Canadian producer-artist Daniel Lanois has canceled all upcoming tour dates after a motorcycle crash in L.A. this past Saturday, a press release announced today. “Lanois suffered multiple injuries but is expected to be released from intensive care soon,” the release states. “Due to the severity of the injuries, Lanois…will be recuperating for the next two months.” He had previously scheduled a European tour for this July.
Lanois is best known for his close working relationships with the likes of Bob Dylan (Oh Mercy, Time Out of Mind) and U2 (The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, and more). He has also released several albums of his own material, and recently started a new trio called Black Dub. The press release says Black Dub “will release their debut album when circumstances permit.”
Lanois worked collaboratively with Brian Eno on some of Eno’s own projects, one of which was the theme song for David Lynch’s film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune.
Eno invited him to co-produce U2’s album The Unforgettable Fire. Along with Eno, he went on to produce U2’s The Joshua Tree, the 1987 Grammy Winner for Album of the Year, and some of the band’s other works including Achtung Baby and All That You Can’t Leave Behind.
Bono recommended Lanois to Bob Dylan in the late 1980s; in 1989 Lanois produced Dylan’s Oh Mercy. Eight years later Dylan and Lanois worked together on Time Out of Mind which won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1997.
How many of you remember when MTV first came on air in the Tri state area. On August 1, 1981, at 12:01 a.m., MTV: Music Television launched with the words “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll,” spoken by John Lack.
Those words were immediately followed by the original MTV theme song, a crunching guitar riff written by Jonathan Elias and John Petersen, playing over a montage of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
With the flag having a picture of MTVs logo on it. MTV producers Alan Goodman and Fred Seibert used this public domain footage as a conceit, associating MTV with the most famous moment in world television history.
Seibert said they had originally planned to use Neil Armstrong’s “One small step” quote, but lawyers said Armstrong owns his name and likeness, and Armstrong had refused, so the quote was replaced with a beeping sound.
At the moment of its launch, only a few thousand people on a single cable system in northern New Jersey could see it.
Appropriately, the first music video shown on MTV was “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles. The second video shown was Pat Benatar’s “You Better Run”. Sporadically, the screen would go black when an employee at MTV inserted a tape into a VCR.
Video of the launch of MTV was uploaded onto YouTube in 2009, with the original commercials, and the “black screens” between videos. The “MTV lettering” differed on its first day, and included record label information like year and label name.
As programming chief, Robert W. Pittman recruited and managed a team for the launch that included Tom Freston (who succeeded Pittman as CEO of MTV networks), Fred Seibert, John Sykes, Carolyn Baker (original head of talent and acquisition), Marshall Cohen (original head of research),Gail Sparrow (of talent and acquisition), Sue Steinberg (executive producer), Julian Goldberg, Steve Casey (creator of the name MTV and its first program director), Marcy Brafman, Ronald E. “Buzz” Brindle, and Robert Morton.
So what’s the point? Well it’s summer in North America, hot and getting hotter. Many of us have grown have a couple of kids, raising a family trying to make ends meet and yet we all when out and purchased tickets to see the boys. It was kind of a chance to go back to that happy time. Summer 1982 !
Now fast forward to December 1982, the band arrived in Sweden with director Meiert Avis to shoot a video for New Year’s Day, first single from the their third album ‘War’.
The song, which made its 360 debut in Dublin a few days ago, was inspired by Lech Walesa, the leader of Solidarity, the trade union in Poland which helped bring down communism.
‘Snow as an image of surrender,’ explained Bono, talking about the lyric. ‘And these little glimpses of narrative, which are really just excuses for the overarching theme, which was Lech Walesa being put in prison and his wife not being able to see him…’
Adam remembers the video: ‘We needed snow so the director suggested northern Sweden. It was very basic, us performing in the snow, just kind of wrapped up, so you couldn’t really see us. I think Bono sussed that to be in a video you had to look like yourself, so he wasn’t wearing wooly hats or anything. I don’t even think he was wearing thermal underwear, just the same clothes he had on when we got off the plane from Dublin.’
Edge: ‘Bono’s mouth almost froze solid; if you watch him lip-syncing his mouth won’t quite work. But the video has an epic quality, there was something about that song that seemed to conjure up images of Dr Zhivago and European winterscapes. People always ask me: ‘Was it difficult riding the horse, in the video?’ And I have to tell them that was shot the day after we left. Apparently the four figures on horseback were all women, dressed similarly to ourselves.’
