No stealing Backstage this time around -

Rockers U2 have hired a security team to guard their dressing rooms during their new tour -- because fans kept nicking mementoes from their backstage compound.

They were so fed-up with items going missing during their last tour they have put beefed-up security measures in place for their first gig in Barcelona later this month.

The measures include drafting in 50 guards, installing CCTV and watch towers to keep an eye on band members' private rooms.

Only their closest friends and family will get anywhere near the band with just 10 Access All Areas passes being handed out for each gig.

U2 are currently rehearsing for their huge stadium tour which kicks off at the Nou Camp on June 30. A group insider said: "The security arrangements around this tour are the most extreme we have ever seen. It is ultra-strict. The security operation will be the biggest ever mounted for a rock tour.

"The problem is during the last tour a few fans even managed to sneak in during concerts and they ended up running off with the band's clothes and possessions."

The group's 360 Degree tour will hit Croke Park in July for three 90,000 capacity concerts.

Inside the stadium there will be five levels of security with different passes for each.

To get into the final zone -- which allows direct access to the band -- lucky VIPs will have to pass a series of security points and undergo a body scan with metal detectors.

While Bono and the group are performing CCTV cameras will monitor the halls leading to their rooms and the whole compound will become a "lock down."

The source added: "It means there won't be a free for all while they are singing."

Part II

Author Matt McGee reveals how he compiled the book in this interview and shares some of his findings from “U2 — A Diary.”

You assembled much of the material for this book through your blog, with fans helping out with research and information and photos. When you established the blog, did you envision a book would come out of it?

What were some things you learned from their input that you didn’t know about the band before beginning this project?

There are some key stories in the band’s history that you tackle in this book. Let’s take on a couple of them. What happened during Bono’s visit to Central America in 1986 that helped shape The Joshua Tree?

But, to me, what’s really interesting about it is the timing. I didn’t know that Bono and [his wife] Ali arrived in Central America immediately after spending several days in New Zealand at the funeral of Greg Carroll, Bono’s personal assistant, who had died in a motorcycle accident in Dublin. His death had devastated the whole U2 organization, but especially Bono and Ali — they were very close to Carroll. So, with that in mind, you get a better sense of the mental and emotional state they were in when they arrived in Central America and spent almost two weeks there.

What did you find was the major reason for the difficulty U2 had in recording the Pop album?

What did you find out with regard to the creation of Zoo TV?

You go all the way back to the 1950s Dublin when Bono’s parents were married. What did you find out about his home life?

As far as your research goes, when was it that U2 realized they were going to be big? What were there ambitions starting out?

How has U2 been able to stay together for so long?

Do they work in much the same way they did when they began, or has their celebrity caused changes in how they interact in the studio or on the road?

Why did you choose to use a diary format for the book?

Part I

An epic, shoot-for-the-moon band like U2 — with a lead singer who actually believes that rock ’n’ roll can, if not save the world, then at least change it for the better — deserves a book as dense with detail and insight as Matt McGee’s.

Picking up the story in 1950, when Bono’s parents, Bob Hewson and Iris Rankin, get married, “U2 — A Diary” follows the band from its humble beginnings — including the talent contest the band won even though Doves guitarist Fran Kennedy remembers being “... dumbfounded when they won, because truly, they were awful” — all the way through its ascendance to rock royalty.

No stone is unturned here, as McGee, through his painstaking research — conducted through a blog he set up that allowed fans and others to help him nail down the facts — digs out the truth behind just about every U2-related story ever told. It tells the inside story of U2’s connections to an Evangelical Christian group in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It reveals much about a trip Bono made to Central America and the impact events in his life around that time had on the making of The Joshua Tree.

And that’s just a small taste of what lies in store for anyone who picks up “U2 — A Diary.” The timeline McGee sets up and the way he strings together quotes from U2 insiders makes for an easy, compelling read, and the book is full of superb black-and-white images — some of them rarely seen before — that only serve to enhance McGee’s exhaustive history of a band that still matters.

Medium Please

Let’s be honest: many of us purchased our U2.com membership with a singular purpose-priority access to the presale code required to get tickets for the band’s 2009 world tour. While the double album of rough drafts called Medium, Rare, and Remastered provides a critical ingredient to any completist cornucopia, for others, the plastic prize (recent released exclusively to fan club members) might serve as a mere memento to comfort and console those hardcores suffering with consumer guilt and additional debt after splurging on seats (or GA access) to multiple shows.

