Over the three months of voting, U2.com asked a handful of guest contributors to offer their list of 22 songs they’d like to see make the cut. Our very own M2 was asked to share his thoughts. After seeing the list, I was curious to see whose list was the closest to what the fans’ final 22 songs were. Drum roll please…

PAUL MCGUINNESS! Yes, that’s right. He got 16 out of 22 correct. Tied for second place were Joe O’Herlihy, Claudia Espanosa (Bajagirl), and M2 with 15 out of 22. Willie Williams tied with John Noble (Bigwave) for third with 12 out of 22, and in fourth place was Caroline van Oosten de Boer (VonB) with 8 out of 22.

There were two songs that everyone agreed upon: “Bad” and “Ultraviolet.” Six out of the seven guest contributors agreed on “City Of Blinding Lights,” “One Tree Hill” and “Zooropa.” Only Joe O’Herlihy included “Elevation,” while only Paul McGuinness included “Mysterious Ways.”

Even though not all the songs I chose made the list, I’m happy with the mix of old and new. My favorite song did make the list (“The Fly”), but it still would have been nice to see some of the more rare tracks make the cut. The biggest surprise was seeing the only song that was in every U2 360 show, “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight (remix),” not make it. For a recording that’s representative of the tour, it seems out of place not to have it included.

@U2 readers are sharing their thoughts in our Forum – check out the discussion and add your spin on U22.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Paul McGuinness and U22 Final Tally

Many in the stadium did not realize that Bevell was blind. At the end of the song, Bono gave Bevell his Gretsch Goal Is Soul guitar.

Bevell has turned this experience into the song, “Hand In The Darkness,” as a thank you to Bono. He said to Arizona’s FOX television, “I was able to send him a thank you letter to pass it on to Bono. I didn’t think the thank you letter was enough so I ended up writing a song.”

He described the song title’s inspiration:”I thought how often has it happened to me that someone has reached out to me through the darkness and led me to safety. … I thought that idea, a lot of people can relate to that idea, because you don’t have to be blind to have lost your way… and that whole idea of hand in the darkness came along and I felt inspired to write this song.”

“Hand In The Darkness” is available for download on iTunes for 99 cents and all the proceeds will be donated to ONE.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Thank You To Bono: Hand In The Darkness

When I first saw the work online, I didn’t recognize anything in the work that pointed to U2. I was grasping for a lyric or title that I recognized as belonging to the band; not finding one, I was unable to connect the paintings to anything familiar. In the gallery, that changed. When discussing abstract painting with Bellemare, I asked him if he thought U2’s lyrics were abstract and that is why his interpretation was so conceptual. His response stunned me. With a thick French accent, he confided, “Most of the time, I cannot understand what they are saying. My English is not very good.” This admission completely changed my appreciation of his work. Rather than illustrating a particular album or song, the artist interprets what he feels when he listens to the music. The work is about color and line, not sentimental attachment to narrative. Of course I couldn’t recognize U2 in the work; as a native English speaker, I cannot separate lyrics from music. Like someone who has lost one of his five senses, Bellemare compensates for not understanding the band’s language with a strong artistic vision. It is this same intuitive connection that U2 fans worldwide feel with the band, and often, with each other.

Like U2’s music, Bellemare’s paintings are textured and multi-layered. Because a canvas can take years to finish, no one painting represents any one song. Although Bellemare has been listening to U2 for thirty years, he has only listened to them in the studio for two years—and the studio is now the only place where he listens to them. The artist has no set routine in regards to music selection. He may keep a song on repeat or he may listen to album after album. Bellemare says he is a big fan of No Line on the Horizon, but he also likes to work while listening to Achtung Baby; although he finds the band’s later work easier to paint to, he does find inspiration in the melody of “The Unforgettable Fire.” Bellemare prefers acrylic paint because it dries faster than oil. Therefore, if he doesn’t like where a piece is going, he paints over it with a background color and starts again. This process results in an irregular surface that invites the viewer to stroke the canvas, a rare practice that the artist encourages. Like U2 concerts, Bellemare’s U2 inspired paintings are full body encounters that challenge the aural, visual and tactile.

