PLEBAn Misc U2 News and Articles #1

[lauramullen]

Rolling Stone
July 1, 2009

U2 paid tribute to Michael Jackson at the band's first date on their 360° Tour in Barcelona, Spain, last night as Bono dedicated "Angel of Harlem" to the Thriller singer. "We wrote this one for Billie Holiday but we are going to play it tonight for Michael Jackson," Bono told the crowd of over 90,000 at Camp Nou stadium. The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. also weaved bits of Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and :Man in the Mirror" into the song, Reuters reports.

Performing on the innovative set dubbed "the Claw" for the first time, the two-hour-and-20-minute gig featured a mix of songs from the band's latest LP No Line on the Horizon (seven tracks, including "Breathe," which opened the show), as well as greatest hits like "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "One" and "Unforgettable Fire." Still, the band's amazing new stage threatened to steal the show. The Claw features a 360-degree video screen, an awe-inspiring light show and apparently, a satellite linkup to space.

After the fourth song of the set, Bono rang up the astronauts on the International Space Station via satellite, who appeared live on the Claw's 360 screen. According to U2's official site, Bono asked, "Commander, can you see Barcelona?," to which the astronauts replied, "Right now the most beautiful sight in our cosmos is the blue planet Earth" -- a nice segue into "Beautiful Day."

U2 continue their stint in Barcelona tomorrow, July 2nd, before visiting the other 30 cities on the 360° Tour. Their first North American show is on September 12th at Chicago's Soldier Field.

Set List:

"Breathe"
"No Line on the Horizon"
"Get On Your Boots"
"Magnificent"
"Beautiful Day"
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
"Angel of Harlem"
"In a Little While"
"Unknown Caller"
"Unforgettable Fire"
"City of Blinding Lights"
"Vertigo"
"I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight"
"Sunday Bloody Sunday"
"Pride (In The Name of Love)"
"MLK"
"Walk On"
"Where The Streets Have No Name"
"One"
–
"Ultraviolet"
"With or Without You"
"Moment of Surrender"

© Rolling Stone, 2009.

 

[lauramullen]

Telegraph
July 01, 2009

U2 in Barcelona: Bono's touching dedication to Jackson

By Neil McCormick

U2's latest tour launched this week at the Nou Camp stadium in Barcelona and came out with a typically ambitious production. Set up in the round in the centre of the stadium, an enormous lighting, sound and visual display rig towered on four giant legs vertically over the stage like an alien space ship. The sci-fi theme was taken to extremes when Bono spoke live by satellite link up to the real International Space Station orbiting earth (actually one of the longeurs of the show, since the crew did little more than wave to their moms and utter platitudes about global unity).

The show did not all go according to plan, with plenty of first night teething problems, to the extent that U2 completely messed up their biggest song, "One" and had to restart it twice. When Bono (aka Paul Hewson) missed his cue for "With or Without You" and started punching his microphone in frustration, I imagined the astronauts watching from above utter the immortal line "Hewson, we have a problem." But the huge singalong crowd were in indulgent mood, and filled in the gaps themselves. There is something quite endearing about the way this band, can still be relied upon to mess up on such huge stages. I can't think of anyone else at that level so prone to falling flat on their faces, yet somehow it only serves as a reminder of the real and fallible people at the heart of not just this spectacle but the whole illusory showbiz hype.

It was a week when we recieved a potent reminder of the destructive power of that particular set of illusions, as another one of the world's greatest musical stars died in tragic circumstances, with Michael Jackson improbably joining Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain and so many more of victims of their own fame. Bono dedicated "Angel of Harlem" (written for Billie Holiday) to him, with 90,000 Spanish fans bellowing "So long, this love won't let me go." It was quite something, touching yet celebratory. I am not sure what Jackson would have made of Bono's rough and ready extemporisations of "Man in the Mirror" and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" but he would have probably been honoured by the sentiment. And at least the sometimes ungainly Irishman didn't attempt the moonwalk.

For all the media overload engendered by Jackson's demise, in Glastonbury, I am reliably informed, the news was greeted mainly with a kind of "damp indifference." TV crews combed the site to film revellers saying how shocked they were, while bands hastily rehearsed Jackson cover versions, but evidently no one was about to let it crimp their celebrations. It was probably the wrong place for film crews to seek reactions, because, although Jackson was a musician, he existed in an entirely different dimension to Glastonbury, almost a parallel universe of music. He would never have appeared at a muddy, hippy festival, with his synthetic, dance floor pop. Rock veteran Neil Young opened his set with the suitably terrifying "Hey Hey My My (Into the Black)." But despite lyrics like "it's better to burn out, than it is to rust" this was no sweet dedication to a much loved entertainer, just a blistering reminder of the sometimes lethal nature of the music business. Yet, in the person of this 63-year-old firebrand, it was also a reminder of what it takes to survive.

With the triumphant reunion of Blur and typically stirring appearances of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, we were able to celebrate the work of great pop stars who have somehow negotiated the hubris and ego endemic in showbusiness, and to thrive creatively by concentrating on their roles as musicans rather than celebrities. Jackson was as talented a human being who has ever taken to the stage, but he dwelled in a fantasy realm, creating a false image of himself, burning brightly and briefly in the glare of the spotlight before (like many of our greatest pop idols) being utterly destroyed by fame, his ego inflated, his talent shrunken, his health traduced. For him, really, it was all over by the time he was 30, the last twenty years being a descent into a terrible living hell.

