The decade in music
In a business previously dominated by personalities and movements, this decade belonged to the fans
By Greg Kot
Tribune Newspapers Critic
December 22, 2009
"It's up to you" -- so said Radiohead when fans clicked to download the band's "In Rainbows" album from its Web site in 2007.
Radiohead had become the equivalent of the busker on the street corner, playing for tips. But as one of the biggest bands in the world, Radiohead also was posing a question: "What's music worth?"
That was the decade's signature moment in pop music, a sign that fans -- once a faceless marketing demographic -- were now de facto distributors, marketers, publicists and co-conspirators.
Previous decades were dominated by personalities and movements, larger-than-life figures such as Elvis Presley and the Beatles, and cultural shifts such as hip-hop, rave music and punk. But the 2000s belonged to music technology and delivery systems. Most of all, the decade belonged to fans.
The combination of broadband Internet access and file-trading software such as Napster seized power and control over music from a handful of corporations and transferred it to the laptops and cell phones of consumers. Since 2000, the industry has seen its business cut by one-third to less than $10 billion annually, while compact disc sales have been chopped in half, to fewer than 500 million annually.
Though sales of digital music have increased, those gains are far outweighed by rogue peer-to-peer file-trading networks. Web-tracking services estimate that for every digital file that is sold, 40 are traded in violation of U.S. copyright law. Even as massive judgments were awarded to the music industry in highly publicized copyright infringement trials against Jammie Thomas-Rasset and Joel Tenenbaum, jurists noted the inadequacy of 20th century copyright law in addressing the new digital reality. Though a jury ultimately awarded the record industry $1.92 million in damages because Thomas-Rasset was found to have made 24 copyrighted music files available on her home computer, she "acted like countless other Internet users," U.S. District Judge Michael Davis said.
"Her alleged acts were illegal, but common."
Copyright holders have reason to gripe. Intellectual property that consumers covet is certainly worth something -- as Radiohead's "In Rainbows" marketing strategy implied. Yet the industry is hardly blameless in the shift to illegal file-sharing. As consumers made their desires clear by shifting from physical product to digital music, important catalogs such as the Beatles and AC/DC still can't be purchased from legitimate music stores like Apple's iTunes. But fans can download the songs of any band through countless black-market sites; indeed, just about any song you can possibly think of is a mouse click away, for free.
As recently as a decade ago, it could take the dedicated fan months to track down obscure releases. Now they can be found in a matter of seconds, turning music into the cultural equivalent of tap water or oxygen. More music is more accessible to more people than ever, and yet that very ubiquity makes it feel somehow less essential.
Music fans hang on to their portable music players, the iPod in particular, rather than the music they hold. They collect music and then dispose of it, certain they can replace it with a few mouse clicks.
Just about everything (except for maybe the latest "American Idol" star) feels smaller, more niche. The age of the Beatles, U2 and Madonna -- the all-encompassing global superstar -- is in decline. Within this fragmented culture, in which every movement no matter how obscure has its own Web site and cult following, great music still is being made. Communities of listeners are sprouting up for countless styles of music and tiny underground explosions of creativity that in past decades wouldn't have stood a chance of getting noticed. There's hope for the little guy and gal who can't get a deal with one of the major labels.
But the question remains, what's the music worth? It leads to more riddles: How will content creators get paid, and by whom? Who will decide what constitutes legal file sharing? Can the notion of an Internet that is democratic co-exist with 20th century copyright law?
Now all industries that depend on intellectual property for revenue -- movies, television, books, video, newspapers, magazines -- face a similar crisis. As this anxious decade comes to a close, we are no closer to a definitive solution, a new business model, than we were at its chaotic start.
But Radiohead's approach suggested that the very notion of an all-encompassing business model may be outmoded. It's not a one-size-fits-all world anymore.
greg@gregkot.com
baltimoresun
29.12.09
28.12.09
Play On
Sunday, 20 December 2009 18:11 Jonathan Yip
Music, politics, and celebrity in the age of Bono
Bono jumped eagerly across the stage, swinging his microphone. The Edge launched the guitar intro for "No Line on the Horizon," the drum line paused, and the towering stage lights flashed, and Bono began.
In front of me soared a 160-foot tall, $25 million claw-shaped stage. With a production cost of $750,000 a day, the U2 360° Tour is every bit the dazzling spectacle one expects from the band that will not stop growing. Around me, 80,000 dancing fans had come to worship the only mega-band left. In DC, NYC, and Las Vegas, Nancy Pelosi, Michael Bloomberg, and Bill Clinton have all paid their respects to the tour. Today, U2, like its monstrous stage in Gillette Stadium, straddles our musical-and political-landscape. For the 33-year old U2, there does seem to be no line on the horizon.
Last of the rock stars
Despite a few close brushes with irrelevance, U2 has somehow managed to stay at the forefront of the popular psyche. In an age when the musical scene is fragmented and changeable, U2 continues to leave an outsized footprint on pop culture that neither Coldplay nor Kanye West can approach. This September at Giants Stadium, Bono humbly pointed out that U2 filled more seats than the Pope's mass held there previously.
Why does U2 still have such allure? It is not merely popular music and a brilliant front man, but a reflection of a culture that has allowed U2 to become more than just a band. It has allowed the group to expand out of the musical sphere and into the political, becoming a phenomenon only the 21st century could have created.
Bono opens for Conservative Party leader David Cameron in the UK. Movie theaters show U2:3D. Ten million people across the globe watch a U2 concert live on YouTube. Bono shared Time's 2005 Person of the Year award with Bill Gates and founded the pervasive Product (RED). U2 has been uniquely poised to breach the crumbling walls between pop culture and policy, cultivating pure cultural power.
"We built this spaceship on rock and roll."
Since its start at an Irish high school in 1976, U2 has always written deeply political songs, from "Sunday Bloody Sunday," commemorating Northern Irish violence, to "New Year's Day," in honor of the Solidarity movement. All the same, though U2 had a big break at Live Aid charity concert in 1985, the first thing that concerned the band and their fans was music.
At the time, no politicians took musicians seriously. There never could have been meetings with senators or working partnerships with Harvard professors, as Bono would later develop with economist Jeffrey Sachs.
During U2's early 90s ZooTV tour, a massive, media-saturated, ironic series of concerts, Bono called President George H.W. Bush on stage every night, knowing full well that he would be rejected each time by the White House.
Bono was making a point: politicians are inaccessible, irresponsible, and worthy of mockery. Musicians and politicians were on opposite ends of the cultural spectrum, never to cross paths.
Walk On
After the relative failure of 1997's Pop, an experimental electronic album, the band seemed to be flagging. Its frontman, in particular, began to explore side projects, eventually latching onto Jubilee 2000, a campaign to lobby for third-world debt relief.
Bono grasped something that would change the way the world dealt with and interpreted fame. He realized that he could deploy his celebrity to galvanize and glamorize almost any issue.
Bono had to prove himself, of course. By all accounts, the frontman is more intelligent than the average pop star. President Clinton once recounted to Time an instance in which the Secretary of the Treasury, Larry Summers, mentioned: "Some guy just came in to see me in jeans and a T-shirt, and he just had one name, but he sure was smart. Do you know anything about him?"
Since then, Bono has founded two successful NGOs, and has been summoned to the White House many times, toured Africa with Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, and been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Recently, he has become a popular guest columnist for the New York Times, but also finds common ground with conservatives, often turning to scripture to successfully appeal to President Bush or even the late Senator Jesse Helms.
Bono, after years of concentrated smooth talking and dedication, managed to inject himself into the world of policymaking as a man to be taken seriously. He, unlike almost any other star, has deftly melded the worlds of politics and celebrity, becoming a powerhouse in both, casting aside the convention that once kept them separate.
"Sing with us."
U2 has allowed this passion for politics to pervade its live performances. U2 360° is three parts rock spectacle and one part motivational preaching. From dedicating "Sunday Bloody Sunday" to the Iranian freedom movement, to singing about Aung San Suu Kyi, U2 has become an overtly political band.
By all appearances the audience laps it up. They eagerly text the ONE campaign, sign up at the Amnesty International booth, and cheer for a deposed Burmese leader that most have never even heard of. Some, apparently, are even willing to appear on stage wearing masks with the house-arrested Prime Minister's face.
While Bono and U2 have done a great service by raising awareness for the Millennium Development Goals and Africa's plight, the concert gives the audience good vibrations without actually assigning any real responsibility. At worst, the political content of the performance actually absolves us of action. It's unclear what good it does to have Nobel laureate and real hero, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, tell the audience, while name-dropping the tour, that the "same people who marched for civil rights are the same people who protest Apartheid in South Africa ... are the same beautiful people when I look around this place tonight in 360°." In all likelihood, we are not the ones who fought against apartheid or for debt relief. Praising us for having done nothing seems counterproductive, even duplicitous, but for me or any concertgoer, it is a hard deal to resist. We pay for a concert ticket, listen to our favorite music, and get lavish moral praise for struggles we never participated in.
The tour and band's politics have been stretched so thin it is hard to perceive U2's message as anything more than "doing good." U2, for better or worse, has become diluted beyond recognition, standing only for stardom and righteousness. Perhaps the formula for everlasting relevance is to shed all irony and embrace star power. Bono has developed the perfect celebrity persona for our age: political, passionate, and pervasive. We all want to be a hero and rock star at once: U2 puts us on the stage.
hpronline
Sunday, 20 December 2009 18:11 Jonathan Yip
Music, politics, and celebrity in the age of Bono
Bono jumped eagerly across the stage, swinging his microphone. The Edge launched the guitar intro for "No Line on the Horizon," the drum line paused, and the towering stage lights flashed, and Bono began.
In front of me soared a 160-foot tall, $25 million claw-shaped stage. With a production cost of $750,000 a day, the U2 360° Tour is every bit the dazzling spectacle one expects from the band that will not stop growing. Around me, 80,000 dancing fans had come to worship the only mega-band left. In DC, NYC, and Las Vegas, Nancy Pelosi, Michael Bloomberg, and Bill Clinton have all paid their respects to the tour. Today, U2, like its monstrous stage in Gillette Stadium, straddles our musical-and political-landscape. For the 33-year old U2, there does seem to be no line on the horizon.
Last of the rock stars
Despite a few close brushes with irrelevance, U2 has somehow managed to stay at the forefront of the popular psyche. In an age when the musical scene is fragmented and changeable, U2 continues to leave an outsized footprint on pop culture that neither Coldplay nor Kanye West can approach. This September at Giants Stadium, Bono humbly pointed out that U2 filled more seats than the Pope's mass held there previously.
Why does U2 still have such allure? It is not merely popular music and a brilliant front man, but a reflection of a culture that has allowed U2 to become more than just a band. It has allowed the group to expand out of the musical sphere and into the political, becoming a phenomenon only the 21st century could have created.
Bono opens for Conservative Party leader David Cameron in the UK. Movie theaters show U2:3D. Ten million people across the globe watch a U2 concert live on YouTube. Bono shared Time's 2005 Person of the Year award with Bill Gates and founded the pervasive Product (RED). U2 has been uniquely poised to breach the crumbling walls between pop culture and policy, cultivating pure cultural power.
"We built this spaceship on rock and roll."
Since its start at an Irish high school in 1976, U2 has always written deeply political songs, from "Sunday Bloody Sunday," commemorating Northern Irish violence, to "New Year's Day," in honor of the Solidarity movement. All the same, though U2 had a big break at Live Aid charity concert in 1985, the first thing that concerned the band and their fans was music.
At the time, no politicians took musicians seriously. There never could have been meetings with senators or working partnerships with Harvard professors, as Bono would later develop with economist Jeffrey Sachs.
During U2's early 90s ZooTV tour, a massive, media-saturated, ironic series of concerts, Bono called President George H.W. Bush on stage every night, knowing full well that he would be rejected each time by the White House.
Bono was making a point: politicians are inaccessible, irresponsible, and worthy of mockery. Musicians and politicians were on opposite ends of the cultural spectrum, never to cross paths.
Walk On
After the relative failure of 1997's Pop, an experimental electronic album, the band seemed to be flagging. Its frontman, in particular, began to explore side projects, eventually latching onto Jubilee 2000, a campaign to lobby for third-world debt relief.
Bono grasped something that would change the way the world dealt with and interpreted fame. He realized that he could deploy his celebrity to galvanize and glamorize almost any issue.
Bono had to prove himself, of course. By all accounts, the frontman is more intelligent than the average pop star. President Clinton once recounted to Time an instance in which the Secretary of the Treasury, Larry Summers, mentioned: "Some guy just came in to see me in jeans and a T-shirt, and he just had one name, but he sure was smart. Do you know anything about him?"
Since then, Bono has founded two successful NGOs, and has been summoned to the White House many times, toured Africa with Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, and been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Recently, he has become a popular guest columnist for the New York Times, but also finds common ground with conservatives, often turning to scripture to successfully appeal to President Bush or even the late Senator Jesse Helms.
Bono, after years of concentrated smooth talking and dedication, managed to inject himself into the world of policymaking as a man to be taken seriously. He, unlike almost any other star, has deftly melded the worlds of politics and celebrity, becoming a powerhouse in both, casting aside the convention that once kept them separate.
"Sing with us."
U2 has allowed this passion for politics to pervade its live performances. U2 360° is three parts rock spectacle and one part motivational preaching. From dedicating "Sunday Bloody Sunday" to the Iranian freedom movement, to singing about Aung San Suu Kyi, U2 has become an overtly political band.
By all appearances the audience laps it up. They eagerly text the ONE campaign, sign up at the Amnesty International booth, and cheer for a deposed Burmese leader that most have never even heard of. Some, apparently, are even willing to appear on stage wearing masks with the house-arrested Prime Minister's face.
While Bono and U2 have done a great service by raising awareness for the Millennium Development Goals and Africa's plight, the concert gives the audience good vibrations without actually assigning any real responsibility. At worst, the political content of the performance actually absolves us of action. It's unclear what good it does to have Nobel laureate and real hero, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, tell the audience, while name-dropping the tour, that the "same people who marched for civil rights are the same people who protest Apartheid in South Africa ... are the same beautiful people when I look around this place tonight in 360°." In all likelihood, we are not the ones who fought against apartheid or for debt relief. Praising us for having done nothing seems counterproductive, even duplicitous, but for me or any concertgoer, it is a hard deal to resist. We pay for a concert ticket, listen to our favorite music, and get lavish moral praise for struggles we never participated in.
The tour and band's politics have been stretched so thin it is hard to perceive U2's message as anything more than "doing good." U2, for better or worse, has become diluted beyond recognition, standing only for stardom and righteousness. Perhaps the formula for everlasting relevance is to shed all irony and embrace star power. Bono has developed the perfect celebrity persona for our age: political, passionate, and pervasive. We all want to be a hero and rock star at once: U2 puts us on the stage.
hpronline
22.12.09
Stellar Van Morrison offering tops best album list
The Irish Times - Saturday, December 19, 2009
RONAN McGREEVYVAN MORRISON’S 1968 masterpiece Astral Weeks remains the choice of some of Ireland’s top musicians as the best Irish album.
U2’s The Edge, Shane MacGowan, Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol, Glen Hansard, composer Bill Whelan, Sharon Corr, Gavin Friday and Laura Izibor as well as members of The Sawdoctors, The Blizzards, The Coronas, Republic of Loose and dozens more bands and musicians all participated in the poll for the 250 greatest Irish albums for Hot Press magazine.
The poll, published in the magazine yesterday, was last carried out in 2004.
The enduring appeal of Astral Weeks is no surprise.
Last year Morrison celebrated the 40th anniversary of the album’s release by playing it in its entirety at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
The album entitled Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl and a DVD of the same name were released earlier this year.
In a rare interview, Morrison said he decided to play the songs live because the album had received no promotion on its release from Warner Brothers.
Morrison said the album was “timeless and unchanging”.
U2’s 1991 album Achtung Baby at number two is chosen ahead of The Joshua Tree (number 5), which has often featured on the top of best Irish albums polls. The albums are usually reversed in best-of polls.
Thin Lizzy’s classic Live and Dangerous , which was voted the best live album of all time by Classic Rock magazine, comes in at number three, while the choice of The Irish Times music critics of greatest Irish album, My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless , is at number four.
Whipping Boy’s little known 1995 album Heartworm is at number six, The Undertones’ self-titled debut, with its single Teenage Kicks , is at number seven and The Pogues’ Rum, Sodomy and the Lash is at number eight.
The only new entries in the top 10 from the last poll are Ash’s album 1977 and Damien Rice’s O .
Morrison’s 1970 album Moondance is at number 11. He has 11 entries in the top 250, U2 have nine and Rory Gallagher has seven.
Cathy Davey’s Tales of Silversleeve is the highest new entry outside the top 10 at number 19, followed by Fionn Regan’s The End of History at number 20.
Other prominent new entrants are two albums from last year – Jape’s Ritual at number 28 and Lisa Hannigan’s Sea Sew at number 29. Damien Dempsey’s Seize the Day is at number 30.
Julie Feeney’s album Pages , which was released earlier this year, made it to number 55.
irishtimes
The Irish Times - Saturday, December 19, 2009
RONAN McGREEVYVAN MORRISON’S 1968 masterpiece Astral Weeks remains the choice of some of Ireland’s top musicians as the best Irish album.
