The stories behind U2

September 1976: A 14-year-old drummer posts a notice at school that he's looking to start a band. Rehearsals are held in his parent's kitchen in Dublin, and The Larry Mullen Band is born.

boy
U2's Boy album contained hits like
"I Will Follow" and "Out of Control."

The name didn't last, but more than 30 years and 22 Grammys later, the band, which would eventually be called U2, has proven it has what it takes to stay on top.

The keys to U2's longevity include respect for each other and their fans; the ability to continuously reinvent themselves and their musical style; and powerful music with a message.

But the meanings of most U2 songs are subject to interpretation. Bono is a genius at writing ambiguous lyrics, allowing listeners to decide what each song means to them. Read on to take a musical journey with the band that Time magazine once named "Rock's Hottest Ticket."

Twitter Off Line - SpamCloud ?

We just heard back from Twitter via email, and they said : “Spamcloud hit. We’re working on restoring accounts.”

We just need to be patient. The suspended accounts will be restored.

Update: We have no idea exactly what a “spam cloud” means. It is probably Twitter staff lingo for a massive spam attack.

Update: We have seen during previous spam attacks that Twitter tends to shoot first and ask questions later and indiscriminately lay down carpet bombing when their system comes under a spam attack. A lot of innocent-bystander accounts get massacred in the process, which they then have to restore afterwards. This is most likely what has happened again.

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U2 29 Day Series: Stories Behind U2 Songs

For the next 29 days on top of our concert series we will be working on a series of 29 songs that their history. We will include photos, videos and more. Sign up and follow us via Twitter, *Retweeting is cool or on our site direct. Also remember if your attending a show over the next few months we would like your video, photos and comments. Sign up and share. Thank you everyone that as supported our new design we cleared 40 thousand new visitors last week. The return visitors was just over 100K. We would like to thank our sponsors and readers for a wonderful tour start. We have launched a youtube site as well. 

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U2 Accused of copying

So whats your take on this ?

American musician and label owner Taylor Deupree has accused U2 of copying one of his album covers for their new record.

The Irish band's sleeve for 'No Line On The Horizon' features the same image as Deupree's 2006 album 'Specification. Fifteen'.

Both covers are based on a photograph by Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto.

25th Anniversay Editions ?


U2 will be releasing a 25th anniversary edition of The Unforgettable Fire later this year. According to U2tour.de, a plastic bag found at one of the Camp Nou merchandising stands had this printed on the outside: Coming October 2009 The Unforgettable Fire 25th Anniversary Edition. The bag also has a photo of an Unforgettable Fire box set similar in size to The Joshua Tree box set released in 2007.

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Now playing: U2 - Elevation - Tomb Raider Remix
via FoxyTunes

(RED)ZONES Now Open

Tuesday night saw the launch of (RED)ZONES at the first U2 360 Degrees concert in Barcelona where U2 kicked off their new tour to a rapturous sold out crowd of 90,000 fans.

(RED)ZONES are prime location areas directly adjacent to the stage which will be present throughout the U2 tour. The tickets for the (RED)ZONES are available through auction with the band’s portion of the ticket sales going to the Global Fund to help fund AIDS programs in Africa.

“We’re really proud and grateful to have the support of U2 in our work. In a short time, (RED) has raised over $130 million for the Global Fund through partners and events and that money has already supported programs that have reached more than four million people,” said Susan Smith Ellis, CEO, (RED).

“(RED)’s contribution to the Global Fund in just three years is over $130 million. This is not only helping hundreds of thousands of people in Rwanda, Swaziland, Ghana and Lesotho where the money is at work on the ground but (RED), through its partners’ marketing efforts is also having a tremendous impact on public awareness of the HIV pandemic in Africa. We are honoured to have both the crucial support of the money flowing in, and the vote of confidence in the Global Fund’s way of providing aid,” said Professor Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

The U2 360 Degrees Tour will play 15 cities in Europe finishing at Cardiff’s Millennium on 22nd August before heading to North America, 20 shows starting in Chicago September 12th. In 2009, in just 44 shows the tour will perform for over 3 million fans. And (RED) will be at all shows, with our sister organization ONE, letting people know how they can get involved in both helping eliminate AIDS in Africa through (RED) and fighting extreme poverty through ONE. Along with ONE and (RED), the tour is also associated with the Burma Campaign, Amnesty International, Music Rising, the Angiogenesis Foundation and Mencap.

(RED)ZONES are a continuation of (RED)’s growing musical partnerships including (RED)WIRE (http://www.redwire.com/), an online music service that raises money for the Global Fund, and (RED)NIGHTS, a series of concerts that engages artists and their fans to raise awareness for the issue of AIDS in Africa.

 

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120 Trucks are rolling down the Road

The U2 360° Tour is a worldwide concert tour by the Irish rock band U2. Launched in support of the group's 2009 album No Line on the Horizon, the tour will visit stadiums from 2009 through 2010, whereas the previous two tours, the Elevation Tour and the Vertigo Tour, were primarily played in indoor arenas. The U2 360° Tour is named after the 360-degree staging and audience configuration it uses for shows,which U2 claims is "the first time a band has toured in stadiums with such a unique and original structure." In an era of declining CD sales, the tour is expected to be a major source of income for the band.

the tour features a 360-degree configuration, with the stage being placed closer to the center of the stadium's field than usual.] The stage has no defined front or back and is surrounded on all sides by the audience. The stage design also includes a cylindrical video screen and will increase the venues' capacities by about 15–20%. Only tiered football stadiums can be used with this scheme; flat fields and baseball stadiums are not possible venues. Willie Williams, who has worked on every U2 tour since 1982, is again a designer for this tour;Mark Fisher serves as the architect.

Williams had been toying with ideas for 360-degree stadium staging for U2 for a number of years,and presented sketches of a four-legged design to the group near the end of their Vertigo Tour in 2006.The inspiration for the "spaceship-on-four-legs" design, nicknamed "the Claw", came from the landmark Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport. The steel structure will be 164 feet tall – doubling the size of the stadium set for The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang Tour, the previous highest – and will require 120 trucks to transport. Each leg of the structure will contain its own sound system. U2 will purchase carbon offsets to take into consideration the environmental impact of the massive production. As with many large-scale tours of its era, the U2 360° Tour will have both the workforce and the revenues associated with a medium-sized company.

As the tour was announced, U2 guitarist The Edge said of the show's design: "It's hard to come up with something that's fundamentally different, but we have, I think, on this tour. Where we're taking our production will never have been seen before by anybody, and that's an amazing thing to be able to say. For a band like U2 that really thrive on breaking new ground, it's a real thrill." Lead singer Bono said the design was intended to overcome the staid traditional appearance of outdoor concerts where the stage was dominated by speaker stacks on either side: "We have some magic, and we've got some beautiful objects we're going to take around the world, and we're inside that object." He also said that the group's goal was for the show to not be too choreographed. Williams said the goal is to establish a physical proximity: "The band is just sitting in the palm of the audience's hand."

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