Springsteen, on the other hand, is almost 60, still selling millions of records, still performing with the same conviction, energy and passion as his younger self. For all that Springsteen is a bona fide rock idol, there are no airs and graces, no attempt to blind us with science or mirrors. In Hyde Park, he came on in a grey work shirt that got so soaked through with sweat by the end it had turned black. That's as close as he gets to special effects. Yet Springsteen and his band deliver arguably the greatest rock show the world has ever seen, and they do it with nothing but the ordinary tools of the medium, their instruments, their songs and themselves. Springsteen's values may not be as newsworthy as Jackson's soap operatic tragedy, but for music fans they represent something solid and even noble to hang onto in a fickle (and sometimes dangerous) pop world.

 

[lauramullen]

LSI Online News
July 1, 2009

By Jim Evans

The stage and show were created by long-time U2 designers Willie Williams and Mark Fisher. With the help of Chuck Hoberman and Barco their vision of a 360° moving video screen was turned into reality. Barco provided more than half a million transformable LED pixels (FLX), which are integrated into a transformable structure designed by Barco's Innovative Designs, based on a Hoberman invention. The resulting giant LED screen has a 24 by 16m diameter and changes shape in all directions, making U2 the first band ever to go on a tour with a transformable LED screen.

Willie Williams, U2 show designer, says: "Video is the most powerful tool you can have on stage. But now that video is so ubiquitous in rock stage setting, we needed a very extreme change of canvas to be heard. The transformable LED gave us the chance to create a transparent 360° moving video element, unprecedented in this industry. It is the icing on the cake on this design."

"It is thrilling to see the work I have been doing with transformable structures expressed in such a whole new way," Chuck Hoberman adds. "The screen is like a living thing, it continuously changes shapes and forms and the video acts like live skin on it. It is one of the most fascinating objects in the world now."

"We wanted to create something that was bigger than a conventional stage. This tour was big enough to make a purpose built structure," says Mark Fisher, U2 stage designer. I wanted to create a transparent stage and really needed a video screen that would fit in that environment, a round screen that would not block the view for the audience. Barco's FLX gave us the chance to create this. We were happy to be working with Barco again; they have helped very well in the past and delivered an extraordinary product for this show."

Carl Rijsbrack, vice-president product management, comments: "This is the third time we are supporting U2 in the new millennium and in response to the market's demand for unlimited creativity, we have created the FLX single pixel platform. The FLX LED pixel modules can be mounted onto any possible structure, creating any shape designers want to."

Frederic Opsomer, vice-president of Barco's Innovative Designs, adds: "There have been many evolutions in the LED video market for concert touring, from a fixed IMAG screen to moving screens to transformable screens now. This is the fifth time I have been working with U2 and it is again a big honour to be part of it. The entertainment business is constantly asking for new and innovating products, even in these difficult times and the U2 360° tour is a perfect example of this."

© LSI News, 2009.

 

[BonoFox1]

**The show did not all go according to plan, with plenty of first night teething problems, to the extent that U2 completely messed up their biggest song, "One" and had to restart it twice. When Bono (aka Paul Hewson) missed his cue for "With or Without You" and started punching his microphone in frustration, I imagined the astronauts watching from above utter the immortal line "Hewson, we have a problem." But the huge singalong crowd were in indulgent mood, and filled in the gaps themselves. There is something quite endearing about the way this band, can still be relied upon to mess up on such huge stages. I can't think of anyone else at that level so prone to falling flat on their faces, yet somehow it only serves as a reminder of the real and fallible people at the heart of not just this spectacle but the whole illusory showbiz hype.**


Thanks for the articles Laura!!

 

[lauramullen]

This is the whole article for the one above


Barco creates giant LED screen for U2
July 1, 2009

Belgium - Barco has revealed the world's first transformable LED
screen for U2's latest world tour. With its 360° shape, the LED screen
surrounds the band while performing and can change shape in all
directions during the concert, For the third time this millennium, the
Barco - U2 cooperation resulted in a revolutionary approach to video,
this time totalling more than 500,000 pixels of video, making it the
biggest LED screen ever used in concert touring. U2's worldwide tour
kicked off 30 June in a sold out Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain.

The stage and show were created by long-time U2 designers Willie
Williams and Mark Fisher. With the help of Chuck Hoberman and Barco
their vision of a 360° moving video screen was turned into reality.
Barco provided more than half a million transformable LED pixels
(FLX), which are integrated into a transformable structure designed by
Barco's Innovative Designs, based on a Hoberman invention. The
resulting giant LED screen has a 24 by 16m diameter and changes shape
in all directions, making U2 the first band ever to go on a tour with
a transformable LED screen.

Willie Williams, U2 show designer, says: "Video is the most powerful
tool you can have on stage. But now that video is so ubiquitous in
rock stage setting, we needed a very extreme change of canvas to be
heard. The transformable LED gave us the chance to create a
transparent 360° moving video element, unprecedented in this industry.
It is the icing on the cake on this design."

"It is thrilling to see the work I have been doing with transformable
structures expressed in such a whole new way," Chuck Hoberman adds.
"The screen is like a living thing, it continuously changes shapes and
forms and the video acts like live skin on it. It is one of the most
fascinating objects in the world now."

"We wanted to create something that was bigger than a conventional
stage. This tour was big enough to make a purpose built structure,"
says Mark Fisher, U2 stage designer. I wanted to create a transparent
stage and really needed a video screen that would fit in that
environment, a round screen that would not block the view for the
audience. Barco's FLX gave us the chance to create this. We were happy
to be working with Barco again; they have helped very well in the past
and delivered an extraordinary product for this show."

Carl Rijsbrack, vice-president product management, comments: "This is
the third time we are supporting U2 in the new millennium and in
response to the market's demand for unlimited creativity, we have
created the FLX single pixel platform. The FLX LED pixel modules can
be mounted onto any possible structure, creating any shape designers
want to."

