Spider After Party Secure Deal

Bono’s Spidey Sense sure was tingling on Tuesday night.

After a rousing, fist-pumping appearance at the opening-night performance of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” the U2 front man’s paranoia took center stage for the $65 million musical’s after-party at Bowlmor Lanes Midtown.

“It was the most high-security event I’ve ever been to,” says a source familiar with the situation.

According to the insider, Bono had his security team thoroughly sweep the nightspot before his arrival.

“They did multiple walk-throughs ahead of time to make sure everything was secure and swept the closets to make sure no one was in them.” (Julie Taymor, perhaps?)

Bono also kept the guest list to his private VIP area tighter than Spider-Man’s Spandex suit. Only preapproved friends, family and celebrities, including Cindy Crawford, her husband, club owner Rande Gerber, and Julian Lennon were permitted to keep him company.

The source adds that cast members such as T.V. Carpio, who plays Arachne in the musical, tried to gain entrance to Bono’s inner sanctum but were turned away.

“He wanted to be left alone because he is Bono,” says the source.

Perhaps the charismatic celebrity felt he’d done his part for the problem-plagued show at the Foxwoods Theater, where he sat next to Bill Clinton and one row behind Jay-Z.

Bono remained relatively reserved during Act I of “Spider-Man.” The show features music and lyrics written by him and his U2 bandmate The Edge.

By Act II, however, Bono could hardly contain himself. As Reeve Carney, who plays Peter Parker, belted out the final notes of the musical number “The Boy Falls From the Sky,” Bono shot out of his seat, pumped his first and shouted in triumph. (Clinton, on the other hand, kept it presidential.)

When the final curtain fell, he practically jumped over Clinton to take the stage and do a few bows with The Edge.

He also took the mic to explain why the show took 16 months and 2½ times its original cost to officially open.

“We had to save ‘Spider-Man’ because ‘Spider-Man’ has to save New York,” Bono said.

The rock star then retreated to a makeshift VIP room in the theater. There, says a source, he hosted Clinton, Jay-Z, Matt Damon, Robert De Niro, Mayor Bloomberg and Jimmy Fallon, among others, before heading to a very secure Bowlmo


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2011/06/16/2011-06-16_at_spiderman_musical_afterparty_u2s_bono_keeps_a_tight_guest_list_at_bowlmor_in_.html#ixzz1PREzUfUi

GA Line Starts in Anaheim

Who are you ? Fans already standing, sleeping, eating or just kicking around some time. We want to know who you are ? Why are you already lined up almost 3 days before the show. Who is paying you to stand in line ?

Send us some daily photos of your line experience fans around the world want to know why ? Memphis Mullen has not even arrived to the venue  yet so your ahead of the game - Well good luck to you the mighty fan.

U2TOURFANS.2011@twitpic.com

U2 Wave from Around the world

Spidey Opens Today

In their fullest comments yet about the creative clashes this winter inside “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” Bono and the Edge, of U2 — first-time Broadway composers — said they originally embraced Julie Taymor’s script and characters for the show but were wholly ill-prepared for putting her ambitious ideas onstage. They ultimately lost faith in her and quietly maneuvered to overhaul “Spider-Man,” before finally shocking Ms. Taymor, their longtime collaborator, with her ouster in March.

Bono and the Edge expressed regret at not being on site during previews in December, saying they were locked into a U2 tour of New Zealand and Australia. Most Broadway composers, both veterans and especially newcomers, are in their theaters virtually every night during previews, watching and taking notes. The Edge said they watched videos of performances from Australia yet were not in the theater again until early January, by which time the musical had become a late-night TV punch line.

They then went to work on sound design and new lyrics; despite hints and promises of new music, however, there is only one fully new song in the show, a version of which had been pitched to Ms. Taymor.

Even now, Bono and the Edge said, the musical is just 90 percent complete, with a final 10 percent of work — in their view, chiefly involving the relationship between Peter Parker and the villain, the Green Goblin — to be done this summer.

“The first time I loved ‘Spider-Man’ was two and a half weeks ago,” he admitted, but added, “Even when I was really angry about its obtuse story and some of the awful readings of the music — even then I was still saying, it was kind of magical.”

Well lets see what the reviews are.

Bono and The Edge will also be on NBC Nightly News on Tuesday with  Anchorman Brian Williams 

The Edge and Adam Chat with RS

Dre: The tour season for U2 will come to an end in an interview posted on Rolling Stone The Edge and Adam talked about the next tour and gave some ideas of what it could be like. Also within the interview we learned about the 2011 ablum.

Brian Hiatt from RS had a chance to catch up with Adam and The Edge at the Denver show. Here is some of that coversation.

Adam was asked there are a number of No Line On he Horizon songs not on the setlist so the show does feel like a NLOTH show at this point, Adam said yea its unfortunate, we would like to be playing more from the album, we did get good reviews however the fans did not catch on, think of it this way the single did not work so fans did not have a road into the album. We would have to agree however since we know a deeper U2 lies within we gave the album second and third chance.

The tour was to be over by now. The timing of the tour was nothing we could do. What happened to Bono was fairly serious and at the time he could not have gone on. He needed to be operated on now. That gave us a chance to work on material. However we have not had a chance to go back and work on a completed set. Pretty much why we will not have a record this year.

Photos from First show -

The Edge talked abit about the next tour and said that we could expect something different, the interview did go on about spiderman which seems to be a sore subject for Bono and The Edge not a project that will go down as perfect, more like it was a labor of love. Well thats alot of love.

Read more of the interview within the Rolling Stone online -

Delayed Until 2012

Irish rockers U2 have postponed the release of their latest album, due to troubles with their ‘Spider-Man’ musical. The band, who have been in the studio working on the follow-up to 2009’s “No Line On The Horizon” , now aim to have the new album out by next year.