U2’s The Edge, Shane MacGowan, Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol, Glen Hansard, composer Bill Whelan, Sharon Corr, Gavin Friday and Laura Izibor as well as members of The Sawdoctors, The Blizzards, The Coronas, Republic of Loose and dozens more bands and musicians all participated in the poll for the 250 greatest Irish albums for Hot Press magazine.
The poll, published in the magazine yesterday, was last carried out in 2004.
The enduring appeal of Astral Weeks is no surprise.
Last year Morrison celebrated the 40th anniversary of the album’s release by playing it in its entirety at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
The album entitled Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl and a DVD of the same name were released earlier this year.
In a rare interview, Morrison said he decided to play the songs live because the album had received no promotion on its release from Warner Brothers.
Morrison said the album was “timeless and unchanging”.
U2’s 1991 album Achtung Baby at number two is chosen ahead of The Joshua Tree (number 5), which has often featured on the top of best Irish albums polls. The albums are usually reversed in best-of polls.
Thin Lizzy’s classic Live and Dangerous , which was voted the best live album of all time by Classic Rock magazine, comes in at number three, while the choice of The Irish Times music critics of greatest Irish album, My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless , is at number four.
Whipping Boy’s little known 1995 album Heartworm is at number six, The Undertones’ self-titled debut, with its single Teenage Kicks , is at number seven and The Pogues’ Rum, Sodomy and the Lash is at number eight.
The only new entries in the top 10 from the last poll are Ash’s album 1977 and Damien Rice’s O .
Morrison’s 1970 album Moondance is at number 11. He has 11 entries in the top 250, U2 have nine and Rory Gallagher has seven.
Cathy Davey’s Tales of Silversleeve is the highest new entry outside the top 10 at number 19, followed by Fionn Regan’s The End of History at number 20.
Other prominent new entrants are two albums from last year – Jape’s Ritual at number 28 and Lisa Hannigan’s Sea Sew at number 29. Damien Dempsey’s Seize the Day is at number 30.
Julie Feeney’s album Pages , which was released earlier this year, made it to number 55.
irishtimes
U2: Three Decades of the World's Biggest Band, Onstage and Backstage
Bono and Co. from their early days in Irish clubs to the Grammys to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
U2 photographed on the roof of the Cork Country Club Hotel in Cork, Ireland, on February 4, 1980. The band's debut album, Boy, came out later that year.
Photo: Corio/Michael Ochs Archive
51 pics: rollingstone
Bono and Co. from their early days in Irish clubs to the Grammys to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
U2 photographed on the roof of the Cork Country Club Hotel in Cork, Ireland, on February 4, 1980. The band's debut album, Boy, came out later that year.
Photo: Corio/Michael Ochs Archive
51 pics: rollingstone
Rocker Clayton chases 'missing' €1.8m (update - December 21, 2009, below
U2 bass player takes housekeeper to court
By DON LAVERY
Sunday December 20 2009
IN TUNE: Adam Clayton on stage at the band's Wembley Stadium gig. Photo: Reuters
U2 BASSIST Adam Clayton's personal assistant and housekeeper -- alleged to have misappropriated up to €1.8m of his money -- was lying low yesterday ahead of another High Court hearing tomorrow.
Carol Hawkins, who was employed by Clayton, is alleged to have spent the money on property, including a New York apartment, flash cars and jewellery, with €900 a month spent on a syndicate which maintained horses.
Yesterday a media posse laid siege to her modest detached Crannagh Road, Rathfarnham, home in Dublin which had the blinds drawn. Ms Hawkins, who has denied using the money in this way, was keeping a low profile.
In a surprise move late on Friday, Clayton secured a temporary court order freezing her assets. They will remain frozen at least until tomorrow when the case comes back before the High Court.
The court heard that Clayton, of Danesmoate Demesne, Kellystown Road, Rathfarnham, first became aware of problems in September 2008.
His senior counsel, Paul Sreenan, said Ms Hawkins confessed she had misappropriated €13,000 of his money. The U2 band member had dealt with this incident in "a compassionate manner". He had altered his financial arrangements and kept her in his employ.
But it had emerged since then that -- without his authorisation -- she had used his debit and credit cards for her own use and for her family's benefit.
On November 19 last, when the allegations were put to her, she had accepted the cards had been used and money was taken without Clayton's authorisation. But she had disputed the sums involved. Her employment was then ended by Clayton and the gardai had been told about "certain matters".
The lawyer said the former housekeeper had denied she bought a house, cars or flashy jewellery. When it was suggested to her she had been withdrawing about €600 twice daily for a period of 13 months, she said she had used it as needed.
She also acknowledged she had lodged some money into her own bank account and had breached her contract. An investigation revealed around €900 a month was spent on a syndicate which maintained horses.
It's also alleged that Ms Hawkins bought flights to Chicago for her son and members of a band in which he was involved. Clayton denies authorising this.
Mr Sreenan said a probe by two accountants revealed up to €1.8m seemed to have been misappropriated. The lawyer said it appeared an apartment in New York had been bought.
The U2 band member was concerned that Ms Hawkin's assets might be dissipated and this was why he was seeking the freezing order.
Ms Justice Mary Laffoy granted the interim order sought. The order restrains Ms Hawkins from reducing her assets below €1.8m. It also entitles her to €1,000 for living and legal expenses before the case is heard again in the High Court tomorrow.
- DON LAVERY
Sunday Independent
independent.ie
Clayton's court action adjourned
Monday, 21 December 2009 16:56
An action being taken by U2 bass guitarist Adam Clayton for a freezing order against his former personal assistant has been adjourned until 18 January.
Mr Clayton has taken the action against Carol Hawkins of Crannagh Road in Rathfarnham in Dublin alleging she may have misappropriated €1.8m.
The court heard last week that he ended her employment last month after she confessed to using his debit and credit cards for her own use and for her family's benefit.
AdvertisementThe court also heard that it appeared an apartment had been bought in New York and that an investigation had revealed that €900 a month was spent on a syndicate that maintained horses.
The court heard today that it had been agreed between lawyers for both sides that a temporary freezing order preventing Ms Hawkins from reducing her assets below €1.8m would continue until 18 January.
Ms Hawkins also has seven days to disclose the value of her current assets to lawyers for Mr Clayton.
rte
U2 bass player takes housekeeper to court
By DON LAVERY
Sunday December 20 2009
IN TUNE: Adam Clayton on stage at the band's Wembley Stadium gig. Photo: Reuters
U2 BASSIST Adam Clayton's personal assistant and housekeeper -- alleged to have misappropriated up to €1.8m of his money -- was lying low yesterday ahead of another High Court hearing tomorrow.
Carol Hawkins, who was employed by Clayton, is alleged to have spent the money on property, including a New York apartment, flash cars and jewellery, with €900 a month spent on a syndicate which maintained horses.
Yesterday a media posse laid siege to her modest detached Crannagh Road, Rathfarnham, home in Dublin which had the blinds drawn. Ms Hawkins, who has denied using the money in this way, was keeping a low profile.
In a surprise move late on Friday, Clayton secured a temporary court order freezing her assets. They will remain frozen at least until tomorrow when the case comes back before the High Court.
The court heard that Clayton, of Danesmoate Demesne, Kellystown Road, Rathfarnham, first became aware of problems in September 2008.
His senior counsel, Paul Sreenan, said Ms Hawkins confessed she had misappropriated €13,000 of his money. The U2 band member had dealt with this incident in "a compassionate manner". He had altered his financial arrangements and kept her in his employ.
But it had emerged since then that -- without his authorisation -- she had used his debit and credit cards for her own use and for her family's benefit.
On November 19 last, when the allegations were put to her, she had accepted the cards had been used and money was taken without Clayton's authorisation. But she had disputed the sums involved. Her employment was then ended by Clayton and the gardai had been told about "certain matters".
The lawyer said the former housekeeper had denied she bought a house, cars or flashy jewellery. When it was suggested to her she had been withdrawing about €600 twice daily for a period of 13 months, she said she had used it as needed.
She also acknowledged she had lodged some money into her own bank account and had breached her contract. An investigation revealed around €900 a month was spent on a syndicate which maintained horses.
It's also alleged that Ms Hawkins bought flights to Chicago for her son and members of a band in which he was involved. Clayton denies authorising this.
Mr Sreenan said a probe by two accountants revealed up to €1.8m seemed to have been misappropriated. The lawyer said it appeared an apartment in New York had been bought.
The U2 band member was concerned that Ms Hawkin's assets might be dissipated and this was why he was seeking the freezing order.
Ms Justice Mary Laffoy granted the interim order sought. The order restrains Ms Hawkins from reducing her assets below €1.8m. It also entitles her to €1,000 for living and legal expenses before the case is heard again in the High Court tomorrow.
- DON LAVERY
Sunday Independent
independent.ie
Clayton's court action adjourned
Monday, 21 December 2009 16:56
An action being taken by U2 bass guitarist Adam Clayton for a freezing order against his former personal assistant has been adjourned until 18 January.
Mr Clayton has taken the action against Carol Hawkins of Crannagh Road in Rathfarnham in Dublin alleging she may have misappropriated €1.8m.
The court heard last week that he ended her employment last month after she confessed to using his debit and credit cards for her own use and for her family's benefit.
AdvertisementThe court also heard that it appeared an apartment had been bought in New York and that an investigation had revealed that €900 a month was spent on a syndicate that maintained horses.
The court heard today that it had been agreed between lawyers for both sides that a temporary freezing order preventing Ms Hawkins from reducing her assets below €1.8m would continue until 18 January.
Ms Hawkins also has seven days to disclose the value of her current assets to lawyers for Mr Clayton.
rte
Nola's Morrison Snaps Color Art for U2 Album
Tuesday, 15 December 2009 | Levent OZLER
When U2 fans open the deluxe edition of No Line on the Horizon, the band's latest CD, they will find a book containing a beautiful color photo gallery that documents the legendary rockers throughout the album production process. Nola's Kenny Morrison - working closely with Nola EP Charlie Curran and the book's designer, long-time U2 Creative Director Catherine Owens - snapped these beautiful shots in Ireland and France. In an acknowledgement of Morrison's high standing in the art world, his work sits in the book alongside some giants in the field: he shares photo credits with internationally renowned black-and-white photographer Anton Corbijn, and a Hiroshi Sugimoto photograph graces the front cover.
"What an opportunity," exclaimed Morrison. "Watching the album-making process from a fly-on-the-wall perspective was truly a revelation. And the band couldn't have been more courteous and professional - an absolute joy to work with. Anton's black-and-white photos were breathtaking, and it is an honor to be associated with the great Hiroshi Sugimoto in any way."
Morrison's gallery - which sits alongside U2 interviews that Owens conducted - features an impressive mix of performers and instruments, close-ups and panoramas, individual portraits and photo montages, with scribbled song sheets scattered throughout. Some are presented in perfect sharp focus; others are treated with a grainy look or are slightly blurred - all are beautiful, and the collected works poignantly capture the chaos, the focus, the intensity, and the joy of artists fixated upon the final shared goal of cutting an album.
The photos are only part of the work Morrison has done in an evolving relationship with Owens and U2. He filmed Bono with Bishop Desmond Tutu in London last summer and Tutu's speech and visage were incorporated into their 360 Tour visuals.
"This was a great opportunity to show off Kenny's incredible range," Curran notes. "When one of the most successful acts in modern music respects your work enough to come back for more, you know you're doing something right. With great artists like Kenny up and down our roster, you can expect more high-profile work like this from Nola in the very near future."
dexigner
Tuesday, 15 December 2009 | Levent OZLER
When U2 fans open the deluxe edition of No Line on the Horizon, the band's latest CD, they will find a book containing a beautiful color photo gallery that documents the legendary rockers throughout the album production process. Nola's Kenny Morrison - working closely with Nola EP Charlie Curran and the book's designer, long-time U2 Creative Director Catherine Owens - snapped these beautiful shots in Ireland and France. In an acknowledgement of Morrison's high standing in the art world, his work sits in the book alongside some giants in the field: he shares photo credits with internationally renowned black-and-white photographer Anton Corbijn, and a Hiroshi Sugimoto photograph graces the front cover.
"What an opportunity," exclaimed Morrison. "Watching the album-making process from a fly-on-the-wall perspective was truly a revelation. And the band couldn't have been more courteous and professional - an absolute joy to work with. Anton's black-and-white photos were breathtaking, and it is an honor to be associated with the great Hiroshi Sugimoto in any way."
Morrison's gallery - which sits alongside U2 interviews that Owens conducted - features an impressive mix of performers and instruments, close-ups and panoramas, individual portraits and photo montages, with scribbled song sheets scattered throughout. Some are presented in perfect sharp focus; others are treated with a grainy look or are slightly blurred - all are beautiful, and the collected works poignantly capture the chaos, the focus, the intensity, and the joy of artists fixated upon the final shared goal of cutting an album.
The photos are only part of the work Morrison has done in an evolving relationship with Owens and U2. He filmed Bono with Bishop Desmond Tutu in London last summer and Tutu's speech and visage were incorporated into their 360 Tour visuals.
"This was a great opportunity to show off Kenny's incredible range," Curran notes. "When one of the most successful acts in modern music respects your work enough to come back for more, you know you're doing something right. With great artists like Kenny up and down our roster, you can expect more high-profile work like this from Nola in the very near future."
dexigner
U2's Edge Warns Nobody Will Invest in Music
17 Dec 2009
Interviewed exclusively for the Hot Press Annual 2010, which takes a look back over the past ten years, (out Friday, December 18), U2’s The Edge predicts the demise of the record industry if current trends prevail and admits that he’s never heard of Jedward.
Reflecting on the impact of the internet on the music industry, the U2 guitarist sounds a grim warning. “There aren’t going to be any record labels in a few years if things carry on the way they are, because CDs – that industry is pretty much all over,” he says. “And because there’s no replacement right now that’s viable, it just means no one’s going to invest in music, which just means no-one is going to get tour support, record deals, publishing deals, all the rest, which is how every band since The Beatles have managed to get going initially. That feels like that this sort of parasitical medium will basically kill the host, which would not be good.”
Asked about illegal downloading, The Edge tells Hot Press, “You’re never going to stamp it out totally, and in some ways I don’t think anyone cares as long as the majority of transactions on the internet involve some sort of a fair payment to the people who have put their life into the work, and the companies that support them… It’s not even that important, relatively, for us, but for bands that are coming up.”
Asked about the view that the telecoms have “gotten away with murder”, Edge agrees. “I think they have. I think that they are distanced enough that they can hold up their hands and say, ‘It’s not us. We’re not doing anything’. But in the end, people are buying broadband access in order to get ‘stuff’, content of some sort… I think that the people who have been making it their life’s work to create that content have got a reason to be upset… for young groups, it’s important that this gets resolved.”
In a lengthy interview with the Irish rock bible, Edge also reveals to Hot Press that the Spiderman musical is ready to go. “We’re waiting for the word that our director, Julie Taymor, can start putting the show together. We’re told it could be any day. We’ve got new producers involved: Michael Cohl is coming in, to become an additional producer. So they’re busy working on raising finance and getting all that stuff in order.”
When the legendary U2 guitarist is asked “Did you see Jedward at all?” he replies “No. Who’s Jedward?”
For the full interview, see the Hot Press Annual 2010 - out now!!!!
hotpress
17 Dec 2009
Interviewed exclusively for the Hot Press Annual 2010, which takes a look back over the past ten years, (out Friday, December 18), U2’s The Edge predicts the demise of the record industry if current trends prevail and admits that he’s never heard of Jedward.
Reflecting on the impact of the internet on the music industry, the U2 guitarist sounds a grim warning. “There aren’t going to be any record labels in a few years if things carry on the way they are, because CDs – that industry is pretty much all over,” he says. “And because there’s no replacement right now that’s viable, it just means no one’s going to invest in music, which just means no-one is going to get tour support, record deals, publishing deals, all the rest, which is how every band since The Beatles have managed to get going initially. That feels like that this sort of parasitical medium will basically kill the host, which would not be good.”
Asked about illegal downloading, The Edge tells Hot Press, “You’re never going to stamp it out totally, and in some ways I don’t think anyone cares as long as the majority of transactions on the internet involve some sort of a fair payment to the people who have put their life into the work, and the companies that support them… It’s not even that important, relatively, for us, but for bands that are coming up.”
Asked about the view that the telecoms have “gotten away with murder”, Edge agrees. “I think they have. I think that they are distanced enough that they can hold up their hands and say, ‘It’s not us. We’re not doing anything’. But in the end, people are buying broadband access in order to get ‘stuff’, content of some sort… I think that the people who have been making it their life’s work to create that content have got a reason to be upset… for young groups, it’s important that this gets resolved.”
In a lengthy interview with the Irish rock bible, Edge also reveals to Hot Press that the Spiderman musical is ready to go. “We’re waiting for the word that our director, Julie Taymor, can start putting the show together. We’re told it could be any day. We’ve got new producers involved: Michael Cohl is coming in, to become an additional producer. So they’re busy working on raising finance and getting all that stuff in order.”
When the legendary U2 guitarist is asked “Did you see Jedward at all?” he replies “No. Who’s Jedward?”
For the full interview, see the Hot Press Annual 2010 - out now!!!!
hotpress
Bono on the Globes, the Pixies, Colin Farrell and Spike Jonze
December 15, 2009 - 7:02 pm
By Jay A. Fernandez
Bono received news of his sixth Golden Globe nomination for original song today, for the new U2 song “Winter” from the soundtrack to Jim Sheridan’s “Brothers.” As part of the awards-season ritual, he got on the phone with me today to relay his reaction to the honor.
