Twenty years ago, Bono described Achtung Baby as ‘the sound of four men chopping down The Joshua Tree’ while Jon Pareles of the New York Times wrote that ‘stripped-down and defying its old formulas, U2 has given itself a fighting chance for the 1990’s’. The album won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance and became one of the most significant records of the nineties and of U2’s career.

To mark twenty years since its 1991 release, an anniversary edition of U2’sAchtung Baby is due on October 31, 2011.

Recorded over six months at Hansa Studio in Berlin and Windmill Lane in Dublin,Achtung Baby is U2’s seventh studio album. Produced by long time U2 collaborators, Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno with Steve Lillywhite, Achtung Babywas engineered by Flood and led by The Fly. The album spawned four other singles, Mysterious Ways, One, Even Better Than The Real Thing and Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses. 

The Achtung Baby archives have unearthed some previously unreleased songs from the recording sessions. With a raft of unreleased material; video, remixes, b-sides and documentary footage discovered, a full album of demo and early versions of the final 1991 tracklisting has also been revealed. Five physical editions including vinyl, CD, DVD and digital options will be made available. 

Earlier this year U2 returned to Hansa Studio in Berlin to discuss Achtung Baby in From The Sky Down, directed by Academy Award winning director Davis Guggenheim (Waiting for Superman, An Inconvenient Truth). The film has been selected to open the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8th and will be included in the anniversary edition.

On October 12, 2006, Eric Shivvers’ custom painted U2 jeans granted him access to sit on Oprah Winfrey’s couch minutes before the queen of television talk interviewed Bono, lead singer of U2, about his quest to rid Africa of AIDS with his Red Campaign. Asked by an associate producer why he was a die-hard fan of Bono, Eric explained, “because he’s passionate about his causes. He believes what he’s doing socially is for the betterment of all of us.” Sitting on Oprah’s couch that day was the closest Eric had ever been to his idol without a crush of fans. I’m a Fan - How I married U2 into my life without going to the altar is an inside look at one of U2’s most passionate fans, Eric Shivvers. Eric, a fan of the Irish band for over 25 years, takes us on his journey. From the collapse of his parent’s marriage to sitting on Oprah’s couch shortly before Bono takes the stage for a taping, Eric shares with us his parent’s divorce, his battle with depression, his mother’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and other life issues while U2 sits in the background playing the sound track to his life.   

The U2 360° Tour launched in support of the group’s 2009 album No Line on the Horizon, the tour visiting  stadiums from 2009 through 2011. The U2 360° Tour is named after the 360-degree staging and audience configuration it uses for shows, which U2 claims is “the first time a band has toured in stadiums with such a unique and original structure.” To accommodate this, the stage set makes use of a massive four-legged supporting rig that has been nicknamed “The Claw” and has set a world record for the largest concert stage structure. Mark Peterson captures the band as the immersive experience begins.  All the images within the book are from the tour. This book takes you back to the show unlike any other U2 media book. The photographer provides an up close and personal view of  the band in rare form and provides a full color photo of the whole U2 experience. This is a must have for any U2 fan.  

U2 fans who want material on the band but “still haven’t found what they’re looking for” will welcome this song-by-song volume. This definitive new book features original and revealing interviews with the group, plus key people close to them.