I understand I'm late to the party here, and never let it be said that I'm anything other than a. an unapologetic Dubliner and b. a proper U2 fan, just to add insult to injury.

But it seems that this legendary community has airily waved away the recent documentary, which surely should still be available in the UK? Because to be honest I truly, truly was blown away by From the Sky Down.

To have a band of that size, scale, and (let's face it) pompousness admit that they truly were complete gobshites back in the day and that Rattle and Hum was a huge misstep.. might I argue that that's both unprecedented, admirable, and most importantly, fascinating for what was to come - Achtung Baby and Zooropa.

I had little time for the earlier Davis Guggenheim effort - it Might Get Loud - but this is something entirely different. Just the look on Bon(i)o's face - when he hears the early rehearsal of Mysterious Ways and feels the moment they worked their way out of their Berlin fug. Magic stuff. Even non-muso wife got excited. Loved it madly.

So, in the footsteps of Paul Simon, now U2 are getting in on the "invite a fan onstage to play with the band" act.

Last night, at the end of a gig in Nashville, the When Love Comes to Town hitmakers invited a blind fan onstage to perform "All I Want Is You". It's actually rather sweet. And, afterwards, Bono gave him his guitar.

Nice.

Apologies if this post arrives a little late to be of interest, I got back on Monday evening and wanted a couple of days to digest the week before putting “hand to keyboard”…

After some difficulty getting through traffic jams and finding good camping space in previous years, this was the second year running that we decided to travel to Glastonbury through the night…. (continued in comments)

Can hear all this lovely lot in this band from Ireland called The Plea.

Vocals are fantastic in a Bono / Ashcroft mold, two songs on SoundCloud are stadium fillers that ache with a pedigree missing from a lot of bands recently, maybe because they've been working with Chris Potter (Verve, U2, Blur) - hope they can do it live, if they can - well it'll be genuinely very exciting indeed.

http://soundcloud.com/planet-function/the-plea-praise-be

I just posted this story on the Life Changing Musical Moments thread, but perhaps it deserves a thread of its own.

I started listening to The Beatles because of U2's cover of Helter Skelter on Rattle and Hum. My dad insisted to me that if I played The White Album I'd never listen to Rattle and Hum again, and he was absolutely correct. However this means that I owe the fact that I actually started listening to the Beatles, to U2, a band that I really do hate.

But this isn't the only time this has happened.

There are many Bob Dylan fans amongst the massive. How many of you came to listen to him thanks to The Red Hot Chili Peppers? At around 15 I got a copy of their album The Uplift Mofo Party Plan from my local library. There was a Chili Peppered up cover of Subterranean Homesick Blues on that...

"Wow I thought, you can RAP Bob Dylan? Maybe he's worth a go?" The next library trip saw me borrowing "Bringing It All Back Home." My opinion of the Red Hot Chili Peppers version changed fairly quickly.

Now you may wonder why I was listening to "The Uplift Mofo Party Plan" in the first place? Well, The Chili Peppers album "Mother's Milk" had just came out. You may remember that that album had a cover of a song written by that rubbish old guy who did "I Just Called To Say I Love You" and "Ebony and Ivory" on it. "Higher Ground" was surprisingly good, maybe I should check some Stevie Wonder out, I remember thinking...

And I heard Public Enemy thanks to their version of "Bring The Noise" with Anthrax (third band I ever saw)

So my question is, which crappy bands to members of the massive owe a debt to, for introducing them to great music?

Primarily looking at the 1980s.

1980: Crocodiles vs. Boy
1981: Heaven Up Here vs. October
1983: Porcupine vs. War
1984: Ocean Rain vs. The Unforgettable Fire
1987: Echo and the Bunnymen (grey album) vs. The Joshua Tree

Album-by-album or overall, which of these 80's careers do you prefer?

"It's twelve noon in London, seven AM in Philadelphia, and around the world it's time for... Live Aid!"

So, 13th July 1985 - can it really be 25 years? Good grief...

It'll always remind me of my girlfriend of the time - it was the first time we'd been left alone at her parents' house, as they went to the beach for the day to let us watch the event, and I'll just say that we became somewhat "distracted" at various junctures...

Any memories of the day from The Massive, those who were there, or even (most of us) just watching on TV?

I'vebeen spending a lot of time with this record recently. In fact, i've spent a lot of time on this record since it was released. I think it keeps getting better (I'm currently addicted to 'Slug') and I'm currently of the mind that it is actually the greatest thing U2 have done. It seems that everything they did before kind of led up to it, and everything since has been a massive come down (and not really as good).

I'd be interested to learn what the massive think?