“We had to have a meeting and look at the schedule to see if we could pick up any extra time to work on it. We just realised that we couldn’t. To be honest, everyone was a bit gutted. But it was the only sensible decision,” U2 bassist Adam Clayton  told  Rolling Stone.

Remember RedOne the producer that worked on a couple of tunes with the boys? Well, Clayton said that:

”We have to focus on what we do best, and the work we did with Danger Mouse came closest to that. In the end, the thing we did with RedOne doesn’t feel like the right fit.”

RedOne works include Lady Gaga, and Ms Lopez and Danger Mouse - So for now we wait 2012 for a new album and you can expect the full power of the marketing machine behind them.

Spidey is expected to arrive June 14th and you can bet that Bono and The Edge will be happy that its finally ready to go - The preview season was longer than most runnings on Broadway. So lets get it running

Massive, Impressive Worth the Wait

By Aidin Vaziri: It was massive. It was relentless. And, above all else, it was heartbreaking. But enough about the gnarly traffic jam outside Oakland’s Overstock.com Coliseum on Tuesday, which turned a typically easy commute to the ballpark into a panic-laced three-hour ordeal dotted with beaming red lights and a robust chorus of car horns.

The real action took place inside the stadium, where nearly 70,000 fans slowly filtered into their seats to finally catch a glimpse of U2’s big-budget 360° world tour, rescheduled from last year after the group’s front man, Bono, injured his back during rehearsals.

The singer, wearing his ever-present sunglasses in the middle of the evening, made up for the nightmare commute with a little flattery and a lot of passion.

“You guys invented the 21st century, didn’t you?” he said, surveying an eclectic audience that boasted lifelong fans, kids, unwitting contest winners, Silicon Valley glitterati and even a few real-life rock stars (Lou Reed was reportedly in the house).

Bono regaled the audience with details of a dinner the night before at San Francisco’s A16 with members of local platinum-shifters Metallica and Green Day. “Music shaped the Bay Area,” he said. “And the Bay Area shaped the world.”

Or as guitarist the Edge put it, “We talked about the most important issues of the day - the best Tequila available.”

U2, meanwhile, put on a formidable live show, with the singer breathing new life into some of the band’s most well-worn hits. Bono bellowed his way through decades-old songs like “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Pride (In the Name of Love)” as if he were singing them for the first time.

With the Edge at his side, the front man delivered a stunning, full-throated acoustic version of “Stay (Faraway, So Close!).” He even convincingly filled in for Pavarotti on the understated operatic duet “Miss Sarajevo.”

The concert, built around a circular stage and enormous four-legged 400-ton structure known as “the Claw,” initially launched two years ago in support of the group’s indifferently received 12th studio album, “No Line on the Horizon.”

Going by the fervent reception that greeted the band at Tuesday’s concert, though, U2 didn’t lose any of its momentum during the time off, even though it failed to finish a promised follow-up release and has spent a good deal of time trying to untangle the problems with the Broadway production of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” (finally set to open next week).

In fact, the politically charged concert was part of what has officially become the highest grossing tour of all time (and most expensive to produce thanks to the 500,000-pixel video screen).

“Thank-you for your patience,” Bono said. “Some of you were two years younger when you bought those tickets.”

Despite the focus on the special effects at the outset of the evening, the band was never swallowed up by the technology - even when they were completely enveloped by it during “Zooropa.” The Claw came to life a few times during the 2.5-hour show, spouting green smoke and shooting red lights high into the sky, but it never felt like the main attraction.

Some people in the crowd grumbled that the giant screens made it feel like watching a DVD at home - especially from the back rows. But no amount of high-definition engineering could wring out the kind of emotion the group - rounded out by bass player Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. - summoned during its mesmerizing run through “One.” That took real soul.

I have your face in an old Polaroid

Eric Shivvers:A few days a go, I was rummaging through boxes of photos at my mom’s house when I came across this image of me from college. Mom had it in a frame, which meant it was important to her.  It’s a self-portrait, capturing me during the spring of my junior year in college in 1989. Obviously, U2 was close to my heart.

I have not seen it in some years. I think I shot on a whim, either for class or to finish out a roll of film. Either way, it doesn’t matter as it captured a time of innocence in my life. I loved those years on campus at the University of Iowa. The highlight was seeing U2 play live when they stopped in Iowa City on the Joshua Tree tour. The four Irishmen were supposed to perform at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, but they didn’t. Rumor was they wanted to set-up their outdoor stage but were not allowed to. Instead, they came to our campus, much to our delight. 

I always wanted to sit in Carver-Hawkeye arena where I sat for that show on October 20th, 1987. Three years ago, I had that opportunity when my wife sent me packing to work on my memoir, I’m a Fan: How I married U2 into my life without going to the altar, at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. She had no idea she was sending me back to the place where the fandom took hold. She has always felt there was another person in our relationship. Yes, it is U2 and this time I was going back to work on a book and visit a familiar space. 

I’m not sure how many people can walk into an empty arena and sit for a few minutes in a space where their life changed. Luckily, I had that opportunity and I lived in the moment again. It was helpful, as I wanted the reader of my book to understand the excitement, the anxieties and the immense distance, from my seats in section JJ row 25, to the stage that night. The passion I had to create a flag and hoist it on a concrete column behind us, letting U2 know from the farthest seat sat their biggest fan, only to have it taken away. 

The innocence found in this picture is what I wanted for the book. The not knowing where the world would take me next, but the knowledge that U2 would always be with me is the crux of the story. It is something all of us fans can identify with as we have so passionately followed them throughout our lives. Sometimes, we cannot answer why we are fans. Inside, we just know we are and that is okay.

Eric’s Book can be found here -

I’m a Fan: How I married U2 into my life without going to the altar