We’re still recuperating from our whirlwind trip to New York City, where we attended the “Gavin Friday and Friends” concert at Carnegie Hall. By ‘we’ this time I don’t mean the editors of U2log.com, though some of them – past and present – were among us. By ‘we’ I mean the International Brigade, a group of friends who met online, through their love of music and Gavin Friday in particular. Some of us are into U2. Some of us aren’t. Since the late 80′s we have seen Gavin play live on many occasions, in various cities, on different continents. We all have to travel to see him play, because he doesn’t come around that often. When we heard of this event there was no question about it – we were there.

As sure as we were, many others were confused as what exactly the night was about. A charity gig? A tribute? An Aids benefit? A Hal Willner extravaganza? U2 were going to perform. Or not… the band was billed as separate members. The Virgin Prunes would reform. Or not. They said they never would. Who the hell are Flo and Eddie? Some U2 fans seemed unfamiliar with widely acclaimed artists like Rufus Wainwright, his sister Martha and Antony of Antony and the Johnsons, while others rolled eyes at the mention of Scarlett Johansson, Courtney Love and, well, U2.

For us die hard Friday-fans this concert was always about Gavin’s 50th birthday and those in the know gleefully looked forward to see an audience subjected to an evening of songs from his repertoire and influences. (“I hope U2 play their new single”, one fan wrote on a message board. Eh, no. “Is this a family show?” another asked. Not likely.) We were also very keen to find out how the other artists would interpret the songs that mean so much to us.

Larry, J.G. Thirlwell

U2 were more or less the odd ones out in this affair. Lydia Lunch next to Bono? J.G. Thirlwell next to Larry? Never in a million years could someone have imagined it. But the eclectic line up represents Gavin perfectly. Rock, cabaret, punk, pop, cinema, theatre, literature, classical and jazz… his body of work draws from every genre under the moon. This makes him unique, interesting and more or less unmarketable in a business that likes to put artists in a box. Friday is an acquired taste, like durian fruit, or olives. So strange at first taste, but oh so good when savoured.

Hal Willner, who produced Gavin’s first solo album ‘Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves’, has staged many similar events over the years: the Harry Smith nights, Leonard Cohen tributes, the Disney, Nino Rota and Rogue’s Gallery shows. Gavin has been involved in all of them. They are invariably long, messy, glorious, planned accidents. Willner’s talent lies in bringing artists from different genres together and make them cross the divide, always backed by a stellar band. The backstage scene is laid back, a leave-your-egos-at-the-door kind of vibe. The common denominator is a love of music. ‘Gavin Friday and Friends’ was Bono and Hal’s gift to Gavin, two friends’ tribute to their mate whose dream it was to play Carnegie Hall. They set it up over a 6 month period, deliberating through e-mails, text messages and meetings across the globe. Bono took care of business and got [RED] involved. Willner looked after production. It all came together.

Sat comfortably in front row, we watched the spectacle unfold. There was good, there was less good, there were touches of brilliance and moments of surrender. It wasn’t a Gavin Friday gig, although he was on stage for most of the night. His own live shows are intense, tightly structured affairs, steeped in darkness and shimmering light. Willner cast Friday in a show that reflected his own interpretation of who and what Gavin is. Personally, I had expected an emotional roller-coaster, but enjoyed instead a celebration of my favourite artist’s work.

Eric Mingus, Gavin

Some of the highlights were unexpected. Antony, who is the music scene’s go-to man for backing vocals this decade (Lou Reed and Bjork are among the artists who’ve made use of his services), was the first to duet with Gavin and did so beautifully on the classic ‘He Got What He Wanted’. Courtney Love, a U2 and Virgin Prunes fan since the early days, surprised me first with her impassioned introduction to the Virgin Prunes-part of the set (she set U2′s angels against the Prunes’ demons), then with her duet with Gavin. The two of them and their big punk hearts tore up Magazine’s ‘The Light Pours Out of Me’, a song I didn’t even know existed and now cannot forget. Rufus Wainwright provided his Quebec-rooted harmonies on Kurt Weill’s ‘Benares-song’, his voice twisting and turning around Gav’s own Celtic-tinged vocals. The gentle giant Eric Mingus lived and breathed ‘Caruso’, his growl a match for Gavin’s snarl. And Joseph Arthur’s clear, strong voice added punch to ‘Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves’.

