Better late than never!

Finally got around to posting a set of photos shot for @U2 by our friend Scott Huck. Haven’t had a chance to post any to Flickr, just here on @U2 for now.

You can view the full set in our Vertigo Tour pix section, which includes this one of yer man with a classic “Who? Me?” look on his face at the start of the show.

Well, I survived it. And so did they. My kids, I mean, who saw their first U2 concert last night in Atlanta.
From my perspective, the show was awesome. High points: Bono doing Pavarotti’s part in Miss Sarajevo, MLK, The First Time, and Bad. Very few obnoxious fans. A great spot in the ellipse. Sharing it with the three people I love best.
They loved the confetti, Vertigo, Elevation, Stuck in a Moment, Mysterious Ways, Bono drumming on Love and Peace, Adam’s smile, lights chasing lights.
I don’t know if it’s U2 policy or the policy of Phillips Arena, but I have to say that I felt great about my kids being at this show. No less than four people checked to make sure we had earplugs, staff went out of their way to be kind and friendly, and I felt like my kids were safe. It was a great feeling.
If you were one of the people who stopped me and the girls to tell them how cool their mom is, thanks! Luckily, they are still young enough to believe it. The time is coming too fast when dancing with mom at a rock concert will be anything but cool, but last night, it was all good.
A great first time for them, and a new U2 first for me.

Every so often, I enjoy going through the @U2 group pool on flickr to see what our readers like to surprise us with. When I saw this uploaded by FishLips (along with the description to the left of the photo), I couldn’t help but think, “Hmmm….he did a film called Vertigo…surely he couldn’t have reincarnated himself into Paul McGuinness?” The similarities do not end just with that…before managing U2, Paul did dabble in film. Currently he sits on the board of School of Film and Drama at University College Dublin. It’s too spooky! Thank you FishLips for sharing this in the @U2 photo pool on flickr! Which reminds me - anyone can upload to the photo pool, so if you’re going to a show (or just came back from one), we encourage you to share your band photos with us!

Tomorrow morning on community radio station KDHX in St. Louis, I’ll be airing an interview with a member of the legendary a cappella group The Persuasions about their “The Persuasions Sing U2″ CD. You can tune in (if you’re in St. Louis) to 88.1 FM or you can listen online at kdhx.org; the interview will be on sometime between 8 and 10 am CST, and I’ll play a few cuts from the CD as well.

U2’s final Vertigo Tour stop in Florida brought magic and mystery to the sold out St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa. The first person in the GA line had gotten to the arena at 1 a.m., and by noon there were already over 250 in line. The strong Tampa sun beat down on us throughout the day, but fans came prepared with umbrellas, sunscreen, and a lot of cold beverages. Fans were from all over once again - Spain, Brazil, Venezuela, Boston, New York, Alabama, and many local Tampa folks.

As a fan traveling from show to show, it is interesting to see that a “local” show really isn’t as local as it used to be as more and more fans are taking a U2-themed vacation to follow the tour. I met more people who weren’t from Tampa in the GA line than people who were local. After spending close to 12 hours in the GA line waiting to go inside, it was interesting to hear why people travel and if this is the only band they’ll travel for (for the most part - yes, U2 is the only band they’d travel for.)

Maybe it was the sun, or maybe it was because Tampa was a little more laid-back kinda city - I found the fans were relatively low-key during the show. Comparing the audience between Miami and Tampa, people weren’t as animated or as noisy throughout the show. Sure, the arena was hitting high noise levels during “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “Where the Streets Have No Name”, but that level was not steady through the night.

That said, U2 were on fire - and Larry was having a *great time* during the show. I ran out of fingers and toes as I was counting the amount of times Larry was smiling. Three fans were pulled up on stage, with two of them being able to sit next to Larry. The first fan was pulled up at the start of “Original of the Species”. Britney, a young teenager, symbolized the theme of the song (as Bono has mentioned in past interviews the song was written about Edge’s daughter). The second fan was pulled up to dance with Bono during “With or Without You”. The third fan brought magic to the night. Joey was pulled from his father’s shoulders in the ellipse and allowed to sit next to Larry at the start of “Yahweh”. He stayed on stage through “40″, when Bono asked him to help with the spotlight. The look of awe on Joey’s face matched many in the arena as he lit up all of the sections. Bono then sat on a monitor and let Joey take center stage with the spotlight for a few moments. Afterwards, he whispered something in Joey’s ear and proceeded to leave the stage. Before he could go down the stairs, Joey put the spotlight on Bono - showing Bono’s huge grin. As Bono waved goodbye to the fans, Joey then put the spotlight on Adam, and as Adam was leaving, he rather nonchalantly walked over to Bono’s mic stand and placed the spotlight down. Joey then walked back to where he was brought up on the stage and returned to the shoulders of his Dad. It was pure magic - you couldn’t script that…and that’s why we travel for a U2 show.

