August 2009 Archives

By Zakia Uddin, Bollywood Reporter

Ajay Devgan's latest role as a rock star in the forthcoming musical London Dreams was based on Bono from U2.

The feature co-stars Salman Khan as his childhood friend and fellow band member.

Director Vipul Shah said: "I've modeled Ajay's rock act on Bono, the Irish lead singer from U2. Bono was never your quintessential rock star. He had a more sober and a less wild image.

"When Ajay gets on stage in London Dreams, he replicates the curbed tempered-down rock star's image of U2. Yes, I modeled him on Bono."

He added: "So far we've only seen him in a sedate or comic image, never as someone who can cross the frontiers and do something outrageous."

Copyright © 1999-2009 Digital Spy Limited. All Rights Reserved.

The Times,

I don't think rock is necessarily a young man's game. I think Neil Young is just as rock 'n roll now as he was in his 20s. I'd like to think we can still be edgy and challenging.

I was not an obvious contender. I was actually pretty shy in school. My defence mechanism was to be the class clown. I remember getting into a lot of trouble for being disruptive, and I was brought in front of the headteacher, who said: "What's going to happen to you? What are you going to do when you grow up?" And I said: "Well, I'm obviously going to be a comedian."

Life has taken over and I haven't written in awhile. I'm sure you're all brokenhearted. I started my bachelor's program about 10 years late, so it's taking a bit of getting used to the whole school thing again. I'll be back in the swing of things someday, and hopefully that won't be 4 years down the road either.

I woke up this morning and I was flipping through the channels when I landed on VH1. They were playing the live version of the "Crazy Tonight" video. I'm not really a huge fan of live official videos, more of a concept type person, but I love this one. Why? Because I get to see that shit in less than two weeks in person. I haven't really been able to think about it much lately but wow, that Claw thing is pretty fucking huge! And I'm such a small person, big things overwhelm me a bit (don't let your minds go to the gutters, kids).

By Dave Itzkoff, New York Times

U2 would not seem to be the sort of band that takes Jewish holidays into account when preparing its touring schedule, but the coming observance of Yom Kippur has required the group to reschedule a show planned for Giants Stadium next month. In a news release on Thursday, publicists for U2 said that the group's concert scheduled at the stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. for Sept. 25 has been moved to Sept. 23. The change was made after the New York Jets rescheduled their Sept. 27 football game against the Tennessee Titans to 1 p.m. from 4:15 pm to avoid a conflict with Yom Kippur, which starts at sundown that day. In their release, U2's publicists said that the staging installation for the band's tour requires up to two days to disassemble, and the new game time made it "logistically impossible" for the installation to be broken down between a Friday night concert and a Sunday early afternoon game. The release added: "In order to accommodate the New York Jets, the NFL and the state of New Jersey, which owns the stadium, and out of respect for U2 and Jets' fans of Jewish faith, U2 agreed to move their show rather than pursue other options."

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

The band's new single, I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight, will be released in the UK on September 7th by Mercury.

The single is accompanied by two videos - one of which was created by Irish animation filmmaker David O'Reilly, and is the first animated clip for the band since 1995's 'Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me'. The second is a live-action video filmed in Barcelona on the 360 Tour and directed by Alex Courtes, who also directed the music videos for Magnificent and Get On Your Boots.

The U2 concert previously scheduled for FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25th, 2009 at Giants Stadium in New Jersey has been moved to WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23RD, 2009. The performance on Thursday, September 24th will proceed as scheduled.

The change was necessitated by the rescheduling of the New York Jets football game on Sunday September 27, 2009 from 4:15pm to 1pm out of respect for the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, which starts that evening. Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish year.

(Editor's Note: U2Station.com's own Webmaster, Jonathan Wayne, is interviewed in the new U2 documentary film "Meet Me In The Sound", directed by first-time filmmaker Natalie Baker, which premieres on the first day of the U2 Conference)

ALISON HEALY, Irish Times

HAVE YOU ever considered the convergence of spiritual longing and sexual desires in the music of U2? Have you pondered on the imaginative experience that links Yeats's The Tower and U2's Lemon?

Or perhaps you are more interested in the representations of laissez faire inherent in U2's music? If these issues are keeping you awake at night, then help is at hand.

U2: The Hype and The Feedback is being billed as "the first academic conference on the world's biggest band".

It will begin in Durham, North Carolina, on October 2nd, on the campus of North Carolina Central University.

Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone

Many superfans compare listening to their favorite band to a religious experience. A church in Florida is taking that sentiment to the next level by introducing its congregation to a Sunday service that features the music and lyrics of Bono and Co., reports Twenty Four Bit. The rockin' First United Methodist Church of Pensacola, Florida will host the U2charist -- a play on the word Eucharist -- which includes U2's "One," "With or Without You" and the service-opening prayer of "Beautiful Day."

