Dear U2, a letter to the Editor

U2  fans seem to be vocal about almost anything. They should be most of us have grown up with U2 and while we may or may not agree with Bono’s politics or view we at least share one common view. That all of us have the power to express our views as well as take action. I have been getting some interesting emails over the last year. Most of which I have chosen to not post out of respect of the writer. However after few days of consideration we talked this letter over and over and we all agreed that this would be the first letter for 2010 to share. Remember your welcome to write a letter to the editor anytime and we will not guarantee  that it will be published.  I welcome your comments and your letters.  Send them to Editor

Dearest U2: 

I never imagined that I would be writing this letter, but after all these years I feel like I don’t know you anymore.  I love you for so many reasons, primarily the humanitarian work you do.  It is honorable to be of such service to others…Bono is a lucky man in that respect.  I have tremendous respect.

Gosh, it was so long ago when we met.  It was 1980 or ‘81.  I think ‘81.  I remember seeing you across the room for the first time in Boston, MA at The Paradise.  What a night!  It literally changed my life!  I felt like a new person on this new adventure and nobody could bring me down from the ceiling!  I couldn’t get enough of you.  From that moment on I knew you were the one for me and we’d be together forever.

Why did you do it?  Its hard being with you when I know you’d rather be with Live Nation.  You’re not the same.  Once whispering in my ear, “Thank you for this life!” and now what I hear is “Thanks to Live Nation, Blackberry…” *sobbing* …maybe you did mention that thank-you in there somewhere but it was drowned out by corporate nods.  

I never thought I would ever hear those words come out of your mouth.  Maybe it’s true.  Maybe you DO find them more attractive and maybe it IS the money.  We’re all human.  I can’t compete with a corporation because obviously they can support you more suitably than I can.

I really don’t know where it all started going wrong.  Maybe it was how you flirted with Apple, I don’t know.  Look, I know things change.  After all, we can’t climb staging like we used to!  I just always imagined us living happily ever after, no matter what you were doing on stage or in the studio.  As we both grew up and changed things evolved but it was really great, wasn’t it?  We discovered so much about each other through the years and you have to admit we became addicted to each other.  You can’t deny the electricity and fireworks between us.  

When people said spiteful things about you, I was always in your corner.  I know it’s just because they’re jealous.  They don’t understand you at all.  They don’t live with you as I do.  I knew what you were made of and what you stood for; I stood for the same things, which is why it worked so well.  You love me and still want me in your life, I KNOW that.

The rumors prove to be too much to bear.  Why are people saying these things?  The tax evasion accusations were hard enough, and then I hear Paul McGuinness at MIDEM in 2008.  You really shook things up there!  But you know something, I don’t even know why I mention that because I TOTALLY get it when you can’t make any money on something you work really hard at, I get that.  

The thing is, it’s getting a bit inflated and I’m running out of money to support you…is that why you want to leave?  Because of the money?  I was always there trying to support you so you could continue doing what you love to do!  I bought ALL the records AND tapes, THEN I bought ALL the CDs, EVERY tour program, re-release and t-shirt I could get my hands on, and later on, ALL the DVDs, and finally, INCREDIBLY inflated prices to see your shows multiple times (I know, that was my choice, you’re right).  And now you want to tell me that it just wasn’t good enough?  

Now you’re epically successful and you are going to burn the very people who have been giving you that great life.  When I first met you, I admired the business sense you had and decisions that you made.  Really smart.  I was in awe of your perseverance. Drive and passion, it’s what made you, YOU!  That business sense coupled with your drive as a band I thought FOR SURE would put you in position to really change the paradigm of the music industry.  

You ALWAYS had your finger on the pulse.  I am disappointed that you haven’t been forward-thinking enough to get ahead of the 8-ball when you saw the writing on the wall that the music industry was changing.  You are in a great position to lead the way but instead, continue on with an outdated model.  You have been a MASTER of change, constantly reinventing yourselves time and time again; it’s what makes it all exciting.  Hey, we all get older and we all grow up and wind up in a different place as a result and that’s cool, that’s expected.  I just want to grow old with you.  I just can’t bear the thought of divorce after what…29 years?

And now…the latest is that there has been a show declared as “sold out” moments after they had gone on sale and lo and behold, Live Nation comes sweeping in with MORE tickets available and they’re “good seats”!  Do you know what this does to me?  

