i'm torn on this.
part of me thinks we expect too much a from a band - most bands out there wouldnt give a toss, why do we think U2 would - but another part of me thinks that U2 have built so much on their fans and what their fans have given them with countless thanks like the £500 Slane Castle speech and "thanks for waiting in the rain" etc etc etc. they push themselves and market themselves as a fan loving fan caring band. and U2 fans are a great bunch, we'll give them everything we've got to see them for 2 hours - we'll travel in the rain and the snow and sit outside venues in the cold for days to get close (i'm not saying other bands fans dont but theres no doubt that WE do!)
so i look at this and whats happened with the tickets and i look at the absolute catastrophe that was signing up to the fanclub in the first place and i look around my room at the absolute fortune i've spent on U2 in the past years and i think what the F*ck, WHY? because U2 love and care about their fans??? really??
i look at the amount of time i spent defending U2 over greed and sell-out accusations regarding apple and ipods (and i look at my black ipod and my credit card bill...) and i want to kick myself.
because right now looking back on all of that i'm not getting anything that says U2 gives a flying toss about any of this - not a word from them, not a word from their site or their management, not only about this but about the whole fun club fiasco and i'm thinking greedy bastards.
everything they've done over the past months leading up to this has been money motivated - 4 versions of a single? why - so sods like me who collect will buy them. 4 different versions of an album? why - so sods like me who collect will buy them. ipods? fan clubs? phenomenal ticket prices? why? so sods like me will buy them and add to U2s ever increasing house numbers and bank balances.
and then i'm back to the point where i wonder if we expect too much from them? these guys lives so are so far detached from our own, so far detached from reality even, is it reasonable to expect them to realate to or look down at our problems as fans. at the end of the day, the concert will sell out and they'll make their money and it wont matter whether in the front row of Twickenham its a guy who's been a fan for 20 years and had to buy tix at 10 times the price on ebay cause his code didnt work or a guy who's been a fan for 6 months and got lucky on general sale. U2 dont know the difference and frankly i doubt they care.
that said, i'm still gonna go, and i still love their music but i'm gonna think twice before i pick up that rare collectable i've wanted for ages, and i might consider not buying all 3 versions of the next single and getting the killers LP instead (its a better album anyway).
i'm not gonna so far as say U2 have lost me as a fan, i think thats extremist and instead i'm gonna try put a bit of a reality check on the situation.
i think we're all a bit disappointed with the band, their management and everything - its bollocks to think they dont have a hand in it or if they knew what was going on (which they surely do) to not have the power to say something.
as fans who've given a lot of our time and money to the band, we obviously feel cheated. whether that feeling is justified though depends entirely on whether we can honestly believe the band care or whether thats just another part of their show.
right now i'm thinking not and thats a BIG reality check.
Can't see Bono The Sexy Wilderbeest as a kitten killer. No thanks.
sexy wilderbeest...yeah, me either, that's why I said it 
U2Gal78 over there!