I mentioned today in work that i'm off to see U2 tomorrow in Sheffield and was quite taken aback at how much U2 are hated. It seems to me the reason is that everyone seems to hate Bono and this puts people off the band. Their albums still get decent reviews after nearly thirty years, they still sell millions of records, their gigs sell out but no one likes Bono and that puts people off the band. So what is it that people don't like about him ?. Ok he does preach a bit and tends to come on a bit smug (which never hurt John Lennon), but at the end of the day he is a great songwriter and vocalist. So next time you see Bono give him a hug cause i tell ya you'll miss him when he's gone.

Elvis Costello did a bit during gigs in the nineties talking about songs the other Elvis would've sung had he lived and had a Rick Rubin-esque re-invention a la Johnny Cash. Songs EC suggested included "Rio" by Duran Duran, U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "Heart Of Glass" by Blondie (although, according to EC, he would have blanched at the "pain in the ass" line).

I would suggest a whole batch of U2 ("Desire" "Beautiful Day" "Elevation") "Fire" Bruce Springsteen, "The Judgement" Elvis Costello and "All These Things I've Done" The Killers for starters.

Any other suggestions?

Yuk! These articles stink… It is so bad I don’t know where to begin. Take the stereotypical rock star: starts young, forms a band, annoys everybody, makes a couple of great drugs-and-alcohol fuelled albums, makes millions, marries supermodel, makes bad album, gets reviled by the music press, spends his money in superfluous over-the-top luxury, checks several times into rehab, beats a couple of paparazzi, spends night in jail for some stupid crime (beating a policeman or shoplifting being favoured), keeps spending not-so-easy-anymore money, makes a couple of over-the-top and pretentious albums, appears alongside all sorts of famous people most of whom know nothing about music, divorces one supermodel after another (not after battering some of them), wears a hat or a bandana to conceal that he’s losing his once trademark hair, plays Glastonbury alongside people who are 20 years younger for the last time, his overspending catches up and he dies poor and alone from an overdose in a cheap hotel, family scrambles for money only to find out there are only debts, younger bands play tributes and make covers of his two only worth-remembering songs, Mojo and Word magazines dedicate some lines to him. The end.

This is the standard. All future rock’n’roll artists should try hard to do the same. Some even get serious and kill a prostitute or sexually abuse a child. It’s part of life. It’s what you have to do to belong to that immortal club of rock stars. However, when somebody does different he gets a treatment like the one Bono received from The Word this month… C’mon guys! For every issue surrounding Bono there are several interpretations, one being that he is a pretentious prat with messianic delusions, a manipulator in search of fame and another that he genuinely believes that he can change the world by talking to decision-makers and just does that. Your journalists have unanimously gone for the cynical option, even when there is plenty of proof of the second one! Let’s see some examples of the distilled poison I had to read today:

Page 84: “Compared to that of some other short male rock stars I won’t mention, his overcompensating desire to be noticed…”
Oh yes, the guy is short and wants to be noticed. So what! He’s a rock star for God’s sake!

Page 87: “Bono’s charisma can be attributed largely to his glasses”… What! Would anybody dare to say this about John Lennon (who wore the most iconical glasses in rock history)? What a lot of rubbish. They guy wears shades, full stop. His charisma has to do with his enormous capacity to charm people (mentioned in the previous article) and with the fact that the guy WRITES good songs with lyrics that reach people, which seems not to be worthy a mention anywhere in the magazine. The strangest thing about this musician is that nobody mentions his music.

And here your magazine gets serious:
Page 88: Bono gets accused of the hideous crime of being successful!! Because he was Ireland’s best export he “choked” Irish music because every band wanted to be like U2…. What!!!! Would you seriously agree that the Beatles “chocked” rock music because of the success they had in America made every teenager in the world want to write songs like Lennon and McCartney. What a piece of rubbish argument. I never heard something more stupidly poisonous than that. On page 89 he committed another hideous crime by being in between David Trimble and John Hume, what an arrogant git he is… sneaking in the middle of the hard working politicians to get some credit for the agreement. Nobody cared to suggest that there might have been the politicians who longed to be seen near a cultural icon that could actually talk to younger people? How biased and ill-intentioned you have to be to write an article like that!

The last bit of the article is actually the (poisonous) cherry at the top.

Page 89: “people hate him for flying his hat first class and for carting his stage set in 120 vehicles”. He is a rock star for God’s sake. Would you ever get it? For him paying a first class ticket is like for you and me paying a first class post stamp. He lives in another dimension where money becomes meaningless. A demonstration of how living in rich limbo can affect your senses comes from the multitude of MPs asking for stupid expenses last month. At least Bono’s money comes from you and me willingly paying for his CDs and concert tickets, not from the taxes.

