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Sun, 17 Jan 1999 08:57:50 -0700
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Releases:
Best of Maria McKee/Lone Justice, Jan 12, 1999 -- features Bono
in duet with McKee singing "Sweet Jane"
Spellbound - The Best of Sharon Shannon, Jan 12 1999 -- features
Adam Clayton bass-work
Earth Love Fund : "Protection", UK January 17, 1998 (Benefit for
survivors of Hurricane Mitch in Central America)
Across The Bridge of Hope: The Omagh Tribute Album, NA March 17, 1999
(rumoured)
RUMOUR: U2 B-sides 1980 - 1990 (1CD) release date TBA.
Concerts/Live Events:
Confirmed: March 24, 1999 Hits Under The Hammer Auction,
Bono's original lyric sheet for "Sweetest Thing" to be included in
the auction
Rumour: U2 to headline at Slane Castle,Ireland, August 28, 1999
Rumour: U2 at Millenium Concert, Dec 31, 1999 - Jan 1, 2000
Confirmed: U2 at my house. Today. :)
Television/Radio Events:
BBC: Straight from The Edge's mouth -- The BBC are working on a
special for "Classic Albums" about the Joshua Tree. Airdate TBA
Network TV:
FOX:
MTV:
MuchMusic/MuchUSA:
MuchMoreMusic:
VH1:
"Legends", January 12, 1999 at 6pm ET
POP UP Videos featuring "Sweetest Thing", Jan 30, 6:00pm ET
Net Events:
--------------
The Irish Website Oh Yeah is holding an online vote for the
best musical events of 1998. Amongst the nominations are
the U2 "Yes" concert held in Belfast, and the Omagh
Tribute album.
You can vote at http://www.ohyeah.net
--------------
Paramount Video is holding a vote to see which movies should
be released on DVD. You can vote for "Rattle And Hum"
at http://www.dvdfile.com/request_infoline/poll_booth/paramount.html
--------------
Official Omagh Album Tribute Site http://www.omaghcd.com
--------------
Vote for U2 at Triple J's(Australian Radio) poll at
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hot100/vote.htm
--------------
Vote for U2 at DotMusic's Top Albums of All Time
--------------
Vot for U2 at http://www.bradfitz.com/votingbooth?schwag402
--------------
Fan Club/WIRE/U2 nutzoid meetings:
Coming Soon : U2 Internet Fan Club(WIRE, EXIT, One, U2Lemon,
etc.) Convention -- Calgary, Alberta, Canada
--------------
January 29, 1999, 8:00 pm U2 coverband "Vorsprung durch Technik"
Bremen, Germany. Email [email protected] for more information.
--------------
Brazilian U2 Fanclub meeting, February 6, 1999 in San Paulo.
Contact [email protected] for more information.
--------------
A SORT OF A HOMECOMING 99-The second annual gathering of U2 fans
anywhere and everywhere! July 22-25, 1999, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
For info, e-mail Liz at [email protected] or checkout the webpage at,
http://members.aol.com/conguero/asoh.html
--------------
NEWS dates:
Universal announces new music label added Jan 17
Top 500 added Jan 15
RUMOUR: U2 at Slane Castle in August added Jan 15
Meeting Ali and Bono added Jan 15
RUMOUR: B-sides to be released separately added Jan 14
Bar/Club bears U2 lyrics added Jan 14
McKee/Lone Justice/U2 song added Jan 14
French Charts added Jan 13
U2 Sell-Outs added Jan 13
Boxer from ST Video retires added Jan 11
Two U2 songs in Top 100 added Jan 10
Bono mention in recent Bowie chat added Jan 10
Bono talks about new album on MTV Italy added Jan 10
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>From Undercover:
Universal Music UK announces new label structure
Now that the Universal and PolyGram merger is complete,
the new structure of Universal Music UK has been announced.
The company will be centred around three labels. Mercury and
Polydor will be joined by the new label Universal/Island as the
three principal labels. The label is a combination of Polygram's
label Island and Universal Records. Mercury and Polydor were
already stand-alone labels at PolyGram.
