(AP) – 31 minutes ago

LONDON — Organizers say U2 will headline Glastonbury, Britain’s leading summer music festival.

Festival boss Michael Eavis said Monday that the Irish rockers will play the festival’s main stage on June 25.

It will be U2’s first appearance at the event, and comes as Glastonbury celebrates its 40th anniversary.

Eavis said he was delighted to have “the biggest band in the world” in the lineup and promised “more surprises in the pipeline.”

Glastonbury was founded in 1970 and is held on Eavis’ farm in southwest England. It is famous for its eclectic lineup — and the mud that overwhelms the site in rainy years.

Tickets for this year’s festival have sold out even though much of the lineup has yet to be announced. The festival runs June 23 to 27.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Three Chords and the Truth (Part IV)

By  Nikki Vanasse

In this final trilogy of records, we find our quartet stripping back down.  Imagine the excitement of the fans!  They’ve been waiting for this since Achtung Baby.  All the buzz words and phrases were making their appearances in publications everywhere:  “back to basics”, “strip it down”, “four guys just playing music”.  Essentially, to “dream it all up again”.

All That You Can’t Leave Behind - At home, there was much going on in Bono’s life.  That can only mean one thing:  it’s all here in the record.  You’ll remember that Bono’s dad took ill and passed during this time and again, if you’ve read the accounts, you know it was hard on Bono growing up in a house full of men, without his mother.  Things were particularly hard with his dad and Bono tirelessly sought his approval throughout both of their lives.  In the studio, Flood is out, Eno and Lanois are back in, Anton Corbijn is commissioned for photos…feels like The Joshua Tree all over again…only we’re all a bit older.

Ok, first things first.  Right off the bat, you don’t even have to open the package.  Some of the albums released had a special enhancement in which the original notation of flight and gate numbers on the upper left part of the cover were airbrushed to read:  Jeremiah 33.3 (which incidentally, comes back again in the latest album No Line on the Horizon, “It was 3:33 when the numbers fell off the clock face…” from “Unknown Caller”).  The biblical reference states, “Call to me and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things which you have not known.”  Bono calls this “God’s phone number” so it seems that the line is open again.

Bono“When I Look At the World” is the one I’d like to highlight only because it’s really speaking to me at the moment.  Without God…without God in you, you can’t see the world the way God sees the world, “I see an expression/So clear and so true/That changes the atmosphere/When you walk (in)to the room/So I try to be like you/Try to feel it like you do/But without you it’s no use/I can’t see what you see/When I look at the world”.  

The only way we can change the world and bring about peace is to truly be the peace you want to see in the world, as Mahatma Ghandi so famously stated.  Without God in your life, you can’t see what God sees, when you look at the world.  Change your thoughts, change your life.

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb - At last, we are allowed a taste of the punk revival scene that served as incubator for this band back in the 70’s.  And it hits you square in the nose in the opening track, “Vertigo”:  “You give me something I can feel.”

However, three years after Bob Hewson died, Bono was still feeling the effects of the event.  The rumor is that Bono and Noel Gallagher were having a conversation as Bono’s father’s illness progressed and Bono wondered aloud if his father ever did believe in God.  Gallagher remarked that he was one step closer to knowing.

The lyrics of this song seem to illustrate various crossroads in which we are on the brink of being “one step closer to knowing” about God.  “I’m ‘round the corner from anything that’s real/I’m across the road from hope/I’m under a bridge in a rip tide/That’s taken everything I call my own”.  

LarryWhile the song echos Bono’s contemplation of his statement to Gallagher, we are reminded that life is precious and we are all “one step closer to knowing.”

I’d like to also talk about “Yaweh”, since this is probably the most transparent of prayers on any of U2’s work.  In this song, Bono prays to Yaweh (i.e. God) to help us turn this worldly existence around.  “Take these hands/Teach them what to carry/Take these hands/Don’t make a fist no/Take this mouth/So quick to criticize/Take this mouth/Give it a kiss”.  

In other words, show me the way, teach me the ways of non-violence, and help me find other ways to communicate that come from the heart; from love.  Bono hints at the endless supply of love that God has and that it is found everywhere, “the sun is coming up/The sun is coming up on the ocean/His love is like a drop in the ocean”.

No Line on the Horizon - Ok think about this.  This band has survived three decades intact.  Same core of folks since the 70’s people.  Sure the organization has grown, but all the same people have been around.  How do you think they do that?  Do you think they don’t face problems?  You couldn’t be further from the truth.  Do you think there is a higher power at work here?  Does God have something to do with it?  

My answer is, “Ya’ think?”  Now don’t misunderstand me on this; I’m not saying other bands didn’t last because they didn’t have heart, didn’t love each other as mates.  Didn’t have God in their lives.  But you have to admit there is something missing.  U2 is more alchemy than chemistry.

I’m not setting them high on the pedestal here, but you can’t deny that this band has been through some very trying times and again, if you’ve read the books, you know the stories.  Just because any one individual or any band has more money or more notoriety, doesn’t mean they don’t feel pain, despair, fear.  The difference is how you deal with it.  U2 chose to meet that challenge head-on, each and every time.  They were committed to each other like bride and groom.

When you look at the U2 body of work, you can see a complete cycle of learning.  As boys, they begin as normal adolescents with the usual problems, their worlds get clouded by a veil of organized religion that is heavy enough to split the band for a time.  

The EdgeThey sort out their faith and continue on and experience life, all the way while keeping that faith.  Then you run into a time that I’m sure some of us can relate to, being angry at God, and then surrendering to God allowing life to happen.  Essentially, letting go and letting God.  So we’ve come full circle here and there is no better testament to that letting go in “Moment of Surrender”.  Let’s look at a verse:

“I’ve been in every black hole/At the alter of the Dark star/My body’s now a begging bowl/That’s begging to get back/Begging to get back /To my heart/To the rhythm of my soul/To the rhythm of my consciousness/To the rhythm that yearns/To be released from control”  Uh…WOW.  Coming back around to what really matters.  

