The work has already been translated into Japanese and Portuguese, and is currently being translated to Croatian for an upcoming release.

To promote the book at an upcoming event abroad, Matt agreed to appear via video on this Croatian site (be sure to make note of the fact he and Bono share the same page—at least at the time of this post they did).

To hear him discuss the creation of the book, watch the video here.

Way to go, Boss!

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Matt McGee: Croation Superstar

View the two videos (click the link above) and weigh in on the similarities in our comments field.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Like comparing Apples to…Blackberries?

Main Set: Breathe, No Line On The Horizon, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Beautiful Day – Here Comes the Sun, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, Desire – Billie Jean – Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough, Stuck In A Moment, Electrical Storm, Unknown Caller, The Unforgettable Fire, City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight, Sunday Bloody Sunday – Get Up Stand Up, Pride, MLK, Walk On – You’ll Never Walk Alone, Where the Streets Have No Name, One

Encore(s): Ultraviolet, With or Without You, Moment of Surrender

Fan video:

http://qik.com/video/2127858

http://qik.com/video/2127588

http://qik.com/video/2127713

Main Set: Breathe, No Line On The Horizon, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Beautiful Day, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – Stand By Me, Angel of Harlem – Man In The Mirror – Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough, Party Girl, In A Little While, Unknown Caller, The Unforgettable Fire, City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Pride, MLK, Walk On, Where the Streets Have No Name, One

Encore(s): Ultraviolet, With or Without You, Moment of Surrender
U2gigs.com – U2 performing Stand By Me at the 3rd date of U2’s 360 degrees world tour in Milan on July, 7th, 2009.

Martyn Pick directed promotional video Get On Your Boots Alternative version by Martyn Pick www.martynpick.com

I’m sure there are stranger ‘press releases’ than the one I have a copy of announcing the latest in U2’s series of remasters and re-issues, but I can’t think of one off the top of my head.  The Unforgettable Fire, U2’s first collaboration with the great Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, turns 25 and the band is prepping it for a re-issue similar to the one they prepared for The Joshua Tree a couple years ago.

Before we get into the details on The Unforgettable Fire — because there are few — let’s take a look at this ‘press release’ and glean as much from it as we can. First, we can now be certain the band is going to re-issue its entire catalog.  I’m guessing it will be awhile before No Line On The Horizon gets re-issued, but the point is they aren’t going to stop any time soon.  They have already issued The Joshua Tree, Boy, War, October and Under a Blood Red Sky.  U2 hasn’t gone about this chronologically, but when The Unforgettable Fire is issued it would make Rattle & Hum the oldest U2 album not to be re-done.  Following it would be ’90s classics Achtung Baby and Zooropa.

In the case of The Joshua Tree, multiple packages were offered.  The album was remastered and issued on its own.  A 2-CD package was offered, pairing the remastered album with a disc of B-sides, live cuts, and rarities.  A Super Deluxe edition was offered, packaged in a box that included both CDs of the deluxe and an added DVD.  From the information printed on this merchandise bag, it appears the same will be true of The Unforgettable Fire.

While not getting into specifics about what these things might be, the bag indicates there will be vidoes and film footage on the DVD.  A documentary about the making of The Unforgettable Fire was released on the Slane Castle DVD from the ‘Elevation Tour’ in support of All That You Can’t Leave Behind.  It was odd to stick that on there.  It’s possible that could be part of this package, although it would be one more thing fans are buying twice.  It makes sense and it doesn’t.  We’re also told that B-sides, rare, and previously unreleased songs are forthcoming.  Among the B-sides issued for Unforgettable singles are:

• “11 O’Clock Tick Tock” (Long version)
• “A Sort of Homecoming” (Live from Wembley)
• “Bass Trap”
• “Boomerang I” (Instrumental)
• “Boomerang II”
• “Love Comes Tumbling”
• “Sixty Seconds in Kingdom Come”
• “The Three Sunrises”
• “Touch”

None of those are confirmed for this 25th Anniversary Edition of The Unforgettable Fire, but the smart money suggests at least a couple of them will make the cut.  “The Three Sunrises” and “Bass Trap” were both released on the bonus disc for the limited edition of U2’s The Best of 1980-1990.  Many fans consider “The Three Sunrises” as one of U2’s finest B-sides.

U2 just kicked off their “U2 – 360″ World Tour in Barcelona last week.  They make their way across Europe this summer before coming to the U.S. this fall.

