360 Underworld View

The Edge - U2 360 Tour Plenty of attention has been given to the amazing structure built above the stage on the U2 360 world tour, but beneath the band’s feet lies the Underworld, a maze-like string of instrument maintenance areas, changing rooms and workspaces. The busiest spot down below is the monitor mix position, where engineers Niall Slevin, Dave Skaff and Alastair McMillan ensure U2 can hear itself over the 90,000-plus fans at every show.

Monitor duties are split up among the engineers, with Slevin providing mixes for guitarist the Edge, McMillan doing the same for singer Bono, and Skaff tackling sound for drummer Larry Mullen Jr., bassist Adam Clayton and offstage keyboardist Terry Lawless.

All the band members are wearing Future Sonics ear buds attached to Sennheiser G2 wireless systems, but below the deck, the gear uniformity ends. Slevin and McMillan both mix on DiGiCo SD7 desks, while Skaff is positioned behind a Digidesign D-Show

Profile. All of the engineers mix watching the show via video screens, keeping an eye on their respective charges for visual cues.

Since the SD7 still a relatively new desk, the tour marked the first time McMillan, a seasoned FOH and studio engineer, had used one: “I wasn’t sure of this at first and I’m still acclimating to the change, but I was pleasantly surprised,” he said. “It sounds good, that’s the main thing.”

Oddly enough, though, it works in concert with a second console. On the 2005-06 Vertigo tour, Bono found he was thrown off by the processing delay of the digital console used at that time.

U2 360 Tour Underworld The work-around invented for that production—and maintained on the current tour—is that the vocal goes direct into a Midas Venice analog board. Meanwhile, a stereo submix of everything from the SD7 is sent to two channels of the Venice, where it and Bono’s mic are sent back to his wireless pack, reducing processing time on the vocal to nil.

Over at the Digidesign Profile, Skaff keeps things rolling for the rhythm section, much as he as since joining the band’s live crew in 1985 (“I don’t count when I drove gear in ‘83”). In between the previous U2 world tour and this one, Skaff worked for Digidesign, but first began using a Profile on the Vertigo jaunt, noting, “When it finally came around that I had to make a switch, I really liked the platform, the sound of it.”

With that kind of background, it’s no surprise that he’s comfortable working with the multitude of plug-ins available for the desk: “For experimenting, it is really great because it’s like having a giant rack of gear available to you all the time. I use an awful lot of the McDSP stuff, Crane Song’s Phoenix and a lot of the Waves plug-ins as well. Phoenix is one of those one-knob, ‘I can’t believe what it does’ things. It’s just one knob that makes it better; whatever you put it on, it just brings it right out of the mix into whatever you’re listening to. Rob Scovill turned me on to it.”

U2 360 Tour Set ListWhile the band members all sport personal monitor systems, there’s still a handful of Clair 12AMII “stealth” wedges onstage with them. “Wedges have basically gone away,” admitted Skaff. “There’s a couple out there as a ‘just in case’—but several of the wedges are teleprompters that can screen song lyrics or translations; that kind of stuff.  There’s only one active wedge out of the whole thing and the rest is sub lows—two for Larry and a block of four right next to Adam’s bass rig.”

As Skaff’s tenure might indicate, much of U2’s audio staff have been with the band for years, but this tour is marks McMillan’s first time on the road with the group. Mixing for one of rock’s more unpredictable frontmen might seem daunting, but the engineer has found that a studio-quality mix isn’t always the right fit for Bono: “He’s all about energy, so it’s probably not that ‘Hi-Fi.’ It’s not a nice-sounding mix; generally ‘nice-sounding’ doesn’t work for him. It’s not necessarily loud for the sake of it, but finding the energy, that’s what he gets off on. There’s a lot of effects on his vocal, a lot of reverb, probably more than a record mix, but you know, it works for him. And I use an awful lot of ambience as well—I haven’t discussed it with him, but I’ve just discovered that over a little while. The more audience reaction I can put in, the more he likes it!”

