holed up in London’s legendary Abbey Road Studios with producer Rick Rubin. U2.Com brings you the inside track from behind the studio doors.
Tuesday, September5th
London, Abbey Road Studios: birthplace to most of the Beatles records, and countless other classic albums from Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ to Radiohead’s ‘Kid A’.
Larry and Edge have flown in from Dublin, Bono from France and Adam, already in the city, has taken the short drive across town. Waiting in the control room is the instantly recognisable figure of Mr Rick Rubin, a producer whose musical pedigree stretches from Justin Timberlake to The Mars Volta, from Johnny Cash to Metallica. Rubin met up with the band earlier in the summer down in France and word is that some of what was written and demoed then will be recorded properly in the coming days.
Whatever the heritage of the famous Studio 2, it wasn’t the spirit of the sixties blasting out when U2 showed… it was seventies punk. Barely had the band arrived than they were into a cover of ‘The Saints Are Coming’, a 1978 hit for The Skids.
‘The saints are coming, the saints are coming.
I say no matter how I try, I realise there's no reply’
Larry tells us they spent most of the day on this and were still working in the small hours of Wednesday. Green Day are arriving in a few days to work with them on a cover, a collaboration to benefit Music Rising.
Wednesday, September 6th 06
Back in the studio this afternoon, a late kick-off but now working on a new U2 track. Taping, as we used to call it, is briefly interrupted when Paul McCartney and Beatles producer George Martin drop by. U2 and McCartney were last in a London studio together in the summer of 2005, rehearsing ‘Sergeant Pepper’. Then playing Live 8 to a billion people next day. Bit of a moment to see Macca sliding down the bannister of the stairway from the control room to the studio floor. This place is like his second home. Then U2 got back to making music… and on into the night.
Thursday, September 7th 06
U2 were again at work by early afternoon, this time on a track that sounds like a U2 classic with an instant hook and a mesmerising chorus.
‘Bono had demoed it in Dublin,’ explains Larry. ‘Then brought it to the band and even in its most basic form you had the feeling that something special was going on.
‘It felt that maybe this time we were not going to be pushing a rock up a hill as we do a lot of the time with new material.’
Another late night finish but the vibes are good.
Friday, September 8th 06
Bono often talks of U2’s approach to creating new material as ‘songwriting by accident’. But there’s nothing accidental going on today. Adam, Larry, Edge and Bono are seated around the control room chatting to Rubin who sits on a sprawling leather sofa. They play back their latest take and go through it passage by passage.
Bono has three quarters of the lyric written out on a large pad of white paper – alternative stanzas scribbled alongside the main theme. Two key lines in the verses are missing – to which Bono is la’ing and humming on each take – and it needs some kind of pay-off at the end. It’s a song with no name at the moment.
Larry suggests hearing the first half of one verse segued into the second half of the next. Edge comes up with a missing line - using the world ‘apologise’. If you’re a rap star, says Rick, who knows about rap stars, you get extra points for getting a four-syllable word in your song. Lyrical ideas fly round the room with Bono scribbling them down. Every now and then he goes to the mic, the engineer brings the track up and he tries out a new line. Edge lays down some backing vocals. Larry and Bono swap Oasis anecdotes while Rick talks bass-lines with Adam. Edge scribbles another pair of lines on the back of an envelope.
By early evening Abbey Road has emptied of musicians, engineers and producers but U2 are on a roll. By ten pm many of the missing elements in the song have been added. Everyone listens back again. Nowhere near finished but now with a complete lyric, a new opening and a different ending.
‘It’s been a good day,’ says the singer. ‘This is one that could take the roof off! Let’s call it a night.’
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
he looks 10 x better with the natural , short, cropped hair.
that stragley jet black hair- dont ( as opposed to hair- do ) he sported for the Vertigo tour was just awful .
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
September 28, 2006
Apple U2 iPod updated
Apple has quietly updated its U2 iPod, bringing it in line with its
recently revealed and 60 percent brighter iPod range.
As revealed by iLounge, the company has reduced the cost of the device,
which now has a capacity of 30GB. This model iPod now costs £209
($265), down from its launch price of £239 ($303).
Like all the latest iPods, the new U2 model also manages three and a
half hours of video playback on one battery charge.
U2 signatures are engraved on the back of the specially marked black-
and-red iPod, which ships with a special code users can redeem for an
exclusive 30-minute video made by the band.
