I’LL HAVE TO TAKE A NAME CHECK ON THAT

Rolling Stone references our boys a couple of times this week, and while we wouldn’t normally pay much attention, these tidbits are… interesting. First comes Depeche Mode’s David Gahan, who, speaking in the mag’s Summer Tours feature (U2 are notably absent — guess having no unsold tickets left does that), takes “the policy of truth” (god, I’m sorry) in describing his thoughts on Popmart. Then there’s the magazine’s review of the new Radiohead album, in which they describe the band’s early work as “the sociopath’s answer to U2.” I thought that was U2log.com!

IT’S A MUSICAL DVD

Now you can count B’s chesthair in pristine technicolour: Paramount Home Entertainment will release the 1st U2 DVD, Rattle and Hum, in Europe on July, 24th (PAL version, subtitled). European fanclubs can contact their local Paramount agents for promotional actions.U2 Vlaanderen and U2 fanclub Nederland will have contests.
[ thanks to Eric ]

TURIN TICKETS

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a break through. ZooItalia has received confirmation from the box office in Florence that the promoter in Reggio Emilia will give tickets to agencies tomorrow afternoon. Some agencies near Reggio (Bologna for example) will sell tickets tomorrow and others on Monday (Saturday is a national holiday in Italy). Medials (the Italian promoter for this event) will sell tickets from their website tomorrow, though they haven’t announced it yet.)

BURN BABY BURN

According to ‘Mix’ magazine, all U2’s shows on the Elevation are burned straight to CD-r. Frankly, we’re not the least surprised. All the fans are doing the same… [ thanks to Andre for the tip ]

TURIN UPDATE

Yes, it’s the continuing story of the gig that went to the dogs. Thanks to Germana for this follow up. Her source is Mario Luzzato Fegiz, of the Corriere della Serra. The situation is the following: it started with a disagreement between the Management, the Italian agency and Bono. Late 2000, U2’s crew payed a visit to the Autodromo of Imola and decided to entrust an Italian manager with the organisation of the concert. Early 2001 Bono reminded his managers that he’s a good friend of the Italian promoter Fran Tomasi. Tomasi accepted to organize the event, but he ran into technical and financial problems. These have yet to be solved. A few things can happen this week:

1. Fran Tomasi will solve the problem, and the concert will take place in Turin (70% chance)
2. Fran Tomasi will fail, so another promoter will be committed to organize the event in Imola (15 % chance)
3. U2 will drop the Italian date and will add 1 more date in Germany

Warning: tickets will not arrive from England until 1 month before the concert. Vouchers will be issued by promoters Meglioli and Tomasi. Local box offices are selling pre sale vouchers, but these will NOT guarantee you entry to the gig. The advice is not to pay for anything yet.

THE GOAL, IS SOLE, EELEVATION

Ah, pun heaven. But it’s not every day you discover U2 is not only your favourite band, but also a tasty crustacean. The U2 Prawn. Yes, it’s even the biggest prawn in the world. (A whole post about marine life and we didn’t mention mullets once).