I panic every time there’s a sale and struggle with computer issues only to find that I can’t get ANY number of seats together for my friends and me!  I’ve spent HUNDREDS of dollars because suddenly all the affordable seats are gone AND to make matters worse, more tickets get released and they’re BETTER and they’re reasonably priced!  Didn’t you know Springsteen just got bagged with this tactic?  And don’t sit there and tell me you didn’t know.  You are making it possible for “casual fans” who don’t know anything about you outside The Joshua Tree, to attend a show and forget you the next week.  You have shaken the fans that have supported you and loved you unconditionally.  It’s hard for me.

I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to get so vehement.  It’s just *sobbing* you’re breaking my heart!  I know that I can make a choice here and turn and walk away, never to look back but the songs will haunt me; I can never give up the music.  I need more time.  Give it more time.  I can’t bear the thought of losing you.  Let’s work it out.

I love you,

Nikki xoxoxoxo (share them, please)

U2 Ticket Alert: Zurich

The second Zurich 360° show will take place on September 12th at Letzigrund Stadium and tickets go on public sale this Friday, February 5th. A presale for U2.com subscribers takes place tomorrow and Wednesday.

Subscribers have receive presale details on email. Here’s the dates and onsales of 2010 shows and here’s the presale times for our different subscriber groups. (Check what subscriber group you’re in by logging in.)

Horizon/Breathe - Presale Opens 10pm Feb 2nd
Boots/Magnificent - Presale Opens 10am Feb 3rd
(all times local)

FYI if your an iTunes App Subscriber you always have the most current tour dates on your iphone/iTouch

Or you can always check out Ticket Masters Reseller Group - Most likely a good option for tickets -

Bono Joining "We Are World" Remake

Just as George Clooney used the Golden Globes as recruiting grounds for his Haiti telethon, Lionel Richie and Quincy Jones did the same with Grammys for their “We Are the World” remake.

The veterans of the original 1985 charity single spent the festivities stocking up on music stars to perform on the new rendition, to be recorded Monday in Los Angeles.

Bono and Lady Gaga are among the latest on board for the Haiti-helping tune, joining the likes of Usher, Jason Mraz, Akon, Jennifer Hudson, Carlos Santana, Enrique Iglesias and Toni Braxton. There could be as many as 100 singers on the new rendition. “It’s like the biggest honor in life to get a call from our father in music, Quincy Jones,” RedOne, who will help produce, told E! News backstage.

Tonight’s Grammys also featured a special Mary J. Blige-Andrea Bocelli duet of “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” The song will be available for download on iTunes with proceeds going to earthquake relief.

Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie are planning a massive 25th anniversary re-recording of “We Are the World.”

The timing couldn’t be better, sadly enough.

The duo is summoning lots and lots of talent from Grammy weekend to stay an extra night — Monday Feb. 1 — and come to the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. There, they will celebrate a quarter century since Ken Kragen, Richie and Michael Jackson organized the original “We Are the World” with Jones.

This time the artists invited include Usher, Natalie Cole, and John Legend. But you can bet that more names will be added shortly and that all the Grammy nominees and participants will be asked to come as well. Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich will produce the event, which will then be turned into a video and single just like it was in 1985. Don’t be surprised if Wyclef Jean joins in, along with Sting, Fergie, Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake and other distinctive voices.

Originally, this anniversary celebration was to be held on Jan. 28. But when the Haiti earthquake happened, sources say, the whole deal changed. Now proceeds will go to Haiti relief. In 1985, “We Are the World,” which begat Live Aid, raised money for Africa relief.

Wide Reports on E!, Village Voice,Grammy News, LA Times,

U2 has won 67 Awards !

U2 may not have won 2009 Grammy awards they have won a boat load of awards over the years. Let’s take a look back at some of those awards and pop open a Guinness and lets enjoy this great album. Drink up boys 2010 will be your year !

U2 is considered to be on of the most popular acts in the world since the mid-1980s. The has sold more than 140 million albums worldwide and has won a total of 22 Grammy Awards, record still standing as “more than any other rock band.

American Music Awards

The American Music Awards are awarded annually. U2 has won one AMA, and been nominated for seven. (2002)

BRIT Awards

The BRIT Awards are awarded annually by the British Phonographic Industry. U2 has won 7 BRIT awards.

Grammy Awards

The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in the United States. To date, U2 are tied with Stevie Wonder in having won the most Grammy Awards of any artist of contemporary music with a total of 22 awards. They have won Best Rock Duo or Group seven times, Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Rock Album all twice.