U2, Sinead O'Connor, Chieftains

The Music of Ireland - Welcome Home,” a new documentary featuring interviews and performances from U2 ,Celtic Woman, Sinead O’Connor and The Chieftians will debut on New York public television station WLIW on Feb. 17, then rollout across the country to other PBS affiliates throughout March PBS have announced.

“Music of Ireland” will be available as a CD and DVD in a number of outlets: Barnes & Noble is the exclusive retail partner and will debut an in-store promotional campaign on March 2; Amazon.com will feature all the CD tracks digitally on a 45-day exclusive starting that same day. In addition, the CD and DVD will be bundled as a bonus for those who donate to public television during pledge drives.

The CD was produced by John Reynolds, and features new material by Clannad’s Moya Brennan - who also hosts the documentary - O’Connor, the Chieftans, former Irish Tenor Ronan Tynan and Shane MacGowan of the Pogues, among others.

The documentary “Music of Ireland” opens in 1960 with the success of the pioneering Clancy Brothers, and includes Liam Clancy’s final U.S. television interview before his death. Other interviews include “Riverdance’s” Michael Flatley, Bob Geldof and Academy Award-nominated director Jim Sheridan.

A sequel to the “Music of Ireland” is planned for later this year, and will focus on U2, Celtic Woman, The Cranberries, The Corrs, the Irish Tenors and songwriters Glen Hansard and Damien Rice.

Bono/U2TOURFANS/DAVE LONG 2009 The documentary was executive produced by The Elevation Group’s Denny Young, who previously produced “Bonefish Grill’s Notes From The Road” for Ovation, and is presented by WLIW in association with WNET.org and Tourism Ireland.

“For such a small country to produce such amazing talent and the way their music defines the people is just extraordinary,” Young told Billboard magazine . “It has fascinated me for most of my life and is something I wanted more people to be in tune with.” 

New U2 Album Expected In June

Word is that Bono has said the next U2 album (Songs of Ascent) should be released in June, timely since the tour happens to be starting. During Bono’s interview with Sean O’Hagan he said the sister album to NLOTH would be called “Songs of Ascent” consider it to be a book end kind of like Zooropa and Achtung Baby.

We expect to see producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois once again as well as Steve Lillywhite this power house combination has seem to work well for the boys.

Some of the songs are expected to be the leftover tracks from ‘No Line On The Horizon’, but some are older. Songs expected to be used include ‘North Star’, an unused track from ‘How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb’. ‘Winter’, the song that didn’t make ‘No Line On The Horizon’ but was used in the movie ‘Brothers’ is expected to make the new album and ‘Kingdom Of Your Love’, heard in part of the intro music of the U2 360 Tour is also expected on the album.

Other tracks we might find there are “Every Breaking Wave’, ‘If I Could Live My Life Again’, ‘Love Is All We Have Left’, ‘Mercy’, ‘Lead Me In The Way I Should Go’ and ‘You Can’t Give Away Your Heart’.

Bono told the Irish Independent that the album may be out in June. ( Note the key word MAY)

U2TOURFANS 2 GO

Building on the success of the new iPhone and iTouch Application the  team has been hard at work creating version 2 of the popular U2TOURFANS app. In order to improve te team has choosen to reach out to the fans for major feedback on improvement features. -  We want to hear from you ! Drop us  note in the feedback section.

U2 Fan Experience

Dave Long /U2TOURFANS 2009As most fans begin to look at their calendar they see that the next round of shows happen to be much closer than you think, One fan capsured their feeling of the last leg.

What was yours ? How did the show move you ? What was your experience?

Of course we have tons of videos and photos and intereviews, what about your story ? Lets reach back in time and enjoy this fans experience.

U2 is an experience. And I know that sounds kitsch and over the top if you don’t like them, and have never been to one of their shows.

I’ve heard that said over and over again, and I thought I understood it. I’ve got the dvd’s of previous tours, and watch them a fair amount.