Although Bellemare may have an image or idea unrelated to U2 in mind before he begins, his process is purely gesture; he brushes or throws the paint onto the canvas (as opposed to Jackson Pollock who used a dripping technique) in such a way that creates movement and energy. On some canvasses, that energy moves horizontally across the canvas. In others, it moves through and out of the canvas into the viewer’s space. In both cases, a frame intensifies the urgency by graphically containing the movement and creating tension between what happens on the canvas and what exists beyond its boundaries. One painting, “Japan Highway,” reminds Bellemare of his time in Tokyo. Almost throbbing with glowing reds, whites and shades of living gray, the canvas pulls the viewer’s eye from left to right and back again across the canvas as if she is trapped in a foreign city of neon and steel. The title itself has nothing to do with the Irish band from Dublin, but the painting couldn’t exist without U2’s shaping influence.

During our interview, I asked Bellemare the impossible question, “What is your favorite U2 song?” I can’t answer that question myself, so I didn’t really expect him to answer it, but I wanted to hear his response. He has neither a favorite album nor painting, but after some thought, he showed me a canvas that was leaning with several others against a back wall of the gallery—the manager hadn’t chosen that one to hang, but he brought it along anyway. For Bellemare, the piece embodies U2. “Parcours,” like “Japan Highway,” is a rectangular canvas wider than it is tall. But, instead of a palette limited to three or four major colors, “Parcours” includes a wide spectrum of hues, including vibrant yellows and  oranges and cooling tones of green and blue. To me, the piece includes more than it excludes reminding me a little of the line “I believe in the Kingdom come when all the colors will bleed into one.” Although, technically, it wasn’t part of the show, “Parcours” was my favorite painting of the lot—not because in it I could finally recognize something of U2, but because the painting captures how I feel when I listen to their music: like I am about to break into blossom.

An accomplished graphic designer from Quebec City, Bellemare comes across as shy and sincere. Inspired by the band’s philanthropy, he donates ten per cent of his earnings from his U2 paintings to The Global Fund. Despite my fears before seeing the exhibition, I found nothing about his work derivative or gimmicky. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Bellemare’s work challenges U2 fans’ intimacy with the music and provokes his audience to examine how individuals experience U2 songs in unique, and perhaps cultural, ways. For me, Montreal was about looking backward and forward at the same time. For Susan, it was the culmination of a lifetime of waiting to see U2 in concert. Meeting the artist and seeing his paintings in Montreal left me contemplating how U2 fans interpret their favorite songs. Each of us understands the lyrics in our own way, but the beat of the music connects us all on a visceral level whether we live in the US, Canada, Europe or Africa. It is this universal rhythm that joins us not only to the band but also to other fans. Bellemare captures that spirit on canvas

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

We’re one, but we’re not the same

This item is sitting on the shelf of a reputable California record store and I just have to wonder how long it will be there considering that (at the time of this writing), none of the copies of the same item on eBay were priced higher than $50 (and for what it’s worth, none had bids).

It’s a point to ponder—especially with the announcement of the soon-to-be-released U2 Duals fan club compilation, which so far hasn’t generated much anticipation from die-hard fans.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Artificial Inflation?

He outlined his film objectives, and we had an indept discussion about why we were fans of U2. At that meeting, I gave Colm contact details for David Griffith, who was well known on the @u2 forum as Davey G, and also does U2 walking tours in his spare time. Colm got in touch with Dave and filmed him for the project. Colm had also planned to come to Cork to film Joe and myself, but unfortuantely this did not work out. I did send him some photos from some of the U2 gigs we went to, and some of these from Dublin & Amsterdam made the final cut.

The short film is finally finished, and is not just about U2 fans but also the well known UK soccer team Manchester United. The film is a mix of reactions from the two different sets of fans and there are quite a few similarities, including the social aspect.

Take a look for yourself here.

The specific U2 segments are at 1:48, 5:03 & 8:14

The film credits include Davey G, Matt, Joe and myself.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

“Fans” film included help from @u2 staff and ex forum user Davey G.

SLANE CASTLE, Co. Meath:
On Friday the Kings Of Leon were announced to be the 2011 headliners at Slane Castle. It was always very unlikely that U2 would play here at all, as the Claw is completely unsuitable for a venue with a sloping hill at one end, and a river at the other. However, the announcement does rule that out completely. The 30th anniversary of Slane was another possible factor in the equation, but it is not to be.