 Meteor Music Awards

14 Meteor Awards.

MTV Video Music Awards

6 VMAs.

Q Awards

10 Q Awards.

Other Awards

In 1989 and 1993, U2 won Juno Awards for International Entertainer of the Year, and subsequently, producer Daniel Lanois won the Jack Richardson Best Producer Award for the production of “Beautiful Day” and “Elevation”.

In 1992, U2 won No. 1 Album Tracks Artist at the Billboard Music Awards for “Mysterious Ways”. In 2001, they received both the NME Award for “Godlike Genius” and “Best Rock Act”.

The following year, they received the award for “Best Live Act”. In 2003 they received both the Golden Globe Award and Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Song for “The Hands That Built America”, which appeared in Gangs of New York.

The following year they won Favorite Group at the People’s Choice Awards.n 2005 the band was inducted into the Cleveland-based Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Remember to follow U2TOURFANS via twitter, facebook, Youtube or down load our iTunes Application

GRAMMY SHUT OUT

No Grammy Wins for U2 - 2009 can be considered a shut out for the boys

Grammy Pre Show Produces No Wins

Well folks as reported U2 has been shut out of two of the three nominations that have been announced during the pre-show awards. “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” did not win against “Use Somebody (Kings of Leon, who toured with the band before) in both the Best Rock and Best Rock Song categories. Now that leaves one category left. Best Rock Album which will be announced during the show on CBS. ( US Broadcast Channel ).

Bono's 1987 death threat alive

The year Arizona was consumed with controversy over Gov. Evan Mecham’s decision to cancel a state holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. was also the year that the Irish band U2 played four concerts here.And dealt with death threats, according to the band. According to the oft-told tale, lead singer Bono would be shot while performing the group’s ode to King, “Pride (In the Name of Love).”

 The band’s memory of this 1987 incident has appeared in various books, in magazines and in Bono’s induction speech when the band entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

However, those involved with the band’s concerts here do not remember such threats happening in Arizona, as is recounted in some versions of the story. 

“Honestly, I don’t recall,” said Barry Fey, the promoter who handled both the April shows at Arizona State University’s basketball arena and the December shows at the university’s football stadium.

Through the years, the death-threat story has changed locations. In most versions, it takes place in Tempe. In one version, it takes place in Los Angeles. And others are less specific, saying it was somewhere in the southern United States.

But crucial elements of the story have remained constant - particularly that the shooting would occur during “Pride.” And Bono’s recollection that bassist Adam Clayton stood in front of him as he sang the song, as if he were a bodyguard.

“Something strange happened toward the end of the Joshua Tree tour,” Bono said in an interview collected in the oral history “U2 by U2,” released in 2006. “We had campaigned for Martin Luther King Day in Tempe, Arizona, where the tour opened back in April. There was a governor there called Mecham who was holding out against it, and we had got involved in local politics there and took a stand. We went back to Tempe at the end of the tour, in December, to play the Sun Devil Stadium.

“I was getting death threats throughout the tour… . This character was a racist offended by our work, he thought we were messing in other people’s business and taking sides with the Black man. One night the FBI said: ‘Look, it’s quite serious. He says he has a ticket. He said he’s armed.’… So we played the show, the FBI were around, everyone was a little unnerved. You just didn’t know, could he be in the building?”

Bono said, in the book, that he was singing the third verse of “Pride,” the song that was supposed to trigger the shooting. “I just closed my eyes and sang,” he said. “And when I opened my eyes, Adam was standing in front of me.”

Neither Tempe police nor Arizona State University police could find a report about the incident. The Phoenix office of the FBI also came up empty. Special Agent Manual Johnson, the FBI’s spokesman, said he was at those shows as a fan but could not locate any report of a threat.

Fey, the now-retired concert promoter who lives in Denver, said he did not recall ordering extra security for any of the four Tempe shows as a result of a threat.

Fey did know how the band felt about Arizona’s controversy. Before the April shows, he took the stage to read a brief statement on behalf of the band. A review in The Phoenix Gazette said the statement called Mecham’s decision “an embarrassment.”

Fey said the crowd reacted with cheers both nights.

“I did expect Bono to say something (about the controversy),” he said. “I did not expect to be his spokesman.”

Fey said the band became aware of Mecham and the King controversy during four days of rehearsal before the April shows, which began its tour in support of the album “The Joshua Tree.”

The band returned in December for two shows at Sun Devil Stadium, concerts filmed for its movie “Rattle and Hum.” In an interview with The Arizona Republic before those shows, Clayton said the band wouldn’t be addressing the still-unsettled King holiday issue.

