Latest U2 News / Sightings

Originally posted by AidanFormigoni:He looks cool, but I can't imagine he playing without something in his head

U2 working on new album

Irish rock stars U2 are working on a new album while they are in New Zealand.

The band, who are performing two Auckland shows today and Friday, were using their time while they were in the country wisely. The band's manager, Paul McGuinness, said U2 had a deadline looming for their latest album and were working on finishing it while they are here.

"We are trying very hard to use this time in New Zealand and Australia to finish an album that will be released in the spring," he said.

McGuinness said while the band were not actually recording in New Zealand, they were working hard on the finishing touches.

"It's not so much recording as editing and polishing up lyrics and trying to getting it done by the date it needs to be delivered to the record company for release in May. It's sounding great: lots of hits."

The U2 360 Tour production director, Jake Berry, said some of the band's older hits needed a bit of work ahead of their performance tonight, but it was nothing a few rehearsals could not fix.

"We've had a few minutes on stage. We've been on a break, so we need to get the cobwebs out a bit."

Auckland residents from all over the city reported they could hear the band's practice from their homes on Tuesday night.

The stage itself is one of the biggest ever seen in New Zealand. Mr Berry said the show had a lot of sound, a lot of light and a lot of video.

"It's a lot of production," he said. "I think somebody worked it out to how many light bulbs you could power with those generators, and I think it was something ridiculously stupid like 550,000 light bulbs."

The band, who arrived in the country on Monday, are set to play to a packed Mt Smart Stadium tonight. Over 50,000 tickets sold out in less than an hour for the show.

Tickets are still available for Friday night's concert.

Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:Who cares about that. They've said a deadline for May? AWESOME! An official deadline that actually relates to a record company? AWESOME! A legitamate reason for getting excited about a new album? AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!

U2 stars climbing the walls ahead of €45m Spider-Man

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Bono co-wrote 'Spider Man ?Turn Off The Dark'. Photo: AP


By Jason O'Brien

Thursday November 25 2010

BONO has blamed the soaring €45m costs of his 'Spider-Man' production on the numerous delays in bringing it to the Broadway stage.

And the U2 singer has admitted having major doubts over whether the show would ultimately be considered a success, given the huge amount of money that has been spent.

The mega-musical, with a score written by Bono and bandmate The Edge, will finally preview on Broadway in New York this weekend -- more than nine years after they first started work on it.

The production had been "easier than we could ever have imagined. Harder than we ever thought", Bono told entertainment magazine 'Billboard' yesterday.

"I mean, easier in the sense that the music came to us effortlessly. Dreaming up the show, the scale of it, the flying sequence, the pop-art opera that it is -- that was all pure joy.

"What we didn't realise was how difficult it is to stage this stuff, both technically and financially."

'Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark' will feature a 41-member cast, 18 orchestra members and aerial stunts designed by a Cirque du Soleil star that will shoot actors through the air and over the audience at 60kmh.

However, the production has been dogged by delays, and has received major adverse publicity for the huge costs incurred and the number of producers and stars -- including Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming -- who signed up and then left.

Cancellations

Bono admitted there was a level of trepidation ahead of its opening, which was scheduled for earlier this month and earlier this year before the latest delays. If technical difficulties persist, he is concerned the audience will stay away.

"Is there jeopardy?" Bono asked. "Yes. Because it's technically very difficult. It has never been achieved before -- the kind of scale of what we're looking for. There may be very good reasons. We're going to find out. The expense of it? A lot of it was the delays."

The Edge said: "As much as we've used our experiences with U2 to inform the way that we approach writing for this, we think that the opposite will happen, and when we come back to U2 Land, it'll be with a certain knowledge and sense of new thoughts and new ideas."

The show will preview this Sunday at Foxwoods Theatre on 42nd Street, before the official premiere on January 11.

"I think even though it looks like there's a lot of ill will against us, I think it'll turn around," Bono said.

"If it's just spectacle, we will have failed. But if you can be moved, and if you believe these characters, and. . . you really buy into the myth, it's a great American story."

- Jason O'Brien

Irish Independent

Originally posted by drewhiggins:http://www.atu2.com/news/u2-working-on-new-album.html

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Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:I very much doubt he means hits like GOYB. GOYB wasn't a hit for them, and I think they know it. I think he means songs like Every Breaking Wave, which to me should be a BIG hit. Live I've always said, U2 should go half hardcore, like do something new yet traditional, something their more hardcore fans would respect, and half commerical. A blend of the two would be perfect.