Bold Positive Prediction: U2 To Mount The Mother Of All Comebacks (Thanks Mullen!)

[biff]

This is just so funny on so many levels. (Jick, you are joking, right?)

 

[Saracene]

Yeah, and Larry's letter will also establish world peace and cure dandruff.

 

[Flying FuManchu]

to the Mullen Apology. One of those huge U2 moments in U2 history... up there with the white flag at Red Rocks, Live Aid, etc.

I see nothing wrong with jick's little jab at the end about posters saying jick only posts negative things about U2. I hope the Mullen Apology does turn the tide of HTDAAB's freefall on the charts.

 

[namkcuR]

Jick, dude, no. You have to go somewhere if you're to make a comeback. U2 never went anywhere. Despite the perception that POP got bad reviews everywhere and was a critical disaster, the truth is that it sold just fine(6 million copies I believe worldwide) and the tour sold very well. ATYCLB sold even more and the Elevation tour sold extrememly well. Now HTDAAB is selling at lightning speed and the tickets for the tour even faster. They are consistantly successful. The recent billboard nosedives you speak of are fictitious. They were created in your mind. HTDAAB has fallen in the charts somewhat, but that's to be expected of a record that's been out for going on three months already, and it hasn't even fallen that far. U2 never went anywhere, they don't have anywhere to come back from. Furthermore, the notion that Mullen's apology was touching, let alone the most touching artist-to-fan apology in the history of rock'n'roll, is absurd and impossible to take seriously. It was a good apology that went a distance in comforting some fans concerning the ticket presale fiasco, that is all. Stop manufacturing this melodramatic drivel.

 

[sallycinnamon78]

Does anyone else find it silly that out of 30,000 message board users, so many people are wound up enough by one person to post harsh personal messages towards them? With due respect to everyone - if it bugs you that much and you can't be arsed putting forward a reasonable debate, why not just ignore the poster you find offensive?

I don't mean to come across as pious... I know we all get worked up about the band we love. All the more reason to have a constructive debate when we disagree with people, rather than resorting to nastiness.

I'll get off my soapbox now!

As for the comeback theory - well, I believe that a band needs to sink into near obscurity in order to have a real 'comeback'. U2 have not fallen from grace to that stage. They can't have any real sort of comeback, in my opinion, because they never went away in the first place.

 

[sallycinnamon78]

Jick, dude, no. You have to go somewhere if you're to make a comeback. U2 never went anywhere. Despite the perception that POP got bad reviews everywhere and was a critical disaster, the truth is that it sold just fine(6 million copies I believe worldwide) and the tour sold very well. ATYCLB sold even more and the Elevation tour sold extrememly well. Now HTDAAB is selling at lightning speed and the tickets for the tour even faster. They are consistantly successful. The recent billboard nosedives you speak of are fictitious.

Great minds think alike - or, as my mother pefers to say - fools seldom differ!

 

[indra]

Re: Bold Positive Prediction: U2 To Mount The Mother Of All Comebacks (Thanks Mullen!)

the assortment of boos they received in the Macarena karaoke performance in Spain

Oh dear god! I certainly hope someone strung them up by their toes and beat them senseless with a wet noodle for this. Absolutely unforgivable.

 

[allbecauseofu2]

i think you guys need to look at the big picture. i understand the need to judge u2 by thier own standards, by thier past accomplisments, but i also look at the whole rock world. as i said in another post, u2 is doing 100 times better then other long time bands, like, rem, madonna,bon jovi,the cure,beastie boys and even a band i love just as much as u2 red hot chili peppers. jick, u2 can;t make a comeback within the same context of a album,. the album sold a alot, then dropped might/proly will comeback. thats not a comeback. thats just the album made a return. the ALBUM made a comeback, not u2. they already sold enoguh to be far above disapotiment. you need to serisoly wake up and look at other bands at this stage of the game . no 25 year old band even has the problem of a huge sellar dropping off after a while casue thier new stuff dosn't sell. blonide never made a comeback, what the fuck? they had a glorified nostalga tour with like a minor minor hit that faded into the background to the old stuff. , just like kiss did with pyscho circus back in 1998. yeah , thiers a new album but no body realy cares. Like fleetwood mac did a few years ago. they had a resurance of a old b side to accompany the nostalga. even with pop, at least some body cared about pop. I look at the big picture, and u2 is doing fine weather dismantle returns or not. i don;t believe the pre sale diaster affected the sales at all. massive chart failure??? WHAT? let if fail it aready went triple platium here. the last chili peppers stalled at platium, with dispointed me alot. after thier COMEBACK YOU DIDNT MENTION califancation album where the peppers precided to regain every bit of thier populartiy and were as big and meaningful as they were circa 1991-1994.Thier one hit minute album with dave narrvao, also sold like pop did. someone cared, just not as much as before. but also a more personal comeback froim the almost dead from drugs john fruscante and anthony k. kicking herion and the band almost breaking up.
the only greed here is that people want HTDDAB to sell 30 billion copys and why that i guess, could happen, it dosn;t have to!!!! i listen to bands that never had a gold record. its a accomplisment a for a old band just to go platium, forget beyond that. i always try to remember that when a fav bands loses some sales.

