Limited Edition 360 Concert Images

We have selected the best photos from our staff photographer, David Long. He has been shooting concert photos for over 10 years and has created some lasting images. This years tour is no exception.

The limited edition images can only be purchased at U2TOURFANS. Working with Dave we have designed two different collages that we feel capture the boys at their best. If you look closely at the image of Bono it seems like he is singing to the heavens and God has shined his light upon him. 

You can purchase any of the images shown within the collage as a single photo.

Your purchase goes towards the support of your site. We arre totally supported by donations and sponsorships. We thank Dave for all his support over the past year and look forward to having him out on the road for the 2010 tour season. 

Dave Long/U2TOURFANS 2009 (A)

Dave Long/.U2TOURFANS 2009(B)

U2 360 Tour Photos

Brian Eno Said he remembers different

Editor Comment: Couple f weeks back we had a story about U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name” at the time we had no idea what kind of feedback we would get or comments. One afternoon as we sat around thinking about stories for the up coming year. We get this email with what appears to be a “the lost video” of Brian and the bands thoughts on “Streets”. We did some checking around. It seems to part of an interview.

We thought it was only fair that we let Brian share his side of the story behind “Streets” also give the fans a chance to see the younger boys chat up about the song. - Here’s the summary of the orginal story.

“Where the Streets Have No Name” is the opening track from their 1987 album The Joshua Tree. It was released as the album’s third single in August 1987 . Bono was inspired to write the lyrics by the notion that it is possible to identify a person’s religion and income based on the street on which they lived, particularly in Belfast. Amidst difficulties recording the song, producer Brian Eno attempted to erase the song from the recording tapes. The song’s signature is a repeating guitar arpeggio utilizing a delay effect that is played at the beginning and end of the song.



“And you can dream, so dream out loud.”

 

How U2 Got That Globes Nomination

The Wrap, December 18, 2009
By: Steve Pond

With six nominations and one win between them, the members of U2 are no strangers to the Golden Globes. They’ll be back this year as nominees for “Winter,” the closing-credits song they wrote for Jim Sheridan’s movie “Brothers.”

The song may be a spare, atmospheric ballad, but the band and the director forged a relationship more than 30 years ago in Dublin’s punk-rock scene, when Sheridan was running a small Dublin theater where the fledgling band met their manager and launched a career that has worked out pretty well for them so far.

U2’s guitarist, the Edge, who’s also a central figure in Davis Guggenheim’s terrific rock doc “It Might Get Loud,” checked in with theWrap to talk about old pal Sheridan, writing for movies and being an outsider on Hollywood’s big nights. (Photo of U2 at the Oscars in 2004 by Art Streiber.)

How did your relationship with Jim Sheridan begin?
Jim really started with the urban community theater scene in Dublin, with a center he co-founded called the Project Arts Center. It was a place for people who had interest in theater but no access to acting lessons or anything.

You know, the Abbey Theater was this rarefied kind of place where you went when you were a junior in high school to see Sean O’Casey, or maybe a Bernard Shaw play. Basically, it was a bit stuffy. But the Project Arts Center was a kind of radical, maybe left-leaning, community-based theater center.

And because it was a venue that was pretty much existing on a hand-to-mouth basis, they were always looking for ways to raise rent. So occasionally they’d do a rock ‘n’ roll show, and it was really one of the centers of the punk-rock scene in Dublin in the late ‘70s. It became Dublin’s version of CBGB’s, in a weird way. Jim was sort of running the place, and we played there a few times at the very beginning of our career as U2.

Did you stay in touch with him over the years?
Well, he left and came to New York and started making films. And we reconnected with him when he came back to Dublin after “My Left Foot.” And our friendship has grown since then. We really hang out a lot in Dublin – and Jim, being the character that he is, is always trying out ideas and film propositions on his friends to see what they think. So we’re used to sitting in the pub, and Jim will be pitching us some new script.

Is that how you heard about “Brothers”?
Yeah. Jim’s such a great storyteller, he can really hold an audience when he’s telling a tale. So we were immediately drawn in by what he was describing, and the way he wanted to make the film. And then he asked if we could consider doing a song for it.

I initially started working on a piece of music that we thought might end up working for the film. Then, as the film started to take shape, Jim played us a rough cut, and it was really at that point that we really got inspired and the song started to come together quite quickly. Bono wrote the lyric, I think, in a night. And then he did one rewrite, and that was basically the lyrics.