CROKE PARK STADIUM, Dublin:

Next up, the venue that U2 have played more than any other act. Last year Dublin got multiple U2 360 gigs at Croke Park. Next year the tour schedule in the U.S. wraps up on July 26th. So what of the Croke Park timetable ? Well a quick run through the event archive gives us a typical picture of what the venue schedule looks like in August. It is the busiest time of the year for Croke Park. The All Ireland Hurling & Football championships are in full swing with the semi finals of both competitions in August, and these are always on weekends. Then the finals themselves are in early September for Hurling, and within 2 weeks of this for Gaelic Football.

What this all means is that Croke Park is very unlikely to host any concerts in August or September.

As a double check on the concert history at Croke Park, the archive of concerts which is here indicates that there has never been a concert there during the month of August, September or October over the last 25 years. There was just one exception to this, being The Police who played an unusually late concert there in October 2007. U2 are unlikely to play an outdoor concert in Ireland in October.

AVIVA STADIUM Dublin:
This is the only realistic option for U2 playing Dublin in 2011 in the months of August or September. The event calendar here, lists just 1 event in early September and the whole month of August is free. This venue is the most likely option if U2 play Dublin in 2011.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

If U2 play Dublin in 2011, where will they play ?

Oct. 3: Our 5 seconds of fame on the way back home.

It was another early start for the trip that never stops. Up today at 7:00, breakfast was a welcome relief. We packed and got a taxi to the train station at Coimbra B. From here we caught the 9:19 train to Lisbon. At last I was on a train. I just love them. This one was very comfy, and we had great views of the countryside. When we were in the outer suburbs of Lisbon, we saw lots of people standing on what looked to be a fenced off area just beyond the track line edge. It turned out to be a bull run, and as the train headed toward Lisbon, we passed around a mile of a fenced off area which led to a bull ring. Of course there were people chasing and dodging the bulls who were just outside the bull ring. Interesting to see this.

On arrival at the airport, we headed straight for the newsagent to check the local papers. Sure enough the newspaper Publico had a picture of the GA crowd on page 6 with us at the front. It can be seen in photo #7 of this set here.

The plane was almost 2 hours late leaving Lisbon, which meant we might miss our flight from London to Cork. Thankfully all flights in and out of Heathrow were delayed, so allthough we had a frantic run from Terminal 3 to Termnal 1, we made with on time to our flight home.

From subsequent searches we found we were in quite a few photographs taken by the Portuguese media at Coimbra # 1.

• photo #15 here

• photo # 26 & # 28 here

• photo # 24 here

Well, I suppose we all get our five seconds of fame!

What a trip, what great people we met, and what a band.

Until the next time—maybe Dublin 2011.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

5-Day Trip to Seville & Coimbra – Part 6

Our Epic Journey from Seville To Coimbra

Friday Oct, 01: Seville To Coimbra

Up around 9:00 (it never stops !), and headed up toward where Alan & Claire were staying. We had our breakfast in a lovely café, sat outside and felt the heat of another hot day coming on. This was our last meal in Seville, and it was hard to leave. Still a magical place. The coffees alone are excellent. Alan & Claire came along shortly and joined us before setting off on the long journey to Coimbra.

Alan had already driven all the way from the Liverpool, got the ferry to Spain, and had driven all the way down to Seville after the San Sebastian gig. I’m sure he enjoyed the 38-hour break from the car. The most straightforward way to get from Coimbra from Seville, is to go west over into Portugal towards Faro, then head north all the way up to Coimbra. This would normally take around five hours. Alan had other ideas and wanted to go the scenic route. Well he was the driver, after all. We headed north up toward Badajoz, which is close to the border and onwards to Castelo Branca. From there it went a little pear shaped, the navigation went AWOL and the map we had was a bit outdated, basically we were lost.

Alan recounts it here “Thats were we couldnt find the ‘B’ road and ended up in Fundao where we drove round in circles twice. Before heading from Fundao through the highest mountain range in Portugal through to Calizes and on to Coimbra B station, which that bloody sat nav told us was Coimbra A!”

Alan is a scouser and when I read this, I think of him saying it in his strong Liverpool accent.

On the positive side, we ended up stopping in a few remote places en route and saw many Portuguese mountain ranges, which we would never have seen if we went the conventional motorway route. We also dipped our toes into a lovely river and found a kind of Portuguese Joshua tree.

