U2TOURFANS

By Candace Jackson

Of the dozens of art world events happening as part of Armory Arts Week in New York right now, one of the most buzzed about was last night’s New Museum’s opening of a controversial show that features highlights from the personal collection of Greek billionaire Dakis Joannou, curated by artist Jeff Koons.

At last night’s opening party Koons, wearing a crisp black suit, wandered the galleries with his daughter. Speakeasy caught up with him on the fourth floor of the museum, which featured an eclectic mix of works including brown gouache paintings by Kara Walker and a sparkling sculpture called “Super Sister” by Liza Lou of an oversized bejeweled woman with an afro wearing short-shorts, platform red heels. “Skin Fruit: Selections from the Dakis Joannou Collection” marks the first time Koons has taken on the role of curator.

“I think I ended up dealing mostly with the body, inside and out,” Koons said of his approach. But as for making a career out of putting together art exhibits in the future, Koons says his plan now is to “to focus on my own work.”

Koons and Joannou have been friends since 1985, according to the artist, and Athens-based Joannou has been one of the earliest and most prolific collectors of his work. The exhibition is the first in a series called “the Imaginary Museum,” that will present significant private collections as exhibitions in New Museum.

The exhibition features more than 100 works by Koons and other artists including Kiki Smith, Matthew Barney and Charles Ray. The show is still stirring up debate in the art world since Joannou is also a longtime trustee of the museum. Detractors argue that the show is a conflict of interest for the non-profit institution.

That didn’t stop crowds from turning up for last night’s opening party. The elevators were so packed for much of the evening that many guests decided to walk between the four floors through a narrow stairwell. Downtown hipsters, artists and a random smattering of celebrities, including Cyndi Lauper, Pierce Brosnan and fashion photographer David LaChapelle, wandered the galleries.

U2’s the Edge, in his telltale black beanie and a plaid shirt, seemed to offer the most distraction from the artwork for star-struck onlookers. “He’s still so cute after all these years!” said one young female gallery wanderer, within earshot of the musician. Standing near a tall rock-like sculpture by artist Dan Colen, decorated with graffiti-style writing and wads of chewed gum, the Edge, who’s real name is David Evans, told us that he was impressed by the size of Jaonnou’s collection. “It’s incredible to see it all in one exhibition,” he said. Though he wouldn’t call himself a major collector of art, Evans told us he does own works by Jean Michel Basquiat and Damien Hirst, whom he calls a friend.

On the second floor, a woman wearing all black and a museum-credential badge and facing a wall, broke out into song every few minutes near a white Carrara marble sculpture of several people lying on the ground in body bags, a piece by Maurizio Cattelan. “Thiiis is propagaaaaaanda,” the woman sang melodically before matter-of-factly announcing, in a speaking voice, “This is Propaganda, 2002, by Tino Sehgal,” referring to the title and author of the performance art piece she was putting on. (Sehgal currently has a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum uptown.) “Yes! I’m a piece!” she answered a few confused onlookers who needed clarification.



U2TOURFANS Looking for Followers !

U2TOURFANS As we get ready to launch our tour season we back here in our cold offices have been thinking about contests that we can hold for our followers, we would never dare call you fans, unless it was in reference to the band of course. Thinking about concests we have come up with a couple of ideas. Of course there not fully baked nor would the boss let us throw them out to you like this, however we can say its going to be tied to Facebook, Youtube and Twitter and our iPhone Application. Refer your friends to sign up to any or all of the three media choices and you could be a winner of a super cool item(s).

U2 weekly wrap up starts now this has been an interesting week. Take a look at the stories you followed. We have our guest writter program kicking off again, as well as a feature writer, if you would like to be a guest writer let us know. Oh before we forget. Remember we asked for your best U2TOURFANS photo. Its not too late to get in on this. Send it to us via Facebook.

U2’s Bono makes diva demands

U2’s BonoDiva alert: U2 front man Bono dined with bandmate Edge at Butter on Tuesday night, and another person dining there says he had more than a few demands.

“He wanted Perrier, which they didn’t have, so a waiter actually ran across the street to a store and bought him a bottle,” says a patron at the next table.

That wasn’t all. Bono needed his food prepared specially. “He demanded that his salad be chopped,” says the spy. “And he made sure it was when it arrived.”

U2 fans stayed out of the Fray

The FrayU2 fans just dodged a bullet. The Irish foursome’s gig at the new TCF Bank Stadium is still four months away — June 27 to be exact — but they’ve just announced the support band, and it’s New York neo-goths Interpol.

I liked Interpol better the first time around, when the band was called Joy Division, but still, it could have been much, much worse. How much worse? Well, Oakland, Seattle and Edmonton are getting, gulp, painfully boring soft-rockers the Fray. Retro-loving Lenny Kravitz is on the bill in several other cities, and he’s probably the most entertaining of all three opening acts.

If Interpol seems like an odd choice for U2, keep in mind that Bono and Co. were huge Joy Division fans from the start. They were reportedly watching in the studio when Joy Division recorded “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and hired that song’s producer to helm their next single, 1980’s “11 O’Clock Tick Tock.” And the U2 single that followed that, “A Day Without Me,” was a tribute to Joy Division leader Ian Curtis, who by that time had committed suicide. (For those keeping track, Interpol lead singer Paul Banks was 2 years old at the time.)

