DURHAM — Natalie Baker flew 36 hours from her home in Melbourne, Australia, to Durham to indulge her two loves: the music of Irish rock band U2 and being with her U2 fan community.
She was one of dozens of ultra-devoted fans at this weekend’s conference at N.C. Central University to explore the music, work and influence of U2.
“Their music inspires me to make a difference,” she said Saturday morning with an enthusiasm that showed no hint of the exhausting plane trip from the previous day. “It inspires me to make a difference, even a small difference, and encourages me to look at the world in a different way.”
Baker said she’s attended a dozen U2 concerts all over the world in the past 20 years, and planned to be at Saturday night’s U2 concert at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh.
“You don’t think I’d come all this way and not be at that concert, do you?” she asked.
A friend she met at the airport, Michelle Hakim of Newton, Mass., said she’s been a U2 devotee for 30 years.
“I’ve had this bond with the band since I was young,” Hakim, a child psychologist, said, ”because they really opened up my consciousness to humanity and the world and what you can do to make it a better place in the global community. So I just felt this was a really good place to expand on that and be part of it.”
Also at the conference was Diane Yoder, representing the African Well Fund, a nonprofit that has raised $700,000 to build wells and other water and sanitation projects in Africa. Her inspiration: U2.
“A group of U2 fans met on the Internet about six years ago with the intention of raising money for a well in Africa,” she said. “We saw a special on TV where [lead U2 singer] Bono had gone to Africa. They visited a village in Uganda and talked about how a well only costs $1,000.”
That was the spark that ignited their effort.
One of the keynote speakers at the conference was Anthony DeCurtis, an author, music critic and contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine.
DeCurtis said U2 is the perfect band for today’s world.
“They remain inspirational figures, beacons of hope in impossible times,” he said. “Their belief that divides can be bridged by the strength of rhetoric and vision confounds the frustrations that we, or at least I, sometimes feel. They continue to believe that we can be better people, and that we can build a better world.”
In an earlier interview, DeCurtis said the band often takes risks that pay off.
For example, after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, U2 scrolled the names of those who died on the screen during a performance in New York.
“That’s a risky move,” he said. “Everybody was wrought and so vulnerable, like a burn victim is vulnerable. Your skin is so sensitive that somebody making a wrong move can really set you off. And people were just so moved by it.”
During a reception after the concert, DeCurtis talked to Bono.
“There was a feeling that a lot those people who died were Irish cops and firemen, and that was their people, man. And I think they felt that they had earned the right to a statement like that, and that it was almost a responsibility. And that’s not what you would get from a lot of bands.”
DeCurtis said he’s attended at least a dozen U2 concerts over the years.
”There’s a sense of engagement with the world that I get from them in a particularly powerful way. And so when I go to their music, that’s what I leave with. I think it’s that sense that things matter — the music matters and all the things in the world outside of music matter as well.”
“Their music continues to be a call to action,” he said. “For this band, there is truly no line on the horizon — no line between earth and sky, between young and old, between the face of the poorest and the richest, between who are and who are aspire to be.”
@U2 Presents Sunday Night at the (3D) Movie
Editor Note: Re produced from atu2.com- See orginal story on atu2.com
@U2 Presents Sunday Night at the (3D) Movies with Neil McCormick
@U2 (www.atu2.com) is proud to present a special screening of U2 3D to wrap up The Hype & The Feedback. Our showing will begin at 8:00 pm on October 4th at the Wachovia IMAX Theatre in Raleigh, NC. After the movie, stick around for a special live chat with Neil McCormick and some great giveaways from the @U2 prize closet. It’s a perfect way to unwind after the conference with your fellow U2 fans and friends.
U2 3D is a stunning concert film with performances recorded during the band’s 2006 concerts in South America. If you haven’t seen it, don’t miss this chance — there’s nothing like seeing U2 3D on the big screen at an IMAX theatre. Movie tickets will cost $11.95 for adults ($10.95 for college students and senior citizens), and there’s no extra charge for the after-movie festivities.
