30.11.09

Shows for 2010
30 November 2009

The Turin show will take place at the Stadio Olimpico on August 6th and the Rome show will be at the Olympic Stadium on October 8th. Tickets go on public sale this Friday, December 4th but a presale for U2.com subscribers opens tomorrow, Wednesday.

We'll be emailing our subscribers with presale details. Click here for dates and onsales of 2010 shows. (On this tour grid you'll also see which presale groups go on sale on which day.)

Anyone joining U2.com as a subscriber this week, can enter the presale on Wednesday. When you subscribe you also qualify to be sent the limited edition U2 Remix album as soon as it comes off the press. Here's the lowdown.

U2.com
'Magical' Moment
27 November 2009

'The most magical experience I've ever had in a studio'.

Not long after the album came out earlier this year, producer Brian Eno spoke to us about one of his 'No Line' highlights - Moment of Surrender.

U2.com
'Long, Drawn Out Confession'
27 November 2009

'I'm here and I'm lost and I don't really know where I'm going...' That's the sense you get with Cedars of Lebanon, the last track on No Line on the Horizon, one of the great, unsung tracks from No Line on the Horizon.

A 'lovely piece' says producer Brian Eno, which all started with 'a sample from a record I did with Harold Budd in 1980...'

U2.com
Kicking Up A Racket
25 November 2009



Based on a desire to read a book on his favourite band author, Ro Link, spent seven years researching a new biography of Stiff LIttle Fingers, along the way linking up with like-minded long time SLF fan, Ian Templeton. Ian spoke with Adam and Edge about the band's early records, their live performances and the influence they had.

Both recall seeing the band in 1978 at Moran's and McGonagles in Dublin.'I remember most definitely the first time I saw Stiff Little Fingers,' recalls Adam. 'The reason I recall the show was because it was so mind expanding. They were just so incredibly powerful, they were the equivalent, I guess, of an English person seeing the Clash at the 100 Club or something.'

'In Dublin, ' he adds. 'Certainly within our circle, those shows kick-started a hundred Irish bands across the city'.

Edge recalls the 'great punk anthem' that was 'Suspect Device'. 'It had everything really, it was an incredible three-and-a-half-minutes. So much venom in the lyrics and the sound was so messed up. It was perfect in its imperfection. These guys just really meant it. It meant everything. It was life or death, that's what I remember from the show.'

The title of the book is a nod to SLF guitarist, Henry Cluney, and Edge recalled his whirlwind style. 'I just remember being blown away by the intensity of the band's playing, particularly actually Henry. Just the way he would attack the guitar, he was gone, he was so lost in it. Just the total commitment to the playing, there was not a hint of holding back or posing.'

'Kicking Up A Racket The Story of Stiff Little Fingers 1977 - 1983' is published by Belfast-based Appletree Press and available from here.

(And if you're in or around Belfast tomorrow, Thursday 26th, there's a launch party at the John Hewitt Bar, 51 Donegall Street, Belfast, BT1 2FH

U2.com
San Sebastian, 2010
24 November 2009

The San Sebastian show at the Anoeta Stadium, will go on public sale on Tuesday December 1st and a presale for U2.com subscribers will open tomorrow, Wednesday.

We'll be emailing our subscribers with presale details. Click here for the latest information on 2010 dates and onsales. (On this tour grid you'll also see which presale groups go on sale on which day.)

Anyone joining U2.com as a subscriber this week, can enter the presale on Thursday. When you subscribe you also qualify to be sent the limited edition U2 Remix album as soon as it comes off the press. Here's the lowdown.

U2.com
'Hall of Fame' Show, This Weekend
24 November 2009



Where else would you find Bruce Springsteen joining U2 for 'Still Haven't Found'... or Mick Jagger and Fergie jamming with the band on 'Gimme Shelter'?

Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Paul Simon, Metallica, Simon and Garfunkel, Sting, John Legend, Annie Lennox... over two nights at Madison Square Garden, the line up for the 25th anniversary concerts of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was unmatched.

Check out the bill and take it all in on HBO this Sunday night from 8pm

U2.com
U2 will play Glastonbury next year
23 November 2009



The band are due to play the opening night of the 40th Glastonbury Festival on June 25. It will be the only date the band play in the UK and Ireland next year. 'The band is really looking forward to it' Paul McGuinness tells us.

Festival organiser Michael Eavis said: "I promised the the best possible line-up for the show next year and the confirmation that U2 will play their first ever Glastonbury - and their first major festival gig since the early 1980s - is fantastic news.

"We've been trying for years... And now we've finally made it happen. I'm sure they will pull out all the stops to make next year's Glastonbury the most memorable ever."

Promoter John Giddings said on Twitter: "It is true, U2 headline the Fri night at Glastonbury. They fly back for the weekend in the middle of their US tour."

'Glastonbury' which takes place on Michael Eavis' dairy farm in Somerset, is the most well-known arts and music festival in the world. Last year Neil Young, Blur and Bruce Springsteen headlined.

U2.com
Second Show For Montreal, 2010
21 November 2009

A second night at the Montreal Hippodrome has been added for the 360° Tour next year - it will be on July 17th.

The show will go on public sale on Monday November 30th and a presale for U2.com subscribers will open this coming Tuesday.

We'll be emailing our subscribers with presale details. Click here for the latest information on 2010 dates and onsales. (On this tour grid you can also see which presale groups go on sale on which day.)

Anyone joining U2.com as a subscriber this week, can enter the presale on Wednesday. When you subscribe you also qualify to be sent the limited edition U2 Remix album as soon as it comes off the press. Here's the lowdown.

U2.com
'We´re called U2...' 20 November 2009



The band have been honoured at a fair number of awards ceremonies over the years and we've pulled together some of the best video we have in a new gallery.

From Edge (in very cool beret and shades) rapping Numb at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards to Jay-Z joining them on stage at the 2009 European Music Awards in Berlin, the gallery has some classic content.

There's plenty of speechifying and live performance at different Grammy Awards shows but our favourite clip has to be Bruce Springsteen's epic and affectionate essay when U2 were inducted into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. It's long... but well worth a watch.

(By the way - only our U2.com subscribers get to watch these clips in full-length. Enjoy! )

Let us know, below, which are your favourite clips - and why.

Here's the gallery.

U2.com
'We close in on the band...'17 November 2009

Bono's latest column for the The New York Times takes the form of five scenes of a screenplay set in Berlin, over several decades. It opens on the night of the band's live set in front of the Brandenburg Gate earlier this month.

BERLIN, NOVEMBER 2009 - NIGHT

The camera cranes over a crowd of thousands gathered in Pariser Platz.

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

We close in on the band. We can feel its sense of occasion. This is nothing new. One suspects THE SINGER approaches a trip to the bathroom with the same degree of vainglory. (To wit, is he not writing about himself now in the third person? He is.) On stage, he is emotional in the way we've come to expect. In this case it's because a song written to help stop his band from falling apart has somehow become an unsentimental ode to unity - in this instance a bittersweet song for a bittersweet history.

Further abusing the contrivance of a screenplay, we cut to...

SCENE 2

Read the whole column at The New York Times.

U2.com

16.11.09

Rolling Stone Readers’ Poll: Greatest Music of the Decade
11/10/09, 6:14 pm EST





The end of the decade is nearly upon us and on December 9th, Rolling Stone’s panel of critics, artists and industry figures will name the best songs and albums of the past 10 years. But we want to know what you think too. Starting today, we’re asking the Rolling Stone readers to tell us what they think is the Song of the Decade and the Album of the Decade. Plus, be sure to place your vote on the Readers’ Poll ballot to help decide the pick for Artist of the Decade.

Who will it be? Timberlake or Radiohead? Jay-Z or Beyonce? Springsteen or U2? You can only vote for one song, one album and one artist of the decade, so think long and hard before casting your vote. The balloting stars today and runs until Monday, November 30th, giving you 20 days to make these difficult decisions. Click here for the Readers’ Poll ballot and remember to check back on December 9th when we reveal both Rolling Stone’s and the Readers’ Poll picks.

Rolling Stone
rollingstone

15.11.09

Op-Ed Guest Columnist
Five Scenes, One Theme: A True if Unlikely Story


By BONO
Published: November 14, 2009
SCENE 1



EXT. BRANDENBURG GATE

BERLIN, NOVEMBER 2009 — NIGHT

The camera cranes over a crowd of thousands gathered in Pariser Platz.

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

We close in on the band. We can feel its sense of occasion. This is nothing new. One suspects THE SINGER approaches a trip to the bathroom with the same degree of vainglory. (To wit, is he not writing about himself now in the third person? He is.) On stage, he is emotional in the way we’ve come to expect. In this case it’s because a song written to help stop his band from falling apart has somehow become an unsentimental ode to unity — in this instance a bittersweet song for a bittersweet history.

Further abusing the contrivance of a screenplay, we cut to

SCENE 2

INT. AN OLD MANSION, EAST BERLIN

OCTOBER 1990 — MID-MORNING

It has the feel of a house previously used to host visiting dignitaries from the Soviet Union (because it is). Camera pans a not-so-stately bed in which Leonid Brezhnev once slept — soundly, we presume — when he controlled the second-largest nuclear arsenal on the planet. Did the red button sit beside the ashtray on the nightstand?

In the bed is not the burly Brezhnev but a more feral and less justifiable megalomaniac: a very much younger version of The Singer we met in the first scene. The weapons he has in mind are weapons of mass devotion, like the perfect pop song. He is dangerous, but only to himself. In fact, he is very hung over after a night out with his bandmates celebrating the reunification of Germany, an occasion that suits his sense of self-importance and gives him the excuse to abuse himself “for the sake of history.”