“I don’t think it’s necessary,” he said. “This is not a political event. It’s a concert. When we were there the first time, we made our point.”

Fans have played guessing games on Web sites, trying to pinpoint where the threat story took place. In some versions of the story, Bono said it happened on the second night of back-to-back shows in the same city. That, coupled with the detail that it took place in a southern U.S. city, helps narrow the possibilities.

A listing of concert dates on the band’s Web site shows the band played two nights in Los Angeles on that leg of the tour. The FBI office in that city did not return messages seeking comment. The band also played two nights in Denver, but Fey was the promoter for those shows as well, and didn’t recall a threat.

Fey said he thinks Bono sincerely believed his life was in danger when he took the stage, whether it was in Tempe or another city. If the story did take place in Tempe, it’s possible someone relayed a warning to the singer but did not share it with Fey, he said.

“He’s not one to lie,” Fey said.

Still, authorities haven’t found what they looked for: hard evidence of a threat against the band in Arizona.

U2: No Line On The Horizon Interview

Re produced from Feb 2009

The new U2 album, ‘No Line On The Horizon’ will be released on March 2nd. It is a great record, and greatness is what rock and roll and the world needs right now. From the grittily urgent yet ethereal title track all the way to the philosophically ruminative, spacey coda of ‘Cedars Of Lebanon’ it conjures an extraordinary journey through sound and ideas, a search for soul in a brutal, confusing world, all bound together in narcotic melody and space age pop songs.

Get On Your Boots: an escape from politics

“Let me in the sound” is a repeated lyrical motif (showing up in three songs, including current single ‘Get On Your Boots’). The theme of the album is surrender, escaping everyday problems to lose (or perhaps find) yourself in the joy of the moment. For Bono, it clearly represents an escape from the politics of his role as a lobbyist and campaigner into the musical exultation of rock and roll, yet the very notion of escape remains political, if only with a small p. “Every day I have to find the courage to walk out into the street / With arms out, got a love you can’t defeat” is the inspirational bridge in an epic, explosive rock anthem ‘Breathe’, that could be set in Gaza or at your own front door. Scattershot half-spoken verses fire images like news reports from the battleground of life (”16^th of June, Chinese stocks are going up / And I’m coming down with some new Asian virus … Doc says you’re fine, or dying”) til he is “running down the road like loose electricity”, tension building in thundering drums and grungey two note guitar riff until it all lets loose in a soaring, anthemic chorus, as Bono tells us “I found grace inside a sound / I found grace, it’s all that I found / And I can breathe”.

The theme is even more explicit on ‘Moment Of Surrender’, a pulsing, dreamily gorgeous 7 minute weave of synths, silvery guitars, sub-bass, handclaps, Arabic strings and soulful ululating vocals, in which the narrator experiences a spiritual epiphany at the very prosaic setting of an ATM machine. It is a beautiful piece that provides the album’s beating heart and shows how far U2 can drift from their stereotype as a stadium rock band into unknown territory while still making something that touches the universal.

Musically, these songs might be the two poles of an album that switches between overloaded rockers and hypnotic electro grooves: the U2 / Eno divide. ‘No Line On The Horizon’ was produced by the professorially brilliant Roxy Music synth magus Brian Eno with his rootsy, muso collaborator Daniel Lanois, the same team that has presided over U2’s finest albums, Unforgettable Fire (1984), The Joshua Tree (1987), Achtung Baby (1991) and their latterday reclaiming of pop’s high ground ‘All That You Can’t Leave Behind’ (2000). The chief difference is that here they have been explicitly invited into the songwriting process, with 7 of the 12 tracks credited to both band and producers, and recorded with a six-piece line up featuring Eno on electronics and Lanois on acoustic and pedal steel guitar.

It is these songs, in particular, which push U2 towards the invisible horizon of the title, at once more linear (they tend to be driven, with singular grooves, often pulsing along on particular sound effect or rhythmic repetitions) and lateral (they defy obvious song-structure, choruses drop rather than soar, Bono’s rich, high voice subsumed into stacked harmonic chants). These tracks draw out of Bono a contemplative depth, so even the fantastically odd ‘Unknown Caller’ hits a vein of emotional truth, when the spaced out singer is cast adrift on the soundbites of computer and communications networks (’Password, you enter here, right now / You know your name so punch it in’) yet seems to find himself talking to the inner voice of God (”Escape yourself, and gravity / Hear me, cease to speak that I may speak”). Words and music dovetail in surprising ways that send the senses spinning.

