My U2 360 Experience

Mark Peterson 2011 / U2 360 Tour Chicago Eric Shivvers: Four songs into U2’s Chicago set list last month, I had to leave the pit area. The heat and the closeness of bodies were a little too much for me. I decided to gravitate towards the back of the stage, taking in the show on the huge monitor floating above the stage. Without seeing the actual band members, the energy coming across the “Big TV” was infectious. U2 was filling the arena with exactly what they had promised – 360 degrees of fun.

In order to offset the heat, I drank $30 worth of bottled water. I knew I would have to take a natural break and so I did. I slowly made my way to the concourse and onto the bathroom. Normally, I would never do this because I would be so into the show that missing an Edge lick or a Bono rant would not be missed but this night, the hot weather was playing a crucial role. 

When I exited the bathroom, I was able to walk the venue and take the show in via my 360 experience. I ambled through the crowd of the young, the old and the staggering. Along the way, I witnessed The band singing their classic  I Still haven’t Found What I’m Looking For from all aspects of the venue. What made my excursion interesting is that I never saw the band. The glow from the lights of the stage reflected off the arena walls silhouetted the crowd flanking my left as I walked ht concourse. Even at the far reaches of the arena, Bono had them in his hand, taking them on a journey as they sung in unison with him. 

One would say this was a waste of time and not a way to experience a U2 show, but I disagree. After seeing them from the pit twice on this tour in 2009, I had reason to take my own journey through the crowd. I wanted to feel the passion from the furthest reaches because that is where I started my U2 live experience, fives rows from the back of the arena at Carver-Hawkeye arena in 1987. On this night, I needed to get back to my roots as I wandered through the sweating flesh. It was something I needed to do.

Upon my return to the rail at the back of the stage area, I looked up as Gabby Gifford’s husband was introducing Beautiful Day. My Bedouin lifestyle within the arena for those fifteen odd minutes told me that no matter where you sat, no matter what your favorite album was or song you wanted to hear, we were at church with four Irishmen in the pulpit spilling out their heartfelt emotions for us no matter the weather.

Salomé Bootlegs Before Achtung Baby

 Salomé is the name of the most famous U2 bootleg, a 3-CD set of U2’s early studio sessions for the Achtung Baby album.

In the winter of 1990, U2 were hard at work in Hansa Ton recording studios in Berlin, Germany. The ultimate result of this effort would be the November 1991 release of their next album, Achtung Baby. However, in December 1990 that album was a great ways off, because U2 (unlike most other bands) entered the studio with very few lyric or song ideas. Instead, U2 came into the studio to create as well as record. Here they sought inspirations for songs from playing together. They would etch out ideas while improvising around some basic idea, or riff. Since all this jamming was taking place in a recording studio, even the simplest of ideas was captured on tape. The highlights of these tapes were then edited down and compiled into “working tapes” recorded onto DAT (Digital Audio Tape) cassettes. Tapes of this nature were used to hold possible song ideas, as well as a means for Brian Eno (and others) to hear the band’s progress and make suggestions about the music.

Happy Birthday The Edge

The Edge / NIck Walker 2011 David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), more widely known by his stage name The Edge (or just Edge), is a musician best known as the guitarist, keyboardist, and backing vocalist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record. As a guitarist, The Edge has crafted a minimalistic and textural style of playing. His use of a rhythmic delay effect yields a distinctive ambient, chiming sound that has become a signature of U2’s music.

The Edge was born in England to a Welsh family, but was raised in Ireland after moving there as an infant. In 1976, at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, he formed U2 with his fellow students and his older brother Dik. Inspired by the ethos of punk rock and its basic arrangements, the group began to write its own material. They eventually became one of the most popular acts in popular music, with successful albums such as 1987’s The Joshua Tree and 1991’s Achtung Baby.

Over the years, The Edge has experimented with various guitar effects and introduced influences from several genres of music into his own style, including American roots music, industrial music, and alternative rock. With U2, The Edge has also played keyboards, co-produced their 1993 record Zooropa, and occasionally contributed lyrics. The Edge met his second and current wife, Morleigh Steinberg, through her collaborations with the band.