Frederic Opsomer, vice-president of Barco's Innovative Designs, adds:
"There have been many evolutions in the LED video market for concert
touring, from a fixed IMAG screen to moving screens to transformable
screens now. This is the fifth time I have been working with U2 and it
is again a big honour to be part of it. The entertainment business is
constantly asking for new and innovating products, even in these
difficult times and the U2 360° tour is a perfect example of this."

(Jim Evans)

 

[greety]

This is the whole article for the one above


Barco creates giant LED screen for U2
July 1, 2009

Belgium - Barco has revealed the world's first transformable LED
screen for U2's latest world tour. With its 360° shape, the LED screen
surrounds the band while performing and can change shape in all
directions during the concert, For the third time this millennium, the
Barco - U2 cooperation resulted in a revolutionary approach to video,
this time totalling more than 500,000 pixels of video, making it the
biggest LED screen ever used in concert touring. U2's worldwide tour
kicked off 30 June in a sold out Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain.

The stage and show were created by long-time U2 designers Willie
Williams and Mark Fisher. With the help of Chuck Hoberman and Barco
their vision of a 360° moving video screen was turned into reality.
Barco provided more than half a million transformable LED pixels
(FLX), which are integrated into a transformable structure designed by
Barco's Innovative Designs, based on a Hoberman invention. The
resulting giant LED screen has a 24 by 16m diameter and changes shape
in all directions, making U2 the first band ever to go on a tour with
a transformable LED screen.

Willie Williams, U2 show designer, says: "Video is the most powerful
tool you can have on stage. But now that video is so ubiquitous in
rock stage setting, we needed a very extreme change of canvas to be
heard. The transformable LED gave us the chance to create a
transparent 360° moving video element, unprecedented in this industry.
It is the icing on the cake on this design."

"It is thrilling to see the work I have been doing with transformable
structures expressed in such a whole new way," Chuck Hoberman adds.
"The screen is like a living thing, it continuously changes shapes and
forms and the video acts like live skin on it. It is one of the most
fascinating objects in the world now."

"We wanted to create something that was bigger than a conventional
stage. This tour was big enough to make a purpose built structure,"
says Mark Fisher, U2 stage designer. I wanted to create a transparent
stage and really needed a video screen that would fit in that
environment, a round screen that would not block the view for the
audience. Barco's FLX gave us the chance to create this. We were happy
to be working with Barco again; they have helped very well in the past
and delivered an extraordinary product for this show."

Carl Rijsbrack, vice-president product management, comments: "This is
the third time we are supporting U2 in the new millennium and in
response to the market's demand for unlimited creativity, we have
created the FLX single pixel platform. The FLX LED pixel modules can
be mounted onto any possible structure, creating any shape designers
want to."

Frederic Opsomer, vice-president of Barco's Innovative Designs, adds:
"There have been many evolutions in the LED video market for concert
touring, from a fixed IMAG screen to moving screens to transformable
screens now. This is the fifth time I have been working with U2 and it
is again a big honour to be part of it. The entertainment business is
constantly asking for new and innovating products, even in these
difficult times and the U2 360° tour is a perfect example of this."

(Jim Evans)

On days like these I feel proud again to be Belgian, most other days though....

 

[greety]

@ the last paragraph



http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/cultur.../u2-in-space-further-thoughts-on-tour-launch/
By Neil McCormick

Early on in discussions for the launch of the latest U2 tour, Bono floated the possibility that they would become the first band to play a gig on the moon. Larry shot that idea down however. He pointed out that there would be no atmosphere…



Ah, the old ones are … well, not the best … but the old ones, anyway.



Bono: wired to the moon

Bono & U2: 2009, a space odditty Pic: Getty



Ever since U2 blew the possibilities for live event staging wide open with their multi-media Zoo TV tour, they have been caught in a peculiar trap: how to satisfy audience expectations for hi-tech, cutting edge spectacle while rooting the experience in the very human, emotional contact with fans that is at the heart of their appeal. In other words, how to make it bigger and more intimate at the same time.



U2 360 is their latest attempt to reconcile these sometimes conflicting demands. It cost over $100 million to stage, and the programme credits run to three tightly printed pages. Purpose built for stadiums, it is effectively a stage within the stadium space. U2 play in the round, roughly in the centre of the venue, complete with bridges and runways, so that no corner is too far from the action, with band members able to move easily around, constantly interacting with different sections of the crowd. Towering over them, standing on four great legs, is a construction housing the lighting rig, speakers and (rising and falling) a vast circular ring of screens on which are displayed artfully integrated images. The whole thing looks like a giant alien spaceship, and the sci-fi theme is pushed throughout, with the band entering to the countdown from David Bowie’s Space Oddity and exiting to Elton John’s Rocket Man. They even pause proceedings for a satellite video link up with the International Space Station in orbit around earth, allowing for some typical U2 calls for global peace and love with a futuristic twist.



There was (as there always is) some anxiety in the U2 camp during the countdown to blast off. The last time U2 kicked off a tour in stadiums (as opposed to arenas) was PopMart in 1997, with the Las Vegas launch turning into something of a disaster that took a couple of weeks on the road to remedy. It drew their worst live reviews ever, but by the time I caught up with the production in San Francisco, it was so mind blowing that Liam Gallagher (who was supporting with Oasis) stood on the mixing desk with his mouth hanging open, going “**** me!” throughout. With a production of this scale, its actually a bit unfair to review opening night. There are so many elements to the show, it might be considered more akin to a big theatrical production, where the tradition is that previews run without reviews for a couple of weeks of fine tuning, before the critics are allowed to take their seats. There is no such grace period for a rock band as newsworthy as U2, but they have been at this long enough to know what is expected, and arrived in Barcelona two weeks ago to get ready for lift off.