His lyric is obviously inspired by the film, particularly by Tobey Maguire’s character. What was the impetus for the song musically?
Well, when you’re writing for a movie you’re always trying to connect to the emotion of the characters. I was really thinking about the intense hidden emotion. It seemed like the secrets, what was not said, was the most important thing. And so that, I suppose, was a jumping off point, thematically.

If the lyrics happened quickly, did the music do the same?
No, it took quite a while. Initially, I had more of a conventional, straightforward arrangement, but it didn’t ever quite come together. It was too close to the U2 sound and U2 form. But in the studio, working with Brian [Eno], we started to work on a slightly different approach, which was more stripped down. And that eventually seemed to be the key to making the song work. I mean, I originally wrote it on piano. And when we went back to that instrument, it seemed to lock in and start to make sense.

At one point, wasn’t the song also slated for the “No Line on the Horizon” album?
We thought at one point that it might be really great for the film, and also for our album. But that, for various reasons, didn’t happen. The timing was really what messed us up. We were trying desperately to finish the song for Jim, because originally the film was coming out before the album. And at one point we even said, “Look, Jim, this song isn’t going to be ready for you, so why don’t you think about this other tune?” Then his film got delayed, and we were able to regroup and get it together for the film. And in some ways, though it’s a beautiful tune, it doesn’t quite fit on our record thematically.

What was the other song you were going to give him?
It was a song called “White as Snow.” It also was inspired by the film, but I think “Winter” is a better fit.

I remember talking to Bono at Oscar rehearsals back in 2004, and he was clearly uneasy with the whole experience of appearing on that show.
Well, when you’re at the Academy Awards or the Golden Globes, you sort of feel like you’re at somebody else’s party.

 

Clayton's Housekeeper steals 3M

Housekeeper stole $3 million from U2’s Adam Clayton

What a shock! U2 member Adam Clayton may have had as much as $3 million stolen from him by his housekeeper a Dublin court has been told.

Adam Clayton has secured a high court order freezing the assets of his former housekeeper Carol Hawkins after alleging she may have stolen $3 million from him.

The evidence suggests that Mrs Hawkins bought an apartment in New York, had shares in several horses and used Clayton’s debit and credit cards for the private use of her and her family.

In September 2008 Hawkins went to Clayton and admitted she had stolen $20,000. He had dealt with it in a "compassionate manner" and kept her employed the court was told.

It turned out  however that she may have withdrawn about $1,000 twice daily for a period of 13 months  from his credit and debit cards.

On Friday (18Dec09) Dublin’s High Court heard allegations Hawkins used Clayton’s money to buy an apartment in New York City and fund holidays for her family.


Hawkins admits using Clayton’s cards, but disputes the sums of money involved.
The star’s lawyers secured an order from the court forbidding Hawkins from reducing her assets, and the judge adjourned the case until Monday (21Dec09).

Two accountants also discovered trips to Chicago for her son and a friend as well as numerous other expenses charged against Clayton’s accounts

Artificial Horizon

U2 today announced that its upcoming fan club CD will be titled Artificial Horizon and will feature 13 remixes of the band’s latter-period work by the likes of Trent Rreznor and David Holmes — including some that haven’t been released previously.

 Although the band hasn’t yet released the full tracklist, it did reveal, in an e-mail to fans, that the disc will include Reznor’s remix of “Vertigo,” Jacknife Lee’s mix of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb outtake “Fast Cars,” Holmes’ remix of “Beautiful Day,” in addition to mixes of “Staring at the Sun,” “City of Blinding Lights” and “If God Will Send His Angels.”

Not available in stores, the disc — a sequel of sorts to 1995’s fan-club Melon remix CD — will be sent to fans who sign up for or renew their $50 U2.com membership for 2010. The new remix disc is the latest in a series of exclusive U2.com releases, including ZOO TV Live and Go Home: Live From Slane Castle, Ireland. Subscription details are here.

The band promises to post “full details of the album” on U2.com in the next few days.

Tiger Woods distracted by mystery blonde at U2 concert

Tiger Woods might be at a deafening U2 concert but in a new picture that’s emerged, he seems to be a bit distracted by a mystery blonde.

The under fire golfer was captured exchanging small talk with the woman during the gig in Dallas in October.

Woods is heading for the most expensive split in sports history after his wife told friends: “Divorce is 100% on.”

Elin Nordegren plans to walk away from her marriage to the scandal-hit star with £175million, half of his £350million fortune.

The Swede is said to want rid of him once and for all over his affairs. Friends of the mum-of-two confirmed the split. One said: “She’s made up her mind. There’s nothing to think about, he’s never going to change.”

