photos by Greg Cristman

Last night, U2 arrived at New Jersey's New Meadowlands Stadium in a giant green-and-orange spaceship. At least that's what the nearly 100,000 people in attendance might have assumed upon first seeing the blinking, glowing, four-legged, 167 foot tall contraption straddling the area that otherwise serves as the Jets' and Giants' home turf.

More confusion may have ensued around half past nine when the base of the structure began to smoke furiously; shortly thereafter, David Bowie's 'Space Oddity' announced a countdown over the loudspeakers. At zero, the sound of live guitars cut through the heavy air and U2 charged onto the stage as the stadium heaved with applause. The band played for over two hours, rocking through hits like 'Beautiful Day' and 'Sunday, Bloody Sunday,' punctuated with shout-outs to Amnesty International and bits of banter by Bono.

'I'm a man of simple needs, just 200 trucks, 400 tons of equipment,' he said of the group's current tour. 'A work in progress.'...

...The group's [360] tour takes its name from the aforementioned structure that allows U2 to play stadiums 'in the round'; in other words, to open up thousands of seats that would ordinarily be behind a stage - and actually sell out 80,000-seat venues (or larger). The contraption is dismantled and trucked from city to city between shows along with all the group's equipment. As a result, U2 has been playing to average crowds of 96,000 people per night and grossing just shy of $10 million per show. By comparison, Bon Jovi, the second-highest earning musical act over the past year, drew an average of 34,000 fans and grossed $3.5 million per night. [Forbes]

Interpol opened for U2 last night (7/20) at the Meadowlands, and will again for two more shows before U2 plays a final '360' date in Canada with Arcade Fire and Carney (the band who plays in the Spiderman musical!).

The July 20, 2011 show was originally scheduled July 19, 2010, but was postponed due to Bono's back injury. U2 played some of the final shows at Giants Stadium in 2009 (also expensive 360 shows).

More pictures and the setlists from last night in NJ below....

Continue reading "U2 & Interpol played the new Meadownlands (pics, setlists)"

Bono (more by Tim Griffin)

U2 has postponed the first date of its world tour because of a back injury suffered by singer Bono.

The June 3 concert scheduled in Salt Lake City was the continental kick-off for this leg of the band's U2 360 tour.
But future cancellations or postponements remain a possibility, depending on Bono's recovery.

Bono underwent emergency surgery today in a hospital in Munich, Germany, and must recover there for a few days. He was injured during a rehearsal. [Chicao Sun Times]

In other rock star health news, "Bret Michaels had another health setback this week when doctors found a hole in his heart that they think caused him to suffer a warning stroke."

Gavin & Courtney @ Carnegie Hall (aphrodite-in-nyc)

Rufus, Scarlett & Gavin @ Carnegie Hall (aphrodite-in-nyc)

Gavin & U2 @ Carnegie Hall (aphrodite-in-nyc)

Sunday, October 4th was the "Hal Willner Presents: An Evening with Gavin Friday & Friends" show at Carnegie Hall. The whole night was a benefit for (RED), a charity directed toward AIDS in Africa.

The night's advertised guests included Laurie Anderson, Antony, Elizabeth Ashley, Bono, Adam Clayton, Andrea Corr, The Edge, Flo & Eddie, Joel Grey, Bill Frisell, Guggi, Scarlett Johansson, Courtney Love, Lydia Lunch, Patrick McCabe, Maria McKee, Shane MacGowan, Eric Mingus, Larry Mullen, Jr., JG Thirlwell, Lydia Lunch, Martha Wainwright, Rufus Wainwright and Chloe Webb. A few others who appeared were Lady Gaga, Fred Armisen as Prince, and Lou Reed, The night had a strong collaborative atmosphere to say the least...