 

[Axver]

I'm trying to figure out just what U2 are coming back from. Massive album sales? Incredible tour demand? Astounding longevity? Critical and popular acclaim?

 

[Yahweh]

I dont even think the majority of people know about the Mullen appology or care unless they were a paying member of U2.com...that certainly does not represent the entire fanbase or even close to it.

Things like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Grammys will signify a increase in US sales in the coming weeks it wont have anything to do with the Mullen appology.

Also tour tickets started selling and sold out within the last 2 weeks so I expect a slight gain on the billboard charts this week due to that fact.

 

[rivergoat]

Also tour tickets started selling and sold out within the last 2 weeks so I expect a slight gain on the billboard charts this week due to that fact.

Thank you. Here's a quote I read recently on @u2.com that explains their 'comeback' quite well:

We want to sell out every venue that we play and leave that town or country with people thinking, oh, we couldn't get into that show, that band are still hot."

-- Paul McGuinness, on playing arenas on the Elevation Tour

goat

 

[Aardvark747]

to the Mullen Apology.

Right on!!

 

[BizzaD]

"the most touching artist-to-fan apology in the history of rock'n'roll....."

- for goodness sakes,
Bizza

 

[U2Kitten]

Absolutely INCORRECT. I was around when that album came out, and they received some of the best reviews of their career. Even publications that were cold to them before were impressed by this album

A lot of the initial gushing was probably just because it was U2. Once people saw and heard what it really was, opinions changed. The TV special from Vegas was the lowest rated non news program ever. I turned it off in the first 5 minutes, not knowing whether to laugh or cry at what had become of my band. While many here take up for it, and after all this IS a U2 board, it really is a laughingstock on other rock sites and general rock message boards I've seen and people send me links to. People really did laugh at this album and tour, though IMO the Discotheque video and the silly costumes they all wore had a hand in making people judge it before they really listened to the album (This coming from a person who does not even like most of the album, but will give it the benefit of the doubt that's what happened.)

Though everyone has every right to like or dislike what they want, sorry, Pop is not regarded highly among most fans, casual fans, or the general media as the other albums they made after they hit it big, and this is just a fact. How many Pop songs do you hear on classic rock stations? I hear none, but plenty from JT, UF, War, and AB. Every time someone brags on U2 and their legend and greatness, Pop is usually not mentioned. When they were at the Super Bowl and they played that history montage, I didn't see any Pop, but in slo mo I think I saw one second flash of it. I really do believe the public at large, many fans, as well as the band themselves really don't hold it up there with the other work.

There's nothing brave about taking cheap potshots against the band like that. It's petty, foolish, and in J's case, extremely redundant.


laz

What's brave is saying what you think knowing you're going to get bashed. That takes a lot of guts.

 

[doctorwho]

The qulity of the songs on POP has nothing to do with this discussion. The point is that POP was recieved quite coldly by most critics after its release, and the first leg of teh POPMART tour was less than spectalular.

Actually, you are incorrect on both accounts.

"Pop" received heavy praise upon its release - arguably the best praise of any U2 album to date! One critic even used some of Bono's words stating that the world had been looking for that "U2-shaped hole" (as opposed to "God-shaped hole" in "Mofo"). Additionally, the first leg of the tour featured shows in Chicago and Boston and NY, which all sold out.

However, there were some chinks in the armor, if you pardon the cliche. Jick correctly pointed out that "Pop" did have a fairly quick exit from the Billboard Top 200 albums chart. "Discotheque" helped the album debut at #1 and "Staring at the Sun" allowed the album to stick around for 4-6 weeks in the teens and twenties, but after that, the album fell rapidly. Future singles and continued touring and TV performances did nothing to revive the album. And it's this quick fall that got the critics going - with some of the initial praisers now back-tracking and dismissing the album. Some were even delighted to see U2 "fail".