Having arrived on the last flight into divided Berlin, he and his bandmates had set out to enjoy the carnival atmosphere of a city testing its new freedom. Instead they joined a crowd of glum faces in gray coats funeral-marching to the sound of no music. “These Germans really know how to throw a party,” one of the band said under his breath.

In fact, the band had gone to the wrong side of Potsdamer Platz (and of history) and took part in a march against the fall of the wall. It was like a bad Irish joke. The bandmates found it darkly funny to imagine the papers back home carrying a photo of them protesting Mikhail Gorbachev’s great drawing back of the Iron Curtain.

The camera takes in the details of the room, which the winter sun shows to be a symphony in brown: brown carpet, brown furniture, even, improbably, a brown stereo, which The Singer, in his underwear, now passes in the living room on a desperate search for a glass of water. His head feels like a smoldering cigar that needs to be doused.

In the hall of this rented villa, he is startled to find a German family: an OLDER MAN and his wife, plus a woman in her 30s and some grandchildren. The Singer rubs his red eyes in disbelief. Conscious of his state of undress, he keeps half of his body hidden.

BONO (THE SINGER) Er, can I help you...?

OLDER MAN (in heavily accented English) Nein. Can I help you? This is my house!

BONO Sorry, there must be some kind of misunderstanding. This is not your house; this is my house.

OLDER MAN You work here?

BONO (still half-naked) No, man, I live here.

OLDER MAN Who is the master of the house?

BONO No one — I mean, I’m in a band. Oh, look, let’s say it’s me. I am the master of the house ... and I need you to leave now.

OLDER MAN Leave! You will leave! This is my house and the house of my father! I will never leave again.

BONO (getting it) Oh. (pause) I get it. (pause) O.K., you can have your house back, but can you come back later? There’s a rock band you don’t want to wake up and I feel ill....

SCENE 3

INT. HANSA STUDIOS, BY THE BERLIN WALL

A MONTH LATER

We scan inside the cool cathedral of Hansa, a recording studio made famous by David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Nick Cave. In earlier times, it was a ballroom popular with the Nazis. The members of the Irish band hold a prayer meeting to exorcise the demons. (Seriously.) But it is their own personal demons that are present this day.

About to leave their 20s, the bandmates are bumping into one another’s adult-sized egos. Men, they discover, when they become lords of their own domain, can lose the supple nature that a band requires. For these Irish musicians, the love it takes to sublimate one’s ego for the meta-ego of the band is more and more being reserved for families.

BRIAN ENO, a producer, is only half-joking when he tells the band that “possessions are a way of turning money into problems.” The band has had a taste of success and, even worse, a taste of taste, poison to the pursuit of rock ’n’ roll.

The dreamspace in which songs emerge has been filled by nice houses needing not-nice art. ADAM CLAYTON dreams of Jean-Michel Basquiat; Bono of Louis le Brocquy; EDGE of designing furniture; LARRY MULLEN of not being in Berlin.

Edge, the Zen Presbyterian, no longer a study in restraint, is heartbroken, in the middle of splitting up with his wife; he now sees the same fate for his band. He is trying to write an eight-bar lift section for a song called “The Fly.” He writes two, but when he and The Singer put them together a different song emerges ... and fresh words and a new melody come out of The Singer’s mouth .... the words fall out.

BONO (sort of singing) We’re one, but we’re not the same ... we get to carry each other...

LARRY (charming but hard-nosed, sitting behind his drum kit) Sounds sentimental.

BONO It doesn’t have to be. I can give the verses enough bile to balance the hook. It’s no big kiss, it’s a shrug of resigned optimism. Really, it’s the polar opposite of the kind of hippie nonsense you would expect with a title like “One.”

LARRY So why do you call it “One,” then? You think that’ll help get it to No. 1?

ADAM (one eyebrow permanently raised, thinking they should get on with it as it’s the first good thing the band has done all month) Isn’t “One” a Bob Marley song?

EDGE (deadpan) That’s “One Love.” Completely different.

ADAM I don’t care — as long as I believe you when you sing it.

DANIEL LANOIS (also a producer) I don’t care, as long as there are lyrics. What’s it about?

BONO I don’t know yet .... Er, having to live together rather than wanting to. It could mean a lot of things to a lot of people.

BRIAN ENO For God’s sake, don’t make it a love song, or I’ll retch.

BONO It’s a song about love, not a love song.

SCENE 4

EXT. HEILIGENDAMM, GERMANY

JUNE 2007 — DAY

An aerial shot of a grand old hotel on the Baltic Sea ... and the security operation surrounding the hotel — tanks poking through bushes, etc. The leaders of the world’s eight largest economies wander the courtyard like students on a campus.

Camera takes in George W. Bush, Vladimir Putin, Tony Blair and Nicolas Sarkozy, then sweeps through a window into a downstairs lounge. There, ANGELA MERKEL, Germany’s chancellor, is meeting a small group of activists to discuss whether Germany will honor the Group of 8’s pledge, two years old now, to commit more resources to help the billion people who live on less than a dollar a day.

The atmosphere is tense. The activists are not getting what they want. The leaders are not getting what they want, either, which is to be left alone by the activists, including the Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour, Bono and another grizzled Irish rocker, BOB GELDOF, and their policy team from ONE. The organization took its name from the song — over the protests of the songwriter, who felt that if history eventually repeats itself as farce, then irony, the next time around, sounds annoyingly earnest.

BOB (whose humor and intellect more than excuse the percussive expletives that pepper even the most formal meetings) Chancellor, what Germany has done is awe-inspiring. You’ve spent most of the last 20 years spending something like 4 percent of your G.D.P. on reunification ... and yet you’re still willing to commit 0.7 percent of G.D.P. to global economic development. The lives of people you will never know or meet will be owed to this decision.... The 2008 budget backs that up, but the rest of the world will need to see ’09 to know you’re serious.

BONO (interrupting) Trajectory is everything. If the ’09 is like ’08, Germany will show the rest of the G-8 that they have to put money on the table as well as words.

MERKEL (who has met these men before and appeared to enjoy the encounters, but today is running out of patience with anyone who threatens to rain on her G-8 parade) I’m not prepared to commit beyond 2008. We will of course do our best.

BONO (at his least appealing) Let me just say, Madam Chancellor, that, like Bob, I’m intoxicated by the new Germany. Fifty thousand turned up today to stand in solidarity with the world’s poor. You yourself are so committed...the government...the coalition. And we absolutely take you at your word, but if the others don’t come through ... well, you know nothing creates cynics faster than when leaders accept applause for commitments they then fail to meet. It’s one thing to break a promise to yourself or to your own electorate, but to break a promise to the most vulnerable people on the planet is profane.

MERKEL (in a quiet, calm voice) My father taught me a very important lesson when I was a girl growing up in East Germany. He said, “Always be more than you appear and never appear to be more than you are.”

Camera closes in on The Singer’s eyes. The black has devoured the blue. He is a flyweight in the ring with Muhammad Ali. He didn’t even see it coming. She has just summed up his entire life in the reverse of her personal proverb.

Mercifully, we cut to


SCENE 5

INT. A BERLIN RESTAURANT

NOVEMBER 2009 — NIGHT

Twenty years after stumbling into the wrong parade (and not for the last time), The Singer is back in Berlin for that concert at the Brandenburg Gate. After the show, he is at dinner with WIM WENDERS, the German film director, and his wife, DONATA WENDERS, a photographer. They trade impressions of a Germany that is without its wall but still divided economically and ideologically as well as over the role it should play in the world. Unification has not equaled oneness.

Bono is enthusing that Merkel, having underpromised, has now overdelivered on her aid commitment, and has spoken strongly about how the global recession should not excuse the West’s failure to offer humanitarian assistance and investment that can lift so many lives out of extreme poverty.

BONO She may turn out to be the game changer.... Maybe it’s her background growing up in East Germany ... she’s such an unusual combination of science and old-school morality. I think her dad was a pastor. She uses this precise, unemotional language, but then a deep sense of fairness and I guess empathy comes through. I was such a jerk. ...

WIM That’s your job. She knew that and she also knew the closer Germany is to Europe and the rest of the world the less our internal differences should matter .... Anyway, before the wall came down and way before the Internet was ubiquitous, it was movies and music, it was the MTV generation that ignored it. Politics can never be separated from culture. A large part of what songs, movies, poems or books are doing is creating memory and preserving it — what was, and what might be if we are honest about ourselves.

BONO (getting to vino vérité) I think honesty is the hardest thing for a performer.

WIM And for a politician.

DONATA (wearily, but with hope) For all of us. But you know, whatever divides we’ve still got here, at least now we can see what’s over the wall, and behind the curtain.


Bono, the lead singer of the band U2 and a co-founder of the advocacy group ONE and (Product)RED, is a contributing columnist for The Times.


nytimes

13.11.09

Farewell to the casual music fan

Too many "future of music" schemes
overlook the importance of
listeners who don't
worship you









One of the recurring themes of the recent Future of Music Policy Summit in Washington, DC was the necessity, for musicians, to develop an "active fan base." There wasn't one specific panel about this, or one discussion; it was instead a constant thread through many different panels and discussions, and the seemingly inevitable answer to the industry's $64,000 question: how on earth can musicians earn a living in the digital age?

We all know the basic plot by now. Musicians are on their own out there, lacking both the imprimatur and promotional budget once afforded by big record labels. And by the way no one wants to buy music anymore either. What's a poor singer/songwriter boy or girl to do?

