Few releases can cause as much speculation, anticipation and activity as a new U2 album, but the scale of interest preceding the release of Pop, the band’s 11th album, is unprecedented in recent years. There have been leaks, broken embargoes and wild rumours surrounding the project since it began 14 months ago, and these have […]
Read MoreU2 Explains Its New Sound
Pop, U2’s long-awaited next album–and the band’s first in almost four years–guarantees a new sound. Lead singer and songwriter Bono, his trademark long hair now closely shorn, reveals to the L.A. Times that the album is actually a melding of two distinct musical directions. “We liked the tendency in England toward pop songwriting in the [traditional] way […]
Read MoreU2’s Album Delayed Until March
U2’s long-awaited new album, which was due out in November, has been delayed until March. The reason? Well, it’s certainly not for lack of material. U2 has recorded thirty-eight tracks for the album, tentatively titled Expect Nothing but the Best; the first single, “Discotheque,” is scheduled to be released to radio stations on January 8. […]
Read MoreA mayoral rebuke for U2 star
(San Francisco) — Lead singer Bono Hewson of the U2 rock band raised the hackles of the mayor of San Francisco by leaping onto a huge modern sculpture and spraying the graffito, ”Stop the traffic, rock n’ roll.” The apparent act of exuberance by the rock star during an impromptu outdoor concert by the Irish […]
Read MoreTHE RISE OF U2
The astounding popularity of the rock group U2 raises this question: How has an Irish band that sings of the strife in Northern Ireland (“Sunday Bloody Sunday”) and the horrors of heroin addiction (“Running to Stand Still”) been able to achieve the same iconlike status enjoyed by Bruce Springsteen? Evidence of the group’s dominance is […]
Read MoreU2: The Joshua Tree
It’s a little unsettling how implacably serious these four young Dubliners have become in a relatively short period of time. The darkness of their costumes, the grimness of their faces and the bleak majesty of the desert terrain in which they are photographed on the cover of their new album announce a mood that is […]
Read MoreOver the Edge
With their finest LP U2 stands and delivers More than any other rock band, U2 is associated with rock’s revived social consciousness. Whether it is as a result of, or in spite of, their professed Christian beliefs, U2 is one band that gives a damn. And their latest album, The Joshua Tree, delivers even deeper into […]
Read MoreAt Home in Dublin
(Dublin, Ireland) — It’s raining downtown, but that doesn’t discourage shoppers along Grafton Street, one of the city’s busiest commercial areas. Dubliners appear so used to the rain that most of them don’t even carry umbrellas. Quips one merchant, “If you let the rain bother you here, you’ll live your life indoors.” The shoppers are […]
Read MoreU2 continues its cause with effect
U2: The Joshua Tree We say: A joyful noise. U2’s idealistic, hopeful vision of a world without war, drugs, hunger, racial tension and religious persecution is growing moredesperate with each album. On The Joshua Tree, its first LP in almost three years, this not-so-young-anymore Irish band comes across as feisty and concerned as ever, despite […]
Read MoreU2 STARTS NATIONAL TOUR ON A POLITICAL NOTE
(Tempe, Arizona) — A national tour by the Irish rock band U2 got off to a controversial start Thursday night at Arizona State University in Tempe. The group issued a statement before the show deploring Gov. Evan Meacham’s recent rescission of a state holiday on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, and announcing […]
Read More