The new structure moves Motown stars such as Boyz II Men
and Stevie Wonder to MCA's roster, whilst Universal acts such
as Erykah Badu and Cherry Poppin' Daddies and Island UK's U2
and Pulp will be with the new formed Universal/Island label.
The merger between PolyGram NV and Seagram Co. Ltd. (of which
Universal Music is a unit) results in the world's leading music
company. The merger was finalised last month when Seagram
formally completed the $10.2 billion (AUD16.2 billion) PolyGram
take-over.
Since the merger there has been a lot of speculation on job cuts.
Speculation is that, as early as next week, the Universal Music
Group will cut up to 3,000 jobs, of which most are meant to come
from North America. The restructuring and job cuts are expected
to result in an annual saving of $300 million (AUD 476 million) in
costs.
-------------
>From VirginUK Radio:
From Virgin UK's Top 500 songs:
11. One
23. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
45. Angel Of Harlem
50. Where The Streets Have No Name
62. Sunday Bloody Sunday
130. Mysterious Ways
255. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
316. New Year's Day
378. With Or Without You
434. Desire
489. The Unforgettable Fire
-------------
RUMOUR: U2 headlining at Slane Castle, Ireland, August 28,
1999. (From Pierluigi and http://www.rockol.it )
-------------
An interesting story and nice autograph pic from Dominique
Pineau is available at:
http://hector.unil.ch/etu_HEC/97406227/htdocs/welcome7.htm
-------------
It is RUMOURED that the B-side collection that accompanied the
Best of 1980-1990 CD in the 2CD set will be released
SEPARATELY.
Thanks to Oli G for this info.
-------------
Condensed from The Irish Times:
Music venue's inspired design hits a high note to transform city
street
ARCHITECTURE: Vicar Street, Harry Crosbie's new bar
and live music venue, has had a dramatic impact on
Dublin's Liberties, says Frank McDonald, Environment
Correspondent Something is happening in Thomas Street -
in fact, several things - and one of the catalysts for change,
as he likes to see himself, is Harry Crosbie. The Docklands
entrepreneur may be on "the wrong side of town" with his
new venue opposite John's Lane church, but there is no
doubt that he's in his element.
Vicar Street, a bar and live music venue - called after the
side-street on which it is located - is the kind of project that
demanded guts. But its impact was immediate, mainly
because nothing even remotely like it has been seen in the
Liberties since the time of Dean Swift. Almost
single-handedly, it has lifted Thomas Street onto a new
plane.
The interior is emphatically not from what Mr Holohan
calls the "Dial-an-IrishPub" design school. It is utterly
contemporary in style and made of the best quality
materials - oak-planked flooring, black Kilkenny limestone
bar top, large wooden tables, an incredibly tall bar unit and
all the walls wainscotted in simple fielded panels.
These are reminiscent of the Clarence Hotel, in which Mr
Crosbie has a major interest, and should last as long; it is
impossible to imagine anyone in his right mind throwing it
all out. The giant scale of the place is also emphasised by
full-length portraits and by a very large early 19th century
French silk tapestry that once hung in Versailles.
The building is finished in red brick on a limestone base
with zinc panels over the entrance to the upper floors.
Around its frieze are the words of a U2 song: "Listen as
hope and peace try to rhyme. Listen over marching bands
playing out their time."
The entire article can be found at:
http://www.irish-times.com/cgi-bin/highlight.plx?TextRes=u2&Path=/irish-times/paper/1999/0114/prop3.html
-------------
The McKee/Lone Justice/U2 song "Sweet Jane" is available in
MP3 at
The song is from the recently released Lone Justice Greatest
Hits.
-------------
Thanks to Al Leclerc who is reporting the following information
on the French Charts:
The album scored as belows in the french albums chart (which combines
albums & compilation charts) : 1-1-4-3-3-3-3-3-6-4
The single Sweetest thing peaked at n� 18 in his first week of release
and is this week at n� 99
The three formats of the album (double CD/B-sides, CD & K7) sold a
cumulative 732 000 so far (which largelly outsold the George Michael and
Mariah Carey best of).