Speaking of TCF Bank Stadium, could we see a second concert there in 2010? Keep in mind this is speculation on my part, but Sir Paul McCartney has announced the first two dates of what his publicists are calling an “extensive”

U2 Guitarist’s Plans Don’t Find Green

U2’s The Edge

MALIBU, Calif. — The house that the U2 guitarist longs to build here would have a copper roof, fashioned to resemble fluttering leaves. Boulders that dot the property would be left in place and assigned charming names like Dinosaur Vertebrae and Cistern. The dirt dug up to build would be reused, when possible.

U2 Producer Steve Lillywhite

Steve LillywhiteWe’ve seen a few big names bandied about for the role of next Simon Cowell, including Tommy Mottola, Guy Oseary, Jimmy Iovine, and, most notably, Howard Stern. But seeing as American Idol appears no closer to actually naming a successor, a new contender has thrown his hat in the ring: Steve Lillywhite, the 55-year-old British producer most closely associated with U2, released a YouTube video last week stating his case, and has followed it up today with an interview with Idol Tracker. For the record, Lillywhite — who has also produced the Pogues, She & Him, 30 Seconds to Mars, Guster, Jason Mraz, the one Chris Cornell solo album not everyone hated, most of the big Dave Matthews Band albums plus one that was never released, and a Rolling Stones album from 1986 — is dead serious.

OneRepublic to open for U2 in Munich

OneRepublicThe Universal Music Group newsletter featured OneRepublic outlining the tour schedule for the group and what did we find deep within that newsletter ? Yes, OneRepublic will be the support act opening for U2 on September 15, 2010 in Munich. The details not fully outlined within the newsletter, stand by as we collect more info. Its seems that the boys plan to mix up the tour just a bit with couple of different supporting acts. For those of you keeping track at home here is what we have for opening acts so far.

U2 guitarist The Edge publically defended his 156-acre development on the California coastline this week, denying charges his plans will be an environmental disaster.

The Edge

“We just had this dream of building a house that was in perfect harmony with these hills,” Edge told the New York Times. “We see it as something that could be a bench mark of sustainability.”

Unfortunately for the legendary guitar hero and Bono sidekick, many of his neighbors in Malibu see theproject as a bench mark for destroying habitats and view corridors.

Edge’s plan calls for five homes ranging from 7,317 square feet to 12,004 square feet, including a 1,600-foot long road snaking up the hillside. Neighbors and conservationists are irritated by several aspects of the project, but the idea of the 20-foot wide road draws special criticism.

“What is so silly is they say it is so green,” Paul Edelman, the chief of planning and natural resources for a neighboring nature conservancy, told the NYT. “But every time you drive up there, any savings you would have are shot by fossil fuel.”

The struggle over the plan has gone on for two years. “For somebody so revered even to be orchestrating this type of development in such a sensitive area is hypocritical,” Malibu councilman Jefferson Wagner told the Los Angeles Times last year.

Pristine hillside land is rare on the California coast, and construction is strictly controlled and always hotly debated. Any new development faces a lengthy, vitriolic battle.

To his credit, Edge—which the NYT calls the “nom de guitar” for David Evans—seems typically relaxed about the whole experience. While some celebrities run from such controversies, he’s occasionally granted interviews and personally engaged his neighbors.

When people see the actual plans, “they completely mellow out,” he assured the Times. Edge and his wife, Morleigh Steinberg, bought the property in 2006 with Irish developer Derek Quinlan, paying $9 million for the five lots, the Times reports.  He’s “maintained a residence” in Malibu for decades, he told one interviewer.

Far from raping the landscape, the houses will be shining examples of green building, he says, with special consideration to preserving the fauna and reusing dirt. He told the New York Times the criticism is “overblown,” and noted that Malibu already has its share of ugly hillside development.

“There is this myth about how this road is going to be an eyesore, but it is so much better than anything up here,” he told the Times.

The plans are scheduled to go before California’s notoriously mercurial Coastal Commission this summer.

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.

 U2’s vibrant frontman Bono has the kind schedule that would make us normal people spin uncontrollably. However he did take the time to reflect on what he would like to accomplish this year, as a member of U2 and as a regular guy.

The February issue of the UK’s “Q” magazine, Bono lets loose in a small feature titled “Bono’s 5 Step Plan to Take over the World”. First on the list for Bono is obviously any new music that U2 are testing out.

“We’ve been listening to new material for “Songs of Ascent”. We haven’t fully decided to press ‘go’ on that,” Bono admitted about the spiritual record where the “360” opener “Kingdom of Your Love” came from. While still unsure as to what the band will focus on, he does feel the need for audiences this summer to hear some fresh tracks. “Even if it’s an EP or a single song,” he said.

Bono said  that the work he and Edge contributed to the “Spider-Man” musical for Broadway is “potentially one of the best things we’ve ever done” and while waiting for the show’s financial problems to be worked out, he expects the show to be running later this year.

Bono also discussed U2’s upcoming debut at the Glastonbury festival in June. He said that “everyone is excited” and because it’s on a smaller scale than “360”, expect a performance without so much spectacle. “I think it will just be about the music on that day,” Bono said.

Also on his mind was (RED) and Bono was happy to report new developments shaping up. Nike has joined the campaign, he revealed, and Africa’s hosting of the World Cup this year is something he is truly thrilled about. “It’s important that the world gets to see the majesty and magical side of that most extraordinary continent,” he said.

As incredible as Bono’s year sounds so far, perhaps the most special event will take place on May 10, when he turns 50. And he already feels the pressure. After attending a Leonard Cohen concert last year where he got emotional during the show, Bono confessed, “I realized that all my favorite songs he wrote in his 50s and 60s. That, to me, was a throwdown.” However daunting as turning 50 seems, Age is nothing but a number, Bono!