Month: September 2003

U2 Fan Fest

The U2-GTA (Greater Toronto Area) group today announced that it has organized a U2 fan festival. INTO THE HEART will take place November 7-9, 2003, in Toronto, Canada. Fans worldwide are invited to attend and celebrate all things U2. Festival highlights include performances by Canadian U2 tribute bands Elevation and October, and L.A. band Exit. Additional information and an online registration form are available at the festival’s web site.

Talk About The Passion

Interesting tidbit from a recent article about R.E.M.’s current tour, reproduced at R.E.M. fansite extraordinaire Murmurs:

It’s been proposed that two distinct types of music fans came of age in the 1980s: the separate but equal followers of U2 and R.E.M. The argument can be entertaining, and it’s also ultimately pointless. But there’s good reason why one might perceive that a distinction still exists between the two audiences.

U2, with its 1980s piety and epic arpeggios, often seems to transcend this earthly plane; its music is imbued with a universal spirituality akin to organized religion. And like Catholicism, U2 tends to place a certain amount of distance between itself and its worshipers.

Changes at the Zoo

Zootopia, the forum located at U2.com, will soon be relaunching with a new design. The Zootopia folks promise a simpler navigation that will improve communication among fans. They warn users not to fret if the forum is offline for a few days while they prepare for the relaunch.

Get Tanked

Attention all bored U2 fans! A new fan site may provide a solution to your boredom. Ready for the Laughing Gas is a parody U2 news site whose aim is to provide something fun to read while waiting for U2’s next album.

Currently you can read interviews with The Edge and Larry, and learn about a new spoken word piece Bono is doing.

RFLG’s webmaster emphasizes that nothing at the site is real. It’s all made up.

McG and Mullen @ The Fringe

Mullen and McGuinness turned out to see Gavin Friday perform his one man show ‘I didn’t come up the Liffey in a bubble’ at the Dublin Fringe Festival on Tuesday. While your humble editor played photographer and guardian angel to Friday & crew, she spotted McG and other luminaries among the 250-strong audience, but somehow managed to miss the diminutive drummer. All eyes in the venue were on the fabulous and fearless Mr Friday anyway, who spoke of his influences, loves, losses, successes and failures and somehow managed to pay tribute to his lifelong friendships with affluent Prods without dropping the B-word once.

  • Review of show by U2log.com editor Pat Lynch.

    • Another Benefit Concert for Bono?

    A spokesperson for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria told the Associated Press that Bono has promised to appear in a concert the Fund is organizing as part of a campaign to raise its profile and receive greater funding. The date and location of this concert are under discussion. The concert does not appear to be the same one being organized in Nelson Mandela’s name (see Mandela SOS Concert Rescheduled); however, Mandela was mentioned as another who has promised to appear at the concert to benefit the Fund.

    Zig-Zagat

    U2 are on yet another one of those all-time best-of lists. This one, bizarrely enough, was engineered by Zagat, the organization best known for their restaurant and nightlife guides. U2 placed twice on the list, at #4 for The Joshua Tree and #10 for Achtung Baby (always the bridesmaid, never the bride). Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run topped the list, subtly implying that the entire sample of votes was taken from 40-year-old men who live in New Jersey. (We’ve got nothing but love for the Bruce, really.)