Can we define U2 fandom?

By Line: ​Eric Shivers,

In my excitement of finding this pic, I posted the image on my Facebook page, dedicated to my U2 fandom. I clearly stated that I had never seen the photo, which is true. Within a few hours of the posting, someone made a comment that me not seeing a previously released image of Bono didn’t make me fan enough of U2.

I took offense to this immediately. It was a natural reaction to a comment flung through cycberspace by someone who doesn’t know me personally, but noticed my page dedicated to my U2 fandom, and memoir, and took a cheap dig. Yes, the image was available to me but I did not know it. Supposedly it was published in a book that sits on the bookshelf behind me as I write this blog. I have cracked U2 & i a few times, but have never dived into it deeply. I just have a knack for amassing all things published about U2, because I am a collector as well, which is where I am drawing the line on defined fandom.

​Bono

What gripes me the most about being a fan, of anything, is the level to which your fandom lies. Unlike earthquakes or tornadoes, there is no barometer created by science to say how deep of a fan you are of U2. Take my friend in Canada, who has a whole room dedicated to the Irishmen. One might think he is a super fan, right? Well, I would agree with you, but he is also a down to earth guy, who has a passion for encrusting himself in mirror chips and putting himself on the front rail night after night last year on the 360 tour. In contrast, there is the fan who turns to U2’s music in order to get them through life. In both cases, the level of fandom is personal, which is really what our passion for U2 should be as we carry them with us in our suitcase of life. It does not matter if you missed an image of them or did not know that Bono housed Salaman Rushdie in his back garden because those are technicalities.

Once found, they open you to more discoveries, which is why I like this band. I walk away from the narrow-mindedness of the comment, posted on Facebook, knowing that I put myself out there for public scrutiny. However, we tend to act first and then think later. I do it all the time and I am reminded by my better half that taking the time to think things through before taking action is the best way to handle any given situation. I greet others who are fans of U2 with the same compassion. Instead of telling my story, I want to hear theirs because that is important to me.

It gets me to think about how my life was touched as well as garnering me insight to how U2 has built a “flock” of followers. Yes, some have fallen off the bandwagon due to the creative output or musical direction U2 has taken and that is okay. They were the original adopters once, still considered by me as being a part of us, who were the true believers.  We, the current fans, carry the flag for those previous to us, knowing full well that sometimes the weight of pole, from which said U2 flag flies, can be a burden, but we hoist it, nevertheless, because we believe. 

Christians Still Looking

The Best of: 1980-1990, that contains Christian connotations, is the song, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For ” While there are some Christians who maintain that Bono is renouncing his faith in this song, others maintain that Bono is simply expressing personal struggles with his faith and with temptation. Still others maintain that Bono is expressing his struggle with the current world.

Whether or not Bono is indeed facing a crossroad in his faith is mere speculation, but there can be no speculation on the Christian imagery that is so evident throughout this song. Verses seven through eight read,

                      I believe in the Kingdom Come
                      Then all the colours will bleed into one
                      Bleed into one
                      But yes, I’m still running

                      You broke the bonds
                      And you loosed the chains
                      Carried the cross of my shame
                      Oh my shame, you know I believe it

This last verse seems to indicate that Bono is a follower of Jesus Christ because he acknowledges that he has been set free from shame on account of what was done for him on the cross.  If Bono is affirming his faith, then how can he also be asserting that he has not found what he is looking for in Jesus Christ?According to Stockman, Bono is not speaking of his discontent in Jesus Christ but of his discontent with the current world. Stockman writes, “To have found what you’re looking for actually means you have died and gone to heaven!”

At the same time that Christians believe the cross has changed their lives.  There is still a hope in one day moving on to a place where there is no AIDS, poverty, violence, division in the Church, selfish motives, and other things associated with a fallen world. This whole idea of Christians still not finding what they’re looking for, falls in line with what Paul writes in Philippians 3:12-14:

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

From U2’s album, “U2 - The Best of 1990-2000Mysterious Ways,” also contains Christian content. It is interpreted that Bono is speaking about the Holy Spirit moving in mysterious ways, because the last verse directly refers to spirits.