As a member of U2 and as an individual, The Edge has campaigned for human rights and philanthropic causes. He co-founded Music Rising, a charity to support musicians affected by Hurricane Katrina. He has collaborated with U2 bandmate Bono on several projects, including songs for Roy Orbison and Tina Turner, and the soundtracks to the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and the Royal Shakespeare Company London’s stage adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine placed him at number 24 on its list of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”.

Details on Achtung Baby Release

U2’s 20th anniversary re-issue of their 1991 album Achtung Baby will hit stores on November 1. Exclusive details regarding the special re-release have also surfaced.

There will be five different remastered re-releases available of Achtung Baby, some of which include CDs, DVDs and vinyl, according to Rolling Stone.

Among these editions, the most valuable set, the Uber-Deluxe Edition, consists of six CDs that come with remastered versions of Achtung and 1993’s Zooropa, plus B-sides, outtakes and rarities; four DVDs, which include ZOO TV: Live from Sydney, the new documentary From the Sky Down and a slew of music videos; five clear, 7” singles in replica packaging; 16 art prints; an 84-page hardback book; an issue of Propaganda fanzine; four badges; and a sticker sheet. Lastly, this package comes with a replica of Bono’s “The Fly” sunglasses.

U2 will Release 20th Anniversary Edition of ‘Achtung Baby’ This Year

20 YEARS OF ACHTUNG BABY 

Twenty years ago, Bono described Achtung Baby as ‘the sound of four men chopping down The Joshua Tree’ while Jon Pareles of the New York Times wrote that ‘stripped-down and defying its old formulas, U2 has given itself a fighting chance for the 1990’s’. The album won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance and became one of the most significant records of the nineties and of U2’s career.

To mark twenty years since its 1991 release, an anniversary edition of U2’s Achtung Baby (Super Deluxe Edition)  is due on October 31, 2011.

Recorded over six months at Hansa Studio in Berlin and Windmill Lane in Dublin,Achtung Baby is U2’s seventh studio album. Produced by long time U2 collaborators, Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno with Steve Lillywhite, Achtung Babywas engineered by Flood and led by The Fly. The album spawned four other singles, Mysterious Ways, One, Even Better Than The Real Thing and Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses. 

The Achtung Baby archives have unearthed some previously unreleased songs from the recording sessions. With a raft of unreleased material; video, remixes, b-sides and documentary footage discovered, a full album of demo and early versions of the final 1991 tracklisting has also been revealed. Five physical editions including vinyl, CD, DVD and digital options will be made available. 

Earlier this year U2 returned to Hansa Studio in Berlin to discuss Achtung Babyin From The Sky Down, directed by Academy Award winning director Davis Guggenheim (Waiting for Superman, An Inconvenient Truth). The film has been selected to open the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8th and will be included in the anniversary edition.

PRE-ORDER ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF ACHTUNG BABY ON ONE OF FIVE FORMATS

Five physical editions of the anniversary edition of Achtung Baby will be available alongside digital only editions.

1. A limited, numbered Uber Deluxe Edition is a magnetic puzzle tiled box which will contain: 6 CDs including the original Achtung Baby album, the follow-up album, Zooropa, B-sides, remixes and re-workings of previously unheard material recorded during the Achtung Baby sessions. 4 DVDs including ‘From The Sky Down’, ‘Zoo TV:Live From Sydney’, all the videos from Achtung Baby plus bonus material. There will also be the Achtung Baby double vinyl album plus 5 clear 7” vinyl singles in their original sleeves, 16 art prints taken from the original album sleeve, an 84-page hardback book, a copy of Propaganda magazine, 4 badges, a sticker sheet, and a pair of Bono’s trademark ‘The Fly’ sunglasses. 
Pre-order: 

2. The Super Deluxe Edition will contain the 6CDs and 4 DVDs, in addition to a 92 page hardback book and 16 art prints in a wallet. 
Pre-order: Achtung Baby (Uber Deluxe)

3. The Vinyl Box Set is a limited release containing 4 LPs, two of which are pressed on translucent blue vinyl containing remixes and B-sides. The box includes a 16 page booklet. 

