What do Nicole Kidman, James Blunt, Anderson Cooper and Jay-Z have in common? They all have U2 on their personal playlists.

Poking around the iTunes music store, I decided to peek in and see what some of my favorite celebrities are listening to (they have this cool category called “Celebrity Playlists” in the search sidebar). The more I looked, the more U2 I saw. I kept searching until I had looked at every single playlist and jotted down each and every reference to U2.

It didn’t surprise me that the boys came up that often, but what did surprise me were the songs that were chosen. I tallied them up and here are the results, starting with the most popular at the top (how many times they appeared on lists is the number in parentheses):

“Where The Streets Have No Name” (7)
“One” (7)
“Sunday Bloody Sunday” (3)
“Mysterious Ways” (3)
“New Year’s Day” (2)
“With Or Without You” (2)
“Vertigo” (2)
“40″ (1)
“Wire” (1)
“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” (1)
“Bullet The Blue Sky” (1)
“Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?” (1)
“The First Time” (1)
“Beautiful Day “(1)
“Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” (1)
“Walk On” (1)
“Kite” (1)
“Yahweh” (1)

I credit the popularity of “Streets” with its incomparable live presence, but I’m stunned at the absence of “All I Want Is You” and a few others.

Over on Youtube you can find a parody of “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own” called, well, see the title of this post. The sound on my computer doesn’t work, but I had big laughs watching this as a silent movie. I can only imagine how much better it might be with sound. DC Luigi does an excellent job aping Bono’s “moves.”

Are you a Midwesterner without the time, money, or inclination to visit Ireland, but you still want to get a taste of U2 tourism? Look no further: it’s the U2 Tour of Tiny Towns.

Begin your trip in Clayton, Illinois, population 904, in west-central Illinois. Actor John Anderson, who had a recurring role on TV’s MacGyver but was not in fact MacGyver himself, was born there.

Bono, Arkansas boasts a robust population of 1,512 and is in the northeast corner of the state. From Wikipedia: “Bono’s most prominent landmarks are the locally notorious Bono Bridge and the quaint, charming Bono Cemetery.” Not sure if the town pronounces Bono with an “ah.”

Mullen, Nebraska, population 491, is in the center of the state in Hooker County. Conversation starter: the town takes its name from founding father Raymond Mullen of Dundalk, Ireland–a Church of Ireland clergyman–who fled to America during the 1798 United Irishman rebellion.

Finally, you can drive down to east-central Texas where, if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to locate Edge, population 100. I was unable to find any real information about Edge, other than the fact that it exists.

This photo is from the 11/14 show in Miami, but it describes perfectly what Portland’s concert was for me. This was the last arena show on this tour. This was a show where at least 40 of my closest friends flew in for the show from all over the US. After serving as your resident gig blogger for the tour, this was the show where my pad of paper and pen were put away - as well as my camera. This gig was a very personal one for me in so many ways, but mostly it was about letting go. As with many fans, I had scheduled 2005 around the tour - and now it’s about getting back to some sort of day-to-day normalcy. It’s not just the U2 crew and the band who need to detox from touring…but there are fans out there such as myself who need to do the same!

Sure, the setlist wasn’t anything spectacular (nothing new was added.) In reality, two songs that were supposed to be on the setlist, Stuck in a Moment and All Because of You, were dropped entirely. It wasn’t about the setlist for Portland actually. It was about the camaraderie of being in a 20,000 seat arena where you know that over 75% of those in attendance flew from all corners of the world to see the *last* arena show on the Vertigo tour. In all of my blog reports, I have mentioned about how loud the arena was and how the crowd was or wasn’t into it. For this concert, the roof and half of the sky was ripped off of its atmosphere. I swear, people in Seattle could have heard us in Portland. And yes, as U2.com reported - the ellipse was quite full. I don’t think we could have fit another person in it.

We had a GA area that was glowing red, there were signs all over the arena (approx. 2,000 on the floor and well over that in the stands) that simply said “THANK YOU,” and people were patient enough to wait until Elevation to hold them up. The transformation of the arena at that very moment was not only overwhelming, but it appeared to have completely taken Bono by surprise. It was awesome to see him speechless for at least a good few seconds as he was taking in the very simple public display of affection.

We all knew that this tour wasn’t really supposed to happen, and we also knew that the band had bent over backwards for us to try to make the situation right at the start of the year. We knew that they were trying their best to make many different groups of people “happy.” There are not very many opportunities for the fan community to pull together to make a public statement to the band, and it was something very special to have been able to do this on behalf of those who saw the show before us to extend their thanks to the band as well. It was awesome to see the band’s reaction to thousands of the signs simply saying “Thank You.” That was *the* highlight of the show for me.

I will need to piece together all of my ramblings from my travels since the Brooklyn Bridge promo gig for a more formal article for the site, but I wanted to put a finishing touch on my tour reporting on the blog.

As U2.com so simply put it - U2 does have the best fans in the world. It was all of you who made this tour a fantastic one, and it has been a pleasure being able to share my quirky thoughts with you all.

To all of you lucky enough to see them on the 4th leg - have a great time, and I look forward to hearing all of your stories on the shows.

Now I’m off to try to do some U2-tour-detox…good thing there’s new material from Robbie Williams for me to catch up on! (Yes, it is true - I am a huge Robbie fan as well! Heck - he played bingo with Bono…he’s got to be cool).

Greetings from a rainy, icy and darn-right cold Portland, Oregon! Yes, ice your only rivers *do* run cold! But enough about the weather….

On behalf of everyone on the @U2 staff, I would like to thank everyone who braved the ice storm to come out to celebrate our 10th birthday with us. We had over 200 fans join us - amazing! It was fantastic to see some familiar faces, as well as to meet so many new people.

