Bits & Bytes

A collection of the latest U2 news and announcements posted by our staff.

We're on Google+, too

Just a quick heads up to any of our readers who use Google+. We've finally gotten around to creating an @U2 page there, so feel free to connect with us and say hello. We'll use Google+ the same way we do our Twitter and Facebook accounts -- to share U2 news, essays, and have conversations with our fellow fans. Here's our page:

https://plus.google.com/108071700926185224735

Poll Results: Your Favorite U2 Christmas Song

One of our poll questions during the month of December asked @U2 readers to choose their favorite U2 Christmas song -- either "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" from 1987, or "I Believe In Father Christmas" from 2008. With just under 2,400 fans voting, the results are in and clear: Your favorite is "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" by about a 2-to-1 margin. The graphic below has the full details.

Be sure to vote in our new poll question on atu2.com, which asks for your grade on the U22 song list.

U22 Track List Announced

After a couple extensions of the voting deadline, U2.com has revealed the final list of songs to be included on U22 -- the latest annual fan club release. The songs, which appear to be listed in order of vote totals, are as follows:

1. Bad
2. Where The Streets Have No Name
3. Magnificent
4. One
5. Ultraviolet
6. Even Better Than The Real Thing
7. With Or Without You
8. Beautiful Day
9. City Of Blinding Lights
10. The Unforgettable Fire
11. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
12. All I Want Is You/Love Rescue Me  
13. Moment Of Surrender
14. Until The End Of The World
15. The Fly
16. One Tree Hill
17. Stay (Faraway, So Close)
18. Walk On
19. Zooropa
20. Elevation
21. Out Of Control
22. Mysterious Ways

U2.com says the tracks are "now being mixed and sequenced," which means this isn't necessarily the order they'll be on the final 2-CD set.

No word yet on when U22 will begin shipping.

Vintage U2

With over 7,000 items in our news archives, it's a safe bet you haven't read all of them! This month we continue our look at 1987.

Glory Days, Spin

As the child of a mixed marriage (his father's Catholic and his mother, now dead, was Protestant), Bono would, in fact, have a wide nonsectarian appeal. This was apparently well understood by the Vatican, which recently invited him to meet the Pope. Bono said sure -- as long as there was no publicity. "But that's the whole point!" declared a confused Vatican official. "In that case," Bono replied, "he can join the queue with the rest of the punters."

Fame, Fortune and Frank Sinatra, Propaganda

Edge: "One got the feeling that the whole of Las Vegas was desperately wanting to be taken seriously, as a proper city.... They were just delighted that a band of U2's credibility would go and play there. Though actually we were there precisely for the reason that they were pretending didn't exist."

U2 Give Themselves Away, Musician

Adam: "There's a weird process which I've just begun to understand. Particularly when you get the letters from fifteen-year-olds. They ask questions as if you're the second line of defense for their heads.... They're trying to contact you to see if you can enlighten them or be responsible for them and, of course, you can't. But when you read a letter, you think, can I reply? Do I shatter this person's illusions? Do I say, I'm just a normal guy?"