U2 Endures

A view from the cheap seats

Editor:  I was looking over my notes and I found some thoughts on Letterman’s show. Its a bit dated. However I thought I would share it. We are working on a couple of new story ideas and we have been kicking back a bit before the start of the New Year.

Dave Letterman Show 2009Once it was announced that U2 would take over the Letterman show I knew I would set the DVR and stay up to watch, at the time I did so out of sense of duty and loyalty to the band. I have always been a fan of the band. It had been some time since I have seen the boys live. I worked in the industry and kind of walked away from attending live shows. In fear of that I could truly enjoy the show from the front of the house after years of being in the back of the house, watching the PUNTERS arrive with their sodas and popcorn.

My first U2 song was New Years Day and while this may sound unbelievable it truly was New Years Eve in St Louis and I was outside with my friends listening to this amazing sound coming from the radio. I was hooked. I locked into everything U2 and played all the songs on my radio show avoiding the program director in fear of losing my job.

So it’s Monday night and the fervor has come back. This time it was stronger for a couple of reasons. I of course wanted to hear some old U2 before the commercialization period but hey let’s face it this was TV and I was not going to get my chance to re-live my college days.

Now I am older and up past my bedtime waiting, listening and yet not at all worried about getting up in the morning. This night was dedicated to the rebirth of U2. As Bono had said before this album is different.  At the time I had no idea what truth he spoke only that I was ready for a new U2 album.

The band has changed, yes, but that’s what makes them endure, what makes them relevant to new fans everyday, what creates the fervor for each and every one of them.  U2’s ability to resurrect themselves new every few years is what has helped them to survive and thrive and what has brought them to a point where they can monopolize Letterman for an entire week.  And every now and then, when the band strikes a certain chord or Bono attempts to make physical contact with his audience—either the one present before him or the one he knows is at the other end of the camera lens—I am reminded, once again, of the fervor this band is capable of creating time and again.

I wait for the tour and know that I will have a chance to introduce the next generation, my twins.



Paul McGuinness and the Piracy Affair

Paul McGuinness and the Piracy Affair

By  Nikki Vanasse

Blackstone, MA

Editor Comment:  We had a chance to invite Nikki back. Please share your thoughts and comments. This is the only way our writers know what you think.

Paul McGuinnessAs Feedback gave way to The Hype, Paul McGuinness was in the right place at the right time; his “baby band” is born.  Never really fancied himself a band manager, but he gave it a whirl.  It was proven to be a match made in heaven; U2 had their lofty goals early on and Paul was a no-nonsense business man in training.  It was only natural that the two forces would come together.  From the beginning, he made all the right moves, including suggesting they all split the songwriting credits and ownership of their music.  His rationale?  If everyone is on an even pay scale, you have a better shot at harmony.  You can’t say Paul McGuinness doesn’t have smarts.

I’ve always admired what Paul McGuinness brought to U2’s table.  He’s got the loyalty and passion of Peter Grant without all the trouble.  He’s also a smart businessman, and you won’t find many who will dispute that.  It’s rare these days, for a band to have a manager so involved in it all, they are all on the same page.  So much so that from the beginning, the four lads agreed that Paul was really “the fifth Beatle”.

I have to admit though, that it is troubling for me to swallow the recent positions that have been taken by Mr. McGuinness.  I’m just surprised that a manager of his caliber isn’t a step ahead on this.  I’m talking first about his position on file sharing, and how ISPs and even government should be involved in creating legislation that will prevent the stealing of music.  

For ISPs to cut off any customer lifting a track for free?  It’s going to be hard, since the internet is not regulated.  And is that what we really want?  Regulation of the internet?  But it’s the only “free forum” we really have, isn’t it?  We like to keep it that way, thank you very much.  It’s not so much that I feel it isn’t right to steal music, but I also think that in an age of multiple releases and box sets and live recordings, it’s a wee bit expensive for my budget.  So where’s the happy medium?  And more importantly, how are the artists who are struggling for recognition and their own following going to really make any money at what they do?  It seems that the lesser-known artists depend on the live show.  Many give there music away and get people to the shows.  Maybe it’s that simple.

