atoast2toast.com

U2’s much-showcased ‘Claw’ stage at Croke Park won’t be 360? and won’t be in the centre of the pitch, writes Jennifer Bray.

Planning documents for the concert as submitted to Dublin City Council show the stage backed up against Hill 16, which is marked as ‘backstage area’.

U2’s ‘Claw’ – hailed as the latest in revolutionary 360° ? stage design – is set to disappoint Irish fans when it makes its way to Dublin later this month.

Planning documents obtained from Dublin City Council show that the 360° stage showcased on the opening night of the band’s world tour in Barcelona last Tuesday will be more of a 270°? affair and won’t be built in the centre of the pitch. Instead, it will stand in front of Croke Park’s Hill 16 surrounded by the three stands of the stadium. The hill will be an unofficial backstage area and will not be open to fans.

I dislike U2 a lot. They are the opposite of the band that sang so passionately and convincingly before. I hope people dont get too upset and resort to saying “sure at least we get to see it at all”. This is bullshit and U2 should do it properly. They need to treat people with respect instead of closing off a place with a long history for use as their umteenth welcome home tour. That they hail from here should mean they should be more knowledgable and respectful unless in fact they are worried about this sort of stuff happening:

“Lets go fucking mental”:

From independent.ie

Earlier last week, several callers to a national radio show detailed how they saw young men openly sprinkle cocaine on the cisterns in the toilets before snorting the drug.

I also observed coke being taken. As others went about their business in one of the large toilet areas underneath the expansive terrace, I saw young men – in full view of everyone – lining up to take cocaine.

“I have been on the Hill for over 20 years and I have never seen anything like that, that’s rotten. I have my kids with me,” one man said to me as he left the toilet and headed back to the Hill.

At present, several homemade videos containing images of people on the famous Hill throwing bottles at stewards and gardai are uploaded on internet website YouTube.

Bono got served:

BONO, the global activist and singer with U2, has received a salutary lesson from John Howard: the Prime Minister does not respond to ultimatums. In Australia on tour, Bono, who hangs out with politicians in Europe and the US, let it be known he would like to meet the PM. On Tuesday, Howard said he was open to the idea if a formal request was made.

Then, says the PM’s office, Bono listed conditions – primarily that Australia increase the proportion of gross domestic product it gives in foreign aid from 0.3 per cent to 0.7 per cent. No dice, said the PM yesterday. “I don’t accept preconditions from anybody. I don’t commit in advance to businessmen in this country and I certainly don’t do it to – much in all as he’s high-grade – Irish entertainers.”

On the same site:

For some “Irish entertainer” (whose best work was done sometime in the late 80s and early 90s peaking at rattle and hum and selling out since then)

Ask Negativland, a small San Francisco band who, in 1991, released a single that sampled the U2 song, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. The band who champions the lower classes looked on while their record company, Island, sued little Negativland until they were broke, The Edge later claiming that “by the time we (U2) realized what was going on it was kinda too late, and we actually did approach the record company on your (Negativland’s) behalf and said, ‘Look, c’mon, this is just, this is very heavy…’”. The same guys, the most powerful rock group in the world, who demand that world leaders end world poverty “achtung”, can’t even call off their own dogs when the monsterous mutts are eating people in the street.

tribune.ie
smh.com.au
smh.com.au