After the film, @U2’s Matt McGee will chat with Neil McCormick about his long history with U2, going back to his days with the band as students at Dublin’s Mount Temple Comprehensive School. They’ll also take questions from the audience in a casual setting. Neil is the author of the popular book, Killing Bono: I Was Bono’s Doppelganger, which is currently being made into a film, and collaborated with the band to write their official biography, U2 By U2. Neil is currently a music writer and critic for the Daily Telegraph, and began his journalism career writing for Dublin’s Hot Press magazine.
The Wachovia IMAX Theatre is located at the Marbles Kids Museum, 201 E. Hargett Street in Raleigh.
@U2 Sunday Night at the Movies with Neil McCormick
Sunday, October 4, 2009
- 7:00 pm: Shuttle leaves Four Points Sheraton in Durham for the IMAX Theatre in Raleigh (scroll up to reserve a shuttle space)
- 8:00 pm: U2 3D begins! (scroll above to buy advance movie tickets online from the theater) After the film, a conversation with Neil McCormick plus some prize giveaways
- 10:30 or 11:00 pm: Movie event ends, everyone is invited to nearby Irish pub called Tir Na Nog; if hungry/thirsty, order what you want off their menu
- 11:30 pm: first shuttle leaves Tir Na Nog headed back to Four Points Sheraton
- 1:00 am: second & last shuttle leaves Tir Na Nog headed back to Four Points Sheraton
U2 massive concert in Raleigh N.C.
Editor Comment: We share the reviews that come out of the local press - Its a collection of many different sources. Our views are not expressed within the story. This review sounds pretty bad, however its only a point. We suggest that you express your comments to the story.
“We’ve got old songs, we’ve got new songs, we’ve got songs we can barely play,” he cracked. “And we’ve got a spaceship!”
Yes, it was hard not to notice that. At a time when pretty much everything seems to be in contraction mode, U2 has rolled the dice with what has to be the most elaborately ginormous stage setup in rock history — a huge claw-shaped beast that looked like a vertigo-inducing theme-park ride.
It seemed impossible that any band, even one as outsized as U2, wouldn’t get swallowed up by such surroundings. But somehow, they pulled it off through sheer force of will. This business of being the biggest band on earth clearly matters a great deal to U2, and they’ve put this gargantuan spectacle on the road to achieve “intimacy on a grand scale.” There’s just no one better at enormity than U2.
Bono wasted no time hitting the heroic poses on the opener “Breathe,” a track from the current album “No Line on the Horizon.” While “No Line” is only so-so, its songs came across much better live — even “Get On Your Boots,” the actively annoying first single. Other recent-vintage songs to hit the mark included “Vertigo,” “Magnificent” and “City of Blinding Lights.”
As always, Edge provided letter-perfect guitar accompaniment. If Bono is U2’s preacher man, Edge is the one who built the sonic pulpit from which he holds forth.
Hammy theatrics that somehow work are a U2 specialty, such as the way Bono worked snippets of rock-era classics into U2 songs. A bit of “Amazing Grace” turned up during the encore version of “One.” And during “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” Bono pointed at the moon and sang the opening of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” (“When the night has come/And the land is Dark/And the moon is the only light we will see…”).
Sometimes, however, Bono should just leave well enough alone. Tossing his microphone to a guy in the crowd to let him sing a verse of “People Get Ready” might have seemed like a good idea; but it was an off-key disaster.
Still, that was one of the show’s miscues. For all the band’s pretensions, U2 is ultimately just so likable that it’s almost impossible not to be won over. When they went roaring into the encore version of “Where the Streets Have No Name,” that guitar riff pealing like a church bell, it was a perfect moment of blissful big-rock grandeur that you just don’t see much of anymore.
Raleigh Fans all agree this would be the last time they see U2 on the big stage. They all agree this was the biggest show of the year. Fans loved it, Muse was a solid up and coming band that U2 seemly has passed the torch to carry on big Rock and Roll
U2’s much-anticipated appearance on NC State's campus
RALEIGH - U2’s much-anticipated appearance on NC State’s campus today will not only mark the end of Carter-Finley Stadium’s 11-year hiatus from holding special events, it will also bring more than 1,500 temporary jobs to workers. 
