What is the stupidest decision U2 has ever made?

[The_acrobat]

Pretty much every decision they've made since the beginning of NLOTH has been questionable, although the 360 tour was a big success.

- boots as the first single
- guy liner
- the Spider-Man musical
- not releasing the proposed 2010-2011 album
- the perceived failure at Glastonbury (why the hell did they waste their time playing a festival? They could've just done a couple uk gigs in 2010 and made more money)
- taking to long to put out SOI
- not making the ordinary love / invisible era part of the album campaign
- the actual release of SOI
- the prices for tickets on the upcoming tour.


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[lemonfly]

Allowing Bono to cut his hair short. That's why certain albums didn't sell. Apparently.

 

[prbiker15]

Boots as a lead single and the lack of follow-up after the Ordinary Love/Invisible campaign. I'm still not bothered by the SOI release method.

 

[Teta040]

I really ought to checkout the PopMart failure thread. I made numerous comments as to how that was a "failure" back when the tickets first went on sale, in a couple of tour threads. It's been around for a while, I've never commented in it.
But IMO image is just as important as stats. Sometimes more so. And as regards that sorry attempt at an artistic "statement", (the tour more so than the album, but U2 has always been more about touring, no?) I'd like to think that when it comes to stuff like this, we Yanks sometimes have a built-in bulls*** detector and in 1997, the alarm went off, bigtime.
And yes, our opinion matters when it comes to this, as much as the rest of the planet doesn't like to admit it.

Anyway...are we talking strictly musical decisions here, or business ones? If it's just music, I'd like to nominate not playing "Acrobat" live, ever. Like, EVER. Okay, maybe they played it once, but that's it, all these years. (Does anybody know where?) I freakin' LOVE that song, and how many times I've wanted to stand in the middle of a U2 audience singing "Don't let the bastards grind you down." it was my motto for years.

As to non-musical...the fact that Paul McGuiness is no longer their manager. If this is something that could not have been helped, fair play and it's a tragedy as big as the bike accident, though unlike that, they might not ever fully recover from it.
If it turns out that it COULD have been helped....
......
I hope we know what really happened, someday.

 

[The_acrobat]

It could be as simple as Paul is in his mid 60s and was ready to scale back his workload. I hope I don't have to work as hard or as much in my 60s as I do now (my early 30s). But something tells me there's more to it than that. I know Guy isn't the only one to blame for these poor decisions the band have made lately. But I'll say it... The "guy" sucks!

The apple thing didn't bother me one bit, and I thought it was a good idea. I'm not at all a fan of country, but I wouldn't throw a fit if Jason Aldeans new album was offered to me in my iCloud. I'd just say no thanks and not listen to it. But it pissed off a lot of people, initially, but then after that it became a joke, and U2's image also became a punchline.

I wish some other big artist would do
The same thing as U2 just to help shoulder the burden. If somebody like The Strokes did that, then the hipsters would be singing a different tune.


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[Hewson]

I was four years old when the PopMart press conference happened,

Man, based on your avatar photo you haven't aged well.

 

[wolbersu2]

The band should have released EBW as a first single. It will be very difficult to have this song worldwide in the top 10 now.

 

[MrPryck2U]

The Popmart "failure" thread doesn't have any stats to support your theory.

Try harder.

Theory? Good Lord!


The internet is your friend. All you have to do is look at the attendance figures from the first leg of the US tour. It's not any sort of hidden secret. Take your own suggestion and try harder or try once.

 

[digitize]

Man, based on your avatar photo you haven't aged well.

Hey, I've spent the last thirty years in love with a woman whose life I sold to Lord Voldemort, who married my arch-enemy, and whose son I despise but secretly fight to keep alive. It's been a hard life.


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[Hewson]

Folks might not have liked how SOI was released, but the tour has sold out, so who gives a flying fuck?

.

Not so sure I'd call the tour "sold out" when they had slotted for 8 LA shows, and have only sold tix to 4 thus far and 2 of the shows have several thousand unsold tix each, Chicago was slotted for 6 shows and can't sell out shows 3 and 4, Boston is sluggish selling nights 3 and 4, Toronto was slotted for 4 and has only sold 2 etc. etc.

 

[MrPryck2U]

Not so sure I'd call the tour "sold out" when they had slotted for 8 LA shows, and have only sold tix to 4 thus far and 2 of the shows have several thousand unsold tix each, Chicago was slotted for 6 shows and can't sell out shows 3 and 4, Boston is sluggish selling nights 3 and 4, Toronto was slotted for 4 and has only sold 2 etc. etc.

Damn you! I guess I was projecting into the future thinking they'd be sold out by the time the show takes place. Time will tell. If they sell out their stadium tour in 2016, I suppose it will all be irrelevant.

 

[Teta040]

*phew* okay. I promise, any comments from me about Pop and Popmart in this thread are restricted to Pop tunes only. I don't want to get this thread off-track. I'll really have to jump into that thread, if it's still going, to find out what I missed.
And I owe the Crystal Ballroom my Adam story. It's coming tonight, have to be traveling today, so not now.

But as far as Paul MCG goes....I've spent these past months scratching my head, thinking, "If it were merely Paul wanting to step down due to health problems or b/c he felt he couldn't handle another tour, WHY wouldn't he have wanted to hand control over the company he started over 30 yrs ago, to a carefully hand-picked successor? Knowing what he knows about the music biz, and seeing how had he has fought for the band all these...well, decades....he'd have known that the continued *independence* of U2 is of paramount importance. Most of all when it comes to touring. It is called "Principle" Management isn't it? Why would he so casually consent to having someone from within the LN camp take over? You know that once the tour starts and things are run differently, and Paul won't be there in the front row every show like he's always been, any remaining guys from PM may slowly decide to leave and eventually be replaced with O'Seary's (read: LN) people. the real reality for them won' sink in until they're on the road...

