U2 perform "The Ballad of Ronnie Drew" on Ireland's The Late Late Show, Friday, February 22, 2008. Click thumbnail twice for full size.
News
Top Story - April 26, 2008
U2 Scrap Work And Start Again
Rockers U2 are scrapping all the tracks they have written for their next album to start all over again - ditching a year's worth of work.
The band has been working on the follow up to 2004 LP How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb for the past 12 months, but they're far from happy with the results.
Guitarist The Edge reveals bandmembers have mostly messed around in the studio - and they have now decided to get stuck in and finish the record.
He tells CMUMusic.com, "We went into this project allowing ourselves the indulgence of making music without thinking about where it was going to end up. We're starting to get serious now".
May Poll: What would you like the next U2 album to sound like?
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Thanks to the technology of YouTube, watching videos and movie clips online is a
breeze. Here within this section, we have painstakingly put together a list of
over 80 U2 music videos that you can watch instantly for free. Chronologically
ordered (cleverly separated by decade) and featuring video information and unique
commentary from various directors, you now have access to the power of YouTube
right here on the U2 Station. Additional links to films and other videos from U2
will be added below. Please note that the quality of video will vary between
each selection and most are of lower quality (U2Station.com unfortunately has no
control over this).
This video was shot in and around Kilmainham Gaol prison in Dublin. This prison
was famous for being in several films including 1993's "In The Name of The Father" (where
Bono was featured in the soundtrack).
This music video was filmed in Sweden, December 1982.
"This video only really makes any sense at all in the context of the lyrics of
the album version, "Gold is the reason for the wars we wage." Making U2 videos
is a challenge, because the way Bono writes lyrics, often involves stripping out
all the specifics of the original inspiration. What's left is poetic, universal
and wide open to subjective projection. That's why everyone can relate U2 songs
to their own lives. However, the visual part of the brain is differently wired
and continually looks for meaning and linear narrative to hook into. Good luck
finding that with this video. Maybe a Kurosawa movie played in Dublin that year?
The shoot was brutally cold. There are bottles of whiskey buried in the snow all
around, some probably still there. The band eventually were carried away rigid,
like Jack MacGowran in "Fearless Vampire Killers", and so we had to find some
Swedish girls to do the horse riding scenes. I wish they had put my "All I Want
Is You" video on this DVD instead." - Meiert Avis
"Mist and heavy rain descended over Red Rocks in Colorado as a young Irish band
prepared to perform for their American fans. The rain was so heavy the water had
to be swept off the stage and support bands cancelled for safety reasons. The
spirits of U2's fans weren't dampened, and the scenes of them walking through
the mountains to the venue was reminiscent of a pilgrimage. The band was
determined not to let them down and decided their concert would go ahead. As it
turned out the weather gave the concert a magical atmosphere. Under such
terrible weather conditions we were very lucky that the helicopter was able to
fly and captured some breathtaking shots. The local press reported "Was this a
religious gathering or a rock concert". The band's performance was magnificent
and 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' unforgettable. I recall, before the concert started
Barry Fey, the promoter, thanking the fans for coming and saying "You're all
going to be a part of history" - how right he was! And how proud I am to have
shared the experience." - Gavin Taylor
"The director of Pride, Donald Cammell, was a friend of Michael Hamlyn's, and
introduced by him to the band. Donald was particularly well known for writing
and co-directing, with Nicholas Roeg, the cult 60s film 'Performance' starring
James Fox and Mick Jagger. The video is fairly straightforward and polished for
the time, a performance piece filmed in St Francis Xavier Hall (the SFX Hall)
just off Mountjoy Square in north Dublin, one of the very few regular concert
venues for punk and rock bands in Dublin at the time. I mainly remember the 1984
hassle of getting the East Link toll bridge raised in synch with the helicopter
and holding up the north-south Dublin traffic in the process. It will be
interesting to view the river Liffey from the same helicopter position at the
end of the video in a few years time, when the new U2 tower will stand, three
times high, beside the toll bridge." - James Morris
Little Steven arranged the album with Arthur Baker. Notable artists that participated
on this song other than Bono included Miles Davis, Lou Reed, Keith Richards and Bruce
Springsteen.