“Our mission was to employ people who would otherwise not have a job for that week,” he said. “There’s no cost to the athletic department or the university, and no tax dollars are being used to bring this show to Carter-Finley Stadium.”
Beginning the evening of Sunday, Sept. 27, hundreds of workers have been on hand, waiting for football practice to end so they can begin to cover the Wayne Day Family Field turf with a state-of-the-art aluminum decking specifically designed to protect the integrity of the field’s infrastructure – drainage, communications and irrigation systems, and more.
Then, beginning on Monday, workers began to bring in U2’s elaborate, in-the-round stage setup, which –- when assembled -– will soar vertically at heights parallel to Carter-Finley’s upper seating decks – or higher. Brincefield got a first-hand look at the construction on a recent trip to Massachusetts, where U2 sold out Boston’s Gillette Stadium.
“It takes about three days for hundreds of laborers and steel workers to erect this lighting and sound structure that will go over the stage – six cranes and 25 forklifts running all the time,” he said. “It’s pretty impressive.”
While construction is taking place, Brincefield will be on hand, working with Live Nation staff on pre-, concurrent-, and post-concert logistics. For example, the Carolina Hurricanes hockey club opens regular season play at the adjacent RBC Center on Friday, Oct. 2 – “production day” for the U2 crew.
“It’s really important for us to get out in front of everything and talk about logistics because nobody’s stadium – or situation – is the same,” he said. “ Their production areas, offices, their catering, lay-down yard, where they’ll park 128 tractor-trailers… all those things have to be laid out on a map before they even arrive.”
As the show draws closer, Brincefield and his staff will be putting in longer hours, supervising the installation of phone and data-access lines, merchandise locations and corporate sponsorships. All the while, the 12-person staff will ensure that the rest of the university’s facilities continue to run like clockwork.
“Hosting this concert is a really big deal for us, and it’s a huge changeover from football.,” Brincefield said “That being said, we’re certainly not going to cancel next week’s soccer match, or fall baseball because of this show.
“We’re going to have all of those things and make them work,” he said. “We just have to be wise with our time. When the lights go out at Carter-Finley stadium each night, that’s when we’ll leave.”
NC State also said that the giant concert will highlight NC State and U2 lead singer Bono’s shared passion for environmental issues.
‘“U2 always has been tenacious and focused on and off stage,” Woodward said. “They make a difference – musically, socially, economically – and NC State is proud to be a part of that.”
As they have been at the Wolfpack’s first three football games this season, WeRecycle bins will be distributed throughout Carter-Finley Stadium during the U2 concert. The program, which began in 2003, is regarded as one of the nation’s premier stadium recycling efforts.
Fans turned in three tons of recyclables during NC State’s win over Gardner-Webb on Saturday and, with an increased stadium capacity to almost 64,000 for the U2 concert, it’s possible NC State fans could set a single-day recycling record at the stadium later today.
“We hope to never have an event at Carter-Finley Stadium without recycling,” Brincefield said. “This program continues to grow – we have had some great corporate sponsors and have been able to expand from inside the stadium to outside, then into Vaughn Towers and the suites as well.”
Following the performance, Live Nation Global – the concert promoter – will replace the Carter-Finley turf at their own expense, returning the field to ideal playing conditions in advance of NC State’s home matchup with Duke on Oct. 10. Concerns about potential issues with the turf were alleviated through careful planning and consultation with Live Nation executives, as well as NC State agronomics experts and the football coaches and staff.
But admittedly, replacing the field’s playing surface mid-season is a less-than-ideal scenario, Brincefield said. 
Prior to U2, the last performers scheduled to play Carter-Finley Stadium were George Strait and Jimmy Buffet in 1998. However, recently completed stadium renovations put Carter-Finley on par with some of the best and biggest outdoor facilities in the country, and opened a window of opportunity for promoters to inquire about the stadium’s availability for performances.
For example, U2 has booked shows at grandiose facilities like Pasadena, California’s Rose Bowl and the Dallas Cowboys’ brand-new stadium in Texas, and selected Carter-Finley over other regional possibilities such as Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium – home to the Carolina Panthers – and Chapel Hill’s Kenan Stadium.