Rufus Wainwright, Scarlett Johansson and Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen joined Friday for the come-hither cartoon "Mr. Pussy," from Friday's 1995 album, Shag Tobacco. (Armisen came out dressed to the purple nines -- as Prince.) Friday and falsetto-soul singer Antony duetted on a pair of ballads, including a Memphis-brass-soaked reading of "He Got What He Wanted" from Friday's 1989 solo debut, Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves. Friday and Virgin Prunes devotee Courtney Love were just on the right side of out-of-control in a pounding version of Magazine's "The Light Pours Out of Me." Queen of the post-punk furies Lydia Lunch played the same half of the night as Lady Gaga (who came out in next to nothing -- she made Love look demure). And a metal-machine-noise assault by Laurie Anderson (violin), John Zorn (saxophone) and Lou Reed (guitar distortion) eventually resolved into the Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane" with Friday, Bono and a cheerfully pickled Shane McGowan of the Pogues trading verses.

Bono was not just passing through between stadiums. He, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. were on and off stage half a dozen times; U2's Friday covers included "I Want to Live" (done with techno drive and Joshua Tree-like space) and the crusted-glam bomb "King of Trash." Bono also took a solo spot, turning on his Irish Sinatra for the Shag Tobacco elegy "The Last Song I'll Ever Sing." The Edge's brother, guitarist Richard Evans, joined Friday and singer Guggi in a mostly-intact Virgin Prunes reunion (the group broke up in 1987). Their overlapping vocal harangue in "Sweethome Under White Clouds," with JG Thirwell of Foetus guesting as a third voice, sounded like the Beastie Boys at the End of Days. [Rolling Stone]

A list of all the songs U2 members played on, more reviews and videos from the show, including the "Jean Genie" encore, below...

Continue reading "Gavin Friday & friends (U2, Courtney Love, Lady Gaga, Antony, Lou Reed, Rufus Waniwright, and many, many more) played Carnegie Hall (videos & stuff) "

Bono and Gavin Friday (U2Log)

On October 4 at New York City's legendary Carnegie Hall, (RED) unites a world-class line up of artists for a special (RED)NIGHTS concert "Hal Willner Presents: An Evening with Gavin Friday and Friends." The star-studded evening will feature Laurie Anderson, Antony, Elizabeth Ashley, Bono, Adam Clayton, Andrea Corr, The Edge, Flo & Eddie, Joel Grey, Bill Frisell, Guggi, Scarlett Johansson, Courtney Love, Lydia Lunch, Patrick McCabe, Maria McKee, Shane MacGowan, Eric Mingus, Larry Mullen, Jr., JG Thirlwell, Martha Wainwright, Rufus Wainwright, Chloe Webb, plus special guests. Tickets for the event will go on sale beginning Wednesday, September 16 at 11AM EST via CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800, carnegiehall.org and the box office. As is the case with every (RED)NIGHTS show, a portion of the proceeds from the concert will go directly to the Global Fund. For more information, please visit www.joinred.com/rednights or www.gavinfriday.com.

Longtime friends and professional collaborators, Willner and Friday came together to bring the concert to life and raise awareness of (RED)™'s mission. Friday, a childhood friend of Bono, is an Irish singer, composer and painter and founding member of the gothic rock group The Virgin Prunes. Willner has produced albums for Marianne Faithfull, Lou Reed, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, yet is perhaps best known for assembling tribute albums and live events saluting Leonard Cohen, Thelonius Monk, Tim Buckley, Edgar Allen Poe and Marquis de Sade.

Willner said, "This unique evening is a celebration of Gavin and a gathering of friends and amazing musicians. We're all proud to partner with (RED) to help fight AIDS in Africa." "It's an honor to be a part of this (RED)NIGHT because I know the money generated will go directly to people who need it," added Friday.

That is an insane lineup.

Lydia Lunch also performs one day earlier with her band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks at Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Rufus and Martha Wainwright are appearing with their father Loudon at Highline Ballroom in NYC TONIGHT (9/15).

The Carnegie Hall event poster with more information below...

Continue reading "a new Hal Willner / Gavin Friday show @ Carnegie w/ Antony, Bono, The Edge, Scarlett Johansson, Courtney Love, Rufus Wainwright & MANY OTHERS!"