Andrea Corr, Gavin

Girls like a bit of Man Friday and the dames that graced the stage all vied for his attention. Courtney threw her body at and around him (and the next day tweeted he was ‘beyond hot’), while Maria McKee claimed first dibs. Later in the show, Gavin smoothed his way into Chloe Webb’s personal space, then made moves on Andrea Corr as she sang ‘Time Enough for Tears’, the couple holding hands like teenage lovers. Bono had to make do ogling Lady Gaga in her fishnets.

And what of U2? Well, they tried their hand at Gav’s ‘I Want to Live’ and ‘King of Trash’. For me, they didn’t match the originals. ‘I Want to Live’ lacked desperation (though Bono ad-libbed a bit of inspired opera) and ‘King of Trash’ was simply not trashy enough. Granted, they must have been cacking their pants sharing a stage with the likes of Bill Frisell and John Zorn. But they performed well on the songs picked from Gav’s glam-tinged teenage years: T-Rex’s ‘Children of the Revolution’ and Bowie’s ‘Jean Genie’. It was Bono on his own, however, who shone with ‘The Last Song I’ll Ever Sing’. A perfect chance for him to release the tortured torch singer inside of him. His take on the song was on par with, perhaps even better than Gavin’s own. The Edge on his turn served more than adequately on Gavin’s always mind blowing ‘Another Blow on the Bruise’.

The Edge, Gavin, Larry

Then came the Virgin Prunes – some of them, anyway. Early on in the two-part set, in fact. Gavin, Guggi, Dik Prune (The Edge’s brother) and guest vocalist Jim Thirlwell, blasted Carnegie Hall with two classics from If I Die, I Die: ‘Sweethomeunderwhiteclouds’ and ‘Caucasian Walk’. Back in the day, Guggi was the fan favourite. It’s easy to see why. His stage presence is decidedly less menacing than Gav’s, whose unrelenting demeanor would scare the living daylight out of even the hardest post-punk Goth.

Where Guggi seemed hesitant – he’s a painter now and has had very little stage time since he left the band in ’84 – Thirlwell (that’s Foetus to you) was a solid back up, his vocals soared alongside Gav’s. Meanwhile, Maurice Seezer, pianist, impressed on the drums! Guggi threw shapes, his wiry body a living work of art. Gavin, center stage, stood tall, then crouched. Staring down the house, pounding his chest, conjuring up sulphur.

For the Virgin Prunes fans in our midst, it was a revelation to see that Gavin can still access and channel the primal anger that fueled his early Prunes’ performances. No Brit could ever match this Irish wrath, we speculated. Not even the Sex Pistols – whose anger was always externally motivated, while an Irishman’s fury seems to come from deep within the land.

That knowlege and the idea that friendship can be a lifelong, inspirational, all conquering thing, is what we took home with us after the show. (We already knew that Gavin Friday can command any stage.) ‘Bigger than love’, is what Gavin said on Twitter (follow him here) the day after the show. Totally.

• Full setlist here
• Post your own birthday wishes here (reg. not required)

by Fabienne Tafani

It is rather tricky to assess a tour, especially a U2 tour, based on two shows alone – a fortiori, the two shows that launched a world tour such as the 360°. In this case, the job seemed all the more perilous to me, since I had lukewarm feelings about the Vertigo Tour in 2005. Compared with the previous U2 tours, the outdoor leg had left me frustrated in terms of overall concept, stage design and lack of communication between the band and its audience. It is a completely different story, though, that began at the Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona, on June 30th and July 1st.

As soon as you get into the stadium, the hugeness of the stage takes your breath away – a stage that is halfway between unidentified flying object and a futuristic sci-fi spaceship. As a result, Camp Nou, the biggest stadium in Europe, ends up looking like a humble, modest-sized host. The pitch looks strangely shrunk, allowing every member of the audience to feel close to the stage. To succeed in expressing a feeling of intimacy mixed with outrageousness: that was the announced – and achieved – tour de force. The eagerness of the passionate Spanish and international audience, contributed to the greatness of both nights. Right from the start at 9pm, the whole venue was on fire and the Mexican wave went round the stadium numerous times, the audience loudly showing their support for the band.