But when I got there, and stood in front of Edge’s amps as he drove out perfect note after perfect note on ‘Breathe’, taking a rather normal base chord structure to levels you wouldn’t think it could go to, and as Bono quite literally sang his heart out, and 97,000 people for just 2 hours got to drop their learned inhibitions and allow songs to take them somewhere they might not otherwise be able to go……as over the top as it might sound, it is a spiritual experience.

So as much as I joke about the night not being fulfilled until security escorts me out for trying too hard to touch Edge, Bono, Larry, Adam, or even one of the stage crew, once you get there, it’s just about letting yourself go.

Now, U2 is not for everybody. They’re obviously for a lot of people, but not for everybody. But I can pretty much guarantee you that if you were to go to a live show of theirs, and leave any preconceived notions at the door, you would at the very least feel something.

Dave Long / U2TOURFANS 2009 Something you weren’t expecting. For me, U2 has a way of lending these orchestrations with the perfect mix of countering yet simplistic lines, to support a melody that aches and yearns as much as it gives joy. In fact, the joy probably comes out of the ache. And they do it with power and with passion, and it sings to people. Not to everyone, but to at least 97,000 people last evening at the Rose Bowl. To be able to sing with my wife with tears in our eyes during ‘City of Blinding Lights’.

To be able to be crushed by 2490 fans in the inner circle jumping to ‘No Line on the Horizon’ as I in turn crush the 10 in front of me. To sing ‘No more!’ until you think you’re going to collapse, but it’s okay because thousands of other people from 5 years old to 65 years old are singing the same thing with the same intensity around you.

And of course, to almost be able to touch Edge’s guitar when he leaned over the rail. And above absolutely everything else, to hear the untouched and pre-mic’d tone directly from his amps.  Not to sound overly sentimental

U2:Cedars Of Lebanon

We loved the spoken word out takes of the Joshua Tree and was delighted when they got a more dignified place in the 20th Anniversary Deluxe version of that album we love the mood of Cedars Of Lebanon. Another of Bono’s third person lyrics it finds a journalist in war zone thinking of home and life and death; and eventually God and enemies.

Some have pointed out that the underpinning track might be a straight lift from Eno’s ambient album The Pearl, a collaboration with Harold Budd back in 1984. Whatever, the history of the music, the lyric leaves us with a few questions.

The last song on a U2 album is always carefully chosen. Track listings are never carelessly thrown together. So, what was the reason for this track closing out NLOTH? Cedars Of Lebanon takes us into the Bible.

There is no way that Bono’s use of the phrase is coincidental. Their time at Fez during the Sacred Musical Festival might not have seen them use sufi prayers or chants but it certainly gave them the inspiration and courage to make a seriously spiritual record. Cedars of Lebanon are used in various ways in the Scriptures. However, what does Bono mean by its use here. A quick glance across Wikipedia and you find a plethora of Biblical uses for the Cedars Of Lebanon;

“Jewish priests were ordered by Moses to use the bark of the Lebanon Cedar in circumcision and treatment of leprosy. Isaiah used the Lebanon Cedar as a metaphor for the pride of the world. According to the Talmud, Jews once burned Lebanese cedar wood on the Mount of Olives to announce the new year. Kings far and near requested the wood for religious and civil constructs, the most famous of which are King Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem and David’s and Solomon’s Palaces.”

Bono might be simply talking about the size of the Cedars and how God is bigger but where can he be found? The journalist might be journaling his objective feelings of the war zone and asking where God is or he might be seeking a more subjective interaction with God in his own life’s fraying threads.

Or Bono might be asking if God can be found in his Church, that the Old Testament tells us Cedars were used to build? Or is it Isaiah’s use as a symbol of pride that he is highlighting? Where is God in the deluded egos that go to war or in the self indulgent personal ego of a man wrestling with home and all that that means?

NLOTH ends with another cryptic clue of spiritual wisdom. Bono goes off philosophising about the importance of who you choose as your enemies. What is he trying to say? In subsequent interviews Bono has talked about the enemies that U2 have chosen, “we chose interesting enemies.