Allow me to suggest a way of looking at that lyric.  Bono seems to be saying, “We’ve had some dark times when we didn’t get along and now I want to get back to my faith and in believing and feeling the energy of God flow to my soul, my consciousness…

I want to think like God, and I want to be released from the ties that keep me from doing that.”  

If I wasn’t sitting down when I first heard this song, I would’ve dropped to my knees.  It brought tears to my eyes as it closed the show.  I thought, “what a FANTASTIC message to leave with”.  I found that I was in the minority of that sentiment.  But I got it.  

AdamAnd that’s what U2 has done.  If you’ve been paying attention, you can hear the messages of being one with each other.  We all want the same things, happiness and prosperity, so let’s make that happen for each other.  Let’s help each other out.  

People balk at Bono’s “self-righteous, megalomanic” existence, but perhaps that’s because they know deep down that he’s got the right stuff and they recognize that they don’t, but would like to.  I’ve always said that the people who knock this band, just aren’t giving them a chance.  

They’re minds aren’t yet open enough; open to the possibilities of love, peace, charity, compassion.  U2 is on message and if they asked me what I thought, I’d tell them to do more!  Let your spirituality fly and do a record of hope for these times.  Inspire us.

You can read the whole series from start to finish here.

Editor Note:  We hope you enjoyed the 4 part story. As you begin to think about the story and have interests in learning more we invite you to our book store to check out some of the most interesting U2 books available today. All proceeds from any sales goes to supporting keeping the website up and our crew out during tour season So we thank you for the consideration.

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Next up: We have another guest writer that we think you will enjoy. Starting on Monday 

Three Chords and the Truth (Part III)

By  Nikki Vanasse

Zooropa - From the opening crescendo of “Zooropa”, I was hooked.  Quite possibly my all time favorite.  I have goosebumps right now just listening to that opening song.  This is my fifth listen today.  No holding back, “She’s gonna dream out loud”.  I was most impressed with the fact that the band was bearing to the left at each musical fork in the road as time went on.  

We still move further away into new territory with Zooropa; we keep moving forward from Achtung Baby. Yet, the message hasn’t changed.  SOUNDS different, but  it’s the same message.  Even though this album IS about them, we still have the underlying universal message of hope where redemption and salvation are concerned.  Because Zooropa is a tale of excesses, particularly that of the media.  We need to be saved from the bombardment of media images and messages.  

Of Zooropa, Bono states that there is something in the New Testament “which says that the spirit moves and no one knows where it comes from or where it’s going.  It’s like a wind.  I’ve always felt that way about my faith.  That’s why on Zooropa I say I’ve got no religion.  Because I believe that religion is the enemy of God.  Because it denies the spontaneity of the spirit and the almost anarchistic nature of the spirit.” AMEN, Bono!  “Some days you feel like a bit of a baby/lookin’ for Jesus and his mother/some days are better than others”.

Another turn inside, to Jesus, in “Some Days Are Better Than Others”.  If Johnny Cash doesn’t convince you that he’s a preacher on “The Wanderer”, you better turn it up and listen again.  Another work born this time from The Book of Ecclesiastes about a preacher who sets off on a journey to gain experience and knowledge of whatever he encounters.  Open to the flow of life.  And if you ever listened to this record piped through headphones at a decent decibel level, the alarm at the end of the record will WAKE YOU UP.  And that’s deliberate.

Pop - This is when it got ugly with God.  The parody that began with Zooropa goes full-blown with Pop. Unlike Achtung Baby, Pop was highly regarded when first released only to quickly tarnish.  Bono once said, “It’s stasis that kills you off in the end, not ambition.” So regardless of what you might think about Pop, the truth is, they continued to take risks rather than play it safe.  

In all its glitzy-ness, the message is that the glitz of the human experience isn’t enough to satisfy us. We are living in times when instant gratification and an “all we can eat” culture is exploding.  “Gone” is probably the best example of that idea.  “You get to feel so guilty/Got so much for so little/Then you find that feeling/Just won’t go away/You’re holding on to every little thing so tightly/’Til there’s nothing left for you anyway.”  

Now this album, as shrouded in metaphor as it is, yields its share of prayer, Jesus, and God.  When the prayers aren’t answered, the singer feels he’s been cut off, “God has got his phone off the hook” (“If God Will Send His Angels”).  He even goes a step further in “Wake Up, Dead Man”, which is definitely not a nice song.  You just know that Jesus isn’t answering fast enough, “Jesus, I’m waiting here boss/I know you’re looking out for us/But maybe your hands aren’t free”.  The song captures a moment in time that can yet again be incredibly relevant 12 years later.

The world’s gone crazy, and we’re all wondering where God is at the moment.  “Wake Up, Dead Man” is a call or even can be as bold as a command for God to reveal himself and take notice.

After the ups (Achtung Baby) and the downs (Pop) of the 90’s, the excesses seemed to be purging from the band.   Music IS their religion; their version of prayer.  

Up next:  the stripping down of U2 and God re-connects his phone line.

In case you have missed the first two parts tw following links can take you back to the start

• The Journey Towards Ascension, part I and part II 
• Or you can click on the top of the page search tool and review many of the storie deails

Three Chords and the Truth (Part II)

By  Nikki Vanasse

The Joshua Tree - Lo and behold, three years later the union of U2 and producers Eno and Lanois produce a work that to this day, defines the band.  U2 fans, young and old, diehard and casual, can’t seem to stop comparing the new music to this one album.  It’s quite controversial in that sense.  Hardcore fans never deny the power of The Joshua Tree, yet many more casual fans can’t stop hoping for a new version to drop each time something new is released by the band.  