- Josh Hathaway, BlogCritics

KUURNE, BELGIUM — Barco, a global leader in creative LED technology, is proud to announce the world’s first transformable LED screen for U2’s latest world tour. With its 360° shape, the LED screen surrounds the band while performing and can change shape in all directions during the concert, For the third time this millennium, the Barco – U2 cooperation resulted in a revolutionary approach to video, this time totaling more than 500,000 pixels of video, making it the biggest LED screen ever used in concert touring. U2’s worldwide tour kicks off 30 June in a sold out Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain.

Tonight, all eyes will be on Barcelona for the premiere of the new U2 Tour 360°. The stage and show were created by long-time U2 designers Willie Williams and Mark Fisher. With the help of Chuck Hoberman and Barco their vision of a 360° moving video screen was turned into reality. Barco provided more than half a million transformable LED pixels (FLX), which are integrated into a transformable structure designed by Barco’s Innovative Designs, based on a Hoberman invention.. The resulting giant LED screen has a 24 by 16 meter diameter and changes shape in all directions, making U2 the first band ever to go on a tour with a transformable LED screen.

Willie Williams, U2 show designer, says “Video is the most powerful tool you can have on stage. But now that video is so ubiquitous in rock stage setting, we needed a very extreme change of canvas to be heard. The transformable LED gave us the chance to create a transparent 360° moving video element, unprecedented in this industry. It is the icing on the cake on this design.”

“It is thrilling to see the work I have been doing with transformable structures expressed in such a whole new way,” Chuck Hoberman adds. “The screen is like a living thing, it continuously changes shapes and forms and the video acts like live skin on it. It is one of the most fascinating objects in the world now.”

“We wanted to create something that was bigger than a conventional stage. This tour was big enough to make a purpose built structure,” says Mark Fisher, U2 stage designer. I wanted to create a transparent stage and really needed a video screen that would fit in that environment, a round screen that would not block the view for the audience. Barco’s FLX gave us the chance to create this. We were happy to be working with Barco again; they have helped very well in the past and delivered an extraordinary product for this show.”

Carl Rijsbrack, Vice President product management, comments: This is the third time we are supporting U2 in the new millennium and in response to the market’s demand for unlimited creativity, we have created the FLX single pixel platform. The FLX LED pixel modules can be mounted onto any possible structure, creating any shape designers want to.”

Frederic Opsomer, Vice President of Barco’s Innovative Designs, adds “There have been many evolutions in the LED video market for concert touring, from a fixed IMAG screen to moving screens to transformable screens now. This is the fifth time I have been working with U2 and it is again a big honor to be part of it. The entertainment business is constantly asking for new and innovating products, even in these difficult times and the U2 360° tour is a perfect example of this.”

In addition to the giant LED screen, Barco integrated a total of 1,200 FLX-60 pixel modules surrounding the edges of both the A and B stages and the bridges. The stage LEDs provide an extra dimension to the graphic show projected on the screen. Almost one thousand customized lights, specifically designed for this tour and manufactured in the Barco premises, light up the stage canvas for an even more memorable show.

- DIGITAL SIGNAGE UNIVERSE

Bono and co are big rather than clever at the start of their latest world tour but the power they unleash is still awe-inspiring

Photograph: LLUIS GENE/Getty Images

Where do you go when you have already reinvented the stadium rock show twice over? U2’s answer, for a while, was to strip things back and play indoor arenas, the group’s music on both All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000) and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004) reflecting the sense of a band retrenching and reconnecting with their core sound and their traditional audience.

Now, having released the transitional No Line On The Horizon, a semi-experimental album that divided critics and fans alike, U2 have returned with a stadium spectacular that is epic to the point of overwhelming. Not even the groundbreaking multimedia overload of the early 90s Zoo TV tour or the surrealist invention of the later Popmart extravaganza quite prepares me for the sight that greets me as I enter the packed and sweltering Camp Nou for the first date of the group’s much anticipated 360° world tour.

Imagine one of Louise Bourgeois’s giant spider sculptures redesigned by the art director of Blade Runner and you are maybe halfway there. And that’s before the giant sci-fi installation begins to light up and throb above a vast circular stage complete with extended walkways and bridges. U2 in the round is what we have been promised but the scale of the set, and the stage itself, makes me wonder whether anyone – even a group as vaultingly ambitious as U2 – could ever compete with it. My fears, as it turns out, are not altogether unfounded.