The debut U2charist in Pensacola took place August 23rd at First Methodist. The U.S. Episcopal Church first developed the U2charist in 2003, and the service was first conducted in Baltimore, Maryland, in April 2004. The celebration of U2's music has since since spread worldwide, arriving in Pensacola last weekend. "It's definitely something different," First United's Rev. Geoffrey Lentz told the Pensacola News Journal. "But U2's music is so deeply spiritual that I think the corporate worship setting is the perfect place for it. It's exciting for the oldest Protestant church in Pensacola to have a cutting edge worship service." Lentz added that the U2charist appeals to a younger audience, and an average of 200 people attend the Sunday service.

Canwest News Service

There's no denying that U2 remain the world's biggest band. They are in the midst of a massive tour, with a recent pair of shows in London that drew 170,000 people.

And U2's fans are a passionate lot. Just bring up the album Pop in a fan forum and watch the lines drawn and all caps come out. And to anyone questioning the band is still massive, and its fans loyal, visit a few of the 24/7 fan sites and U2 news aggregators across the web.

To further sate the frenzy for information on Bono and company, the world's first ``academic conference on the world's biggest band'' has been announced.

U2: The Hype and The Feedback will take place from Oct. 2 to Oct. 4 at North Carolina Central University in Durham, N.C. to coincide with the band's tour stop in nearby Raleigh that weekend.

This month marks the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. I grew up in a family of hippies and so the music of that generation was all around me. Not to glorify a day gone by, but my family has so many great stories of that era: everything from seeing the Beatles perform live to dropping acid with a then unknown poet named Jim Morrison. I had to pause and ponder the question: Have I been witness to any historical rock n' roll moments? If so, I'm sure it involved U2.

My parents were rather old when I was born, both in their 40's. All of my cousins were older than me and still dedicated to their hippie music and lifestyle. I remember at a young age seeing all of the long hair, fringe, and tie dye. My one cousin, Marilee, was living with a guy, David, who had a "devil dog" patch sewn to the crotch of his pants. (For those of you too young to know, Devil Dog was a cup cake brand popular in the 70's). I'm sure that at the young age of 5, I would not have made the connection of devil dog with this man's crotch if my parents had not made such a big deal about it.

by Katie Norman, Wales On Sunday

IT was one of the most eagerly anticipated gigs of the year.

And for 70,000 fans, it delivered on every count.

When U2 rolled into Cardiff last night for the last leg of their European 360 Degree Tour, they blew the audience away.

Taking centre stage and most of the audience's breath away in the Millennium Stadium was the £20m set dubbed The Claw - which towered over the main circular stage.

As the iconic front man Bono emerged last night, clad in black and wearing his trademark sunglasses, the crowd erupted with delight.

Nui Te Koha, Herald Sun

U2 will tour Australia in 2011, leaving its concert stage behind as a gift.

Mark Fisher, who designed the stage, inadvertently announced the band's plan to visit Australia.

Fisher has built three super-structures for U2's 360 Tour.

"My vision . . . is we will turn them into permanent concert pavilions and leave them around the world," he said.

"For example, we will finish one part of the tour in Australia and another in South America."

Craig Mcdonald, Daily Record

U2 have forced a football match to be called off tomorrow after leaving Hampden like a ploughed field.

The band's midweek gig at the national stadium left the pitch in such a bad state that Queen's Park had to call off the game with Albion Rovers yesterday.

There are now fears over Scotland's World Cup qualifiers against Macedonia and Holland, which are due to be played at Hampden in two weeks.

The pitch will be relaid before then but football insiders warned any new surface takes time to "bed down".

by Gavin Allen, South Wales Echo

GLASVEGAS have had a year like no-one else and the Glaswegian gloom-rockers are capping it off by realising a dream.

"We were all such big U2 fans growing up that playing with them is mad," says the band's guitarist Paul Donohue.

"When we supported them in Dublin it was the first time I'd ever seen them live and I thought, we are so privileged."

Although the band were famously on the dole while writing their self-titled debut album, Glasvegas have had to get used to that privileged feeling in the last 18 months, having been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and hand-picked by Bono for this occasion.

Rolling Stone,

"We've got big tunes. We're very proud of it," U2's Bono says of the Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark musical he co-wrote with the Edge. Despite reports that the cash-strapped Broadway show has shut down production, the duo spoke to the BBC about the Julie Taymor-directed musical dedicated to the legendary Marvel superhero, which currently is still planned to debut in February 2010. "Our Peter Parker is much more... not Kurt Cobain, but a kind of slacker, a more kind of shy sort of guy," Bono told the BBC about how his and the Edge's vision of the superhero will differ from the comic and recent films.