What follows is an unexpected Q&A with a rock legend about the band’s process for selecting which movies to get involved with, his predilection for Colin Farrell movies and tying the Pixies‘ shoes.
Oh, and the singer-activist also threw in an impression of Bugs Bunny while relating a story about an unrealized U2-Spike Jonze video collaboration. Read on…
THR: This is not new for you. This is number six!
Bono: [laughs] We’re often left waiting at the altar on occasions like this. It’s a big thrill. And more than that, because of our relationship with Jim Sheridan. It goes back to really the first year of our band’s life, we’ve known him that long. It’s a very special feeling. And it’s going to be tricky because people think of songs that are involved in movies like this as non-integral. And this is not the case here. But it’s gonna be hard to convince people of that. We were involved in the very earliest stages of this movie—before it was a script! When it was just Jim pitching it! He wanted a complex song for a complex character. And we wrote two—one that referred particularly to the brothers that was called “White As Snow,” and this is called “Winter,” one that is just really a more universal song about the experience of the armed forces in Afghanistan. “No army in this world can fight a ghost,” in an asymmetrical war. The brave men and women of the United States military have their work cut out for them.
How do you write these songs at the script stage?
Well, we were in songwriting mode, actually, when Jim first told us about “Brothers.” So we were actively looking for subjects. And I was trying to give myself a break from writing in the first person anyway. [laughs] I was bored, and I reckon our audience were bored hearing about my every whim and aspiration and fear. So I really jumped on the idea of trying to get into this guy’s head. I am so pleased it turned out very well. It’s had a few iterations. We did a kind of rock band version of it, we did an acoustic version of it. And even yesterday [laughs] I caught Edge—because we were supposed to be working on something else—I caught him working on an electronic version! [laughs] He’s very proud of it. We are very proud of it. Songs like this, if you’re a songwriter, don’t come about every year.
How do you choose when a project is right for you to contribute to in that way?
Sometimes we’ll do it just for the sheer thrill and the fun of it. So, we wrote a song called “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” for “Batman [Forever].” And we loved it! It was pure fun, you know? And then, with Jim it’s a little different, with Wim Wenders it’s a little different, we have an ongoing relationship with those two directors. And then I myself have a pretty close relationship with Neil Jordan, and I’ve worked with him. But there’s an intimacy in our relationship with Jim Sheridan, which only time can account for, really.
Honestly, how does something like this fit into your sense of accomplishment as a songwriter and all the things you do with your life?
You tend to take for granted your own world. It’s when you step into somebody else’s… And the Golden Globe people, they have a very sharpened sense of musical ambition. And they’ve been good to us before. I don’t know if that will happen again. But I got so excited the last time, I believe, I shamed myself and the TV network by uttering an expletive. [laughs] Should we ever, ever be fortunate enough to be in that position, I promise I will be on my best behavior. [laughs]
Yeah, right. I believe you. My kids are still trying to get over it.
Did you get them counseling?
Well, I’m glad we had a chance to talk, because I’ll take your apology now.
I actually genuinely do apologize. [laughs] There’s nothing cool about uttering an expletive. It’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done, and I’ve done a few dumb things, but it genuinely was an outburst of Irish joy!
At least you didn’t have a wardrobe malfunction, for Christ’s sake.
Well, exactly. God forbid! Though, I must say, I’ve been to the gym, and I think I’m ready for it.
There you go. Everyone will expect you to go up there and throw the f-bomb. Go up there and paint SOY BOMB on your chest and rip your jacket off. Where are you right now?
I’m in Manhattan. We’re in the studio.
Are you working on a new album?
Yeah. We really didn’t take a day off. We went straight from the stage, the Brandenburg Gate — we played a concert for the reunification of Germany, the anniversary of that — and the next day we went into the studio because we had this crescendo of excitement toward the end of the tour. We were playing better than we’d ever been playing. We thought, ‘If we could just get this down, if we could get this feeling into some songs…’ So that’s what we did.
Were you playing new material on stage? Or it was just the spirit of it?
Nope. Nope. It was just the way we were playing together. Because, you know, if you’ve been around a while, you have to know if the spirit is with you, so to speak. And something happened toward the end of the tour that was very, very special.
It’s like suddenly having great sex with your wife after 20 years.
Well, that, too, by the way.
In the studio?
Everywhere!
You guys have a hell of a process there. What are you listening to right now? Can I get a recommendation?
Noah and the Whale was the last sort of album I listened to. Kind of in the mode of Arcade Fire.
Arcade Fire opened for you guys, right?
We’ve had Arcade Fire play with us. We’ve had some incredible opening acts over the years, from the Velvet Underground to the Pixies. [VU] played with us in Paris.
A friend of mine just saw the Pixies the other night in DC. I was very jealous.
Oh, God. I’m not fit to tie their shoes. Really, one of the great American groups—really one of the top five. Yeah.
Your top five movies this year? Do you get out? Do you see many?
Oh, I haven’t seen so many… Actually two movies with Colin Farrell I’m going to name in my top five.
Come on! There are other films with non-Irish actors. You know that, right?
[laughs] Now, you can call this… what you like. But, he made a movie called “Triage,” which is about an Irish reporter who goes to Afghanistan, strangely enough. And then he made this magical little film with Neil Jordan called “Ondine.” A magical realist kind of a film set in west Cork. I really enjoyed both of those films. Now, what else did Colin make this year….? [laughs] I think he’s an astonishing talent. If they released “In Bruges” again this year, I’d also be raving about that. I think they should. Can you put that in anyway?
Sure, I’ll see what I can do. Good luck with the recording.
Oh, thank you.
And try to see some other international actors and work out there. Try to get out of Cork.
I’ll do my very best.
Have you seen “Where the Wild Things Are”?
I haven’t. My kids have. And I’m probably the number one fan in the world of Spike Jonze.
You have to see it. I was listening to the Karen O soundtrack last night, and it’s so brilliant in the way the movie captures the tortured emotions of childhood. I don’t know how he did it. It’s a really beautiful film.
You know, he’s a card-carrying genius. And one of them arrives every decade, if you’re lucky.
And to think he came out of doing skate videos. To think that he had this stuff in him.
I kind of always knew, actually. Yeah. He pitched an idea… [laughs] I’ll tell you this just as I go. He didn’t know I was calling him, I called him in his car because I had heard he was on his way to Warner Bros. I called him up as Bugs Bunny. And it kind of freaked him out a little bit. He’s going, [as high-pitched Spike]: “Who is this? Who is this?” And I’m going, [as Bugs]: “What’s up Doc? It’s Bono.” He said, “Bono?!?” I had never met him before, and I asked him would he make us a video. The song was called “Last Night on Earth.” And he called me back and he goes, “I got an idea! OK. Right. It’s like, you’re in a forest, the band are in a forest, and it’s lit like a rock video. You know those kind of lights late at night in the forest that they have in rock videos?” I said, “Yeah, I think I do.” “OK. The band are there: Larry… Adam… and Edge. And you’re in the rock video with the lighting. Now, there is an apartment—one of those kind of penthouse apartments that you see in rock videos. And Bono is wandering through on the phone, it’s late at night, looking at the window, like the rock video.” And I said, “Yeah, I got it. This sounds great so far, Spike.” And he says, “OK. You want to get to the point?” I said, “Yes.” “All right. It’s not Bono. It’s Jim Carrey.” [silence] “Jim Carrey is gonna play you. Do you like that?” [laughs] I said, “Yes, I do. You mean, I can take the day off?” And he says, “And he comes down from the apartment, he goes through the forest to find the band.” [laughs] I mean, look. Truly, a remarkable spirit. A nicely anarchic, nicely romantic figure in film.
riskybusiness
December 15, 2009 - 7:02 pm
By Jay A. Fernandez
Bono received news of his sixth Golden Globe nomination for original song today, for the new U2 song “Winter” from the soundtrack to Jim Sheridan’s “Brothers.” As part of the awards-season ritual, he got on the phone with me today to relay his reaction to the honor.
What follows is an unexpected Q&A with a rock legend about the band’s process for selecting which movies to get involved with, his predilection for Colin Farrell movies and tying the Pixies‘ shoes.
Oh, and the singer-activist also threw in an impression of Bugs Bunny while relating a story about an unrealized U2-Spike Jonze video collaboration. Read on…
THR: This is not new for you. This is number six!
Bono: [laughs] We’re often left waiting at the altar on occasions like this. It’s a big thrill. And more than that, because of our relationship with Jim Sheridan. It goes back to really the first year of our band’s life, we’ve known him that long. It’s a very special feeling. And it’s going to be tricky because people think of songs that are involved in movies like this as non-integral. And this is not the case here. But it’s gonna be hard to convince people of that. We were involved in the very earliest stages of this movie—before it was a script! When it was just Jim pitching it! He wanted a complex song for a complex character. And we wrote two—one that referred particularly to the brothers that was called “White As Snow,” and this is called “Winter,” one that is just really a more universal song about the experience of the armed forces in Afghanistan. “No army in this world can fight a ghost,” in an asymmetrical war. The brave men and women of the United States military have their work cut out for them.
How do you write these songs at the script stage?
Well, we were in songwriting mode, actually, when Jim first told us about “Brothers.” So we were actively looking for subjects. And I was trying to give myself a break from writing in the first person anyway. [laughs] I was bored, and I reckon our audience were bored hearing about my every whim and aspiration and fear. So I really jumped on the idea of trying to get into this guy’s head. I am so pleased it turned out very well. It’s had a few iterations. We did a kind of rock band version of it, we did an acoustic version of it. And even yesterday [laughs] I caught Edge—because we were supposed to be working on something else—I caught him working on an electronic version! [laughs] He’s very proud of it. We are very proud of it. Songs like this, if you’re a songwriter, don’t come about every year.
How do you choose when a project is right for you to contribute to in that way?
Sometimes we’ll do it just for the sheer thrill and the fun of it. So, we wrote a song called “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” for “Batman [Forever].” And we loved it! It was pure fun, you know? And then, with Jim it’s a little different, with Wim Wenders it’s a little different, we have an ongoing relationship with those two directors. And then I myself have a pretty close relationship with Neil Jordan, and I’ve worked with him. But there’s an intimacy in our relationship with Jim Sheridan, which only time can account for, really.
Honestly, how does something like this fit into your sense of accomplishment as a songwriter and all the things you do with your life?
You tend to take for granted your own world. It’s when you step into somebody else’s… And the Golden Globe people, they have a very sharpened sense of musical ambition. And they’ve been good to us before. I don’t know if that will happen again. But I got so excited the last time, I believe, I shamed myself and the TV network by uttering an expletive. [laughs] Should we ever, ever be fortunate enough to be in that position, I promise I will be on my best behavior. [laughs]
Yeah, right. I believe you. My kids are still trying to get over it.
Did you get them counseling?
Well, I’m glad we had a chance to talk, because I’ll take your apology now.
I actually genuinely do apologize. [laughs] There’s nothing cool about uttering an expletive. It’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done, and I’ve done a few dumb things, but it genuinely was an outburst of Irish joy!
At least you didn’t have a wardrobe malfunction, for Christ’s sake.
Well, exactly. God forbid! Though, I must say, I’ve been to the gym, and I think I’m ready for it.
There you go. Everyone will expect you to go up there and throw the f-bomb. Go up there and paint SOY BOMB on your chest and rip your jacket off. Where are you right now?
I’m in Manhattan. We’re in the studio.
Are you working on a new album?
Yeah. We really didn’t take a day off. We went straight from the stage, the Brandenburg Gate — we played a concert for the reunification of Germany, the anniversary of that — and the next day we went into the studio because we had this crescendo of excitement toward the end of the tour. We were playing better than we’d ever been playing. We thought, ‘If we could just get this down, if we could get this feeling into some songs…’ So that’s what we did.
Were you playing new material on stage? Or it was just the spirit of it?
Nope. Nope. It was just the way we were playing together. Because, you know, if you’ve been around a while, you have to know if the spirit is with you, so to speak. And something happened toward the end of the tour that was very, very special.
It’s like suddenly having great sex with your wife after 20 years.
Well, that, too, by the way.
In the studio?
Everywhere!
You guys have a hell of a process there. What are you listening to right now? Can I get a recommendation?
Noah and the Whale was the last sort of album I listened to. Kind of in the mode of Arcade Fire.
Arcade Fire opened for you guys, right?
We’ve had Arcade Fire play with us. We’ve had some incredible opening acts over the years, from the Velvet Underground to the Pixies. [VU] played with us in Paris.
A friend of mine just saw the Pixies the other night in DC. I was very jealous.
Oh, God. I’m not fit to tie their shoes. Really, one of the great American groups—really one of the top five. Yeah.
Your top five movies this year? Do you get out? Do you see many?
Oh, I haven’t seen so many… Actually two movies with Colin Farrell I’m going to name in my top five.
Come on! There are other films with non-Irish actors. You know that, right?
[laughs] Now, you can call this… what you like. But, he made a movie called “Triage,” which is about an Irish reporter who goes to Afghanistan, strangely enough. And then he made this magical little film with Neil Jordan called “Ondine.” A magical realist kind of a film set in west Cork. I really enjoyed both of those films. Now, what else did Colin make this year….? [laughs] I think he’s an astonishing talent. If they released “In Bruges” again this year, I’d also be raving about that. I think they should. Can you put that in anyway?
Sure, I’ll see what I can do. Good luck with the recording.
Oh, thank you.
And try to see some other international actors and work out there. Try to get out of Cork.
I’ll do my very best.
Have you seen “Where the Wild Things Are”?
I haven’t. My kids have. And I’m probably the number one fan in the world of Spike Jonze.
You have to see it. I was listening to the Karen O soundtrack last night, and it’s so brilliant in the way the movie captures the tortured emotions of childhood. I don’t know how he did it. It’s a really beautiful film.
You know, he’s a card-carrying genius. And one of them arrives every decade, if you’re lucky.
And to think he came out of doing skate videos. To think that he had this stuff in him.
I kind of always knew, actually. Yeah. He pitched an idea… [laughs] I’ll tell you this just as I go. He didn’t know I was calling him, I called him in his car because I had heard he was on his way to Warner Bros. I called him up as Bugs Bunny. And it kind of freaked him out a little bit. He’s going, [as high-pitched Spike]: “Who is this? Who is this?” And I’m going, [as Bugs]: “What’s up Doc? It’s Bono.” He said, “Bono?!?” I had never met him before, and I asked him would he make us a video. The song was called “Last Night on Earth.” And he called me back and he goes, “I got an idea! OK. Right. It’s like, you’re in a forest, the band are in a forest, and it’s lit like a rock video. You know those kind of lights late at night in the forest that they have in rock videos?” I said, “Yeah, I think I do.” “OK. The band are there: Larry… Adam… and Edge. And you’re in the rock video with the lighting. Now, there is an apartment—one of those kind of penthouse apartments that you see in rock videos. And Bono is wandering through on the phone, it’s late at night, looking at the window, like the rock video.” And I said, “Yeah, I got it. This sounds great so far, Spike.” And he says, “OK. You want to get to the point?” I said, “Yes.” “All right. It’s not Bono. It’s Jim Carrey.” [silence] “Jim Carrey is gonna play you. Do you like that?” [laughs] I said, “Yes, I do. You mean, I can take the day off?” And he says, “And he comes down from the apartment, he goes through the forest to find the band.” [laughs] I mean, look. Truly, a remarkable spirit. A nicely anarchic, nicely romantic figure in film.
riskybusiness
The Decade in U2: The Edge Looks Back
"We are still capable of potentially doing our best-ever album"
DAVID FRICKE
Posted Dec 17, 2009 10:10 AM
The Rolling Stone editors picked eight stars — from Bruce and Beyoncé to Radiohead and U2 — who not only made the best music but also led the way as Artists of the Decade in our new issue. Here's more of our conversation with U2's The Edge.
U2 in Photos: three decades of the world's biggest band, onstage and backstage.
U2 ended this decade by playing to some of the biggest audiences of your career, in those stadiums, in the round. How has that affected the music — your connection to rock & roll in those dimensions?
It's only made possible because of the technology, the in-ear monitors. We can hear each other perfectly. Otherwise it would be an absolute disaster. Because of the in-ear technology, I'm right next to Larry, right next to Adam and Bono, in sonic terms.
What about the connection between your head and what you play?
The only way the shows work for me is if I totally lose myself in the music. Everything else will flow from that. If I'm totally lost in the music, everything comes into alignment — my performance, my sense of everything that is happening musically and my ability to react to it. It's a case of not allowing thoughts, the conscience mind, to be engaged in the process. Keep the subconscious in control — you're in a more creative place.
When you were making No Line on the Horizon, could you tell you were making an album with that possibility — that you could lose yourself in the music?
We did make an album with that character, because of the way it came together. A lot of times, we were playing in a room, and there was a particular moment when it all came together. That's what you're trying to achieve in a live context. [Brian] Eno said of those sessions, they were some of the most inspiring he had ever experienced, in all of the years he had been in a recording a studio. I know what he meant, because of the way we set up the sessions — the songwriting workshop, which then turned into the recording workshop. There were a lot of moments when it was so exciting, and it was all happening — the music was being invented in real time, in front of everyone's eyes. And the songs had an inner DNA, a real power and substance. They were true works, because of that. There was no opportunity to allow our fingerprints to be on the pieces.