Left to their own compositional devices, U2 produce rock songs of high-wire adrenalin and in-your-face immediacy. It is almost a relief when they arrive like a troop surge in the middle of the album, reclaiming familiar territory with a burst of shock and awe. This is U2 on safe ground, ramming home the kind of smack bang crunch pop rock that they know radio programmers will fall at their feet for, yet there is almost too much melody and a surfeit of lyrical ideas.

Current single ‘Get On Your Boots’ is the prime example, walloping along with two note punk rock energy, a low-slung heavy metal guitar riff, an expansively melodic psychedelic chorus and playful sloganeering lyrics in which Bono gets off the soap box to pay homage to the more prosaic pleasures of a beautiful woman in comically “sexy boots”. Along with the Oasis on steroids singalong pop of ‘I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight’ and pop Zepplin-esque grooviness and shuffling beats of ‘Stand Up Comedy’, these songs are the albums most immediate and yet least resonant tracks. They are light relief from the more demanding adventures into new sonic terrain.

Bono’s worst reflex as a lyric writer is sloganeering, partly because he is so good at it. On the three songs just mentioned, he piles catch-phrase upon soundbite to build up a thematic idea, often one that plays with his image. So in ‘Stand Up Comedy’ the diminutive rock star in stacked boots warns us to “stand up to rock stars / Napoleon is in high heels / Josephine be careful of small men with big ideas” and in ‘I’ll Go Crazy’ he confesses (or complains) “there’s a part of me in the chaos that’s quiet / And there’s a part of you that wants me to riot.” It is all good fun but too often sounds like a series of t-shirt slogans rather than a song with a heart of its own. His phrasemaking is put to much better effect when it pared back so that the emotion of the song takes precedence, as on the strange, addictive title track, where he loses himself in the blur of a mysterious love, a person whose unknowability represents a kind of Godliness and who tells him “infinity is a great place to start.”

On ‘Breathe’, U2 locate the emotional and philosophical heart in an out and out ball busting U2 anthem (which Eno, apparently, asserts to be “the most U2 song” they have ever recorded). It is matched, in this respect, by the quite wonderful ‘Magnificent’, in which the U2/Eno/Lanois combo conjure up an instantly recognisable U2 classic in a love song with the flag waving pop drive of ‘New Year’s Day’. These are songs that will fill their fans with joy, but it is in the album’s more intimate, off beat adventures that U2 lock into something that forces listeners to sit up and take note of them anew. There is a busy-ness in terms of sonic tapestry, the meshing together of Edge’s sci-fi guitars and Eno’s synths providing an intricate, detailed soundscape that constantly tugs at the ears and mind, but the U2/Eno/Lanois songs hold the centre, slowly revealing themselves, demanding repeat listens. It certainly sounds like U2 (as do a lot of groups these days) but in its boldest moments is as fresh and ambitious as the work of first timers, not veterans 33 years on the road.

If it has a flaw, it may be in U2’s inherent tendency to want to be all things to all people, so that in album of surrender, they can’t quite let themselves go all the way. They still want to bat the ball out of the stadium everytime, and so instinctively counterbalance their desire to reach something otherwordly with the safe bets of crunchy rock hits. In that respect, it doesn’t have the innocence or singularity of ‘Unforgettable Fire’ or ‘Joshua Tree’, nor does it quite affect the bold re-wiring of their sound that was ‘Achtung Baby’. To me, it is probably the album ‘Zooropa’ was supposed to be, building on the sonic architecture of classic U2 and taking it into the pop stratosphere. But what a place for a band to be, in orbit around their own myth, making music that bounces off the inside of a listeners skull, charged with ideas and emotions, groovy enough to want to dance to, melodic enough to make you sing along, soulful enough to cherish, philosophical enough to inspire, and with so many killer tracks it might as well be a latterday greatest hits. It is, at the very least, an album to speak of in the same breath as their best and what other band of their longevity can boast of that?

Anyway that’s my opinion. I can tell you what Bono thinks, because he has been texting me. He comes (as he explicitly says on ‘Breathe’) “from a long line of travelling salesmen” and he would probably sell his album door to door if he could. “Lifeforce, joy, innovation, emotional honesty, analogue not digital, home-made not pro-tooled, unique sonic landscape,” are his buzzwords (although punctuation and spelling are mine). “I pinch myself every morning, evenings no longer a trial. Soul music for the frenzied, rock music for the still. The album we always wanted to make. Now we f*** off …”

 Not for a while yet, I suspect.