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
September 28, 2006
Edge 'Amazed' by New Orleans Gig
U2 guitarist the Edge described the band's performance with Green Day
in New Orleans on Monday night as "amazing."
The Irish band and the American punks teamed up to reopen the
Louisiana Superdome 13 months after the stadium was hit by Hurricane
Katrina.
The bands played a cover of the Skids track "The Saints Are Coming"
before the American Football clash between New Orleans Saints and
Atlanta Falcons -- and the Edge insists it was an incredible
occasion.
He told MTV: "It was one of those moments where the heart and the
soul of the occasion was just so amazing.
"And the reaction from the crowd -- who were there to see a football
game -- they went nuts. They got it. They knew what we were trying to
do and the spirit of the event. It was very moving."
The Edge added that the band are rushing to release the song as a
single to raise money for his Mercury Rising charity.
"Everything is happening so quickly," he added. "We're scrambling to
get it all together, but we're going to try and get the studio
version to radio and then see what happens."
He also confirmed U2 are set to record their new album with producer
Rick Rubin, but added they had no definite plans for its release.
He said: "We've been doing a lot of work with Rick, and at this
point, it seems to be going very well, so my guess would be yes, he's
going to be producing our new record.
"We're still in the early stages, so it's difficult to say what will
happen or what it will be like, but we've really been enjoying the
sessions, and I don't see any reason why they should stop."
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
October 03, 2006, 1:10 AM ET
Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
A new song and a cover of Scottish punk band the Skids' "The Saints
Are Coming" with Green Day will be found on a U2 compilation due Nov.
21 via Interscope. The as-yet-untitled set, which will also be
available in a deluxe edition, will feature "16 of U2's best-songs,"
according to the band's Web site.
Both the new song and the Skids cover were recorded last month at
London's Abbey Road Studio with producer Rick Rubin. U2 and Green Day
debuted the cover live last week at the re-opening of the New Orleans
Superdome; it is available for download exclusively until Oct. 30 via
Rhapsody, after which point it will hit additional download
retailers. A CD single will follow on Nov. 6.
U2's most recent compilation, "The Best Of 1990-2000," was released
in December 2002 and included material up through the 2000 album "All
That You Can't Leave Behind."
As previously reported, the band will resume its Vertigo tour Nov. 7
in Brisbane.
U2.Com has announced that U2 will release their third "Best Of" CD on
November 20th. The album will contain sixteen previously released
tracks and two new releases, one of which is the U2/Green Day
collaberation "The Saints Are Coming". According to the story, both
new songs were recorded at the recent Abbey Road sessions with Rick
Rubin.
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
Release the new song with a couple b-sides and the Saints/Green day song through iTunes or limited release and be done with it.
A one CD "cream of the crop-super-ultra-elite-limited-deluxe-edition" greatest hits collection trying to cover a 20+ year career is dumb, esp when you are still an active band (and already have two greatest hits CD's).
Some die just to live.
oh boy
i'll probably still buy it ( cuz i have the other 2 ) , but c'mon fellas .
the duet of the coversong ( " Saints " ) with greenday is cool also, will like to hear the studio version, especially if its mixed by rick rubin .
persoanlly, im looking more forward to this supposed DVD package of greatest hits & band history , rumored on U2.com.
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
Lmao, give them time, Aerosmith did have a head start.:)
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
In Music and Love, U2 Has Staying Power
By Elise McIntosh, Relationships Editor
Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. must have signed a
deal with the devil. Even after all these years together, the four
Irish fellows who make up U2 are still on fire!
Last weekend in Dublin, so many fans arrived at the band's private
signing of its new book, "U2 By U2," which went on international sale
on Sept. 21, that organizers were forced to restrict access to the
250 people who previously won tickets to the event.
And, you're not going to believe this disgrace: The band asked that
the media be barred from the event! (Must be part of the fine print
of the contract they drew up with Satan.)
This year, the legendary rock quartet is celebrating its "pearl"
anniversary. (Pearl = 30 years, for all you men who forget to buy
your dear wives anniversary gifts year after year.)
The group formed back in September 1976, when drummer Mullen, then
14, posted a notice on his secondary school's bulletin board seeking
musicians for a new band.
Just imagine: Lead singer Bono's voice probably hadn't changed yet
during the time of the auditions.