Were U2 in this decade a different, even better band than they were in the '90s?
I hate to draw direct comparisons. We know more now, which is a great thing and a bad thing. So often, in the past, we would end up somewhere not knowing how we got there or what we were doing — and have to find a way out of a roadblock, like in our time in Berlin [recording Achtung! Baby]. We had a vague instinct for where we wanted to be, and the songs Bono and I were working on, trying to encourage Adam and Larry to get behind. They were rough sketches and very unimpressive sounding. But our instinct held out, and we eventually got there.
Now we never need to be quite so vulnerable. We know how it works a bit better. Our strength is we waste less time now. It still takes a long time to finish a U2 record. But we don't end up lost, which we would have in the past.
You do go through periods of rebirth, like that stretch from The Joshua Tree through Rattle and Hum to Achtung! Baby. And it's a pattern that seems to repeat itself in each decade.
We are the band that is always looking for the thing that has never been done — or never been heard. That's partly because we get excited when something like that arrives. It's fruitful for us, but also people expect it. That's the U2 thing — we don't see what's going on and find a way to do it. We try to think of something that's never been done. Maybe it comes from the fact that we're still using a very simple array of sounds.
What you foresee for U2 in the next decade?
I can't think that things will change radically for us, because we are already enjoying being in the band. It matters to us that we still make music that connects, and we are still capable of potentially doing our best-ever album. It's not a foregone conclusion that our best work is behind us. That still makes it really exciting.
It also makes you unique at this juncture in your career.
We get that. Sometimes I think, "Why has it been so difficult for people in the past to maintain that?" We're still learning. We're still ambitious creatively, in terms of where we can take the band. There's an awful lot there for us.
Is that belief true for all four of you?
We all genuinely believe it. It's not arrogance. It's because we are still hungry. There's no reason why we can't do this. You think about other art forms and artists — filmmakers, painters, sculptors. It doesn't follow that your best work is done in your late twenties, early thirties, and then it's downhill. Unfortunately, that's the way rock & roll has panned out. But we don't buy that. Our only limitation is our ability to apply ourselves, to be hard-minded on our work. We push and push until we get to those special pieces of music, those lyrics. And it doesn't arrive on call. You can't turn it on. It needs time spent &38212; and time spent in the right frame of mind.
There is no short cut. We end up, at a certain point, at the same place — the band in the room, trying to make something happen. And when it does, it's a magic thing. There is no denying it.
rollingstone
"We are still capable of potentially doing our best-ever album"
DAVID FRICKE
Posted Dec 17, 2009 10:10 AM
The Rolling Stone editors picked eight stars — from Bruce and Beyoncé to Radiohead and U2 — who not only made the best music but also led the way as Artists of the Decade in our new issue. Here's more of our conversation with U2's The Edge.
U2 in Photos: three decades of the world's biggest band, onstage and backstage.
U2 ended this decade by playing to some of the biggest audiences of your career, in those stadiums, in the round. How has that affected the music — your connection to rock & roll in those dimensions?
It's only made possible because of the technology, the in-ear monitors. We can hear each other perfectly. Otherwise it would be an absolute disaster. Because of the in-ear technology, I'm right next to Larry, right next to Adam and Bono, in sonic terms.
What about the connection between your head and what you play?
The only way the shows work for me is if I totally lose myself in the music. Everything else will flow from that. If I'm totally lost in the music, everything comes into alignment — my performance, my sense of everything that is happening musically and my ability to react to it. It's a case of not allowing thoughts, the conscience mind, to be engaged in the process. Keep the subconscious in control — you're in a more creative place.
When you were making No Line on the Horizon, could you tell you were making an album with that possibility — that you could lose yourself in the music?
We did make an album with that character, because of the way it came together. A lot of times, we were playing in a room, and there was a particular moment when it all came together. That's what you're trying to achieve in a live context. [Brian] Eno said of those sessions, they were some of the most inspiring he had ever experienced, in all of the years he had been in a recording a studio. I know what he meant, because of the way we set up the sessions — the songwriting workshop, which then turned into the recording workshop. There were a lot of moments when it was so exciting, and it was all happening — the music was being invented in real time, in front of everyone's eyes. And the songs had an inner DNA, a real power and substance. They were true works, because of that. There was no opportunity to allow our fingerprints to be on the pieces.
Were U2 in this decade a different, even better band than they were in the '90s?
I hate to draw direct comparisons. We know more now, which is a great thing and a bad thing. So often, in the past, we would end up somewhere not knowing how we got there or what we were doing — and have to find a way out of a roadblock, like in our time in Berlin [recording Achtung! Baby]. We had a vague instinct for where we wanted to be, and the songs Bono and I were working on, trying to encourage Adam and Larry to get behind. They were rough sketches and very unimpressive sounding. But our instinct held out, and we eventually got there.
Now we never need to be quite so vulnerable. We know how it works a bit better. Our strength is we waste less time now. It still takes a long time to finish a U2 record. But we don't end up lost, which we would have in the past.
You do go through periods of rebirth, like that stretch from The Joshua Tree through Rattle and Hum to Achtung! Baby. And it's a pattern that seems to repeat itself in each decade.
We are the band that is always looking for the thing that has never been done — or never been heard. That's partly because we get excited when something like that arrives. It's fruitful for us, but also people expect it. That's the U2 thing — we don't see what's going on and find a way to do it. We try to think of something that's never been done. Maybe it comes from the fact that we're still using a very simple array of sounds.
What you foresee for U2 in the next decade?
I can't think that things will change radically for us, because we are already enjoying being in the band. It matters to us that we still make music that connects, and we are still capable of potentially doing our best-ever album. It's not a foregone conclusion that our best work is behind us. That still makes it really exciting.
It also makes you unique at this juncture in your career.
We get that. Sometimes I think, "Why has it been so difficult for people in the past to maintain that?" We're still learning. We're still ambitious creatively, in terms of where we can take the band. There's an awful lot there for us.
Is that belief true for all four of you?
We all genuinely believe it. It's not arrogance. It's because we are still hungry. There's no reason why we can't do this. You think about other art forms and artists — filmmakers, painters, sculptors. It doesn't follow that your best work is done in your late twenties, early thirties, and then it's downhill. Unfortunately, that's the way rock & roll has panned out. But we don't buy that. Our only limitation is our ability to apply ourselves, to be hard-minded on our work. We push and push until we get to those special pieces of music, those lyrics. And it doesn't arrive on call. You can't turn it on. It needs time spent &38212; and time spent in the right frame of mind.
There is no short cut. We end up, at a certain point, at the same place — the band in the room, trying to make something happen. And when it does, it's a magic thing. There is no denying it.
rollingstone
'Still Hungry'
19 December 2009
Edge has been talking to Rolling Stone about the decade passing... and the one arriving while the magazine has made No Line on the Horizon their 'Album of the Year' and Moment of Surrender their 'Song of the Year'.
Here's some highlights of what Edge had to say.
What do you foresee for U2 in the next decade?
I can't think that things will change radically for us, because we are already enjoying being in the band. It matters to us that we still make music that connects, and we are still capable of potentially doing our best-ever album. It's not a foregone conclusion that our best work is behind us. That still makes it really exciting.
It also makes you unique at this juncture in your career.
We get that. Sometimes I think, 'Why has it been so difficult for people in the past to maintain that?' We're still learning. We're still ambitious creatively, in terms of where we can take the band. There's an awful lot there for us.
Is that belief true for all four of you?
We all genuinely believe it. It's not arrogance. It's because we are still hungry. There's no reason why we can't do this. You think about other art forms and artists - filmmakers, painters, sculptors. It doesn't follow that your best work is done in your late twenties, early thirties, and then it's downhill. Unfortunately, that's the way rock & roll has panned out. But we don't buy that. Our only limitation is our ability to apply ourselves, to be hard-minded on our work. We push and push until we get to those special pieces of music, those lyrics. And it doesn't arrive on call. You can't turn it on. It needs time spent and time spent in the right frame of mind.
There is no short cut. We end up, at a certain point, at the same place - the band in the room, trying to make something happen. And when it does, it's a magic thing. There is no denying it.
Read the whole interview here.
U2.com
19 December 2009
Edge has been talking to Rolling Stone about the decade passing... and the one arriving while the magazine has made No Line on the Horizon their 'Album of the Year' and Moment of Surrender their 'Song of the Year'.
Here's some highlights of what Edge had to say.
What do you foresee for U2 in the next decade?
I can't think that things will change radically for us, because we are already enjoying being in the band. It matters to us that we still make music that connects, and we are still capable of potentially doing our best-ever album. It's not a foregone conclusion that our best work is behind us. That still makes it really exciting.
It also makes you unique at this juncture in your career.
We get that. Sometimes I think, 'Why has it been so difficult for people in the past to maintain that?' We're still learning. We're still ambitious creatively, in terms of where we can take the band. There's an awful lot there for us.
Is that belief true for all four of you?
We all genuinely believe it. It's not arrogance. It's because we are still hungry. There's no reason why we can't do this. You think about other art forms and artists - filmmakers, painters, sculptors. It doesn't follow that your best work is done in your late twenties, early thirties, and then it's downhill. Unfortunately, that's the way rock & roll has panned out. But we don't buy that. Our only limitation is our ability to apply ourselves, to be hard-minded on our work. We push and push until we get to those special pieces of music, those lyrics. And it doesn't arrive on call. You can't turn it on. It needs time spent and time spent in the right frame of mind.
There is no short cut. We end up, at a certain point, at the same place - the band in the room, trying to make something happen. And when it does, it's a magic thing. There is no denying it.
Read the whole interview here.
U2.com
From Wembley, on BBC Radio Two
17 December 2009
U2 Live From Wembley, on BBC Radio Two. Monday December 21st, 7pm to 8pm. Presented by Chris Evans.
Radio 2 will broadcast a one hour selection of songs from U2's 360%deg; Tour at Wembley Stadium this past summer. U2 played over two nights at Wembley - this recording is from the Saturday show on 15 August, 2009.
Listen live or later via the BBC iPlayer.
U2.com
17 December 2009
U2 Live From Wembley, on BBC Radio Two. Monday December 21st, 7pm to 8pm. Presented by Chris Evans.
Radio 2 will broadcast a one hour selection of songs from U2's 360%deg; Tour at Wembley Stadium this past summer. U2 played over two nights at Wembley - this recording is from the Saturday show on 15 August, 2009.
Listen live or later via the BBC iPlayer.
U2.com
21.12.09
'Guitars Everywhere...'
16 December 2009
'Guitars everywhere, people everywhere, this instrument was just there... this Explorer.'
It opened in the US to rave reviews earlier this summer and in the New Year, audiences in Ireland and the UK finally get to see It Might Get Loud.
Also available on DVD in the US from 22nd December
In this advance clip from Davis Guggenheim's 'rockumentary', Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White recall when they first came across the electric guitar.
U2.com
16 December 2009
'Guitars everywhere, people everywhere, this instrument was just there... this Explorer.'
It opened in the US to rave reviews earlier this summer and in the New Year, audiences in Ireland and the UK finally get to see It Might Get Loud.
Also available on DVD in the US from 22nd December
In this advance clip from Davis Guggenheim's 'rockumentary', Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White recall when they first came across the electric guitar.
U2.com
11.12.09
In the name of friendship
Bono and ‘Brothers’ director Jim Sheridan share a bond.
By Geoff Boucher
December 9, 2009
U2: Bono and The Edge wrote “Winter” specifically for Jim Sheridan’s film “Brothers.”
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
In 1977, an Irish teenager named Paul Hewson signed up for mime lessons at the Project Arts Center in Dublin. It marked the very last time that Bono, as Hewson is called today, made any serious attempt to stay silent onstage. Still, that class at the avant-garde drama collective did lead to an enduring friendship between Bono and Jim Sheridan, the arts leader who would go on to become Ireland's most celebrated filmmaker. ¶ "We have this relationship with Jim that's alchemical," Bono said of the bond between the rock band and the six-time Oscar nominee, who so long ago ran a Dublin hot spot for acting, music and the arts. "The Arts Center was a sort of progressive theater group run by Jim and his brother, Peter, and all kinds of bizarre characters were there. I think the first time that we played as U2, it was at a thing called Dark Space, a 24-hour music festival in this sort of warehouse called the Project Arts Center. There's so much history for us. . . . " ¶ The next chapter of that history is "Brothers," Sheridan's wrenching film that features the haunting new U2 song "Winter," written specifically for the movie. The story finds its axis in family, war and redemption -- it's a sort of "Best Years of Our Lives" for the troops in this modern American Heartland era of Wal-Mart, hard-luck economies, YouTube and desert camouflage.
The movie, which opened Friday, tells the tale of the Cahill brothers, Sam ( Tobey Maguire), who is a family man and a respected battlefield leader in Afghanistan, and Tommy ( Jake Gyllenhaal), the family black sheep who is fresh from a stint in prison. Sam is married to Grace ( Natalie Portman), who first mourns her husband when he is reported dead in combat and then finds out that he is alive. The Marine who comes home to her, though, is very different than the man she married and carries a dark secret back from the distant mountain ranges.
The film is a remake of the acclaimed 2004 Danish film "Brødre," and Sheridan said he was initially reluctant to take "a very good film" and transport it to America, but he found in the story too many compelling elements to let the chance go by. Bono said he and the other members of U2 -- the Edge, Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton -- had been "fiddling around, improvising and trying to find something" in the same thematic territories.
"We saw the picture and we said, 'Oh, yeah,' that's exactly where we wanted to go," Bono said. "We quickly drew the character in 'Winter' and it's based -- in no literal way, you try not to do that -- on that moment in the film where [Maguire's character] is locked up, down in a hole. In my head, that character starts scratching a diary."
Some of the lyrics to "Winter": "Now I'm 25 / I'm trying to stay alive / In a corner of the world / With no clear enemies to fight / It's hot as hell / We're like butter on toast / But there's no army in this world / That can fight a ghost."
The shards of imagery fit the film but don't attempt to mirror it, Bono said.
"If you're literal, you become part of the narration and that can be an irritation to the director," he said. "I think with this we tried to get to the essence of the story the loss of innocence and the reasons that people do put themselves in harm's way for the love of their country. That's a pregnant thought right now, isn't it?"
Movies were a huge influence on U2 -- no surprise for anyone who has watched their career focus on concert theatrics, grand narratives and potent visuals through music videos and photography. If there ever were a band that aspired to be both art house and summer popcorn, it's U2, but that doesn't even take into account the influence film music had on a group that has created soundscapes as different as the western sunsets of "Joshua Tree" and the Berlin siren wails of "Achtung Baby."
Giorgio Moroder's "Midnight Express" score and the screen music of Nino Rota in Fellini films were key compass points for the band early on, as important in some ways as the Beatles and Ramones, Bono said.
"In Dublin, there weren't a lot of gigs, and going out to movies . . . that's part of who we were growing up and the music we made," Bono said. "It's very easy for us to see things from a director's point of view because we think of it like that," Bono said.
The great treat for Bono was escaping his usual first-person approach to songwriting. "It is great to not have to dig up your own dirt and try to find diamonds in somebody else's ground."
The Edge agreed: "Jumping off someone else's work is always fun. . . . It can lead to all sorts of opportunities and, in this case, they came quickly."
It's paid off for them before. Their song, "The Hands That Built America," from Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York," was nominated for an Oscar.
And it's not the first time a Sheridan film has featured the sound of old friends. The title track for "In the Name of the Father" was performed by Bono and Gavin Friday (another Dubliner from that same mime class' invisible walls). Friday and Bono also wrote "Time Enough for Tears" for "In America."
Sheridan also added U2 directly into the story of "Brothers" -- in one pivotal scene, Grace and Tommy have a breakthrough in their trust and affection for one another while sharing a joint and listening to "Bad," one of the band's mid-1980s classics of epic swoon. Tommy makes a wisecrack, expecting Grace to be an 'N Sync fan; Sheridan said he didn't think twice about the inclusion of his old mates.
"It felt right as far as their life and marking time, their age and the story," the director said. "It fits, so that's what I used. Their music is a touchstone for a generation."
Despite that praise, Bono said he and his bandmates didn't have to stretch their arms to catch all the bouquets that Sheridan threw their way on the project. He was demanding, just the way they hoped, just as he always has been.
"It's like family, but that makes it sound too . . . comfortable," Bono said with a chuckle. "It's not comfortable. Jim will push you and we like to be pushed. The film is about friendship and fraternal relationships and, by the way, when we're with Jim, we talk about little else."
geoff.boucher@latimes.com
latimes
Bono and ‘Brothers’ director Jim Sheridan share a bond.
By Geoff Boucher
December 9, 2009
U2: Bono and The Edge wrote “Winter” specifically for Jim Sheridan’s film “Brothers.”
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
In 1977, an Irish teenager named Paul Hewson signed up for mime lessons at the Project Arts Center in Dublin. It marked the very last time that Bono, as Hewson is called today, made any serious attempt to stay silent onstage. Still, that class at the avant-garde drama collective did lead to an enduring friendship between Bono and Jim Sheridan, the arts leader who would go on to become Ireland's most celebrated filmmaker. ¶ "We have this relationship with Jim that's alchemical," Bono said of the bond between the rock band and the six-time Oscar nominee, who so long ago ran a Dublin hot spot for acting, music and the arts. "The Arts Center was a sort of progressive theater group run by Jim and his brother, Peter, and all kinds of bizarre characters were there. I think the first time that we played as U2, it was at a thing called Dark Space, a 24-hour music festival in this sort of warehouse called the Project Arts Center. There's so much history for us. . . . " ¶ The next chapter of that history is "Brothers," Sheridan's wrenching film that features the haunting new U2 song "Winter," written specifically for the movie. The story finds its axis in family, war and redemption -- it's a sort of "Best Years of Our Lives" for the troops in this modern American Heartland era of Wal-Mart, hard-luck economies, YouTube and desert camouflage.
