I was wrong.

Chris emailed me a few days ago to share the news that his U2 Trabant — the male, dark “UNO” car from the “One” video — arrived in the U.S. last week.

Chris found the car for sale on eBay Germany over the winter and won the auction. (He didn’t say how much he paid.) He made arrangements to have it shipped over from Germany to Baltimore, picked it up there, and hauled it home to North Carolina.

From what he can tell, Chris says he’s the car’s third owner since the video shoot and he thinks there have been some minor touch-ups on the exterior paint (mainly around the face and hands).

Overall, the car’s not in great shape — the rear window on the driver’s side is missing and the window on the driver’s door is stuck and won’t roll up, so years of rain and snow have damaged the interior. The kind of weather you see below in a photo Chris took when he went to Germany (near Frankfurt; the Berlin in our headline is a reference to the music video) in January to claim his purchase.

So, what have you added to your U2 collection lately?

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

From Berlin to North Carolina: A U2 Fan Gets His Trabant

Wanting to send out personalized U2-themed wishes this morning, I went searching for some great St. Patrick’s Day-related U2 footage and stumbled upon a gem from the early 80s. As addicted to MTV as I was at the time, I’m sure I probably saw its original airing, but I truly have no memory of it.

All four band members wander about Dublin, saying “hi” to America and talking/joking about the holiday. And of course, Bono does most of the talking.

Best wishes to all of you for a great St. Patrick’s Day! Enjoy the clip.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

U2 Wishes MTV Happy St. Pat’s Day

Bono’s got way more lines than I thought he would; such as, “Move it, move it, move it, move it, move it.”

Does Springfield, OH, still claim John Legend as their hometown boy?  If so, hey John!  I’m just down the road here in Xenia.  Well done.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Bono: “Africa rising / Angélique Kidjo shining like a sun ray”

He goes on to remind readers that U2 aren’t new to remixes and that they are “unafraid to embrace experimentation,” crediting this philosophy for some of their success.

I’ll admit, I groaned when I learned there would be an album of remixes as this year’s membership gift, but for what it is, I’ll admit it’s well done.

To read Sims’ full rave, click here.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Artificial Horizon Gets Huffington Praise

I consider “Moment of Surrender” one of U2’s finest songs and they proved it live. It is a powerful song about a person who has hit rock bottom. Hearing it is an emotionally draining experience every time for me. Adam’s bass on “Cedars of Lebanon” is remarkable. It sets the mood for the dark atmosphere in this song. “White As Snow” paints a beautiful image with its lyrics. Their most overtly religious album since October,  No Line on the Horizon shares a special bond with that early work. “Magnificent” is the older and enlightened sibling to the younger voice in “Gloria” that has faith but is still confused.

U2 made an album that was not safe. It was not made of a lot of songs that would jump on the charts, but it is an album that deals with a story of spiritual destruction and desire for rebirth. “Unknown Caller” is a perfect example of this theme. I believe the songs are placed in the order that they are for a reason. Each lyric and each note is sung and played exactly when it is supposed to be. Make no mistake, U2 want you to “work” for this album. They want you to invest your time into listening and thinking about it. If you put the effort in, you will reap the rewards.

A year later, I have so much more appreciation for it. As I examine its layers and realize how each contributed to the sonic canvas, I now see how these artists created their masterpiece.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Reflections on the Horizon

The project launched back in December, and the 50+ angels have been on tour around Ireland since then.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Edge Has an Angel

“I would love to play on the same stage as U2, The Stones and anybody out there who considers themself a world champion.

“You come on up on that stage with us baby. Show me what you got, and then we’ll show you what the big boys do.”

[My note to Gene: Real "big boys" don't require a bunch of gimmicks in order to perform, such as elaborate makeup, costumes, pyrotechnics, aerial apparatus -- and tongue extensions.]

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Kiss Challenge U2 And Rolling Stones To Stadium Duel

The BBC story states:

But the merchant Mr Peberdy dealt with in that transaction claims he was, in fact, a senior member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

“I was given clothes to make me look like a Muslim merchant. This was a trick for the NGOs,” says Gebremedhin Araya.

Underneath the sacks of grain he sold, he says, were sacks filled with sand.

He says he handed over the money he received to TPLF leaders, including Meles Zenawi – the man who went on to become Ethiopia’s prime minister in 1991.

Mr Meles, who is still in office, has declined to comment on the allegations.

To an extent, the global focus on Ethiopia and other parts of Africa came partially as a result of Live Aid. Perhaps this is why the ONE Campaign’s approach makes more sense than just giving donated cash to these unstable countries.

From a fan who supported the Live Aid / Band Aid cause, I am disappointed to find out that the good will of the people who contributed was met with such fraud. However, it just underscores the issues happening in these countries and the reason why activism is so important.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Live Aid Funds Spent On Guns

A 43-count indictment has been handed down to the owners of California-based Wiseguys Ticket and two others who prosecutors claim hacked into Ticketmaster’s ticketing system to buy large sums of tickets only to resell them illegally.

