Learning a Lesson.....

I let my dogs out for a last pee last night and both dogs raced across the lawn, and came to an abrupt stop with a yelp from Pepsi. I went out to see what was going on and there, with the dogs hovering over it, was a little hedgehog curled into a ball! Weird that at the end of November a hedgehog is out and about, but the mild weather must have delayed its hibernation. Little Pepsi must have sniffed the hedgehog a bit too closely and got aquainted with it's spines LOL!

Losing U2?

I’ve given myself a few days to calm down after reading on U2.com that the only gig in the UK and Ireland U2 will be doing in 2010 is the Glastonbury festival. Now I’ve been a fan since 1983, I can read shite like this from Ian McCulloch and know it’s more sour grapes than truth, I’ve been angry with U2 over various things over the years but this has taken the biscuit for me (what a strange phrase that is!).

1. First off everyone was encouraged to re-subscribe early (five months early in my case) in order to get new presales for the 2010 tour. This made U2.com seems more like a ticket agency than anything else, I thought we paid a sub for the fan club of which a presale allocation was a possible perk? To me this was clearly a way to add to the coffers by getting expensive subscriptions early, and in a time of real financial hardship for most ordinary fans, I felt that was out of order. I didn’t re-sub and will not be doing so in March when it is due, bye bye U2.com.

2. So then there’s the announcement of Glastonbury, great (though I think it will be a tricky gig for them) but all the tickets sold out when released in October. So no U2 fans who didn’t already have Glasto tickets will be able to see U2 play there.

3. And then there’s the announcement that there will be no other gigs in the UK or Ireland. Some people say well we shouldn’t expect them to play, I don’t feel that way, I’ve always said I expect good albums and good gigs from U2, that’s their job. And when other countries the band played this year (Germany, Spain, France, USA, Canada) get more gigs in 2010 I expect that for the UK and Ireland too. They may go back on this and play at least in Ireland, I hope they do, Larry mentioned looking for somewhere in Northern Ireland to play and there were rumours of the tour finishing in Ireland. Bono often talks about his “tribe” being there, maybe the band should remember they are Irish a bit more often!

4. So what about all the fans in the UK and Ireland who resubscribed just so they would get presales for shows in their country? Well they are left pretty much high and dry, all presales for European shows except two have gone ahead and only a handful of dates have not sold out (and I’m pretty sure what’s left will be the most expensive tickets). So even if they were able to afford to travel, they are restricted to two gigs where they can use their presales to purchases tickets. Maybe more shows will be added to the tour, I hope so for the fans’ sakes.

5. A friend of mine has said she feels she is “losing” the U2 she’s loved for as long as I have and I know what she means. I’m still a fan, but my relationship with the band is being tested. I read this on @U2 and at times it touched on some of the things I feel too. I felt they were often speaking for me, they inspired me and I respected a lot of things they stood for. I still feel those things, but the latter is fast being eroded as the corporate side of U2 becomes ever more obvious.

6. The U2 Organisation has become all powerful and seems to be driven mainly by commercial values now. Don’t get me wrong the band needs to make money and profits, and needs an organisation behind them, but now that seems to be becoming more important than anything else. Bono once said that you have to be careful that in order to to defeat the monster you don’t become a monster. I think the U2 organisation (and by default U2 themselves as what it does is in their name) has now become that monster and there’s a danger that it will swallow U2 and all the special things that makes the band unique.

U2 For Glastonbury 2010

Well, well, well, after all the years of rumours that U2 would play at Glastonbury it is actually happening! They have been confirmed as playing at the festival next year. It's close shave, they are squeezing the gig in between shows in North America on the 3rd leg of the 360 Tour. I'll get to see it on TV anyway, so that's all the UK and Ireland is getting, I'm not happy. I sometimes think also that they have forgotten they are Irish! Read more here

Floods in Cumbria

Cumbria is a rural county which rarely makes the national news, but this week we have made international news, and all because of freak weather. At the end of last week in some parts of the county twelve inches of rain fell in 24 hours, the highest rainfall ever in the UK.

Luckily for me where I live, it was wet but not to that degree, the worst rainfall was further west and south of the county. The towns of Workington and Cockermouth were worst hit, I could not believe the TV film of a raging torrent of water flowing through the main street of Cockermouth, usually a quiet, picturesque town on the edge of the beautiful Lake District. On the radio all I hear is news about closed roads, overflowing lakes, collapsing bridges. And worst of all the latter - collapsing bridges - claimed the life of policeman Bill Barker as he was helping others by stopping people crossing an unsafe bridge which gave way under his feet. My thoughts are with his family and all the people who have lost their homes in this terrible deluge. Despite our high tech society there is no power like Mother Nature unleashed.

Bill Barker, rest in peace.

A Dog’s Revenge

I couldn’t stop laughing when I first saw this advertisement http://video.aol.co.uk/video-detail/pedigree-jumbone-advert/4139010538 on TV, any dog owner will relate to it I’m sure. They should make more funny ads, people remember them and it’s good to have a laugh!

Work and Concerts

Time has been flying by recently and I haven't had much time to write in my blog. I've started my job and am really enjoying my little job, who'd have thought it, my new career as a cleaner! It's totally stressfree, I just do my work and go home. I work in a lovely well loved primary school and the teachers I meet are really nice. It is two hours a day non-stop physical work and I am just getting used to it - the first week I had aching muscles in every part of my body! But now I can feel I am losing weight which can only be a good thing.

Still no UK/Irish dates. What's going on? My friends and I have bought tickets for German shows in Frankfurt and Hannover, we don't want to risk missing out on seeing U2 live next year. If it's just those two shows for me I'm ok with that, but maybe in time more dates will be announced.

