Why no more live albums?

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silkensky

silkensky

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As incredible a live band as U2 are, why do you suppose they haven't released a proper live album since UABRS? Nothing in the 90's, nothing in the 00's so far. So many other artists and bands have several live releases in their official catalogue, but only one for U2 at this point. Do they figure the DVD's and all the unofficial bootlegs are enough? Just something that popped into my head today. I'd love a live album with stuff that isn't from previously released video productions.

James
 
I guess it depends what you mean by "a proper live album". Rattle & Hum, after all, had 6 live tracks, so that's 3/4 of UABRS right there.

Hasta la Vista Baby was released to fan club members in 2000, and of course everything since then is easily "stealable" online.

The real question, I suppose, is why they didn't release a "proper" live album between 1983 and the onset of the downloading era, circa 2000. 1988 was sort of the logical moment to do so, but they surprised everyone with a sort-of 2/3 studio, 1/3 live album of rough performances instead.

After that, they were understandably gun-shy of putting out live performances for a while. The next possible time would have been 1994 (with a ZooTV show), but perhaps McGuinness thought it would be counter-productive to have a third album just four years into the decade (imagine that now!!). He may have changed his mind if he'd known how long Pop would take...

After Pop, I think the muted reaction to the album + tour cancelled any chance of Hasta La Vista getting a mainstream release. There was no way they were going to risk two relative lemons (no pun intended) in a row.

Since then, it's all a moot point with the Internet supplying everything under the sun.
 
^ yeah, pretty much that.

plus, aside from the early stuff, everything but the unforgettable fire tour and lovetown have been represented somehow. the only thing i could've seen them doing that they didn't do was something for the zoo tv tour. my guess is they were trying to prevent what happened with rattle and hum, the fatigue of u2. it seems impossible these days but a big part of the u2 backlash in the late 80s was their overexposure. i don't want to start some debate about that, but yeah.

so between possibly being gun shy about that, then the failure of pop i think is what prevented any 90s live albums, aside from the fan club release that is. after that? like the previous post, i think you can chalk it up to the internet. since u2 doesn't mind live bootlegs, they possibly could feel they'd rather fans just have access to that rather than picking a random show and releasing it on cd. plus, these days it's rather easy to strip the audio from a dvd, so they could also feel that any time they release a live dvd, they're kinda also releasing a live album as well.
 
Perhaps they do not feel the necessity to do it given the vast discography that has been already present. Don't forget U2.COMmunication, it was released to the fan club during 2005, and with Hasta La Vista Baby, they make two live albums during this past decade.

The band are volunteers rather than salespeople at this point in their careers.
 
I've often wondered this myself, but looks to me like U2 has just gone the route of DVD's rather than live albums, which is fine for me since it's easy enough to do an audio rip. I pretty much just watch the DVD once, rip the audio, throw it on my iPod and the DVD on the shelf....though I'l listen to the show quite a bit.

From this perspective, U2 has been pretty good at releasing live material, since we have at least one more or less complete show from almost every tour on DVD and/or CD.
 
Well, they didn't release official live albums, but they released videos and dvds, probably because the visual aspect of the tours was just as important as the music.

Also, they broadcast shows worldwide on the radio, and people would tape (and now rip) them. There has never been a shortage of high-quality live U2 recordings.

Who needs an official live thing when they'll give you the music for free, and then release a video of the concert?
 
Hollow Island said:
Well, they didn't release official live albums, but they released videos and dvds, probably because the visual aspect of the tours was just as important as the music.

Also, they broadcast shows worldwide on the radio, and people would tape (and now rip) them. There has never been a shortage of high-quality live U2 recordings.

Who needs an official live thing when they'll give you the music for free, and then release a video of the concert?
Click to expand...

Exactly. A DVD isn't really any more expensive than a 2-CD set, and it's easy enough to rip the audio. So you can either think of the audio or video portion as a "bonus".
 
Nick66 said:
Lovetown was a fan club CD release (though obviously there's no video).
Click to expand...

??? When was there a Lovetown fan club CD release? Of what? Are you referring to the Ipod download of the New Years show? I dont think there was a CD release of it.