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Stephen Merritt - Coraline sample 1 (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Stephen Merritt - Coraline sample 2 (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Stephen Merritt - Coraline sample 3 (MP3)

The Magnetic Fields @ Loews Theater (more by Chris La Putt)

MCC Theater presents Coraline, a musical with music and lyrics by Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields. Merritt's delightfully creepy and playful melodies and droll lyrics tell the story of lonely Coraline's discovery of another parallel world that is identical to her own -- with some scary differences. An animated film version of the story, based on the popular children's book by Neil Gaiman (author of the international sensation Sandman and 2009 winner of the prestigious Newbery Award) is currently in theaters. The production, which was adapted for the stage by celebrated downtown actor/playwright David Greenspan is the world premiere of Coraline for the stage.

Performances will begin at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NYC) on May 7 and continue through June 20, 2009. [press release]

Tickets for the show are on sale, as are VIP tickets. (There are also student & under-30 rush tickets available the day of each show). Samples of Merritt's Coraline songs can be heard above.

In other rock musical news:

Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark, featuring direction by Julie Taymor (Across The Universe, Frida, The Lion King on Broadway) with music and lyrics by 22-time Grammy Award-winners Bono and The Edge (from U2) will be holding open casting calls at major cities across the country starting next week. [press release]

The NYC audition is scheduled for Monday, April 13th at The Knitting Factory. Details on the casting call and info for other cities, below.

Advance group tickets are already on sale for Spider-Man, set to open February 18, 2010 at the Hilton Theatre.

Other bands with musicals in the works include Green Day, who are turning their 2004 album American Idiot in a Broadway show. About the adaptation, Billie Joe said to Entertainment Weekly:

It's about coming of age in a really politically-driven climate. It's pretty chaotic, and it's not by any means a conventional way of [doing] a musical. And that's why I liked [American Idiot director] Michael Mayer so much because of what he did with Spring Awakening. When I saw that for the first time I was like, this is not your grandparents' musical. He's going for it. He has a sense of anarchy in the way he approaches his craft.

Will the show have dancing?
Not "dancing" dancing. I don't know how to really explain it. It's got physical and violent moves. It's not like a Lion King thing. It's dirty and it's got a lot of heart and it's got a street mentality. There are no singing cats. No little girls with big curly red hair. It should be pretty cool, man.

Those aren't the only acts making the switch: Yeasayer guitarist Anand Wildeis working on a musical as well. And Amanda Palmer is in the process of producing an Airplane Over the Sea-themed high-school play, opening May 7th at Lexington High School in Lexington, MA.

Full Spider-Man press release below...

Continue reading "Stephin Merritt's Coraline (opening in May), U2's Spiderman (casting call info) & other musical news "

"Yeah, we're getting really good at mergers and acquisitions at this point, so we've had a lot of companies that we've acquired and had to integrate. But we're working on our ability to do this much quicker. We have to keep some of these systems distributed; sometimes you just can't directly integrate them. You've got to keep running them to better integrate them into the overall enterprise."
[Joe Manna, CIO of Live Nation]

"Mr. Billy Corgan was busy in Washington today, first appearing before the House Committee on the Judiciary in a hearing on the Performance Rights Act, then delivering a letter in support of the controversial Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger. You can read Billy's words to the committee here, but essentially Corgan told congressional leaders that radio should pay performers, not just songwriters, for tracks played." [Stereogum]

"Bono said he had no opinion on the mega-merger." [Chicago Sun Times]

"I had a long conversation with a promoter who told me that with regard to a show he was promoting, Ticketmaster was guaranteeing the secondary market for the act." [Bob Lefsetz]

"In a meeting last May with more than 100 ticket brokers, Ticketmaster's then-chief executive, Sean Moriarty, acknowledged that the ticketing giant had used TicketExchange to sell 160 Neil Diamond tickets over two shows at marked-up prices." [Wall Street Journal]

"No Doubt is sticking it to Ticketmaster by selling 10% of the tickets for its North American Tour directly to fans. The goal, according to Jim Guerinot, No Doubt's manager, is for fan club members to buy tickets instead of 2nd party distributors such as TicketNow, the legal scalping division of Ticketmaster. This is the same problem Bruce Springsteen and his fans have been pissed about for weeks." [New York Press]

"AEG CEO Tim Leiweke slammed the proposed Live Nation, Ticketmaster merger, saying that it is 'not good for the industry.'" [The Busines Insider]

"Come on! Only Gene Simmons got into this business for the money. The rest of you were enraptured by the music. Can't you get the public on the same page? Can't you turn everybody into a club rat? Can't we get everybody to go out and see live music on a regular basis? Or do we have to wait until the labels fail, independent promoters are broken and every ticket is sold on TicketsNow and StubHub?" [Bob Lefsetz]

Continue reading "Bono, Billy Corgan, No Doubt, Bob Lefsetz, AEG, others chime in on Live Nation & Ticketmaster"

photos by Mike Suppe

When Courtney Collyer elected to attend Fordham last spring, she didn't expect to land at a powerhouse. The Lady Rams had finished fifth at the 2008 Atlantic 10 championships.