At the conference, something like a consensus emerged in response: foster the artist-fan relationship. Any number of experts in any number of different ways ultimately said the same thing: succeed with so-called "fan engagement" and you're on your way. (Well, okay, musicians were also told, repeatedly, "not to suck." Another worthy goal, but outside of the purview of this essay.)

And luckily for today's musicians, the internet is just one big crazy fan-engagement machine, if properly operated. Through regular forays into blogging, Twittering, and Facebooking, musicians can get up close and personal with their fans, and use this interaction to--let's be blunt--make money.

In the minds of those pinning the future of musician well-being on fan engagement, what they're talking about is really a sort of fan engagement on steroids. It's not just about collecting email addresses and talking to fans at the merch table after the show. That's relatively easy, old-fashioned, and, now, inadequate.

Fan engagement as newly conceived is relatively difficult. It involves managing an arsenal of 24/7 social media pages and being ever on the lookout for creative avenues of interaction and out-of-the-ordinary sales opportunities. Needless to say, this is time-consuming. And--it should be noted--the path from this new, aggressive kind of fan engagement to revenue isn't necessarily clear.

The general idea, however, is that the more that fans feel connected to musicians they love, the more they are likely to want to attend their concerts, buy not merely songs but premium items (specially packaged albums, boxes, et al), and be interested enough in their beloved musicians' comings and goings to be willing to pay as well for any number of offshoot endeavors that the musician can dream up--custom clothing, exclusive video performances, hand-made art items, you name it.

With all this in mind you can see why the experts at the conference seemed to agree that in the digital age, the central important thing that's changing in the music industry is not so much the technology as the artist/fan relationship. Musicians should be thinking of fans not as fans at all but, said one panelist, as "co-conspirators."

So I'm listening to these ideas in Washington and I'm wondering what isn't sitting right with me. Not that there's anything wrong with the concept of fan engagement per se. How could there be? All any committed band wants to do is make an honest living through their music, and I understand why an augmented sort of fan engagement strategy may be just the way some bands eke it out in the digital age.

But I also think the fan engagement bandwagon is missing something significant in the bigger picture of how music functions in the world.

Outside of the confines of the Future of Music Policy Summit, this new approach to fan engagement has been most widely pondered and discussed in the context of Kevin Kelly's well-known "1,000 True Fans" post from last year. As pundits are wont to do, Kelly attempted to crystalize an interesting idea into a concrete credo, which was his hypothesis that anyone producing any kind of art needs only to have 1,000 passionate, committed fans to make a living.

Most of the discussion generated by "1,000 True Fans" has focused on whether it works or not financially. Is 1,000 the right number? Is it more if you have more people in the band? I'll leave that to others. I'm wondering about whether it works culturally.

In some important ways, if the music scene is transformed into a place in which all worthy musicians are supported by enclaves of super-engaged fans, 21st-century rock'n'roll musicians may win the battle but lose the war. Because the more that artists require so-called super-fans for their livelihood, the more they will leave behind the very sorts of casual fans that made rock'n'roll such a robust musical arena for such a long time.

For better or worse, popular music depends upon the existence of casual fans. Back when the big albums of the day were selling a few million copies, these were not purchased by a few million super-fans. Even when a band like Arcade Fire sells a "mere" 300,000 copies of an album, this does not represent an audience of 300,000 super-fans. Once a band achieves any measure of widespread success, that success hinges, somewhat paradoxically, upon catching the attention of people who aren't really paying attention.

Today's fan engagement schemes, however, deny the existence of casual fans by leaving them out of the picture entirely.

Because what entices a super-fan will almost, by definition, be of no interest to a casual fan. Just because you happen to like a song or two, or even an album or two, doesn't mean you require a musician's real-time biographical details, doesn't mean you crave endless streams of recording flotsam and jetsam (b-sides, live takes, remixes, etc.), doesn't mean you'll want to purchase objects lit by physical association with the musician (self-designed t-shirts, hand-addressed postcards, and the like) or watch repeated video presentations.

Casual fans also lack any need for the very sort of online interaction that sits like a holy grail at the center of this new idea of fan engagement. The various schemes I'm seeing now on a daily basis--make a video of a song for a contest! donate money so your name can go on the album jacket! subscribe to a service offering journal entries and/or webcasts and/or live recordings!--make no sense to a casual fan.

Most important of all, a casual fan will not spend upwards of $100 a year purchasing music and other accessory items from one band or musician.

In his original "1,000 True Fans" post, Kelly asserted that the processes artists develop to feed their diehard fans will also nurture what he calls "Lesser Fans." I see no evidence beyond wishful thinking to support this idea.

I believe, on the contrary, that the more the music scene focuses on these kinds of super-fan activities, the more likely it will be that casual fans more or less disappear.

Such a development will not be unprecedented in the unfolding history of music. For instance, you have to be something of a super-fan to know what to do with, how to listen to, and how to interact economically with classical music. Jazz is another genre that caters by and large to super-fans.

This could be rock'n'roll's trajectory too. And that may be for the best for all I know. But I don't think anyone busy touting hyperactive fan-engagement scenarios has considered the large-scale consequences of transforming rock into a super-fan genre.

So let's look at four such consequences.


Consequence No. 1: Far, far fewer fans for rock music

Proponents of these super-fan scenarios seem to be presuming that the total number of active music fans will remain somewhat the same. That's the beauty of it, in theory: so, instead of three million people buying one particular artist's album, 1,000 people will buy 3,000 different albums. That's still three million music fans, right?

Actually, no. As noted earlier, in the glory days of the album-selling past, if any one artist sold an album to three million people, a large percentage of those people were casual fans--people who heard a song or two and liked them enough to buy the album, or people who had been exposed to the music via a friend, or people who were just kind of swept along by the zeitgeist.

There is of course no research to cite here; I can only go with decades of my own anecdotal observations. I'm suspecting that the ever-useful 80-20 rule may be applied, but in any case it is clear that any band throughout rock history that has broken through to some amount of widespread success--say, sales of 250,000 copies or more of one album--has done so largely on the backs (and purse strings) of casual fans. Probably, also, the higher the total number of albums sold, the higher the percentage of casual fans.

Super-fan orientation shrinks the rock'n'roll marketplace because to foster tribes of passionate fans requires throwing maybe 80 percent of the potential audience out the window.

Musicians nurturing diehard fans are not, of course, making a conscious decision to freeze out casual fans. It's just that seeking to promote super-fans inherently alienates the non-super-fan. I disagree with Kevin Kelly's belief that musicians will be able to "convert" their "Lesser Fans" into "True Fans" in an ongoing way. I contend, instead, that casual fans (a phrase I prefer to "lesser fans") are disinclined, behaviorally, to be somehow lured into ratcheting up their involvement with any musician simply because they happen to like a few of his or her songs.

In my experience a True Fan is actually a type of person (and I mean that almost archetypally). I don't think casual fans are typically or easily converted into True Fans. Sure, you might get them to give your their email address for a free MP3 but their hearts won't be in it for the long run. (What is likely, instead, is that a True Fan of one musician will be open, additionally, to becoming a True Fan of any number of other musicians. The market isn't expansive but, rather, cannibalistic.)

From the perspective of any one individual musician who is happy now to be supported by his or her diehard admirers, freezing out or alienating casual fans may be pretty much okay--a necessary evil, say. And maybe this will foster a whole new kind of music, as bands aim not for mass success at all, but for idiosyncratic sonic niches, or, in any case, sounds that appeal to much smaller rather than much larger numbers of people.

Let's just be clear, however, about what casting aside casual fans entails. If industry pundits are wringing their hands to date over shrinking bottom lines, just wait till the super-fans take over.


Consequence No. 2: Cultural disconnect

Beyond plummeting album sales, another disorienting hallmark of the digital music age has been the fragmentation of popular music into a mind-boggling array of genres and sub-genres. Are there any songs or artists that "everyone" listens to and knows about any more? Not apparently.

And yet so far, at least, this is not for want of trying. That is, many musicians still aspire to gain the ear of the multitude, if only from the instinctual understanding that if as a musical artist you have something important to say, you hope to say it to a larger rather than smaller number of ears.

In the brave new musical world of fan engagement, musicians need no longer aim in this direction. As artists, by necessity, nurture their super-fan following, no one will need to think about creating something for everyone rather than something for their marketplace of 1,000--or, even, as one recent story would have it, just forty.

By and large this is presented as a liberating idea. Release yourself from the desire to appeal to large numbers of people, follow your individual muse in a way that pleases your flock of supporters, and you shall be set free, goes the basic thinking. Let go of the ego need for millions of fans and you'll see it's okay to seek a micro-audience, because a) you'll be making a living, and b) everyone listening will be listening really carefully and pretty much worshipping you.

But the point here isn't psychological. It's cultural. The point isn't getting artists accustomed to aspiring to selling to only a thousand people. The point is the different nature of the involvement sought and the consequential effect on a culture being served by this new kind of musician.

Aiming to reach a vast audience and seeking to connect with a limited group of people are two very different things. The end result of having all or even most of our contemporary musicians seeking the former rather than the latter style of artistic connection means the loss of a meaningful musical commons in our joint public experience.

The restorative effect of this type of commons is subtle but powerful. Just the other day, I was working out at the gym and the song "One" by U2 came on the sound system. I am not a diehard U2 fan, and yet the song in that context triggered a deep, ineffable pleasure. Hearing a good song that everyone knows in a public setting recharges the spirit in a subtle but meaningful way.

