Weird request....U2 in school

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

WildHonee

Mr. MacPhisto's Loo Cleaner
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As you know, I am forever trying to use U2 in all of my school projects. There was the postmodern poetry project, the social justice project....ETC ETC

Now I have 2 things. Youse guys are crazy smart and crazy helpful ALWAYS ALWAYS so I thought I'd ask for a bit of help on these.

#1.
The most immediate one. I just need to find a little article about statistics for Statistics class. I could very well use one about the government from the Washington Post, but I DON'T WANNA. Has anyone ANY idea of where I can find statistics related to Bono or U2? Probably about 3rd World Debt...but I can't find anything good.

This could also help with my speech for Public Speaking about U2.


#2
For religion I have a seminar about missionary life. ANYTHING about when Bono's been wherever helping ppl would be grrrreeeaattt.

I LOVE YOUSE GUYS. I've had so much school stuff to do I haven't had a lot of PLEBA time!

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~*Mona*~ LOVE me, give me SOUL

"I think I just said I was smart there - I'm sorry about that." ~Bono

"Mona Lisa must have had the highway blues, you can tell by the way she smiles."

The Man Corral
 
Well, there is an article about Bono's religion and thoughts in The Goal is Soul. And, if you found an article about say, album sales, that would work right? Maybe check in Where the Album Has A Name, they tend to have stats like that. Good luck.

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It's the puppets that pull the strings.

*You're very kind. Most people laugh when they see my googly eye.*

+fabulous+
 
What about those articles about Elevation being the highest grossing tour ever? Or second highest? You might impress your teacher talking about inflation affecting the figures, today's prices vs. prices of the past. I don't know where they are, but someone on the main forum might.
 
Originally posted by martha:
What about those articles about Elevation being the highest grossing tour ever? Or second highest? You might impress your teacher talking about inflation affecting the figures, today's prices vs. prices of the past. I don't know where they are, but someone on the main forum might.

OMD!!!!!!!!!! The tour thinG!! good idea!! Anyone know?!

------------------
~*Mona*~ LOVE me, give me SOUL

"I think I just said I was smart there - I'm sorry about that." ~Bono

"Mona Lisa must have had the highway blues, you can tell by the way she smiles."

The Man Corral
 
Here's an article from the summer, I think. I don't think it has anything about Elevation being the 2nd highest grossing tour, but it has loads of other statistics. Of course, being an english article the money statistics are all in pounds not dollars, but I dunno, you might find something useful in it.

Why McGuinness is good for U2

When Paul McGuinness looked over the crowd at a U2 concert in Montreal last Sunday, he should have felt like the owner of the world's biggest slot machine. McGuinness, the manager of the band for 23 years, can do the sums. The Molson Arena holds 20,000 people. The average price of ?60 meant ?1.2m in gate receipts. Merchandise spending was about ?5.50 a head.

The ?2.7m gross take over two nights in Montreal is in stark contrast to an early venture under McGuinness - a Saturday-afternoon gig in the Dandelion, an indoor market in Dublin, in 1979. McGuinness says: "The band were too young to play in pubs, so the Dandelion was the best we could do. It was 50p in."

McGuinness was 27. He had dropped out of Trinity College, Dublin, to work in movie production. "I wanted to manage a band," he says. Bill Graham, a journalist friend, had seen U2, and in 1978 told McGuinness they were the "baby band" he had been looking for.

They looked terrible, the music was awful, but McGuinness saw the spark of creativity. Insiders say the terms of the band's deal with McGuinness have never changed: he gets 20% of their income, making him the fifth "member" of the band, though he shrinks from the term.

In 1980, McGuinness signed the band to the Island label. By 1989, when Island was sold to Polygram for ?200m, U2 and McGuinness owned a slice of the action. U2 have remained with Island through its subsequent changes of ownership. Many acts effectively lease their material to record labels, which release it at their pleasure, paying royalties to the artists. The Irish band own all of their material.

If Montreal felt like owning a slot machine, by the end of 2001, McGuinness and U2 may feel as if they own an entire casino. Between November last, when the band released All That You Can't Leave Behind, their 10th studio album, and next Christmas, the gross take from U2 sales will be in excess of ?210m.

McGuinness cheerfully admits that his charges operate behind "a maze" of companies. This is because U2 is a vast enterprise with sales in more than 100 markets. The numbers, however, are simple. By the end of 2001, the current album will have sold about 13m copies, according to McGuinness. The interest generated by the album and the current tour will also boost sales of the band's back catalogue from 1m-2m a year to 3m. Those 16m albums sell for an average of ?8.45 each, giving gross income from record sales alone of about ?135m.

Meanwhile, the tour itself will include 50 shows in America, with an average of 20,000 people per concert at about ?60 a ticket, a grand total of ?60m. Sales of authorised merchandise will then add up to ?5.5m. Later in the summer the band have scheduled 30 gigs in Europe, where they will sell about 600,000 tickets (average price ?31.50), making ?19m. Merchandising should add ?2m.

Album revenue of ?135m and tour revenue of ?86.5m should be topped up by ?7m in royalties paid by people playing U2 songs, such as radio stations. So, who takes what from U2's near- ?230m total for this year?

The album sales generate income for the composers of the material as well as the performers. The standard songwriting royalty is 8%, which means the band, who share the money equally, will take about ?10.5m. U2 have one of the best deals in the industry for performance royalties - up to 22%. The performance take for the albums will be ?30m, some of which will go to the producer.

The share on the concerts is less clear cut. McGuinness block-sells the tour to SFX, an American company, which underwrites the band's costs and shares profits equally.

Those costs are vast. The band travels with an entourage of 25 in a chartered Boeing 727. Another 100 people move by bus and truck. Industry estimates give U2 a 20% profit margin on the ?86.5m from live music - say ?17m.

It's a long way from the days when, after business meetings in McGuinness's Dublin flat, the band reached into a jar of coins on his sideboard for the bus fare home. In the rock firmament, only the Rolling Stones have demonstrated U2's acute business acumen. McGuinness is convinced that even greater success lies ahead.

"The guys are ambitious and competitive. They have set themselves up as the best rock'n'roll band in the world. They know that to keep the title, they will have to keep defending it and be at their best. They are capable of hard work and enormous ambition. And their resources are so deep." In every sense.
 
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