The deal would eclipse the £100million paid out by US basketball star Michael Jordan to ex Juanita Vanoy. Tiger’s troubles deepened last night after it emerged a woman who claims to have his love child wants £2million for her silence.

Teresa Rogers, 48, had a daughter in 2003 after a fling with the golfer. Rogers is believed to have hired lawyer Gloria Allred who is thought to have negotiated a £3million payout for another of Woods’ supposed lovers, Rachel Uchitel, 34.

The Decade in U2: The Edge Looks Back

DAVID FRICKE

Dave Long 2009U2 ended this decade by playing to some of the biggest audiences of your career, in those stadiums, in the round. How has that affected the music — your connection to rock & roll in those dimensions?

It’s only made possible because of the technology, the in-ear monitors. We can hear each other perfectly. Otherwise it would be an absolute disaster. Because of the in-ear technology, I’m right next to Larry, right next to Adam and Bono, in sonic terms.

What about the connection between your head and what you play?

The only way the shows work for me is if I totally lose myself in the music. Everything else will flow from that. If I’m totally lost in the music, everything comes into alignment — my performance, my sense of everything that is happening musically and my ability to react to it. It’s a case of not allowing thoughts, the conscience mind, to be engaged in the process. Keep the subconscious in control — you’re in a more creative place.

When you were making No Line on the Horizon, could you tell you were making an album with that possibility — that you could lose yourself in the music?


We did make an album with that character, because of the way it came together. A lot of times, we were playing in a room, and there was a particular moment when it all came together. That’s what you’re trying to achieve in a live context. [Brian] Eno said of those sessions, they were some of the most inspiring he had ever experienced, in all of the years he had been in a recording a studio. I know what he meant, because of the way we set up the sessions — the songwriting workshop, which then turned into the recording workshop. There were a lot of moments when it was so exciting, and it was all happening — the music was being invented in real time, in front of everyone’s eyes. And the songs had an inner DNA, a real power and substance. They were true works, because of that. There was no opportunity to allow our fingerprints to be on the pieces.

Dave Long 2009Were U2 in this decade a different, even better band than they were in the ’90s?

I hate to draw direct comparisons. We know more now, which is a great thing and a bad thing. So often, in the past, we would end up somewhere not knowing how we got there or what we were doing — and have to find a way out of a roadblock, like in our time in Berlin [recording Achtung! Baby]. We had a vague instinct for where we wanted to be, and the songs Bono and I were working on, trying to encourage Adam and Larry to get behind. They were rough sketches and very unimpressive sounding. But our instinct held out, and we eventually got there.

Now we never need to be quite so vulnerable. We know how it works a bit better. Our strength is we waste less time now. It still takes a long time to finish a U2 record. But we don’t end up lost, which we would have in the past.

You do go through periods of rebirth, like that stretch from The Joshua Tree through Rattle and Hum to Achtung! Baby. And it’s a pattern that seems to repeat itself in each decade.

We are the band that is always looking for the thing that has never been done — or never been heard. That’s partly because we get excited when something like that arrives. It’s fruitful for us, but also people expect it. That’s the U2 thing — we don’t see what’s going on and find a way to do it. We try to think of something that’s never been done. Maybe it comes from the fact that we’re still using a very simple array of sounds.

What you foresee for U2 in the next decade?

I can’t think that things will change radically for us, because we are already enjoying being in the band. It matters to us that we still make music that connects, and we are still capable of potentially doing our best-ever album. It’s not a foregone conclusion that our best work is behind us. That still makes it really exciting.

It also makes you unique at this juncture in your career.

Dave Long 2009We get that. Sometimes I think, “Why has it been so difficult for people in the past to maintain that?” We’re still learning. We’re still ambitious creatively, in terms of where we can take the band. There’s an awful lot there for us.

Is that belief true for all four of you?

We all genuinely believe it. It’s not arrogance. It’s because we are still hungry. There’s no reason why we can’t do this. You think about other art forms and artists — filmmakers, painters, sculptors. It doesn’t follow that your best work is done in your late twenties, early thirties, and then it’s downhill. Unfortunately, that’s the way rock & roll has panned out. But we don’t buy that. Our only limitation is our ability to apply ourselves, to be hard-minded on our work. We push and push until we get to those special pieces of music, those lyrics. And it doesn’t arrive on call. You can’t turn it on. It needs time spent &38212; and time spent in the right frame of mind.

There is no short cut. We end up, at a certain point, at the same place — the band in the room, trying to make something happen. And when it does, it’s a magic thing. There is no denying it.