Note that this is not just about me hearing a song I like. I hear a song I like every time I'm listening to a playlist on my iPod. This is about me hearing the song in the midst of other people, total strangers, who also know the song and are hearing it at the same time. What transpires is a communal, connective experience, even without any words passing between those having it.

This effect is the antithesis of a super-fan moment. The connection to the music is casual; it's a sense of human connection here that provides the frisson of aliveness. Music in this way can offer a culturally constructed way of feeling at one with the world around us.

In a world in which musicians are encouraged, if not forced, to cater exclusively to their most passionate followers, likewise a world in which music fans listen exclusively to music most passionately loved, we lose this important but overlooked capacity to connect. The world shrinks. Something about being human is lost.


Consequence No. 3: Artistic claustrophobia

The decision to go from having an audience which includes diehard fans among others to having an audience exclusively comprised of the diehards will have aesthetic consequences too.

That's because musicians aiming to slake the appetites of diehard fans are likely to retreat, however unconsciously, into a closed-off, self-referential space. The music is likely to become constricted over time, for a few reasons.

First, think about the time and energy required to feed and nurture a group of super-fans, and whether this leaves a musician time to tend to his or her actual art. In the old days, musicians needed only to convey the idea that their music was worth the price of an album or a concert ticket. This modest goal involved first putting out a good album and second getting the word out that it was indeed good--no mean feats to be sure, but at heart not too complicated. The energy was by and large directed towards writing and performing good songs, and trying to convince people to give a listen.

In the age of the super-fan, the musician is charged with conveying the idea that his or her music is worth $100 a year of various and sundry purchases, some or even most of which may not involve actual music. I am not saying that this can't be done, I'm only pointing out that this is first of all a less modest goal than musicians of the past were charged with and second of all requires a different approach to a music-making life.

Some 21st-century musicians appear to be well-suited to this new mode of being. It requires an unmitigated willingness and ability to be a public person in a much different way than is involved when simply singing songs on a stage. Artists for whom such conduct feels natural may not find it any particular kind of burden.

I suspect, however, that many musicians will find this behavior difficult to come by in any consistent way. I suspect many musicians will be unhappy when they find that time and energy that once could be devoted to writing and performing must now be deflected into other endeavors and activities that may have little to do with music.

Even if a musician can find a manager-like person who can help out with all the social media interaction and the peripheral offerings required to stoke the super-fan base, staying on top of fan engagement will still consume personal resources he or she may not have. The music may suffer. The first stage of claustrophobia is arrived at out of basic depletion.

Above and beyond the time and energy situation, creating for a tribe of passionate fans has a couple of additional artistic drawbacks as far as I can see. To begin with, the situation strikes me as similar to a politician surrounding him- or herself with sycophants, or to a writer who, after a big bestseller, no longer feels the need to be closely edited. Regardless of how talented the artist, to create exclusively for people who are predisposed to believe that you are utterably brilliant is a less than ideal environment in which to create meaningful art.

The final element of the claustrophobia relates to the look and feel and vibe of an artist catering to and grooving off of his or her tribe of super-fans. Artist and super-fans are insiders together, sharing information and ideas with an ever-present interactive feedback loop.

To the expert I heard at the DC conference, the idea that artists and highly-engaged fans will "co-conspire" like this represented nothing less than the future of music. To me, it sounds like middle school. You've got the cool group on the inside, and what they mostly conspire to do is keep the uncool and unworthy outsiders outside.

Insider cliques stoke egos but fall short when it comes to worthwhile activity. I am not optimistic about the quality of music likely to emerge over time from super-fan-driven musicians.


Consequence No. 4: Debilitated listeners

If the musician motivated by fan engagement is in danger of losing his or her creative touch, the fans in this scenario are at risk of a similar loss at the receiving end of the creativity.

To begin with, just as musicians may grow artistically flabby catering to a tribe of worshippers, listeners likewise may find their powers of discernment slacken in this environment.

Think about it. Listeners are congregating exclusively around artists they passionately love. They pay $100 a year or more for the privilege of buying a variety of products from their beloved musician. In that environment, there is little room for critical thinking.

And so, among this small group of devotees--who, don't forget, have an unprecedented capacity to talk amongst themselves, and therefore reinforce established opinions--what the musician produces will wind up in one of two basic drawers: the drawer of "oh my god, I'm gonna cry, this is so brilliant"; or, the drawer of "oh my god, I'm gonna hurl, this sucks." That's because in this group of super-fans, particularly as the artist acquires a body of work, those who think that every tiny thing the musician does is genius will exist side by side with those who think that every tiny thing the musician did used to be genius but now (as noted) sucks.

It's the nature of diehard fandom, and not a big deal, except to the extent that the fan engagement model becomes the bedrock of the music scene and we're left only with the diehards. Nothing good happens when we are left only with colliding extremes (cf. 21st-century U.S. politics).

One of the great, if paradoxical, things casual fans bring to the scene is the fact that they don't care quite so much. They are somewhat objective observers. For those who've read Nick Hornby's new book, it's the difference between the written reviews of Juliet, Naked that Duncan (the super-fan) and Annie (the casual fan) post online (not to mention the difference between what proceeds to happen to each of them).

Another way listeners may be debilitated over time by the super-fan scenario is how it will accelerate the already existing trend of closing ears off to music that is not already known. And some of this closing-off will be a purely logistical problem.

The key word in fan engagement is "engagement," after all. Musicians in this model are trying their damnedest to keep your attention--encouraging you to browse offerings, haunt message boards, enter contests, follow tweets, read newsletters, leave blog comments, and so forth. All of this takes time. A lot more time than just listening to a song or two. A principal reason that the super-fan scenario will close listeners off to experiencing new music in a more casual way is that there are still only 24 hours in a day.


Consequence of the Consequences

The ironic bottom line about the fan-engagement model of Saving the Music Industry is that, if effected, it will shrink the market for rock music far beyond the place to which technology and circumstances have already shrunk it--far beyond the place, that is, where everyone's already freaking out.

Remember, there is no such thing as popular music without casual fans; remove casual fans from the mix and out the window also goes popularity.

I know that in theory most critics and pundits and sideline observers don't really care about that. Being "popular" is never that cool a concept with such folks. So if that's the case, then sure, let's sit back and applaud as rock'n'roll takes its place next to jazz at the table reserved for music that used to be popular and now caters to a specialized set of listeners. Maybe some new and interesting musical avenues will be opened up in the process.

But here's the thing. This happened to jazz in a more or less organic way. Yes, I know I'm oversimplifying, but with jazz one could say that the music went one direction, the mainstream audience another. (Same with classical, sort of.) The idea behind something like "1,000 True Fans" is different. Here, musicians are told to aim for slender segments of listeners. This is an aim that purposefully--if somewhat obliviously--shows casual music fans out the door.

What's more, it's doing so in a way that seems kind of...well, icky. Jazz musicians followed their muse away from the mainstream. It was all about the music, and if a limited number of people still wanted to listen, so be it. Via "1,000 True Fans," musicians are being told that it's not just about the music. It's about the tweets and the video updates and the t-shirts and the personally-signed pottery cats and dogs and who knows what else.

Because here's what it's really about: figuring out how to pry $100 a year from your most ardent admirers.

There are many who say: and what the hell is wrong with that? Maybe nothing. It's nice work if you can get it. As a major consumer of music for 30 some-odd years, I will note, however, that I am much happier when I feel as if I'm pushing money to my favorite artists rather than having it pulled out of me.

Look, it's always been nearly impossible for most musicians to earn a living wage. And yes, the 21st century has made it even more difficult. There's file sharing. There's the bad economy. There's more file-sharing. (And did I mention file-sharing?)

Worse--and pay close attention now--there's the badly overcrowded marketplace. Thanks to the combination of laptop recording and web-based distribution, the barrier to entry for being a musician in the first place has all but disappeared. Amateurs and imposters have flooded the marketplace.

And so, even as industry experts propose fan engagement as a panacea, my conclusion is that, if effected, it will only make matters worse. It may ultimately be even harder for musicians to earn a living.

Because if everyone now thinks they only need 1,000 fans to make it as a musician, then yikes--you won't believe how many more people will be out there trying to do just that.

And that, to me, is the biggest indictment of this well-intended but not well-thought-out idea: that it will in fact be a beacon of hope for "vanity press" musicians who write and sing and record songs that they should not even be sharing with their friends, never mind 1,000 strangers. No matter how untalented and unpromising any one person with a Mac and a dream may be, he or she will be nothing but inspired to know that all they need are 1,000 fans and they can be a full-time, professional musician. Why, most of them probably have at least 600 Facebook friends. That sounds like they're already more than halfway there.

