The Unforgettable Fire 25 years later, fans get new tracks


U2 said that they will be releasing a number of previously recorded studio tracks that have not been released within "The Unforgettable Fire" the 1984 album due to be re-released later this year.

The Edge and Bono talked about tracks that have been rediscovered by the band as they revisited the LP during the remastering process. The album ( which when will we start calling them CD's?) call the 25th anniversary addition.

Admittedly the boys had been listening to several unreleased tracks that they say more then likely will be featured on the expanded new version during their interview on BBC Radio 1 (august 19th)

Bono said "I listened to some tracks that we're gonna release with the new 'Unforgettable Fire' reissue, some new songs that we discovered that we'd recorded, back in that era - the '80s - that we're gonna put out. And they sound amazing."

Bono called 'Disappearing Act', as "incredibly special",

Speaking about 'Disappearing Act', The Edge said U2 had put the finishing touches to it in France recently.

The Edge said: "Well, it was originally called 'White City', and it was a track we started with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois back in 1983 when we were recording 'The Unforgettable Fire'. We discovered it about six months ago, and we dug it out and did some work on it in France a few weeks ago, and it's now finished."

Bono said it will be on 'The Unforgettable Fire' reissue, but no one's heard it."

Photo credits, copyright holder

Hampton Park - Good, Bad and Wonderful

U2 are renowned for being a spectacular live band. Anyone who saw their Live Aid performance back in 1985 will appreciate the stage presence and power of the man who appropriately calls himself Bono Vox. And the 60,000-strong crowd at Hampden Park last night were not disappointed.

True to the hype following two sell-out shows at Wembley on Friday and Saturday, the guys rolled into Glasgow to showcase both their new album and classic hits, including Sunday Bloody Sunday, Where the Streets Have No Name, With or Without You, Pride (In the Name of Love) and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For.

As part of the finale, the lights were turned down low and a massive glitter-ball sparkled throughout the stadium as the band performed their hit One.

The loyal U2 fans were in heaven.

"It was totally spectacular. Amazing," said one.

"It was like listening to a CD the vocals were so clear," said another. "The crowd was brilliant, people were hugging each other, there wasn't a hint of trouble."

Even a technical problem with the sound could not dampen their enthusiasm. "You could see on the screens that Bono was still singing his heart out as if his life depened on it,"

Free Shuttle Buses Glasgow Show !


About 120,000 people are to descend on the city of Glasgow for a major concert and football match.

Celtic play Arsenal in a Champions League game in Parkhead in the east end while rock band U2 perform at Hampden Park on the city's south side.

Free shuttle buses are being laid on to help fans attending the U2 concert in Glasgow on Tuesday in a bid to ease traffic congestion.

Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) said 20 buses would run from Buchanan Bus Station to Queens Drive, near Hampden, in the city's south side.

The concert is taking place on the same night as Celtic's Champion's League home match against Arsenal.

Both events will see up to 110,000 at Glasgow two largest stadiums.

SPT said the buses would run from 1700 BST onwards from four dedicated stances at Buchanan Bus Station.

America not sold out ! Come on America !

If you have been following us on tweeter, or youtube you know that we have fans reporting in from around the globe and most of if not all of them have said this is the show to see. "A event to remember". Now the media has not been so nice, well wait a minute. Only in UK have the shows had such bad reviews it starts to make you wonder what really is the issue. Come on now, who cares about Bono's height or is it his views. Ether way the UK media has slammed the boys and really caused some noise on twitter.

We still want to hear directly from you the fan. Sure we know that sometimes a song may go off key, or a note missed. Yet we want to hear what you think about the whole show. The concept, the vibe, and "the event".

Now we have been looking around Ticketmaster for a couple of weeks and we see that lots if not most of the cities have tickets. Couple of reasons for that. Lets not blame the US Dollar or the lack of a job to miss " The Event" chances are that you can find a couple of dollars to get to see the show. Most of the larger cities are sold out. However tour logistics has selected some pretty weird cities for the show.

Do you want to see the show ? If so Tampa has two tickets, click on the tickets link and check out the prices. -

Follow us on twitter. @U2tourfans

See us on youtube. U2TOURFANS

and Call us on the hotline.

U2's 360 tour flits, meekly, between old hits and tracks from the current, rather lame, album

U2's 360 tour flits, meekly, between old hits and tracks from the current, rather lame, album
Sunday, 16 August 2009

Is it a crab? Is it a spaceship? Is it a physical representation of the ego of Bono Vox? Whatever it is, it dwarfs the borough of Brent, almost reaching the Wembley arch. Everyone has their own theory on exactly what U2's much-discussed stage set actually resembles. For me, it's one of those claw-like grabbers from a machine in a seaside arcade. The ones that hover tantalisingly over some leftover piece of pop-cultural detritus from the semi-recent past (a Flat Eric, a Teletubby, a Bart Simpson if you're lucky), then deliver nothing.

