I am a massive U2 fan and I’m not ashamed to say it. In 1989, my uncle gave me a copy of Rattle ‘N’ Hum on cassette and on the long drive back from London to the Hampshire countryside listening to it on my Walkman, my life changed. Up until then, at the ripe old age of 13, I only had three albums: two Now compilations and the best of ELO, which my father bought me for Christmas aged four when he realised that every time they came on the radio, I danced around the front room like I’d drunk too much squash.
U2 are partly responsible for me wanting to be in the music industry – them and the Motown label. By nine, I’d decided to become a journalist, by the time I was 13, on hearing U2, I decided I wanted to be a music journalist. In 1991, when the band released Achtung Baby, I won a pre-release copy on Simon Mayo’s show and owing to my ‘huge enthusiasm’, Radio 1 asked if I would review the record live on air the next day, which I did. Rather amusingly, I couldn’t get my head around the change in direction and partly slated it. It later became my favourite U2 album. However, all of this set my plans in stone: I would head to London as soon as possible and get myself a writing job about music.
When I was 17, I spent all the money I had in the world (earned by working three jobs while doing my A Levels) on following the band around the UK and Ireland throughout the summer, sleeping in the back of a car. Bono pulled me up on stage to dance with him at Wembley Stadium, which was knee-shakingly exciting. I once spent £100 (a lot for a 15-year-old) on buying the stolen Achtung demos at a local record fair. Even when the PR sends me a free copy of the album, I still go out and buy it, just for the thrill. I have a special U2 box with everything they have ever released in a locked box under my bed. Yes: that’s the level of my fanaticism. How uncool must this seem to a bunch of music industry types?!
Watching all the kerfuffle about the release of No Line On The Horizon has consequently been particularly interesting for me, given my ‘obsession’. There have been a couple of comments on our message board this week which have stirred my thoughts - complaints are circulating in the media that the BBC has handed Universal untold amounts of free publicity in the run-up to the release and secondly, because the band decided to stream the album upfront on Spotify, some people seem to think the album sales will be affected.
If you click here, you can see the BBC U2 coverage: a Culture Show exclusive, two slots of R1, one on R2 and a R4 Front Row show. There will also be another announcement by tomorrow which involves the band and the BBC, but I’ve been sworn to absolute secrecy and can’t reveal what is. As a U2 fan, I’m loving it. Lauren Laverne certainly did a fantastic – and enviable job – in interviewing them for the Culture Show. I’m even at that stage where I have temporarily forgotten my gripes: Bono parading himself in the limelight with world leaders, the band switching their cash to Dutch tax-free accounts from Dublin, just in time for the economic meltdown which to-date has been felt more painfully in Ireland than other European countries, the Boyzone ‘moment’ in Sweetest Thing, the hairweave, the ‘re-applying for the job of best band in the world’ and so on ad infinitum.
As a working member of the music industry (or should that be ‘serving’ the music industry?), I am slightly miffed by the BBC’s unprecedented coverage of U2’s new release. The BBC’s level of support towards the music industry is good, but by no means great – look at the debacle over TOTP for a start. The BBC is great when it’s delivering coverage of one-off events: Glastonbury, for example, or Summer Sundae on 6Music. The playlisting on R1 and R2, in my opinion, leaves a lot to be desired, but on the other hand, without Steve Lamacq, Colin Murray, Mark Riley and Gideon Coe, in particular, many new bands wouldn’t get the national coverage they deserve. Overall, I would argue that the industry’s relationship with the BBC is hit and miss. However, Universal’s relationship with the BBC is quite obviously alive and kicking. One can't help but wonder if the label group’s dominance in recorded music extends to influence over the Beeb? Maybe I’m being cynical, but if a very healthy relationship exists (and no doubt with the arrival of Lesley Douglas that relationship continues to flourish), then perhaps Universal could use its power for good? Lobbying for the return of some more music TV programming would be a good start.
With regards to the fellows who see technological advances as damaging to album sales, I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest it’s all nonsense. No doubt the album sales figures will tell the full story, but No Line On The Horizon’s pre-release streaming on Spotify will not stop the fans, heading out in hoards, snapping up every available format there is. As my brief re-telling of my teenage U2 obsession reveals, I would have bought anything on offer and my first album by U2 was a copy! What was interesting about the U2/Spotify deal was that Apple seems to have been sidelined: no limited edition iPods and iTunes exclusives this time around. It’s undoubtedly interesting to see how the band uses the latest ‘killer app’ for their own purposes: a freedom which isn’t open to all bands, that’s for sure.
Anyway, turn off your TV and radio now if you’re sick of the sight of Bono’s face. The machine is in mid-flight and there’s some time to go before it lands.
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