The movie, which opened Friday, tells the tale of the Cahill brothers, Sam ( Tobey Maguire), who is a family man and a respected battlefield leader in Afghanistan, and Tommy ( Jake Gyllenhaal), the family black sheep who is fresh from a stint in prison. Sam is married to Grace ( Natalie Portman), who first mourns her husband when he is reported dead in combat and then finds out that he is alive. The Marine who comes home to her, though, is very different than the man she married and carries a dark secret back from the distant mountain ranges.
The film is a remake of the acclaimed 2004 Danish film "Brødre," and Sheridan said he was initially reluctant to take "a very good film" and transport it to America, but he found in the story too many compelling elements to let the chance go by. Bono said he and the other members of U2 -- the Edge, Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton -- had been "fiddling around, improvising and trying to find something" in the same thematic territories.
"We saw the picture and we said, 'Oh, yeah,' that's exactly where we wanted to go," Bono said. "We quickly drew the character in 'Winter' and it's based -- in no literal way, you try not to do that -- on that moment in the film where [Maguire's character] is locked up, down in a hole. In my head, that character starts scratching a diary."
Some of the lyrics to "Winter": "Now I'm 25 / I'm trying to stay alive / In a corner of the world / With no clear enemies to fight / It's hot as hell / We're like butter on toast / But there's no army in this world / That can fight a ghost."
The shards of imagery fit the film but don't attempt to mirror it, Bono said.
"If you're literal, you become part of the narration and that can be an irritation to the director," he said. "I think with this we tried to get to the essence of the story the loss of innocence and the reasons that people do put themselves in harm's way for the love of their country. That's a pregnant thought right now, isn't it?"
Movies were a huge influence on U2 -- no surprise for anyone who has watched their career focus on concert theatrics, grand narratives and potent visuals through music videos and photography. If there ever were a band that aspired to be both art house and summer popcorn, it's U2, but that doesn't even take into account the influence film music had on a group that has created soundscapes as different as the western sunsets of "Joshua Tree" and the Berlin siren wails of "Achtung Baby."
Giorgio Moroder's "Midnight Express" score and the screen music of Nino Rota in Fellini films were key compass points for the band early on, as important in some ways as the Beatles and Ramones, Bono said.
"In Dublin, there weren't a lot of gigs, and going out to movies . . . that's part of who we were growing up and the music we made," Bono said. "It's very easy for us to see things from a director's point of view because we think of it like that," Bono said.
The great treat for Bono was escaping his usual first-person approach to songwriting. "It is great to not have to dig up your own dirt and try to find diamonds in somebody else's ground."
The Edge agreed: "Jumping off someone else's work is always fun. . . . It can lead to all sorts of opportunities and, in this case, they came quickly."
It's paid off for them before. Their song, "The Hands That Built America," from Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York," was nominated for an Oscar.
And it's not the first time a Sheridan film has featured the sound of old friends. The title track for "In the Name of the Father" was performed by Bono and Gavin Friday (another Dubliner from that same mime class' invisible walls). Friday and Bono also wrote "Time Enough for Tears" for "In America."
Sheridan also added U2 directly into the story of "Brothers" -- in one pivotal scene, Grace and Tommy have a breakthrough in their trust and affection for one another while sharing a joint and listening to "Bad," one of the band's mid-1980s classics of epic swoon. Tommy makes a wisecrack, expecting Grace to be an 'N Sync fan; Sheridan said he didn't think twice about the inclusion of his old mates.
"It felt right as far as their life and marking time, their age and the story," the director said. "It fits, so that's what I used. Their music is a touchstone for a generation."
Despite that praise, Bono said he and his bandmates didn't have to stretch their arms to catch all the bouquets that Sheridan threw their way on the project. He was demanding, just the way they hoped, just as he always has been.
"It's like family, but that makes it sound too . . . comfortable," Bono said with a chuckle. "It's not comfortable. Jim will push you and we like to be pushed. The film is about friendship and fraternal relationships and, by the way, when we're with Jim, we talk about little else."
geoff.boucher@latimes.com
latimes
9.12.09
Green Day Named Top Artists Of The Decade By Rolling Stone Readers
Punk icons took best single, album and artists of the '00s in poll.
By Gil Kaufman
December 9, 2009
Rolling Stone readers love Green Day ... a lot. In the magazine's Decade-End Reader's Poll, the Berkeley-bred punk-pop trio grabbed the #1 spot for Best Single, Best Album and Top Artist of the '00s.
As the #1 single, readers picked the ballad "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," one of two Green Day tunes the made the cut, along with "American Idiot" (#13). The rest of the top five were Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", U2's "Beautiful Day," Britney Spears' "Toxic" and Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together."
Also getting love in the top 15 were Kanye West, Avril Lavigne, My Chemical Romance, Kelly Clarkson, the White Stripes and Coldplay.
A number of acts notched two albums on the list of the decade's top releases. While Green Day took the #1 spot with American Idiot, Radiohead landed at #3 (Kid A) and #5 (In Rainbows). U2 scored a two-fer at #6 (All That You Can't Leave Behind) and #15 (No Line on the Horizon), and Kelly Clarkson hit #8 (All I Ever Wanted) and #11 (Breakaway).
The top 20 also featured discs from Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Avril Lavigne, Christina Aguilera, My Chemical Romance and Justin Timberlake. A notable absence was Eminem, who was deemed the top-selling artist of the '00s by Nielsen SoundScan but failed to get a single mention on the RS readers' albums list.
Green Day topped the Artist of the Decade list, followed by Radiohead, U2, Coldplay, the Black Eyed Peas, Justin Timberlake and Bruce Springsteen. Slim Shady finally worked his way in on that list, dropping into the #8 slot, just ahead of the White Stripes' Jack White, Jay-Z, Kings of Leon and Fall Out Boy.
Despite having last year's biggest album and becoming hip-hop's reigning superstar, Lil Wayne checked in at a modest #18, coming in behind the Arcade Fire (#13), M.I.A. (#14), Wilco (#15), Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst (#16) and Bob Dylan (#17).
Rolling Stone readers' top singles of the decade: 1. Green Day, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"
2. Beyonce, "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)"
3. U2, "Beautiful Day"
4. Britney Spears, "Toxic"
5. Mariah Carey, "We Belong Together"
6. Kanye West, "Stronger"
7. My Chemical Romance, "Welcome to the Black Parade"
8. Avril Lavigne, "Complicated"
9. Kelly Clarkson, "Since U Been Gone"
10. White Stripes, "Seven Nation Army"
11. Black Eyed Peas, "I Gotta Feeling"
12. Coldplay, "Viva la Vida"
13. Green Day, "American Idiot"
14. Christina Aguilera, "Beautiful"
Top albums:
1. Green Day, American Idiot
2. Kanye West, Graduation
3. Radiohead, Kid A
4. Avril Lavigne, Let Go
5. Radiohead, In Rainbows
6. U2, All That You Can't Leave Behind
7. Britney Spears, Blackout
8. Kelly Clarkson, All I Ever Wanted
9. Jay-Z, The Blueprint
10. Lady Gaga, The Fame
11. Kelly Clarkson, Breakaway
12. Beyoncé, I Am ... Sasha Fierce 13. Christina Aguilera, Stripped
14. My Chemical Romance, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
15. U2, No Line on the Horizon
16. Mariah Carey, The Emancipation of Mimi
17. Justin Timberlake, Futuresex/Lovesounds
18. Coldplay, Viva la Vida
19. Bruce Springsteen, The Rising
Top artists:
1. Green Day
2. Radiohead
3. U2
4. Coldplay
5. Black Eyed Peas
6. Justin Timberlake
7. Bruce Springsteen
8. Eminem
9. Jack White
10. Jay-Z
11. Kings of Leon
12. Fall Out Boy
13. Arcade Fire
14. M.I.A.
15. Wilco
16. Conor Oberst
17. Bob Dylan
18. Lil Wayne
19. My Morning Jacket
20. Beyoncé
21. Kelly Clarkson
22. My Chemical Romance
23. Kanye West
mtv
Punk icons took best single, album and artists of the '00s in poll.
By Gil Kaufman
December 9, 2009
Rolling Stone readers love Green Day ... a lot. In the magazine's Decade-End Reader's Poll, the Berkeley-bred punk-pop trio grabbed the #1 spot for Best Single, Best Album and Top Artist of the '00s.
As the #1 single, readers picked the ballad "Boulevard of Broken Dreams," one of two Green Day tunes the made the cut, along with "American Idiot" (#13). The rest of the top five were Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", U2's "Beautiful Day," Britney Spears' "Toxic" and Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together."
Also getting love in the top 15 were Kanye West, Avril Lavigne, My Chemical Romance, Kelly Clarkson, the White Stripes and Coldplay.
A number of acts notched two albums on the list of the decade's top releases. While Green Day took the #1 spot with American Idiot, Radiohead landed at #3 (Kid A) and #5 (In Rainbows). U2 scored a two-fer at #6 (All That You Can't Leave Behind) and #15 (No Line on the Horizon), and Kelly Clarkson hit #8 (All I Ever Wanted) and #11 (Breakaway).
The top 20 also featured discs from Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Avril Lavigne, Christina Aguilera, My Chemical Romance and Justin Timberlake. A notable absence was Eminem, who was deemed the top-selling artist of the '00s by Nielsen SoundScan but failed to get a single mention on the RS readers' albums list.
Green Day topped the Artist of the Decade list, followed by Radiohead, U2, Coldplay, the Black Eyed Peas, Justin Timberlake and Bruce Springsteen. Slim Shady finally worked his way in on that list, dropping into the #8 slot, just ahead of the White Stripes' Jack White, Jay-Z, Kings of Leon and Fall Out Boy.
Despite having last year's biggest album and becoming hip-hop's reigning superstar, Lil Wayne checked in at a modest #18, coming in behind the Arcade Fire (#13), M.I.A. (#14), Wilco (#15), Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst (#16) and Bob Dylan (#17).
Rolling Stone readers' top singles of the decade: 1. Green Day, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"
2. Beyonce, "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)"
3. U2, "Beautiful Day"
4. Britney Spears, "Toxic"
5. Mariah Carey, "We Belong Together"
6. Kanye West, "Stronger"
7. My Chemical Romance, "Welcome to the Black Parade"
8. Avril Lavigne, "Complicated"
9. Kelly Clarkson, "Since U Been Gone"
10. White Stripes, "Seven Nation Army"
11. Black Eyed Peas, "I Gotta Feeling"
12. Coldplay, "Viva la Vida"
13. Green Day, "American Idiot"
14. Christina Aguilera, "Beautiful"
Top albums:
1. Green Day, American Idiot
2. Kanye West, Graduation
3. Radiohead, Kid A
4. Avril Lavigne, Let Go
5. Radiohead, In Rainbows
6. U2, All That You Can't Leave Behind
7. Britney Spears, Blackout
8. Kelly Clarkson, All I Ever Wanted
9. Jay-Z, The Blueprint
10. Lady Gaga, The Fame
11. Kelly Clarkson, Breakaway
12. Beyoncé, I Am ... Sasha Fierce 13. Christina Aguilera, Stripped
14. My Chemical Romance, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
15. U2, No Line on the Horizon
16. Mariah Carey, The Emancipation of Mimi
17. Justin Timberlake, Futuresex/Lovesounds
18. Coldplay, Viva la Vida
19. Bruce Springsteen, The Rising
Top artists:
1. Green Day
2. Radiohead
3. U2
4. Coldplay
5. Black Eyed Peas
6. Justin Timberlake
7. Bruce Springsteen
8. Eminem
9. Jack White
10. Jay-Z
11. Kings of Leon
12. Fall Out Boy
13. Arcade Fire
14. M.I.A.
15. Wilco
16. Conor Oberst
17. Bob Dylan
18. Lil Wayne
19. My Morning Jacket
20. Beyoncé
21. Kelly Clarkson
22. My Chemical Romance
23. Kanye West
mtv
6.12.09
Bono says U2 'humbled' to play Glastonbury
By Tim Masters
Entertainment correspondent, BBC News
U2 will take a break from their North American tour to play Glastonbury
Bono has said that U2 are "delighted and humbled" to be headlining at next year's Glastonbury Festival over its 40th anniversary weekend.
The band will lead the line-up at the Somerset show on Friday 25 June.
"Everyone in the band is very excited about it," Bono told the BBC at the launch of an anti-Aids/HIV campaign.
It will be U2's first festival gig for more than 25 years and will see them make a flying visit to the UK in the middle of a North American tour.
Asked if he would use the festival to promote the campaign, Bono said: "I think it will just be about the music on that day, and that spirit that seems to take over everybody in that sacred ground."
He added: "We'll certainly be well-rehearsed, we'll be coming straight from the tour."
Red laces
Bono was in central London on Monday to launch the "Lace Up. Save Lives" campaign - a partnership between Nike and the (RED) brand, which was co-founded by the U2 frontman.
He was joined at the launch, just ahead of World Aids Day, by Chelsea striker Didier Drogba and several other international football stars.
The campaign encourages people to buy red laces to help fund AIDS medication and education programmes in Africa.
Next year's Glastonbury takes place from 25-27 June - during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
No other headliners have yet been confirmed. David Bowie has denied that he will join U2 on the bill, but it is rumoured that stadium rockers Muse could appear.
Tickets for the event sold out shortly after they went on sale last month.
bbc
By Tim Masters
Entertainment correspondent, BBC News
U2 will take a break from their North American tour to play Glastonbury
Bono has said that U2 are "delighted and humbled" to be headlining at next year's Glastonbury Festival over its 40th anniversary weekend.
The band will lead the line-up at the Somerset show on Friday 25 June.
"Everyone in the band is very excited about it," Bono told the BBC at the launch of an anti-Aids/HIV campaign.
It will be U2's first festival gig for more than 25 years and will see them make a flying visit to the UK in the middle of a North American tour.
Asked if he would use the festival to promote the campaign, Bono said: "I think it will just be about the music on that day, and that spirit that seems to take over everybody in that sacred ground."
He added: "We'll certainly be well-rehearsed, we'll be coming straight from the tour."
Red laces
Bono was in central London on Monday to launch the "Lace Up. Save Lives" campaign - a partnership between Nike and the (RED) brand, which was co-founded by the U2 frontman.
He was joined at the launch, just ahead of World Aids Day, by Chelsea striker Didier Drogba and several other international football stars.
The campaign encourages people to buy red laces to help fund AIDS medication and education programmes in Africa.
Next year's Glastonbury takes place from 25-27 June - during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
No other headliners have yet been confirmed. David Bowie has denied that he will join U2 on the bill, but it is rumoured that stadium rockers Muse could appear.
Tickets for the event sold out shortly after they went on sale last month.
bbc
The Daily Swarm Interview: Steve Lillywhite on U2, Eno, Lanois, Dave Matthews, Phish, Rick Rubin, MGMT and more...
Sam J.C.
November 20, 2009
Steve Lillywhite is the man responsible for producing the debut albums by U2 and Dave Matthews Band as well as many of their subsequent million-selling releases. While Bono and Dave have both consistently trusted Steve to fit their visions between the speakers, so have artists as diverse as The Rolling Stones, Peter Gabriel, Johnny Thunders, Ultravox, Guster, She & Him, XTC, Jason Mraz, The Pogues, Counting Crows, Siouxie and the Banshees, The La’s, David Byrne, Morrissey, Chris Cornell, Phish, Matchbox 20 and many more.
The Daily Swarm: When you began, were there any specific albums or producers that initially inspired you to pursue a career in music production?
Steve Lillywhite: I was a big David Bowie fan. The Tony Visconti records and the Ken Scott records of the early 70s were fantastic. produced by Ken Scott - interview with Tony Visconti
And of course, I loved Phil Spector. In fact some of his “wall of sound” records probably influenced me during the early 80s. Some of the records I made during that time were quite dense sounding. But in general, my favorite records are ones you don’t hear production. You just hear a great record
produced by Phil Spector
How would you define what a record producer does and how has the role of a record producer evolved over the decades?
It was always a very wide thing because sometimes the producer is the guy who sits back and doesn’t do anything and actually nowadays a lot of producers are not even in the studio. Even though it says, “Produced by…” they are much more of an overseer.
The term record producer is very broad. Basically you’re responsible for the quality of the end product however you do it. So when people say, “Oh, Rick Rubin is never there,” if it’s a good record, it doesn’t matter because he doesn’t need to be there. I wish I could be like that but I tend to feel I need to be there to make half decent records.
I tend to be a little more hands-on. If I do your record, I’m there all the time, so I’ll never do two albums at the same time. Some people do three or four albums at the same time. I find I have to concentrate fully on what I am doing to hopefully make a good record
Do you act as the engineer on all the albums you produce?
I am not an engineer. I always have to have a technician with me. I sit at the desk and I push the faders up but I don’t consider myself an engineer.