Filmed in Ardmore Studios, Bray, Ireland, October 1987, this music video was the
winner of the "Viewer's Choice Award" at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards. The
projected images seen throughout the clip were shot by Matt Mahurin.
"A great song and performance that transcend the insane in-camera techniques
involved in the execution of the video. It was a magical set to be on. We turned
on the banks of huge film projectors and saw the layered giant gauzes light up
with dream images. This was the first nipple on MTV. Edge must have noticed, but
nobody else did. I wanted to visualize Eno's depth atmospherics, use negative
space and restraint to let the feeling of longing haunt the video. Larry, Edge
and Adam understood and delivered this perfectly. Bono, thankfully, got bored
and took off in a whole other direction after the bridge. This video still takes
me to the fair. Thank you Matt Mahurin." - Meiert Avis
Filmed in London, February 1987. Considered by many to have been the "holy
grail" of unreleased and rare music videos. It finally was officially released
after 20 years on the remastered edition of The Joshua Tree collection in 2007.
The song is based on the 1984 Miner's Strike in Britain where families and
communities were torn apart by the poverty of being on strike and the struggle
to keep families together as men became broken with guilt, alcohol and a loyalty
to the cause.
Filmed on the rooftop of a liquor store on the corner of 7th and Main street in
Los Angeles, California.
"Problem. Reaction. Solution. Order out of Chaos. The video is maybe the best
implementation of Post Modern Chaos Theory Marketing. It has been copied a
hundred times, but never with the same innocence and surprise, which is where
the magic is. What you see is exactly what happened that morning, almost in real
time. Paradoxically, we planned this down to the last detail, even spending a
week re-enforcing the roof structure to make sure that it wouldn't collapse if
fans got up there. Getting busted was an integral part of the plan. We had a
backup generator up on the roof so that we could keep shooting in case the
authorities pulled the fuse on the primary generator, which they did, very
quickly. In the background you can see we rebuilt the sign from the Million
Dollar Hotel to create some interest, just in case no one showed. The whole
thing was pure rock and roll. Thank you to the fans and authorities who made it
happen, safely, and the Beatles." - Meiert Avis
This video was filmed on Fremont Street in Las Vegas, Nevada, April 1987.
"Is this the cheapest video ever shot? Our lighting rig consisted of two inkies,
we shot about fifteen minutes of film and the documentary crew who were filming
"Outside It's America" at the time, did it on their night off. On the other hand
we did have 50 million gigawatts of Las Vegas to supplement the inkies; those
fifteen minutes were spent with U2 being funny and wicked; and the crew included
The Very Great Declan Quinn, and Pam Yates, both of whom went on to have huge
careers in film. Cheap or not, it was fun, got nominated for MTV Awards in 5
(count 'em ) categories and gets to accompany my favourite U2 song, bar none.
All together now... "I have climbed the highest mountains...". Lucky me." - Barry
Devlin
This video was shot at the LSU Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Desire (1988)
Directed by Richard Lowenstein & Lynn-Maree Milburn.
Shot in Los Angeles, September 1988.
"Shooting and lighting by myself against a black cyc in a recording studio
during the mix of Rattle & Hum. One band member at a time. First thing I'd lit
since film-school. Acting like I knew what I was doing. Trying not to let anyone
see that I couldn't operate the light meter. Bono flicks through channels on a
TV remote. A three person crew in the streets of LA. The Million Dollar Hotel.
My trusty old Bolex camera. Now Bono wants one. Editing in a suite at the
Chateau Marmont. Enough with the channel flicking already. The extended 12"
video version is the best piece of agitprop scratch editing to come from my
hands..." - Richard Lowenstein
Featuring B.B. King and shot on location in Fort Worth, Texas, November 1987
(featured in the Rattle & Hum film). Also the winner of the "Best Video from a
Film" award at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards.