U2’s imminent arrival is announced to the boisterous and partisan 90,000-strong audience by the countdown interlude from David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”. Larry appears alone, then the Edge and Adam, and finally, as the adulation reaches fever pitch, the main man himself, who looks fitter and leaner than of late. They tear into a thunderous, if murky, “Breathe”, the first of four songs from their recent album. It’s a brave move but one that doesn’t really pay dividends until the signature synthetic riff that propels “Get On Your Boots” ignites the faithful. Above them, the visuals are, for once, spartan and inventive but when your eyes leave the giant projection screen it is difficult for a moment to spot Bono on the circular runway that allows him – and the others, even Larry at one point – to stride out into the crowd. At times, too, the four tiny figures on stage look dwarfed by the extent of their conceptual ambition. At others, they simply seem miles apart – musically as well as physically. Tonight U2’s bigness is threatening to undercut their greatness.

“Beautiful Day” briefly puts things right: taut and propulsive, the crowd feeding off its soaring dynamic. “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” is the first of several crowd-pleasing standards, and it drifts into an impromptu take of Primal Scream’s “Movin’ On Up”, the crowd singing along in relief as much as abandonment. The goodwill coming off the audience for what is a loose and uneven U2 set is extraordinary. It is a first night, though, and you sense that, as always, the group will be firing on all fronts when they have worked out the set’s often uneven running order and Bono has found a way to own this vast stage.

Both “Angel of Harlem” and “The Unforgettable Fire” are overhauled tonight, the former segueing into an extended homage to Michael Jackson that includes a snatch of “Man in the Mirror” and Bono singing falsetto on “Don’t Stop ’til You get Enough”. It made me long for some of the funkier U2 songs like “Lemon” to break up what is a relentlessly pummelling rock show. The thunderous techno overload that ended “Crazy Tonight” just felt wrong, and I waited in vain for an acoustic interlude. The vast crowd, though, were on their side all the way. Having moved up to the press area that hangs over the lip of the uppermost tier of the arena, I felt the whole stadium shake ominously beneath me when “Vertigo” ignited the masses.

This being a U2 show, there were the requisite big non-musical statements, not least a satellite link-up with the astronauts circling the earth in the International Space Station. Having pulled off that one, though, everyone, even Bono, seemed lost for words. Then he saved the moment by signing their commander up for his ONE campaign to end global debt and Aids.

A stirring “Walk On” was dedicated to the Burmese prisoner of conscience, Aung San Suu Kyi, a parade of people marching onto the circular lip of the stage wearing masks of her face. Whatever you think of U2, they know how to pull off the grand gesture, both musically and in terms of global political awareness. A giant video of Archbishop Tutu, though, cajoling and congratulating the U2 faithful into activism, had the unfortunate side effect of making him look – and sound – even more eccentric than usual. No mean feat.

The marathon first night show drew to a close with a seriously off-kilter “One”, which limped to a premature end, was resuscitated, but still sounded like the guitar was way out of tune. Put it down to first night gremlins. Then the inevitable “With or Without You”, which was carried by 90,000 voices, and a valedictory but ragged “Moment of Surrender”, with Bono’s voice sounding parched by the 100-degree heat and the effort of the preceding two hours.

As U2 shows go, then, this was a wavery and fitfully brilliant performance. You have to admire their nerve and the scale of their ambition, even if, as tonight, it gets in the way of their invention. It will be interesting to see how this tour shapes up, and if U2 can regain command of the mothership before it touches down on these shores.

- Sean O’Hagan, The Observer

Yesterday we posted a Crackberry.com post about the upcoming U2 app called “U2 Mobile Album“. Now here is the commercial that is starting to be seen in theaters & on TV.

I’ll never get used to seeing my book in different languages.

The translation is being published by Menart, which I understand to be a music/record label that has just started translating and publishing books, too. And “U2 Dnevnik” is the first book they chose to translate! What’s really amazing to me is how incredibly enthusiastic Menart is about publishing and promoting this book. Get this:

• Just yesterday, they hosted a U2 Warm-up Party which included a DJ, a U2 tribute band, and “U2 Dnevnik” — all of this on an airplane, it seems! not an airplane, as Marin says in the comments below. Thx for clarifying that, Marin.
• On July 9, Menart is hosting a media event announcing the book. They invited me to attend, but it’s way too expensive to fly to Zagreb (about $3,000 USD) so they’ve asked me to send a 10-minute video answering some questions that the press might want answered. They say the video will air on Croatian TV (I’m not making that up) and during the press event.
• They’ve signed on Vecernji.hr as the media partner for the book launch, and they’re doing a contest where U2 fans will send in questions, they’ll pick the 10 best for me to answer, and when the answers are published, the winning fans get a copy of the book and a CD. (Presumably No Line….)