Just as they've shown to each other, the bandmates demonstrate a real
commitment to the women in their lives. (Must be in the Irish blood,
or drinking water.)
Though, according to the band's official Web site, Bono was a bit of
a player in the early days and "had many girlfriends who adored his
romantic, sweet-talking ways."
However, the instant popularity that comes with the bragging
rights, "I'm dating the lead singer of a band," must have been a
motivating factor for the girls as well.
"Although," Bono's bio continues to read, "it was the feisty, no-bull
nature of his dark-haired sweetheart Alison Stewart which eventually
got him to become a 'one woman' man."
Bono, then 22, married Ali in an Anglican ceremony at a chapel on the
Guinness family estate in 1982. (We can't fault Bono for uniting his
two loves, that for his lovely bride and that for his beer, on the
most romantic day of his life.)
It seems even rock stars sometimes forget about the loves of their
lives. While recording "The Joshua Tree" with the band in 1987, Bono
overlooked Ali's birthday.
But, neglectful husbands are not off the hook: Bono realized a trip
to the gas station for a $12.99 bouquet of roses wouldn't cut it. To
make amends, he wrote and dedicated "The Sweetest Thing" to Ali.
In 1983, the band's lead guitarist, the Edge, married a high-school
sweetheart, Aislinn O'Sullivan, with whom he fathered three
daughters.
Their love was not a lasting one and the couple separated in 1991,
instead of divorcing, since it was illegal at the time in Ireland.
(Goodness, that law would have been a real problem for Elizabeth
Taylor if it had existed in America.)
When divorce finally became legalized in their country in 1995, the
couple made their split "official."
The Edge soon found love again with Morleigh Steinberg, a belly
dancer and choreographer from the band's Zoo TV Tour, in 1993.
Guess the couple had a lot of fun making babies backstage -- they had
a son and a daughter in the late '90s before they officially tied the
knot in June 2002.
Just as the Edge was finding a second chance at romance during the
international tour, Clayton was on a downward spiral.
In the aftermath of a romantic breakup and his increasing dependence
on alcohol, the bass player missed a gig. For the first time ever, U2
went on stage without one of their own.
But, we say, if he was MIA because of his split with Naomi Campbell,
well, we sympathize with him: She can get real nasty with her
employees -- so just imagine what she'd do to an ex!
Fortunately, Clayton managed to escape without serious bruises and
has found true love in his middle age. On the band's Web site,
http://www.U2.com, it was announced that he is engaged to Suzanne "Susie"
Smith, a record company executive based in London and a former
assistant to U2 manager Paul McGuinness.
The couple, who had dated for 10 years, is planning to marry next
year. Guess Clayton wanted to be sure divorce was a tried-and-true
option in Ireland before making this sort of commitment.
Interestingly, Mullen, too, doesn't seem to want to take the wedding
plunge. The drummer is still not married to his 20-year partner, Ann
Acheson.
But, we understand completely. With Irish weddings costing an arm and
leg -- as well as a torso due to the amount of beer and whiskey
guests are known to quaff -- it's no wonder the couple decided to
hold off on a big reception.
That didn't stop them from having a family, though. The lovebirds are
parents to three children, the third of which was rumored to be a
daughter named Anya. But, as the new book points out, the child is a
son named Ezra.
It's unclear why Mullen never corrected the rumors earlier. But, we
think it was a wise move. Tabloids are known for forever slipping up
and reporting the exact opposite. So, perhaps, he just wanted to save
time.
(Elise McIntosh is the Relationships editor with the Staten Island
Advance.)
© Staten Island Live LLC, 2006.
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
"Uno, dos, tres, catorce. That translates as one, two, three, fourteen. That is the correct math for a rock and roll band. For in art and love and rock and roll, the whole had better equal much more than the sum of its parts, or else you're just rubbing two sticks together searching for fire.
‘A great rock band searches for the same kind of combustible force that fuelled the expansion of the universe after the big bang. You want the earth to shake and spit fire, you want the sky to split apart and for God to pour out. It's embarrassing to want so much and to expect so much from music, except sometimes it happens: the Sun Sessions, Highway 61, Sgt. Peppers, the Band, Robert Johnson, Exile on Main Street, Born to Run... whoops, I meant to leave that one out... uh... the Sex Pistols, Aretha Franklin, the Clash, James Brown; the proud and public enemies it takes a nation of millions to hold back. This is music meant to take on not only the powers that be but on a good day, the universe and God himself, if he was listening. It's man's accountability, and U2 belongs on this list.