As for the rest of the show….Bono grabbed some red beads from fans in the front row at the beginning of the gig. The beads were a promotion from a local radio station. These beads stayed on Bono for most of the first set. At the start of “I Still Haven’t Found…” Bono brought up about how they had played in Tampa at a little place called The End Zone, and how fans needed to stick with them as the best was yet to come. During “Beautiful Day” Bono made a mention of Neil Armstrong as he motioned his hand like a spaceship going into space as he sang “See the world in green and blue.”

During “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, Bono had the crowd chanting “Show your mind - show your soul - in the USA,” which was the first time I remembered hearing him saying this during the song. He pointed to the coexist headband and said “I loved it so I tattooed it.”

Bono thanked the Floridians before “One” for their generosity. Even though Florida had taken a few hits from Mother Nature, the support towards the One Campaign was quite strong and Bono offered his gratitude.

Tampa is the last show for me until Boston, so I will pass the torch to the other @U2 staff picking up the tour in the meantime. Thanks for following my mini-journey through the blog and I look forward to reporting more from the road in December. For photos and notes from the show, visit here..

Greetings from Tampa! We’ve made it in town to cover the show tomorrow night. While we were on the road, a few newsworthy items have come across my email that I wanted to share with you all.

First: additional photos from the “Day in the life of Edge” fan greeting at the American Airlines Arena have been added to Flickr. You can see the set here. Special thanks to Dan for adding these to the @U2 photo pool!

Second: U2.com fanclub renewals. This is going to be *THE* hot-button topic of conversation on all of the online chat lists and mail groups this week. Here’s the cliffnotes version of what is being emailed to current members: you’ll get 20% off the membership fee for renewing and you’ll get a fan-only “8-track CD featuring songs recorded live during the Vertigo Tour; and a CD-ROM containing an interactive audio player, an exclusive live video clip from U2’s Vertigo 2005 show at Milan’s San Siro stadium, as well as wallpapers and U2 screen savers using the show’s amazing imagery.”

What isn’t included in the fanclub renewal according to the email: “There will not be any ticket guarantees as part of the re-subscription package.”

The email continues: “As we have stated before, the U2.com ticket pre sale for Vertigo 2005 was not what we wanted it to be, and once again we can only apologise for the inconvenience and distress that we know this caused. We continue to look for fair ways in which we can distribute tickets to our fans on future tours but any solution will not be tied to this re-subscription.”

There are some alternatives to the ticketing issue, as seen with Springsteen’s spring tour: tickets are waiting for you at will-call, and when you arrive you receive a wristband and you get your ticket later in the day - then you’re escorted into the arena upon receiving the ticket. There are ways around this to make it work. Another alternative would be to revert back to a mail-order system as what has been done in the past. I’m sure something can be worked out…we all need to be patient.

My heart goes out to those people in Australia, Japan and South America who were given presale codes that could not be used because the tour wasn’t hitting your area…only to be told the tour’s coming, but guess what - you’re not able to use your code for tickets. I feel your frustration.

In the meantime, it is nice that they’re offering a 20% discount on the fee - but even with that discount, it’s still among the most expensive fanclubs out there. With the purchase of a Rolling Stones ticket, your fanclub membership was a “gift” for coming to a Stones show. Robbie Williams has moved his Inner Sanctum fanclub to a fee-based one for an annual fee of 25 british pounds (renewal: 15 month membership, free tshirt, and 2 tickets to 1 location on his upcoming world tour.)Heck - Pearl Jam’s fanclub allows you to download their shows!

Understandably, we all have to give up the ghost that the fanclub will not revert back to how it was during the Propaganda days. There’s still a part of me that wishes the customer service from the Propaganda days was how Signatures Network handles its paid subscribers - but that’s what happens when things are outsourced to a corporate identity. Times change, and this is the only fanclub U2 offers - and yes, I will renew (in case you were wondering). After being a fanclub member since 1988, why stop now?