Is that amazing, or what? And to think that I couldn’t even convince my hometown newspaper to do a writeup on the book….

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

New Blackberry Loves U2 Ad

That’s what happened to me a few months ago when I was adding yet another one to the pile and my dresser wouldn’t shut completely. Me being somewhat of a neat freak, this bugged me to the point of taking many of them to Goodwill and sorting the rest into piles (travel, concerts, etc.). The pile that was the largest was easily the U2 pile (21 shirts in all).

So, I decided to do what I did a few years ago when I had the same problem: hire someone to craft a quilt of those memories. It’s a practical way to recycle, a space saver (in my drawers, at least), and an easy conversation starter when hosting visitors.

Said quilt arrived in the mail today. Though I didn’t only use concert shirts (or even all the U2 shirts I have), all of the ones shown below have something to do with the band (i.e. in the bottom left corner is my first ONE shirt from volunteering for the campaign). I can’t stop looking at it, remembering all of the good times I had.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

U2, Keeping Me Warm at Night

By Neil McCormick

Early on in discussions for the launch of the latest U2 tour, Bono floated the possibility that they would become the first band to play a gig on the moon. Larry shot that idea down however. He pointed  out that there would be no atmosphere…

Ah, the old ones are … well, not the best … but the old ones, anyway.

Ever since U2 blew the possibilities for live event staging wide open with their multi-media Zoo TV tour, they have been caught in a peculiar trap: how to satisfy audience expectations for hi-tech, cutting edge spectacle while rooting the experience in the very human, emotional contact with fans that is at the heart of their appeal. In other words, how to make it bigger and more intimate at the same time.

U2 360 is their latest attempt to reconcile these sometimes conflicting demands. It cost over $100 million to stage, and the programme credits run to three tightly printed pages. Purpose built for stadiums, it is effectively a stage within the stadium space. U2 play in the round, roughly in the centre of the venue, complete with bridges and runways, so that no corner is too far from the action, with band members able to move easily around, constantly interacting with different sections of the crowd. Towering over them, standing on four great legs, is a construction housing the lighting rig, speakers and (rising and falling) a vast circular ring of screens on which are displayed artfully integrated images. The whole thing looks like a giant alien spaceship, and the sci-fi theme is pushed throughout, with the band entering to the countdown from David Bowie’s Space Oddity and exiting to Elton John’s Rocket Man. They even pause proceedings for a satellite video link up with the International Space Station in orbit around earth, allowing for some typical U2 calls for global peace and love with a futuristic twist.

Read the complete blog post by Neil McCormick on Telegraph.co.uk >>

(AP) — MADRID – Barcelona city authorities say they might fine band U2 for rocking too long and loudly during rehearsals for their latest world tour.

While the city says it is proud to host the beginning of U2’s world tour, it also said in a statement Thursday that one of its districts received a formal complaint by residents about the band playing after permitted hours and making noise.

The Irish quartet kicked off their “360 degree” tour at Barcelona football club’s Camp Nou stadium by playing 22 songs in front of 90,000 fans on Tuesday.

The show features a large, modernistic four-legged construction which houses what the band calls “giant spherical screen.”

Singer Bono told the audience after four songs, “This has been our neighborhood for the last couple of weeks.”

NEW YORK, July 2 /PRNewswire/ — Tuesday night saw the launch of (RED)ZONES at the first U2 360 Degrees concert in Barcelona where U2 kicked off their new tour to a rapturous sold out crowd of 90,000 fans.

(RED)ZONES are prime location areas directly adjacent to the stage which will be present throughout the U2 tour. The tickets for the (RED)ZONES are available through auction with the band’s portion of the ticket sales going to the Global Fund to help fund AIDS programs in Africa.

“We’re really proud and grateful to have the support of U2 in our work. In a short time, (RED) has raised over $130 million for the Global Fund through partners and events and that money has already supported programs that have reached more than four million people,” said Susan Smith Ellis, CEO, (RED).