Will "1,000 True Fans" work nicely for any one particular musician? No doubt it may. Set it loose on an unsuspecting marketplace, however, and watch out. Casual fans will disappear and in their wake come those we may as well call the casual musicians. I for one don't like the trade-off.


fingertipmusic
Full U2 360 Boxscores and Stats
U2 360 TOUR

1ST LEG EUROPE

June 30, July 2, 2009
Barcelona, Spain
Camp Nou
GROSS: $19,825,497 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 182,055 (RECORD)
SHOWS: 2
SELLOUTS: 2
Average Ticket Price: $108.90

July 7-8, 2009
Milan, Italy
Stadio San Siro
GROSS: $15,168,799 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 153,806 (RECORD)
SHOWS: 2
SELLOUTS: 2
Average Ticket Price: $98.62

July 11-12, 2009
Paris, France
Stade De France
GROSS: $20,902,760 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 186,544 (RECORD)
SHOWS: 2
SELLOUTS: 2
Average Ticket Price: $112.05

July 15, 2009
Nice, France
Stade Charles Erhmann, Nice
GROSS: $6,261,208
ATTENDANCE: 55,641
SHOWS: 1
SELLOUTS :1
Average Ticket Price: $112.53

July 18, 2009
Berlin, Germany
Olympic Stadium
GROSS: $9,169,830 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 88,265 (RECORD)
SHOWS :1
SELLOUTS: 1
Average Ticket Price: $103.89

July 20-21, 2009
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Amsterdam Arena
GROSS: $12,583,998
ATTENDANCE: 125,866
SHOWS: 2
SELLOUTS: 2
Average Ticket Price: $99.98

July 24-25, 27, 2009
Dublin, Ireland
Croke Park
GROSS: $28,815,352 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 243,198
SHOWS: 3
SELLOUTS: 3
Average Ticket Price: $118.49

July 31 - August 1, 2009
Goteborg, Sweden
Ullevi Stadion
GROSS: $11,047,995
ATTENDANCE: 119,297
SHOWS: 2
SELLOUTS: 2
Average Ticket Price: $92.61

August 3, 2009
Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Veltins-Arena
GROSS: $7,292,826 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 73,704 (RECORD)
SHOWS: 1
SELLOUTS: 1
Average Ticket Price: $98.95

August 6, 2009
Chorzow, Poland
Slaski Stadium
GROSS: $6,414,960 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 75,180 (RECORD)
SHOWS: 1
SELLOUTS: 1
Average Ticket Price: $85.33

August 9-10, 2009
Zagreb, Croatia
Maksimir Stadium
GROSS: $12,700,784 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 124,012 (RECORD)
SHOWS: 2
SELLOUTS: 2
Average Ticket Price: $102.42

August 14-15, 2009
London, United Kingdom
Wembley Stadium
GROSS: $20,680,860
ATTENDANCE: 164,244
SHOWS: 2
SELLOUTS: 2
Average Ticket Price: $125.92

August 18, 2009
Glasgow, United Kingdom
Hampden Park
GROSS: $5,290,103
ATTENDANCE: 50,917
SHOWS: 1
SELLOUTS: 1
Average Ticket Price: $103.90

August 20, 2009
Sheffield, United Kingdom
Don Valley Stadium
GROSS: $5,147,896
ATTENDANCE: 49,955
SHOWS: 1
SELLOUTS: 1
Average Ticket Price: $103.05

August 22, 2009
Cardiff, United Kingdom
Millennium Stadium
GROSS: $7,041,576 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 66,538 (RECORD)
SHOWS: 1
SELLOUTS: 1
Average Ticket Price: $105.83

U2 360 TOUR: 1ST LEG EUROPE STATS

GROSS: $188,344,444
ATTENDANCE: 1,759,222
Average Gross: $7,847,685
Average Attendance: 73,301
Average Ticket Price: $107.06
Shows: 24
Sellouts: 24

2ND LEG NORTH AMERICA

September 12-13, 2009
Chicago, Illinois
Soldier Field
GROSS: $13,860,480 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 135,872 (RECORD)
SHOWS: 2
SELLOUTS: 2
Average Ticket Price: $102.01

September 16-17, 2009
Toronto, Ontario
Rogers Centre
GROSS: $9,571,672
ATTENDANCE: 115,411
SHOWS: 2
SELLOUTS: 2
Average Ticket Price: $82.94

September 20-21, 2009
Foxboro, Massachusetts
Gillette Stadium
GROSS: $12,859,778 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 138,805 (RECORD)
SHOWS: 2
SELLOUTS: 2
Average Ticket Price: $92.65

September 23-24, 2009
East Rutherford, New Jersey
Giants Stadium
GROSS: $16,128,950
ATTENDANCE: 161,810
SHOWS: 2
SELLOUTS: 2
Average Ticket Price: $99.68

September 29, 2009
Landover, Maryland
Fedex Field
GROSS: $6,718,315 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 84,754 (RECORD)
SHOWS: 1
SELLOUTS: 1
Average Ticket Price: $79.27

October 1, 2009
Charlottesville, Virginia
Scott Stadium
GROSS: $4,738,695
ATTENDANCE: 52,433
SHOWS: 1
SELLOUTS: 1
Average Ticket Price: $90.38

October 3, 2009
Raleigh, North Carolina
Carter-Finely Stadium
GROSS: $4,962,240 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 55,027
SHOWS: 1
SELLOUTS: 1
Average Ticket Price: $90.18

October 6, 2009
Atlanta, Georgia
Georgia Dome
GROSS: $5,746,430 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 61,419 (RECORD)
SHOWS: 1
SELLOUTS: 1
Average Ticket Price: $93.56

October 9, 2009
Tampa, Florida
Raymond James Stadium
GROSS: $6,399,375 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 72,688 (RECORD)
SHOWS: 1
SELLOUTS: 1
Average Ticket Price: $88.04

October 12, 2009
Dallas, Texas
Cowboys Stadium
GROSS: $6,664,880 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 70,766 (RECORD)
SHOWS: 1
SELLOUTS: 1
Average Ticket Price: $94.18

October 14, 2009
Houston, Texas
Reliant Stadium
GROSS: $5,985,101 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 58,328 (RECORD)
SHOWS: 1
SELLOUTS: 1
Average Ticket Price: $102.61

October 18, 2009
Norman, Oklahoma
Ok Memorial Stadium
GROSS: $4,395,085 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 50,951
SHOWS: 1
SELLOUTS: 1
Average Ticket Price: $86.26

October 20, 2009
Glendale, Arizona
University of Phoenix Stadium
GROSS: $4,912,050 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 50,775 (RECORD)
SHOWS: 1
SELLOUTS: 1
Average Ticket Price: $96.74

October 23, 2009
Las Vegas, Nevada
Sam Boyd Stadium
GROSS: $4,641,280 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 42,213
SHOWS: 1
SELLOUTS: 1
Average Ticket Price: $109.95

October 25, 2009
Pasadena, California
Rose Bowl
GROSS: $9,960,036 (RECORD)
ATTENDANCE: 97,014
SHOWS: 1
SELLOUTS: 1
Average Ticket Price: $102.67

October 28, 2009
Vancouver B.C.
B.C. Place Stadium
GROSS: $5,748,919
ATTENDANCE: 63,802
SHOWS: 1
SELLOUTS: 1
Average Ticket Price: $90.11

U2 360 TOUR: 2ND LEG NORTH AMERICAN STATS

GROSS: $123,293,286
ATTENDANCE: 1,312,068
Average Gross: $6,164,664
Average Attendance: 65,603
Average Ticket Price: $93.97
Shows: 20
Sellouts: 20

U2 360 TOUR: TOTAL STATS TO DATE

GROSS: $311,637,730
ATTENDANCE: 3,071,290
Average Gross: $7,082,676
Average Attendance: 69,802
Average Ticket Price: $101.47
Shows: 44
Sellouts: 44

Huge numbers for the first 44 shows of the tour!
source: renno - atu2

10.11.09

New producer hired for 'Spider-Man' musical

By PATRICK HEALY, New York Times News Service
Published: Monday, November 9, 2009 9:18 AM EST
NEW YORK - A rock concert promoter with ties to the Rolling Stones and U2 said Friday that he was taking over as the lead producer of the coming Broadway musical ``Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark,'' and that the troubled multimillion-dollar show would open sometime in 2010.

The producer, Michael Cohl, also confirmed that a relatively unknown actor named Reeve Carney had been cast in the lead role of Peter Parker and his alter ego, Spider-Man.

Cohl has never been lead producer of a major Broadway show before, though he has been a co-producer of ``Spamalot.'' Still, he is widely regarded in the entertainment community as a man with deep pockets, a Rolodex packed with investors and a knack for presenting entertainment spectacles.

In a telephone interview, Cohl said that he had previously been only an investor in ``Spider-Man,'' and was taking command of the financially troubled project at the behest of U2's Bono and the Edge, who together wrote the music and lyrics for the show.

``I was on my honeymoon in Spain in late August and they called and said, `C'mon, think about it,''' said Cohl, who spoke after meeting in Times Square on Friday with other producers and the creative team for the show. Production work on ``Spider-Man'' has been delayed off and on since August. The previous lead producer, David Garfinkle, could not raise money for the show, which executives with the production have said would ultimately cost more than $50 million - by far the most expensive in Broadway history. Garfinkle is remaining on board as a producer, according to a statement from the producers.

``Spider-Man'' is technically still scheduled to begin previews on Feb. 25, 2010. Cohl declined to say if that date would hold or if the show's opening would be by April 29, in time to compete for this year's Tony Awards.

Two other executives involved with the production said on Friday that the plan was to push the opening of ``Spider-Man'' into the summer. The show's director, Julie Taymor, has concluded that rehearsals could not begin before January, according to these executives, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the production. Taymor declined a request for an interview.

In a sign of delay, telecharge.com was no longer selling advance tickets to ``Spider-Man'' on Friday.

The producers' statement on Friday also said that Jeremiah J. Harris, the chairman of PRG - a company that provides technical and design work for Broadway shows - was now the second producer of ``Spider-Man.'' PRG's scene shop is working on ``Spider-Man'' and is one of the businesses the show owes money to, according to the two executives. Harris did not return telephone calls or e-mail requests for comment.

Cohl said he was ``very close to having in place the financing that we need and getting everyone back to work on the musical.'' But he would not confirm the $50 million budget estimate. Cohl, who made his name promoting the Rolling Stones' Steel Wheels tour in 1989-90, said his personal investment in the show would be less than $10 million.

