Bono and Ali married on 21 August 1982 in a Church of Ireland (Anglican)
U2 Helsinki Review
Before we jump into the review of the show lets talk mobile signal jamming, it was interesting yesterday that most of the fans that tweet in the show or send video expressed issues with their signal. We can only report that this could only be related to this statdium.
U2 walked on stage relaxed despite the delay. The band was at home and seemed to crowd. They grabbed the audience from the start of the show and maintained them. Starting off with Beautiful Day seems to work well.
Critics seem to have their day too. Stating that the boys have seemed to miss the 90’s and beyond. Nothing fresh, nothing new yet the concert seemed to prove that Mysterious Ways has a place on this new setlist.
Enthusiasm did not slow down as they played “Where the Streets Have No Name” A couple of songs deleted from the show making room for Until the End of the World.
Bono seemed into the crowd, taking time to reference some points of interest. The show did start with a technical issue, the screen failed to go up causing a bit of delay in the start.
The crowd danced and sang along; remember the comment from the hotelier that U2’s audience is a bit old. Well the forty something crowd was clearing driving the show.
Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi was in the house and Kiviniemi received special treatment because he met with Bono before the gig and the singer mention the Prime Minister during a concert a few times.
Bottom line translators did not really do a good job of understanding the importance of U2’s arrival. Can U2 fill every show and create a buzz that over takes Rock? Well with 4 new projects on the way. U2 and I can only hope.
Australian Promotional Posters
During yesterday show we updated that we have spotted the Australian promotional posters with dates and ticket sales details. Here is what we do know. The posters are real, however they are production posters so we could claim them as official. So based on what we have seen we are just updating you of the possibility of the their arrival back to OZ, which will be the first time since PopMart -
- 1 December 2010: Etihad Stadium, Melbourne, Victoria
- 8 December 2010: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, Queensland
- 13 December 2010: ANZ Stadium, Sydney, New South Wales
- 18 December 2010: Subiaco Oval, Perth, Western Australia
These shows will, according to the posters, go on sale at 9am on Friday, 3 September 2010 via the usual outlets - Ticketmaster or Ticketek, depending on the venue’s ticket agency arrangements.
Helsinki Local Time -
FYI guess who is attending Saturday’s show ?
Andrea Corr looks set to mark her first wedding anniversary to well-to-do hubby Brett Desmond in style after the pair were invited to the Russian leg of U2’s 360 tour in Moscow, as VIP guests of Bono.
The loved-up newlyweds are on holiday abroad and will mark the milestone on Saturday, but are then hoping to jet to the Russian capital in time for a belated celebration at the gig next week.
Brett and Andrea are firm friends of the U2 frontman and are said to have offered him great support during his recent health scare, which saw him take a two-month break from the limelight after he was forced to undergo emergency surgery for a back injury. The Vertigo singer and wife Ali Hewson were among those at Brett and Andrea’s wedding at Doonbeg Golf Resort in Co Clare last summer.
The two couples share the same anniversary — and Bono and Ali will celebrate their 28th year together at U2’s concert in Helsinki, Finland, on Saturday.
It’s been a busy couple of weeks for the singer, who last weekend showed Sean Penn a night to remember as the Oscar-winning actor celebrated his 50th birthday in Dublin.
Penn is in Ireland filming new movie This Must Be The Place alongside Bono’s daughter Eve Hewson.
Baby Baby Light My Way
Sometimes I feel like I don’t know
Sometimes I feel like checking out…’
Second show in Horsens tonight, another capacity crowd and this European leg is hitting its stride. A great atmosphere with the Danish audience and signs that the band are thinking about some more surprises in the set list.
‘When I was all messed up and I heard opera in my head,
Your love was a light bulb hanging over my bed…’
Helena Christensen’s presence got Bono musing about the band: ‘Speaking of tall, beautiful, elegant, well dressed sex symbols, on my left… the Helena Christensen of our band… Adam Clayton…’
And on my right, the Heidi Klum of our catwalk, The Edge.
And behind me, on the drums, our very own model/actor, Brigitte Neilsen - Larry Mullen Jnr…
‘I don’t know what that makes me. Lucky I suppose?’
‘Baby, baby, baby, light my way.