On opening night at the Nou Camp in Barcelona, it didn’t quite all go according to plan (there were longuers in the set, musical mistakes and minor technical hitches) yet the audience was in indulgent mood, pasting over glitches with singalongs so loud and enthusiastic they almost drowned out the band. 90,000 people raising their voices as one is something to behold, an all enveloping, emotionally uplifting testament to the power and universality of music. And whenever the band, staging and audience came together, it hit home with breathtaking power. When U2 played ‘Vertigo’, the stadium seemed to physically shake with 90,000 human beings jumping up and down in unison.



Other personal highlights for me included the roaring opening song ‘Breathe’, a stadium punk version of ‘No Line On The Horizon’, an intimate, soulful ‘In A Little While’ (with really great singing from a vocalist right on top of his game), a singalong ‘Angel Of Harlem’ reconfigured as a tribute to Michael Jackson (with Bono delivering an impressive falsetto ‘Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough’ and thankfully resisting the temptation to moonwalk), a kind of stadium karaoke call and response version of ‘Unknown Caller’ and a brave, understated ending with the gorgeous and strange ‘Moments Of Surrender’ (which suffered a little from Bono’s by then slightly ravaged vocal). Yet I couldn’t quite shake the sense of a band in some kind of period of transition, caught between the crowd pleasing epic rock of their greatest hits and some braver, weirder, more atmospheric and understated musical future. And I was not convinced by an almost dads-at-the-disco techno remix of ‘I’ll Go Crazy’, with Larry Mullen Jnr going walkabout with a bongo. Still, it is impossible to dwell on reservations surrounded by 90,000 fans on their feet, roaring and waving their fists in the air, while an alien space ship somehow turns into the biggest disco glitterball the world has ever seen.



At the core of this hi-tech spectacle, holding it all together, providing the conduit between audience and band, the beating heart of the music, is Bono. He is one of those rare human beings who seems to have the personality and charisma to fill a stadium all by himself. Bruce Springsteen is the only other performer I have seen who can pull this trick off so effectively, the trick being there is no real trick at all. They are performers whose sense of service to the audience means that they give up every bit of themselves, putting so much effort and emotion into the moment that, by some universal sense of empathy and fair play, we are almost beholden to return the feeling in kind. With songs as the link between all the individuals in the venue, these extraordinary frontmen become our conduit to a communal moment of surrender.



At the end of the night, Bono appeared for encores wearing an LED suit that fired red laser beams in every direction. When he left the stage, the heat and sweat of his body had somehow fused the controls, so that he found he couldn’t turn the jacket off. Bundled into a people carrier for a quick exit, he was last seen disappearing down a Spanish highway, firing random lasers through tinted windows into the dark sky. It seemed a curiously fitting exit, as the hi tech and the human fused in unpredictable fashion. The future never quite works the way you want it to.

 

[lauramullen]

Ecstatic Bono paints Barcelona green as Irish stars flock to U2's tour opener
Evening Herald, July 01, 2009
Melanie Finn

Soccer star Damien Duff partied the night away with a gang of pals from Dublin as U2 rocked Barcelona on their opening night.

Clad in a distinctive Cavalli shirt and a pair of gleaming white jeans, the Newcastle player was in flying form at the official aftershow party in the exclusive Arts Hotel.

Sporting a dark tan from a recent holiday, Damien was thrilled to see the Irish stars kickstart their world tour.

Gorgeous Phantom FM presenter Michelle Doherty wasn't stuck for admirers as she caught up on all the gossip with old pals.

Former rugby international Denis Hickie was also there, alongside fellow ex-Ireland star Victor Costello, with the pair chatting for a good part of the evening.

Other big-name attendees included Henry Mount Charles, sporting a Slane T-shirt as he worked the party with a blonde pal.

Poolside

Also spotted was superstar DJ Pete Tong, PJ Harvey and the entire Snow Patrol posse.

The complimentary alcohol flowed freely, ensuring everyone was in good spirits, with the bash going on until 6am.

And just in case anyone forgot why they were there, the Dublin rockers brought out a specially designed cake formed in the shape of the distinctive tour 'Claw'.

U2 frontman Bono revealed how he was "ecstatic" after the opening night. Speaking exclusively to the Diary, he said: "I'm thrilled, I'm ecstatic with how it went."

He joined Larry Mullen, the Edge and Adam Clayton at the raucous bash, with the entire poolside area cordoned off for the VIP party.

Equally delighted was U2's long-term set designer Willie Williams.

As he was also inundated with compliments about the innovative Claw design, his reply to one fan was succinct: "Thanks, but I need a drink now!"

Band manager Paul McGuinness, brought several members of his family over for the first night in the 360 Tour.

Other VIP fans got the party started early with an all-night bash on Monday night.

There was no shortage of familiar faces lapping up the evening sunshine around the pool of the swish venue, which is where U2's principal management have based themselves for the week.

Awesome

The big celebrity turning heads was superstar rapper LL Cool J, who told the Diary how much he was looking forward to seeing the lads perform.

"It's going to be awesome, I'm really looking forward to it," he said.

He spent the day lapping up the electric atmosphere by the pool and chatting with the few fans who recognised him.

The Irish corporate crew was also well represented, given that controversial businessman Sean Dunne was one of the surprise attendees at the party.

Dunnes Stores heir Andrew Heffernan was also here for the gig.

And although many of the band's family and close friends attended Monday's bash, which went on until dawn, there was no sign of the guys themselves.