This is U2 at their most serious, before embarking on a journey of self-parody.  Of course the obvious one to cite from this album is “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, and I vowed to myself that I wouldn’t broach the obvious.  Let’s look at “Where the Streets Have No Name”, often interpreted to be a song about being on the road.  In churches throughout the country, it’s no doubt about heaven (“The city’s aflood/And our love turns to rust/We’re beaten and blown by the wind/Trampled in dust/I’ll show you a place/High on a desert plain/Where the streets have no name”).

This is the song that began the movement known as “U2-charist”, which sprinkled certain U2 songs throughout the service, mainly in an effort to keep the interest of the younger members, according to Deacon Charles Cannon of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Palm Beach County, Florida.  Now, U2-charist happens all over the USA, UK, and Ireland.  

Rattle and Hum - On the heels of The Joshua Tree, Americana roots start to grow deep.  This is U2’s most obvious demonstration of Christianity.  Bono’s lyrics are much more explicit as opposed to the challenges of metaphor.  The word “love” could certainly be a placeholder for “God”.  “Love rescue me/come forth and speak to me/raise me up and don’t let me fall/no man is my enemy/my own hands imprison me/love, rescue me”.  

I see myself as part of an arm-waving congregation on a beautiful Sunday morning, looking for the answers.  Salvation is at hand with the Dylan-esque song that Bono says he didn’t really write, but “remembered” the song from a dream he had in which Bob Dylan sang it.  He believed it to be a Dylan song to the extent that he asked the man himself if it was indeed his (Into The Heart: The stories behind every U2 Song, Niall Stokes).  

It should also be noted that when Bono had this dream, it was sleep induced by plenty of drink, and ended in a massive hangover. Of course after The Joshua Tree, U2 couldn’t seem to get away from the constant scrutiny of when they would put out another “Joshua Tree”.  It is also around this time, shortly after Rattle and Hum, that the boys had to “just go away and dream it all up again.

Achtung Baby - Enter Achtung Baby.  Arguably celebrated as “the second coming”.  And not alot of people liked it when it was first released.  The people who were stuck on The Joshua Tree, are now stuck on Achtung Baby.  Except me.  But I should also tell you that I’m in the minority of fans who flipped over POP and think No Line on the Horizon is right up there with The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby.  For me, those three albums form sort of a “holy Trinity” of U2, if you will.  

This is historic on a couple of different levels:  the band reinvents themselves in a MAJOR way, and the Berlin Wall falls while U2 is in-state recording.  They’re in Berlin recording this album to give them a little inspiration.  Well, it worked.  Turns out the crumbling of the wall is very symbolic of U2 at this time.  It was the toughest period in the band’s life since October, only now they’re struggling with just how relevant they may or may not be.  Marital discord and other types of friction are right in front of our eyes, but again, the lyrical construction gives way to many different meanings.  Oh yeah.  And there’s a lot of sex here, too.  

Betrayal, love, morality, spirituality, and faith are all ingredients you’ll find in the Holy Scriptures, but oddly enough most of these songs could also tell a tale of infidelity, sex, and the guilt that goes with it.  It’s what I find most fascinating about Bono’s lyrics.

I hear God in every one of these songs.  Let’s choose one.  “Until the End of the World” finds Judas and Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  BAM!  Betrayal.  Only this time Bono uses the illustration of the most well known case of betrayal to sum up what’s going on in the band, which is why I find it most interesting.  “We were as close together as a bride and groom/We ate the food, we drank the wine/Everybody having a good time/Except you/You were talking about the end of the world”.

Growing up Catholic, the “bride and groom” references always illustrated the connection between God and people, priest and church.  As I mentioned earlier on, the word “love” is often a substitute for God.

Look, I gotta go, I’m runnin’ outta change.  Up next, humanity gets lost in the blur of life with Zooropa.

Three Chords and the Truth

By  Nikki Vanasse

As I write this, I’m enjoying every second of the entire U2 library.  It was time to take a look back and listen again because these songs, for many people, are worth visiting over and over again throughout time.  The timeline is clear, you get a real feeling for the evolution, and sometimes revolution, of this band.  Don’t misunderstand them.  The biggest secret is really how vulnerable they are, particularly Bono.  And just because they write about struggles doesn’t mean they have all the answers.  The Edge has said that they’re just as confused as any of us.  So essentially we are all on this journey with them.  Bono makes that possible in the way he writes lyrics.  Metaphors abound and songs take on multiple meanings.  That’s on purpose.  Bono picks apart the specifics, throws in metaphor and before you know it, by golly, that song is about YOU!

Post-punk revival + Christian rock = U2.  Although it’s evolved into a more spiritual belief system as opposed to those of an organized Christian religion.  But know this too: there are several Christian beliefs and themes within the process of Spirituality.  The journey toward ascension.  It’s largely based on morals, compassion, charity: the words of the Bible outside any organized influences.  If you’ve read the books on the band then you know how serious and important that was to half them.  

What was discovered however, which resonates significantly with me at the present time, interestingly enough, is that it’s not about the organized religion where you have to go somewhere to be heard by God, it’s about how you connect with everyone in the world, a “oneness”, the God connection.  For Bono, it’s always been about compassion and charity, so we see that result outright these days.  He believes songs are like prayers (Rolling Stone; Issue 986 Nov. 3, 2005).