“One of our big talking points in the spring was that not only have our people’s donations and the stadium renovations paid off for our football program, but it’s paid off on a world level that a company like Live Nation Global would contact us and we would have the ability to turn them down – and they would continue to contact us,” Brincefield said.
“That says a lot – not necessarily for me and my staff, but for the alumni, faculty, staff and students of this university, our Wolfpack Club members and the construction teams that built that we have we have – a place that we can be proud of and one that is in demand.”
“We’ve barely cracked open the door to being a host for special events – our mission is for our student-athletes,” he said. “No matter who calls or who shows up, no matter what kind of offer they bring, it starts and ends with our student athletes and we’ll work from there.
“If it’s a situation where we can make something work, then we’ll look further into it,” he said. “We’re not going to be this cracker-jack bunch that opens the doors to everyone just to make a little bit of money – that’s not our mission, and it never will be.”
In fact, in their line of work, the single thing that makes Brincefield and his staff the happiest is if they go completely unnoticed.
“We’ll probably all have shed 10 to 15 pounds and have worked so hard that we won’t know which way is home, but if we leave Carter-Finley Stadium on October 10 and nobody has noticed anything but the game play – nobody says anything about the field – we’ve done our jobs,” he said. “That’s how and why we exist.
“Besides, I don’t know if I can take the stress of tearing out turf and putting in turf right in the middle of the season again,” he said with a laugh. “There’s already a lot to do and we haven’t even started the process yet.”
TX Party Pass ? WTF
Its been a day of noise around the internet. Party Pases ? What the heck is a party pass? Sounds too much like well we can’t say it but if you saw the movie ALMOST FAMOUS. Think about the line the “tour manager said” Ok back to the story here is the deal from what we understand. Want to fill out the stadium ? Old school way was called papering, thats when you throw out a couple of thousand tickets for free. Yup for free this fills in the dead area’s and makes the band feel good. Turn the page forward 2009 Party Passes you pay $ 30.00 for the right to stand up, the entire time, crowded, cowboy smelly boots and pushing around for the best possible postion.
Live Nation Press Release -
Dallas / Fort Worth (Arlington), TX – October 1, 2009 – Due to overwhelming demand for U2 tickets, Live Nation announced today they are releasing Party Pass tickets to the show at Cowboys Stadium on October 12th. These general admission tickets offer an excellent view and will be priced at $30 each.
The 360° Tour features a round stage positioned on the stadium floor with the band surrounded by their audience, the natural progression of their previous tours. By elevating the sound and lighting equipment, the walls that traditionally obscure performers from their audience are removed. This has also allowed greater capacity and a lower general ticket price.
The stage is designed by long-time collaborator Willie Williams and architect Mark Fisher who have worked together with U2 since ZooTv. Advances in technology and digital communication have allowed Williams to create an overhead expandable cylindrical screen made up of 500,000 pixels.
“The band has been moving further into the crowd with every tour. Tonight they’ve arrived. Willie and Mark have spent five years perfecting this beautiful and extraordinary frame, once the crowd came in tonight, we got lift-off!” said U2 manager Paul McGuinness, of the band’s tour kickoff show at Barcelona’s Nou Camp stadium.
“U2 has always put on the most exciting live show. They’ve really raised the bar with this production they want the best for their fans and based on the reaction they have absolutely delivered” said Arthur Fogel, CEO Global Touring/Chairman - Global Music Live Nation.
The U2 360 Tour started in Chicago September 12th and will play 20 shows in North America. In 2009, in just 44 shows the tour will perform for over 3 million fans.
$30 PARTY PASS TICKETS ON SALE NOW
U2 Rocks 55K Fans at Scott Stadium
If you have been following along you know that the tour currently supporting the band’s 12th studio album “No Line on the Horizon,” the boys played on a The stage, designed to offer the crowd a view from any angle, looked a bit like one of those pincers that grabs stuffed animals inside vending machines at Big Lots. U2’s version, of course, was much, much bigger.