Of course, it's all relative. "Pop" sold 1.5M copies in the U.S. - that's still a success for 99% of the artists out there. Some of the American Idol kids haven't even sold this much (or just a hint over), despite the massive publicity they receive from the show. And the tour is U2's most successful to date, in terms of attendance and revenue. But when compared to past U2 albums, "Pop" sold poorly. When compared to past tours where every show instantly sold out and tickets were impossible to obtain, the tour seemed "weak".

I think, though, that while Jick has an interesting theory, it's unfounded. First, having an album at #28 in the charts is not a bad thing. If the album were #78 now, then his argument would be stronger. The longer the album stays in the Top 50, the better. The album will most likely get a boost as ABoY grows in popularity and U2 appear on the Grammies. In other words, there's no need for a comeback now. Even if Larry Mullen Jr. had wrote nothing, neither the album nor tour would be affected. What Larry did was incredibly classy and shows that U2 aren't about greed.

My main complaint is Jick's subtle suggestion that other band members are all talk and no action. Given how quiet Adam and Edge are, clearly he's referring to Bono. Admittedly, Bono is a hype machine - and perhaps deservedly so - but this is not unique for this album. Bono has talked this way for decades. And I don't feel it's all hype - I believe in Bono's mind, U2 do make "the mother of all rock songs". We fans may disagree, but this doesn't negate Bono's viewpoint.

More importantly though, Bono is ALL about action. DATA wouldn't exist if it weren't for Bono. Debt reduction wouldn't exist if it weren't for Bono. The world is talking about the AIDS epidemic - finally - and that's thanks to Bono. He is a force and this is because of his actions. He's not some hype machine talking to politicians to "feel good". He's doing the actual work and seeing what needs to be done. And his actions are in turn inspiring other very public figures to get involved and use their fame in a similar manner. While some of these artists may still be a bit disingenuous, Bono is not.

Therefore, I find Jick's post irrelevant. There's no need for U2 to "comeback". The album is still doing well on the charts and the sales are strong. The tour is already sold out. And this is just the beginning - the album isn't even 3 months old yet!

Larry's apology showed two things - that he probably is the main person involved in the more financial aspects of the tour and the website. This shouldn't be surprising as Larry was also responsible for T-shirts and souvenir sales on past tours. Also, this apology showed that U2 are beyond the $$ - they listen and care about the fans. They didn't have to do any of what they did. As they are, it shows class. I doubt any other artist would do the same.

So Jick, with your greedy Bono avatar and suggestions of "all talk no action", I think Larry's "two words" really are directed your way.

 

[jick]

...Jick correctly pointed out that "Pop" did have a fairly quick exit from the Billboard Top 200 albums chart.

...But when compared to past U2 albums, "Pop" sold poorly.

...Jick has an interesting theory,...

My main complaint is Jick's subtle suggestion that other band members are all talk and no action. Given how quiet Adam and Edge are, clearly he's referring to Bono. Admittedly, Bono is a hype machine - and perhaps deservedly so - but this is not unique for this album. Bono has talked this way for decades. And I don't feel it's all hype - I believe in Bono's mind, U2 do make "the mother of all rock songs". We fans may disagree, but this doesn't negate Bono's viewpoint.

More importantly though, Bono is ALL about action. DATA wouldn't exist if it weren't for Bono. Debt reduction wouldn't exist if it weren't for Bono. The world is talking about the AIDS epidemic - finally - and that's thanks to Bono. He is a force and this is because of his actions. He's not some hype machine talking to politicians to "feel good". He's doing the actual work and seeing what needs to be done. And his actions are in turn inspiring other very public figures to get involved and use their fame in a similar manner. While some of these artists may still be a bit disingenuous, Bono is not.

Larry's apology showed two things - that he probably is the main person involved in the more financial aspects of the tour and the website. This shouldn't be surprising as Larry was also responsible for T-shirts and souvenir sales on past tours. Also, this apology showed that U2 are beyond the $$ - they listen and care about the fans. They didn't have to do any of what they did. As they are, it shows class. I doubt any other artist would do the same.

So Jick, with your greedy Bono avatar and suggestions of "all talk no action", I think Larry's "two words" really are directed your way.

