I had some problems with my web hotel during July and August (2009), if you sent a contribution during that time using the contact forms, then I probably have not received it and would like to recommend you to try to send it again.
This was out of my control, but I apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused. It took some time before I realised there was a problem but it as corrected as soon I notified the web hotel.
I am sorry, but I have a backlog of contributions to U2MoL that I haven’t gotten around to process. The reason for this is threefold; I am disappointed with U2, as explained in an earlier post, and this affects U2MoL off cause. Secondly, I’ve had quite a lot to do during the summer; I was planning a scout camp for 1500 participants, jointly responsible for Info and PR, and thirdly; when the backlog was piling up my bad conscience was nagging me and kind of solved it by ignoring it.
You are not forgotten and I plan to take care about the backlog during October, my calender finally allows me to spend the many hours I need to go through the posts and mull them over. It takes more time then one would think…
Once again, sorry about this. I am much more unhappy about this then you are…
It is a bit hard, but at the same time easy, to state that I am disappointed with U2. I am disappointed with their last three albums and the last 360° tour.
Their last album, No Line on the Horizon, contained energy and some quite rocky tunes, but where were the spark that made you want to change to world after listening? I’m sorry, but No Line on the Horizon will be the last U2 album I buy and I doubt that I will listen to it any more then the twenty-odd times I’ve listened to it so far. The same goes for How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, but not as much for All that you can’t leave behind as the latter has grown since it was released. But it takes months between each listening.
As for the tour, lets just say that everything was against a good experience. I attended the 31st August concert in Gothenburg and the high wind prevented quite a bit of the party it could become, but that is no excuse because I also attended the 1993 Zooropa concert in Stockholm and then it was raining without anyone really noticing. I’ve read a review that stated that the second concert in Gothenburg where pure magic, and I don’t doubt it, but I wasn’t there and I doubt that my impressions would have changed. I was standing in the inner circle, the one inside the cat walk, slightly to the right of The Edge, and something that struck me was that people around me was standing most of the time. There where very little singing and jumping.
There where a group of younger fans that really enjoyed With or Without You and some of the other songs but it felt like I was the only one of about 30 that stood closest to me that actually sang during Ultra Violet (Light my Way). I can understand if most haven’t listened to more then the last three albums and the Best of, but Achtung Baby is one of their more iconic albums and more then that should know about Ultra Violet, IMHO. Especially in the inner circle!
Or am I just being old?
When it came to U2′s performance it was without the igniting spark more or less throughout. The first three songs, all from No Line on the Horizon, all proved that the new tracks are not arena rock, they cannot ignite tens of thousands of people.
I know that one bad concert shouldn’t make me shun the band, but it was the last drop. I am, as I said above, disappointed with the last three albums and this didn’t help. If nothing changes very soon, then this concert will be the last concert with U2 and I won’t buy the next album.
But what makes this of U2MoL? Well, U2MoL is simply too famous to kill off – I get about 800 page visits per day, this is not the same as unique visitors as one single visitor might theoretically read one page 800 times, and it has been around for far too long time. It will turn fifteen years this autumn! So I will continue to maintain it for the foreseeable future…