As other fans have already noted, these twenty tracks are hardly rare, since many have circulated on the Interwebs for years. More a random audio collage than a coherent album, it’s challenging to digest it in the way we might devour the band’s studio records. Still, there’s something enduring and endearing about this back catalog of alternate versions that connects with U2’s ultimate vision “to be a band” in the grandest sense of collective greatness, etching its illuminated audio files into the earbuds of popular consciousness.

Folks fond of hindsight might enjoy a game of “what if” when examining the jewels “Always” and “Native Son.” To be forever treasured and debated by the nerdy scholars of Dublin’s most esteemed artistic export, the latter drafts of these sketches ended up as massive hits and stadium anthems. Lyrically, “Beautiful Day” boasts better poetry than the unformed yet uniquely attractive “Always.” Even still and thanks to the Edge, the epic outtake evokes the same shimmering glory of its elder brother.

With “Native Son,” however, the more poignant and passionate words were relegated to the vault while the ferocious frivolity of “Vertigo” found its home on the FM airwaves. When Bono sears our ears with the scorching statements that “my enemy became my country” or that “it’s so hard for a native son to be free,” he returns us to the more defiantly politicized phases of his vocal proclamations found on War, Unforgettable Fire, and Joshua Tree. As a hit single, “Vertigo” better fits the fortysomething Bono and his dangerously delicate blend of corporate realpolitik and compassionate campaigns; yet again, those of us also in middle age and reared on the white-flag brandishing Bono can identify with acute longing with the singer of “Native Son.” In a similar vein dating all the way back to the beginning, “Saturday Night” (which opens the second disc) is a different version of “Fire” from October.

Bono's Top Ten Moves - Bone Head and all

1. The Spidey

If Bono were a bit younger, he could audition for the title character in his own Broadway show and get the part. In his never-ending desire to connect with his audience, Bono was notorious for climbing up, climbing down, or swinging from anything he could get his hands on, including light rigging, speaker stacks, fences, sculptures, and at the US Festival in the mid-'80s, the huge banner that hung behind the stage. While Bono insisted on defying gravity, the rest of the band were left to their own devices, continuing to play while no doubt shaking their heads in disbelief. Imagine what they're thinking during the band's Live Aid performance of "Bad," 11 minutes into a six-minute song: "You crazy #*%*#!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHnXOSxka1Q

2. The Hair Whisperer

In the late '80s, Bono got rid of his mullet and cut his hair into a shoulder-length pageboy. At first it was a jarring transition, until it became apparent that this hairstyle was the best bodily prop Bono ever had at his disposal, giving him more options than ever before or since. It started out innocuously enough, pulled back into a ponytail, but then it became a weapon whipping around his head, or sticking to the sweat on his face, causing Bono to compulsively run his fingers through his hair to smooth it away.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdceKu89SxY&NR=1

3. The Shackle

In the video for "With or Without You," Bono throws his arms straight up over his head and crosses them at the wrists for a literal interpretation of the line "My hands are tied/my body bruised..." Bono, I'd like to personally thank you for fueling my rock star fantasies with that particular visual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdlPjAJFIrw

4. The Rockette

U2 likes to make a big entrance when they come out to play for their fans, and nothing was bigger than the Zoo TV tour. Bono and his mates tossed off every last vestige of their '80s personas and came roaring into the '90s in a blaze of leather and flickering blue light from an enormous wall of television screens. The Edge strikes the first notes of "Zoo Station," and Bono, looking cooler than cool, rises out of the darkness and executes a series of high kicks that rival any of those performed by the famed residents of Radio City Music Hall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5omeaIIcbc

5. The Boxer

How do you top Zoo TV? Why, with PopMart, of course. Another big entrance by the band as the song "Pop Muzik" blares over the loudspeakers, they enter the venue by walking through the crowd, tuxedoed bodyguards and huge entourage in tow. In his white robe, hood pulled over his eyes, Bono does his best "Macho" Comacho or "Boom Boom" Mancini, jabbing and prancing his way to the ring. And while it may take a few minutes for the crowd to notice, no one seems to care once they realize the muscles aren't real.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c7U-9gyPsw

6. The Bull

This move was worthy enough to be a part of both the PopMart and Elevation tours, for the song "Until the End of the World." Bono's fingers are his props here, representing the horns of a charging bull as Bono and The Edge attempt to slay each other with rock 'n' roll. The fans are the lucky winners in this dramatic fight to the finish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i9OuBJNdbI

7. The Turkey

U2 appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman in support of All That You Can't Leave Behind, shortly after the 9/11 disaster. The band paid homage to the city by playing "New York." True to form, Bono changed the lyrics of the song to fit the occasion, which was touching until, in an effort to become the Statue of Liberty, Bono places his outstretched fingers behind his head to form her crown. Does he evoke the famous symbol of freedom, or poultry in heat? Tough call.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXMSNRDcBMM

8. The Loaded Diaper

This move is most evident in the official "Beautiful Day" video, shot in and around the Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, France. Anyone who's been a parent will recognize it immediately: Your very young child waddles up to you in a sort of half walk, half squat, clearly uncomfortable. With the camera at such a low angle, we get a most unfortunate view as Bono gives new meaning to the phrase "It's been all over you."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6FwEJwwYcQ

9. Crazy Samurai

During the Vertigo tour, Bono and Larry began the song "Love and Peace or Else" at the tip of the b-stage, while Adam and The Edge remained on the main stage. Larry plays the song on a single drum and cymbal, but at some point flees the scene and heads back to the safety of his kit. Bono takes the drumsticks and starts wailing away on that poor thing, doing his damnedest to smash it to bits. He gets so excited, he's also stomping his feet. Look out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEQSVihLdPo

10. The Upper GI

There's a point in every U2 show that makes you wonder if Bono's pre-show burrito was a bad idea. He hunches over, grabbing his middle or pulling his jacket tighter to his body, and he's clearly feeling something, but what? The song, or the burrito? Let's hope, for all of our sakes, that it's the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCdHM3i0DWA

Did you know this ?

Bono has admitted he suffers from severe stage fright - despite the fact he’s been playing to packed stadiums for 25 years.

The U2 frontman says he still feels "nervous" and "sick" when he wakes up on the morning of a gig, even after quarter of a century.

"The morning before a show I get nervous. I can wake up with a sick feeling," he told Harper’s Bazaar.

The 46-year-old Irish star also worries he might let the crowd down by giving a less than perfect vocal performance.

"I have to hit very high notes and if you hit them wrong you can put your throat out," he said.

"So there’s a ‘Will I? Won’t I?’ aspect to it.

"It used to worry me sick. That sense of, how could I meet the levels of anticipation?

"If you’re a rock star and need 25,000 people telling you they love you, obviously you must be a very insecure person," he joked.

Bono Favors Performance Rights Act

Bono is the latest artist to speak out in favor of the Performance Rights Act, which would call for radio stations to pay roylaties to artists for playing their music. Bono joins other supporters such as Smashing Pumpkins founder Billy Corgan, will.i.am, Sheryl Crow, Herbie Hancock and Emmylou Harris, who have all joined the musicFIRST Coalition on Capitol Hill to lobby in favor of the Performance Rights Act.

Bono released a statement on the matter via musicFIRST, which is an advocacy group for artist rights. “While we have many friends at radio, and appreciate the many things that radio has done for our band over the years, we believe it’s only fair that when radio makes money by playing a recording artist’s music and selling advertising, the recording artist should be compensated just as songwriters are already,” said Bono. ”This is a principle accepted by radio broadcasters in virtually every country in the world. The music business is in a state of freefall at the moment, and while, thankfully, this no longer really affects us - there are many young recording artists out there who can no longer earn a living from the sale of their music, or from touring or selling merchandise… yet they remain a vital part of radio playlists throughout the USA. They should not be denied their fair share. In this time of so much positive change coming from Washington, we hope this bill will be embraced and become the law.”

In response to Bono’s statement, NAB EVP Dennis Wharton commented, “The irony is that it will be the less-established performers who will be hurt most by a performance tax. If radio stations are forced to pay to play music, program directors will be less likely to take a chance playing unknown artists and will instead stick with established musicians like Bono. New artists and niche formats will suffer, and Bono and Britney Spears will become wealthier.”

The House Judiciary Committee has been holding hearings on the legislation, and numerous broadcasters have testified that radio is facing an extremely difficult time in this economy as it is, and enacting a performance royalty would be devastating to the industry

U2 Stage Video

Following on from news that U2 will embark on an extensive worldwide tour, the design for the band’s “ambitious staging” has now been revealed. Bono and co. will play inside a towering structure nicknamed ‘The Claw’, with four legs and speakers mounted on each side.

According to a cover feature in the US Rolling Stone, the stage set was dreamed up by U2 ‘show director’ Willie Williams. ‘The Claw’ stands at 164 feet tall, which – crucially – is twice as high as the stage set used by that other world’s biggest band The Rolling Stones on their A Bigger Bang tour. “Theirs would fit underneath this one,” Williams bragged to the magazine. It’s unclear yet whether this is a stroke of genius or something of a sci-fi Spinal Tap, but you can’t say U2 aren’t trying.