It feels strange to me, McGuinness’ rant (I call it a rant only because the MIDEM ‘08 speech went on forever) about the current state of the music industry, blaming everyone for the troubles it’s been experiencing.  These guys have been blessed with some serious coin.  Sure, they had a bomb with the Pop Mart tour, and they’ve been known to lose money and struggle meeting their lofty goals as far as touring goes, but the coin allowed them to REALLY stretch themselves and try driving down some new avenues.  It was their choice and they could afford take the risk.  U2 is not in any financial crisis.

The fact is, the game has changed, and the way we find and acquire music has certainly changed.  It’s a wonderful journey of discovery.  It would seem to me that U2 has enough clout to really shine here and figure out a new business model.  They are in the ultimate position to really lead the charge and make an even BIGGER impression.

Bono/Paul Secondly, this corporate sponsor business.  When I saw the show this past September, I fell in love all over again.  And then Bono ended the night with the list of sponsors he had to thank.  I don’t have a problem with giving thanks for some help, but I miss “thanks for giving us a great life”.  While I did hear that, the nod to Live Nation and Blackberry sounded louder.  He reminded me of a NASCAR driver being interviewed after winning the race.  He sounded uncomfortable with it.  I often wonder if any other fans noticed that.

The industry isn’t in balance, it’s too much business.  When I think of balance I think of Bill Graham.  That guy was great at the business and a BIG FAN of the music.  There’s not enough art represented anymore.  The key is to find out how to push your product out to the people and get somehow compensated for it.  What’s the answer?  We don’t know yet, although it would make sense to make the shows more accessible, more scaled down, and have more live shows on a lower scale, less expensive and draw your crowds.  At this junction, it seems silly to think that file sharing will be stopped.

The times they are a changing.  It’s about what moves the very core of our being.  It’s time that the industry redefines itself because to fight the tides of change on this level, in order to keep a status quo, is futile.  You’ve got to evolve.  And that’s something U2 has proven they can do.

Do you agree or not with Paul McGuinness? Join in the discussion. Share your thoughts -



Brian Eno hated one of U2’s songs,Which one ?

“Where the Streets Have No Name” is the opening track from their 1987 album The Joshua Tree. It was released as the album’s third single in August 1987 . Bono was inspired to write the lyrics by the notion that it is possible to identify a person’s religion and income based on the street on which they lived, particularly in Belfast. Amidst difficulties recording the song, producer Brian Eno attempted to erase the song from the recording tapes. The song’s signature is a repeating guitar arpeggio utilizing a delay effect that is played at the beginning and end of the song.

 

The song peaked at #14 in Canada, #10 in The Netherlands and #4 in the United Kingdom. The song has become one of the band’s most popular songs, and it has remained a staple of the band’s live act since the song debuted in 1987 on the Joshua Tree Tour. The song was notably performed on a Los Angeles rooftop for the filming of its music video, which won a Grammy Award for “Best Performance Music Video”. Rolling Stone ranked the song at #28 on its list of the “100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.”

Where the Streets Have No Name is more like the U2 of old than any of the other songs on the LP, because it’s a sketch - I was just trying to sketch a location, maybe a spiritual location, maybe a romantic location. I was trying to sketch a feeling. I often feel very claustrophobic in a city, a feeling of wanting to break out of that city and a feeling of wanting to go somewhere where the values of the city and the values of our society don’t hold you down.

An interesting story that someone told me once is that in Belfast, by what street someone lives on you can tell not only their religion but tell how much money they’re making - literally by which side of the road they live on, because the further up the hill the more expensive the houses become.

You can almost tell what the people are earning by the name of the street they live on and what side of that street they live on. That said something to me, and so I started writing about a place where the streets have no name.

Legendary producer BRIAN ENO hated U2’s iconic song WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAME so much; he tried to erase it in the recording studio.

The track, from the band’s 1987 album Joshua Tree, went on to become one of their most famous hits, and was named by Rolling Stone magazine number 28 in their 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of all time.

But U2 owe its release and subsequent success to a young technician who physically fought Eno, who produced the record, to stop him from wiping it from existence.

During an appearance on Elvis Costello’s Spectacle TV show, guitarist The Edge reveals, “He had witnessed us try so many ideas it was all grey. So he decided to erase it and start again.

“He sent our junior engineer out of the room so he could erase it. The engineer had to physically grab him and pull him out of the control room.”

