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U2Blog
28.10.04
Carpet ride anyone?
U2 Rocker Set to Roll in E200,000 with Carpet Auction
Belfast Telegraph, October 27, 2004
Ann O'Loughlin
U2 star Adam Clayton is to sell off his collection of exotic carpets worth over E200,000 at a special auction at Christies in London.
The rugs, known as the Adam Clayton Collection, range from small kilims to intricate Persian rugs dating back to the 18th century.
Art dealers and antique hunters are more likely to be vying against each other rather than any rock band fans as the entire collection of 67 rugs is expected to make over E200,000 at the Country Furniture and Works of Art auction next month.
The carpets, which are from the U2 bass player's 20-room Rathfarnham home in Dublin are expected to make anything from E300 to over E12,000 each.
They furnished Danesmoate House, a Georgian mansion, which the star bought for E380,000 almost 20 years ago.
Many of the carpets were woven prior to the start of commercial production in Persia and many of the kilim rugs are from Anatolia, now part of Turkey.
The U2 star is known as a collector of fine arts.
A Christies spokeswoman said: "The strength of the collection is in dating from after the end of the Safavid dynasty in 1741 but before the beginning of commercial production under the Qajars in the second half of the nineteenth century."
The Clayton carpets are mainly from northwest Persia with motifs of animals.
© Belfast Telegraph, 2004.
27.10.04
U2 Ipod
To celebrate the announcement of the new U2 ipod I've put online my Ipod's list of U2 songs. Just to let you know what a 400+ songs look like ;-)
Watch the U2-Apple combined event here.
But as long Apple is that lazy at converting currency that they have to price the $379 gadget 379 Euro I might want to try and buy one in Thailand fot 379 Baht ;-)
22.10.04
Vertigo on a banjo???
"Fans should keep an eye out for a limited-edition Atomic Bomb box set, which comes with a 48-page book full of Bono's drawings, a bonus track ("Fast Cars"), and a DVD with documentary footage plus live acoustic performances of "Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own" and the Edge and Bono playing "Vertigo" on a banjo."
Read more: Herald sun - Atomic reaction
22.10.04
What about this story!
Something no-one ever would believed!
Bono's notebook found.
To good to be true....
20.10.04
How to dismantle piracy...
Click picture to find out!
20.10.04
The backdraft begins...
Chart Attack has the first critical piece on the publicity campaign U2 has started (and which is only just at it's beginning I fear....)
Is there gonna be Rattle & Hum all over again? ;-)
18.10.04
U2-edition iPod + Apple event !!!
My guess is they're gonna put out all their recorded shows on Itunes!!!
(I hope...)
From Appleinsider.com
Apple and alternative rock band, U2, will team up to introduce new music related Apple products and services next week.
Apple Computer will hold a music-centric event on Oct. 26 at the California Theatre in San Jose, Calif., according to invitations distributed to select members of the media on Monday.
"Steve Jobs, Bono and The Edge invite you to attend a special event," the invitation reads. Bono and The Edge are members of the popular rock band U2. The event is scheduled to take place at 10AM Pacific Time.
Last week Apple unveiled a new promotion with U2 to celebrate the release of its new single. The track--titled Vertigo--was made available for purchase and download exclusively from the company's iTunes Music Store.
Apple chief financial officer, Peter Oppenheimer, later hinted at additional collations between the two parties during a financial conference call last Wednesday. "You will hear more about Apple and U2 working together in the coming weeks," he said.
Apple will likely use the upcoming event to introduce the next wave of expansion for its popular iTunes online music store, which will feature a multi-country European launch. The launch is expected to include music stores in more than five new countries that will cover a good portion of Western Europe, with recent reports indicating the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, and Switzerland as likely candidates.
18.10.04
Vertigo + Ipod background #3
I've created a third background, based on the new Vertigo video (the Ipod version).
Click on the image and in the new window use right-mouse menu to select as new background.
18.10.04
U2-edition iPod?
Think secret.com: Sources say that Apple is planning to release a U2-edition iPod around the week of November 21, when U2's new album will hit stores. For a small premium over the regular iPod, said to be around $30, the U2-edition iPod will feature a distinctive enclosure and will come pre-loaded with all the band's major album releases.
Thinksecret.com
15.10.04
U2 in Explosive Form
Review by Adrian Thrills, Daily Mail
15 October 2004
Like the rumble of distant thunder, the rattle and hum of a fast approaching new U2 album can already be heard. The record, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, is not released until November 22 and is under the record company's lock and key because of piracy fears.
But the Irish quartet's barnstorming new single, Vertigo, is being played around the clock on the radio and this week went straight to No. 1 in the chart for songs legally downloaded from the internet.
The band themselves suddenly seem to be everywhere, too. The past few weeks have seen frontman Bono make a passionate speech to the Labour Party conference in Brighton, a spate of glossy magazine covers and, now, a troop-rallying one-off playback of the new album for critics and retailers in London. When one throws in the publication later this month (October 28) of U2 Show (an Atlas-sized coffeetable book packed with live photos) and rumours of a world tour that should visit Britain early next summer, it is clear that the group are going to be pretty hard to avoid in the coming months.