So there you go…. a random U2 connection from Sweden to Poland. (Maybe you can think of a better one…)
UK-based distributor Precious Media has completed a raft of international deals for U2 360° - At the Rose Bowl, selling the music programme into more than 30 territories.
The high definition show is a made-for-TV edit of the DVD of the same name featuring live concert footage and interviews with the band, and is available in 44-, 48- and 58-minute versions.
It has been picked up by Canal + (France and Spain); ProSiebenSat.1 and Servus TV (Germany); RSI (Switzerland); Fox (Portugal); Antena 1 (Greece); Max and Channel V (Australia); Wowow (Japan); RSI (Switzerland); NRK 1 (Norway); YLE (Finland); HBO Adria (Croatia); Servus TV (Austria); HBO Bulgaria (Bulgaria); HBO Romania (Romania); NTV (Turkey); Channel V China (China); Star World SE Asia (Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar and Hong Kong); Star World (India); Global TV (Indonesia); Channel 5 (Singapore); TVBS (Taiwan); Channel V Thailand (Thailand); YAN and HN TV (Vietnam); Globosat (Brazil); CTV (Canada); and Red Media Moscow (Russia).
UK satcaster Sky1 also picked up rights to the show, which it aired last month. The concert was recorded at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena as part of the U2 360° Tour and was originally broadcast on YouTube, where it attracted an audience of more than 10 million.
The programme is a Whizz Kid Entertainment production for Principle Management and Mercury Records, part of Universal Music Group. It was directed by Tom Krueger, produced by Katherine Allen and Ned O’Hanlon, and exec produced by Malcolm Gerrie for Whizz Kid Entertainment and U2 manager Paul McGuinness.
t’s not about politics, Or religion, Or the economy, It’s not about borders, History, Trade, Oil, Water, Gas, Mineral rights, Human rights, Or animal rights,
When Nicholas Sonderup (right), a 34 year-old copywriter at the advertising firm of Wieden-Kennedy, turned in his script for the FIFA ad entitled “United”, he was understandably anxious. And not just because he had spent eight months working on the campaign for ESPN’s five FIFA ads. Sonderup’s avocation, you see, is writing music and the man whose approval his lyrics needed was none other than the lead singer and lyricist of the biggest band on the planet.
“After Bono read the script,” recalls Sonderup, “from what we heard, he said, ‘Wow, I feel like I could have written it.’”
It’s not about global warming, Global pandemics, Globalization, GDP, NATO or Kyoto,
Sitting in a Manhattan office and clad in a U.S.A. soccer jersey, Sonderup is justifiably thrilled that so many people who have seen the minute-long ad, in which Bono reads his script while the opening chords of U2’s “Magnificent” linger in the recesses, assume that the globally-conscious Irish rock god himself wrote it.
“I remember saying in the edit room, ‘People are going to think Bono wrote those words,’” says Sonderup, who played Division I soccer at Winthrop University.
It’s not about elections, Sanctions, Proliferations, He said she said, My land your land, No man’s land,
The images, many of them shot on location in South Africa and Buenos Aires and the rest culled from file footage, convey a global awareness that would look right at home in any one of a dozen U2 videos. The script, a series of nouns and terms with little else in the way of diction, sounds as if it was written in the same vein as the band’s “Elevation” or “Beautiful Day”.
It’s not about the stock market, Black market, Orange alerts, Green homes, Hope, Change, Fear or loathing,
“We went through several iterations of the script,” says Sonderup. “We kept coming back to the idea that there are very few things in the world that unite the world.”
Hence, the lyrics themselves are almost a global laundry list of factions and divisiveness, which plays wonderfully into the contrast provided by the World Cup: the idea that for one month every four years the globe’s most widely played sport overcomes all of these competing values that lead us apart. For one month we are, as Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl wrote last month in a clever pun to kick off his own World Cup story, “Man United.”
Originally, the script had almost double the verbiage and Sonderup confesses that when he turned it in to his creative director, he was thinking “I really hope this doesn’t change much.” It was shortened, and a word or two was altered, but the lyrics are mostly true to his original copy. And while Wieden-Kennedy knew that U2 was aboard for this ad campaign, Sonderup’s supervisors, having read his script, were unanimous that for this particular spot they just had to have Bono’s vocals.
“At the time we didn’t know what U2 song we were going to go with,” says Sonderup. “We just kept saying, ‘We have got to get Bono to read this one.’”