So Collyer, a Staten Island product and St. Joseph by-the-Sea HS standout, was surprised to see herself powering Fordham to second place - the school's best-ever finish - at last month's A-10 championships in Buffalo. [Daily News]

The mystery (was it a mystery?) of where U2 were going to play for Good Morning America today, and how they were going to get from the TV show taping to Fordham University with enough time to play both shows in one morning, has been solved. They were the same show! (duh).

As you can tell by the pics, it happened early this morning - between 8 & 9 AM. U2 played three songs followed by a break and interview followed by three more songs. The audience was comprised of a packed lawn full of bundled up college students.

U2's fifth of five Letterman residency shows airs tonight (3/6) (though it was taped on Monday). The Fordham/GMA setlist and more pictures below...

Continue reading "U2 played Good Morning America at Fordham University - pics & setlist"

Get On Your Boots, the first single from U2's new album No Line On The Horizon, will be released as a digital download on February 15th with a physical format to follow on February 16 through Mercury/Universal (UK).

Produced by Brian Eno, Danny Lanois and Steve Lillywhite, sessions for No Line On The Horizon began in Fez, Morocco, and continued at the band's Dublin studio, New York's Platinum Sound Recording Studios, and London's Olympic Studios.

Released on March 2nd (March 3rd in the US), the album will come in a standard format with 24 page booklet and in digipak format. The digipak includes an extended booklet and the album's companion film "Linear" by Anton Corbijn. A limited edition 64 page magazine will also be available, featuring the band in conversation with artist Catherine Owens, and new Anton Corbijn photographs. No Line On The Horizon will be released on 180gm vinyl. (More on the formats below)

The album cover artwork is an image of the sea meeting the sky by Japanese artist and photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto.

In related news, Bono and The Edge contributed to Tom Jones's new album, are working on a Spiderman musical, and performed yesterday for Obama in Washington DC.

Listen to the new song at U2's site. Full album tracklist, and list of formats, below...

Continue reading "new U2 song from new U2 album No Line On the Horizon"

Legendary singer Tom Jones releases his first new US studio album in 15 years. Entitled 24 Hours, most of the 13 songs are co-written by Jones and produced by British duo Future Cut, who recently helmed tracks for Lily Allen, Kate Nash, Estelle and others. Jones co-wrote over half of the songs on 24 Hours, a first for him. "It's all very well just singing songs, but for this record I really wanted to get properly personal. In other words, you listen to this album and you get the real me."

In addition to Jones' co-written songs, Bono and the Edge of U2 contribute and play guitar on a brand new song "Sugar Daddy," written specifically for Jones and inspired by a meeting of the friends in a pub in Dublin.

"24 Hours" was released November 25th on S-Curve Records. Speaking to Las Vegas Review-Journal, Tom said,

It all started with Bono, explains the singer, who plans to perform as many as six of the new songs in his MGM Grand shows through Jan. 28. The two met in a Dublin nightclub more than two years ago, and Jones said, "I'd love you to write me a song."

"(Bono) said, 'OK, but if I'm going to write one, it's going to be about you.' " The two went on to discuss Jones' past, with Bono confessing, "When he was a kid, he saw me on TV and he liked the way I dressed as well as the way I sounded. So all that stuff is in the song."

When the two met up again in another club -- this time in London -- Bono sang the rough product of his labors with U2-mate The Edge and writing partner Simon Carmody. The tongue-in-cheek ditty called "Sugar Daddy" captures the Tom Jones swagger by proclaiming "I'm the last great tradition" and boasts, "You don't send a boy to do a man's job." But it also confesses, "the older I get, the better I was." Jones says he and his manager son, Mark Woodward, have talked about pop singers aging and people saying, "Maybe he shouldn't be doing this anymore."