You could grab a song off each album and it will deliver a spiritual journey to, from, or with God.  After all, it hasn’t all been a bed of roses with the Man Upstairs.  Let’s give it a whirl:

Boy largely the coming-of-age album that dealt more with boy trying to be man, loss of innocence and sex.  And more sex.  They were, after all, 18 years old at this time, so factor that.  There was also a lot of anger present on the record, particularly “The Electric Co.”  Otherwise, I was hard-pressed to really find any Christian overtones yet, as the Shalom Fellowship (a Christian sect in Ireland) wasn’t introduced into their lives until 1980, just after this record.  They were certainly exposed to it, but not in the way they would experience soon.

October - “Gloria” is an outright song of confusion in finding the way in the world.  “I try, I try to stand up/but I can’t find my feet/I try, I try to speak up/but only in you I’m complete”.  That record above all represents not only the moment in time, but also the degree of which God influences the band.  October was really the album with the story.  It wasn’t the hit that Boy was, but contained in it is all the confusion and religion any band could muster up in one release.  

Four naive young men set out on the adventure of a lifetime:  to become the world’s biggest rock band. Suddenly, there IS no band.  Guilt wracked 3/4 of the band who were torn between being true spiritually as well as being true to themselves and musically on their quest towards being the best rock and roll band they could be.  However, they learned that the two could NOT coexist under any circumstances as far as the Shalom Fellowship was concerned.  

Larry states in U2 by U2, that there was tremendous pressure from the Shalom Fellowship to attend all prayer meetings and to give up the band to pursue a more spiritual avenue.  The pressure was great enough that The Edge left the band.  Bono followed because as he stated in U2 by U2, he wasn’t interested in being in the band if Edge wasn’t.

There was enormous negativity coming from the people who were their friends, about being in a rock band.  While Bono and Edge exited the band, Larry gave up the Fellowship.  As this turmoil is going on, so should the work of October.  So the band did break up for about 6 months during those sessions.  

October is a fascinating work in that the band comes together to finish work on their second album.  Adam remarks that he wasn’t too convinced that a New Wave band could get away with all the God lyrics.  The band’s new manager, Paul McGuinness, finally posed the question out loud.  “Was this really what they wanted?”  With some insight from McGuinness, they resolved their issues and pressed forward.  The rest, as they say, is history.

War - By the time War came around, everyone had come to terms with where the energy would be spent and felt that God wasn’t going to condemn them for continuing their life’s work.  In the words of Steve Stockman, a Presbyterian minister in Ireland, “The God that they met and have pilgrimaged with down the amazing road is a God who is bigger then church or religious boundaries.” (Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2).  

They had started to dial in at this time.  The album is electrically charged with the politics that hurt them, their families, their people, people all over the world.  These songs became something different for me after 9/11.  After hearing “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” in Boston in Nov. 2001, I finally understood those lyrics like no way I had before.  And these guys lived with this kind of terrorism on a daily basis!  

It hit me like a ton of bricks.  But I digress.  Let’s look at “40”. And maybe you guessed it, yes, the lyrics were restyled from the Bible’s 40th Psalm.  “I waited patiently for the Lord/he inclined and heard my cry/he brought me up out of the pit/out of the mirey clay”.  It’s very calming; spiritual.  It brought the chaos of the album to a close.  It’s no wonder why this song brought the shows to a close for so many years.  That was exactly the idea!

The Unforgettable Fire - This is where the wearing of the feelings on the sleeve becomes less apparent.  Enter Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois.  The spirituality that is born on this album is more reflective of the spirituality or Christianity that the band felt right with.  It dealt with some major spiritual themes: “Desperation, desolation, separation, condemnation, revelation, in temptation, isolation, desolation” (“Bad”), as any individual would face in a lifetime.  

Pick your issue, pick your song…it’s all in here.  Now writing and creating for a larger audience, you’ll fine issues from addiction (“Bad”) to the fight for civil rights, to channeling the spirits of Indian people who were massacred in Toronto (“Indian Summer Sky”).  It strikes a chord of a more metaphysical nature, more universal.  The focus on creating atmosphere a la Eno took the nakedness right out of the experience and made it more like experiencing aura.

Next up: the holy grail of U2, The Joshua Tree

(Editor Note: We will be posting the four parts over the next few day, we invite you to sign up via facebook, twitter or our website to be updated as we post)

Today, the Robert F. Kennedy Center For Justice And Human Rights has honoured Bono with the 2009 Ripple Of Hope Award for his human rights advocacy. Wyclef Jean was also a recipient of this year’s award, in acknowledgement of his work for his native Haiti. The ceremony was held at Chelsea Piers in New York.

Bono and Wyclef have collaborated musically before, and it should come as little surprise that after the award-giving and speech-making, the two performed together at the end of the night’s ceremony.

Bono He may have been showered with accusations of electioneering from opposition parties and a mixed bag of reactions from the unions, but Gordon Brown managed to get the thumbs up from Bono and Bob Geldof for including a “wonderful thing” in his last batch of bills before the general election – the enshrinement in law of a funding promise to the world’s poorest people.

International aid campaigners welcomed the prime minister’s decision to include in his legislative agenda the international development spending draft bill, which will put the government’s commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on development from 2013 on to the statute books.

But opposition parties accused the prime minister of watering down a promise to enshrine the commitment in law by reducing the bill to draft status only.

Bono, the lead singer of U2 and co-founder of the campaign group One, hailed the decision and urged parliament to ensure the bill is pushed through.

“The proposal to make the 0.7% pledge legally binding is not just a great announcement, it is transformative of real lives, by a government that has led the world in keeping its promises to the world’s poorest people,” Bono said. “The next step is making sure this becomes law as soon as possible, in 2010.”

Bob GeldofFellow One campaigner Geldof said the legislation could be “a rare but wonderful thing” if political parties allow the bill to go through.

“The gains African countries have made over the past decade are under threat from two crises not of their making: global recession and climate change. It’s good to see the British government taking steps to mitigate the impacts of these predicaments, which is why it is important that this legislation is enacted sooner rather than later.”