In a move that might unnerve Spider-Man diehards, Bono also revealed that he and the Edge created a new villainess for the musical. "We've got a new villain, it's a girl. It's a very extraordinary role. We've taken it to a much more dizzy place than you'd expect," the U2 frontman revealed. Bono also spoke glowingly about actress Evan Rachel Wood, who will play love interest Mary Jane Watson and with whom Bono co-starred with during his cameo in Taymor's Across the Universe. "She's the greatest actor of her generation, she's the one to watch," said Bono. "She happens to sing like a bird, it's like a true voice. She's a very pure spirit and a very bright mind and she brings the part of MJ to life really."

by Clare Hutchinson, Western Mail

WITH its giant "claws" and sleek spaceship styling, U2's dazzling stage for their latest world tour has been described as looking as if it landed from another plant.

But the distinctive look, which has garnered as much attention from critics as the band's music, actually hails from Chepstow rather than outer space.

And the Welsh company behind the canopy has revealed how it was given just three months by the Irish rockers to come up with the covering that gives the 360-degree, 164ft-high stage such a unique look.

Undaunted, workers at Chepstow-based Architen Landrell began a three-month slog working 12 hours a day, six days a week, until they had completed not one, but three stages for U2's 360 Degree world tour.

By Matt McGee, Atu2.com

Bono and Edge spent more than an hour doing a live interview today on BBC Radio 1 with host Edith Bowman. The conversation was fun and loose, but also included the world premiere of an unreleased oldie along with a few interesting comments from B&E. Audio from the show is now available on the BBC web site. You can drag the slider at the bottom to move ahead in the interview. Here are the highlights with timing notes:

By Matt McGee, Atu2.com

In a daily status report about activity on the International Space Station, NASA reveals more about the upcoming space-based performance the astronauts will be doing during the U2 360 Tour. The following comes from the August 18, 2009, status update:

The 50m high central spire of the "claw" is loaded with 34 PRG Icon 2 'Bad Boy' moving lights and two 600mm mirror balls

The Light Sound Journal

Causing the biggest stir for many years amongst audiences and industry professionals alike with the sheer scale of its design and construction is U2's current 360° Tour.

The now-famous 'Claw', designed by the combined talents of Show Architect Mark Fisher and long-time U2 collaborator, Show Designer/Director, Willie Williams, forms a 28m high canopy over one of the largest stages ever toured.

Pivotal to the 'Claw' is a central spire or pylon, 50m high and loaded with 34 PRG Icon 2 'Bad Boy' moving lights and two 600mm mirror balls, which has been developed and fabricated by UK staging company, Brilliant Stages.

Catriona Stewart, The Herald

U2, Hampden Park
Star rating: ****

They're the self-styled world's biggest band and this is surely the greatest show in town. Given that, U2 could not fail to disappoint their 55,000-strong crowd last night.

Dominating Hampden was the much-hyped "Claw", a 360-degree stage with a 390-tonne, 164-foot glowing blue and orange super-structure, which wafts out dry ice. The sound-and-light system cost a cool £90m to build - and presumably makes U2 less than popular with the neighbours.

By Emily Pykett, Scotsman.com

TEN-MILE tailbacks choked Glasgow last night as more than 126,000 music and sports fans headed to the city for a U2 concert, as well as the Uefa Champions League qualifier game.

Some 60,000 were said to have descended on Celtic Park as the play-off against Arsenal kicked off at 7:45 pm, while the doors at Hampden - less than four miles away - opened at 5pm to allow in an estimated crowd of 66,000 to see U2 play the only Scottish date on their 360° world tour.

Matters were made worse as motorists were forced to observe a 40mph limit for a five-mile section on the A80 near Cumbernauld, in addition to a number of roadworks ongoing in and around Glasgow city centre.

U2 rocked Glasgow with a truly unforgettable show.

U2 are renowned for being a spectacular live band. Anyone who saw their Live Aid performance back in 1985 will appreciate the stage presence and power of the man who appropriately calls himself Bono Vox. And the 60,000-strong crowd at Hampden Park last night were not disappointed.

True to the hype following two sell-out shows at Wembley on Friday and Saturday, the guys rolled into Glasgow to showcase both their new album and classic hits, including Sunday Bloody Sunday, Where the Streets Have No Name, With or Without You, Pride (In the Name of Love) and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For.

Alison Shevlin, Irish Times

DUBLIN'S LORD Mayor Cllr Emer Costello was the first person to sign a book of solidarity that has been opened in City Hall for imprisoned Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

U2's Bono sent a message of support for the move. The band was jointly awarded the freedom of Dublin city with Suu Kyi in 2000.

The book calls for the immediate release of the pro-democracy activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was sentenced to a further 18 months by a military-controlled court in Burma (Myanmar) last week for breaching terms of her house arrest.

Yearning for answers, relationship with God underpins its theology

Stuart Laidlaw, Faith and Ethics Reporter

Years before becoming an Anglican priest, Andrew Asbil felt drawn to Irish rockers U2 and their message of hope and salvation.

"I've been a huge fan since the first album, Boy, came out," says Asbil, 48, now minister at Toronto's Church of the Redeemer.

