The band were scheduled to headline the 40th anniversary of the event on Friday, June 25, but cancelled because lead singer Bono suffered a back injury.
U2, who have never played Glastonbury, will be replaced by former Blur front man Damon Albarn and Gorillaz.
Speaking to The Irish Post, the Glastonbury organisers said: “They’ve never played here before and we’re very disappointed they can’t perform, but they could well be back next year or the year after that.”
The withdrawal of a major international act is unusual for an event which has become the Christmas Day of the British music calendar.
A spokesman for Glastonbury said: “The one that springs to mind is Kylie Minogue’s withdrawal in 2005 because of breast cancer. She was replaced by Basement Jaxx.”
In 1995, The Stone Roses were forced to cancel after guitarist John Squire broke a collarbone. They were replaced by Pulp who made full use of the opportunity. “They got great acclaim,” said the spokesman. “That gig pushed them and Jarvis Cocker into the limelight.”
U2 Rose Bowl DVD Arrives
U2’ marketing machine was planning on using the release U2 360 at the Rose Bowl this week to promote the North American summer tour. Expected to start this Thursday which now we all know has been delayed due to Bono’s unexpected back surgery.
We don’t want to give away too much of the DVD. However we will say this is the best U2 DVD ever released. Yes, we said the best. Amazing footage, audio sounds wonderful. Clearly you will notice some edits on a couple of songs. Remember when we said that “City of Blinding Lights” the stage was made for this song. We think you will be impressed again.
Noticeable item would be the lack of heavy focus on the stage. As Bono and the boys have said many times the stage was “designed to get closer to you.” You will notice that not a lot of attention on the stage rather the music such as a music DVD should be.
Bono takes the leading role, the voice sounds better. If you remember a couple of shows he seemed to have some voice issues. Running around the stage, singing, dancing it’s a pure love fest for Bono. We expect that he will not be running around the stage as much as this past leg. However who knows. Singing, Dancing, its all part of the show and Bono knows you came to see the show.
We want to cut our review short. Why? Well clearly your feedback is much more interesting to us. You will find some great surprises such as Squaring the Circle - The insider look at how the stage came to be.
If we have to wait a whole year before the boys come back to America. This DVD will ease the pain. We have thousands of hours of concert video from the 360 tour however this DVD is the one concert DVD you will want to own.
U2360 Live at the Rose Bowl ! Order today
Bono risks millions
At the end of last year Bono, and his wife of 28 years, Ali, moved their family from Dublin to New York to help launch the ethical clothing line based in Tribeca, Manhattan.
Ali has now revealed that the business has so far failed to make a profit.
“It hasn’t made money — it hasn’t made a profit yet,” said Ali. “But it’s growing. It’s growing.
“The first five years of the company is about putting money in and building the trade. So of course we had to support it. We’re still here supporting it now, because we believe in it.”
In fact the Hewson family believed so entirely in the project that they all moved to New York to be closer to the day to day running of the business.
“I’ve been seeing how the operation was being upgraded on a daily, weekly basis,” she said.
“It’s been amazing to see how far it has come in six months.
In 2005 Bono, Ali and fashion designer Rogan Gregory founded the fashion line. However, Ali says that the mission to increase employment in developing regions of Africa has overshadowed the company itself.
Over the years Bono has endured some criticism for his constant involvement in charity campaigns. His critics feel that his methods are a little preachy and that he’s over exposed in the media. However Ali defends his ongoing charity activism.
“He’s always known, if you want to get anything done you’ve got to stand in the firing line sometimes…He doesn’t do it for the warm fuzzy feelings. He does it to actually bring some change about, and highlight issues that were being pushed under the carpet. And he does it very effectively.
“Bono will say to you, ‘I’m sick of Bono, and I am Bono’.”
Just three years ago Edun had $3.6 million in bank loans and owes it’s three shareholders $7.9 million.
Ali feels that the situation for the company can only get better as the Hewson’s partnered up with LVMH, who owns Givenchy, Moet & Chandon, Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Christian Dior.
Edun’s plans to have a line of clothing ready for the soccer World Cup this summer designed but children in the slums in Nairobi.
Bono's Back Costs Millions !
NOW THAT U2’S North American tour has been postponed because of Bono’s back surgery, it’s time for all involved to start totting up the cost. “U2’s daily tour overhead spend is $750,000 [€950,000],” says an Irish music-tour insider. “Bono’s back has put them out of action for two months. They’re insured for show postponement, but that’s not the full story. The set-up costs of the three Claws they use was phenomenal. They don’t need this, their insurance company doesn’t need this and the global touring economy doesn’t need this. It’s not just the show day; it’s the three of four days before setting up the stadium, one day stripping it down after, the 200 trucks, the drivers, the security, the merchandising people, the drinks and food people, the programme sellers, costume, make-up and hundreds of other people. U2 would have over 100 permanent touring personnel and an extra 200-300 working personnel at each local venue. It’s the hotels, the flights, the food vouchers. It’s like a small country coming to a standstill.”
Arthur Fogel, chief executive of U2’s concert promoter, Live Nation, says of the 3600 tour postponement: “There’s no question this is monumental.”