In principle such a bill should have little problem being pushed through as the Conservative party has also pledged to meet the UN target of 0.7% of national income spent on international aid, though a spokesman for Douglas Alexander, the international development secretary, claimed that the Tories would not back the draft bill.

“Andrew Mitchell has repeatedly refused to back legislation to enshrine our commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on international development from 2013,” he said. “Only Labour has committed to legislate for this promise.”

However, a spokesman for the Tories said the party “would support a bill on 0.7% but clearly the government have stopped well short of doing this themselves”.

The Liberal Democrats pointed to the bill’s draft status, which reduces its chances of becoming law in this session.

Michael Moore, the Lib Dems’ spokesman for international development, accused Brown of stepping back from a promise made at the Labour conference in September to push this piece of legislation through.

“Gordon Brown made a firm commitment to enshrine the 0.7% target for aid spending in statute, but just seven weeks on he has abandoned that promise,” Moore said.

“With a general election only months away, and the Tories’ commitment to development issues far from certain, this Queen’s speech is nothing but another broken promise to the world’s poorest people.”

With the holidays just around the corner, Starbucks has just made your next coffee run about more than just a Grande Gingerbread Latte. The coffee giant has teamed up with (RED) — the movement to help eradicate AIDS in Africa — and released a limited-edition album titled ‘All You Need is Love.’

Starting Nov. 17, customers who spend $15 at participating Starbucks throughout the US or Canada will receive a free copy of the four-track CD while supplies last. The album features special recordings by longtime (RED) advocates U2, Dave Matthews Band, John Legend and Playing for Change, who give the Beatles’ ‘All You Need is Love’ a reggae makeover.

Starbucks will also be donating $1 to support the Global Fund for each CD that is given away. To preview the songs on ‘All You Need is Love’ and find out more information, visit the Starbucks Love Project.

2010 North American tour continues to take shape, with the Irish rock icons unveiling a new stop in the Midwest and locking in a venue for a previously announced Montreal stop.

The tour—which, as previously reported, gets underway with an early June two-night stand in Southern California—now includes a June 27 engagement at Minneapolis’ TCF Bank Stadium, and the July 16 stop in Montreal will officially take place at that city’s Hippodrome stadium. The full itinerary is included below.

U2 will be playing in the first concert at the TCF Bank Stadium in late June. However, if it’s a cocktail you’re looking for at the U2 concert, you’ll never find it.

U2TOURFANS 2009Live Nation and U2 are OK with that. We think it’s the right thing to do as we first move into this new venture here at the TCF Bank Stadium so there will not be alcohol served there,” said University of Minnesota Athletic Director Joel Maturi.

University of Minnesota administration said the band and promoters approached them about staging the concert at the new stadium. They will be playing at the stadium June 27.

However, the University has no problem selling alcohol at Northrop auditorium in the heart of campus.

“This is something run by the University but controlled by intercollegiate athletics. We’ve made a decision not to sell at the football games. I think we are trying to be consistent in regards to that,” said Maturi

They have decided to not allow alcohol even though the rock concert is not an official university event.

“It seems a little incongruous,” said U2 fan Matti Smith. “I guess that’s up to the U of M. If they’re trying to keep the students safe that’s one thing but it’s an unfortunate loss of revenue.”

However, even a booze ban won’t keep true fans away.

“People who are U2 fans are die hard U2 fans. They will go. As Bono says: ‘Walk away, I will follow.’”

Gophers football season ticket holders and University students will get a chance to purchase U2 tickets before they go on sale to the general public Nov. 21.

Ticket Alerts:  We have not be able to get an answer back as to why double messages are going out on ticket alerts and why the short notices on pre-ticket sales. All we can suggest is that you sign up for updates, from either U2.com, Facebook, Twitter or Youtube to stay current.

U2 concert at Spartan Stadium will go on sale today for some of the band’s most dedicated fans.

The band’s promoter, Live­Nation, said in a statement that tickets for the general public go on sale Monday. But a sale through U2’s Web site (www.u2.com) starts today, giving fans who subscribe to the band’s site first crack at tickets for the June 30, 2010, show.

Tickets also will be on sale for one day only at the Breslin Center ticket office on Michigan State University’s campus — from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday.

The Irish rock band is stopping in East Lansing as part of its 360° Tour that started this year.

There are four price levels for the MSU show: $30, $55, $95 and $250. At least 85 percent of the tickets at Spartan Stadium will cost less than $95, with at least 10,000 tickets priced at $30.

 People who have subscribed at U2’s Web site the longest will get the earliest opportunity to buy, starting at 10 a.m. today. Those who joined the site more recently — including this week — can buy tickets Wednesday.

 Starting Monday, tickets may be bought at Livenation.com, at Ticketmaster outlets or by calling (800) 745-3000.

Spartan Stadium can seat as many as 75,000 for football games. The U2 show will be the first rock concert since the Rolling Stones played there in 1994.

MONTREAL – It’s confirmed. U2 will play Montreal on July 16, 2010. The band will perform on the polo field at the Montreal Hippodrome, kicking in $3 million for the construction of a temporary open-air stadium to fit between 60,000 to 80,000 people.

It is the only date for which U2 is not performing in a pre-existing stadium. The fact that the band is fronting the costs of building the venue for this event is a testament to its love of Montreal, according to Jacques Aubé, vice-president and general manager of promoter Gillett Entertainment Group.

“It’s unprecedented,” Aubé said Monday. “It’s historic. It will be the biggest paid show in an open-air stadium in Montreal.

“After the concert, the stadium will be demolished and (the site) will become a real-estate project.”