We didn’t choose the obvious enemies - The Man, the establishment. We didn’t buy into that. Our credo was: no them, there’s only us.” In a song about war Bono then turns inside for the enemy, “”What that means is that we picked enemies that were more internal - our own hypocrisy…They are nearly always of a psychological, if not a spiritual, nature. The spectres that hold you back, they were our enemies.”

Back in the context of the third person war journalist song had the journalist mistakenly and fatally made home and God his enemies?

Or is Bono remembering his old mate George W? He chose his enemies post 9/11 and his entire legacy will be based around that choice. Even now, when his friends are all gone to other arts and parts and he is on his ranch in Texas, all alone, that relationship which Bush had with his enemies defines him in the recent annals of history. If we glance back at the video For The Saints Are Coming we see the alternative enemy that Bush’s administration could have fought, the natural disaster effecting their very own people on the Gulf Coast. How different would the definition of Bush have been had he chosen the right enemy?

This brings us into the provocative question at the end of the cryptic clues. Who have we made our enemies? What are the internal battles that we need to fight in order to fulfil our human vocations to the pinnacle of their potential? And as local communities, society and for the nation what are the right wars to fight.

We guess if we stop to become aware of the battles that we fight without even thinking we could then spend some spiritual wisdom prioritising what needs fought and what doesn’t. The personal or national pride that Isaiah named as humanity’s Cedars of Lebanon might be a good place to start.

U2 360 Tour 2009 Lithograph Series

Dave Long/U2TOURFANS 2009

We heard about the error from FANFARE claiming a photos from one city and finding out its another city. U2 fans if your looking for photos from a city let us know most likely we have it. You can always check our photo colection.  However we have a collecton from Tampa that seems to be the best so far. You voted on them. So we have selected the best photos from our staff photographer, David Long. He has been shooting concert photos for over 10 years and has created some lasting images. This years tour is no exception.

The limited edition images can only be purchased at U2TOURFANS. Working with Dave we have designed two different collages that we feel capture the boys at their best. If you look closely at the image of Bono it seems like he is singing to the heavens and God has shined his light upon him. 

You can purchase any of the images shown within the collage as a single photo.

Your purchase goes towards the support of your site. We arre totally supported by donations and sponsorships. We thank Dave for all his support over the past year and look forward to having him out on the road for the 2010 tour season.

Strictly limited-edition individually numbered (1/500) lithograph featuring stunning full color live photograph by Dave Long of U2TOURFANS.COM Photo Team in  Tampa, Florida on October 9th 2009.

Each lithograph is limited in production. Each one comes with a completed and numbered ‘Certificate of Authenticity’.

 

Check out all of the photos from Tampa

David Long /U2TOURFANS 2009

U2 360 Tour Photos

Larry, Bono, Grainge and Standup all in the news

Kanye West, Black Eyed Peas’s will.i.am and U2’s Larry Mullen Jr are just some of the stars lending their voices to new Family Guy cartoon spin-off The Cleveland Show.

The series, showing on E4 in the UK, and created by Family Guy boss Seth MacFarlane follows the adventures of Cleveland Brown and his family.

Mike Henry, who voices the main character said: “Kanye could not be a cooler guy at our show - we do definitely have some jokes where he makes light of himself.”

“He does some things out in public that stir up controversy and opinions. He knew that and we contacted him and he was totally up for doing the part.”

U2’s drummer Larry Mullen Jr also got in touch with the programme’s creators through a mutual friend and asked to be involved.

 Black Eyed Pea’s will.i.am voices a character in season two

“He came in and we hung out for a couple of hours. We just recorded him doing a couple of different parts and he was very funny.

“It’s a thrill for me to do all this. U2 is my favourite band of all time and David Lynch the film director plays a part on our show.

“He [Mullen Jnr] plays a mobster in one episode; he plays a bad Elvis impersonator by design in another episode.

“He’s got his own studio so we just record it from Dublin. You don’t have to record at a certain time. It’s an easy gig and one that people like to do.