As soon as the band gets on stage, the tone is set for the night. It is Bono on one of his great days, fevered and kicking, the one who is able to fire up crowds with one single gesture. The four members of the band look close-knit again, and do their best to fill the huge stage that they stride all along the shows. They seem happy and proud to be on stage, on this stage, and they keep on smiling, laughing, and winking at the audience. A few little technical problems or skipped lyrics remind us that they are not blasé or polished robots, but simply artists under pressure despite their thirty-year long live experience. The satellite link with the International Space Station on the first night definitely settles the exceptional nature of this tour configuration.

As for set-lists, U2 seems to have picked up a three-part outline. The central part shifts both nights, leaving space for numerous surprises, such as Electrical Storm, Angel of Harlem, Desire, and Party Girl. The 360° Tour is marked by songs from The Unforgettable Fire album, which is consistent with the omnipresence of Brian Eno’s sounds on the album No Line On the Horizon.

The big risk-taking of these nights lies in the exciting remixed version of I’ll Go Crazy if I Don’t go Crazy Tonight, which instantly turns the gig into a huge techno party. The band seems to define itself now as part of the 00′s, as they highlight numerous titles of their latest “trilogy”: No Line On The Horizon of course, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, and How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. The explosive response of the audience to City of Blinding Lights and Vertigo, shows that the Vertigo Tour is still deeply anchored in the spirits, and that U2 is now carried by a huge number of fans who joined in five years ago.

In the end, the overall impression left by these shows is paradoxically (even) more visual than musical. The beautifully-enlightened Claw offers two hours of a dazzling and surreal fireworks show, partly in the manner of the artwork of Gaudi, who inspired its design.

These shows also highlight something new: one of U2′s features is to invent and design tour concepts in perfect harmony with the albums that inspires them. And yet, the link between the 360° Tour and the album No Line On The Horizon is far from obvious at first sight – apart from the tour being a support for the new titles. There is even a striking gap between the extreme sobriety of the album artwork, the relative classicism of the songs and the gigantic visual explosion that is displayed during the shows. For the first time in the history of U2, the tour was not named after one of the album’s titles or lyrics. It seems that two projects have been created in parallel, without real crossroads – but the result works surprisingly well.

Bring on Milan, Paris and the rest of the world tour!

For the Top 50 Fans of each NLOTH track, this chart lists their aggregated top 11 U2 tracks.

Because the data is limited to the top 50 fans, there’s quite a bit of distortion, and last.fm likely skews to younger fans. But who would have thought that The Ground Beneath Her Feet would feature?

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pZwTRFc-imZlXslVSwbt_aA

The review’s not online yet, but the March 5 issue of music magazine Rolling Stone awards U2′s New Line on the Horizon no less that five stars. The cover of the issue says “U2′s Five Star Masterpiece”.
(via M2)

Update: review now available on RollingStone.com

“No Line on the Horizon is closer to the transitional risks — the Irish-gothic spell of 1984′s The Unforgettable Fire, the techno-rock jet lag of 1993′s Zooropa — but with a consistent persuasion in the guitar hooks, rhythms and vocal lines.”

NLOTH has also managed to win back the heart of Irish journalist John Waters (Author of ‘U2 – Race of Angels’), prone to contemplating the band within its Irish context. In the Irish Times he writes — while Ireland suffers its worst recession since the 70′s — “If, as we have previously noted, music is prophetic as to the drift of wider reality, then this album may be the most hopeful thing you will hear all year.” You can read the rest of John Waters’ thoughtful piece on IrishTimes.com.

And it so happens that Bono visited that church, when he was in Osaka, Japan with Guggi and Gavin Friday back in 2006:

Bono and Gavin Friday, Church of Light. Photographer unknown.

And here’s a picture of Bono and Tadao Ando together when the architect came to visit Dublin.

So there you have it. A fun little insight into how U2′s choice for their new sleeve may have come about.

“There are some new sounds that could only come from an Eno/Lanois production, which left me with a feeling similar to what I experienced when I heard “The Fly” for the first time. This is NOT a back-to-basics guitar/bass/drums track like “Vertigo” or even “Beautiful Day.” There’s some definite sonic evolution going on here. “

Read his full post at The Music Geek Blog

Can’t remember the set list, can’t remember much about the music, to be honest. I just know that everything changed that night, and I’m sure it was not just for me.