Yeah yeah, Cheap Metaphors R Us. But if you could drag-and-drop your ideal U2, which would it be? The earnest, scuff-booted youths of Boy? The stetsoned authenticists of Rattle & Hum? The late-comer ironists of Zoo TV? The global statesmen of the past decade? Probably not today's corporate pimps for BlackBerry, whose streetwalkers accost you the length of Bobby Moore Way, but hey.

Personally, I'd take a mischievous Macphisto with a soupçon of "The Unforgettable Fire" sincerity, and it's that song which provides the only real shivers of the night. That was the last time U2 tapped into the dizzy mystery of their one-time peers – Associates, Talk Talk, Blue Nile – and a glimpse of an alternate U2 that could have been, if they'd stayed away from the bloody cacti.

Most of the time, the 360 tour flits between the familiar hits and current album No Line on the Horizon which, once you've stopped sniggering at the drug innuendo of the title, is pretty lame. Bono tries so hard, bless him, in his leather jacket and Gucci shades, desperately trying to match the Dylans and Lou Reeds and Patti Smiths on his shoulder with lines about feeling "like loose electricity while the band in my head plays a striptease", or dropping in ad-libs from Primal Scream's "Movin' On Up", Frankie's "Two Tribes" and The Clash's "London Calling" in an attempt to recoup some cool-by-association. "I think something special could happen tonight," he says optimistically at the scene of his big mulleted Live Aid moment, but it never quite comes.

The stage, at least, is fairly cool. Not quite as sci-fi in the flesh as it looked on Wossy, but the giant mirror-ball effect is quite something, and it's undeniably a step forward from Bowie's Glass Spider, which I saw in the old Wembley two decades ago, whose legs resembled eight scaled-up lengths of mobile disco rope light.

Its sheer scale allows Stumpy Hewson (as you can see, I've remained untouched by the Bono charm offensive which has muddled the judgement of other, usually reliable critics), his garden labourer on guitar and the Other Two to play so far apart they may as well be on separate continents, their wanderings assisted by moving radial walkways. Give it a couple of tours and they'll be Stannah stairlifts.

The "special" moment almost arrives. "Sunday Bloody Sunday" sidesteps Partridge-based hilarity by being updated into a tribute to detained Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi (complete with masks). Then Bono blows it all by leaving us with "Moment of Surrender", which boasts one of the worst lyrics in living memory. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: "I was speeding on the subway through the Stations of the Cross ..."

At first I was afraid, I was petrified. It was 8.30pm, N-Dubz stage time minus one hour, and the street leading to the Opera House is already like a scene from Shaun of the Dead. Booze-battered blokes stagger around paralytically, on a knife edge between picking a fight and wetting themselves. The faint whiff of menace is in the air.

Then it dawns that these zonked-out zombies are merely the background noise of Bournemouth at the height of the holiday season, and N-Dubz's actual crowd is the far younger, more excitable throng outside the doorway, hyped up on alcopops, turning cartwheels and yelling at the stewards. I experience a Burchillian glow at the sight of "my people" enjoying themselves (in the knowledge that, were I the same age, they wouldn't be "my people" at all). What's not to love?

N-Dubz hysteria has spread far beyond the London borough of Camden whose NW1 postcode provided their name, and reached kids with yokel burrs in places like Bournemouth. I use "kids" advisedly: this audience is barely too old for panto. The reason why, with the exception of the self-fulfilling prophecy "Number 1", N-Dubz singles invariably stall outside the Top 20 is because nobody over 20 buys them.

The man fronting their rap-soul fusion, which resides at the far "pop" end of the grime spectrum, is Dappy, aka Dino Contostavlos. He is also the group's prime scream-bait, despite the handicap of that Peruvian hat which makes him look like he's trying to smuggle an Easter egg. His songbird cousin Tulisa and co-rapper Fazer complete the trio.

People of Greek origin making music of black origin? (N-Dubz won a Mobo this year.) It may strike some as a bit Ali G, but having lived in the vicinity of Camden for 20 years, I know it's the most natural thing on earth. The subjects they rhyme about – untimely deaths, untold amounts of weed, shagging – are the authentic chitter-chatter of the N29 night bus.

There's also a little poison – on one song, Dappy disses a "bisexual prick" and blames him for spreading Aids – but a little marketable homophobia never did Eminem any harm. Despite this, it's all strangely family friendly. There's a bit of larking about in boxing robes to the "Eye of the Tiger" riff, and Dappy gets the crowd to chant "Fazer is a plonker". They stop just short of soliciting a "He's behind you!!!".

Whatever your preconceptions, N-Dubz's urban panto is fun for all ages .... Oh yes it is!