I love balancing the music. I let my engineer do all the mic settings and all that stuff unless I see something I don’t like and I say, “Let’s do this.” I allow people the space to be creative on all fronts
Have recording budgets gotten smaller in recent years and does that affect how you are able to get the job done?
Different records have different budgets. You work with U2 and there doesn’t seem like there’s any budget whatsoever. You work with other people and it’s different. I like a nice budget but I like nice music even better
Have recording budgets gotten smaller in recent years and does that affect how you are able to get the job done?
Different records have different budgets. You work with U2 and there doesn’t seem like there’s any budget whatsoever. You work with other people and it’s different. I like a nice budget but I like nice music even better
You produced the first three U2 albums on your own and then Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno were hired as the producers for The Unforgettable Fire. The three of you have worked together as co-producers on almost all the subsequent U2 albums. Were you initially hesitant to work in such an unconventional “team” scenario with Eno and Lanois?
No. After the first album I said U2 should work with someone else. And then certainly after October, I said, “Look, guys, this hasn’t done as well as the first one. You should definitely work with someone else. And they went, “Okay.”
And they went and did some tracks with some other people. They didn’t like what they heard and they came back and said, “Steve, I know you said you wouldn’t but what are you doing in September?” and I said, “Nothing.” And they said, “Would you like to do our third album?” And I said “Alright, then.”
Nowadays it’s very rare for any one producer, let alone three producers, to work with a particular artist across their career. Can you describe your working style with Eno, Lanois and U2 and why it works?
The best way to describe it is it’s not just mixing. A lot of people are just mixers and they do a great job but what I do with U2 is way beyond that.
Are you familiar with the game of baseball? They have this guy that comes in to pitch towards to end: the closer. I think that’s pretty much my job with them. Whether I start pitching in the 9th inning or the 7th or the 5th, my job is to help finish it.
Eno and Lanois do a great job of getting it all prepped and then I come in. I think it has a lot to do with the band seeing me and they’re going, “Oh, Steve’s here. We’d better get to work.”
I was the very first studio experience for them when they were young kids so they sort of revert to type a a little bit…but maybe not. We’ve had success and U2 doesn’t analyze really. It’s all about the heart. All they know is that when we get in a room together, things happen
Do you have a lot of communication with Eno and Lanois during the process?
Yeah, yeah, we’re great friends, especially Brian Eno. He is one of the most intelligent, witty, self-confident people I have ever met. He always has great ideas as well.
He’s not really a fan of the band, so his job is to bring something that is not U2 to it. And my job is to bring it back to some form of U2
Beyond U2 and throughout your career you’ve worked with very diverse artists. Is there a thread that connects all the people you’ve produced?
One thread I hope is that they are all great songwriters. There was a time in the early 80s where I used the same sounds on everything I produced. And then I made a record with a guy called Marshall Crenshaw that sort of didn’t work with my sound.
Subsequently, I realized there really are no rules. You have to take each artist completely from their own perspective and work for what’s best for them. So after working with Marshall Crenshaw, I realized that I thought I had a formula but I didn’t. If I ever think I have formula, I am not as good a producer as I want to be.
Are there some specific personality traits of yours that have enabled you to be a successful producer?
I’ve been around a while but I still feel like I have something to pass onto people and younger bands because I am very good at getting the best out of musicians. I don’t ever want to change what they do.
If I decide I want to work with someone, I have great faith that I can bring out the best of what they are. I am not a songwriter and I don’t want to be an average songwriter. I am not trying to steal anyone’s thunder.
I want to make the best record for them. So when I take on something, I feel that’s really a big decision for me because I don’t want to fuck anyone’s career up.
I haven’t batted 1000% but no one ever does. I think most artists I work with enjoy the process and enjoy the end result. They can play it for their grandchildren and feel confident that what they’re playing is something that they really believed in. And that’s what I want to do.
I love arranging artist’s ideas. If they have too many ideas, I love that because my job is to filter and I am very, very good at that and I find it very easy as well.
From Morrissey to David Byrne to Bono you’ve worked with musicians who seem to have a very strong personal artistic vision. Is it difficult introducing new ideas to such people and why do they trust you?
I try to expand. They present their ideas and my job is to fit them in a format as a way that is best for them. I have my ideas and I discuss with them and we have a lot of talking conceptually as to how we want it to be. I have a good sense of self-confidence in what I do.
I remember when I worked with Phish about ten years ago. They came out of the studio and said, “Steve, we’ve never felt more like musicians than we do now.” And that was because I enabled them to not think too much. I enabled them to do what they do best and that’s all I want.
I want musicians to perform from the heart. If they’re performing from the head, I am not so interested. I have ways of trying to make them work from the heart. I can make people relaxed. Quite often after making an album, artists will go, “My god, how did that happen. It all seemed to just go.”
In the 80s, you tended to work with a lot of British alternative and new wave artists, and then in the 90s through the 00s you made several albums with the two biggest American jam bands, Phish and the Dave Matthews Band. Considering what your musical background was, what attracted you to work with these two particular groups?
It was very weird but I’ve always tried to spread what I do based on just whether I think it’s good or not. I worked with Peter Gabriel in 1980 and he was very different from Sioxsie and the Banshees and the punk rock that I was also doing
Games Without Frontiers - Pete...
Carcass - Siouxsie And The Ban...
Dave Matthews was before Phish. I remember hearing their independent CD called Remember Two Things and hearing a song called “Ants Marching” and just thinking, “Oh my god. I love this song. This is such a smash.” And after that saying, “I have to go and produce this band.”
I was living in London at the time and they’d actually decided to work with someone else. So I had to come over to America and basically pitch myself to such an extent that I wouldn’t take no for an answer because I knew I was the guy for this band.
A lot of people thought, “Oh, they’ll never be successful because it’s too jazzy or it’s too this.” I never think like that. If I like it I think,“how can I put it in a format that people will also enjoy?”
.............(it continues)
Sam J.C.
November 20, 2009
Steve Lillywhite is the man responsible for producing the debut albums by U2 and Dave Matthews Band as well as many of their subsequent million-selling releases. While Bono and Dave have both consistently trusted Steve to fit their visions between the speakers, so have artists as diverse as The Rolling Stones, Peter Gabriel, Johnny Thunders, Ultravox, Guster, She & Him, XTC, Jason Mraz, The Pogues, Counting Crows, Siouxie and the Banshees, The La’s, David Byrne, Morrissey, Chris Cornell, Phish, Matchbox 20 and many more.
The Daily Swarm: When you began, were there any specific albums or producers that initially inspired you to pursue a career in music production?
Steve Lillywhite: I was a big David Bowie fan. The Tony Visconti records and the Ken Scott records of the early 70s were fantastic. produced by Ken Scott - interview with Tony Visconti
And of course, I loved Phil Spector. In fact some of his “wall of sound” records probably influenced me during the early 80s. Some of the records I made during that time were quite dense sounding. But in general, my favorite records are ones you don’t hear production. You just hear a great record
produced by Phil Spector
How would you define what a record producer does and how has the role of a record producer evolved over the decades?
It was always a very wide thing because sometimes the producer is the guy who sits back and doesn’t do anything and actually nowadays a lot of producers are not even in the studio. Even though it says, “Produced by…” they are much more of an overseer.
The term record producer is very broad. Basically you’re responsible for the quality of the end product however you do it. So when people say, “Oh, Rick Rubin is never there,” if it’s a good record, it doesn’t matter because he doesn’t need to be there. I wish I could be like that but I tend to feel I need to be there to make half decent records.
I tend to be a little more hands-on. If I do your record, I’m there all the time, so I’ll never do two albums at the same time. Some people do three or four albums at the same time. I find I have to concentrate fully on what I am doing to hopefully make a good record
Do you act as the engineer on all the albums you produce?
I am not an engineer. I always have to have a technician with me. I sit at the desk and I push the faders up but I don’t consider myself an engineer.
I love balancing the music. I let my engineer do all the mic settings and all that stuff unless I see something I don’t like and I say, “Let’s do this.” I allow people the space to be creative on all fronts
Have recording budgets gotten smaller in recent years and does that affect how you are able to get the job done?
Different records have different budgets. You work with U2 and there doesn’t seem like there’s any budget whatsoever. You work with other people and it’s different. I like a nice budget but I like nice music even better
Have recording budgets gotten smaller in recent years and does that affect how you are able to get the job done?
Different records have different budgets. You work with U2 and there doesn’t seem like there’s any budget whatsoever. You work with other people and it’s different. I like a nice budget but I like nice music even better
You produced the first three U2 albums on your own and then Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno were hired as the producers for The Unforgettable Fire. The three of you have worked together as co-producers on almost all the subsequent U2 albums. Were you initially hesitant to work in such an unconventional “team” scenario with Eno and Lanois?
No. After the first album I said U2 should work with someone else. And then certainly after October, I said, “Look, guys, this hasn’t done as well as the first one. You should definitely work with someone else. And they went, “Okay.”
And they went and did some tracks with some other people. They didn’t like what they heard and they came back and said, “Steve, I know you said you wouldn’t but what are you doing in September?” and I said, “Nothing.” And they said, “Would you like to do our third album?” And I said “Alright, then.”
Nowadays it’s very rare for any one producer, let alone three producers, to work with a particular artist across their career. Can you describe your working style with Eno, Lanois and U2 and why it works?
The best way to describe it is it’s not just mixing. A lot of people are just mixers and they do a great job but what I do with U2 is way beyond that.
Are you familiar with the game of baseball? They have this guy that comes in to pitch towards to end: the closer. I think that’s pretty much my job with them. Whether I start pitching in the 9th inning or the 7th or the 5th, my job is to help finish it.
Eno and Lanois do a great job of getting it all prepped and then I come in. I think it has a lot to do with the band seeing me and they’re going, “Oh, Steve’s here. We’d better get to work.”
I was the very first studio experience for them when they were young kids so they sort of revert to type a a little bit…but maybe not. We’ve had success and U2 doesn’t analyze really. It’s all about the heart. All they know is that when we get in a room together, things happen
Do you have a lot of communication with Eno and Lanois during the process?
Yeah, yeah, we’re great friends, especially Brian Eno. He is one of the most intelligent, witty, self-confident people I have ever met. He always has great ideas as well.
He’s not really a fan of the band, so his job is to bring something that is not U2 to it. And my job is to bring it back to some form of U2
Beyond U2 and throughout your career you’ve worked with very diverse artists. Is there a thread that connects all the people you’ve produced?
One thread I hope is that they are all great songwriters. There was a time in the early 80s where I used the same sounds on everything I produced. And then I made a record with a guy called Marshall Crenshaw that sort of didn’t work with my sound.
Subsequently, I realized there really are no rules. You have to take each artist completely from their own perspective and work for what’s best for them. So after working with Marshall Crenshaw, I realized that I thought I had a formula but I didn’t. If I ever think I have formula, I am not as good a producer as I want to be.
Are there some specific personality traits of yours that have enabled you to be a successful producer?
I’ve been around a while but I still feel like I have something to pass onto people and younger bands because I am very good at getting the best out of musicians. I don’t ever want to change what they do.
If I decide I want to work with someone, I have great faith that I can bring out the best of what they are. I am not a songwriter and I don’t want to be an average songwriter. I am not trying to steal anyone’s thunder.
I want to make the best record for them. So when I take on something, I feel that’s really a big decision for me because I don’t want to fuck anyone’s career up.
I haven’t batted 1000% but no one ever does. I think most artists I work with enjoy the process and enjoy the end result. They can play it for their grandchildren and feel confident that what they’re playing is something that they really believed in. And that’s what I want to do.
I love arranging artist’s ideas. If they have too many ideas, I love that because my job is to filter and I am very, very good at that and I find it very easy as well.
From Morrissey to David Byrne to Bono you’ve worked with musicians who seem to have a very strong personal artistic vision. Is it difficult introducing new ideas to such people and why do they trust you?
I try to expand. They present their ideas and my job is to fit them in a format as a way that is best for them. I have my ideas and I discuss with them and we have a lot of talking conceptually as to how we want it to be. I have a good sense of self-confidence in what I do.
I remember when I worked with Phish about ten years ago. They came out of the studio and said, “Steve, we’ve never felt more like musicians than we do now.” And that was because I enabled them to not think too much. I enabled them to do what they do best and that’s all I want.
I want musicians to perform from the heart. If they’re performing from the head, I am not so interested. I have ways of trying to make them work from the heart. I can make people relaxed. Quite often after making an album, artists will go, “My god, how did that happen. It all seemed to just go.”
In the 80s, you tended to work with a lot of British alternative and new wave artists, and then in the 90s through the 00s you made several albums with the two biggest American jam bands, Phish and the Dave Matthews Band. Considering what your musical background was, what attracted you to work with these two particular groups?
It was very weird but I’ve always tried to spread what I do based on just whether I think it’s good or not. I worked with Peter Gabriel in 1980 and he was very different from Sioxsie and the Banshees and the punk rock that I was also doing
Games Without Frontiers - Pete...
Carcass - Siouxsie And The Ban...
Dave Matthews was before Phish. I remember hearing their independent CD called Remember Two Things and hearing a song called “Ants Marching” and just thinking, “Oh my god. I love this song. This is such a smash.” And after that saying, “I have to go and produce this band.”
I was living in London at the time and they’d actually decided to work with someone else. So I had to come over to America and basically pitch myself to such an extent that I wouldn’t take no for an answer because I knew I was the guy for this band.
A lot of people thought, “Oh, they’ll never be successful because it’s too jazzy or it’s too this.” I never think like that. If I like it I think,“how can I put it in a format that people will also enjoy?”
.............(it continues)
...it continues....
It’s like when I saw Guster for the first time. It was just two acoustics and bongos but there was something great about them and a challenge to take what they had and make it work.
In addition to Dave Matthews and Phish, in recent years you’ve produced Matchbox 20, Counting Crows and Jason Mraz. Are you thinking about commercial viability in all cases when you go into the studio?
Absolutely. My fundamental belief, which goes to my soul, is the fact that art and commerce can coincide together. They can coexist together. But I have never made a record for commerce. I’ve always made records for art.
All I thought with Dave Matthews was how short should a 10-minute song be? So I did a lot of editing, a lot of making it seem just the right length, the right amount of soloing. But obviously solos become exactly the same thing when you play them over and over again.
Were Phish or Dave Matthews reluctant for you to shorten their songs?
No, no, no. This is the confidence that I have. I can allow an artist to be musicians and I let them play and they let me produce. But I have to earn that right and I earn that right by explaining to them and by my actions.
You only earn any right by your actions. I wouldn’t produce anyone if they just thought, “Oh, we’ll have Steve Lillywhite because of what he’s done.” I would think they would want to say, “Steve, how would you be able to help us out?” I want to be able to sell myself
Do you require that artists do a lot of preproduction such as rehearsing the songs before you begin recording?
I don’t like preproduction. I like discussions and conceptualizing and talking about how and where it’s going to go; some big picture ideas.
And they let me produce but I have to earn it. So many producers loose their nerve. If it’s going wrong and they don’t know how to fix it, they just blindly move forward.
I’ve made records for so long that if I sense something’s going wrong, I’m so ahead of the game, I can normally fix it before it actually does go wrong. And I am not big headed. Some producers are good at some things and I happen to be pretty good at that
In 2002, you began working for Mercury Records in the UK with the title of Managing Director. Can you describe that experience?
I went corporate for a little while and I really enjoyed it. We had some hits. I signed a band called Razorlight in England who became very successful and some other pop things.
But during the last couple of years, that was when U2 called me for the How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb album. So I decided to leave that job to produce the U2 album and from that I got a Grammy for Producer of the Year… so that was very good
What exactly did your job as a Managing Director entail?
The Managing Director is like the president. That’s the British term for president. And then I had a job with Columbia Records in America over here in 2006, which was a similar sort of position. I was a Senior Vice President and we signed MGMT when I was there.
But it was not such a great time for the music business and then my boss got fired. They had different ideas and decided to bring Rick Rubin in.
As someone who comes from the creative side of the business, was working for a corporation a culture shock?
Perhaps I didn’t do my homework so well. It was a culture shock. The creative side of that job with Mercury I really enjoyed. Dealing with accountants and marketing people was a little bit more difficult for me but I did it.
Since I was 17 years old I’ve been used to dealing with creative people so dealing with people who consider it “a job” was different. I wouldn’t say I disliked it but my soul is better when I am around creative people.
Did you feel pressure that the artists you were signing would affect the financial viability of such a large company?
My belief is still the same. Art and commerce can run in tandem. If you have that as a belief it doesn’t matter if you are a producer or if you’re an A&R man or whatever you are doing.
I think you can look at MGMT. There’s a great example of good art and good commercial success
What initially attracted to you to MGMT as a good signing for a major label?
I thought it was very good signing. A band like MGMT will get you other very cool bands. All of sudden, someone will want to sign to the label that has MGMT. I thought of it like that. And you know, those songs are hits.
Now that more alternative-sounding bands like MGMT are being embraced by the mainstream to a certain degree, how can record labels adjust their business models for selling a lower volume of music perhaps across a broader market place?
It’s not the end of the world. If you structure deals accordingly I think it’s good. But sometimes you don’t even need a major label.
Look at Phish for instance. We recorded this new album ourselves and you know, it’s not going to set the world on fire but it really helps. I think Phish are bigger now than they’ve ever been. It’s incredible.
However, with the changing economics of the music business, what kinds of commercial and artistic considerations do you make when deciding which artists to produce or sign to a label you are working for?