“We’re making a space jump,” Bono told the crowd, with a nod to the band’s vaguely alien-looking stage. “We built this thing and been to all kinds of interesting places. We built it to be closer to you.”
Somewhat surprisingly, Bono had a point. Despite the stage’s size, its innovative 54-ton cylindrical video screen gave a clear and intimate view of Bono, guitarist The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr.
At a few points in the show, Bono referenced Charlottesville’s ties to a certain founding father.
“We hold these truths to be self evident,” he sang during “Beautiful Day.” “A pledge of honor to America, to freedom, to the whole world.”
He also asked the crowd: “Where is Mr. Jefferson? Is he in the house?”
The show marks the third concert at Scott Stadium. In 2001, the Dave Matthews Band played, followed by the Rolling Stones in 2005.
Twitter Fans at the concert posted comments such as “It’s remarkable;” Four people can draw 60,000 people and fill up a football stadium.”
After two encores, two hours, eleven minutes, and seventeen seconds, and “close to a full house,” according to Wilson, the spectacle was over. Immediately after the lights lifted and fans began pouring out, crew members started tearing down the stage.
During the middle of the show, Bono paused to introduce the band he has played with for years– but for Charlottesville, he tailored the intros to fit the college-town atmosphere: the Edge was the nerd, Larry Mullen, Jr was the athlete and team captain, Adam was the lady’s man, all while Bono still had “a lot to learn.” But if the greatest pop-rock tour of all time still has to find time to study, Charlottesville’s music aficionados might have quite a bit of cramming to do.
If U2 is just past their prime, then Muse can still look forward to theirs. The 360 Tour, however, hits them at very rich times in their careers. The song cataloges are long and getting longer, performance traits have been developed and worn in and the stage does a lot of the talking. “I feel like I have more to learn,” Bono said. “And I’m going to learn it with these three men.”
55,000 People Scott Stadium
An estimated 55,000 people will attend the U2 concert Thursday night at Scott Stadium. In anticipation of increased traffic, many of the University Transit System bus routes will run on altered service hours.
The Central Grounds Shuttle and the Colonnade Shuttle will stop running at 5:30 p.m.. The Northline, Stadium/Hospital Shuttle, and the Inner and Outer U-Loops will end service at 4:30 p.m. The Green Route will extend its service between the Health System and U-Hall until 12:30 a.m.
The Charlottesville Transit Service Free Trolley Route will follow a similar detour to that used during home football games. The trolley will take Jefferson Park Avenue, Emmet Street and University Avenue to get downtown.
The Central Grounds Garage will close to non-permit holders at noon, and all vehicles must vacate the garage by 3 p.m. All other permit holders should consult the UTS Web site’s Special Events page to note any further changes.
U2 Live From Outer Space
The numbers associated with the U2360° Tour are staggering: a 170-ton stage rightfully dubbed “the spaceship,” 200 trucks carting it around, 250 speakers, nearly 400 employees and $750,000 a day in overhead. But the band’s stadium show is more than a fantastic spectacle — it’s the biggest rock tour of all time, and Rolling Stone is onstage and backstage with U2’s Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. as they make history in our new issue, on stands today.
Explore three decades of U2 in photos.
Look back at U2’s essential LPs in our album guide.
Read the full story in our new issue to go behind the scenes as U2 prep for their opening-night show in Chicago, tweaking “Your Blue Room” from the band’s 1995 collaboration with Brian Eno; and join them in Croatia as the Edge generates new effects presets on the fly and the band reflects on the significance of performing in the once war-torn nation for the first time since 1997.
Climb aboard “the spaceship” and flip through photos of U2’s massive stage show.
As Rolling Stone tags along in a private jet en route to Chicago, Bono also meditates on what it means to be a rock star in 2009, praising Jay-Z as “a pioneer” who’s interested in a “porous culture, where there’s much more crosstown traffic.” He adds, “In this age of celebrity and pop stardom, maybe it’s a sensible thing to question the values of being a pop star. Radiohead, Pearl Jam, a lot of people, who maybe had more sense than us, rejected it. But the thing that’s suffered from that stance was that precious, pure thing, what they used to call the 45.”