The big question, of course, is whether the new album, the band's 11th studio effort, is any good. And while it is difficult to make a definitive judgment at this stage - unless you are the sneaky individual who pilfered guitarist The Edge's copy from a photo-shoot - the initial signs are that the band have delivered another winner.
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is the sound of a group playing to its strengths. It avoids the empty experimentation of 1997's disappointing Pop and concentrates on the power, precision and growing subtlety that have sustained the band in the 26 years since they formed at Mount Temple High School in Dublin.
And, while it is hardly the great leap forward that will win a horde of new admirers, that shouldn't concern an outfit whose last album, 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind, sold 11 million copies.
All the familiar U2 hallmarks are present and correct. The formidable Bono Bellow is unleashed in its full splendour on the anthemic Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, and the singer's voice sounds broader and more wideranging than on recent albums.
The Edge, meanwhile, makes full use of his special effects pedals, harking back to the shimmering guitars of The Joshua Tree on Crumbs From Your Table and the soulful, bluesrock of Rattle And Hum on All Because Of You.
The album opens with Vertigo and Miracle Drug, two bare-boned rockers that put U2 back in touch with their inner garage band.
The arrangements are then fleshed out as the album develops. City Of Blinding Lights, with its moody piano, is the first track to deviate from the initial, stripped-down template, building slowly into a widescreen U2 epic.
Elsewhere, other numbers also stand out. Love And Peace Or Else is the album's most emphatic political statement. A glam-rock stomp somewhere between Led Zeppelin and Iggy Pop's Nightclubbing, it is a heartfelt plea for tranquillity in the Middle East that makes its point without preaching.
Then, as the frantic early pace finally relents, the record closes with a series of those plaintive, semielectronic ballads that U2 do so well: guitars and strings combine to create a majestic wall of sound on Original Of The Species while One Step Closer, in which Bono sings of being 'hung out to dry in my old clothes', features some electronic wizardry from Brian Eno.
In building their songs up from simple foundations, U2 avoid the bombastic streak that has sometimes spoilt their music in the past.
With bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr rock solid throughout, the robust rhythm twins successfully check any tendency towards over elaboration from their two more celebrated bandmates. The only things that are genuinely long-winded about U2 these days seem to be their album titles, which have certainly become more verbose since Boy, October and War.
As for whether they can still cut it musically, the evidence here suggests that, yes, they still can.
15.10.04
Special report: U2 album playback, London
From: Music Week
13/10/2004
It's the 27th floor of London's Centre Point - one of the city's tallest structures. Security is tight with the insistence that all potential recording devices are left in lockers on the ground floor. The room is decked out like a nightclub with low, red lighting and speakers mounted in every direction. It's the U2 playback. No expense spared.
Manager Paul McGuinness introduces the record to a small number gathered from national press. Tomorrow, the whole affair will be repeated for regional press and on Thursday, for TV and Radio.
McGuiness starts by talking about the band's label. "It's odd to be on such good terms with the record company. Of course, there's always a little pushing and shoving, but it's great to have all the records in one place and not be squabbling with former labels over best ofs. The people at Island are the smartest in the business and the most fascinating thing over the last 25 years is that they continue to do their best work."
On U2 and the forthcoming album, he says, "The band have become more and more ambitious. Yes, the albums get longer and longer to make." He continues, "London is the centre of the musical world, mostly because of the paranoia it induces and the savage criticism. We are as scared of that as we always were."
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb - Preview:
On first listen, this is an entirely different record to 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind, in fact, there appears to be no natural progression between the two. The relative calm, assured and complete tones of the former album have been usurped by a more consistently upbeat slab of work. The majority of tracks on HTDAAB swagger with uptempo melodies and adventurous guitar lines, probably resembling something more similar to 1997's Pop.
And, as is typical of a U2 album on first listen, the melodies and song structures are not entirely discernible. No doubt a few plays will correct that, but for the time being, only Miracle Drug, Love And Peace Or Else, All Because Of You and Original Of The Species, are the instantly accessible tracks.
The others: Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, City Of Blinding Lights, A Man And A Woman, Crumbs On Your Table, One Step Closer and Yahweh appear to have almost confused, ramshackle song structures that demand more patience from the listener. Undoubtedly these will become the album's masterpieces.
While HTDAAB is standard U2 fodder, it is more appealing that the band has not settled for a remake of ATYCLB and has instead created something that could be described as a cacophony of the best in U2 sounds, and how they vary: HTDAAB incorporates shreds of so many brilliant and familiar moments from the past - Bono's urgent vocals from War re-surface, the atmospherics of The Unforgettable Fire are ever-present, the adventure of Achtung, Baby! and the dirty distortion of Pop all seem to have been wrapped up, dismantled, and wrapped up again in that intricate bomb that is U2's distinct sound.
Track by track review of HTDAAB:
Vertigo:
First single. U2 return the glory days of the early 80's when it was all confidence and style over content. The riff from October's Two Hearts Beat As One (sic) used in the middle eight will excite the most ardent U2 fans.