Alright now, baby, baby, baby, light my way…’
Fans wondering could we expect to see Ultraviolet return to the setlist tonight ?
Record Attendance Expected
A record audience turnout is expected at Helsinki’s Olympic Stadium for concerts given by the U2 rock band as part of its “360” world tour. An estimated crowd of 104,000 fans are expected for the two concerts.
The concerts mark the reopening of Helsinki’s Olympic Stadium to the public after recent renovations. An audience of 52,000 people is expected on both nights, representing an all time record of attendance at the venue.
Previous audience records date from concerts given by the Rolling Stones and Tina Turner, each attended by 50,000 fans. Dual concerts given by Bruce Springsteen in 2003 attracted a precise total of 89,856 people.
Back in 1952, over 70,000 attended the Helsinki Olympics at the stadium.
The concerts-in-the-round feature the world’s biggest stage set for a pop tour. Some fans have been camping outside the venue since Wednesday, hoping to catch a glimpse of “the claw”, a steel construction at the heart of the band’s stage set.
About 600 extra tickets to the shows went on sale on Friday morning.
This is the band’s third visit to Finland since 1983, when they played at Turku’s Ruisrock festival.
Concert Postponed
The show in Seville will be postponed by one day to Thursday, 30th of Setember 2010. The original show date was 29th however due to a general strike planned for the 29th it makes it impossible to hold a show.
U2.com has annouced the changes and stated that all tickets for the original date will be honoured at the new date. Fans that can not attend the new date must return their tickets to thier point of purchase no later than September 10th 2010.
The complete tour guide can be found here
He's Not Spiderman, Paul Maybe SuperMan
In the new issue of GQ, we hear from the man who stands behind it. Manager Paul McGuinness has written a fascinating article: How To Save The Music Industry.
There is no doubt this is a business in peril. Every economic quarter brings more bad news from the commercial frontline. Put bluntly, falling CD sales are not being matched by rising legal digital downloads, and all the mooted new revenue streams of sponsorship, sync deals and direct sales are not taking up the slack. Even the live scene, supposedly the last refuge for working musicians, is suffering, with major stars failing to sell out dates.
The battleground of the music industry (and, indeed, every creative industry) is copyright, and McGuinness has placed himself at the forefront of this campaign for several years.
McGuinness’s GQ essay is an interesting and well-informed attempt to define the problem and suggest possible solutions. McGuinness, at his most optimistic, envisages “a world of millions of micro-payments, paid daily and triggered by technology that will track every use of a song, identify the rights owner and arrange instant electronic payment. Music subscription will be the basic access route to enjoying tracks and albums, but by no means the only one. Households will pay for a subscription service like Spotify, or they will pay for a service bundled into their broadband bill, to an ISP such as Sky and Virgin Media. But many customers will also take out more expensive added-value packages, with better deals including faster access to new releases. There will also be a healthy market in downloads to own and premium albums. iTunes will be fighting its corner in the market, probably with its own subscription service. And a significant minority will still buy CDs, coveting the packaging, the cover designs and the sense of ownership:
Quote from Paul:
“It is two years on from my Cannes speech. Some things are better in the music world, but unfortunately the main problem is still just as bad as it ever was. Artists cannot get record deals. Revenues are plummeting. Efforts to provide legal and viable ways of making money from music are being stymied by piracy. The latest figures from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) shown that 95 per cent of all music downloaded is illegally obtained and unpaid for. Indigenous music industries from Spain to Brazil are collapsing. An independent study endorsed by trade unions says Europe’s creative industries could lose more than a million jobs in the next five years. Maybe the message is finally getting through that this isn’t just about fewer limos for rich rock stars.
Of course this isn’t crippling bands like U2 and it would be dishonest to claim it was. I’ve always believed artists and musicians need to take their business as seriously as their music. U2 understood this. They have carefully pursued careers as performers and songwriters, signed good deals and kept control over their life’s work. Today, control over their work is exactly what young and developing performers are losing. It is not their fault. It is because of piracy and the way the internet has totally devalued their work.
So how did we get here? How is it in 2010, in a world of iTunes and Spotify, of a healthy live music scene and hundreds of different legal sites, that making money fairly from recorded music remains so elusive?”