According to New Jersey’s The Star-Ledger, “Kenneth Lowson, 40, of Los Angeles, is the co-founder of Wiseguy Tickets Inc., which authorities said used software that impersonated individual ticket buyers and bombard online ticket services including Ticketmaster and Major League Baseball.” The report goes on to state, “authorities said Lowson and his three co-defendants committed fraud by using 100,000 internet protocol addresses, a variety of company names, hundreds of e-mails and a web of credit-card numbers to hide the fact that all the tickets were being bought by a single company — not individual fans. According to the indictment, they also committed a variety of computer crimes by using an army of online drones to circumvent security systems and enter ticket-selling websites ahead of fans. When Ticketmaster and other companies beefed up security, Wiseguy devised different ways to break through, authorities said.”

The New York Daily News reported, “The defendants figured out a way to automate CAPTCHA, allowing them to complete a blizzard of purchases in seconds and beat fans to good seats, the feds said. They made $29 million reselling 1.5 million prime tickets to ticket brokers, sometimes at $1,000 markups, prosecutors said.”

CNN reported “The indictment alleges the men were aware the specialized network “made it nearly impossible for the average consumer to buy the best seats to the most popular events,” the release says. Prosecutors cite a July 2008 Bruce Springsteen concert at New York’s Giants Stadium in which they say Wiseguys bought up nearly half the 440 floor seats made available to the public. According to the release — citing internal company reports — the Wiseguy employees gloated over the massive purchase, calling the success “straight domination,” and saying they bought the “best ringsides by far.”

A couple of the defendants are currently out on bail, and prosecutors are trying to keep co-owner Lowson behind bars, arguing that he may be a flight risk due to his offshore accounts. The other defendant is currently in Indonesia, negotiating his surrender. If found guilty on all counts, they would spend five years in prison (conspiracy charge) and 20 years in prison on each of the wire fraud charges.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Ticket Scammers Beware!

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Noted Author and Musician – and U2 Confidante – Neil McCormick to Appear at Lincoln Park

Author of “Killing Bono” will be keynote presenter at this year’s LAVA Festival on May 27

The Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center is pleased to announce that internationally-known author and musician Neil McCormick will deliver the keynote presentation at this year’s Literary and Visual Arts (LAVA) Festival on Thursday, May 27, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for McCormick’s presentation are $5.00 and are available through the Lincoln Park box office, (724) 643-9004.

Neil McCormick is one of the UK’s best known music critics. His weekly column in London’s Daily Telegraph is syndicated around the world and he is a regular guest on BBC Television and radio. He is a prolific blogger (via www.neilmccormick.co.uk) and tweeter (@neil_mccormick). Neil started working for Hot Press music magazine in Dublin as a 17-year-old punk rock art school dropout in 1978. He was a schoolfriend and confidante of U2, and misspent most of his youth as singer in a succession of obscure bands, including Frankie Corpse and the Undertakers, The Modulators, Yeah!Yeah! and Shook Up!

McCormick’s musical misadventures are laid out in painful detail in the acclaimed 2003 memoir Killing Bono (published in the UK as I Was Bono’s Doppelganger) which Bono described as “Very funny, very moving.’ Indeed, Bono was so impressed with Neil’s autobiography, he asked him to collaborate on U2’s. Neil is the author of U2 By U2, the best selling music book in the world in 2006. He is currently working on his first novel. Killing Bono is in the process of being filmed in Ireland, with Ben Barnes (The Picture Of Dorian Gray and Prince Caspian in the Narnia film series) starring as Neil and Martin McCann as Bono, directed by Nick Hamm (The Hole, Godsend). It will be released late 2010. Despite the discouragement of some of his fellow critics, Neil continues to make music on the sidelines under the alias The Ghost Who Walks.

“I was Neil McCormick’s fan at school,” says Bono. “He was much cooler than me, a much better writer and I thought he’d make a much better rock star. I was wrong on one count.”

At his Lincoln Park appearance, McCormick will be taking a novel approach to reading from his work, discussing how his life and art intertwine, and performing some of his original songs.

Lincoln Park’s LAVA Festival (formerly “Synergy”) is a two-day celebration (May 26-27) of the literary and visual arts, featuring professional and student exhibitions and readings. Past keynote presenters have included New York Times #1 best-selling author Jeffrey Zaslow (The Last Lecture) and filmmaker Bill Hinzman, who appeared in and co-produced the original Night of the Living Dead. A complete schedule of this year’s events will be released soon. The student portion of the LAVA Festival is sponsored by the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School, under the direction of media arts instructor Scott Andrew, and Dan LeRoy, director of the literary arts department.

The Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center is located 45 minutes northwest of Pittsburgh in Midland, Beaver County. The $30M facility opened in 2006 and is home to the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School, a Pennsylvania public charter school providing a state-approved academic program along with professional training in music, theater, dance, creative writing, and media arts. The Center is also home to the Henry Mancini Arts Academy, and presents a variety of professional and student performances each year.

For more information contact Stephen Catanzarite, Managing Director, (724) 643-9004, ext. 1301.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Catch Neil McCormick Stateside This May