One stretch of road we took had around 100+ hairpin bends—a tough drive—but lovely views as a passenger. Alan caught this video in the mountains here. We eventually got into Coimbra at around 21:00, almost 11 hours later. We parted company with Alan & Claire, who were meeting u2 fan Sandra from Porto and driving to their accommodations outside the city by the sea. We agreed to meet at 11:00 in the GA queue the following day. We all needed a bit of a rest.

As usual Joe and myself always stay city centre. The hotel was nice, and very central. We checked in, and took a walk around. It was surprisingly quiet for a night before a mass U2 fan invasion. It’s a small city, and easy to get around. The hotel reception had given us information on where the night life was. So we got something to eat first and headed up to the student area. At least here, there was a bit of life. Several pubs and cafés scattered around a lovely square. We then headed down to the river where there are a number of bars literally at the river, away from residential areas. There were some bands on playing music from the 1980s, which was an interesting change.

En route home, we heard loud music coming from somewhere and decided it had to be checked out. On the other side of the river to the bars we were in, there was a DJ playing in the open air. There was just a handful of people in the space around him, the area could hold a few thousand. We checked it out, and he played various dance music, including a remixed U2 track. The police arrived and shut him down. It was around 2:30 and time to head home for a reboot.

Pictures from today are here.

Part 5 – U2 Coimbra # 1 gig coming soon.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

5-Day Trip to Seville & Coimbra – Part 4

Wednesday Sep 29. Seville pre-gig day
We met around 9:00 in Los Columnas, had a quick Cafe Con Leche (coffee with milk) and headed off for a walk, eventually settling for a Cafe not far away. Inside was heaving with locals, so we joined in the mayhem. It took almost 20 minutes to get served, during which time the guy making the coffees was having several, highly vocal altercations with the guy taking the orders. It was an amusing start to the day. The freshly squeezed orange juice, coffee, bread and ham was perfect.

Next up was the hop on and off Seville bus tour which passed my favourite bridge. Of course there was always a plan, and that was to hop off at the nearest stop to the Olympic stadium and check out the venue. The general strike which was in full swing in Spain, thankfully it did not affect the bus tour. As we made our way to the start of the bus tour, we passed several protesters who were getting ready for marches, etc.

Close to where the Expo 92 area has laid almost dormant for nearly 20 years, we got off and strolled down to the venue. There were around 60 people already in the queue.

A quick survey indicated the lining up system was good, and was under the shade of trees. Temporary toilets were also in place. We asked the nearby security guard to see if we could get inside the stadium, but no dice. We walked up by the stadium itself, asked a few more times could we get inside, but no way. One of us spotted a policeman and showed him let’s just say, an ID badge from work and he almost instantly brought us up in the lift to the fourth floor. From there we could see inside the stadium, but it was a somewhat restricted view on the setup.

Our English friends had not finished there however. As we walked away from the stadium we noticed there was a hotel directly attached to the actual stadium. “Surely” Steve said, “we should be able to get a better view from the hotel.” Sure enough, within minutes we got to the hotel restaurant which has a 20 metre window overlooking the whole stadium. We had coffee while we looked at the incredible setup. You can see what we saw from the restaurant here.

I also found this video which shows the view from one of the hotel bedrooms (Steve & Paul can be seen in the GA Q at 0:55). There is also footage in there of U2 360 Sevilla 2010 who have a facebook and webpage. They brought a giant poster of U2 dressed as matadors into the inner circle. I have photos of them in Part 3.

As we departed the stadium we noticed there was some wall climbing going on in a nearby underpass which was fairly incredible to see, and fairly dangerous also (see pictures).
We got back on the bus tour, which completed its journey after a while. On our way back we stopped off in another lovely Tapas bar, and had a few cold ones and some local snacks. At that stage it was back for a chill out at our quarters. I love city bus tours. First off in this heat, it would have been impossible to walk around what we saw on the tour. Second, you get to relax and get a flavor of the city. No, it’s not the city in full, but an all-around flavor of it.

