It's incredible to see the media go in to free fall when the U2 show comes to town. As an exercise in how to promote your show no one does it better and no one will ever do it better. It's close to an invasion, no matter what may be going on in the world, U2 becomes the number one news story. In a day when record (CD) sales are at an all time low and touring is the only way you can hope to trigger off what meagre sales are out there, they literally command centre stage.The public may not have fallen in love with their latest CD but wild horses wouldn't keep them away from the live show.
No matter what anyone says about U2, whether it's the new album, the carbon emissions debate over the tour, or anything else for that matter the one thing you can't ignore is the experience almost every single person who attends the show takes home. For them it's worth every penny. U2 bring a happiness that a lot of other bands don't and for that audience it's the best night of their lives. Paul McGuinness has been quoted as saying they don't break even until the back end of the US tour so you cannot argue about their desire to give people an experience second to none.
I don't think the tour will have a significant effect on their record sales either and I'm sure they know that better than anyone. Their motivation comes from their desire to give something back to the people who have stuck with them forever. It's letting them experience something unique, something completely different to anything. Add to that the perfect host for corporate entertainment, a U2 show remains the place to be seen.
But what could they do next, where can they go? Personally I think it'll be stripped right down and the four guys will take their songs to the masses. U2 have reached such a level now that being the 'hottest ticket' in town allows them to do anything. They've earned it. They haven't earned it because of a gigantic claw and a production of epidemic proportion, they earned it from 30 plus years on the road. They've earned it from playing every tiny club that wanted to book them to every fan who wanted to see them. They've earned it from signing every autograph for every one of those fans who believed in them enough to give them a chance to do this. They posed for every picture with every fan no matter how exhausted they were. For many years they played to under a hundred people and treated every one of them to a concert of a lifetime. They stepped out front to meet and greet the fans for as long as it was safe to do so. And through it all they stuck at it. They paid their dues.
U2, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Bruce or Led Zeppelin don't have to prove anything to me or anyone else. They earned it. It's called a work ethic and it's blood, sweat and tears. It's called taking chances and making mistakes and it's called entertainment. It isn't about any one tour, it's about understanding why you came in to this business and giving people something to cherish. The experience, the opportunity to take their hard earned cash and spend it how they want to. And if that is on two hours of a thrill of a lifetime who are we to judge? When an act get this big let's not lose site of the fact that they are still meant to entertain. It's what they do and it's what they should always do.