It’s not about communism, Socialism, Or capitalism, War or peace, Love or hate,
Alas for the soccer-crazed Sonderup, he will not be attending the World Cup nor did he get to meet the voiceover artist who read his lyrics with such unabashed conviction. Too, he understands that advertising copywriters are seldom if ever recognized on the street (you may have stood in line at Wendy’s behind the guy who penned “Where’s the beef?” for all you know).
Still, he has the peace of mind, as an aspiring musician, that one of the world’s most successful rock stars is a wee bit envious of the lyrics that he provided him. Put another way, Sonderup has writtein one of the most compelling U2 tunes of the past decade. You can close your eyes and imagine Bono opening “Magnificent” live by voicing these very words as The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen provide the backing instrumentals.
This is about the one month, Every four years, Where we all agree on one thing, 32 nations, One world watching, 2010 FIFA World Cup
“What makes the ad good is that it’s very simple,” says Sonderup.
Since the 2009 leg in October wrap up, the boys have in the studio working on three albums simultaneously: Songs of Ascent, a second volume from the sessions for last year’s No Line On The Horizon; the score from the Broadway musical Spiderman; and a set of entirely new songs.
This is not the first time that there’s been talk of three album projects, but in the previous reports, the third project was said to be old material from the Rick Rubin sessions in 2006. The above specifically refers to “entirely new songs.”
Kingdom on Vinyl?
Universal/Interscope seems interested in reporting what’s on the 7-inch, orange vinyl that comes with the U2 360 at the Rose Bowl super deluxe box set. But, judging from a couple fan postings, it looks like that vinyl includes the unreleased track that played as U2 took the stage during last year’s concerts. The only question is … what’s the song called?
Bono in France with Paul
The original photo was postd on U2achtung. We are not sure who the fan was. However you can clearly see the pain in Bono, Paul as the driver. The photo was taken next to a hotel where Bono may have been attending a summit - Ten days after back surgery. He did not get out of the car to take the photo. -
Photo credit - Unknown - Original Posting U2achtung.
GLASTONBURY Festival organisers say they will attempt to book U2 for a future gig after the Irish band were forced to pull out of this year’s event.
The band were scheduled to headline the 40th anniversary of the event on Friday, June 25, but cancelled because lead singer Bono suffered a back injury.
U2, who have never played Glastonbury, will be replaced by former Blur front man Damon Albarn and Gorillaz.
Speaking to The Irish Post, the Glastonbury organisers said: “They’ve never played here before and we’re very disappointed they can’t perform, but they could well be back next year or the year after that.”
The withdrawal of a major international act is unusual for an event which has become the Christmas Day of the British music calendar.
A spokesman for Glastonbury said: “The one that springs to mind is Kylie Minogue’s withdrawal in 2005 because of breast cancer. She was replaced by Basement Jaxx.”
In 1995, The Stone Roses were forced to cancel after guitarist John Squire broke a collarbone. They were replaced by Pulp who made full use of the opportunity. “They got great acclaim,” said the spokesman. “That gig pushed them and Jarvis Cocker into the limelight.”
U2’ marketing machine was planning on using the release U2 360 at the Rose Bowl this week to promote the North American summer tour. Expected to start this Thursday which now we all know has been delayed due to Bono’s unexpected back surgery.
We don’t want to give away too much of the DVD. However we will say this is the best U2 DVD ever released. Yes, we said the best. Amazing footage, audio sounds wonderful. Clearly you will notice some edits on a couple of songs. Remember when we said that “City of Blinding Lights” the stage was made for this song. We think you will be impressed again.
Noticeable item would be the lack of heavy focus on the stage. As Bono and the boys have said many times the stage was “designed to get closer to you.” You will notice that not a lot of attention on the stage rather the music such as a music DVD should be.
Bono takes the leading role, the voice sounds better. If you remember a couple of shows he seemed to have some voice issues. Running around the stage, singing, dancing it’s a pure love fest for Bono. We expect that he will not be running around the stage as much as this past leg. However who knows. Singing, Dancing, its all part of the show and Bono knows you came to see the show.
We want to cut our review short. Why? Well clearly your feedback is much more interesting to us. You will find some great surprises such as Squaring the Circle - The insider look at how the stage came to be.
If we have to wait a whole year before the boys come back to America. This DVD will ease the pain. We have thousands of hours of concert video from the 360 tour however this DVD is the one concert DVD you will want to own.