I look at a band like Fleet Foxes. I see it as a career, I don’t see it as one record. Maybe Fleet Foxes didn’t sell as many as Britney Spears but I think Fleet Foxes, if they’re clever, are going to have a long career with great sales and a great life.
I am not in the world of Britney Spears. She’s fine. She can do what she wants. But I’m much more interested in artists who think about their art and who see it as art.
In fact, because I’m doing this interview, can you put in a plug? I’m looking for something really cool. It doesn’t matter if they’re successful or not successful. I am very excited about doing some quick records.
People can contact me however they need to. People can find me if they want me. I’m very excited about young artists and I feel I’ve got something I can offer them
You sound so invigorated. Do you ever get burned out after all these years?
No. The difference is I can’t go back to back on records anymore. In the 80s I could just do one after another and not get burned out. Now, I would get burned out if I did that.
So I’m like a boxer now who needs a little bit more time between bouts. But I’m ready right now.
Because more recording studios like the one where you got your start in the 1970s are closing in today’s tough economic environment, what advice would give a kid interested in being “the next Steve Lillywhite”?
It is getting more and more difficult but I still believe in studios. So just send letters to your local studio and try and get some experience. Find the local band that you love and try and record them.
Believe in your heart and not in your eyes. So many people look at music. Everything is on a screen now. That’s important but it’s also important to go where your heart goes and go where your ears go
For more information, Swarm readers can click here to listen to online radio segments from Steve Lillywhite’s regular radio show on NPR which he hopes to restart soon. These segments include Steve’s reflections on classic records he’s been involved in as well as on-air live performances produced by Steve with artists like The Pretenders, Albert Hammond Jr., Goldfrapp and Dr. Dog.
Los Angeles-based writer/musician, Sam J.C. has written for Filter, Vapors, Buzzbands LA and Variety. He can be contacted at samjcmusic [at] gmail.com
thedailyswarm
It’s like when I saw Guster for the first time. It was just two acoustics and bongos but there was something great about them and a challenge to take what they had and make it work.
In addition to Dave Matthews and Phish, in recent years you’ve produced Matchbox 20, Counting Crows and Jason Mraz. Are you thinking about commercial viability in all cases when you go into the studio?
Absolutely. My fundamental belief, which goes to my soul, is the fact that art and commerce can coincide together. They can coexist together. But I have never made a record for commerce. I’ve always made records for art.
All I thought with Dave Matthews was how short should a 10-minute song be? So I did a lot of editing, a lot of making it seem just the right length, the right amount of soloing. But obviously solos become exactly the same thing when you play them over and over again.
Were Phish or Dave Matthews reluctant for you to shorten their songs?
No, no, no. This is the confidence that I have. I can allow an artist to be musicians and I let them play and they let me produce. But I have to earn that right and I earn that right by explaining to them and by my actions.
You only earn any right by your actions. I wouldn’t produce anyone if they just thought, “Oh, we’ll have Steve Lillywhite because of what he’s done.” I would think they would want to say, “Steve, how would you be able to help us out?” I want to be able to sell myself
Do you require that artists do a lot of preproduction such as rehearsing the songs before you begin recording?
I don’t like preproduction. I like discussions and conceptualizing and talking about how and where it’s going to go; some big picture ideas.
And they let me produce but I have to earn it. So many producers loose their nerve. If it’s going wrong and they don’t know how to fix it, they just blindly move forward.
I’ve made records for so long that if I sense something’s going wrong, I’m so ahead of the game, I can normally fix it before it actually does go wrong. And I am not big headed. Some producers are good at some things and I happen to be pretty good at that
In 2002, you began working for Mercury Records in the UK with the title of Managing Director. Can you describe that experience?
I went corporate for a little while and I really enjoyed it. We had some hits. I signed a band called Razorlight in England who became very successful and some other pop things.
But during the last couple of years, that was when U2 called me for the How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb album. So I decided to leave that job to produce the U2 album and from that I got a Grammy for Producer of the Year… so that was very good
What exactly did your job as a Managing Director entail?
The Managing Director is like the president. That’s the British term for president. And then I had a job with Columbia Records in America over here in 2006, which was a similar sort of position. I was a Senior Vice President and we signed MGMT when I was there.
But it was not such a great time for the music business and then my boss got fired. They had different ideas and decided to bring Rick Rubin in.
As someone who comes from the creative side of the business, was working for a corporation a culture shock?
Perhaps I didn’t do my homework so well. It was a culture shock. The creative side of that job with Mercury I really enjoyed. Dealing with accountants and marketing people was a little bit more difficult for me but I did it.
Since I was 17 years old I’ve been used to dealing with creative people so dealing with people who consider it “a job” was different. I wouldn’t say I disliked it but my soul is better when I am around creative people.
Did you feel pressure that the artists you were signing would affect the financial viability of such a large company?
My belief is still the same. Art and commerce can run in tandem. If you have that as a belief it doesn’t matter if you are a producer or if you’re an A&R man or whatever you are doing.
I think you can look at MGMT. There’s a great example of good art and good commercial success
What initially attracted to you to MGMT as a good signing for a major label?
I thought it was very good signing. A band like MGMT will get you other very cool bands. All of sudden, someone will want to sign to the label that has MGMT. I thought of it like that. And you know, those songs are hits.
Now that more alternative-sounding bands like MGMT are being embraced by the mainstream to a certain degree, how can record labels adjust their business models for selling a lower volume of music perhaps across a broader market place?
It’s not the end of the world. If you structure deals accordingly I think it’s good. But sometimes you don’t even need a major label.
Look at Phish for instance. We recorded this new album ourselves and you know, it’s not going to set the world on fire but it really helps. I think Phish are bigger now than they’ve ever been. It’s incredible.
However, with the changing economics of the music business, what kinds of commercial and artistic considerations do you make when deciding which artists to produce or sign to a label you are working for?
I look at a band like Fleet Foxes. I see it as a career, I don’t see it as one record. Maybe Fleet Foxes didn’t sell as many as Britney Spears but I think Fleet Foxes, if they’re clever, are going to have a long career with great sales and a great life.
I am not in the world of Britney Spears. She’s fine. She can do what she wants. But I’m much more interested in artists who think about their art and who see it as art.
In fact, because I’m doing this interview, can you put in a plug? I’m looking for something really cool. It doesn’t matter if they’re successful or not successful. I am very excited about doing some quick records.
People can contact me however they need to. People can find me if they want me. I’m very excited about young artists and I feel I’ve got something I can offer them
You sound so invigorated. Do you ever get burned out after all these years?
No. The difference is I can’t go back to back on records anymore. In the 80s I could just do one after another and not get burned out. Now, I would get burned out if I did that.
So I’m like a boxer now who needs a little bit more time between bouts. But I’m ready right now.
Because more recording studios like the one where you got your start in the 1970s are closing in today’s tough economic environment, what advice would give a kid interested in being “the next Steve Lillywhite”?
It is getting more and more difficult but I still believe in studios. So just send letters to your local studio and try and get some experience. Find the local band that you love and try and record them.
Believe in your heart and not in your eyes. So many people look at music. Everything is on a screen now. That’s important but it’s also important to go where your heart goes and go where your ears go
For more information, Swarm readers can click here to listen to online radio segments from Steve Lillywhite’s regular radio show on NPR which he hopes to restart soon. These segments include Steve’s reflections on classic records he’s been involved in as well as on-air live performances produced by Steve with artists like The Pretenders, Albert Hammond Jr., Goldfrapp and Dr. Dog.
Los Angeles-based writer/musician, Sam J.C. has written for Filter, Vapors, Buzzbands LA and Variety. He can be contacted at samjcmusic [at] gmail.com
thedailyswarm
U2 360 Tour Profile
SEEKING INTIMACY ON A GRAND SCALE
Dec 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Kevin Becka
Photos: Steve Jennings
The 170-foot-tall steel structure and stage at University of Phoenix Stadium (Glendale, Ariz.)
The U2 360° tour that recently ended its first leg in the U.S. has taken the stadium show to a new level. The sheer scope of the production is mind-boggling. It took two years to design and develop, travels on 180 trucks, employs more than 400 people — including 12 system engineer/techs — and uses an astounding amount of audio and video gear. The best thing about the show is the communication and contact between the band and the audience provided by the 170-foot-tall steel structure perched over the stage.
Originally inspired by the Theme Building at Los Angeles' LAX airport, the four-legged “spider” incorporates all of the lighting, some of the 12 manned cameras and spots, massive speaker arrays and a huge 360-degree vertically expandable LED video screen. And as ridiculous as it sounds, once the show starts, you forget it's there: Instead of being the elephant in the room, the structure focuses attention on the band and how they interact with the crowd, both near and far. The inner ring nearest the main stage gives more than 3,000 fans close proximity to the band, while the outer ring gives the band access to standing and seated concertgoers farther out. At different times during the show, The Edge, Bono, Adam Clayton and even drummer Larry Mullins Jr. use two moving bridges to perform between the areas and are followed by video and audio all the way.
Of course, you'd expect the audio system used for such a massive setup to be huge — and it doesn't disappoint. The setup comprises the latest in digital tech offered for live sound and, surprisingly, some tried-and-true analog gear. The tour's look and systems design was a collaboration between the band and audio director/front-of-house Joe O'Herlihy, show designer Willie Williams, production architect/designers Jeremy Lloyd and Mark Fisher, and Clair Global R&D and engineering teams.
Front-of-house engineer Joe O'Herlihy (left) with senior systems engineer Jo Ravitch
The speakers used are all Clair and comprise FOH left/right hangs of 36 i5 and 36 i5B; 24 i5 and 24 i5B rear; 16 i5 and 16 i5B at house left; and 16 i5 and 16 i5B at house right. Main stage front-fills include 24 FF2 and 24 BT218 subs, while the “B” stage area carries 72 S4 subs. There are also two towers carrying 32 iDL delay cabinets. That's 336 separate enclosures, all powered by Lab.gruppen PLM 10000Q and PLM 14000s and Powersoft K10 amps that are positioned at each leg of the structure and are fed audio from the stage racks. All EQ and control is via Lake/Dolby I/O software Version 5.3, with most of the processing resident in the Lab.gruppen PLM 10000Q and PLM 14000 amplifiers; system tuning is via EAW Smaart software.
Consoles at FOH are redundant DiGiCo SD7s, each running identical shows. Jo Ravitch, senior systems engineer/Clair Global crew chief, says, “There are two main stage racks, one of them distributes AES to each leg and there's a backup system of analog feeds to each amp, as well. If we have an issue with anything in this setup, I walk over here and switch to analog and Joe [O'Herlihy] walks over to the other board and picks up the mix.”
The front end for Bono and The Edge's vocals and some of the compression for the guitars called for some unusual gear choices. Ravitch says, “When the tour started, there wasn't very much [processing] available on the board so we're using outboard stuff.” For Bono's vocals, O'Herlihy calls on the Manley Vox Box; The Edge's vocals take an Avalon 737. Compression for the guitars is on a Summit Audio DCL-200 comp/limiter, with the rest of the limiting provided by the SD7.
In monitor world, from left: Niall Slevin, Alistair McMillan and Dave Skaff
The system was a game-changer for O'Herlihy, who has been with U2 for more than 25 years. “The approach to the mix in the context of the way the sound is distributed has been enlightening, to be perfectly honest,” he says. “The size of the system has created an experience that is incredibly responsive. We now have something that's almost touch-sensitive. When you make a move, there's a large physical element of immediately hearing what you do.”
Because of the staging's scope and design, the textbooks had to be thrown out and a system designed that would cover everyone. O'Herlihy says, “From the mix perspective, you have to get your head around the whole concept of having an inside column and an outside column, and how you distribute your gain structures accordingly.”
The players' audio experience onstage was an essential element in the system design. “Any time you do things in 360 degrees, the apex of that circle is right where the drummer is,” O'Herlihy continues. “It would normally be a difficult place to perform while being hammered with all that bass.” This is where the use of the 72 Clair S4 cardioid subs around the outer ring comes in. “The cardioid movement works extraordinarily well in nullifying bass, so it's a clean, clean stage that is a good performance area,” the FOH engineer adds.
O'Herlihy has seen an exponential evolution in tour sound technology. He had his digital education on the DiGiCo D5, which was innovative at the time. On the Vertigo tour, he had the benefit of the D5 being around for a few years before he took it out. He did not have that luxury with the SD7, but trusted that it was the only console that could get the job done. The SD7 was the only solution that let him put each and every individual channel where he wanted it without using external equipment that would have meant another link in the chain that could possibly fail. Still, the SD7 was a leap of faith and trust in DiGiCo. “We've had our glitches along the way with software updates, but like everything else, we're in virgin territory here and we felt that that the SD7 is what made this whole thing work.”
Underneath It All
Monitor mixers Dave Skaff, Alistair McMillan and Niall Slevin make their home under the massive stage, which is also where offstage keyboardist Terry Lawless plays. Because all three mixers don't have a view of the stage, they watch what's going on via TV monitors at each station. And as the band is moving around so much, each station gets a four-camera split specially switched for their benefit, resulting in the band being visible at all times.
Skaff mixes for bassist Adam Clayton, drummer Larry Mullins and Lawless on a Digidesign D-Show Profile. The tour's redundancy mantra carries on below stage with Skaff mixing on one Profile with another right next to it ready to go. “With just a couple of switches hit at the same time, I'm fully up on the second rig,” says Skaff, who worked for Digidesign on the VENUE console project from the beginning. In his mixes, he uses a variety of plug-ins from Waves, McDSP and the Phoenix plug-in from Crane Song, and also records every show to Pro Tools HD.
Using digital consoles has made it easier to provide specific mixes for each bandmember. The Edge has six guitar amps onstage and two under, while Clayton has five bass guitar feeds, and they rely on the team to provide the specific balances they need for each song. Skaff points out the advantage: “Without digital, it would be a madness of markers and 3×5 index cards. At soundcheck, Bono will do half a song, shout out another song, do 12 bars of that song and shout out another. It would be impossible to get all that to come back without the digital consoles.”
Mixers Slevin and McMillan provide audio for The Edge and Bono on two DiGiCo SD7s, each running dual engines fed via MADI. Each desk runs both mixes, the thought being that if one console quits, the engineer can jump to the second engine on the working console and continue to work until the downed desk can be revived. The stage racks and local racks used for processing are also duplicated and can be quickly switched if needed. McMillan is recording the show to Steinberg Cubase on two independent Apple G5s, which top out at 90 tracks, 20 of which are ambience. “I feed [Bono] quite a bit of ambience,” says McMillan. “He enjoys hearing the audience reaction.”
To help with latency, McMillan keeps Bono's vocal on an analog path by getting a split from the stage, which he sends through a Rupert Neve-designed Amek preamp and then into a channel on a Midas Verona analog console. The rest of the band and effects are sent to a second channel on the Verona, which all go directly to Bono. For the singer's reverb, he's using the Bricasti M7, McMillan's favorite new toy. “It's more like glue than a reverb,” McMillan says. For Bono's delays, he uses a TC Electronic 2290 and a variety of verbs from Lexicon and Yamaha across the rest of the band.
McMillan, who has mixed monitors for Van Morrison, came primarily from a studio background, having worked extensively at Windmill Lane in Dublin. “These guys have made me raise the bar within myself,” McMillan says. “After 20 years, you get set in your ways. Here, I had to start again and I love that.”
For The Edge, Niall Slevin runs 40 inputs per engine into his SD7, sharing the same rack feeds with McMillan. He uses an AMS reverb and a Lexicon PCM 80 for his mixes but duplicates his rack effects with onboard equivalents in case of failure. He also has duplicate analog processors in his rack for McMillan's mixes should Alistair need to jump over to his console. Slevin feels the SD7 is a big sonic improvement over the SD5, but he is realistic about its abilities. “It still has a few reliability issues, but we're pushing it to the max, especially with the redundancy. Effectively, we're throwing it out the top floor and seeing if it will fly. At the moment, it's gliding, but it's getting there. No one has had these consoles and pushed it as much as we have. When we find things out, DiGiCo has been very good about fixing it. I can't imagine a situation at the moment in a rock 'n' roll theater or any other audio application that this couldn't deal with.”
The band is using Future Sonics in-ear systems transmitted over newly upgraded Senn- heiser G3 wireless systems, which the crew credits with adding more definition and top end. With this large of a setup, RF is a big challenge and the team has found themselves going back to old-school techniques of placement using line-of-sight and shorter cables. Skaff says, “The wilder it gets, the more we seem to go back to basics to make things happen.”
A show of this scale being launched during tough times is easy to pick on. But it's hard to argue with its success both in record-breaking attendance and integration of new technology. At a time when album sales are not driving revenues, live performance has stepped into the spotlight and blazed a trail where other methods have failed. Did the band achieve “intimacy on a grand scale” as Bono proposed during the show? Only you can be the judge, but from my seat, it was dazzling.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Becka is Mix's technical editor.
mixonline
SEEKING INTIMACY ON A GRAND SCALE
Dec 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Kevin Becka
Photos: Steve Jennings
The 170-foot-tall steel structure and stage at University of Phoenix Stadium (Glendale, Ariz.)
The U2 360° tour that recently ended its first leg in the U.S. has taken the stadium show to a new level. The sheer scope of the production is mind-boggling. It took two years to design and develop, travels on 180 trucks, employs more than 400 people — including 12 system engineer/techs — and uses an astounding amount of audio and video gear. The best thing about the show is the communication and contact between the band and the audience provided by the 170-foot-tall steel structure perched over the stage.