Cohl, who is a former chairman of Live Nation, the company that owns the Hilton Theater that ``Spider-Man'' is set to occupy, said he was not overly concerned about any cut-off dates for use of the theater or the rights to Spider-Man from Marvel Comics.

Cohl also injected home-town confidence, noting that the Yankees were celebrating their 27th World Series championship in Manhattan on Friday.

``Today we have a team in New York that spent millions of dollars to win a championship,'' Cohl said. ``Sometimes it takes a lot of money to build a championship team, and that's what we're doing.''

indianagazette

8.11.09

On Broadway, 'Spider-Man's' greatest enemy is the budget
Sources close to the production say the musical's producers need to raise as much as $24 million to cover a $52-million budget.


By John Horn

November 6, 2009


As this Spider-Man tale opens, the audience sees New York City "on fire and in ruins" as "a section of the Brooklyn Bridge ascends with Mary Jane bound and dangling helplessly from the bridge." Soon thereafter, a new villainess called Arachne flies into the picture spinning her own deadly trap, and as Spider-Man battles all kinds of criminals he's swinging right over the audience.

It sounds like the 3-D opening for the next "Spider-Man" sequel, and even though this superhero story is filled with Hollywood-style special effects, it is instead a glimpse from a confidential script of a planned "Spider-Man" musical -- the priciest undertaking, and among the most troubled productions, in Broadway history.

Theater producers are always looking for the next movie-inspired musical blockbuster, and the pedigree of "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" couldn't be more stellar: Sony's three Peter Parker movies have grossed nearly $2.5 billion worldwide, musical songwriters Bono and the Edge have shipped more than 50 million U2 records domestically, and director Julie Taymor's "The Lion King" has earned $3.6 billion globally.

But rather than develop into a surefire hit, "Spider-Man" the musical instead has turned into a tangled web of production delays, unpaid bills and costly theater renovations that even Peter Parker's alter ego would struggle to escape, according to interviews with half a dozen people close to the show who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the show and its finances. Given its immodest ambition to "reinvent Broadway," the musical's budget has soared to $52 million, counting theater renovations, according to one person familiar with its finances -- more than double the cost of 2006's "Lord of the Rings" musical, one of the most expensive musicals ever.


Like any compelling superhero story, "Spider-Man's" real-life final act is a cliffhanger.

Despite all the talent in its corner, it's still far from certain when -- or even if -- the elaborate musical will open after six years of development, as it has struggled to find a backer to close the budget shortfall. If the show doesn't premiere by the end of April, it not only will miss Tony Award eligibility but also face the expiration of the musical's license from Marvel Entertainment, whose comic-book division created the enduring superhero in 1962. Bono and Edge seem bewildered by the show's odyssey. "But who cares?" Bono said. "The visuals and the music are amazing, and that's what will matter."

While many factors have contributed to the show's holdup, the musical has been derailed by some of the most complicated staging in Broadway history, as the show's creators try to replicate the superhero's skyscraper-swinging movie maneuvers inside a theater.

Three people close to the production say the musical needs to raise as much as $24 million to cover its proposed budget of about $52 million -- $42 million for the show, $6 million for theater renovations and $4 million for theater restorations. At the same time, "Spider-Man's" fixed weekly running costs total around $1 million -- hundreds of thousands dollars more than what some elaborate shows such as "Mary Poppins" or "West Side Story" cost to stage every week. Part of "Spider-Man's" expense stems from its aerial and scenic effects: More than 40 stage hands are needed to operate the musical's backstage rigging, said a person who's seen the show's budget.

Those expenses mean "Spider-Man" would have to sell out every show for as many as four years (a feat only a handful of Broadway shows ever manage) simply to break even, according to several people familiar with the production and its finances.

The show has its devoted believers, led by Chicago lawyer David Garfinkle, who has been involved in the project from the start. It's easy to understand the enthusiasm: A reading of the musical's script -- along with listening to an hour of unreleased music by Bono and the Edge and reviewing a DVD sent to potential investors of Taymor's staging tests -- reveals why so many people have worked so long to see this show through.

Tough web to weave

From the very first page of the "Spider-Man" script, it's evident this is hardly the kind of musical you could stage in just any theater -- it makes "The Phantom of the Opera's" crashing chandelier look like a simple summer stock trick.

Throughout the script -- credited to Taymor and playwright Glen Berger, stamped "Confidential" on its cover and dated from this summer -- stage directions call for action sequences that at first glance seem almost impossible to stage, let alone transfer to another theater for possible touring productions.

The opening bridge scene is followed closely by the arrival of a giant web woven by Arachne, a temptress who is the musical's central invention. "A giant loom is revealed -- seven actors swing on vertical silks to form a tapestry," the stage directions read. At another point, Spider-Man is so busy battling bank robbers and muggers that he multiplies into five different crime-fighting superheroes. One of the duplicate spiders swings over the audience, landing on the balcony.

For all of the theatrical pyrotechnics, the musical's core story is comparatively old-fashioned, following the basic plot of the first "Spider-Man" movie while adding some new characters and back stories.

The central romance between high school students Peter Parker and neighbor Mary Jane Watson remains intact. Parker is still bullied by his classmates and moonlights as a photographer for a New York newspaper; moreover, he's torn over his unexpected transformation into a web-slinger. As in the movie, the play's central villain, Green Goblin, is the genetically mutated form of scientist Norman Osborn. The biggest departure from the movie is the musical's femme fatale, Arachne.

A figure cut from Greek mythology and sometimes accompanied by her own Furies, she stalks and tempts Spider-Man throughout the story as any god does a mortal. "We're linked by instinct, but you think a spider can wait? She exterminates deficient mates!" she tells Spider-Man at one point.

The music marks a departure for U2 as well. Famous for their soaring, sometimes political rock anthems, such as "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Pride (in the Name of Love)," Bono and Edge have crafted "Spider-Man" songs that are driven more by choral harmonies than lashing guitars. Because U2 does not play in the show (the performers are accompanied instead by a band and an orchestra), the songs are written for different voices (including women) with non-U2 arrangements.

Bono described his and Edge's compositions as varying from "giant, big pop songs to noisy rock 'n' roll to ethereal shivers" and said it was "the easiest job we've ever done when it comes to the pure joy.

"For me it's this wonderful thing of escaping from the first-person songwriting, to disappear into these outside characters, it's just been a thrill of a ride," Bono said. "You spend so much time digging up diamonds in your own music; it's a treat to dig in somebody's else's dirt. To work on these songs was like a playpen."

Edge said he and his longtime partner were surprised that the rigidity of the musical format was actually liberating. "The process," he said, "got more fun, exponentially, as it went on."

A heroic struggle

The musical's path to the stage has been filled with personal tragedy, and misfortune visited "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" in a most inauspicious way -- at a 2005 signing ceremony with the Edge cementing the "Spider-Man" deal.

Tony Adams, a longtime colleague of movie producer Blake Edwards and a partner in theater producer Hello Entertainment, died at age 52 of a stroke as "Spider-Man" contracts were being signed.

Hello and Garfinkle attempted to fill Adams' shoes, and three people who have invested or explored investing in the show said Garfinkle needed to (but ultimately didn't) bring in someone deeply experienced with day-to-day production to replace Adams and help Taymor create a show that was financially viable. Garfinkle declined to be interviewed.

Taymor, who also declined to be interviewed, always had grand ambitions for the show. At the outset, according to one person close to the show, she wondered if the musical even could be contained in a traditional theater. Just as Cirque du Soleil erected custom houses for its productions in Las Vegas (with a $50-million renovation to Los Angeles' Kodak Theatre in the works), Taymor considered staging "Spider-Man" in a specifically designed new building.

Instead, the producers picked Broadway's cavernous Hilton Theatre, which had housed "Young Frankenstein" until it closed on Jan. 4 of this year. The production started extensive renovations on the theater as soon as "Young Frankenstein" packed up, but when it later faced a money crunch, the renovations slowed down. A number of people weren't paid in a timely fashion, according to a person close to the show.

Some of the lead parts have been cast. Evan Rachel Wood, who was in Taymor's "Across the Universe," is set to play Mary Jane, with Alan Cumming as Osborn/Green Goblin and newcomer Reeve Carney, who is in Taymor's 2010 movie, "The Tempest," as Parker/Spider-Man. But the musical may lose them to other movies, television shows and theater productions if "Spider-Man" doesn't open soon.

"Mentally, you go from thinking, 'I'm going to be doing this for a year' to 'Oh, maybe that's not going to happen after all,' " Cumming said.

The slick promotional DVD sent to woo investors showcases some of Taymor's staging, aerial and web-shooting tests along with the musical's scenic (by "The Little Mermaid's" George Tsypin) and costume design ("Bram Stoker's Dracula" Oscar-winning costume designer Eiko Ishioka). If the creative team can create a format to "support the flying and fighting and stickability of Spider-Man," the DVD promises future investors, the show will "redefine Broadway."

That's assuming the musical can find its missing millions; there's one plan afoot to raise as much as $10 million by selling the income from 100 seats added to the Hilton auditorium, according to a person apprised of the idea.

No matter how appealing the "Spider-Man" musical might look on paper, it's unclear who its target ticket-buyers might be -- teenage boys and girls, the box-office drivers for the superhero movies, are hardly Broadway's lifeblood. Though the hits from movie-adapted musicals can be home runs, the margin for error is thin: For every "Hairspray" triumph, there's a "Shrek: The Musical" washout.

One interested party believes the money will fall into place before the end of the year: Edge, for all the setbacks, remains secure.