‘It was the early '80s. I went with Pete Townshend, who always wanted to catch the first whiff of those about to unseat us, to a club in London. There they were: a young Bono (single-handedly pioneering the Irish mullet), the Edge (what kind of name was that?), Adam and Larry -- I was listening to the last band of whom I would be able to name all of its members. They had an exciting show and a big, beautiful sound. They lifted the roof. We met afterwards and they were nice young men. They were Irish. Irish. Now, this would play an enormous part in their success in the States. For what the English occasionally have the refined sensibilities to overcome, we Irish and Italians have no such problem. We come through the door fists and hearts first.
‘U2, with the dark, chiming sound of heaven at their command which, of course, is the sound of unrequited love and longing - their greatest theme. Their search for God intact, this was a band that wanted to lay claim to not only this world but had their eyes on the next one, too. Now, they're a real band; each member plays a vital part. I believe they actually practice some form of democracy - toxic poison in a bands’ head. In Iraq, maybe. In rock, no. Yet, they survive. They have harnessed the time bomb that exists in the heart of every great rock and roll band that usually explodes, as we see regularly from this stage. But they seemed to have innately understood the primary rule of rock band job security: "Hey, asshole, the other guy is more important than you think he is!"
‘They are both a step forward and direct descendants of the great bands who believed rock music could shake things up in the world, dared to have faith in their audience, who believed if they played their best it would bring out the best in you. They believed in pop stardom and the big time. Now this requires foolishness and a calculating mind. It also requires a deeply held faith in the work you're doing and in its powers to transform. U2 hungered for it all and built a sound, and they wrote the songs that demanded it. They're keepers of some of the most beautiful sonic architecture in rock and roll.
‘The Edge, the Edge, the Edge, the Edge. He is a rare and true guitar original and one of the subtlest guitar heroes of all time. He's dedicated to ensemble playing and he subsumes his guitar ego in the group. But do not be fooled. Take Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Neil Young, Pete Townshend - guitarists who defined the sound of their band and their times. If you play like them, you sound like them. If you are playing those rhythmic two-note sustained fourths, drenched in echo, you are going to sound like the Edge, my son. Go back to the drawing board and chances are you won't have much luck. There are only a handful of guitar stylists who can create a world with their instruments, and he's one of them. The Edge's guitar playing creates enormous space and vast landscapes. It is a thrilling and a heartbreaking sound that hangs over you like the unsettled sky. In the turf it stakes out, it is inherently spiritual, it is grace and it is a gift.
‘Now, all of this has to be held down by something. The deep sureness of Adam Clayton's bass and the rhythms of Larry Mullen's elegant drumming hold the band down while propelling it forward. It's in U2's great rhythm section that the band finds its sexuality and its dangerousness. Listen to "Desire," she moves in "Mysterious Ways," the pulse of "With or Without You." Together Larry and Adam create the element that suggests the ecstatic possibilities of that other kingdom -- the one below the earth and below the belt -- that no great rock band can lay claim to the title without.
‘Now, Adam always strikes me as the professorial one, the sophisticated member. He creates not only the musical but physical stability on his side of the stage. The tone and depth of his bass playing has allowed the band to move from rock to dance music and beyond. One of the first things I noticed about U2 was that underneath the guitar and the bass, they have these very modern rhythms going on. Rather than a straight 2 and 4, Larry often plays with a lot of syncopation, and that connects the band to modern dance textures. The drums often sounded high and tight and he was swinging down there, and this gave the band a unique profile and allowed their rock textures to soar above on a bed of his rhythm. Now Larry, of course, besides being an incredible drummer, bears the burden of being the band's requisite "good-looking member," something we somehow overlooked in the E Street Band. We have to settle for "charismatic." Girls love on Larry Mullen. I have a female assistant that would like to sit on Larry's drum stool. A male one, too. We all have our crosses to bear.
‘Bono, where do I begin? Jeans designer, soon-to-be World Bank operator, just plain operator, seller of the Brooklyn Bridge - oh hold up, he played under the Brooklyn Bridge, that's right. Soon-to-be mastermind operator of the Bono Burger franchise, where more than one million stories will be told by a crazy Irishman. Now I realize that it's a dirty job and somebody has to do it, but don't quit your day job yet, my friend, you're pretty good at it.