I remember an interview with Edge I think during Elevation where he basically said they consider the DVD releases the live album now.
 
Live From Under the Brooklyn Bridge was a live EP... 2004...

Wide Awake in Europe... that's all live... I mean sure these aren't full length albums but they're live releases.
 
Having ripped the audio off of both the ZooTV and the PopMart DVDs, I can tell you that the audio from both of these tours doesn't do the show justice. Particularly Popmart, which relied so heavily on the screen visuals to project the show.
 
Nick66 said:
Lovetown was a fan club CD release (though obviously there's no video).

Ironically the thing I want most is a proper TUF live CD or DVD.
Click to expand...

What fan club are you talking about? The first CD Propaganda released was "Melon". I have that issue and they state so in it (in response to a fan asking why the fan club doesn't release CD's like other fan clubs of other bands do). If there was a LoveTown fan club release (circa 1990) it would be a real collector's item.

I read not long ago that McGuinness stated that U2 won't release live CD's any more. He stated that the tour lends itself well to video releases. This is why from ZOO TV on, we have mostly had video releases. The fan club has given us some CD's, but obviously nothing released to the general public.

Given the huge return in popularity U2 enjoyed with ATYCLB and the tour, I do think a live CD from that era would have sold rather well. The Boston video was one of U2's biggest video hits.
 
I think U2 wanted us to have the DVDs instead. I always wanted the DVDs to come with CDs, so that I could listen to them in my car, but U2 wanted us to see the visual extravaganza of ZOOTV, POPMART, even Elevation....

But there should have been a live album called "ZOOTV" with the best tracks taken from the whole tour. That would have been something...
 
yeah they missed a good opportunity there not putting out a live album from Zoo TV. But you could say [and i'm sure they did if they ever discussed it] what good is Zoo TV without the visuals?? Releasing the video seemed to do the trick...even if it was a gig they insist on digging up again and again when they're short of 'bonus material' or a fan club gift. :wink:
 
True..but then there would be somewhere around 4,692 posts here about whether they chose the right version/night to represent each song properly..and the typical infighting and off topic crap that follows... :wink:
 
I guess when you really think about it, U2 has released audio material from most tours since War.

Boy - Boston 81 Ipod complete U2 download (I think)
War - Under A Blood Red Sky CD
The Unforgettable Fire - Wide Awake In America EP CD (obviously only 2 songs live)
The Joshua Tree - Rattle and Hum Live cuts CD and Paris 87 Ipod audio download
Lovetown - Dublin 89 Ipod download from the complete U2
Zoo TV/Outside Broadcast/Zooropa/Zoomerang - Sydney Live 1993 CD (fan club)
Popmart - Mexico City Hast La Vista baby 1997 CD (fan club)
Elevation - Slane 2001 CD (fan club)
Vertigo - Milan/Chicago 2005 CD (fan club)
360 - vinyl EP

Obviously the most lacking out of these is The Unforgettable Fire Tour and 360. But I can imagine a 360 live fan club release in the near future. The Vertigo effort is also rather weak as it is nowhere near a complete show. Otherwise the only major tour completely missing is October.
 
Blue Room said:
I guess when you really think about it, U2 has released audio material from most tours since War.

Boy - Boston 81 Ipod complete U2 download (I think)
War - Under A Blood Red Sky CD
The Unforgettable Fire - Wide Awake In America EP CD (obviously only 2 songs live)
The Joshua Tree - Rattle and Hum Live cuts CD and Paris 87 Ipod audio download
Lovetown - Dublin 89 Ipod download from the complete U2
Zoo TV/Outside Broadcast/Zooropa/Zoomerang - Sydney Live 1993 CD (fan club)
Popmart - Mexico City Hast La Vista baby 1997 CD (fan club)
Elevation - Slane 2001 CD (fan club)
Vertigo - Milan/Chicago 2005 CD (fan club)
360 - vinyl EP
Click to expand...

This post.

I'm almost positive there was an interview with McGuiness or someone saying that the live DVD has replaced the live album. Given that most of the live albums that U2 have released to their fans are audio versions of DVD shows (Paris 87, Zoo TV, PopMart, Vertigo Milan, Slane Elevation), this would seem to be the case.
 
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