Boy, released in 1980, set U2 apart, he says. It wasn't the fluff the 1980s became known for, instead challenging fans to find meaning in life. In his first year of university, Asbil was hooked, and remained a fan as his studies led him to theology.

"When I started my seminary work, I began looking at the lyrics in a different way and began to see a lot of the biblical narratives."

Members of the band U2 talk about their efforts to maintain immediacy in their music while pushing an overtly political message.

Alma Catal, who attended U2's Sarajevo show in 1997 and lived through the war, talks about how that concert over a decade ago lives on.

Gordon Smart, The Sun

YOU'D never guess Manchester City got off to a winning start on Saturday...

In fact, NOEL GALLAGHER had as near to a perfect weekend as he could get: U2 on Friday night at Wembley followed by late-night boozing, Premier League victory on Saturday and a 9.30am finish on Sunday.

Throw in lots of bags of crisps, holding court in the pub and you've got a textbook shift.

Here he is with his old pal ANT GENN, who supported U2 at Wem-ber-lee with THE HOURS, leaving London club Home House in the wee hours of Sunday.

More than 160,000 people were entertained by the U2 juggernaut at the weekend, on their awe-inspiring 360 Tour.

The gig was one of the best I've seen and I was lucky enough to get involved in the after-show shenanigans.

Gabrielle Monaghan, Times Online

Dublin, according to Bono, is the "the best place to see U2 live". It's also the most lucrative city for the band to play.

The band's three sell-out shows at Croke Park on July 24, 25 and 27, which drew an overall attendance of 243,198, earned €20.2m, making the Dublin leg of the band's tour the fourth-most profitable series of performances ever at a single location.

U2 were narrowly edged out for third place by the 1999 Woodstock festival in upstate New York, while the Spice Girls' 2008 performances at the O2 Arena in London are second with €23.7m in earnings. Bruce Springsteen tops the ranking, for the €27m grossed at Giants Stadium in New York in 2003.

The figures were compiled by Billboard.com from concert venues and promoters such as Live Nation and MCD.

My journey to see this movie started in LA, a place I have to be convinced to go these days. I had to get some cash and parked at a Mc Donald's on sunset due to the fact that I had no quarters for a meter. Then I walked a block to an ATM and proceeded to pay three dollars for twenty of my own dollars. As I walked back to my car a generous and probably dollar less man said I look good enough to jump. Again, got ta' love LA. Then I had some lounge time with some good friends, and they decided to retire for the night. I was tired as well but then fate took over 10:45pm at night. I found myself alone walking to the show from a parking garage, of which I just gave an arm and a leg to. I admit a bit of excitement took over and made me wonder if I was getting my self way to pumped up for this movie. I then paid with all the others, got a soda, and sat in my assigned seat, yes my assigned seat.

This sound you hear in the very beginning after the titles is amazing and met with everyone's attention. Cows are mowing, and nails are being hammered in silent concentration of Jack white. He literally builds a guitar out of wood, nails, a coke bottle and some other miscellaneous things he found lying around, and he says, "Who says you need to buy a guitar!" From that moment on I was hooked.

U2 made a reported €20 million profit from their recent Croke Park gigs as part of their 360 Degree World Tour.

According to The Mirror, the three July gigs in Croke Park, which drew 243,198 fans, were the fourth most profitable series of performances ever at a single location.

Bob Allen, the manager of Billboard's Boxscore charts said: "To take in €92million from only 16 shows is unusual but U2 is one of the handful of acts that can fill a stadium on a nightly basis."

U2 were beaten only by the 1999 Woodstock Festival in New York, the Spice Girls performances at the O2 Arena in London which came second with €23.7 million and the winner Bruce Springsteen with the €27million profit he made at the Giants Stadium in New York in 2003.

Chris Roberts, The Quietus

Giant contraption fails to divert attention away from the fact that Irish megastars aren't quite as good as they used to be.

So this is what the biggest audience for a Wembley Stadium gig ever -- 88,000 people -- looks like. It's not staggering, or breathtaking, or anything like that. There's one good moment during 'Mysterious Ways' where they all appear to be waving side to side in perfect time like a field of corn in a breeze, a host of singing-along daffodils, but generally there's a curious lack of atmosphere. I'm not here to jump on any U2-are-dead bandwagon; that'd be cheap. But the mega-expensive stage set, lights, films etc don't compensate for the absence of euphoric moments. It's entertaining in phases, and some of those surging old intros still scrape away your scepticism, but considering the scale, everything seems a tad subdued. The sound's lousy, thin, tinny.

By Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Financial Times

The show opened with smoke pouring from U2's remarkable stage set, a vast spacecraft-style contraption designed to make them visible throughout the venue. It was the London leg of their "360°" tour and Wembley was hosting its largest rock concert, with 88,000 people present. There could be no doubt the world's biggest band were in town.