You know, is there a current thread for this? I'd better shut up about this too.

EDIT: as far as SOI goes...I give a flying f***, when it comes to all those people who would have otherwise discovered U2 from, say, a week of great performances on Fallon, or a poignant acoustic rendition of EBW at the Grammys similar to the one from the MTV Europe awards, and decided that maybe there was something worthwhile cluttering up their phones after all. Who may or may not have become the next generation to discover the band. And the possible more favorable media coverage in the US as a result, slowly turning things around. Yes, the tour may eventually sell out here, but at this point it's just preaching to the choir. This is some of the best stuff of the band's career and it deserved to be heard. Yesterday I heard "One" playing in a diner, and I almost cried. Haven't heard u2 so much in public in years, and if they'd just gotten on TV...this thing was ready to catch fire.

And now to start packing. Coming back from Xmas with the out-of-town family today. Ugh. Went too fast.

 

[The_acrobat]

I really think the only show that won't be sold out by show time is Chicago 4. They definitely misjudged demand if they thought they could do 8 shows in LA at those prices.


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[DeVaul]

Straining to be relevant instead of just being who they are.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

Straining to be relevant instead of just being who they are.

I get kind of tired of this one...

What if that is who they are?

 

[Reggie Thee Dog]

I get kind of tired of this one...

What if that is who they are?

Word...

 

[Mrs. Garrison]

I was four years old when the PopMart press conference happened, so maybe take what I say with a grain of salt. But my perception is that the KMart press conference did a lot to play into the cynical image of the band that has waxed and waned in the United States over the years. It encouraged that image during PopMart in a way that took Beautiful Day to recover from. Sure, it was only in one country, but that country isn't Lithuania or something. It's a country with 300m+ people and a market for U2 comparable to the entire European continent. It also is the place where U2 have been the most obsessed with being relevant over the years, rightly or wrongly.


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I am both comforted and somewhat disturbed by the fact that while i am old enough to be your parents, judging by your posts, you are light years ahead of me in maturity.

Please try being less responsible and do something completely selfish and/or stupid today!

 

[Mrs. Garrison]

What does the coveted Nick66/u2girl/last unicorn trophy look like?

You Sir are the real MVP

 

[kod4967]

Letting Bono take up cycling. Oh and the ridiculous mechanical lemon.


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[Mrs. Garrison]

Letting Bono take up cycling. Oh and the ridiculous mechanical lemon.


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i disagree with you on all accounts. The LEMON was great and should know how to ride a bicycle by now

 

[kod4967]

Stuck in a Lemon that They Can't Get Out Of?


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[FuruftUta]

good thread.

1. Releasing Boots as a first single

2. Releasing Miracle as a first single

3. Releasing the studio-version of Crazy as a single

4. putting Crazy on the album instead of (the fantastatic) Winter

5. playing the acoustic every breaking wave-version again and again

6. choosing the director, who ist responsible for the 360 DVD from L.A.

7. not putting Chrystall Ballroom on the album

8. not releasing the, "cool" [like Bono said] early versions of the albums (Songs of Innocence completly produced by Danger Mouse, NLOH with Winter etc.)

9. thinking that they are interesting as an acoustic act - they are not. If Edge sounds like everybody else, U2 sucks

10. Miss Sarajewo at the Vertigo tour. A nightmare of kitsch

 

[youarenotimmune]

Edge acknowledging their awareness of Interference's existence.

Okay I know that's not a decision but I'm sure their music went downhill after they started reading the crap spewed here on a daily basis. This place is a fucking cesspool.

 

[bobsaget77]

1 North and South of The River not being on Pop
2 Releasing SUC
3 Writing the lyrics to SUC
4 Not playing Fez on 360
5 NLOTH track listing
6 Only 10 songs being on TUF when they had great songs left on the table.
7 Not playing Acrobat
8 The way they made the Rattle and Hum album. Should've been a double album.
9 Butchering Miss Sarajevo live with the exception of Bono's pavoratti note. It sounds absolutely nothing like the album version.


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[YBORCITY]

I nominate butchering Mercy.

When they played it live... right after (or before, can't remember) Bad, it was just so astonishing, I was floating above my own body during the first verse...

And then I went to start singing the pre-chorus and it wasn't there.

Four years on from that night I still can't get BECAUSE! BECAUSE! BECAUSE! out of my head.

Please, make your nominations. Once we have enough we can do a poll, and the winner shall take home the coveted Nick66-U2girl-LastUnicorn trophy.

Yes the "Because......." was so bad and I too can't get that outta my fing head.....

but worse decision has to be Boots

A piece of crap song on a pretty good album oh a nd then leading off with the aforementioned piece of crap song.

 

[DaveC]

Larry pinning that note on the school notice board in 1976.

That was really stupid, they should have just given up then.


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[U2girl]

Pop and Rattle and Hum adventures might get the nod, but they recovered.

Boots did more damage.

 

[prbiker15]

Larry pinning that note on the school notice board in 1976.

That was really stupid, they should have just given up then.

 

[crazyu2]

larry pinning that note on the school notice board in 1976.

That was really stupid, they should have just given up then.

lol

 

[david]

Surely someone has an image of Bono as cat from the Vertigo DVD.

I need to see this.