It’s also a testament to the grand scale on which a monolithic rock band such as U2 can afford to operate. Tossing in $3 million to build a stadium for a night (or maybe two - don’t discount the possibility that a second show could be added once the first one sells out) is the privilege of the mighty, and wealthy.

Aubé attributed U2’s gesture to its love of Montreal and its fans here, but you can bet the band is also getting bang for its buck.

Do the math and it’s not hard to see that this is a money-making enterprise. Tickets for the show cost from $30 to $250. Average that out to, say, $100 per ticket, with 70,000 tickets sold, and you’ve got a cool $7 million.

That’s not counting beer and food sales, merchandise, and spinoff CD sales for the band. Aubé said the event would inject $10 million into the Montreal economy, not counting revenues from the concert itself.

But while nobody’s working for free, here, U2 is apparently doing its best to make this affordable to everyone - 55 per cent of the tickets cost less than $55, Gillett proudly announced Monday.

Gillett and tour promoter Live Nation have been working on the possibility of a Montreal date for months. The biggest problem was finding a venue big enough to host the show (including the 150-foot-wide stage, featuring a massive, steel spider-like structure) and comply with U2’s request for an open-air stadium.

The Olympic Stadium’s roof is not retractable; Jean Drapeau Park is too small; even the Hippodrome wasn’t big enough originally, which led to talks of constructing a venue specifically for the event.

“C’est assez flyé comme idée,” Aubé said. (Rough translation: “It’s a pretty wild idea.”) The last time U2 was in town was in November, 2005. The band performed two sold-out nights at the Bell Centre, with opening act the Arcade Fire.

This is U2’s first North American stadium tour since 1997’s Popmart tour. Apparently Bono and his boys still have something prove.

U2 performs July 16 at the Hippodrome. Tickets cost $30 to $250 and go on sale Saturday at noon

he New York Times has published Bono’s column on the 14th. What interesting was that we just completed a five part series on “One” Bono’s NY Times article takes us thru a five scene tour of Germany between 1990 and the show at Brandenburg Gate. Giving us a view into the meeting of the owns of the German house he slept in during the Achtung Baby sessions as well as the conversations with his b andmates. He talks about “One” and how that song came about.  

Bono, U2 360 Tour 2009 (U2TOURFANS)
The camera cranes over a crowd of thousands gathered in Pariser Platz.

An Irish band plays its song “One” in the city where it was written nearly 20 years earlier. The band is here for an MTV broadcast celebrating the anniversary of the wall’s falling. A helicopter shot glides like a ghost through the architecture of this most modern of cities: the avant-garde Chancellery, the glass dome at the top of the Reichstag, the refurbished Brandenburg Gate. Images of East and West Berlin dancing to the music are projected on the gate, turning this monument to peace into a graffiti wall of the same….

Now the rest of the news from around the globe.

Fined: Bono some might argue U2’s been responsible for noise pollution in the past, be it parts of 1997’s ‘Pop’ or even this year’s ‘No Line on the Horizon.’ But now the city of Dublin has made that notion official, taking its hometown heroes to task for breaching noise levels during their Croke Park concerts last July.

Concert promoters MCD were fined €36,000 (approximately $53,000) for Bono and the boys’ offense, according to Ireland’s Evening Herald. Dublin City Council levied the penalties against the firm for allowing U2 to exceed allowed noise limits on a number of occasions during the shows.

2010 Shows: Montreal is one step closer to seeing U2 perform on July 16, 2010. Promoter Gillett Entertainment Group has called a press conference for Monday morning concerning the band’s 360 stadium tour. The band’s web site has had Montreal listed next to the July 16 date for several weeks, with venue TBA. It is expected that the venue will be revealed on Monday, along with ticket information. Likely venue candidates include Jean Drapeau Park, Blue Bonnets or perhaps the Olympic Stadium.

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Top Story of the past week:  Amazing you would think tour news was the top story, or tickets for 2010, or rumors about new concerts. Not a chance against Bono’s salt in take.

Holiday Gift Ideas:  We have been asked many times via twitter, where can we find some great gifts for a U2 fan. We are not sure if that was a setup question or not. However if you look around our site you will see that we have a book store and gift shop, as well as some great sponsors that have U2 items. Check them out and let us know if you agree.

Guest writers:  We have been collecting names, reading interesting articles and we think we have collected some interesting new writers that we will have writing for you the fan. Remember if your interested drop anote to us and lets see what we can create. 

Where are we ?: We have been working on our communications tool. Currently you can find us on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. All of them offer a way to follow us. Please check into them. We are looking for a tool or some way to have them all collected on one page.

References: @u2, U2.com, NY Times, U2gigs.com -

The song has since become regarded as one of the greatest songs of all-time. It was ranked #36 in Rolling Stone’s “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”, the highest ranked U2 song. The track was also voted #1 on Q’s “1001 Best Songs Ever” list, VH1 ranked the song #2 in its list of “Greatest Songs of the 90s”, and voters in an April 2006 poll on VH1 named the song as having Britain’s number one lyric – “One life, with each other, sisters, brothers”. The song is currently ranked as the 94th greatest song of all-time, as well as the fourth best song of 1991, by Acclaimed Music. A listener’s poll conducted by the popular Israeli radio station Galgalatz ranked “One” as the best song of the 1990s.

Performed Live

Since its first live appearance in 1992, the song has been played at every concert of U2’s subsequent tours. It has also been played at several benefit concerts, including the 1995 Pavarotti and Friends concert in Modena, the 1997 Tibetan Freedom Concert in New York, the 2003 46664 concert, at Live 8 in 2005, and with Mary J. Blige on Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast. The song took on an even more emotional meaning at a Popmart Tour show at Mexico City in 1997, as featured on PopMart: Live from Mexico City, where the tearful rendition was dedicated to the late Michael Hutchence of INXS. Live performances of the song are also depicted on the concert films Zoo TV: Live from Sydney, U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle, Vertigo 2005: Live from Chicago and U2 3D. Until the second leg of the U2 360 Tour, One was played live in the key of A flat minor, while the recorded version is played a semitone higher.

