And Then We Were Ten

Ten years ago, you hadn’t heard of blogging. It was before weblogs were even called blogs, before permalinks and Adsense, before people who have never run a community started calling themselves ‘social media experts’.

Maybe you weren’t even online back then. But we were and we were blogging. U2 were in the studio recording ‘All that you can’t leave behind’. They’d set up a webcam sending out pictures every few minutes. They’d built in a delay, because god forbid we’d see anything untoward. We were a small group of fans from Holland, Australia, USA and Sweden who had first met each other on IRC and then met up ‘in real life’ on the road during the Popmart tour in 1997. We were online 24/7, grabbing pics from the webcam and archiving them. We’d done the same during ‘Pop’. Back then occasionally there’d be some kind of response from the studio on our comments. Little messages posted on cardboard cutouts. It’s too long ago to remember the details. But it was fun. It could have been the start of a beautiful band-fan relationshop online. But U2 never really did take to the internet like we – early adopters – hoped they would.

U2log.com was one of the first ever blogs, one of the first ever single subject blogs, one of the first ever team blogs. (Hi team! How are you all these days?) I’m proud of that. Ahead of the curve means you’ll suffer the dialectics of progress at some point. We did satire, we did proper reporting, we tried to filter fact from fiction, we strived to be anti-agenda, independent, secular, different. We loved Pop^*.

We are past our prime, I’ll be the first to admit. I’ve been running this site mostly on my own these past couple of years. I’m always on the verge of kicking it in the head. I’m not the fan I used to be and there are many reasons I shouldn’t be doing this: Other sites are doing it so much better. I know too much, I know too little. I have other interests I should focus on. Still, I can’t let it go. Yet.

U2log.com is ten years old today. There’s a tour about to start. One more for the road.

Caroline van Oosten de Boer
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

* And screw the lads for being so insecure about that album. *grin*

Claw hat

If the screen is not expandable, it fails to impress us

http://www.u2.com/news/title/totally-staged

Fans create multicam ”Live from Amsterdam 20 July” video

A trailer of an UNOFFICIAL upcoming multicam video bootleg ‘Live from Amsterdam 20 July”. What a great job!

Who needs Hamish anyway?

U2 fans running for the best spot front of stage

Awesome video footage of fans running down the stairs and across the pitch in Berlin’s Olympia Stadium to get a good spot front of stage.

Swedish Fans Forge Plans for Second Wave

Swedish fans on the U2.se forum want to try and repeat their ‘White Wave’ success from the Vertigo show on July 28th, 2005 at Ullevi stadium. Fans brought white cloths to wave around when U2 opened the show with ‘Vertigo”. The plan is to do the same at the U2 360 gigs in Gothenburg on July 31st and August 1st.

The ‘Second Wave’ event has a group on Facebook.

Video: A Night in Milan with U2

Three fans document their trip to Milan to see U2 in this cool, nicely edited 6 minute video. (via @u2gigs.com)

On the trail of the Joshua Tree

Death Valley from Scott Gold on Vimeo. View it large.

Time to unwind a little from all your ticket buying stress. Follow these two U2 fans as they take a detour in Death Valley on a quest to find the Joshua Tree. Find out why they say: “We found a lot more than what we were just looking for…”

Via atu2blog.com

Son of Promo Bono

You bought him in 2000, you forked out in 2005, now it’s time to dip in your credit crunched pockets again. Fresh from our toy-factory in the People’s Republic of Tallaght, we present to you our latest 12-inch action figure: EMO BONO!

Go on, click him, you know you want to!

EMO BONO has a fully articulated body with 30+ points of articulation. Authentic likeness of the Irish frontman of U2, dressed in trademark slimming black undershirt, black leather jacket, black pants. EMO BONO wears black 2-inch-creepers for that extra ‘elevation’.

Comes with two interchangeable sunglasses, a working (RED) credit card, a replica green Gretsch guitar, and water-soluble liquid eyeliner in two colours: black and blue. Make him up as you go along!

EMO BONO is available from U2log.com for only $9,99.
Special discount for U2.com members, just $12,99!

Previously in our line of U2-related toys

Vienna Flashmob Promotes U2′s No Line On The Horizon

Here’s a cool initiative organised by German-language U2 fansite U2tour.de. They rallied fans to stage a Flashmob promoting U2′s ‘No Line on the Horizon’ in the centre of Vienna, Austria on the day of the album’s release in Europe.

Fans from all over Austria gathered on Stephansplatz in Vienna at three in the afternoon. The fans formed a line, holding up print outs of the words ‘No Line’ (see picture) . They recruited passers-by to join in and ended the line with a fan holding up the words ‘On the Horizon’.

TV station ORF filmed the flashmob (see above), which was broadcast in their TV programme ZIB Flash as well as online in their ZIB 24 live stream.

We think a round of applause for this grass roots promotional event is in order.

“U2 fans have bigger egos than U2″

In this Irish Times interview Bono quotes will.i.am saying U2 fans have bigger egos than the members of the band:

“The thing about U2 that nobody seems to get,” says Bono, “is that the very things people think about us, which is the megalomania and the immodesty, they’re so far from the truth. People don’t see that. We had will.i.am doing some work on the new album and he was shocked by the absence of ego. He said: ‘Your fans have bigger egos than you do.’

Discuss.