"They decided to have an early night and have some dinner after their final dress performance and save their energy for the big opening night," said a source.

Also on Monday night, the band treated 500 athletes from the Special Olympics to a special dress rehearsal of their full show -- making them the first people in the world to hear the full gig -- and check out the amazing Claw set.

Two separate structures have been built, as the Claw takes four days to erect.

It means that while the band is performing in one European city, a team of builders work to erect the second Claw at their next destination.

(c) Evening Herald, 2009

 

[lauramullen]

Goal.com
July 2, 2009

By Lucas Brown

Bono and Pep Guardiola were full of praise for each other when the pair spoke to the audience as U2 played to a packed Camp Nou crowd on the first gig of their world tour.

The Irish singer recognised Barcelona's achievement in winning the Spanish league, Copa del Rey and Champions League and congratulated the Blaugrana boss for that.

Barca's involvement with the United Nations also went down well with Bono as he praised the club for promoting children's charity UNICEF on their shirts.

"Congratulations on winning the treble," the U2 frontman said to Guardiola.

"I want to thank the club for all the aid it has given us for this concert and above all the dedication it has shown to humanitarian causes such as the UNICEF advertising on the jersey without any economic benefit to themselves.

"You are an example in a struggle that concerns us all."

Guardiola was delighted with Bono's words and expressed his delight that U2 had chosen Barcelona, and Catalunya, as the first venue for their mammoth tour.

"We are very thankful to U2 for choosing this city and the state as a starting point for the world tour," he added.

© Goal.com, 2009.

 

[lauramullen]

The Mirror (London, England)
July 1, 2009

Nou line on the horizon; U2 THRILL 90,000 FANS AS TOUR KICKS OFF IN BARCELONA.

By: Maeve Quigley

U2 proved they were still Magnificent last night as they opened their 360 tour with the most spectacular rock concert ever seen.

The band turned Barcelona's Nou Camp stadium into a city of blinding lights as 90,000 ecstatic fans came face to face with the Dubliners on the 360 degree stage.

In a blaze of glory Larry, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Bono appeared at the centre of their giant claw-like structure.

Thousands of fans, draped in tricolours in honour of the conquering Irish heroes, came to be thrilled by the biggest band in the world.

As the sun set on the stadium, the band tore through the balmy Catalonian night with the first savage chords from "Breathe." Bono told the crowd: "This is where we wanted to built our space station the capital of surrealism, Barcelona.

"You keep coming back to us over again and again so thank you.

"If people are interested in magic, then we're up for it.

"Magic is what we're after on this tour -- the spell that can occur when a band and audience really connect.

"Our ambition with the production has been to create a piece of emotional architecture to use engineering as a way for us to get closer to our audience, to surround ourselves with them."

Bono paid tribute to tragic Michael Jackson by dedicating their hit song "Angel of Harlem" to the late singer.

He said: "We wrote this for Billie Holiday but we are going to play it tonight for Michael Jackson.

"We met Michael over the years but right now, that's all there really is to say."

The crowd cheered as the group played some of Jacko's hits. They also pretended to contact space and asked the audience to join in by wearing masks of Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Fellow Irish rockers Snow Patrol opened for the band and frontman Gary Lightbody confessed he too is a massive fan.

He said: "We are delighted to be asked back on tour with U2.

"This will be their most spectacular tour ever and it is awesome to be in on the ground floor of it."

WHAT THEY PLAYED

Spoiler

Breathe
No Line on the Horizon
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
Beautiful Day
Still Haven't Found
Angel of Harlem
In a Little While
Unknown Caller
Unforgettable Fire
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I'll Go Crazy
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Pride
MLK
Walk On
Where the Streets Have No Name
One
Ultraviolet
With or Without You
Moment of Surrender

 

[lauramullen]

Spoiler

The Telegraph
July 02, 2009

By Neil McCormick

Early on in discussions for the launch of the latest U2 tour, Bono floated the possibility that they would become the first band to play a gig on the moon. Larry shot that idea down however. He pointed out that there would be no atmosphere...

Ah, the old ones are...well, not the best...but the old ones, anyway.

Ever since U2 blew the possibilities for live event staging wide open with their multi-media Zoo TV tour, they have been caught in a peculiar trap: how to satisfy audience expectations for hi-tech, cutting edge spectacle while rooting the experience in the very human, emotional contact with fans that is at the heart of their appeal. In other words, how to make it bigger and more intimate at the same time.

U2 360 is their latest attempt to reconcile these sometimes conflicting demands. It cost over $100 million to stage, and the programme credits run to three tightly printed pages. Purpose built for stadiums, it is effectively a stage within the stadium space. U2 play in the round, roughly in the centre of the venue, complete with bridges and runways, so that no corner is too far from the action, with band members able to move easily around, constantly interacting with different sections of the crowd. Towering over them, standing on four great legs, is a construction housing the lighting rig, speakers and (rising and falling) a vast circular ring of screens on which are displayed artfully integrated images. The whole thing looks like a giant alien spaceship, and the sci-fi theme is pushed throughout, with the band entering to the countdown from David Bowie's "Space Oddity" and exiting to Elton John's "Rocket Man." They even pause proceedings for a satellite video link up with the International Space Station in orbit around earth, allowing for some typical U2 calls for global peace and love with a futuristic twist.