“It’s very cool to have all these people from different walks of entertainment participating in what we’re doing.”

The Cleveland Show airs at 10pm on E4 every Monday.

Bono slammed for U2’s decision to play in Israel

Rock star and activist Bono and his band U2 face a boycott and action from pro-Palestinian groups after agreeing to play in Israel this summer.

The influential Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) has urged Bono to ‘say no to Israel,’ pointing out he has turned down a similar invitation two years ago.

“Performing in Israel would violate the almost unanimously endorsed Palestinian civil society Call for Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. This Call is directed particularly towards international activists, artists, and academics of conscience, such as yourself. Moreover, it would come a year and a half after Israel’s bloody military assault against the occupied Gaza Strip which left over 1,440 Palestinians dead, of whom 431 were children, and 5380 injured, ” the letter stated.
 
The letter also called on Bono to live by what he recently wrote in The New York Times. “In a recent New York Times op-ed, you wrote of your hope ‘that the regimes in North Korea, Myanmar and elsewhere are taking note of the trouble an aroused citizenry can give to tyrants.’

“You went on to further elaborate on the hope that “people in places filled with rage and despair, places like the Palestinian territories, will in the days ahead find among them their Gandhi, their King, their Aung San Suu Kyi.” Rather than shifting the blame from the violence of the colonial oppressor to the resistance of the indigenous oppressed and characterizing the Palestinians as a population filled with “rage and despair,” it is more apt to consider them among the “aroused citizenry” responding to tyranny – Israel‘s regime of occupation and apartheid.”

The letter goes on to praise Bono’s activism in other conflict resolution areas: “A whole generation was affected by your musical activism, when you sang of the civil rights movement in America, the everyday human heroes in El Salvador and the brave struggles in Ireland – you filled a space that forced political morality into pop culture. Entertaining apartheid Israel despite all the injustice it is committing against the Palestinians would significantly smear this great legacy of yours.

Universal Music, Label for U2, Names Grainge

Universal Music Group said Lucian Grainge will take over as its new chief executive officer from Jan. 1, replacing Doug Morris, who’s led the world’s largest music company since 1995.

Grainge, the 49-year-old head of its international music operations, will become co-CEO with Morris as of July 1, and the sole chief from Jan. 1, Universal’s owner, Paris-based Vivendi SA, said in a statement today.

Universal Music, whose artists include U2, Lady Gaga and Eminem, saw revenue decline 5.2 percent in the nine months ended September amid music-industry piracy and a drop in the number of CDs sold. Morris said late last year he “mentored” Grainge for the role as CEO the past five years.

Stand Up To Cancer On Demand

Comcast Corporation and Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) have launched the second installment of musical assets for Stand Up 2 Cancer On Demand, the first-ever video-on-demand (VOD) initiative focused on broadening awareness and raising funds for innovative cancer research, which debuted on Comcast in December. Twenty-eight additional artists are providing content to On Demand, adding to the library of musical entertainment that already includes many of the world’s biggest stars. In addition, select content from Stand Up 2 Cancer On Demand is available on comcast.net.

Available for no additional cost to viewers in more than 18 million Comcast homes through March 14th, Stand Up 2 Cancer On Demand features more than 60 of viewers’ favorite artists including: Beastie Boys, Ben Harper, Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera, Common, The Dixie Chicks, Diana Krall, Duran Duran, John Legend, John Mayer, Joss Stone, Kanye West, Katy Perry, Kenny Chesney, Mary J. Blige, Melissa Etheridge, Ne-Yo, Sugarland, Tina Turner, U2 and more.

ALL 2010 EURO SHOWS ANNOUNCED

In case you’re wondering, all of U2’s 2010 European shows are now announced.

The tour will visit Russia, Turkey, Greece and Finland among others places, as per http://www.u2.com/tours. 

But U2 Tour Promoter Arthur Fogel has urged fans to be aware. ‘Fans should always check U2.com first, it’s the most reliable on any dates. Recent rumours, like Dublin and Tel Aviv, are unfounded.’

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