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"The album was called Boyand the mood of everybody on it was childish. All the silly noises on 'I Will Follow.'" -- Steve Lillywhite |
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"The album was called Boyand the mood of everybody on it was childish. All the silly noises on 'I Will Follow.'" -- Steve Lillywhite |
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Column: off the record ... , vol. 11-461
@U2,
May 08, 2011
This week, Bono turns 51 on May 10. Perhaps it was my destiny to be a U2 fan, since I was born on the day Bono turned 13. That day is also shared by Bono’s oldest daughter, Jordan, who was born on May 10, 1989. Sometimes it is fun to share Bono's birthday. As a kid I tuned in to Entertainment Tonight to watch the birthday notices, and to see the latest Bono mug shot. One year I was visiting the Empire State Building when the screens in the elevator lit up with "Happy Birthday." For a brief moment I wondered how someone had known, only to see that on the next screen was Bono's name and age. D'oh! One of my favorite moments was attending the Elevation shows in Chicago. Being in a celebratory mood, Bono added a few snippets of birthday songs to the set list, even though his day had passed. I just closed my eyes and pretended he was singing for me. I have grown to dislike being wished a "Happy Bono Day." After a while it loses the cuteness. Someone out there want to wish Bono a "Happy Aaron Day" for me?! The North American leg of the 360 tour starts in Mexico this week and there is sure to be an atmosphere of celebration following Bono's birthday, and the start of a new leg of the tour. I really would have liked to have been there, but instead I got to see Kylie Minogue open the newest leg of her tour on April 28 as an early present. She put on a great performance, but I was disappointed in places because she left out some hits I had hoped to hear. Instead, she did some covers, a few rarer songs from her catalog, and even dropped one of the hits she would play in other cities in favor of a song with special significance for the city we were in. It made me think about the endless set list discussions in the online U2 communities. In most cases people are asking for U2 to pull out the rarities and change the set list in each city, and for new songs. For many, a particular concert will be their only show on the tour. U2 is playing to a larger audience than those of us who will attend multiple shows each tour. And while I may appreciate hearing "Mercy," "Slow Dancing," and "Love Will Tear Us Apart," not everyone in that audience will know them, and some may wish to hear a hit instead. My experience at Kylie's show makes me appreciate how lucky I've been to be at concerts where U2 deviated from the norm. And as I thought about the joy of hearing U2 perform some rarities live, I smiled, considering that some fan in the front row DID know the rare song Kylie was performing at that moment. Speaking of Mexico, fans attending those shows are in for a real treat because Snow Patrol is the opening act. Snow Patrol has opened shows for U2 on the Vertigo tour, as well as on the first three legs of the 360 tour. They were the first opening act of this tour, in Barcelona in June 2009, and keep popping up for more. I've really been enjoying them, and they've made it obvious to me that they are fans of U2 as well as great musicians. Gary Lightbody, the lead singer of Snow Patrol, has penned two letters for U2.com along the way. First, he wrote after the shows in Poland to discuss the emotions he felt watching both the band and the crowd. He wrote again from Istanbul, when he thought Snow Patrol was finished with the 360 tour and wouldn't be joining it again. The letters show how much he has enjoyed this tour, and that he is a fan like the rest of us. I got to see the farewell Snow Patrol performance in Istanbul. For "Chasing Cars," they brought many from U2's crew on stage, and Rocko (U2’s Stage Manager) even sang with Gary on the song that night. It was a very touching moment. I regret that I’ll miss seeing Snow Patrol a few more times, almost more than I regret not seeing U2 themselves. Mercury Records in the U.K. made a disappointing announcement recently stating that it would be retiring the CD single as well as vinyl singles. U2 is likely to be affected, as Mercury is their label in the U.K. We saw with the recent releases from No Line On The Horizon that a CD single for "Magnificent" was not released in the U.K. With the exception of "Get On Your Boots," singles were not released in Canada, Australia and Japan. Now we can likely add the U.K. to countries where Mercury is retiring U2 singles. In a surprise move, though, the U.S.A. once again released U2 singles, the first commercial CD singles released in the U.S.A. since the days of Pop. We can hope the U.S.A. releases continue in the future, as well as singles that are still released in Europe. If the CD single does disappear, I hope that some way of getting uncompressed music to the fans is investigated. I have grown to hate the MP3. I know it isn't the best quality possible and I know I am missing sound. And maybe someday I'll have a stereo where it makes a difference. It probably doesn't make a big difference now on my current stereo, but I know somewhere, a higher-quality version of the song exists that isn’t an MP3. Many artists are now releasing material in FLAC format along side the MP3 format. If Mercury does retire the single, I hope the company looks into a format that offers a better audio experience than an MP3. I also would hope they look into true international distribution for digital songs, rather than relying on iTunes and other region-specific distribution channels. Too often iTunes is country specific, and a song released in one branch in Canada cannot be downloaded in the U.K. It is very difficult to track down these international releases sometimes. Maybe U2.com will offer high-quality downloads for sale in its store. I suppose I can hope U2.com collects all the remixes and b-sides on a collection. Finally, I want to mention the African Well Fund is having its annual photography auction to support the "Build A Well for Bono's Birthday" campaign. The photos included in this year's auction are gorgeous, and worth a look. © @U2, 2011.
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