This video was directed by Meiert Avis. The song was performed to playback on the rooftop of the Republic Liquor Store at East 7th Street and South Main Street in Los Angeles on 27 March 1987. The scenes including the police shutting the video down due to safety concerns are real. In 1988, the music video won a Grammy Award for “Best Performance Music Video”.

At the beginning of the video, a radio broadcast of the band’s song “Bullet the Blue Sky” can be heard. The main concept of the video was a homage to the Beatles’s final concert, which was on the rooftop of their record company headquarters in London.

Crowds were invited via the radio announcement, which caused the chaos that sparked police to try and stop the shoot. It was later noted that had things been more organized, the video would have looked nothing like the Beatles’s last performance.

Bono Tax WTF?

Bono Tax WTF?

Ireland’s Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has introduced new measures that will hit the Irish rich where they live, literally. Major figures such as Bono and others members of U2, as well as many leading businessmen, are essentially tax exiles from Ireland despite being citizens.

Now however, if you hold an Irish passport and have extensive holdings in Ireland, Lenihan said he will introduce a $300,000-per-year  levy on “all Irish nationals and persons domiciled here who earn more than $1.5 million in income worldwide, and who have capital located here worth more than $7.4 million.”



U2 scores big in 2009

U2 Top Grossing Concerts 2009

The concert industry continued a recession-proof boom in 2009, with U2’s “360 Tour”leading the way, according to year-end numbers issued by ticket resale marketplace StubHub.

The eBay unit’s gross dollar sales for concert tickets increased 40% from 2008, marking a second consecutive year of growth at that level, while there was a 65% increase in concert ticket volume.

U2’s elaborate show was the top-grossing tour of the year, as well as the top-grossing concert tour in StubHub’s 10-year history, outdoing “Hannah Montana”and Police tours in 2007-08 and Madonna’s “Sticky and Sweet”trek of last year.

Trailing the Irish band as top grossers this year were Bruce Springsteen, Phish, Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, the Dave Matthews Band, Elton John, the Jonas Brothers, Kenny Chesney and Metallica.

U2 was responsible for nine of the 10 top-grossing individual concerts of 2009, with a pair of shows at New Jersey’s Giants Stadium heading the list. A Springsteen venue-closing concert at Giants Stadium ranked 10th.

 

U2 Best Album 2009 Rolling Stone Poll

U2’s No Line On The Horizon tops Rolling Stone’s Best Albums of 2009 poll 

U2’s latest album No Line On The Horizon has emerged as the topper in Rolling Stone magazine’s Best Albums of 2009 poll.

The release is U2’s 12th music album, and has beaten Bruce Springsteen’s Working on a Dream, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by Phoenix and Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 3, reports Contactmusic.

Meanwhile, U2 have also scored the Best Song of 2009 honour with Moment of Surrender.

The song beat Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys and Bruce Springsteen’s Outlaw Pete among the editors’ picks.

Christopher Lawrence released a free bootleg remix

As the buzz increased tonight we thought we would introduce the fact that Chris has released a free bootleg remix of U2’s massive single ‘I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight’. We have created a link for the download below.

The single is the fifth track from U2’s new album ‘No Line on the Horizon’. It was one of the highlights of U2’s recent European leg of the tour.

‘I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight’ was originally released in the UK on September 7th by Mercury. Other artists who have released remixes include Dirty South, Fish Out Of Water, and Redanka.

Christopher Lawrence kicks up the energy level a notch with this hot new bootleg remix built around a groovy acid bass line and syncopated percussion. Use of the original vocals create dancefloor tension in the build up out of the breakdown. Classic progressive house and trance sounds were used effectively but sparingly to give the track room to breathe.

Christopher Lawrence Christopher says of the remix “being given the opportunity to remix one of U2’s songs was a dream come true. Bono’s voice is a such a signature sound to the band’s identity, I felt it was important to use as much of the original vocals of the song as possible to maintain the integrity of the song”.

U2 collaborated with will.i.am in the creation of the track. It was first developed by Brian Eno under the title “Diorama” during a break in the recording sessions. Several of the song’s lyrics were influenced by Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Bono stated to Q magazine that the lyrics “[sound] like a T-shirt slogan to me”, also noting that it was No Line on the Horizon’s equivalent to “Beautiful Day”.