Originally inspired by the Theme Building at Los Angeles' LAX airport, the four-legged “spider” incorporates all of the lighting, some of the 12 manned cameras and spots, massive speaker arrays and a huge 360-degree vertically expandable LED video screen. And as ridiculous as it sounds, once the show starts, you forget it's there: Instead of being the elephant in the room, the structure focuses attention on the band and how they interact with the crowd, both near and far. The inner ring nearest the main stage gives more than 3,000 fans close proximity to the band, while the outer ring gives the band access to standing and seated concertgoers farther out. At different times during the show, The Edge, Bono, Adam Clayton and even drummer Larry Mullins Jr. use two moving bridges to perform between the areas and are followed by video and audio all the way.
Of course, you'd expect the audio system used for such a massive setup to be huge — and it doesn't disappoint. The setup comprises the latest in digital tech offered for live sound and, surprisingly, some tried-and-true analog gear. The tour's look and systems design was a collaboration between the band and audio director/front-of-house Joe O'Herlihy, show designer Willie Williams, production architect/designers Jeremy Lloyd and Mark Fisher, and Clair Global R&D and engineering teams.
Front-of-house engineer Joe O'Herlihy (left) with senior systems engineer Jo Ravitch
The speakers used are all Clair and comprise FOH left/right hangs of 36 i5 and 36 i5B; 24 i5 and 24 i5B rear; 16 i5 and 16 i5B at house left; and 16 i5 and 16 i5B at house right. Main stage front-fills include 24 FF2 and 24 BT218 subs, while the “B” stage area carries 72 S4 subs. There are also two towers carrying 32 iDL delay cabinets. That's 336 separate enclosures, all powered by Lab.gruppen PLM 10000Q and PLM 14000s and Powersoft K10 amps that are positioned at each leg of the structure and are fed audio from the stage racks. All EQ and control is via Lake/Dolby I/O software Version 5.3, with most of the processing resident in the Lab.gruppen PLM 10000Q and PLM 14000 amplifiers; system tuning is via EAW Smaart software.
Consoles at FOH are redundant DiGiCo SD7s, each running identical shows. Jo Ravitch, senior systems engineer/Clair Global crew chief, says, “There are two main stage racks, one of them distributes AES to each leg and there's a backup system of analog feeds to each amp, as well. If we have an issue with anything in this setup, I walk over here and switch to analog and Joe [O'Herlihy] walks over to the other board and picks up the mix.”
The front end for Bono and The Edge's vocals and some of the compression for the guitars called for some unusual gear choices. Ravitch says, “When the tour started, there wasn't very much [processing] available on the board so we're using outboard stuff.” For Bono's vocals, O'Herlihy calls on the Manley Vox Box; The Edge's vocals take an Avalon 737. Compression for the guitars is on a Summit Audio DCL-200 comp/limiter, with the rest of the limiting provided by the SD7.
In monitor world, from left: Niall Slevin, Alistair McMillan and Dave Skaff
The system was a game-changer for O'Herlihy, who has been with U2 for more than 25 years. “The approach to the mix in the context of the way the sound is distributed has been enlightening, to be perfectly honest,” he says. “The size of the system has created an experience that is incredibly responsive. We now have something that's almost touch-sensitive. When you make a move, there's a large physical element of immediately hearing what you do.”
Because of the staging's scope and design, the textbooks had to be thrown out and a system designed that would cover everyone. O'Herlihy says, “From the mix perspective, you have to get your head around the whole concept of having an inside column and an outside column, and how you distribute your gain structures accordingly.”
The players' audio experience onstage was an essential element in the system design. “Any time you do things in 360 degrees, the apex of that circle is right where the drummer is,” O'Herlihy continues. “It would normally be a difficult place to perform while being hammered with all that bass.” This is where the use of the 72 Clair S4 cardioid subs around the outer ring comes in. “The cardioid movement works extraordinarily well in nullifying bass, so it's a clean, clean stage that is a good performance area,” the FOH engineer adds.
O'Herlihy has seen an exponential evolution in tour sound technology. He had his digital education on the DiGiCo D5, which was innovative at the time. On the Vertigo tour, he had the benefit of the D5 being around for a few years before he took it out. He did not have that luxury with the SD7, but trusted that it was the only console that could get the job done. The SD7 was the only solution that let him put each and every individual channel where he wanted it without using external equipment that would have meant another link in the chain that could possibly fail. Still, the SD7 was a leap of faith and trust in DiGiCo. “We've had our glitches along the way with software updates, but like everything else, we're in virgin territory here and we felt that that the SD7 is what made this whole thing work.”
Underneath It All
Monitor mixers Dave Skaff, Alistair McMillan and Niall Slevin make their home under the massive stage, which is also where offstage keyboardist Terry Lawless plays. Because all three mixers don't have a view of the stage, they watch what's going on via TV monitors at each station. And as the band is moving around so much, each station gets a four-camera split specially switched for their benefit, resulting in the band being visible at all times.
Skaff mixes for bassist Adam Clayton, drummer Larry Mullins and Lawless on a Digidesign D-Show Profile. The tour's redundancy mantra carries on below stage with Skaff mixing on one Profile with another right next to it ready to go. “With just a couple of switches hit at the same time, I'm fully up on the second rig,” says Skaff, who worked for Digidesign on the VENUE console project from the beginning. In his mixes, he uses a variety of plug-ins from Waves, McDSP and the Phoenix plug-in from Crane Song, and also records every show to Pro Tools HD.
Using digital consoles has made it easier to provide specific mixes for each bandmember. The Edge has six guitar amps onstage and two under, while Clayton has five bass guitar feeds, and they rely on the team to provide the specific balances they need for each song. Skaff points out the advantage: “Without digital, it would be a madness of markers and 3×5 index cards. At soundcheck, Bono will do half a song, shout out another song, do 12 bars of that song and shout out another. It would be impossible to get all that to come back without the digital consoles.”
Mixers Slevin and McMillan provide audio for The Edge and Bono on two DiGiCo SD7s, each running dual engines fed via MADI. Each desk runs both mixes, the thought being that if one console quits, the engineer can jump to the second engine on the working console and continue to work until the downed desk can be revived. The stage racks and local racks used for processing are also duplicated and can be quickly switched if needed. McMillan is recording the show to Steinberg Cubase on two independent Apple G5s, which top out at 90 tracks, 20 of which are ambience. “I feed [Bono] quite a bit of ambience,” says McMillan. “He enjoys hearing the audience reaction.”
To help with latency, McMillan keeps Bono's vocal on an analog path by getting a split from the stage, which he sends through a Rupert Neve-designed Amek preamp and then into a channel on a Midas Verona analog console. The rest of the band and effects are sent to a second channel on the Verona, which all go directly to Bono. For the singer's reverb, he's using the Bricasti M7, McMillan's favorite new toy. “It's more like glue than a reverb,” McMillan says. For Bono's delays, he uses a TC Electronic 2290 and a variety of verbs from Lexicon and Yamaha across the rest of the band.
McMillan, who has mixed monitors for Van Morrison, came primarily from a studio background, having worked extensively at Windmill Lane in Dublin. “These guys have made me raise the bar within myself,” McMillan says. “After 20 years, you get set in your ways. Here, I had to start again and I love that.”
For The Edge, Niall Slevin runs 40 inputs per engine into his SD7, sharing the same rack feeds with McMillan. He uses an AMS reverb and a Lexicon PCM 80 for his mixes but duplicates his rack effects with onboard equivalents in case of failure. He also has duplicate analog processors in his rack for McMillan's mixes should Alistair need to jump over to his console. Slevin feels the SD7 is a big sonic improvement over the SD5, but he is realistic about its abilities. “It still has a few reliability issues, but we're pushing it to the max, especially with the redundancy. Effectively, we're throwing it out the top floor and seeing if it will fly. At the moment, it's gliding, but it's getting there. No one has had these consoles and pushed it as much as we have. When we find things out, DiGiCo has been very good about fixing it. I can't imagine a situation at the moment in a rock 'n' roll theater or any other audio application that this couldn't deal with.”
The band is using Future Sonics in-ear systems transmitted over newly upgraded Senn- heiser G3 wireless systems, which the crew credits with adding more definition and top end. With this large of a setup, RF is a big challenge and the team has found themselves going back to old-school techniques of placement using line-of-sight and shorter cables. Skaff says, “The wilder it gets, the more we seem to go back to basics to make things happen.”
A show of this scale being launched during tough times is easy to pick on. But it's hard to argue with its success both in record-breaking attendance and integration of new technology. At a time when album sales are not driving revenues, live performance has stepped into the spotlight and blazed a trail where other methods have failed. Did the band achieve “intimacy on a grand scale” as Bono proposed during the show? Only you can be the judge, but from my seat, it was dazzling.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Becka is Mix's technical editor.
mixonline
Sting and Bono: should rock stars stay out of politics?
By Neil McCormick - December 2nd, 2009
Sting: the man behind the beard Photo: JANE MINGAY
Sting got a grilling on Newsnight this week. Appearing by satellite link up to discuss his latest campaign to protect the Kayapo tribe of the Amazonian rainforest, he got well and truly Paxman’d. The famously scornful host dragged the rock star out of his celebrity comfort zone, challenging his real understanding of the issues and his commitment to cause and generally treating his position with scornful scepticism. “You’re not being blamed for it (the global environmental crisis), you’re just being accused of hypocrisy, that’s all,” said Paxman, with trademark sneering reasonableness.
Sting was visibly squirming in his seat as he tried to defend himself, not a good look for a rock star. Not even his claim that he had demarcated an area the size of Belgium to “ameliorate” his “admittedly large” carbon footprint was enough to satisfy Paxman. “The difficulty is, of course, that as long as you are open to the accusation of being a hypocrite, it potentially damages those causes with which you are associated,” sneered the presenter. (Meanwhile, I’m still wondering where Sting keeps this carbon offset area the size of Belgium? Maybe it is Belgium!? Could he have secretly bought the country to convert it into sustainable forest?)
Imagine if all celebrity interviews were like this. Cut them off mid-sentence and force them to justify their very existence. “I’m sorry, Sir Elton, you haven’t answered the question. How can your statement, and I quote, ‘Saturday night’s alright for fighting’, be viewed as anything other than an explicit incitement to violence? It’s not really the kind of sentiments we might expect to hear from the head of an AIDS foundation, is it? Self-appointed or not.”
Sting’s discomfort in the face of Paxman’s confrontational approach suggests he is ill-suited to the realities of the political frontline. Or at least ill-prepared. When politicians appear before the media, they have teams of people ensuring they have their facts up to date, advising them on how to present the issue, and media training them to stonewall in the face of uncomfortable questions. Sting didn’t even look like he’d brought his stylist. Most celebrity interviews are shallow, fawning affairs (if entertainment journalists are going to stick a knife in, we usually wait till our subject’s back is turned). But if celebrities are going to use their fame to champion political causes, then they surely have to be ready to defend their position in the rather more brutal arena of political debate.
That other rock and roll champion of the down-pressed, Bono, gets this all the time. This week, speaking at the launch of yet another charitable initiative (Nike’s Lace Up, Save Lives campaign), he batted off accusations of hypocrisy by essentially admitting them. “I’ve been blessed and I’ve been over-rewarded for what I do and I’m trying to give my time and my resources. But, you know, I’m a rich rock star, so shoot me.” Possibly a dangerous invitation, but his essential point was clear, and delivered with winning humour.
Between the lines of Paxman’s bullying of Sting lay the implicit question ‘should rock stars (and other celebrities and unelected individuals with an audience, from movie stars to our dear Prince of Wales) stay out of politics?’ Personally, I don’t see why. They are human beings, interacting with the world, and if they become engaged by an issue, then they have every right to put their time and energy (and often their art) in service of their beliefs. Mostly what they are doing is an extension of their roles as entertainers: banging a drum for a cause. As Sting pointed out, “my concern was that the voice of the Indians was not being heard in this issue, they are very rarely listened to. I went to Sao Paolo last week and convened a press conference and the BBC came, and they wouldn’t have come without the “celeb” or the “lovey” turning up, that’s just the world we live in.” Sting defined his job as “to try and give a platform to people who have no voice.” Certainly the plight of an Amazonian tribe whose existence is threatened by the building of multi-billion dollar dam by the Brazilian government wouldn’t have got a look in on Newsnight were it not for the rock star’s involvement. Which surely makes Paxman complicit in the very area of celebrity politics he was pouring so much scorn on.
It might not have been the easiest gig he ever played, or the most receptive audience, but ultimately Sting got the job done.
Meanwhile, I am indebted to my colleague on Twitter, Mapsadaisical, for this sneak preview from a forthcoming episode of Newsnight, in which Paxman tackles the vexing topic of The Righteous Brothers ‘You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling’.
Paxman: ““Instead of repeatedly pointing out that someone has lost something, why not help them to look for it? Suggest that they retrace their steps, perhaps? Ask them when was the last time they remember actually having that loving feeling.” Paxman removes glasses, stares hard. “Mr Righteous, are you just going to STAND THERE or are you going to DO SOMETHING?”
telegraph
By Neil McCormick - December 2nd, 2009
Sting: the man behind the beard Photo: JANE MINGAY
Sting got a grilling on Newsnight this week. Appearing by satellite link up to discuss his latest campaign to protect the Kayapo tribe of the Amazonian rainforest, he got well and truly Paxman’d. The famously scornful host dragged the rock star out of his celebrity comfort zone, challenging his real understanding of the issues and his commitment to cause and generally treating his position with scornful scepticism. “You’re not being blamed for it (the global environmental crisis), you’re just being accused of hypocrisy, that’s all,” said Paxman, with trademark sneering reasonableness.
Sting was visibly squirming in his seat as he tried to defend himself, not a good look for a rock star. Not even his claim that he had demarcated an area the size of Belgium to “ameliorate” his “admittedly large” carbon footprint was enough to satisfy Paxman. “The difficulty is, of course, that as long as you are open to the accusation of being a hypocrite, it potentially damages those causes with which you are associated,” sneered the presenter. (Meanwhile, I’m still wondering where Sting keeps this carbon offset area the size of Belgium? Maybe it is Belgium!? Could he have secretly bought the country to convert it into sustainable forest?)
Imagine if all celebrity interviews were like this. Cut them off mid-sentence and force them to justify their very existence. “I’m sorry, Sir Elton, you haven’t answered the question. How can your statement, and I quote, ‘Saturday night’s alright for fighting’, be viewed as anything other than an explicit incitement to violence? It’s not really the kind of sentiments we might expect to hear from the head of an AIDS foundation, is it? Self-appointed or not.”
Sting’s discomfort in the face of Paxman’s confrontational approach suggests he is ill-suited to the realities of the political frontline. Or at least ill-prepared. When politicians appear before the media, they have teams of people ensuring they have their facts up to date, advising them on how to present the issue, and media training them to stonewall in the face of uncomfortable questions. Sting didn’t even look like he’d brought his stylist. Most celebrity interviews are shallow, fawning affairs (if entertainment journalists are going to stick a knife in, we usually wait till our subject’s back is turned). But if celebrities are going to use their fame to champion political causes, then they surely have to be ready to defend their position in the rather more brutal arena of political debate.
That other rock and roll champion of the down-pressed, Bono, gets this all the time. This week, speaking at the launch of yet another charitable initiative (Nike’s Lace Up, Save Lives campaign), he batted off accusations of hypocrisy by essentially admitting them. “I’ve been blessed and I’ve been over-rewarded for what I do and I’m trying to give my time and my resources. But, you know, I’m a rich rock star, so shoot me.” Possibly a dangerous invitation, but his essential point was clear, and delivered with winning humour.
Between the lines of Paxman’s bullying of Sting lay the implicit question ‘should rock stars (and other celebrities and unelected individuals with an audience, from movie stars to our dear Prince of Wales) stay out of politics?’ Personally, I don’t see why. They are human beings, interacting with the world, and if they become engaged by an issue, then they have every right to put their time and energy (and often their art) in service of their beliefs. Mostly what they are doing is an extension of their roles as entertainers: banging a drum for a cause. As Sting pointed out, “my concern was that the voice of the Indians was not being heard in this issue, they are very rarely listened to. I went to Sao Paolo last week and convened a press conference and the BBC came, and they wouldn’t have come without the “celeb” or the “lovey” turning up, that’s just the world we live in.” Sting defined his job as “to try and give a platform to people who have no voice.” Certainly the plight of an Amazonian tribe whose existence is threatened by the building of multi-billion dollar dam by the Brazilian government wouldn’t have got a look in on Newsnight were it not for the rock star’s involvement. Which surely makes Paxman complicit in the very area of celebrity politics he was pouring so much scorn on.
It might not have been the easiest gig he ever played, or the most receptive audience, but ultimately Sting got the job done.
Meanwhile, I am indebted to my colleague on Twitter, Mapsadaisical, for this sneak preview from a forthcoming episode of Newsnight, in which Paxman tackles the vexing topic of The Righteous Brothers ‘You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling’.
Paxman: ““Instead of repeatedly pointing out that someone has lost something, why not help them to look for it? Suggest that they retrace their steps, perhaps? Ask them when was the last time they remember actually having that loving feeling.” Paxman removes glasses, stares hard. “Mr Righteous, are you just going to STAND THERE or are you going to DO SOMETHING?”
telegraph
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