Miracle Drug:
Edge digs up the guitar sound that is synonymous with the Joshua Tree, while the ending has the rousing drums that first appeared on U2's slight foray into hard rock on Exit. Begins downtempo, but in true U2 fashion, rouses before too long.
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own:
Slow ballad that again, invokes sounds more familiar on Joshua Tree's Where The Streets Have No Name. An honest, heartfelt ballad that drops rather unexpectedly to a sinister minor key two thirds of the way in.
Love And Peace Or Else:
Bono and Edge's love of Bowie and Stooges, plus Larry Mullen's continued Ramones influence is plastered all over this track. Reminiscent of Mofo on Pop, it flaunts distorted basslines and dampened drums, yet manages to be simultaneously progressive.
City Of Blinding Lights:
Sounds as though it is a lost track from 20 years ago that could have appeared on The Unforgettable Fire - this is mainly owed to the production that seems to have Daniel Lanois written all over it. Not a particularly obvious song, but one that has the potential to be a U2 classic.
All Because Of You:
This is undoubtedly one of the most obvious and accessible tracks on the album. It arrives with a warning bell sound and proceeds to kick in like Pop's Discoteque. Pure swagger and rock 'n' roll. U2 at their finest.
A Man And A Woman:
The vocals on this sound as though they were recorded in 1983 for War. How Bono has managed to pull this off after aging 20 years is beyond belief. The combination of this and the acoustic guitar sends flashbacks of War's Drowing Man, however, the incredibly slick production serves to remind us that this is, after all, 2004.
Crumbs From Your Table:
Maybe one of the slightly weaker songs, this is modern U2 which is almost as adventurous as Achtung, Baby! and at times, sounds a little like Mysterious Ways. The breakdown at the end, however, is stunning.
One Step Closer:
Very traditional downtempo, atmospheric classic U2 number.
Original Of The Species:
Very accessible, pop melody that isn't too far removed, in some senses from mid-career Beatles. It's a love ballad that could have featured on All You Can't Leave Behind.
YahWeh:
Huge chiming guitars, incredibly uptempo song that seems to be calling out for the ancient Hebrew God.
Fast Cars:
Features arabic style drumming that gives way to marriachi rhythms. Excellent energetic song and unusual for U2 to complete an album on an upbeat note.
14.10.04
Vertigo remix clips
Listen to four 30 sec Vertigo Jacknife Lee Mixes at U2Swisshome.com.
13.10.04
"Drang, dur-ang!"
Blender magazine carries an interview and a review of the new album.
13.10.04
Vertigo + Ipod video backgrounds
I've created two backgrounds, based on the new Vertigo video (the Ipod version).
Click on the image of choice and in the new window use right-mouse menu to select as new background.
13.10.04
11 out of 10 ...
...and it's as explosive as its title...
That's the verdict of The Sun in their review of the new u2 album:
Read it at their website www.thesun.co.uk.
12.10.04
U2 + Ipod + Itunes
There it is, the next official step in U2's involvement in the promotion of Apple's Ipod & Itunes.
We've seen the video of Bono speaking about it and now there's an entire ad-video based upon the new single Vertigo. You can find it here (30mb/mov-format)
Check the Apple-website as well.
I've created a background image based on the video, click here and use right-mouse button to set as background.
** UPDATE
Read the backgrouns of this project, which was directed by Mark Romanek at www.markromanek.com
8.10.04
First8
Raising awareness on poverty in the world, that's the goal of the initiative First8.
The heart of the campaign is a pocket-sized photography book with powerful portraits of people living and surviving in difficult and unacceptable circumstances throughout the world. Throughout the book there's the text of U2's song Miss Sarajevo, which complements the graphics very well.
In September 2004 the book was delivered to 25,000 people in positions of power and influence, addressed to each individual personally, by name. As the campaign is anonymous, there was no return address, only the address of this website.
In the Netherlands, 1.6 million copies of this book, in mini-magazine format, were distributed along with various magazines.
Besides the U2 lyrics the book carries only this text:
Today you are one of more than 25,000 heads of state, ministers, members of parliament, monarchs, religious leaders, captains of industry, journalists and other influential people of 191 countries who hold this printed glimpse of our world.
For the first time in history we have the means to end poverty. Today it’s in your hands.
Take a look at this bookklet and learn more about this initiative at www.first8.org!
5.10.04
Adam talks singles
This is what Adam had to say about Discotheque on the 'U2 talk Pop' disc, my feeling is it fits Vertigo ike a glove....
"I think this is, just the character of this song... was... it kind of formed quite early on. It was one of those ones that had a character. And I think ...you know... U2 always writes one or two songs on a record that really is the old U2, pushed somewhere else. But quite legitimately pushed somewhere else...
It's got everything that U2 has always done, but it's got more. It's got a kind of some fun, some throw away stuff and it's got a vitality that we always are atracted to. And I guess that's why it's ...kind of... for us seemed like it's was going to be one of these tracks that is destined to be a single."
5.10.04
Jacknife Lee remix download
U2exit.com is offering a download of the Jacknife Lee remix, taped from the web feed of the Zane Lowe show on BBC Radio 1, october 5th.