First on stage was the drummer Larry Mullen, striking up a beat as his colleagues materialised: The Edge on guitar, Adam Clayton on bass, and Bono on vocals, apparently wearing rose-tinted sunglasses - ideal for squinting through while delivering uplifting homilies about saving the world.

U2 in concert are a unique mix of stadium rock spectacle, feelgood spiritual rally and political activism. At Wembley, "Sunday Bloody Sunday" was dedicated to Iranian pro-democracy demonstrators, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu made a specially filmed plea for anti-poverty and Aids aid.

U2's first UK gig in their current tour is expected to have broken the attendance record for a Wembley Stadium concert, organisers have said.

About 88,000 people were expected at the Irish group's concert on Friday - 5,000 more than what is thought to have been the stadium's previous record.

U2's radical "claw" stage has enabled tour organisers Live Nation to increase the capacity for the sold-out show.

A similar-sized crowd is expected at a second concert later.

Wembley's previous biggest crowd is believed to have been the 83,000 who saw Rod Stewart perform there in 1995.

The Edge brands green criticism of their extraordinary stage 'unfair'

U2 guitarist The Edge has defended the size and cost of their world tour.

Last month, protests delayed the removal of the custom-built set from Ireland and it also came under fire from Talking Heads singer David Byrne.

The three steel structures cost between £15m and £20m each, offering a largely unobstructed view of the rock quartet.

"We're spending the money on our fans, I don't think there's a better thing you could spend it on," said The Edge backstage at Wembley.

Saying the inventor's legacy will 'live on'...

by Andrew Almond, Gigwise.com

U2 guitarist the Edge has paid tribute to late guitar pioneer Les Paul in a message posted on the Irish band's official website.

Referring to Paul as "a legend of the guitar and a true renaissance man", the 48 year-old is a long time Les Paul guitar user.

He said: "Les Paul disproves the cliche that you can only be famous for one thing. His legacy as a musician and inventor will live on".

Refusing to rehash past glories, the world's least complacent band returns to the UK tonight on its latest tour

Andrew Mueller, The Times

Bono is introducing the stage set on U2's first of two night in Maksimir Stadium, Zagreb. "How do you like our space junk?" he calls. The concerts on the 360º tour are delivered from beneath a vast edifice that does indeed resemble a landing craft (aptly, the show's introductory fanfare is David Bowie's Space Oddity). Four pillars, swaddled in reflective khaki and studded with orange nodules, support immense racks of speakers, lights, and a conical screen which, when it descends from the contraption's innards, resembles the ignition of a booster rocket preparing for lift-off. "We built it," Bono continues, "to take ourselves interesting places."

This raises 62,000 cheers. Tonight is U2's first show in Croatia, and their first in the former Yugoslavia since 1997, when they took their gaudy PopMart circus to Sarajevo. "We also built it," Bono says, "to get closer to you. Intimacy on a grand scale. That's what we were going for."

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I'm a little late in my weekly update, I know, fail. It's hard to find something relevant to say all the time, give a girl a break!

Anyway, last week was my dad's 62nd birthday which resulted in a family dining experience. My dad was asking questions about my upcoming U2 adventures in Chicago, Vegas and Los Angeles when my stepmom piped up, "You're going all the way to Chicago to see a band?" "Yes." "God, that's ridiculous! Why are you wasting your life on some stupid band, there's so much else to live for!!" After resisting the urge to turn into an ungrateful child, I smiled politely and said, "It's a shame you don't have passion for something in life, or perhaps you'd understand."

Written by Malcolm Jack, The List

After 30 years at the top, U2 remain an unstoppable force of live performance, global success and critical relevancy. Ahead of their Glasgow date, we ask some prominent figures in music to describe their relationship with the band and explain their enduring appeal.

Roddy Woomble
Idlewild singer

Idlewild opened for U2 for three shows on the 2005 Vertigo Tour. The sheer scale of a show like this was the main thing that stuck me. The amount of money, effort and thought that went into this kind of performance was pretty unique. I don't think there's another band that put on concerts at that level.

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By Matt McGee, Atu2.com

According to this news update on the Italian site U2place.com, Larry's drum tech Sam O'Sullivan spilled the beans to fans in Zagreb about some of the band's plans for the next year or so. Here's the scoop:

• After the North American tour ends, U2 will stay in Vancouver to complete work on the new album, Songs of Ascent. It'll be released in December or early in 2010.
• U2 may tour Australia/New Zealand ("Oceania" is what U2place.com says) in March 2010, but it depends on the cost of transporting the stage.
• There'll be another tour of Europe next summer, including a date in Rome.

UKPA

U2 have condemned the Burmese government as a "bunch of crooks" for the "mock trial" of Aung San Suu Kyi.

The band - huge critics of the regime - were angered by the further 18-month house arrest of the pro-democracy leader.

By Ellen Lampert-Gréaux

Live Design: How did you get involved in the building of the U2 360° video screen?