There was (as there always is) some anxiety in the U2 camp during the countdown to blast off. The last time U2 kicked off a tour in stadiums (as opposed to arenas) was PopMart in 1997, with the Las Vegas launch turning into something of a disaster that took a couple of weeks on the road to remedy. It drew their worst live reviews ever, but by the time I caught up with the production in San Francisco, it was so mind blowing that Liam Gallagher (who was supporting with Oasis) stood on the mixing desk with his mouth hanging open, going "**** me!" throughout. With a production of this scale, it's actually a bit unfair to review opening night. There are so many elements to the show, it might be considered more akin to a big theatrical production, where the tradition is that previews run without reviews for a couple of weeks of fine tuning, before the critics are allowed to take their seats. There is no such grace period for a rock band as newsworthy as U2, but they have been at this long enough to know what is expected, and arrived in Barcelona two weeks ago to get ready for lift off.

On opening night at the Nou Camp in Barcelona, it didn't quite all go according to plan (there were longuers in the set, musical mistakes and minor technical hitches) yet the audience was in indulgent mood, pasting over glitches with singalongs so loud and enthusiastic they almost drowned out the band. 90,000 people raising their voices as one is something to behold, an all enveloping, emotionally uplifting testament to the power and universality of music. And whenever the band, staging and audience came together, it hit home with breathtaking power. When U2 played "Vertigo," the stadium seemed to physically shake with 90,000 human beings jumping up and down in unison.

Other personal highlights for me included the roaring opening song "Breathe," a stadium punk version of "No Line on the Horizon," an intimate, soulful "In a Little While" (with really great singing from a vocalist right on top of his game), a singalong "Angel of Harlem" reconfigured as a tribute to Michael Jackson (with Bono delivering an impressive falsetto "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and thankfully resisting the temptation to moonwalk), a kind of stadium karaoke call and response version of "Unknown Caller" and a brave, understated ending with the gorgeous and strange "Moments of Surrender" (which suffered a little from Bono's by then slightly ravaged vocal). Yet I couldn't quite shake the sense of a band in some kind of period of transition, caught between the crowd pleasing epic rock of their greatest hits and some braver, weirder, more atmospheric and understated musical future. And I was not convinced by an almost dads-at-the-disco techno remix of "I'll Go Crazy," with Larry Mullen Jr. going walkabout with a bongo. Still, it is impossible to dwell on reservations surrounded by 90,000 fans on their feet, roaring and waving their fists in the air, while an alien space ship somehow turns into the biggest disco glitterball the world has ever seen.

At the core of this hi-tech spectacle, holding it all together, providing the conduit between audience and band, the beating heart of the music, is Bono. He is one of those rare human beings who seems to have the personality and charisma to fill a stadium all by himself. Bruce Springsteen is the only other performer I have seen who can pull this trick off so effectively, the trick being there is no real trick at all. They are performers whose sense of service to the audience means that they give up every bit of themselves, putting so much effort and emotion into the moment that, by some universal sense of empathy and fair play, we are almost beholden to return the feeling in kind. With songs as the link between all the individuals in the venue, these extraordinary frontmen become our conduit to a communal moment of surrender.

At the end of the night, Bono appeared for encores wearing an LED suit that fired red laser beams in every direction. When he left the stage, the heat and sweat of his body had somehow fused the controls, so that he found he couldn't turn the jacket off. Bundled into a people carrier for a quick exit, he was last seen disappearing down a Spanish highway, firing random lasers through tinted windows into the dark sky. It seemed a curiously fitting exit, as the hi tech and the human fused in unpredictable fashion. The future never quite works the way you want it to.

© Telegraph Media Group Limited, 2009.

 

[lauramullen]

The Associated Press
July 2, 2009

(AP) — MADRID - Barcelona city authorities say they might fine band U2 for rocking too long and loudly during rehearsals for their latest world tour.

While the city says it is proud to host the beginning of U2's world tour, it also said in a statement Thursday that one of its districts received a formal complaint by residents about the band playing after permitted hours and making noise.

The Irish quartet kicked off their "360 degree" tour at Barcelona football club's Camp Nou stadium by playing 22 songs in front of 90,000 fans on Tuesday.

The show features a large, modernistic four-legged construction which houses what the band calls "giant spherical screen."

Singer Bono told the audience after four songs, "This has been our neighborhood for the last couple of weeks."

 

[hcbiggs2002]

Spoiler

The Telegraph
July 02, 2009

By Neil McCormick

Early on in discussions for the launch of the latest U2 tour, Bono floated the possibility that they would become the first band to play a gig on the moon. Larry shot that idea down however. He pointed out that there would be no atmosphere...
.
© Telegraph Media Group Limited, 2009.

The first paragraph of this article nearly made spit my tea all over my keyboard, so funny, our Larry truly has a classic dry sense of humour! Great article, thanks so much for posting it!!

 

[lauramullen]

^ Your Welcome

 

[lauramullen]

U2 could be fined for noise
The Scotsman, July 03, 2009

BARCELONA authorities might fine U2 for rocking too long and loudly during rehearsals for their latest world tour, the city council said yesterday.

However, the city said it is proud to host the beginning of the Irish band's world tour.

It said that one of its districts had received a formal complaint from residents about the band playing after permitted hours and making too much noise. The council said that it had given the band permission to rehearse until 10pm, limiting the amount of sound they could make.

However, local media said the band had rehearsed until midnight at sound levels measured at 70 decibels – the equivalent noise of a vacuum cleaner at one meter.

(c) The Scotsman, 2009.

 

[bonocomet]

I think this pic speaks for itself

TUF box set

 

[domo-kun]

^good news

 

[dmalezi]

Sorry if this was posted already but I gotta leave and don't have time to look around in here. I was lucky to catch this new commercial at the movie theatre last night. Lovein the shadowy Bono at the beginning!