UK Second Show, Better, Set List , Videos


U2 payed a special tribute to convicted Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi last night (August 15) after her prison sentence was recently extended.

The Dublin four-piece have heavily campaigned for her release for the last nine years and even penned the Grammy award winning single 'Walk On', taken from their 2000 album 'All That You Can't Leave Behind', in her name.

Ms Suu Kyi won the Burmese elections in 1990 with the National League for Democracy but was never allowed to take power and has been under house arrest ever since.

She was due to be freed but her sentence was extended for a further 18 months last week when she let a US national, John Yettaw, into her lakeside home after he swam there uninvited, preventing her from taking part in elections scheduled for 2010.

U2 singer Bono told a crowd of 88,000 at Wembley Stadium during the second night of their 360° Tour of the UK: "An extradordinary woman has spent 20 years under house arrest. Her only crime is if she had run for election she would won have that election.

"Her name is Aung San Suu Kyi. I send a prayer from London to Burma for her safety."

The frontman then urged the crowd to don masks of the pro-democracy leader, which were handed out during the gig, as the band launched into 'Walk On' while volunteers marched onstage with her face on.

The band played a mammoth two hour set under their giant 'claw' stage as they blasted through a host of their greatest hits plus seven tracks from their recent album 'No Line On The Horizon' including an elecro version of 'I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight'.

U2 also revisited some old classics including 'The Unforgettable Fire', which has only recently been showcased on their world tour for the first time in over 20 years, and 'Ultraviolet (Light My Way)' which saw Bono firing off red laser beams from his jacket while he swang across the stage on a circular microphone.

Later the whole stadium also belted out the words to fan favourites 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' and 'Pride (In The Name Of Love)' while the likes of Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey and Mel C watched the show from the sidelines.

Bono was on jovial form throughout the show often throwing in snatches of tracks by The Rolling Stones, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Black Grape mid-song.

He also paid tribute to the city of London on numerous occasions and joked: "If you want our claw for the Olympic Games we'll give you a good deal when the tour finishes."

The band rounded off the show with a poignant rendition of 'One' before Bono urged the crowd to lift up their mobile phones and light up the stadium for closing track 'Moment Of Surrender.

Set List

'Breathe'
'No Line On The Horizon'
'Get On Your Boots'
'Magnificent'
'Beautiful Day'
'Until The End Of The World'
'New Year's Day'
'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For'
'Stay'
'Unknown Caller'
'The Unforgettable Fire'
'City Of Blinding Lights'
'Vertigo'
'I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight (Remix)'
'Sunday Bloody Sunday'
'Pride (In The Name of Love)'
'MLK'
'Walk On'
'Where The Streets Have No Name'
'One'
'Bad'
'Ultraviolet (Light My Way)'
'With Or Without You'
'Moment of Surrender'




88K Fans, Wembley Bad Review ! We got the Videos

This is a strange time for U2. Their latest album, No Line on the Horizon, has by their standards sold weakly; yet on Friday they played to 88,000 people, the greatest number a band has crammed into Wembley.
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Now back to the London Day 1 Show Review
A whopping 88,000 fans lapped up the band's performance on what critics have described as their "mindblowing" Claw stage, which graced Croke Park three weeks ago. The record was previously held by Foo Fighters, who drew crowds of 83,000 last year.

Live Nation said in a statement before last night's show: "The U2 360 shows at Wembley Stadium on August 14 and 15 will see an expected attendance of between 165,000 to 170,000 over the two days with an expected attendance of 88,000 on Friday breaking the previous attendance record at Wembley." Old favourites, including Beautiful Day, Mysterious Ways and With or Without You, were lapped up the crowd.
BAD REVIEWS POURING IN - telegraph.co.uk
After about 25 minutes, though, either the sound improved or my ears got used to it, and the band unfurled two lovely ballads: a huge and hymnal I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For and a gentle acoustic version of Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of. They decently kept to a minimum the songs from the dreary No Line on the Horizon: six, from a setlist of 22.
The older hits (Sunday Bloody Sunday, Pride, a glittering Where the Streets Have No Name) were best, except for One, ruined by Bono, who sang much of it lackadaisically off the beat.
Perhaps he’s performed it so many times it bores him. Well, it doesn’t bore the fans and they’d paid through the nose to hear it. Still, he didn’t overburden us with his politics; just a tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese pro-democracy campaigner, and a cheery video message from Desmond Tutu.
There was a striking scene at the end. Before the final song, Moment of Surrender, Bono ordered the stage lights to be turned off. Suddenly all was a galaxy of mobile phone screens, winking in the dark. U2 can spend what they like on their swanky stage but the most beautiful sight came when we couldn’t see it.


Photo image copyright @2009 AFP/Getty