These figures make The Best of 1980-90 one of the fastest selling
international album of the recent french chart history. During the
period it was only devanced by 2 albums of the french musical 'Notre
Dame de Paris'(studio and live set).
This make the 'Best of' the best selling U2 album of the 90s (Achtung
Baby sold 629 000, Zooropa sold 450 000 and Pop sold 322 000 in France).
The same source told me an interesting info : PolyGram will re-issue the
15 B-sides 1980-1990 as a simple CD album in April 1999 !
-------------
>From The Irish Times:
January 13, 1999
BYLINE: By Tony Clayton-Lea
Welcome to Irish pop's sellout of the century
The huge success of Irish pop music is essentially a marketing triumph that
has little to do with Irish culture, argues Tony Clayton-Lea
The line of Irish pop and rock successes is getting longer. Last year
witnessed the emergence of one record-breaking Irish pop act, B*witched, and
the international commercial consolidation of another, The Corrs.
Boyzone raised the ante yet again with a string of chart hits, U2 released
the first of a series of Greatest Hits records and Ash, along with U2's Bono
and The Edge, seized the day as well as the youth vote for the Good Friday
peace referendum.
Pencilled in for release throughout 1999 are records from The Cranberries,
Sin�ad O'Connor, U2, Enya, a Greatest Hits collection from Boyzone, and
(probably) another hat-trick of No 1s from B*witched. What this means is
that up to the end of 1999 at least, notwithstanding further success from
new Irish acts, the majority of the world will once again be singing an
Irish song.
Something is happening here that not even the pop culture pundits of Ireland
have been prepared for. Over 20 years ago no one could have predicted that
U2 would be so immensely successful. Five years ago The Cranberries were
considered shoe-gazing no-hopers.
Four years ago it was difficult (actually, make that impossible) to suppress
laughter at the sight of Boyzone on The Late Late Show. Three years ago The
Corrs were playing pub gigs in their native Dundalk. This time last year,
who outside their record company and families had heard of B*witched?
The people who have (or think they have) their fingers on the pulse of Irish
pop culture have too narrow an outlook and too jaundiced a world view.
Perhaps they need to align themselves with what is popular as opposed to
what is hip.
Then again, perhaps they just don't like fiddles. In the context of The
Corrs and B*witched, who can blame them?
Not to put too fine a point on it, the use of the fiddle in Irish pop music
has got to stop. Depending on which way one looks at it, the appropriation
of the fiddle and the sound it makes is either a natural expression and
utilisation of Ireland's rich cultural heritage, or a modern catch-all
marketing conceit of the highest order.
In the case of both B*witched and The Corrs, there is an argument for
wholesale confiscation of the fiddle. The former's use of the instrument is
tantamount to grand cultural larceny.
One gets the distinct impression that if it wasn't for Riverdance and
Titanic (with the Beatles, Electric Light Orchestra, Take That, songwriters,
producers, and astute music marketing managers thrown in for good measure),
B*witched would be on a hiding to nothing.
Sure, it's fun, cheery, cherry-pie pop music with a cheeky grin on its face.
But if I hear the term "Celtic hip-hop pop" one more time, I'll commence
proceedings to exhume the body of Se�n � Riada in order to show his bones
part of their legacy.
The Corrs are a different matter altogether. You know they're famous and
have crossed over into the European pan-generational mainstream because they
have been parodied on British television by Dawn French and Jennifer
Saunders.
The Corrs are easy touches in this regard because they don't have a hard
edge. Everything about them is soft-focus, from the photographs to the
music.
The American record company executive who first heard them play in his
office must have jumped up in the air, clicked his heels, and shouted a
thumping high-five "Yes!" when he signed them to a record deal.
But what The Corrs and B*witched have done is more than mere cultural theft.
Finally, Irish acts are coming to terms with marketing themselves as viable
products of pop, something which many have tried to do in the past but
failed.
You would never have seen Rory Gallagher or Phil Lynott bottled as a
bona-fide pop product because you felt they would have been severely
embarrassed or enervated by the process. Not only was it not the done thing,
but it lacked credibility.