YouTube - Blackberry Loves U2 = New TV Commercial

 

[bonocomet]

Sorry if this was posted already but I gotta leave and don't have time to look around in here. I was lucky to catch this new commercial at the movie theatre last night. Lovein the shadowy Bono at the beginning!

YouTube - Blackberry Loves U2 = New TV Commercial

Awesome thanks, I'd been wanting to see that!

 

[lauramullen]

U2 get round to touring to beat falling sales

120 lorries needed to move circular stage but $100m seen as money well
spent

* Alexandra Topping
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1 July 2009 22.03 BST

U2 are not a band to do things by halves. But when their new 360° tour
opened in Barcelona yesterday, with a dramatic mid-show live link-up
to the International Space Station, it put previous tours in the shade.

The band kicked off their first tour in three years to a deafening
crowd of 90,000 inside Nou Camp, Barcelona, the first of 3 million
fans in 31 cities expected to see the concerts. With more dates
expected to be announced in 2010, it is likely to be the band's most
profitable tour. Its scale underlines the increasing importance of
live music in an industry battered by declining sales and online piracy.

At an estimated cost of more than $100m, 360° is the band's most
expensive tour. But it is money well spent, according to industry
experts, and has the potential to eclipse takings from the 2005-06
Vertigo tour, which earned U2 a cool $389m.

With its circular stage that takes 120 lorries to transport, a 50-
metre, four-legged structure to carry the sound system and a set Bono
describes as "a space station designed by Gaudi", U2 hardly looked
like a band struggling to cope with the recession. But they
acknowledged that fans may have sacrificed more than usual to see the
spectacle.

"All around Spain, all around the world, things are difficult. Thank
you for coming back to us again and again," Bono told the rapturous
crowd.

With lower than average ticket prices ranging from around £30 to £160,
each show has around 10,000 at the lowest price, thanks to the 360°
stage, which increases a stadium's capacity by 20%, according to U2's
manager, Paul McGuinness.

Despite having high hopes for the tour, it remained a huge risk, he
said. "This is the biggest tour we've ever done, and certainly the
most expensive production we've ever put on. It's a gigantic throw of
the dice."

With 94% of tickets for the 44 gigs currently sold, the tour has
already grossed $300m at the box office. Factor in the significant
sums likely to be made from sponsorship deals and merchandising, and
the signs are promising.

In the current climate, live music and international tours are more
important than ever, according to Jazz Summers, manager of bands such
as the Verve and La Roux. "Making money from records is a relatively
recent phenomenon," he said. "If you look back at bands like Led
Zepplin in the 70s, they made a fortune from touring, and we appear to
be moving back in that direction.

"Unless you are Coldplay or Eminem, you are not making a huge amount
from royalties. The main area you are going to make money is from live
ticket sales and the sponsorship that goes along with it."

Will Page, chief economist at PRS for Music, said: "It appears that,
for the major music festivals and tours this year, live is getting an
increasing share of a decreasing pie. We're in the middle of a credit
crunch where all sorts of discretionary spending is being cut back,
yet people are still willing to fork out the necessary money – often
more money that was required this time last year – to get to see their
favourite festival or touring act."

Recent figures from the organisation revealed that UK music tour
revenues increased by 30% last year, mainly driven by more established
acts such as Neil Young, Neil Diamond and Bon Jovi, as well as
recently reformed groups such as the Spice Girls and Take That.
"Whilst the boom in live music is to be celebrated, there would appear
to be a growing gap in the share of the spoils between the hits which
would be dominated largely by heritage acts and the rest of the pack,
in particular the mid-priced touring acts," said Page.

Indeed, finding the resources to tour is increasingly difficult in a
more cash-strapped industry, said Jon Webster, CEO of the Music
Manager's Forum. "It is really only the top end, bands like U2, who
are making shed loads, you really have to get up the ladder before you
start making anything. After production costs smaller acts playing to
800 people can struggle to break even."

But as U2 linked up by video to the International Space Station half-
way through the Barcelona show, such worries must have seemed light
years away. "Commander, can you see Barcelona?" asked Bono. For the
band's elevated and enviable position in the music world, the view
must be as positive as for the astronaut who replied: "Right now the
most beautiful sight in our cosmos is the blue planet earth."

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009

 

[Jamila]

Bono contributed this essay to today's edition of the Italian newspaper "La Stampa" guest edited by Bob Geldof in a special African supplement to the paper dierectly ahead of the G8 Summit this week in Italy.

This is the best English version of the essay that I could find.



http://www.lastampa.it/redazione/cmsSezion...45231girata.asp


Bono


Since I have always imagined that the song was born in Italy. In Dublin I grew up listening to the collection of records of my father: La Traviata, Tosca, The Barber of Seville. The rock and roll was my obsession, but I was attracted by a rock and roll 'operatic'. The voice of Roy Orbison. That of David Bowie. The sounds of opera, like rock and roll, are a matter of vowels rather than consonants. To reach the high notes, the La and Si, or even treble the Sun, it takes words very open, like 'love', as' love '. In lyrical sense, one of the songs of U2, Pride, In the Name of Love, begins just as the air of a work.

I was enamored of even before knowing their existence. I understand our arrival in this country.


The way we make music soul was understood immediately. Did not need explanation, as was the case in Northern Europe. U2 have never married the northern music 'cool', which was just a synonym for 'cold'. We were not aware that Italians dress well. We had a Latin temperament: furious in the face of injustice, love life, good food, drink, friendship and family. We too had an unusual relationship with the concept of religion. Sometimes impatient of his conservatism, but often supported by its core values of faith, hope and love. We were amazed to ingenuity Italian front, from Leonardo Da Vinci to Marconi, the films of Fellini to futurism, from Ferrari and Fiat to Armani and Diesel.