Frederic Opsomer: It all started in the production office during the Tokyo concert of U2's Vertigo tour. Willie Williams showed me some very conceptual drawings of what would become the 360° stage and said, "Think about how we can integrate video into this!" That was it until the phone rings a bit more than a year later.

by Mariel Concepcion, N.Y. | August 10, 2009 3:53 EDT

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Billy Sloan, Sunday Mail

U2 have revealed that their new 360° live show, hailed as the most spectacular tour in rock history, was inspired by their early Scottish gigs.

The Irish supergroup say their first gigs in Scotland helped shape them as a top-flight act.

On August 18, U2 will perform "in-the-round" at Hampden Park in Glasgow with special guests Glasvegas and The Hours.

It will be a real labour of love for Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr, who have never forgotten the reception they got from Scots fans early in their career.

"Some of our first-ever gigs were at venues such as Strathclyde University then we discovered the famous Barrowland," recalled The Edge.

By Ashok Selvam, Daily Herald Staff

Senior Pastor and Founder Bill Hybels addresses the crowd before Bono and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair speak via videocast at Willow Creek Community Church's annual Leadership Summit.

Did you read the tweets about how Willow Creek Community Church Pastor Bill Hybels challenged U2 frontman Bono about his reluctance to attend church?

Thousands who attended day two of the South Barrington church's 15th annual Leadership Summit made use of the building's Wi-Fi, posting nonstop Twitter updates about interviews with Bono, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, CNN political analyst David Gergen and other speakers.

More than 6,600 people attended the two-day conference at the South Barrington campus. The event also was broadcast to 55 countries in 28 languages; 74,000 people watched it in United States.

NEW YORK, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- The Irish rock band U2 grossed more than $100 million in the first 13 shows of its 360 Degrees tour, box office totals show.

Billboard.com reported Friday the "With or Without You" rockers grossed $28.8 million of their total during three shows at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland, in late July.

The profitable Dublin performances allowed U2 to post the fourth-highest recorded gross for a performance run at a single location.

The U2 performances were narrowly edged out for third by the 1999 Woodstock festival, while the Spice Girls' 2008 performances at London's O2 Arena held second overall with $33.8 million in earnings.

By Marija Andric, Croatian Times

Irish band "U2" gave a spectacular two-hour concert yesterday (Sun) evening in front of around 63,000 fans at Maksimir stadium in Zagreb.

Irish rock band "Snow Patrol" and British "The Hours" preceded U2 on the stage.

Bono Vox and his band played in Croatia for the first time, which thrilled numerous fans.

In one of his numerous emotional addresses to the audience Bono said: "Thank you for hosting us in this beautiful country. Thanks also to those of you who came from other parts of the region. This is a beautiful country, and you are a beautiful people."

Remembering numerous war victims, Bono dedicated the song "One" to those whose warm hearts had been injured by cold ideals.

As opposed to many stars who barely know in which country they are singing, the Irish band showed it was familiar with Croatian history.

Exclusive live broadcast across stations including Q, Key 103, Kerrang!, Clyde 1 and Metro Radio form biggest commercial radio events of 2009

London, 10th August 2009: Fans of the biggest rock band in the world, U2, will get an exclusive chance to experience the band's Sheffield Don Valley Stadium gig live on their national or local radio station on Thursday, 20th August.

Over 20 Bauer Radio Network stations across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, including Key 103 in Manchester, Metro Radio in Newcastle, Clyde 1 in Scotland, Cool in Belfast will be dedicating the night to the U2 360° Tour, one of 2009's biggest music events. Kerrang!, Q and The Hits will give listeners the chance to hear the gig throughout the entire UK. Fans will be able to listen to the gig in its entirety and without advert breaks across FM, AM and digital radio, as well as online at each individual station website.

Check out this extensive 3 part interview held in Croatia the other day by the Croatian TV B92 station.

Croatian Times

Croatian U2 fans are calling on all those who will attend the group's concert on 10 August to use balloons to welcome the Irish band.

The idea's initiator, U2Croatia.net website forum, said today (Fri) the idea was to make an Irish flag across the whole stadium with the balloons.

Everyone should bring one balloon to the concert. All those in the west stands should have green balloons, those in the north and south stands and on the pitch white balloons and those in the eastern stands orange balloons.

The balloons should be prepared but not tied before U2 takes the stage.

During the first song, people should hold the balloons in the air and then release them when the song ends.

Gear4Music.com

One of the most famous pedals from Electro-Harmonix is the analogue delay pedal - The Deluxe Memory Man.

The Edge - guitarist for arguably the biggest band on the planet, U2 - is a renowned advocate of the pedal.

The Deluxe Memory Man pedal delivers a genuine organic analog delay with blend, feedback and delay time controls.

Up to 550ms of echo is available, on top of warm chorus and a smooth vibrato.

The Edge developed his signature echo-rich guitar sound using the Deluxe Memory Man.

This epic tone is now a famed sound that guitarists will mimic for years and years to come.