4. The Deluxe Edition is a 2xCD set containing the reissue of the original album plus B-sides and rarities. 
Pre-order:  Achtung Baby (2 CD Deluxe Edition)

5. The Standard CD is the original album. 
Pre-order:  Achtung Baby

U2 Parties Up NY's West Villiage

The Spotted Pig is a fashionable resto and saloon in Manhattan’s West Village. Your chance of spotting a celeb there is fairly high. At around 8:30 Sunday morning, the New York Post reports, you could have seen all of U2 coming out of the place.

The boys and their entourage had been celebrating the end of their endless, $736-million-grossing world tour by having themselves quite a party, starting after 3 a.m., the paper says.

“People were doing quadruple takes when U2 came out of the bar in their rock ‘n’ roll clothes,” the paper’s eyewitness said. “There were SUVs with the drivers sleeping in the front. When the band came out, the drivers slapped themselves awake and drove off.”

736M Band ! U2 Breaks Records

Billboard magazine said the tour hauled in some $736 million, topping the $558 million established by Mick Jagger’s Stones, and also breaking the record for tour attendance.

The tour began June 30 in Barcelona, days after the death of Michael Jackson, and included 110 events, ending July 30 in Moncton, Canada.

During the tour, U2 performed in the Balkans for the first time since 1997 and played three home town concerts at Dublin’s Croke Park, before heading to California to perform in front of 97,000 fans at the Rose Bowl.

A second European leg started in August 2010, featuring U2′s first appearances in Russia and Turkey and was followed by events in Australia and New Zealand.

In 2011, U2 played to South Africa for the first time since 1998 with two huge concerts in the World Cup Stadiums of Cape Town and Johannesburg.

The group had three sold-out nights at Estadio Morumbi in Sao Paulo, Brazil and had its biggest single audience of 108,800 at Stadium Azteca in Mexico City on May 14, 2011.

Arthur Fogel, Live Nation’s chairman of global music, said: “This tour was a brilliant success on every level and all involved should be extremely proud. U2 once again have set the standard for achievement — perhaps for all time.”

Social Media Brings U2 Closer

MONCTON – 75,000 plus fans descended on Magnetic Hill for the final U2 show of its 360 tour, millions of diehard fans were in Moncton in spirit as social media and smart devices became the eyes and ears of the show to the world. 

Fans around the world that could not attend the show live could follow any show via twitter with show hastags assigned to them, Moncton was #U2360MON the tags used communicate news, comments, share the set list, photos to bring fans even closer. 

Fans from Brazil, Chile, Portugal and Australia shared the tweets, photos and kept communication going with the pleas for more show details.

“It’s kind of funny that I’ve never heard of Moncton before in my life, but now I’ll never forget it! Wish I was there!!” tweeted @U2junkie, a fan from the United States. Our social media channels had over 1 milllion vistors on Saturday night. At one point it looks as if U2 was trending on every social media outlet.

“It seemed like a whole other audience had tuned into the gig, reading rather than listening. It’s not my idea of rock ‘n’ roll but whatever turns you on. Virtual music. Read the tweet, hear it in your head.”

From Tyler, Texas, Lauralynn Wagner followed the show on Twitter from beginning to end. People around the world were interacting on Twitter during the set, she said, giving the event the feel of a “global experience.”

“It’s just really amazing how technology has been able to connect us, as fans, that way,” Wagner said, adding that she saw people re-tweeting concert tweets from as far away as Argentina.

“There were tweets in Spanish. To get to talk to people from all over the place sharing in this experience - it was just really cool to be able to do that.”

For fans who couldn’t make it to the show, Twitter provided the next best thing, said Dale Rideout-Moores from Paradise, Newfoundland. Rideout-Moores, a U2 fan since the 1980s, followed a handful of Moncton concert-goers online along with a group of about 50 other U2 fans who didn’t make it to Moncton.

“A bunch of us stayed online and talked about the songs as we got individual updates on Facebook or on Twitter,” she said.

“It was nice, because even though you couldn’t be there in person, you sort of had the opportunity to be online and feel like you were at the last show.”

The hashtag #U2360Mon had close to 5,000 significant mentions by the end of the concert, according to the social media analytics site Topsy.