"But you get a blues singer, and nobody's concerned about his age. ... With blues singers, people seem to enjoy that these men have experienced life. And I think maybe this is what happened with this (album) as well. "Maybe it's because I've been around a long time, I think these songs are more fitting now."

After Bono went through the lyrics, he pointed out "That information you gave me in Dublin, there's a lot of that in this song."

"I said, 'Well, do I get writer credit?'
"He said, 'No.' He didn't even think about it," Jones recalls with a chuckle.

The singer remembered Bono's approach -- and took corrective action for royalties -- when the original recording sessions stalled out.

Tom Jones, currently in the midst of a residency at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, is coming back to NYC in February for a show at... Terminal 5. $50 tickets go on sale Friday. All dates below...

Continue reading "Tom Jones -new album (w/ U2), 2009 tour dates (Terminal 5)"

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is about to take her first tentative steps onto the world stage....Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.....Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili...[blah blah blah].....Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and new Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari....Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh....[ok, most importantly...]...The Alaska governor will also meet U2 singer and global anti-poverty campaign Bono on the sidelines of the UN meeting, said the ONE campaign, which is associated with the Irish rocker.

The McCain campaign specifically asked to include Palin in Bono's planned talks with the Republican presidential nominee, ONE said in a statement.

Bono also hopes to hold a meeting with Democratic nominee Barack Obama before the November 4 election, the campaign said. [AFP]

John Kerry, Richard Lugar, Bono and Joe Biden

Hi-

A few points of clarification for Sunday's event (in response to this post)- not sure it matters this late in the game, but thought you should know:

1) There is a suggested donation of $20 that will go directly to Obama for America, but we will not be collecting donations at the door. There will be a tent/tables inside the venue where concert-goers can donate. Also, people can donate at any level.

2) We will have a list of people that donate $20 so that if they decide to give early in the day, they can come by the table at the end of the event to pick up their poster (so they don't have to carry it around).

3) As for those that donate beforehand, we are setting aside posters for them but because there is no guaranteed entrance (it's still a free, public show) we are encouraging everyone who donates early to make sure they arrive at an appropriate time to get inside the venue.

In addition, this is a completely grassroots-organized event (all volunteers). The campaign did not have any involvement.

Thanks,

Jay-Z is on the verge of a deal with concert promoter Live Nation worth about $150 million that rivals the biggest music contracts ever, the New York Times reported on its Web site on Wednesday.

Jay-Z was said to be planning to leave his longtime record label, Def Jam, for a package with Live Nation, which includes financing his own entertainment venture as well as recordings and tours over the next decade.

The deal, which sources told the newspaper should be finalized this week, comes after Live Nation earlier this week announced a 12-year agreement to handle the merchandising, digital and branding rights and touring of Irish group U2. [Reuters]

As pointed out by "Anonymous", Arcade Fire joined Bruce Springsteen on stage last night (Oct 14, 2007) at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa, Ontario. According to the official setlist posted on Bruce's site, the encore was something like this:

Girls In Their Summer Clothes
State Trooper (with Arcade Fire) (Tour Premier)
Keep The Car Running (with Arcade Fire)
Born To Run (with Arcade Fire)
Dancing In The Dark
American Land

According to Pfork tipsters though, Arcade Fire did not actually play on "Born To Run".

So, just to recap....
* Arcade Fire also played with David Byrne
* And David Bowie
* And U2
* And now Springsteen
* Neon Bible was influenced by classic Springsteen
* Bruce Springsteen hung with The National
* And played with the Hold Steady
* Lou Reed does not hang with any of these people, but he does like the Killers
* And the Killers' last album was also influenced by Springsteen

Eventually some actual pictures and video from last night's Bruce show will turn up. Until then, I'll be entertaining myself by matching up the following two videos....

Continue reading "Arcade Fire played with Bruce Springsteen"

This one not only delivers a worthwhile anti-war message, it is required posting according to the blogger handbook...

Continue reading "VIDEO: Bono & Pavarotti (Ave Maria)"