Mary J Blige:

After being invited to join the group on-stage at a New York concert in 2005, Mary J. Blige performed the track with U2 and received a standing ovation. A recording of the song was later created, with Blige on lead vocals, Bono supplying additional vocals, and the band performing the music. This recording was featured on Mary J. Blige’s multi-platinum album The Breakthrough, released in late 2005. It was released as the album’s second international single in April 2006, having already been featured heavily on BBC Radio 1’s playlist, and it has been a staple record on Capital FM’s playlist since late January 2006. In May 2006, Blige performed the song at the finale of American Idol with finalist Elliott Yamin, ahead of its full release to American radio. It was also used by Fox for its end-of-season montage after game five of the 2006 World Series.

On December 31, 2006, “One” was announced by BBC Radio 1 to be the thirty-fifth highest-selling single of 2006 in the UK. It was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals in December 2006.

Did you know this?

In late 2006, a Bank of America employee sang “One” with lyrics modified to refer to the Bank of America and MBNA merger. The video subsequently became an Internet phenomenon. Universal Music Group, the copyright owner of the song, posted a cease and desist letter directed at Bank of America in the comments section of Stereogum, one of the blogs that posted the video.

U2’s 360 tour is expected to spin into the TCF Bank Stadium sometime next summer.

“June 27th, ” said Cities 97 radio personality Brian Turner.  “With tickets going on sale November 21st as it’s looking right now.”

It’s a stop music industry experts agree wouldn’t happen if it wasn’t for the new outdoor stadium.

Turner said fans—like the bands—enjoy playing outdoors and until recently the Twin Cities didn’t have a legitimate stadium venue, now there are two.

Target Field and TCF Bank Stadiums will open up opportunities the state hasn’t seen in decades.

The University of Minnesota could potentially earn nearly $2-million in ticket sales alone for a U2 concert.

Concession sales will also bring in a few bucks.

Unlike school-sanctioned events, alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase during concerts at the stadium.

More information about the show and an official date for the concert is expected Monday.

While bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. preferred a sound similar to U2’s previous work, vocalist Bono and guitarist The Edge were inspired by alternative rock and European electronic dance music of the time and were advocating a change. Mullen, in particular felt his “input was being diminished”, as The Edge was delving into drum beats from electronic music, while Mullen was focusing on learning to play differently.

The band also had difficulty in developing demos and ideas into completed songs. Bono and The Edge believed the lack of progress was the fault of the band, while Clayton and Mullen Jr. believed the problem was the song ideas. Mullen said he “thought this might be the end” of the band.

A breakthrough was achieved when The Edge combined two separate bridge sections of a song. Playing alone in another room, Edge was improvising chord progressions, which he did not like in the context of the song on which he was working (which conflicting sources claim to be “Ultraviolet (Light My Way)”, “Mysterious Ways”, and “The Fly”). 

Producer Daniel Lanois overheard him and asked him to play the separate sections together. The Edge played acoustic guitar, catching the ear of those in the studio. Bono joined in with vocals, improvising lyrics and melodies. The other band members joined in, as well, and soon afterwards, the band had improvised the piece of music into “One”. Bono recalls that “the melody, the structure - the whole thing was done in 15 minutes.”

He also stated that the lyrics “just fell out of the sky, a gift”; the concept was inspired by a note Bono sent to the Dalai Lama declining to attend a festival called Oneness - the note read, “One - but not the same”. The song’s writing inspired the band and changed their outlook on the recording sessions. Mullen Jr. said the song reaffirmed the band’s “blank page approach” to recording and reassured the band that all was not lost.

Following the song’s initial improvisation, tapes of the recording sessions were delivered to producer Brian Eno in order to gather his input. The band was rather anxious about the quality of their material, but when Eno arrived in Berlin, they were surprised to hear that he liked most of the tapes. However, as Bono recalls, Eno said, “There’s just one song I really despise, and that’s ‘One’.” Eno felt that they needed to deconstruct the song.

U2TOURFANS. 2009

The band returned to Dublin in 1991 to record at the “Elsinore” mansion on the Dalkey coastline. The band continued to work on the song there, adding various overdubs, but not finding a mix they were satisfied with. The Edge thought that they had the foundation for the song, but that it needed “foreground”. Eno interceded and created his own mix, which gave the band a better idea of an arrangement they liked.  Eno wanted the band to remove the melancholy elements of the song and persuaded them to remove the acoustic guitar from the song. Eno also worked with Lanois and Edge to “undermine the ‘too beautiful’ feeling”, which is why the “crying guitar parts that have an aggression to them” were added.

Engineer Flood was unconvinced by the song’s mix, saying he “was the nagging doubter. I always felt it was a bit straight, until we did the final mix.” The final mix was completed at Windmill Lane Studios in August 1991 on the last night of the album’s recording sessions, when some last minute additions were made to “One”. Bono did not like a line in the vocals and spent most of the day re-recording it. Later, after the song’s mix had just been completed by the production team, The Edge came up with a guitar part he wanted to add to the song’s end near the lyric “Love is a temple”. After convincing the production team to allow the addition, Edge played the part once and had it mixed in ten minutes later.

Bono described the song’s theme as such: “It is a song about coming together, but it’s not the old hippie idea of ‘Let’s all live together.’ It is, in fact, the opposite. It’s saying, we are one, but we’re not the same. It’s not saying we even want to get along, but that we have to get along together in this world if it is to survive. It’s a reminder that we have no choice”. The band has mentioned that many people tell them they have played “One” at their weddings, prompting Bono to respond, and “Are you mad? It’s about splitting up!”