A million tickets had been sold for the band’s North American leg, in July and August, now put off to allow Bono to recuperate from his back surgery in Munich last week after injuring himself during rehearsals. The band are looking at 2011 for the rescheduled dates.
Of severe annoyance to the band is the fact that there was also a high-profile Glastonbury Festival appearance (their first) at the end of June – their spot has now been taken by Gorillaz – for which the band had written a song.
The European leg of the tour, from August until October, is still officially on, but it will depend on the singer’s recuperation. The emergency surgery was needed “to avoid further paralysis”, said doctors after Bono developed severe compression of the sciatic nerve, along with a ligament tear and a herniated disc.
“He won’t want reminding that he just turned 50 last month,” says a source. “He has been throwing himself around stages for over 30 years. He’s up there as the frontman for two and a half hours a night, and he’s not one to do things by half measures. This is a very serious injury and sounds like it could be the result of cumulative damage. How things play out will be interesting. This is showbiz – hundreds of millions of dollars rest upon a 50-year-old man’s back disc.”
All focus now will be on whether the singer is fit for the European tour. (There are no Irish shows this time around.) Bono may not climb up speaker stacks any more (something that always concerned other band members), but he still flings himself around a fair bit. As the focal point for 80,000 people each night, a certain degree of showmanship is required. People close to him say there is no way he will appear on stage without being able to give it “the full-on Bono treatment”.
The band train hard before going the road, but in the months off between legs of the tour they can let themselves go a bit. This back injury was caused by Bono trying to get himself into shape for two months of touring after several months off.
What is particularly frustrating for the band is that this tour is perhaps their most significant ever. They’ve never spent as much money assembling a stage configuration as they have on the Claw, and they were prepared to go substantially into the red on the tour before seeing any profit.
With their latest album not selling as well as it could have, the tour has exceeded expectations. It was the most profitable tour of last year, but in this, its second year, it was supposed to resolve a long dispute over who is the most popular live rock band of all time.
U2’s Vertigo tour (2005-2006) sits in second place as the highest-grossing music tour. Just ahead of it lies The Rolling Stones’ Bigger Bang tour (2005-2007), which grossed $558 million. The Stones, though, played a lot more dates than U2. So far, the 360 tour has grossed $311 million. Without Bono’s back injury it would have easily grabbed the prize.
Guinness World Records (and bragging rights) will have to wait. But for the still intensely competitive Bono, having U2 make another piece of music history will be motivation enough to accelerate the recuperation process. For a few months, though, there is a line on U2’s horizon.
“360” DVD tops “Entertainment Weekly’s” Must List
The Must List is a feature in which the magazine picks the 10 best things in entertainment for the week. U2’s mention is featured in the new issue of “EW” (it’s a double issue, #1105/1106) and is on page 9 (just wanted to be specific!)
It’s just a little blurb, but it still speaks to how spectacular the YouTube-live streamed Pasadena show was: “Join the nearly 100,000 fans who piled into the SoCal stadium last October, and catch the band’s groundbreaking set on DVD or Blu-ray (out June 3). Bonus: Check out how Bono and the boys put the crazy thing together.”
Its time to order yours today U2 - 360° AT THE ROSE BOWL [Super Deluxe Edition]
We can’t wait to watch this though. It was exciting to watch it live as it was happening. Now go to amazon today and order your own copy !
America thanks you Bono !
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (May 31 in 2010). Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service. We head into this weekend thinking about all men and women that have died to protect freedom everywhere in the world.
Aung San Suu Kyi contiues to fght for the rights of others.
Enjoy the weekend off - We have been given the weekend off here too.
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America’s Song - Bono, Will I AM and Others
Bono's back injury an opportunity to ridicule U2
” Place some crabs in a bucket and watch as one tries to get out, the others will pull that crab back in the bucket”
U2’s front-man probably wasn’t singing, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,” after the rehearsal that put him out of commission and caused the band to delay its upcoming tour.
The Irish rock superstars will postpone 16 dates on their upcoming American tour, which was scheduled to stop at Angel Stadium on June 6 & 7, and canceled its high-profile performance at the Glastonbury music festival. Their band’s manager says Bono needs time to heal from a back injury.
After nearly a quarter-century together and close to a bajillion hit songs, there seems to be growing animosity toward the group. As we know from seeing Paul McCartney continue to tour, Bono, 50, might be over the hill, but he isn’t too old to rock. He’ll just have to deal with throwing out his back every now and again.
While Bono may not be able to count to four in Spanish (as evidenced in the intro to the song “Vertigo”), he sure knows how to put on an entertaining, powerful performance. We watched the band rock the Rose Bowl last October. So what’s with all of these haters on our Pop & Hiss music blog?
Boomerang writes: Who cares… Last good U2 album was Achtung Baby and that was about 20 years ago!
Diky writes: Bono and U2 have been letting everyone down with their self righteousness and krap music for years.
Mark writes: Big deal. The most overrated band in the world. 25% talent, 25% hype and 50% politics!
The Bell writes: Bono’s back injury probably has something to do with carrying that big head of his around for so many years.
Is U2’s reputation on the downturn, or was Tuesday’s reader backlash another case of a vocal minority of naysayers?
Lets push our crab out of the bucket and allow them to pull us thru.