The news comes following U2's homecoming gig in Dublin, attended by over 80,000 people.

Check out a fan-made video of a U2 360 Stage construction and deconstruction Time Lapse in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

From the Edge (leavesinthewind.com)

Dear friends,

Thanks for taking the time to look over the information on this website. I never thought I would have to resort to this form of communication, but because of recent inaccurate media coverage, I felt compelled to set the record straight.

I hope you will agree that my partners and I have worked diligently to design homes that meet the highest environmental standards; that fit appropriately and aesthetically into this beautiful part of Southern California; and that are truly remarkable examples of the best architecture and design.

Adam Clayton, musician, 49, Amsterdam

Luke Bainbridge, The Observer

I don't think rock'n'roll is necessarily a young man's game. I think Neil Young is just as rock'n'roll now as he was in his 20s. I'd like to think we can still be edgy and challenging.

I was not an obvious contender. I was actually pretty shy in school. My defence mechanism was to be the class clown. I remember getting into a lot of trouble for being disruptive, and I was brought in front of the headteacher, who said: "What's going to happen to you; what are you going to do when you grow up?" and I said: "Well, I'm obviously going to be a comedian."

From an early age I didn't buy into the value systems of working hard in a nine-to-five job. I thought creativity, friendship and loyalty and pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable was much more interesting.

MSE: You are using the new PRG truss. What do you think of it?

CH: I really like the truss. I was on Tina Turner, and the BAT truss had been built for that tour, and I thought that it was absolutely wonderful. As I was putting this together, I felt that we could use it for this tour. PRG went ahead and reformatted it to take the Bad Boys. The depth and weight is slightly different. It is brilliant--definitely the future of touring truss. There are three PRG BAT low-profile trusses in each leg. There is a double 16' run at the top, then the spot truss, and then another 16' run at the bottom. They are all pre-rigged and pre-wired, and the Bad Boys travel mounted to the truss. The big pluses are that it is so flexible with the spigots being able to be turned in any direction and the three pipes are fully adjustable along Unistrut tracks. It can take any kind of fixture, and a rail is open for cabling down which helps in case you have to change a power supply...Also, the collapsible frames take up little space. Once the truss is lifted out of the frame, there are just two pins that you pull back and it folds down. You can stack all of the dollies up, so, from a production manager's point of view, there aren't hundreds of dollies rolling around; there is just one stack for all of your trussing.

No Line On The Horizon- In my opinion
I know this is a bit late considering they are already touring for this album, but I figured hey... better late than never, right? I hope that maybe I will pose a different view being that the Cd has had its time to really grow on me and sink in (which is when I prefer to tear it apart and analyze each song). I know immediately whether the music pulls me into its realm of possibilities, but it's hard to truly love it until it has rubbed off its magic. For a bit of familiarity of where I stand on U2's music here are several standing points. I love almost every song, not really one I can say that I hate, But top of the list songs are; Bad, walk to the water, and North and South of the river. I would say I'm a B-sides fan. I am more passionate about the work only major fans appreciate, and know about, and the radios don't play. I love Million dollar hotel, Passengers, and Both B-sides albums. My favorite Duo is Bono with the Corrs "When the stars go blue".

And now without further adieu is the review.....

I've been sitting here for the past two hours, going through my oodles of YouTube footage I've saved, trying to figure out a theme for this week's entry.

Well, I've decided to fuck the theme and go with random stuff this week...roll with it.

U2's No Line On The Horizon was released worldwide on March 2/3, 2009, and earlier in some countries. There's already talk of another studio album coming out in 2009/2010 as a companion to NLOTH.

The following is a running collection of news, rumors, quotes, and other information related to U2's next studio album.

Protesters in Dublin were furious about the time it took to dismantle Bono's massive stage 'claw'

Paul Lester, Guardian.co.uk

(Editor's Note: In my opinion, everyone is entitled to their opinion, to each their own.)

Considering their reputation as the most socially aware band on the planet, U2 have been doing their best to inflame at least one section of society with their latest venture. Protesters in Dublin this week picketed the Croke Park stadium where the dismantling of the world's most expensive - and most preposterous - rock show, including a giant electronic "claw", required almost two days of continual activity and the relentless rumble of juggernauts down narrow lanes. All of this presumably left a giant dent where a dainty little carbon footprint should have been.

Dorian Lynskey, Guardian.co.uk

Over the years, U2 have taken many a kicking. But the band believe they're unjustly maligned for their unique brand of 'stadium activism'

Tuesday night in Amsterdam. Inside the city's ArenA, the colour green floods a giant mosaic of video screens, below which stand the four members of U2, three weeks into their 360 tour. As the band strike up Sunday Bloody Sunday, the screens flash images of protesters on the streets of Tehran alongside lines in Farsi by the Persian poet Rumi. Thus, a song written 26 years ago about political violence in Northern Ireland finds a new and pressing context.

