The 21st annual Pollstar Concert Industry Awards honored its own Wednesday night at the Nokia Theatre at LA Live in Los Angeles. The awards are held annually and honors the promoters, artist managers, booking agents and technical companies.
The winners are chosen by the people that make the concert scene happen. The show honored music artists and companies that helped the concert business in the 2009 year. It’s an insider’s look at which bands mattered in 2009.
Comedian Katleen Madigan hosted the show. A few of the celebrity presenters included Jay Osmond, Lamont Dozier, Don Felder, Al Jarreau, Alan Parsons, Rob Halford of Judas Priest and actor John O’Hurley.
Final date for “360” North American leg
If you live in Salt Lake City and missed out on seeing U2’s “360” tour last year, now is your chance!
U2 will play at the Rice Eccles Stadium on June 3rd. Tickets go on sale Monday, but presale access for U2.com subscribers begins tomorrow.
This will be the final date announcement for the North American leg of the tour, but it will be the day that U2 actually starts “360” up again this summer!
There was also some whispers that U2 would be playing another show in Dublin this summer at the O2, but those proved to be just whispers.
Vatican’s rock top-10: Beatles, U2, Pink Floyd
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican newspaper has come up with a “semi-serious” list of 10 essential rock and pop albums, including works by the Beatles, U2, Michael Jackson and Pink Floyd.
The list was offered in a tongue-in-cheek article Feb. 14 as an alternative to the music of Italy’s biggest pop music festival, which was to begin two days later. The “10 albums worth taking to a desert island” were listed in the chronological order of their release:
- “Revolver” by the Beatles, described as more innovative than any of their successive albums.
- “If I Could Only Remember My Name” by David Crosby. Its songs used experimental musical forms to express an “existential fragility,” the article said.
- “The Dark Side of the Moon” by Pink Floyd, which the newspaper called an “amazing” and eminently enjoyable milestone in the history of rock music.
- “Rumours” by Fleetwood Mac, which the article said mixed the sounds of blues, pop and country.
- “The Nightfly” by Donald Fagen of Steely Dan. A niche album, but “brilliant and ironical,” according to the Vatican newspaper.
- “Thriller” by Michael Jackson. The article described this album as “the masterpiece of the king of pop” and said its original approach went against the stereotypes of black music.
- “Graceland” by Paul Simon, who used South African music with his own to create a multiethnic album that marked the birth of “world music,” the newspaper said.
- “Achtung Baby” by U2, a disk that stands out for its music and lyrics, and remains a symbol of the ’90s, it said.
- “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” by Oasis. The group picks up the great tradition of the Beatles, but with a harder edge of punk and rock, it said.
- “Supernatural” by Carlos Santana, seen as an avant-garde mix of blues, soul, salsa and rock.
The article ended by explaining why it left Bob Dylan off its list. While acknowledging his “great poetic vein,” it said Dylan’s greatest fault was to have inspired a generation of amateur singer-songwriters who have “severely tested the ears and patience of listeners, thinking that someone might be interested in their tortured meanderings.”
Google Drills into Geothermal; Bono and U2, too
The United States — especially California — gets a substantial amount of non-hydro renewable energy from geothermal. We’ve reported on new geothermal technologies in this EPRI article and recently summarized last year’s geothermal action.
In fact, while solar and wind get all the headlines, geothermal quietly produced 4.5 percent of California’s total system power in 2007, with more than 40 operating geothermal plants in the state. Most U.S. geothermal installed capacity remains concentrated in California; in 2005, California’s geothermal power capacity was more than that of every country in the world, according to the GEA.
Charles Baron, Google’s geothermal program lead, spoke in San Francisco at this week’s GeoPower Americas 2010 gathering. Baron is a geothermal enthusiast, as is Google.
As testament to its earnestness about geothermal, Google has invested in geothermal start-ups Altarock Energy and Potter Drilling. Google has also invested in a number of other renewable energy firms, including solar firms BrightSource Energy and eSolar and high-altitude wind innovator Makani Power.
Google has issued geothermal grants, as well.
Google issued a grant to Southern Methodist University’s geothermal lab for geothermal resource mapping, in what seems an obvious synergy with Google Earth. Much of today’s geothermal data mapping is based on data collected in the 1970s. Since then, millions of geothermal data points have been collected from oil, gas and geothermal exploration but have not been aggregated and analyzed. The grant supports SMU in aggregating data for the most under-sampled regions of the U.S. and in developing new methodologies for estimating geothermal resources, according to Google’s Baron.
Stanford University also received a geothermal-focused grant from Google to investigate single-well systems.
On the global side, the technical community faces a formidable challenge when it comes to developing ways “to speak apples to apples about geothermal” measurements across different regions. It will be important to come up with a common language to communicate about global geothermal resources, according to Baron.
Baron also posed the question, is geothermal interesting to VCs?
The answer is somewhat nuanced. If geothermal is going to be a good fit for the venture capital asset class, investments will have to be in technology that is, “extremely disruptive,” requiring significant “technology whitespace.”
U2, Lady Gaga and Westlife tipped for Meteor success
Irish rockers U2, ‘Poker Face’ star Lady Gaga and chart-toppers Westlife are being hotly tipped to clean up at this year’s Meteor Music Awards.
Voting lines have now closed and Paddy Power are now finished betting on the event but the closing odds suggest the three acts will walk away with major gongs on the night.
U2 finished up 1/4 favourites with Paddy Power to win Best Irish Live Performance, while Lady Gaga, who cleaned up at the Brits, finished at closing odds of 1/2 to win Best International Female.
As for Westlife, the lads are heading for their tenth consecutive Meteor Award for Best Irish Pop Act at odds of 1/10!
In other categories, Today FM’s Ray Foley has been backed off the boards to win Best National DJ at 1/6 while Florence & The Machine could pip Lady Gaga to the post in the Best International Album category following a late gamble at odds of 9/4.
In the Best Irish Male category Paddy Power prematurely suspended betting after seeing one-way traffic for folk legend Christy Moore at 8/13.
Sharon McHugh, spokesperson for Paddy Power said: “Most of the money has been for U2, Lady Gaga and Westlife but the Meteors have thrown up a few surprises over the years so as the saying goes it’s not over ‘til the fat lady sings!”
U2TOURFANS adds more features to iPhone/iTouch Application
A departure from the norm, thats what the Chief Editor called this new release. The idea that fans are only american or only from the UK seems a bit out of touch. This lastest release blends the best of the fan based U2 sites from around the world. Starting with South America, If you believe your site should be considered drop us an email. Check them all out via our application.
IT WAS a night of surprises at the Meteor Ireland Music Awards, with U2 going home empty-handed for the first time.