Page 89: “Bono can’t sing” well, if Bono can’t sing I would like to know of any mega-rock-band leader who actually can. That would be a matter of taste and the fact that the guy is still selling his music after 29 years speaks about the ignorance of the rock music public who keeps buying his music. In fact people are ignorant and rock music journalists should decide who gets into the hall of fame and who doesn’t. That would be a much fairer world wouldn’t it… we would be all listening to properly sanctified bands sitting still on our chairs.

Page 89: “It’s not right to criticise a dog for not being a horse”…Has this woman ever heard punk rock music? Has she ever heard rock music? Where does she live, in Pavarotti’s cuckooland? Is she a Bell-Canto music teacher found frozen in the Italian Alps? I don’t’ believe you even consider printing opinions like this. What a patronising piece of rubbish!! I have never felt so angry with a stupid article in my whole life. I am subscribed to The Word magazine in the hope that your editor spares me rubbish like this... Please!!

Page 91: “Celebrity politics tend to be a total failure” Not a mention here of the Jubilee foreign debt cancellation initiatives of 1996 and 2000, of the Make Poverty History campaign, the One campaign, the End Malaria campaign and loads of others that are not only raising interests in issues that have been around for years but actually channelling money from rich people to poor. No one knows if celebrity politics work. No one will know for a few decades. To assume to have the answer is at least ignorant and patronising.

Page 91: “…after his ludicrous pronouncement, by far the most grandiose of the day…” Paraphrasing Martin Luther King seems to be a capital sin in the music business. Then we need to start shooting cartloads of people. Name me a musician that has not made a public statement in favour of world peace! Hey man, may be this guy Bono needs to support the far right and fund the BNP to be really accepted by your magazine. Why do we judge him by a completely different standard than any other star?

I am no U2 fan, I am not a staunch Irish catholic, in fact I am an atheist who believes religiosity actually harms charitable work. I n fact I always mistrusted famous people who engage in celebrity politics… I may not agree with his politics, but to treat this man the way you magazine is treating him and by extension, to all of us who buy his music and attend his concerts is just plain wrong. I doubt it very much that you will even react to my concerns unless other people join me and ask for a fairer view of the man. I think you readers deserve better.

I saw this and saw the echo of 1970's Pink Floyd, ELP, Led Zep etc, etc.
Bloated rock excess.
Who wil wield a punk rock style broom* to herald in the new?
Music is more of a commodity now.
It's revolution televised, it's teeth taken out.

From where will the next wave come, the one that will puncture the U2 blimp?

*yes, punk changed nothing, it was a racket, who plays punk any more? blah blah blah...

This month's cover story triggers an unusually hurt and angry blog piece by Neil McCormick, music writer at the Daily Telegraph, author of not one but two Bono-books and sometime singer-songwriter as The Ghost Who Walks.

The gist of his argument is that being disliked is the price that Bono pays for getting things done. Some of his points are fair enough. Others, like his sneery "who he?" disparagements of writers who didn't take the arduous route of hitching their star to the wagon of a celebrity mate, do him less credit – and they don't sit comfortably in today's climate when everyone's opinion matters and a cat may blog about a king. But loyalty's a fine thing and we shouldn't knock it.

You have to wonder why he's so touchy, though. Does he think Bono should be above any criticism at all? You can see for yourself, along with some pictures of Neil with U2, here:

http://www.neilmccormick.co.uk/?p=466

Spotted this yesterday. First I'd heard about it! Sounds like fun.

"Who hasn’t wanted to be a rock star, join a band or play electric guitar? Music resonates, moves and inspires us. Strummed through the fingers of The Edge, Jimmy Page and Jack White, somehow it does more. Such is the premise of It Might Get Loud, a new documentary conceived by producer Thomas Tull."

http://www.sonyclassics.com/itmightgetloud/

http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/it-might-get-loud-exclusive-revie...

The news that an obscure Irish band are to tour and play a number of giant stadiums in this country leads me to reflect on why I have no desire to go and see them. I've got nothing against U2 (for it is they) but I can see no attraction in spending a whole day sitting or standing in an uncomfortable position in a football stadium so that I can watch the band over 100m away on a big TV screen. Include the difficulties in stepping over or around people every time you need the loo or to buy an overpriced drink and it really isn't an attractive proposition. To top it all, in this country you can never be sure that the scheduled day may not be cold and wet.

Now I know I'm getting old but this simply doesn't appeal any more. I'm not sure what would make me go to see U2 (free tickets and a chauffeur driven car perhaps) but this would apply to other bands of a similar status as well. I'd pay good money to see Springsteen or the Stones at the Hammersmith Odeon (it will always be the Hammersmith Odeon) or even the O2. But Wembley? No.

Having said that, I'll then go on and contradict myself by saying that I am quite happy not only to stand in a field but to camp in one as well at the Cambridge Folk Festival (and that doesn't even have the big TV screen). I can't explain why this is.