I haven't watched a lot of the tour videos.... in fact the webcast was my first concert this tour. Can someone please tell me if that astronaut video is a staple for all concerts where in a little while is played, or was it recorded specially for the rose bowl? I'd like to know a bit of the history of this clip.... thanks. And apologies if this has already been covered before.
The astronaut at the end of IALW.
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coolian2
Blue Crack Supplier
he had lines recorded for your blue room too.
that was much better.
that was much better.
No, the astronaut part of IALW was only played at 2-3 concerts. For the rest of the IALW's on tour, it was just regular U2.
He was, however, part of every single Your Blue Room on tour.
By the way, the astronaut in question is Frank De Winne.
Frank De Winne - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
kramwest1
has a
hibricc
Refugee
I believe Frank's appearance was pre-recorded during the tail end of the European tour. From Willy's diary:
Glasgow. Show day. [August 18, 2009]
... Meanwhile, back with the show, via more formal channels we had been offered the opportunity of another live link with the ISS (space station) though not one which would coincide with a U2 performance time. Consequently, our video director, Tom, wrote a small 'treatment' for things we might invite the astronauts to film on board for us to use. I won't spoil the outcome by going into detail, but we were essentially being offered an opportunity to direct a short video shoot in a space capsule orbiting the earth. Not your normal Tuesday morning then.
The practical outworking of this was that, prior to our day trip to Scotland, Tom, Shan and I gathered in a hotel room at the Hotel Fabulous to place a conference call to NASA in Houston. Shan has been our tour's key link person in all dealings with NASA and I was rather amused at the mixture of formal process and human camaraderie which infused the initial conversation. A woman's voice came on the line, 'U2 this is Houston', then, from our end 'Houston this is Shan with U2'. Houston: 'Oh, Hi Shan, this is Stephanie, how ARE you?' U2: 'Just fine Stephanie, we're in London today, how are you?' Houston: 'Oh, just fine, how's the weather there,' etc., etc.
This was to be a many faceted conference call, including (I think) some of the bosses from NASA to make sure all was above board, legal, decent, honest and truthful. We could only hear Stephanie, but she could hear everybody, so was relaying information to us. She told us that the astronauts had set up a camera in one particular module of the ISS. She thought it would be in the Harmony module, though they had also mentioned the possibility of shooting in the Destiny Laboratory (are we still on a rock tour?, we're thinking). By the way, if you want to look up the ISS, and see the astronauts we're in contact with, go to NASA.gov. This is mission number 19. Tom talked over a few details with Stephanie which may not have been quite clear from the preceding email correspondence. We appreciated very much that these people are scientists and we were a highly unusual intrusion into their day, but they responded with firm politeness beneath which seemed to lie a real willingness to participate in this extraordinary collaboration.
'Frank is coming into view. He's typing on a laptop, there's a package next to him, the package is floating and it looks really cool. He's approaching the camera and now reciting his lines.
'Roman just finished his piece... Bob Thirsk is entering with a drink bag... he's up to the camera... Gennady just entered doing a summersault in zero gravity holding... I'm not sure what that is... he's floated upside down out of the shot. Next is Mike Barratt who's holding a big camera... Tim Kopra is floating in... he came feet first and has done a summersault... he's reaching up to the ceiling...
'We're going to ask Bob, Gennady and Mike to do a little more.
'They've been doing a little goofing around - one of the crew members just took a swing at the camera with a big crescent wrench.
'We're going to take a short pause to re-establish communication.'
'U2 this is NASA...'
'We're back with com, so stand by...'
'Gennady did a perfect take second time...'
'Mike Barrett is adjusting some things, playing with a laptop...'
'Frank's on the ceiling...'
'Oh and in case you're wondering, the space station is over the Great Lakes right now...'
... Meanwhile, back with the show, via more formal channels we had been offered the opportunity of another live link with the ISS (space station) though not one which would coincide with a U2 performance time. Consequently, our video director, Tom, wrote a small 'treatment' for things we might invite the astronauts to film on board for us to use. I won't spoil the outcome by going into detail, but we were essentially being offered an opportunity to direct a short video shoot in a space capsule orbiting the earth. Not your normal Tuesday morning then.
The practical outworking of this was that, prior to our day trip to Scotland, Tom, Shan and I gathered in a hotel room at the Hotel Fabulous to place a conference call to NASA in Houston. Shan has been our tour's key link person in all dealings with NASA and I was rather amused at the mixture of formal process and human camaraderie which infused the initial conversation. A woman's voice came on the line, 'U2 this is Houston', then, from our end 'Houston this is Shan with U2'. Houston: 'Oh, Hi Shan, this is Stephanie, how ARE you?' U2: 'Just fine Stephanie, we're in London today, how are you?' Houston: 'Oh, just fine, how's the weather there,' etc., etc.