Our birthday party got kicked off with the results from the official @U2 fan survey. During November, we asked fans worldwide for your opinion in our comprehensive survey. We were excited to see that over 4100 of you took our survey. Typically, when Time Magazine or CNN does a survey, they’re lucky to get 1500 responses - and they use those numbers to generalize about the entire population. So, with almost 3-times that amount responding to our survey, we are assured that we have a pretty good idea of the “typical” U2 fan.

We plan on having the survey results up on the site in the upcoming week or so, but to give you a little sneak-peek on what the results are (and to recap for everyone at the event)…the “typical” U2 fan is….

Male, aged between 25-36, still living with his parents, listens to U2 at least once a day, thinks that Larry would win on the television show Survivor, and feels that Edge is the best musician in the band. The typical fan also believes that Adam’s 1981 afro was the worst fashion mistake U2 has ever had….beating Bono’s Live Aid mullet and everything associated with PopMart. As I said, the survey was quite comprehensive! (More to come in the following days.)

After about an hour of presenting the survey results to everyone, we broke into the birthday cake, handed out some prizes, and then listened the musical stylings of Scott Perretta (who does an *awesome* version of Acrobat, by the way). Then, Zoo Station took the stage, performing for about 2 hours.

After surveying the @U2 readership, it was the hands-down conclusion that we all wanted to hear Mercy, and Zoo Station took on the challenge! To the best of our knowledge, this was the first time Mercy had been performed live by any band. And…it rocked the house. (I know I’ve said this before…but Mercy is the best U2 song they’ve ever written…but then again, I’ve been begging for Mofo to be added to the set too…at least Zoo Station opened with it last night!)

The fans wanted more, and Zoo Station happily gave them one more song at the end of the night, closing out their set with Unchained Melody. Other surprises they pulled out of the U2 discography included Lady with the Spinning Head (blending that with The Fly….brilliant!), Two Hearts Beat as One, and Twilight.

It was an absolute blast getting to listen to them, and we are very thankful to Zoo Station for coming all the way up from California to join us. If you get a chance to see them perform, don’t miss it! (Side note: they’ll be at Kells tonight as well.)

Good times were had by all last night. Congratulations to all of our prize winners! Thank you to Kells for hosting us and for keeping the Guinness, and Vertigo specialty drinks flowing last night. I would also like to give a special thank you to the @U2 staff who travelled a long distance to come to the event.

Photos from the event can be seen here, and special reports from the event will be in the next @U2 podcast.

I’m sure I speak on behalf of many of our readers who follow more than just U2 (amazing as it may sound) when I offer the suggestion to our favorite group of Irish musicians that they should FINALLY allow fans to download copies of their concerts through U2.com for a nominal fee.

Starting on September 1, Pearl Jam will be allowing its fans to download for a very reasonable price high-quality, DRM-Free, digital recordings available just hours after the band’s live shows through the band’s website. Metallica fans have been able to download concerts, also for a reasonable price, for some time now either in mp3 format or FLAC lossless.

I think U2 fans would spend upwards of $20 (which is more than what Pearl Jam or Metallica charges) to be able to download a concert off of U2.com.

Here’s why I would spend money for this:
1) There are a bevy of sites online (too many to mention) that allow fans to download and upload concerts for free. However, bandwidth being what it is, as well as connection speeds globally, it can be a painful experience for those with limited connections.

2) I’d prefer to pay the band their royalties and legally download their material. (Call me old-fashioned, but if they created the music, then they deserve my cash). I’d also prefer a copy of the show vs. an overpriced T-shirt any day of the week.

3) It allows the fans to ENJOY the show for what it is - instead of having to sneak in recording equipment in places recording equipment doesn’t belong, and then having to worry about some idiot standing next to you screaming out “I LOVE YOU BONO” during the concert. (I’ll admit it - my apologies to anyone who tried recording the Worcester 3/13/92 show from the floor - I didn’t know bootlegging etiquette and I spoiled at least 1 recording of the show with my off-tune singing and i promise i’ll never do that again! - but i digress).

4) This is a benefit U2 could offer to U2.com subscribers - let’s face it, they have to figure out SOMETHING to lure tens of thousands of us to spend our $40 to renew in the winter. This would be a great benefit to the fanclub membership.

Here’s why U2 won’t do it (let’s be serious here - do you *really* think they’ll do it?)

1) They’re perfectionists. Every commercial release they’ve sold has been edited, then re-edited, and re-edited again. They don’t like to show their warts - even though those are the best parts of their live performance…shows they’re human.

2) If fans are already doing it (somewhat successfully) for 25+ years, then why should they spend their time here? Bono has said, “We tell people who come to our concerts that they can tape the shows if they want. I think it is cool that people are so passionate about our music.” However, Interscope has been cracking down on some sites for copyright issues - so, it would be nice to have U2 offer a legal alternative to fan favorite activity.

3) Have I mentioned they’re perfectionists?

Let’s face it, it’s a guaranteed revenue stream for them! Who wouldn’t want to make more money, right? Look at how successful Pearl Jam has been in releasing their live material - you can’t tell me that Principle Management hasn’t seen the greenbacks they’d get as a result of finally allowing legal downloading off of U2.com or iTunes. As a long time collector of live material, I would GLADLY pay U2 to allow me to download the material legally. Wouldn’t you want a copy of the concert you just witnessed to remember the night by? I know I would.

As a side note - U2’s tour management has been crunching numbers to see how to limit expenses to bring their live show to South America and to Australia - the band want to perform there, but freight charges and fuel is limiting their ability to travel (even though dates have been tossed around)….you can off-set these touring expenses through revenue generated from downloading the live material. So, Craig w/TNA…consider that when you’re crunching numbers during the third leg of the tour!