It wasn’t so much a musical event. It was more like the Red Army had arrived, on a cold October night, to force feed a new cultural revolution, punk rock. Marching boots and the smell of sulphur.

As I sat in the box room and stared out the window the next day, it was very clear. The world is more malleable than you think; reality is what you can get away with.

(read more)

What is your greatest gig ever?

Our man Down Under reports:

“The line up process was well organised with a first in best dressed policy (no fan club priority) . I got there just before midday and secured a position right on the railings of the stage (Adam’s side) The show seemed pretty much the same as what had been done previously but with a few changes here and there. ‘Walk On’ was performed as a full band again, and it showed that it had been a while. It seemed to take a the first verse or so for the band to get it right.

The main noticable difference was the final encore. ‘The Saints are coming’ sounded a little rough but nonetheless a great addition to the set. The show closed with ‘Kite’, which again seemed to take a little bit for the band to get into. The intro went on for a while whilst Bono had a chat to Adam. Then it took off. There was a guy playing a didgeridoo throughout and the ending of the song was quiet magical with Bono flying a kite on the b-stage, then releasing into the air. The Edge’s solo’s were longer and the end was extended.”

Yesterday, however, we were lucky enough to be at Rock Werchter. The lineup of the festival is pretty impressive with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Depeche Mode, Muse, Live, Scissor Sisters, The Who, Placebo, Franz Ferdinand, the Arctic Monkeys, the Kaiser Chiefs and another favourite of ours, Sigur Rós.

We kicked it off with a little Editors and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! (go buy their album, it rocks!) and gradually drifted towards Muse and The Who. Mindblowing, a bouncing audience, swinging guitars, arms and microphones. Strictly no crowd surfing at Rock Werchter, yeah, right.

The Who? Aren’t they, like, old? Greying geezers talking about My Generation? Damn right. And these icons of rock are the ones toting cutting edge technology which is worth a mention. Mouthwatering to us techno geeks.

Insert a mobile home studio, a satelite uplink and a website which offers streaming video technology at the little cost of $.99 to charity per session. Throw in an aging rock star, say, Pete Townshend and his girlfriend Rachel Fuller. Then add some very diverse guests, randomly picked up from around festival sites. The result is a webcast that borders on reality tv, talk show and just plain old entertainment with a spontaneity that you just seldom see on television anymore.

Last night saw a band called The Kooks in their studio, which set off some jamming between them and Pete Townsehend and eventually resulted in Rachel Fuller and co presenter Mikey Cuthbert breaking out in Bowie’s Kooks. And maybe then that’s the best way to sum it up. A couple of kooks, enjoying themselves, on the road, from the road with a flurry of guests that make these webcasts well worth the $.99 you have to pay for them.

http://thewholive.tv/frontdoor/
http://www.intheattic.tv/

Performing in the Netherlands for the first time since 1996, Maria McKee seemed surprised so many had come out to see her.

But the Paradiso staff had made their main room more intimate, putting tables and large plants down on the floor and moving the soundstage up a good way towards the stage. It was nowhere near sold out.

She played all my favourites, even the oldies: Breathe, Dixie Storms, Shelter, Wheels… fabulous to hear them all again, as well as tracks off her new album ‘Peddlin’ Dreams’. Unpredictable and still slightly mad, she moves between folk rock chick, Carnivàle extra and Piaf-like little diva — talking to the audience about her husband Jim (on bass), listening to their comments (‘Who was singing along? I heard you! It was good.’), but never really making eye-contact. Eyes either closed or spread wide open, she lives the world she creates within herself. She even jokes about being a bit of a spacer.

I’ve never heard her play the same song the same way twice and it seemed she was adlibbing to Wheels, lyrically as well as musically. Passionate and moody, she complained about the heat and muttered ‘and now I have to sing that song as well’ under her breath before delivering a moving ‘Worry Birds’.

Ten years on (‘That like… a whole decade,’ she commented) Maria McKee is still absolutely barking stars.

Setlist: You Are The Light, I Can’t Make It Alone, Am I The Only One, Peddlin’ Dreams, High Dive, Wheels, The Horse Life, Shelter, Turn Away, Sullen Soul, Worry Birds, If Love Is A Red Dress, Dixie Storms, Barstool Blues, People in the Way, In Your Constellation, Everyone’s Got A Story, Breathe, Life Is Sweet.

More photos at Flickr.com