‘And a sound this big needs somebody to ride herd over it, and ride herd over it he does. His voice, big-hearted and open, thoroughly decent no matter how hard he tries. Now he's a great frontman. Against the odds, he is not your mom's standard skinny, ex- junkie archetype. He has the physique of a rugby player... well, an ex-rugby player. Shamen, shyster, one of the greatest and most endearingly naked messianic complexes in rock and roll. God bless you, man! It takes one to know one, of course.
‘You see, every good Irish and Italian-Irish front-man knows that before James Brown there was Jesus. So hold the McDonald arches on the stage set, boys, we are not ironists. We are creations of the heart and of the earth and of the stations of the cross. There's no getting out of it. He is gifted with an operatic voice and a beautiful falsetto rare among strong rock singers. But most important, his is a voice shot through with self-doubt. That's what makes that big sound work.
‘It is this element of Bono's talent, along with his beautiful lyric writing, that gives the often-celestial music of U2 its fragility and its realness. It is the questioning, the constant questioning in Bono's voice, where the band stakes its claim to its humanity and declares its commonality with us. Now Bono's voice often sounds like it's shouting not over top of the band but from deep within it: "Here we are, Lord, this mess, in your image."
‘He delivers all of this with great drama and an occasional smirk that says, "Kiss me, I'm Irish." He's one of the great front-men of the past 20 years. He is also one of the only musicians to devote his personal faith and the ideals of his band into the real world in a way that remains true to rock's earliest implications of freedom and connection and the possibility of something better.
‘Now the band's beautiful songwriting -- "Pride (In The Name of Love)," "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," "One," "Where the Streets Have No Name," "Beautiful Day" - reminds us of the stakes that the band always plays for. It's an incredible songbook. In their music, you hear the spirituality as home and as quest. How do you find God unless he's in your heart, in your desire, in your feet? I believe this is a big part of what's kept their band together all of these years. See, bands get formed by accident, but they don't survive by accident. It takes will, intent, a sense of shared purpose and a tolerance for your friends' fallibilities and they of yours. And that only evens the odds. U2 has not only evened the odds but they've beaten them by continuing to do their finest work and remaining at the top of their game and the charts for 25 years. I feel a great affinity for these guys as people as well as musicians.
‘Well, there I was sitting down on the couch in my pajamas with my eldest son. He was watching TV. I was doing one of my favorite things: I was tallying up all the money I passed up in endorsements over the years and thinking of all the fun I could have had with it. Suddenly I hear "Uno, dos, tres, catorce!" I look up. But instead of the silhouettes of the hippie-wannabes bouncing around in the iPod commercial, I see my boys! Oh my God! They sold out! Now, what I know about the iPod is this: it is a device that plays music. Of course, their new song sounded great, my guys are doing great, but methinks I hear the footsteps of my old tape operator of Jimmy Iovine somewhere. Wily, smart.
‘Now, personally, I live an insanely expensive lifestyle that my wife barely tolerates. I burn money, and that calls for huge amounts of cash flow. But, I also have a ludicrous image of myself that keeps me from truly cashing in. You can see my problem. Woe is me. So the next morning, I call up Jon Landau (or as I refer to him, "the American Paul McGuinness"), and I say, "Did you see that iPod thing?" and he says, "Yes." And he says, "And I hear they didn't take any money."
And I said, "They didn't take any money?" and he says, "No."
I said, "Smart, wily Irish guys. Anybody - anybody - can do an ad and take the money. But to do the ad and not take the money... that's smart. That's wily."
I say, "Jon, I want you to call up Bill Gates or whoever is behind this thing and float this: a red, white and blue iPod signed by Bruce 'The Boss' Springsteen. Now remember, no matter how much money he offers, don't take it!"
At any rate, after that evening for the next month or so, I hear emanating from my lovely 14-year- old son's room, day after day, down the hall, calling out in a voice that has recently dropped very low: uno, dos, tres, catorce. The correct math for rock and roll. Thank you, boys."
Bruce Springsteen : Induction of U2 into the R & R H O F - 2005
apparently, they didnt get paid for the ipod.
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive
ORGAN DONATION SAVES LIVES
http://www.UNOS.org
Donate Organs and Save a Life
i enjoy a nice U2 show but they're sellouts and no where near Pearl Jam