Part IV contiues on Sunday.

Version 1, directed by Anton Corbijn and produced by Richard Bell - State, was made in Berlin in February 1992. The video features members of the band in drag as well as two cars—with cartoonish paintings of a nude woman and man painted on the hoods and roofs—driving around Berlin. Interspersed throughout the video is the image of a rather stern looking older man, who is in fact Bono’s father. (Bono’s mother had died while he was young and Bono was raised by his father with whom he had a fairly distant relationship. According to interviews with Bono, he and his father began getting closer around the early 1990s.)

Version 2 was directed by Mark Pellington, edited by Bob Gleason and produced by Carina Rubin - Woo Art International. It was made in New York, also in February, 1992. This version of “One” was chosen as Number 99 by the editors of Rolling Stone in their list of the 100 best rock videos of all time.

Director Mark Pellington’s video for “One”—the first (sic) of three versions made for the single—may not have gotten as much attention as the other two, but his slow-motion, out-of-focus footage of running buffalo is a quietly elegant tour de force. Its power lies in its simplicity: The piece includes no band shots and was intended as a meditative video background for U2’s live performance of the song, which deals with AIDS and intolerance toward gays.

“We had done a cut of it, which we used in rehearsals,” says bassist Adam Clayton. “When the need for a video came up, we went back to it.” Built around the closing image of the beasts being herded off a cliff (a photograph by artist David Wojnarowicz, who died of AIDS in 1992), the video was played on MTV until, according to the band, the network determined it wasn’t right for heavy rotation, and it was replaced by the other two more MTV-friendly clips. one by director Phil Joanou, the other by photographer Anton Corbijn.

David Wojnarowicz was a controversial New York artist, prominent in the mid-to-late 1980s. His work, which has been described as media art and includes writings, performances, photo- and video-based pieces and installations, deals primarily with sexual/gender orientation and AIDS issues. Wojnarowicz died of AIDS in 1992.

In a March 4, 1993 interview with Alan Light for Rolling Stone, Bono discussed the use of David Wojnarowicz’ images in the “One” video. Bono said:

Adam is the man who turned me on to Wojnarowicz’s work, Whatever you do now, you are in the post-AIDS age. It’s there, and you’ve got to walk through it or around it. And if a record deals with any kind of erotic subject matter, the specter of AIDS is even all the more close.

You know, if Freud was even half-right, if sex is even close to the center of our lives, how is it that we leave it to pornographers and dum-dum guys? We leave the subject to them, and it’s reduced to titillation in the cinema, to these kind of half-baked plots. Wojnarowicz dealt with the subject seriously, he took it on. I can’t believe how people can just walk around it, you know? I’m sympathetic to Madonna in that respect, too. Whatever you think about her work, she’s actually just trying to say: “Look, here I am, and I have these feelings and ideas, and I know you do, but you’re not owning up. I will.”2.

Version 3 is considered the most “MTV-friendly.” It was directed by Phil Joanou and produced by Ned O’Hanlon - Dreamchaser Productions in New York in March 1992. This video uses the standard supermodels and banks on Bono’s sex appeal, featuring close-ups of the tortured-looking singer in a bar drinking and smoking cigarettes.

Check the video out here from our YouTube Channel:

Version 4: In 2006, U2 re-recorded the song as part of a duet with contemporary R&B singer Mary J. Blige. After being invited to join the group on-stage at a New York concert in 2005, Mary J. Blige performed the track with U2 and received a standing ovation. A recording of the song was later created, with Blige on lead vocals, Bono supplying additional vocals, and the band performing the music. This recording was featured on Mary J. Blige’s multi-platinum album The Breakthrough, released in late 2005.

Bono regularly sniffs salty water as it acts as an antiseptic for his throat and helps ensure he can hit high notes, according to The Script frontman Danny O’Donoghue.

Danny told Britain’s Daily Mirror newspaper: “Snorting salts - it’s actually a singing technique.”

“Myself and Bono share a vocal coach. Whenever the high notes aren’t feeling that high or in the morning you’re groggy, you snort salt water up your nose.”

“It cleans out cavities, it’s a natural antiseptic for your throat.”

 We did not know that

This week our four part series will be focusing on “One” is a song by Irish rock band U2 and the third track from their 1991 album, Achtung Baby.

It was released as the album’s third single in March 1992. While recording Achtung Baby, conflict arose between band members over the direction of the U2’s sound. Tensions almost prompted the band to break up, until they rallied around the improvised writing of “One” Lyrically, the song describes lead singer Bono’s struggles to maintain relationships with others, but it has been interpreted in other ways.

The song reached #7 in the UK charts and #10 in the US pop chart, and reached the top of the US Billboard Album Rock Tracks and Modern Rock Tracks charts. It peaked at #10 on the Dutch Top 40.

The song is widely considered to be one of the band’s greatest songs and is consistently featured in lists of the greatest songs of all-time. Rolling Stone ranked the song #36 on their list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”, and Q ranked the song at #1 on its list of the “1001 Greatest Songs of All-Time”.The song has been played by U2 at every one of their concerts since the song’s live debut in 1992, and it has appeared on many of the band’s concert films. In a live setting, “One” is often used by the band to promote human rights or social justice causes, and the song lends its namesake to Bono’s charitable organization, the ONE Campaign. In 2006, U2 re-recorded the song as part of a duet with contemporary R&B singer Mary J. Blige.

—The Edge, on the recording of “One

This is a a very touching story of music, family, friends. We are one share your life and enjoy the story over the next three days. Tomorrow, we cover the video part of the story and can you tell us which Ameircan bank has made a name for its self with the song “One”?