Bob Geldof tried his best at the pop star game, but his conscience and lack
of complicity clearly got the better of him.
Being put on a pedestal was not important enough for Ireland's erstwhile
superstars - they were too busy looking after the music. The current
generation of Irish pop stars has no such misgivings.
Indeed, present-day Irish pop stars seem to thrive on the energy and
excitement they exude. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as it shows that
as an entity Ireland has lost a certain degree of its own benign humility.
It also shows us, however, that Irish pop stars, from Ash to U2, have little
or no shame about selling themselves to the highest bidder.
That is greed, self-confidence, honesty, arrogance or a combination of all
four. Whatever the reason, we are looking pragmatic hypocrisy straight in
the face.
Now that the disposable, occasional brilliance of Irish pop music is a
constituent part of the Esperanto of pretty much anyone between the ages of
six and 60 who has access to radio or television, there is the need to
assess its worth.
A simple question: is it any good? A simple answer: it depends on whether or
not you like it.
The likes of The Corrs and B*witched are, of course, highlighting the
commercial face of intrinsically Irish pop music. They are not the first to
blend traditional Irish music with current pop forms (Thin Lizzy, Horslips,
The Pogues, Marxman, Sin�ad O'Connor, Martin Okasili and Scary �ire, to name
but seven, got there first with varying degrees of acceptance) but they are
certainly the most successful.
That both The Corrs and B*witched have been embraced by most of Europe and
fans farther afield proves once and for all that Irish traditional music has
well and truly come out of the closet. It is no longer one of our secret
national treasures, something to be dusted off and proudly displayed.
It has been assimilated. It tours the world. It wins awards and breaks
records. It gets to No 1.
And yet, while the music is readily identifiable, the culture - via words
and ideas expressed - is not. While the likes of Irish music artists Gavin
Friday and Pierce Turner weave various strands of Irish culture through,
generally speaking, un-commercial soundtrack music and song - in the process
creating genuine post-modern Irish expression, nuance, and flavour - the
Celtic hip-hop pop people extol a somewhat more cut-price, mundane
aesthetic.
Welcome to the sell-out of the century.
-------------
Thanks to Derek Mark McAllister for the following:
Steve Collins the boxer that appeared in U2's video "Sweetest
Thing" is ready to come out of retirement to fight American Roy
Jones.
Roy Jones is the only fighter left that Collins could again prove
he is a World Champion after retaining his title with fights
against Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn. Collins retired but proclaimed
that if he were to ever fight again it would only be to fight
Jones. However Jones has always dodged the fight in the past.
If the fight does go ahead it will be fought in Ireland or Britain.
Roy Jones who currently holds the WBC and WBA light heavyweight
titles has never fought outside of his native U.S.
-------------
From the Top 100 songs as voted by Q readers:
24. U2 - One
47. U2 - With Or Wothout You
-------------
The following is an excerpt from an online David Bowie chat.
You can read the entire chat at,
http://www.bowiewonderworld.com/chats/dbchatiman0199.htm
Rico says: how well does David knows Bono and are you guys good
friends?
David: I know Bono quite well. He's a very nice guy and always sends
me rather lovely books. And I recommend paintings to him.
-------------
Thanks to Pierluigi for the following:
A brief interview with Bono was aired on MTV ITALY during MTV Week In
Rock. There was also Edge (big black hat on), but didn't speak; Bono had
glasses with red lenses and looked quite serious... This is what he said:
"It's time to make a record that is very direct and is about exactly what's
going on, however cool or uncool that might be. It's time...At this point in
the week, in the century, in the millennium, it's time for actually no pose,
no poise... Just rock, uncool... That's really what I think we're gonna
make.... I have this idea in my head, just to write as if you're dead...'cos
when you're dead, you know, you don't care what people think and just go and
say what you have to say".
-- Prarit....[email protected] U2 news: http://www.members.home.net/u2-news/u2.html U2 NEWS is MOVING -- AGAIN!!!!
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