U2 – Skin Back Alley

It’s “week long residency month” as U2 book five nights of Fallon

04/11/2014 by skinbackalley, posted in News

Photo (C) John Wright

Hot on the heels of Foo Fighters playing a week of live slots on the Late Show With David Letterman, and Metallica announcing a week long residency on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson, U2 are the latest band to announce a residency of their own.

The Irish rockers have revealed that they will be playing a five night stand on the NBC flagship chat show The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

U2’s stint will begin on the 17th of November, the same week as that of Metallica’s TV appearances. Anyone who happens to be a fan of both bands will be pleased to hear that the shows don’t overlap in the schedules however.

U2 previously appeared on the debut episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on the 17th of February, performing their charity single “Invisible.”

Back then Bono and Edge told Fallon that they were still working on their new album, with over 30 songs in the works. Who knew that just seven months later they would devalue music forever by forcing their recent album Songs Of Innocence on unwitting iTunes users the world over.*

*other opinions are available

U2 album giveaway “as damaging as piracy” says ERA

18/09/2014 by skinbackalley, posted in News

The Entertainment Retailers Associated has branded U2’s recent album giveaway “as damaging as piracy”, and says that all it has succeeded in doing is devaluing music further.

Said ERA chairman, Paul Quirk: “Giving away music like this is as damaging to the value of music as piracy, and those who will suffer most are the artists of tomorrow. U2 have had their career, but if one of the biggest rock bands in the world are prepared to give away their new album for free, how can we really expect the public to spend £10 on an album by a newcomer?”

The ERA statement also notes that aggregate sales of U2’s catalogue amounted to 697 albums across Great Britain and Northern Ireland the week before the band announced it would give away 500m copies of Songs Of Innocence. Last week they amounted to 6,744, an 868% increase, but worth less than £50,000 at retail prices. Of those sales, 95.4% were digital downloads, as physical retailers were not briefed in advance to order in extra stock.

U2 and Apple “gifted” their new album, Songs Of Innocence, to 500m iTunes users last week, but many of those users complained about the album being downloaded into their music collections without their permission. Apple very quickly released an online tool that allowed users to remove the album from their devices should they wish to.

“Some customers asked for the ability to delete Songs Of Innocence from their library, so we set up itunes.com/soi-remove to let them easily do so. Any customer that needs additional help should contact AppleCare,” Apple spokesman Adam Howorth told the BBC.

The Edge Launches Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund

09/01/201310/01/2013 by skinbackalley, posted in News

U2 guitarist The Edge has launched a relief fund for those affected by Hurricane Sandy.

The Music Rising charity was originally founded with Gibson Guitar CEO Henry Juszkiewicz to provide musical equipment and financial support to those affected by Hurricane Katrina. The group will now shift focus to the lives destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in October of last year.

Music Rising has donated an initial $250,000 to fund the rebuilding of school music programs in the tri-state area and has asked for more donations to continue their work with other music-based groups.

For more information or to make a donation you can head to musicrising.org

The Edge joins Muse for Glastonbury Headline Set

27/06/201027/06/2010 by skinbackalley, posted in News

Muse closed their Pyramid Stage headline set at Glastonbury last night with a guest appearance from U2’s The Edge.

The British trio brought their unique brand of epic rock to the festival for the second time in six years, although played with a surprisingly spartan stage set. They saved the biggest surprise of the evening until the encore, however.

Following a significant gap after closer Stockholm Syndrome, Muse returned to the stage with the U2 guitarist who added his signature sound to a rendition of Where The Streets Have No Name.

U2 had been set to headline the festival this year, but were forced to pull out after Bono injured his back and required surgery. Gorillaz stepped into the breach, headlining on Friday night.

Muse’s set list was: Uprising / Supermassive Black Hole / New Born / Map Of The Problematique / Guiding Light / Citizen Erased / Nishe / United States Of Eurasia / Feeling Good / Undisclosed Desires / Resistance / Hysteria / Time Is Running Out / Starlight / Stockholm Syndrome / Where The Streets Have No Name / Plug In Baby
Knights Of Cydonia