First off, thanks for the kind words and agreeing with some of my points, John.

Second, I hate to explain myself in my posts because I like to leave it to the reader to find his/her own interpreation of my writing which is my art - whether it is interpreted as humor, as sarcasm, as well-thought analysis, or as parody. But I think you are going too far to suggest that I am putting down Bono's outreach work. My reference to his bold words and no action were all his big words about upcoming albums which never materialized when the album came out. He promised POP to be a rock'n'roll album - to be their own version of the return to the 70s grunge movement. He said ATYCLB was "four musicians in a room" (it hardly was) and was centered around a theme of joy (hardly). How about the "molecules in the air" quote about Native Son? We heard the outtakes and it was nothing. Big words, no delivery. That was what I meant. Not his charity work at all.

Third, please don't reduce Mullen to a businessman merchandiser. His apology doesn't show only the two things you mentioned. The main thing his apology showed is simple - THAT HE CARES.

Finally, Mullen's words were not directed at me. It is very clear that his two words were directed at "so-called U2 fans who are quick to accuse U2 of unseemly behaviour." I'd prefer to categorize myself as a "so-called U2 fan who is quick to predict that U2 are on the verge of a massive comeback."

Cheers,

J

 

[diamond]

jick-
you are artful and crafty.

db9

 

[Aardvark747]

and legendary

 

[biff]

and predictable

 

[D'oh!]

and irrepressible

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

maybe i'm just a complete fucking moron here, but wouldn't one have to go away before one could make a comeback?

 

[biff]

Ya think?

 

[TheBrazilianFly]

what about larry telling people like you to F off? i thought that was funny

Cheers,

H

Fuck yeah!

 

[U2Kitten]

Doctorwho's post is informative and factual.

 

[diamond]

i think mr jick
is
the
Master-Baiter
of
Interference.

cheers,
db9

 

[zooroper]

i don't really care what U2 do today or tommorow....they sold thyer inegrity by turning into a ''backstreet boys'' kinda band. after that, nothing will ever make them come back to my heart.

 

[OnFire]

The great moments in music apologies:

John Lennon for his "more pop than Christ" comment.

Milli Vanilli for lip-syncing a Grammy winning album.

Larry Mullen jr for U2's Vertigo tour pre-sale fiasco.

 

[Irvine511]

JiFurthermore, the notion that Mullen's apology was touching, let alone the most touching artist-to-fan apology in the history of rock'n'roll, is absurd and impossible to take seriously. It was a good apology that went a distance in comforting some fans concerning the ticket presale fiasco, that is all. Stop manufacturing this melodramatic drivel.

i agree, i was kind of disappointed in the letter.

i was hoping for something more Britney-style, filled with all sorts of "OMG!" and "WTF!" and abbreviations -- like "we're sooooo sorry, guyz, we kno it sux!" or "i promise the tour will B gr8!" or maybe "my new bike is just totally kewl!" i wanted something personal, like how larry was feeling, and for him to let us know what was in his heart, but i saw no emoticons anywhere! none! nor did he sign it "luv."

 

[Sleep Over Jack]

i don't really care what U2 do today or tommorow....they sold thyer inegrity by turning into a ''backstreet boys'' kinda band. after that, nothing will ever make them come back to my heart.

..................................

 

[sallycinnamon78]

My main complaint is Jick's subtle suggestion that other band members are all talk and no action. Given how quiet Adam and Edge are, clearly he's referring to Bono. Admittedly, Bono is a hype machine - and perhaps deservedly so - but this is not unique for this album. Bono has talked this way for decades. And I don't feel it's all hype - I believe in Bono's mind, U2 do make "the mother of all rock songs". We fans may disagree, but this doesn't negate Bono's viewpoint.

More importantly though, Bono is ALL about action. DATA wouldn't exist if it weren't for Bono. Debt reduction wouldn't exist if it weren't for Bono. The world is talking about the AIDS epidemic - finally - and that's thanks to Bono. He is a force and this is because of his actions. He's not some hype machine talking to politicians to "feel good". He's doing the actual work and seeing what needs to be done. And his actions are in turn inspiring other very public figures to get involved and use their fame in a similar manner. While some of these artists may still be a bit disingenuous, Bono is not.

Therefore, I find Jick's post irrelevant. There's no need for U2 to "comeback". The album is still doing well on the charts and the sales are strong. The tour is already sold out. And this is just the beginning - the album isn't even 3 months old yet!

Well said!