I teach my children to take mental snapshots that will revise it later. Here are my photographs of Italy: the concerts ... my voice from the black "belcanto 'crowd ... in the early eighties to be escorted by armored car in the middle of a putiferio after our concert, noting that no one was evil, and realize that was rather a wave of dancing, getting up early in the morning to discover the ghosts and the vestiges in Turin and then see the setting up shop windows in Milan ... in Rome, not try to understand why Keats was chosen as the epitaph: "Here lies one whose words were written on." Also visit the grave of Shelley and observe his epitaph: 'Seize the moment. " And it is this energy italiana: seize the moment.


... Detach and go back to 1999, in Castelgandolfo with Bob Geldof, Quincy Jones and the renowned economist Jeff Sachs. The Pope will try my glasses while we talk of debt relief ... Then 2001. Among the heavy tear gas in the turbulent streets of the G8 in Genoa, to march with Jovanotti for debt cancellation and to obtain more resources for poorer countries. Fast forward, we come to this: in Africa 34 million children will go to school because people the world has fallen in the street. In Africa, 3 million people are being treated with life-saving medicines since last year in Genoa, was created the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.


These are all good news. But the good news they seem even more ugly than bad. Overall, the promises made by the G8 to the poorest of the poor have not been maintained. What does it mean to break a promise made to the most vulnerable? A philosophical level, this calls into question the moral Judeo-Christian. Say that the Enlightenment? Value system of the West? In practical terms, this threatens to undermine our reputation built upon, which we showed in the past. While at the political level, this may undermine the credibility of meetings like the G8. The lady of the home, Italy, was still behind other countries in the G8 promised to increase aid to Africa, but the brutal reality is that quell'aiuto was cut. And so here we are, lovers of Italy, more than ever, but once again the need to do something to change this state of affairs.


Quest'insofferenza to the issue of poverty comes mainly mothers, teachers, students, visitors to the churches. When it comes from a rich rock star shamelessly receives more attention, but it is much more difficult to accept, especially when that Irish rock star is. We know that is nonsense. But it is equally absurd that in the twenty-first century a child dies for the puncture of a fly.


I remember the professor, the Prime Minister Prodi, during a meeting of the G8, had to stay up all night listening to the reproaches of my and Bob Geldof for the Italian state aid. I will never forget her grace and her determination. And now, in these tough times of recession, Berlusconi will have to hear the same admonitions, while approaching its G8. Now more than ever we need leaders capable of projecting into the future with a different vision of the world leaders who then return all'oggi to make those changes necessary to realize it. How much of all this we can see during this week in this country so vibrant, whose generosity of spirit is contagious to all those who come to visit?
If we can put an end to poverty and deprivation interventions with relatively cheap and easily implemented, such as mosquito nets, medicines against AIDS, or a handful of seeds and fertilizer, then we have no choice. Because we can, we must. "Love your neighbor 'is not advice, it is an imperative. It seems that there is a contradiction. The biggest heart of Europe, Italy, in these times turn your head the other side ... as suffering from amnesia.


But for now my mind is elsewhere. While I prepare the privilege to perform at the San Siro stadium this week, the new opera invades my mind. Remember to Pavarotti ... the microphone at the foot of her bed in Modena. He takes time and you decide to sing along with Miss Sarajevo me only after having eaten, slept, and by his face, kissed passionately Nicoletta! His voice tonante, which spits fire like a volcano erupting. A volcano which opened a gash in the sky and in my heart, and heart of anyone who has ever heard sing. Interpretative talent ... and seducer, artist, lover, husband, father, friend, child and man.

Always a paradox. As his country.




***********************************************

Gotta love Bono

 

[onekea]

Bono contributed this essay to today's edition of the Italian newspaper "La Stampa" guest edited by Bob Geldof in a special African supplement to the paper dierectly ahead of the G8 Summit this week in Italy.

This is the best English version of the essay that I could find.

http://www.lastampa.it/redazione/cmsSezion...45231girata.asp

thank you jamila

that link doesn't work for me, but here's the english version of the article:

Focus - G8

and here the italian one for all italian fans around here

Lettera d'amore all'Italia - LASTAMPA.it

see you in milan!

 

[biff]

This comment was posted in the atU2 forum on June 29th, but I have seen nothing about this anywhere else. Anyone know more about this?

Apologies if this has been covered, but I see in the papers today that Bono is packing up his balongings and carting himself and his family to the US for a year this autumn.

So how will this affect the band? Will it delay or slow down the next album in four years down the line?

 

[bonocomet]

San Diego is lovely all year long Bono

 

[lauramullen]

If it is true, I think he would stay in NYC, but how would that work with Eli and John in school, unless they have tutors.

 

[floweravalanche]

I'm thinking NYC too if it is true. Maybe the boys would be home schooled?

Bonocoment San Diego is beautiful I'm originally from there but I think they would like CO better for the mountains and Nature j/k

That blackberry commerical is awesome, makes me wish I should of gotten when I had the chance instead of this new fancy razer like phone I got

 

[Padj]

thank you jamila

that link doesn't work for me, but here's the english version of the article:

Focus - G8

and here the italian one for all italian fans around here

Lettera d'amore all'Italia - LASTAMPA.it

see you in milan!

see you in milan!

 

[last unicorn]

What a coincidence that U2 are in Italy while the G8 is there. Does anyone know if Bono will attend? Where will the summit be held.

I cannot wait for Milan, only a couple of hours to go.

 

[lauramullen]

I guess we'll have to see if he is. I haven't heard anything.

 

[domo-kun]

I hope so, PLEBA always tends to find shitloads of pics. after that.