This was to be a many faceted conference call, including (I think) some of the bosses from NASA to make sure all was above board, legal, decent, honest and truthful. We could only hear Stephanie, but she could hear everybody, so was relaying information to us. She told us that the astronauts had set up a camera in one particular module of the ISS. She thought it would be in the Harmony module, though they had also mentioned the possibility of shooting in the Destiny Laboratory (are we still on a rock tour?, we're thinking). By the way, if you want to look up the ISS, and see the astronauts we're in contact with, go to NASA.gov. This is mission number 19. Tom talked over a few details with Stephanie which may not have been quite clear from the preceding email correspondence. We appreciated very much that these people are scientists and we were a highly unusual intrusion into their day, but they responded with firm politeness beneath which seemed to lie a real willingness to participate in this extraordinary collaboration.
'Frank is coming into view. He's typing on a laptop, there's a package next to him, the package is floating and it looks really cool. He's approaching the camera and now reciting his lines.
'Roman just finished his piece... Bob Thirsk is entering with a drink bag... he's up to the camera... Gennady just entered doing a summersault in zero gravity holding... I'm not sure what that is... he's floated upside down out of the shot. Next is Mike Barratt who's holding a big camera... Tim Kopra is floating in... he came feet first and has done a summersault... he's reaching up to the ceiling...
'We're going to ask Bob, Gennady and Mike to do a little more.
'They've been doing a little goofing around - one of the crew members just took a swing at the camera with a big crescent wrench.
'We're going to take a short pause to re-establish communication.'
'U2 this is NASA...'
'We're back with com, so stand by...'
'Gennady did a perfect take second time...'
'Mike Barrett is adjusting some things, playing with a laptop...'
'Frank's on the ceiling...'
'Oh and in case you're wondering, the space station is over the Great Lakes right now...'
hibricc
Refugee
I stand corrected. From a new entry in Willy's Diary...
Thursday 22nd October 2009. Los Angeles. Day off.
We were keen to see if we could make a version of In a Little While which would follow the same pattern that we had for Your Blue Room. In a Little While has become important to the show as it touches on the space theme, but very much from the perspective of the human separation. One of the most surprising things about meeting the astronauts and seeing into their world was coming to understand how much their world struggles to balance the two sides of the coin - on the one hand dealing with these very high profile, high budget ventures, but on the other the cost to home and family life. It's exactly the same dichotomy that we mere mortals face in coming on a big rock tour like this, so we've found a lot of empathy with them.
Frank de Winne is the commander of the International Space Station and has already shot a few things for us up there and agreed to do one more piece for us with him reciting the last verse of In a Little While. Apparently they've had a busy week up on the ISS, so we weren't sure if Frank would be able to find the time for another bout of home movie making, but at 10pm this evening the footage came through. It too appears to be in some peculiar video format (well, it did come from space, so fair enough, I suppose) so the whole thing needed reformatting before it was usable.
We were keen to see if we could make a version of In a Little While which would follow the same pattern that we had for Your Blue Room. In a Little While has become important to the show as it touches on the space theme, but very much from the perspective of the human separation. One of the most surprising things about meeting the astronauts and seeing into their world was coming to understand how much their world struggles to balance the two sides of the coin - on the one hand dealing with these very high profile, high budget ventures, but on the other the cost to home and family life. It's exactly the same dichotomy that we mere mortals face in coming on a big rock tour like this, so we've found a lot of empathy with them.
Frank de Winne is the commander of the International Space Station and has already shot a few things for us up there and agreed to do one more piece for us with him reciting the last verse of In a Little While. Apparently they've had a busy week up on the ISS, so we weren't sure if Frank would be able to find the time for another bout of home movie making, but at 10pm this evening the footage came through. It too appears to be in some peculiar video format (well, it did come from space, so fair enough, I suppose) so the whole thing needed reformatting before it was usable.
greety
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
I believe Bono asked Frank if he wanted to do the lyrics for IALW, when they had their live chat with the space station crew from mission control in Houston. (if you watch the whole chat on youtube)
I guess Bono already knew they would use it at the Pasadena live show (aired on youtube)
I guess Bono already knew they would use it at the Pasadena live show (aired on youtube)
greety
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
d/p
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