Column: off the record..., vol. 8-321 | U2 news article from @U2

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Column: off the record..., vol. 8-321

@U2, August 24, 2008

As is the case with a lot of people, I had been going through a time in the last month or so when U2 weren't playing such a central role in my life. What with trying to find a house to live in next year, figuring out finances and organising vacations, life, you could say, had gotten in the way. Thankfully, something happened recently which bought that phase to an abrupt end.

With the onset of the summer vacation, my attempts to avoid finding a job (and thereby keeping the real world at bay) had sadly proved fruitless. As a result, I was soon to discover that the only apparent upside of spending every weekday packing boxes in a warehouse whilst being subjected to my co-workers' appalling musical preferences was that, as the old adage goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

For anyone who has been lucky enough to avoid listening to it, Radio 1 is arguably the most God-awful radio station in the UK, churning out a mixture of teen pop, R & B and populist trash which bears more resemblance to vaguely organised noise than it does to music, interspersed with bouts of inane banter from the DJs. Being forced to listen to this eight hours a day was starting to make me think I'd done something seriously wrong in my past life.

That was, until Jo Whiley (who actually happens to be a friend of Bono's) suddenly came up with an anecdote about how she had been reunited with an old school friend of hers in a bar via the song that was playing on the jukebox at the time -- "Beautiful Day." After touchingly describing the experiences the two had had whilst seeing U2 live in Amsterdam, she simply said "Thank God for U2," and began playing "Beautiful Day."

It's not one of my favourite songs of theirs, and I normally skip past it when it comes on my iPod. But it was at that point that I had another of my many road-to-Damascus moments with U2. I realised how much I love the song, and how much I adore the band. The clouds had parted and the light was streaming through, accompanied by choirs of angels. This, I realised, was why life is worth living. After days of feeling that my soul was gradually being ground into a fine powder, at that moment I had never felt more alive. This was joy. You said it, Jo; thank God for U2.

When you first heard about the U2 conference scheduled to take place for 13 - 15th May next year in NYC, were you as excited as I was? It's been on my mind a lot since, as just the idea of having an entire three days in New York purely to devote to U2 has had me (at times literally) jumping for joy.

At the risk of sounding clichéd, there is simply something magical about being around other hardcore U2 fans. Matt perhaps put it best when he described it as an almost spiritual experience. It's as though in the everyday world you're living under a pretence, constantly erecting a facade that you need to put up around non-fans in order to appear normal. But then occasionally, just occasionally, an opportunity arises where you can leave that behind. That's why I've been counting down the days since the announcement when I'll be surrounded almost entirely by people who won't think I'm strange for having nearly 1,000 songs in my iTunes folder by only one band, or for covering my bedroom walls with so many pictures of Bono, or for trying to fit U2 lyrics and Bono quotes into my day-to-day discourse...and so on. In short, being around other U2 fans is when I feel the most that I can be myself.

And to pile on the excitement, the conference will hopefully be after the release of the new album, and possibly in the middle of the next tour. I'm already fantasising about seeing U2 at Madison Square Garden either before going or after having been to the conference. Ugh, May has never seemed so far away....

Please try and make it if you can, even if it means re-mortgaging your house, committing insurance fraud or robbing a bank. (Just kidding...I only plan to do one of those. ;)

The Sunday Times had a couple of U2 tidbits this week. In an interesting interview with Bob Dylan's son Jakob in the Culture pages, the singer-songwriter said that he "can't believe U2 aren't still 25." Erm, am I missing something here? Was that meant to be a compliment or an insult?

Bono was also featured briefly in a piece titled 'Who Do They Think They Are?' whose tagline was 'Every politician pays lip service to loving a cool rock act. But do they always get their allegiance right?' Yer man was listed as Nicolas Sarkozy's secret soulmate, with the diminutive piece saying, "One rock Napoleon fits the president's ambitions perfectly. Iconic, messianic, sometimes histrionic, like Sarko, Bono is changing the world with the support of some dodgy shades and a pair of Cuban heels." I for one take serious issue with his shades being described as "dodgy."

This photo circling round the @U2 staff in the last day or so may delight those of us who find Bono's appearance aesthetically pleasing: Enjoy. I already am! ;)

And finally, for those who are genuinely concerned about the moral state of our oceans, or who just want a good laugh, there's this side-splittingly funny piece from The Onion.

Until next time...