Later, we finally met Alan and his sister Claire. Alan has been running a U2 360 tour Facebook page for a while now, along with some others in the U.S. These guys were on an U2 adventure way beyond what we were doing. They left Liverpool almost a week ago, drove to Portsmouth, got the ferry to Santander, and took in a few places across northern Spain, before going to the San Sebastian U2 gig. They then drove through central Spain, stopping off a few times en route to Seville. They were going to the last five gigs of the European tour. We had been in touch for a few months, and it was great to finally meet them. They too were meeting with other friends, and before the night was over we had amassed around 10 U2 fans, all going to the gig the following evening. We managed o squeeze in a proper meal in a local Chineese(of all places). We then started to head home and saw some Flamenco dancing in the square by the Cathedral.

It was agreed we would meet at 8:00 at Las Columnas, and have some breakfast, and head to the supermarket before going and joining the GA Q. A local told us the supermarkets don’t open until 9:00. Strange but true.

Some photos from this day can be seen here.

Part 3 is here.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

5-Day Trip to Seville & Coimbra – Part 2

Warning – the story is about not just the U2 gigs, but the places we saw, the people we met and what we did along the way.

Tuesday Sep. 28 Cork To Seville
Departure day for the trip. We (Joe and myself) left Cork just before 7:00 and got into Malaga at around 11:00. It was an easy hop on the 20-minute bus to the main bus station in Malaga. I always prefer trains, and was looking forward to getting the train all the way to Seville, but alas, we would have had to wait until the 14:00 train, and the bus left at 12:00, so it was not an option unfortunately.

The bus timetable said that we would finish up in Seville’s main bus station, but instead, it dropped us at a secondary station, probably something to do with us being held up for around an hour when we hit major roadworks en route to Seville. Our map from the main bus station to our new home for the next three  nights were useless, and it was more than a little walk to our temporary home, so we got in a taxi and were brought to the door.

My first trip to Seville was a magical one around 10 years ago. It’s like that sometimes when you go to really great places for the first time, but it’s not always something that can be repeated for a second visit. I was wrong, this city is everything I remember and more. As an ex capital of Spain, it is literally steeped in history. It has been a city for over 2,000 years. It’s impossible to imagine what this is like without going there, but for me, the history and character just oozes out of almost every street corner. The magnificent buildings around the city include the world famous Seville Cathedral which houses the tomb of Christopher Columbus, it took over a hundred years to build, and is among the largest churches in the world.

Another major attraction to the city are the new buildings and structures. I have never seen such a blend of old and new in one city. There is one particularly impressively designed bridge called the El Alamillo Bridge, which was built for the famous 1992 Expo Fair. I have never seen anything quite like it.

Our lodgings were picked very deliberately by DM Travel. A hundred yards from one of Seville’s most famous buildings “The Cathedral”, and 25 metres from one of the best Tapas bar in this area – Las Columnas to the locals, or Bodega Santa Cruz to the tourists. This was to be the meeting point or base camp from the various people we were meeting, and we made several visits over the three days we were there. The guys did not believe me when they saw how close we were staying to this gem of a place. To be honest I didn’t think it was this close either, I was expecting at least a 50 metre hike to get there!

Steve, Paul and Dave, all from London, were joining us later on at Las Columnas. In the meantime we had a general walk around, and as we did, memories of my last visit here came back.

We met the lads around 19:00, it was great to see them all again. This would be my third U2 gig with Steve and brother Dave. I met them for the first time at Vertigo Dublin #1 2005, and we kept in touch, meeting last year again at Dublin # 1. We tucked into some tapas and chilled beer. They have this beer in Seville chilled at minus 2 degrees Centigrade and served in rather small 200ml (about a third of a pint) servings. In Ireland, a customer would laugh if they got such a small serving of beer, but here, due to high temperatures, it makes perfect sense. This could easily of turned into a one bar stop for the night. I was determined this was not going to happen, so I suggested to the guys we go walk about and see what we could see. We did three or four more tapas bars, at least this way we were getting to see some alternatives to the one spot. We walked down towards the bull ring by the river and back around again.

At least the evening was a mix of seeing different places. The one Tapas Bar that stood out was E.Morales, a really old bar, full of character, with wooden casks of port and wine, and cured hams hanging up. We headed back home, and agreed to meet at 9:00 the following morning. It was a lovely evening in Seville, an incredible city.

Some photos of this day are on Flickr here.

Part 2 is here.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

5-Day Trip to Seville & Coimbra – Part 1