U2 frontman Bono Vox took the chance to get up-to-date on global hunger recently by chatting with WFP's Executive Director Josette Sheeran before going on stage for the Irish band's sell-out concert in Amsterdam.

AMSTERDAM -- U2 frontman Bono Vox took the chance to get up-to-date on global hunger this week by chatting with WFP's head, Josette Sheeran, before going on stage for the Irish band's sell-out concert in Amsterdam.

During their meeting, Sheeran gave the singer one of the distinctive red cups which symbolise WFP's 'Fill the Cup' campaign to raise funds to help the 66 million children in the world who go to school hungry.

Inspire Magazine

Rock legend and poverty campaigner Bono has confirmed his participation by videocast at The Global Leadership Summit 2009 in Newcastle in November.

Some 54 countries worldwide will be hosting a videocast replay of the Leadership Summit, organised by Willow Creek Church in Chicago. Worldwide attendance is anticipated to top 50,000 delegates as The Leadership Summit's renown for top-class training for church leaders continues to grow.

Bono, the leader singer of the Irish rock band U2, will talk in an exclusive video about the Church's inspiring response and about his continuing life journey as a "single issue protagonist".

David Byrne has criticised U2 on his blog, saying their world tour costs are excessive. He has also complained that he was jilted from a New York TV slot earlier this year so they could play five nights in a row.

By SCOTT CALHOUN

As U2 take to the stadiums this fall in their 360° Tour, a celebration of their Big Ideas and epic cultural impact will bring together fans from around the world who relate to U2's plea: "Let me in the sound!" The first academic conference on the world's biggest band, U2: The Hype and The Feedback, touches down October 2-4, 2009 at North Carolina Central University in Durham -- the same weekend as a U2 concert in Raleigh. Registration opens August 1st, 2009

"This will be the place to meet and hear people long connected to U2 and to covering their career," says organizer Scott Calhoun, English professor and a U2 academician. The whole weekend is for exploring the music, work and influence of U2.

Hotels, bars restaurants report bumper earnings as fans flock to capital

By KELLY FINCHAM, IrishCentral.Com Editor

U2 have boosted the Irish economy by a whopping $70m with their three shows in Dublin this weekend.

Experts say the band's three sell-out shows at Croke Park pumped $70m into Ireland's faltering economy.

Restuarants, bars and hotels reported bumper earningas as fans flocked to the Irish capital to see the boys from Northside

DID rock giants U2 stop off in Drumquin as part of their current worldwide tour?

That's the question that remains unanswered after affable shop assistant Helen Graham had to take more than 'one' look when two men claiming to be members of the Irish band stepped into Duncan's Spar shop in the village on Monday morning.

Literally hours before the Irish rockers were due on stage at Croke Park, the jovial Helen had an encounter that remains shrouded in mystery and has left her totally perplexed.

Helen recounted the two mens' 'mysterious ways' and despite her 'desire' to find the whole truth ever since, she said that she 'still hasn't found what she is looking for.'

MSE: One of the things that really strikes me is that you have to avoid cable and racks being scattered all over, especially considering the size and the distances.

CH: That goes back to one of the things that Willie wanted; everything was to be as clean as possible. We have been through a lot of variations from the early drawings. Something Willie wanted to get away from was clutter. Previous tours, it looked like a marketplace in Camelot, with all of these tents over the dimmer and power areas scattered around. You pay your money for a show, and it looks like you are walking into a medieval market! All of the trusses up the legs are internally cabled. It is not complicated in actual layout. I set it up that the trusses in the legs of the structure are all identical--in DMX patch. They have been cabled exactly the same; it's just repetitive. To be as clean as possible, we started out with all of the racks in the roof structure itself as well as the pylon; just take the mains power and control up to the roof. Needless to say, through weight issues, we ended up coming back down to the floor. We currently have four dimmer positions in the roof--what we call the octagon, which is the surround above the video screen. That handles the pylon, the Bad Boys that are hung inside the video screen, and the BigLites on the roof. The straight trusses and on down the legs are handled by carts at the bottom of each leg. The dimmer carts are as low as possible for sightlines. It is dictated by the size of the Series 400 rack as to its height, but they don't affect sightlines. Since there is nowhere to go when it rains, we designed in rain covers for all of the dimmer carts. We have eight 400A supplies, one at the base of each leg and then four in the roof structure. Effectively it is four little touring systems and one large phallic object in the middle.

The famed social activism of Irish band U2 has taken on a new face: that of legendary 13th century Persian poet Rumi, who's oft-known as the smiling face of Islam.

According to a recent Guardian profile of the band, as part of their ongoing 360 tour, when U2 strikes up the chords to Sunday Bloody Sunday, overhead video screens flash images of protesters on the streets of Tehran, alongside Rumi's Farsi poetry.

Since the 1980s, ever since penning Sunday Bloody Sunday, a heart-breaking look at violence in Northern Ireland, U2 has never withheld its strong political opinions.