                     Move you, spirits move you
                     Move, spirits ‘its move you, oh yeah
                     Does it move you?
                     She moves with it
                     Lift my days, and light up my nights, oh  

Bono has publicly said that he believes the spirit is a feminine thing, which explains the feminine imagery he uses throughout the song. Another Christian component to this song is the last lines in the fourth verse which read,

                    If you want to kiss the sky, better learn how to kneel
                    On your knees, boy!

These lines indicate that prayer, or more specifically, repentance, is needed to reach heaven.This falls in line with Romans 10:9-10, which reads,

That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

U2 has made music for the people, for you and me. Its not only about faith and the idea that you must follow one God, clearly if you listen to the music as a whole you will find that that blessings are for everyone.

Bono’s clothes firm sinks

Accounts show Edun Apparel, founded by the rock star and his wife Ali Hewson in 2005, suffered losses to the tune of €6.8million in 2011.

The company is also 49 per cent owned by the world’s largest luxury goods group LVMH which put €6.7million into Edun in 2009.

The Paris-headquartered group also owns some of the world’s top brands — including Louis Vuitton, Donna Karan, Moet Chandon and Veuve Clicquot champagne.

U2 Plane and Romney ?

​U2 360 Tour Plane

​Mitt Romney has a new plane, well sort of new. Its new to him.

Romney's plane was previously personalized for the band U2's 360 tour, complete with the lyric "The future needs a big kiss" emblazoned on the nose.

The aircraft types the campaign chose have been workhorses for commercial passenger airlines for decades, recognizable by the two engines attached to the rear of the plane and two seats on one side of the aisle and three on the other in economy class. For the campaign planes, however, the charter company has fitted the aircraft with business class style seats.

U2 did have a couple of planes for the tour. ​ This last tour was the largest CO2 footprint of any band that toured the world. However this was impacted by the Live Nation Global Touring groups commitment to reduce and reuse as much as possible

Mitt Romney Tour America Plane​

U2’s CO2 emissions are the equivalent of the waste created by 6,500 average British or Irish people in an entire year, or equal to leaving a standard 100 watt lightbulb on for 159,000 years.

The band’s vast emissions are dozens of times bigger than Madonna’s carbon footprint on her 2006 world tour, despite her extravagant demands and 250 staff. She produced 1,635 tonnes in air transport.

U2’s PR agency RMP did not return a request asking if the band were buying carbon offsets to contribute towards the damage of their enormous emissions.

Carbonfootprint.com’s environment consultant Helen Roberts said: “The carbon footprint generated by U2’s 44 concerts this year is equal to carbon created by the four band members travelling the 34.125 million miles from Earth to Mars in a passenger plane.

“You also have to add the carbon emissions from the same number of concerts again next year.

“Just looking at the 44 concerts this year, the band will create enough carbon to fly all 90,000 people attending one of their Wembley concerts to Dublin. To offset this year’s carbon emissions, U2 would need to plant 20,118 trees.”

Pollution experts said U2’s 44 concerts in Europe and North America this year will produce 20,117.50 tonnes of CO2 emissions, unless the band unexpectedly decide to ship to equipment to the US, in which case the footprint would be 5091.41 tonnes.

Bono and his bandmates will generate 64.42 tonnes of CO2 by flying 22,037 miles to this year’s gigs in their private jet, currently stationed at Nice airport, near their Cote d’Azur holiday villas in the south of France.

Most of the carbon footprint comes from transporting the three 390-tonne stages, using 3,286.60 tonnes of CO2, with another 916.07 tonnes for extra equipment. Next year they are expected to play 20 concerts in North America in June and July and 20 dates in Europe in August and September.

The Inevitable End

Byline: Larry L

So when should a band say goodbye? As The Rolling Stones prepare for one last tour, I can't help but ask the question of U2. Should they:

• Pick a date and stick to it?

• Try and pump out one last massive album?

• Tour on their laurels (a la the Stones) and tour until they collect a pension and beyond?

• Wait until they put out a couple of 'not stellar' albums?

Though many might complain about my opinion, I am ready for this to end. I don't want Bono wheeled out to single Streets 'one last time' in a crackly, sad voice as one of his kids runs around the ramps pushing him. I don't want an old school '40' played with Larry using his walker to slowly meander away into the night.