“(RED)’s contribution to the Global Fund in just three years is over $130 million. This is not only helping hundreds of thousands of people in Rwanda, Swaziland, Ghana and Lesotho where the money is at work on the ground but (RED), through its partners’ marketing efforts is also having a tremendous impact on public awareness of the HIV pandemic in Africa. We are honoured to have both the crucial support of the money flowing in, and the vote of confidence in the Global Fund’s way of providing aid,” said Professor Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

The U2 360 Degrees Tour will play 15 cities in Europe finishing at Cardiff’s Millennium on 22nd August before heading to North America, 20 shows starting in Chicago September 12th. In 2009, in just 44 shows the tour will perform for over 3 million fans. And (RED) will be at all shows, with our sister organization ONE, letting people know how they can get involved in both helping eliminate AIDS in Africa through (RED) and fighting extreme poverty through ONE. Along with ONE and (RED), the tour is also associated with the Burma Campaign, Amnesty International, Music Rising, the Angiogenesis Foundation and Mencap.

(RED)ZONES are a continuation of (RED)’s growing musical partnerships including (RED)WIRE (http://www.redwire.com/), an online music service that raises money for the Global Fund, and (RED)NIGHTS, a series of concerts that engages artists and their fans to raise awareness for the issue of AIDS in Africa.

About (RED)(TM) and (PRODUCT)RED(TM)

(RED)’s primary objective is to engage the private sector in raising awareness and funds for the Global Fund, to help eliminate AIDS in Africa. Companies whose products take on the (PRODUCT)RED mark contribute a significant percentage of the sales or portion of the profits from that product to the Global Fund to finance AIDS programs in Africa, with an emphasis on the health of women and children. Current partners are: American Express (U.K. only), Apple, Converse, Gap, Emporio Armani, Hallmark, Dell, Windows and Starbucks. Since its launch in the Spring of 2006, more than $130 million has been generated by (RED) for the Global Fund. (RED) money is at work in Swaziland, Rwanda, Ghana and Lesotho. 100% of the (RED) money goes to work on the ground in Africa. For more information, visit www.joinred.com.

About The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Since its creation in 2002, the Global Fund has become the dominant financer of programs to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, with approved funding of US $15 billion for programs in 140 countries. The Global Fund supports programs based on agreed performance targets and disburses money in response to proven results. At the end of 2008, programs supported by the Global Fund have averted more than 3.5 million deaths by providing AIDS treatment for 2 million people, TB treatment for 4.6 million people, and by the distribution of 70 million insecticide-treated bed nets for the prevention of malaria worldwide. For more information visit www.theglobalfund.org.

SOURCE (RED)

1. Breathe
2. No Line On The Horizon
3. Get On Your Boots
4. Magnificent
5. Beautiful Day / Here Comes The Sun (snippet)
6. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / Movin’ On Up (snippet)
7. Desire / Billie Jean (snippet) / Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (snippet)
8. Party Girl
9. Electrical Storm
10. Unknown Caller
11. The Unforgettable Fire
12. City Of Blinding Lights
13. Vertigo
14. Crazy Tonight (remix)
15. Sunday Bloody Sunday
16. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
17. MLK
18. Walk On / You’ll Never Walk Alone (snippet)
19. Where The Streets Have No Name
20. One

Encore(s):
21. Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
22. With Or Without You
23. Crazy Tonight (normal version)
24. Moment of Surrender

Electrical Storm (1st time played live)

Back in March we first heard that BlackBerry would be sponsoring U2’s Tour (no, not that Tour) that kicked off in Barcelona on June 30th. Well there was no sign of a RIM back at the opening gig, but it does look like the U2 Mobile Album is on the way. A teaser on BlackBerry.com gives a quick run through of what looks to be a “U2 App” with music, photos, tour info and more. No big details on any of it, but certainly good things are to come…at least if you’re a U2 fan. You can sign up here to receive updates on the Mobile Album. Head over to http://na.blackberry.com/eng/u2/ for more info. Hat Tip to Matt for jogging our brains to post on this… we saw the site went live yesterday but somehow forgot to post on it (distracted by that other Tour perhaps).

- Crackberry.com

Check out exclusive footage from U2’s opening night concert in Barcelona! Includes performance clips and fan reactions.

Produced by Mark Haefeli Productions.