Said the guitarist: "It will happen."

john.horn@latimes.com

Times staff writer Geoff Boucher contributed to this report.

latimes
Bono and the Edge discuss the Spider-Man musical that may or may not happen
November 5, 2009 | 3:19 pm



Friday's Los Angeles Times features a report on the efforts to bring Marvel's Spider-Man to the stage, which has "turned into a tangled web of production delays, unpaid bills and costly theater renovations that even Peter Parker's alter ego would struggle to escape," according to John Horn's piece.

Based on interviews with a half dozen people close to the show, Horn writes that the budget for the musical has rocketed past $52 million in its six years of development. Music duties for the production are being handled by U2's lead singer, Bono, and the group's guitarist, the Edge. Bono, writes Horn, is a bit bewildered by the show's odyssey. "But who cares?" Bono said. "The visuals and the music are amazing, and that's what will matter."

Horn also provides some insight into the music of the production. An excerpt:


Famous for their soaring, sometimes political rock anthems, such as "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Pride (in the Name of Love)," Bono and Edge have crafted "Spider-Man" songs that are driven more by choral harmonies than lashing guitars. Because U2 does not play in the show (the performers are accompanied instead by a band and an orchestra), the songs are written for different voices (including women) with non-U2 arrangements.

Bono described his and Edge's compositions as varying from "giant, big pop songs to noisy rock 'n' roll to ethereal shivers" and said it was "the easiest job we've ever done when it comes to the pure joy.

"For me it's this wonderful thing of escaping from the first-person songwriting, to disappear into these outside characters, it's just been a thrill of a ride," Bono said. "You spend so much time digging up diamonds in your own music; it's a treat to dig in somebody else's dirt. To work on these songs was like a playpen."

Edge said he and his longtime partner were surprised that the rigidity of the musical format was actually liberating. "The process," he said, "got more fun, exponentially, as it went on."

Edge believes "Spider-Man" will eventually make it to Broadway. "It will happen," the guitarist said.
Read The Times' story for a closer look at the production
-- Todd Martens
latimes
On Broadway, 'Spider-Man's' greatest enemy is the budget
Sources close to the production say the musical's producers need to raise as much as $24 million to cover a $52-million budget.


By John Horn

November 6, 2009

As this Spider-Man tale opens, the audience sees New York City "on fire and in ruins" as "a section of the Brooklyn Bridge ascends with Mary Jane bound and dangling helplessly from the bridge." Soon thereafter, a new villainess called Arachne flies into the picture spinning her own deadly trap, and as Spider-Man battles all kinds of criminals he's swinging right over the audience.

It sounds like the 3-D opening for the next "Spider-Man" sequel, and even though this superhero story is filled with Hollywood-style special effects, it is instead a glimpse from a confidential script of a planned "Spider-Man" musical -- the priciest undertaking, and among the most troubled productions, in Broadway history.

Theater producers are always looking for the next movie-inspired musical blockbuster, and the pedigree of "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" couldn't be more stellar: Sony's three Peter Parker movies have grossed nearly $2.5 billion worldwide, musical songwriters Bono and the Edge have shipped more than 50 million U2 records domestically, and director Julie Taymor's "The Lion King" has earned $3.6 billion globally.

But rather than develop into a surefire hit, "Spider-Man" the musical instead has turned into a tangled web of production delays, unpaid bills and costly theater renovations that even Peter Parker's alter ego would struggle to escape, according to interviews with half a dozen people close to the show who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the show and its finances. Given its immodest ambition to "reinvent Broadway," the musical's budget has soared to $52 million, counting theater renovations, according to one person familiar with its finances -- more than double the cost of 2006's "Lord of the Rings" musical, one of the most expensive musicals ever.

Like any compelling superhero story, "Spider-Man's" real-life final act is a cliffhanger.

Despite all the talent in its corner, it's still far from certain when -- or even if -- the elaborate musical will open after six years of development, as it has struggled to find a backer to close the budget shortfall. If the show doesn't premiere by the end of April, it not only will miss Tony Award eligibility but also face the expiration of the musical's license from Marvel Entertainment, whose comic-book division created the enduring superhero in 1962. Bono and Edge seem bewildered by the show's odyssey. "But who cares?" Bono said. "The visuals and the music are amazing, and that's what will matter."

While many factors have contributed to the show's holdup, the musical has been derailed by some of the most complicated staging in Broadway history, as the show's creators try to replicate the superhero's skyscraper-swinging movie maneuvers inside a theater.

Three people close to the production say the musical needs to raise as much as $24 million to cover its proposed budget of about $52 million -- $42 million for the show, $6 million for theater renovations and $4 million for theater restorations. At the same time, "Spider-Man's" fixed weekly running costs total around $1 million -- hundreds of thousands dollars more than what some elaborate shows such as "Mary Poppins" or "West Side Story" cost to stage every week. Part of "Spider-Man's" expense stems from its aerial and scenic effects: More than 40 stage hands are needed to operate the musical's backstage rigging, said a person who's seen the show's budget.

Those expenses mean "Spider-Man" would have to sell out every show for as many as four years (a feat only a handful of Broadway shows ever manage) simply to break even, according to several people familiar with the production and its finances.

The show has its devoted believers, led by Chicago lawyer David Garfinkle, who has been involved in the project from the start. It's easy to understand the enthusiasm: A reading of the musical's script -- along with listening to an hour of unreleased music by Bono and the Edge and reviewing a DVD sent to potential investors of Taymor's staging tests -- reveals why so many people have worked so long to see this show through.

Tough web to weave

From the very first page of the "Spider-Man" script, it's evident this is hardly the kind of musical you could stage in just any theater -- it makes "The Phantom of the Opera's" crashing chandelier look like a simple summer stock trick.

Throughout the script -- credited to Taymor and playwright Glen Berger, stamped "Confidential" on its cover and dated from this summer -- stage directions call for action sequences that at first glance seem almost impossible to stage, let alone transfer to another theater for possible touring productions.

The opening bridge scene is followed closely by the arrival of a giant web woven by Arachne, a temptress who is the musical's central invention. "A giant loom is revealed -- seven actors swing on vertical silks to form a tapestry," the stage directions read. At another point, Spider-Man is so busy battling bank robbers and muggers that he multiplies into five different crime-fighting superheroes. One of the duplicate spiders swings over the audience, landing on the balcony.

For all of the theatrical pyrotechnics, the musical's core story is comparatively old-fashioned, following the basic plot of the first "Spider-Man" movie while adding some new characters and back stories.

The central romance between high school students Peter Parker and neighbor Mary Jane Watson remains intact. Parker is still bullied by his classmates and moonlights as a photographer for a New York newspaper; moreover, he's torn over his unexpected transformation into a web-slinger. As in the movie, the play's central villain, Green Goblin, is the genetically mutated form of scientist Norman Osborn. The biggest departure from the movie is the musical's femme fatale, Arachne.

A figure cut from Greek mythology and sometimes accompanied by her own Furies, she stalks and tempts Spider-Man throughout the story as any god does a mortal. "We're linked by instinct, but you think a spider can wait? She exterminates deficient mates!" she tells Spider-Man at one point.

The music marks a departure for U2 as well. Famous for their soaring, sometimes political rock anthems, such as "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Pride (in the Name of Love)," Bono and Edge have crafted "Spider-Man" songs that are driven more by choral harmonies than lashing guitars. Because U2 does not play in the show (the performers are accompanied instead by a band and an orchestra), the songs are written for different voices (including women) with non-U2 arrangements.

Bono described his and Edge's compositions as varying from "giant, big pop songs to noisy rock 'n' roll to ethereal shivers" and said it was "the easiest job we've ever done when it comes to the pure joy.

"For me it's this wonderful thing of escaping from the first-person songwriting, to disappear into these outside characters, it's just been a thrill of a ride," Bono said. "You spend so much time digging up diamonds in your own music; it's a treat to dig in somebody's else's dirt. To work on these songs was like a playpen."

Edge said he and his longtime partner were surprised that the rigidity of the musical format was actually liberating. "The process," he said, "got more fun, exponentially, as it went on."

A heroic struggle

The musical's path to the stage has been filled with personal tragedy, and misfortune visited "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" in a most inauspicious way -- at a 2005 signing ceremony with the Edge cementing the "Spider-Man" deal.

Tony Adams, a longtime colleague of movie producer Blake Edwards and a partner in theater producer Hello Entertainment, died at age 52 of a stroke as "Spider-Man" contracts were being signed.

Hello and Garfinkle attempted to fill Adams' shoes, and three people who have invested or explored investing in the show said Garfinkle needed to (but ultimately didn't) bring in someone deeply experienced with day-to-day production to replace Adams and help Taymor create a show that was financially viable. Garfinkle declined to be interviewed.

Taymor, who also declined to be interviewed, always had grand ambitions for the show. At the outset, according to one person close to the show, she wondered if the musical even could be contained in a traditional theater. Just as Cirque du Soleil erected custom houses for its productions in Las Vegas (with a $50-million renovation to Los Angeles' Kodak Theatre in the works), Taymor considered staging "Spider-Man" in a specifically designed new building.

Instead, the producers picked Broadway's cavernous Hilton Theatre, which had housed "Young Frankenstein" until it closed on Jan. 4 of this year. The production started extensive renovations on the theater as soon as "Young Frankenstein" packed up, but when it later faced a money crunch, the renovations slowed down. A number of people weren't paid in a timely fashion, according to a person close to the show.