I want U2's end to be a triumph. If they had walked away after the biggest tour in history, what a way to go! And I know they would love to recapture the crown. I don't know if they can really do it.

If they actually decided to get mad again. If they really had an axe to grind (with apologies to Edge's guitar work!). This writing for light, joy and positivity is all fine and well. What made them and brought them to pinnacle was anger. That is gone. If they can get that back, maybe sticking around a bit longer would be worth it.

I loved 'No Line On The Horizon'. However it didn't kick me in the gut and yell 'YEAH'. It was interesting and different and experimental in its own way. What it wasn't was a reclamation of the hearts and souls of us.

Can they do it? I am not convinced they can. As we wait for the 2013 release I find myself questioning where this going more and more. And asking myself if it isn't already time to stop.

Believers Believe in U2

Joshua Tree - U2

 U2 has been provoking audiences including Christians since they began playing in the 70’s. They made it pretty clear their influences early on, taking on social justice concerns and explored the depths of pop culture in the 90’s.

U2 has been a staple in sermons across the country, across denominations, and across generations. Get Up Off Your Knees is a collection of sermons from the U2 catalog written by several authors. Co-editor Beth Maynard is the pastor of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.​

“If you walk away I will follow”

— Song Lyrics "I will follow"

U2 is not a “Christian band,” but some of its members are Christians with significant fluency in the vocabulary of the Christian traditin. Thus, throughout their work U2 naturally raises and wrestles with spiritual questions using that vocabulary. Like all art, the results have many levels of meaning and considered from diverse perspectives, especially when you consider that U2’s catalog.

Preachers are always looking for effective cultural connections that help people grasp the meaning of biblical text. One of the points that Raewynne makes is that not only do we take the biblical text out into the world, we bring our life experience and our experience of the world with us when we read biblical text.

If you're a fan of U2, when you come to a situation of discouragement, when you need to be encouraged to persevere, you may come to that situation with "Walk On" in your head. There's just a natural connection that you make of these different texts and these different ways of telling the story of the world that we're in.

Huckabee Invokes Bono

Huckabee hosts a show on Fox News and did interview Bono at the end of last year and last night he threw out Bono's name with the following comments. Hum, are we sure Bono would support such comments ? - No word from Bono's camp. 

"Sometimes — sometimes we get so close to the picture, we really can’t see it clearly.  I’ve had the privilege of working with Bono for the past few years in the One Campaign to fight AIDS and hunger and disease around the world.  Bono is an Irishman and a great humanitarian.  And I remember him telling me of his admiration for America.  He said, ‘America’s more than just a country.  We are an idea.’ And he reminded me that we are an exceptional nation with an extraordinary history who owes it to the generations who are coming after us to leave them with an extraordinary legacy.”

U2 a Christian Band, Rubbish !

One of our early readers sent in some comments that should create some conversation today.  Bringing U2 into a conversation with a group of Christians can be challenging or even dangerous for the relationship. 

The boys held up as prime examples of good Christians that happen to be in the music business, years later most view the boys as arrogant and egotistical abandoning their early religious views.

In fact, many churches will point to U2 as evidence of the fact that the music industry is too full of corruption and depravity for even the most committed believers to hold out against, almost as mothers used to frighten their children into good behavior with stories of the hobgoblins that awaited the ill-behaved child! Viewing U2 on the surface, this can be understandable, but a deeper look at what the band are doing portrays a very different story.

Without a doubt U2 have changed a lot since their early albums. Many believe that U2 no longer possess the Christian beliefs, which so obviously underpinned these albums, and in many respects amidst the images which U2 have created their beliefs can be difficult to unearth.

Often such use of artistic subterfuge is deeply frowned upon by Christian fundamentalists who argue that the gospel message should be perfectly clear; however, this is ignoring the fact that much of the Bible is itself written in artistic prose, rich in hidden meanings and multi-faceted nuances, whilst several books merely contain poetry – the most artistic of all writing forms.

Jesus himself taught in parables, using the images of the day to bring across truths about God, and most of the time leaving the people scratching their heads and wondering what he meant.