Some of the lead parts have been cast. Evan Rachel Wood, who was in Taymor's "Across the Universe," is set to play Mary Jane, with Alan Cumming as Osborn/Green Goblin and newcomer Reeve Carney, who is in Taymor's 2010 movie, "The Tempest," as Parker/Spider-Man. But the musical may lose them to other movies, television shows and theater productions if "Spider-Man" doesn't open soon.

"Mentally, you go from thinking, 'I'm going to be doing this for a year' to 'Oh, maybe that's not going to happen after all,' " Cumming said.

The slick promotional DVD sent to woo investors showcases some of Taymor's staging, aerial and web-shooting tests along with the musical's scenic (by "The Little Mermaid's" George Tsypin) and costume design ("Bram Stoker's Dracula" Oscar-winning costume designer Eiko Ishioka). If the creative team can create a format to "support the flying and fighting and stickability of Spider-Man," the DVD promises future investors, the show will "redefine Broadway."

That's assuming the musical can find its missing millions; there's one plan afoot to raise as much as $10 million by selling the income from 100 seats added to the Hilton auditorium, according to a person apprised of the idea.

No matter how appealing the "Spider-Man" musical might look on paper, it's unclear who its target ticket-buyers might be -- teenage boys and girls, the box-office drivers for the superhero movies, are hardly Broadway's lifeblood. Though the hits from movie-adapted musicals can be home runs, the margin for error is thin: For every "Hairspray" triumph, there's a "Shrek: The Musical" washout.

One interested party believes the money will fall into place before the end of the year: Edge, for all the setbacks, remains secure.

Said the guitarist: "It will happen."

john.horn@latimes.com

Times staff writer Geoff Boucher contributed to this report.
latimes
U2 warms up Berlin for Wall anniversary
By Simon Sturdee (AFP) – 2 days ago

BERLIN — Irish rockers U2 have warmed the German capital up for celebrations next week marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with a spectacular mini-concert in the heart of the city.

On Thursday, the band played six songs at the historic Brandenburg Gate, a landmark blocked off to West Berliners prior to a peaceful revolution that tore down the Berlin Wall dividing the city on November 9, 1989.

The performance formed part of the MTV Music Europe Awards, held in an arena in an eastern district of the capital, with the concert featuring songs "One" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" beamed live into the ceremony.

The 10,000 tickets for the free concert by U2, who came to Berlin in 1990 to reinvent themselves and make the album "Achtung Baby", were snapped up in three hours.

With the Brandenburg Gate lit up with the words "Freedom" and "One", U2 also performed "Magnificent" and the Bob Marley classic "Get Up, Stand Up" with special lyrics to match the occasion.

Other performers at the MTV awards -- though not at the Brandenburg Gate -- included Beyonce, Foo Fighters, Green Day, Jay-Z, Leona Lewis, Shakira and German band Tokio Hotel.

The main presenter was Katy Perry, whose scantily clad opening performance for what she said would be a "sexy, sexy show" paid homage to "Cabaret", the 1972 movie set in 1930s Berlin staring Liza Minnelli.

U2 also won the MTV award for Best Live Act, while Lady Gaga won Best New Act and Tokio Hotel, whose twin brother stars were born East Germany two months before the Wall fell, took Best Group.

US rapper Eminem won Best Male, punk rockers Green Day took Best Rock act and Turkish rappers maNga claimed Best European Act.

Jay-Z, who also rapped with U2 for "Sunday Bloody Sunday", won Best Urban performer while his wife Beyonce was awarded Best Song for "Halo", Best Female act and Best Video.

It was the second time that the MTV awards were held in Berlin -- part of efforts by the music industry to jump on the back of the Wall anniversary to boost flagging sales.

Co-presenters helping hand out awards included "Knight Rider" and "Baywatch" star David "The Hoff" Hasselhoff, who performed in front of half a million people at the Brandenburg Gate on December 31, 1989.

The demise of the Berlin Wall dividing the city, itself an island in communist East Germany, brought about the unification of East and West Germany in 1990.

Around 100,000 revellers are expected at the official Berlin Wall celebrations on Monday, with Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, due to host a gathering

google
U2 strike emotional chord with Berliners on night of celebration
The Irish Times - Friday, November 6, 2009



NEARLY 20 years after recording their famous album Achtung Baby here, Bono and the boys from U2 rocked the Brandenburg Gate last night before 10,000 cheering fans.

Drenching the famous monument in emerald green light, the band delivered a rousing Sunday Bloody Sunday , as a fan’s Tricolour fluttered in the night air.

The anthem to the lost lives of 1972 hit an emotional chord with Berliners on a spot where, just two decades ago, a shoot-to-kill policy was in operation.

As the city kicks off five days of celebrations to mark the fall of the wall here in 1989, the former no man’s land was transformed into one man’s land: that man being Bono.

U2 – by special request of Berlin’s mayor – took to the stage in the city and launched into One . On what was once a cold war divide, Bono sang that “only love can heal such a scar”.

They marched through Magnificent , from their new album, before Sunday Bloody Sunday was greeted with roaring approval, and ample support from rapper Jay-Z.

“Thanks for sticking with us over the years,” said Bono, recalling their Berlin spell in 1990, when they “wrote some tunes, met some beautiful spirits”.

After a rocking Beautiful Day , they vibrated Vertigo loud enough around Pariser Platz for even the dancing American embassy staff to hear behind their bombproof glass windows.

The Irish party continued over at the MTV Europe Music Awards where television actor and German pop legend David Hasselhoff revealed he is buying a pad in Ireland: “the Hassle Castle”.

Meanwhile, Irish woman Gillian Deegan was chosen from 100 “fanwalkers” who hiked from Hamburg to Berlin to present an award.

Back out with U2, director Wim Wenders was rocking with the crowd, enjoying the music and casting an admiring eye on the light show. “Nice to have the boys at the gate,” said the band’s many-time collaborator.

After the band wrapped things up with Surrender and a “God bless,” the fans streamed home, cold but happy.

“It was a great concert – they were in great form,” said middle-aged fan Arthur Schrödinger. “Bono is ageless, and I find it good too that he’s political.”

American fan Dahlia was thrilled at the free concert.

“It’s good that U2 are doing this for the public,” she said. “The MTV awards are just all about VIPs.”

As organisers of the gig and the subsequent awards show, MTV erected big screens on Unter den Linden to allow fans without tickets see the concert.

They also slapped their corporate logo on panels of the original Berlin Wall alongside a sign reading “No Graffiti Please"


irishtimes
U2 UNITE BERLIN

06 Nov 2009

U2 played an electrifying mini-set to an audience of 10,000 at Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate) this evening, to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.


With the crowd having waited patiently through snow, rain and wind on a bitterly cold Berlin night, U2's arrival on stage was greeted with joy and jubilation, the likes of which have not been seen in the city for almost 20 years. As the lights shone out over the historic city, it felt like a very special occasion indeed. And it was.


Bono took to the microphone like an old time preacher and immediately displayed his German linguistic skills. "Vielen Dank Berlin. Du bist Wunderbar," he told an appreciative audience. After that, it was down to business.

The opener, ‘One’, recorded 19 years ago in Berlin for the Achtung Baby album, went down a storm, backed by a stunning lightshow projected onto Germany's most historic landmark. The words WEST and OST were displayed together, then divided, followed by ONE, followed by FREEDOM and LOVE. It was perfect way to open the night.

‘One’ was succeeded by the powerful ‘Magnificent’ from No Line On The Horizon, and if ever there was a joyful noise this was it. The lines "Only love can heal such a scar" and "Only love unites our hearts" took on an added poignancy, as the whole of Berlin sang along.

However, it was ‘Sunday, Bloody Sunday’, which will go down, for many, as the highlight of the night. The song written about the divide within Northern Ireland could just as easily have been written about Berlin, the yearning for peace and unity amid the slings and arrows of outrageous human conflict seeming as relevant as ever. "Tonight, we can be as one," Bono sang and the as the mass chorus echoed into the night sky, Jay-Z – 'The Mayor of New York' as Bono dubbed him – joined the band to finish the song. Along the way, U2 merged ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ with Bob Marley's ‘Get Up, Stand Up’, minting some original lyrics to fit the moment:


"And all the lovers and hate
That pass these keepers of the gate
And it's a heavy weight this history
But it's not too late..."


After ending the song and bidding farewell to the mayor, Bono spoke directly to the audience and the cameras. "Feel this moment that we're in, in this beautiful city of Berlin... Ich liebe Berlin," he said, before putting his hand to his heart. ‘Beautiful Day’ was the natural follow-up and was as superb as it has ever been, ending with a verse from The Beatles' ‘Blackbird’.


"Black bird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
all your life you were only waiting
for this moment to be free".


U2 opened their penultimate song, ‘Vertigo’, in German. An enjoyable rock’n’roll romp but without the resonance they achieved elsewhere, it was the least compelling part of the show.

The boys finished the night with what Bono described as "a song for people who are trying to hold – just that little bit tightly", before launching into a superb version of the epic and wonderfully moving ‘Moment of Surrender’. Set finished, and having given their all for half an hour, the band stood united, bowed and left.

And as the 10,000 flooded down Unter den Linden, a few began to hum the captivating melody of the song with which U2 had finished the show. It spread like wildfire and within a few seconds, every single person was singing at the top of their voice united in happiness – and maybe even love.


In the end, on what is almost the 20th anniversary of the epoch-making collapse of the infamous wall, U2 gave Berliners something special that they will hold onto tightly for many years to come. On occasions like this that you realize just how wonderfully sympathetic, and how resonant, U2’s music is.

One love, we get to share it...

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