Book Review: Power’s Garden, by Dianne Ebertt Beeaff

I haven’t had much time for reading recently but I did get to read this book.  It’s set in Arizona in the early part of the twentieth century and is a tale of a clash of cultures, love, death and dark family secrets.  It is based around two families, the Mormon Beechams and the Texan Brennicks.  There are lots of twists and turns in the storyline that keeps you hooked and wondering what will happen next.

The main characters are the gentle Malvina Beecham and the feisty Duett Brennick and, though they are very different characters, their friendship crosses the divide.  They are also strong women (especially Duett who has an array of wonderful Texan phrases)who you come to admire.

The novel  describes the harsh, unyielding landscape of Arizona and the difficulties early settlers had in surviving there well.  I come from somewhere totally different but could easily picture the valley and homesteads in my mind from the descriptions.

Power’s Garden is good read, I would recommend it and hope that perhaps there will be a sequel in the future.

Bono on Berlin, Germany and U2

Bono has written another guest column for the New York Times titled Five Scenes, One Theme: A True if Unlikely Story.  In this article – written in a different style from his usual - he weaves together the unity of Berlin and Germany, the fight against African poverty and the healing and rebirth of U2 through the creation of the song One.  I think it is a brilliant article, very well written with wisdom and humour. 

And I must say I think Angela Merkel’s father gave her very good advice in the words “Always be more than you appear and never appear to be more than you are.”

Read Bono’s column here

Berlin, The Brandenburg Gate, Reunification and U2

Berlin was wet, grey and very cold but I was still very excited to be there. I found the railway station at Schonefeld airport ok and got on the train that was supposed to go to a station where I could change for one near my hotel. But it didn’t go there and I had to hop off and get another train to the Ostbahnhof, but couldn’t find the train I needed so I hopped into a taxi. It was soooo cold and it was lovely to be whisked off to the hotel. The driver told me that they had their first snow today! That showed I was definitely in the east of Europe!

The hotel, Alt Berliner, was really unusual, you entered through huge, old, carved wooden doors into a gorgeous hallway with an original tiled floor. The wide flights of stairs had beautiful wooden banisters. There were various old household items in the hallway too, almost like stepping into the past. Reception was warm and cosy, the receptionist friendly. My third floor room was lovely and it looked out over an internal courtyard.

After settling in, I wrapped myself up in a warm jacket, scarf, hat and gloves and went out for walk. Potsdammer Platz, with it’s glimmering new buildings was ten minutes away. It was lively, with shops, swanky hotels, cinemas, a little market area with stalls selling food, Christmas decorations, hats and scarves, sweets, there was even a carousel for kids. I walked another five minutes and there I was on Unten den Linden (under the lindens, apparently the only trees that would grow on the street) And there on one side of the Pariser Platz was the famous Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of German reunification. Normally it stand there in the square in all it’s glory, but now all the preparations for the U2 concert filled the square, yet the Gate was still awe-inspiring even with the work going on around it.

I could hardly believe I was there, everything had happened so quickly, I’ve always wanted to go to Berlin ever since I was very young. My mother was German and when we used to go to visit relatives in Germany we got the ferry from the UK to Hook of Holland and then got the train to her home town in Westphalia in the then Western Germany. It always felt like an exciting adventure to me, I watched the station names pass by, Gouda - Utrecht – Amersfoort – Hengelo – Rheine – Osnabruck are some I remember, everything was so different. That train’s destination was sometimes Berlin, to me a mysterious place behind the Iron Curtain - in those days the Cold War was in full swing. It always fascinated me, it seemed in another world in my young mind, and in reality it was. And here I was standing at the Brandenburg gate in the now free city!

I heard lots of Irish voices around and a few fans stood by the hotel adjacent to the square, so U2 were probably staying there. It was too cold for me to hang around for them and I left and walked back to my hotel.

The next day I woke to very welcome blue skies and sunshine! After breakfast I walked to Potsdammer Platz once more to catch the sightseeing bus. I wasn’t going to be in Berlin long so I wanted to see what I could and I thought the best way to do that was to go on a tour.

One of the first things we saw was part of the Wall that remains, there are bits of it still around, there was also a small piece in situ in Potsdammer Platz. It looked really forbidding and to think there was twenty eight miles of that wall! Nearby was the well-known Checkpoint Charlie with tourists posing for photos with a “guard”.

We passed an area with lots of colourful Trabants. Berlin Cathedral was magnificent, strangely surrounded by a lot of open ground where building work was going on. This kind of thing was evident in many areas in the city, they are probably areas in the east that had decayed buildings now demolished and new ones will take their place. We passed the famous satellite-like TV tower, another symbol visible from many parts of the city.

We drove down Friedrich Strasse and the guide told us one of the U-bahn (underground) lines ran under the street, it stayed open after the division of the city and guards on the East side made sure no one got onto the trains. It was hard to imagine that this city so divided until just twenty years ago.

Then we turned into Unten den Linden, the guide mentioned the U2 concert and I could hear music, so I think the band were sound checking at that lime. We went on past the Reichstag, impressive with its glass dome representing the original cupola (the building was severely damaged by a fire in the 1930‘s and also during the war, and was not fully restored until after reunification).

We passed by the Tiergarten, a very large park. On a traffic island on a busy roundabout within the park was the column on top of which was the Siegessaule, the golden angel of victory, she glistened in the sunshine. Of course I was taken back to U2’s video for Stay which featured the statue.

We went on to a main shopping area of the city and I saw the famous KaDeWe store. Then shortly afterwards we were back at Potsdammer Platz where I’d joined the tour and I got off the bus. I really enjoyed the tour and it gave me a good snapshot of the city.

For my lunch I got a bratwurst at one of the market stalls, it was delicious. I walked back to my hotel in the sunshine. As I walked along I noticed how relatively litter-free the streets were. It also amused me how obedient most Germans were at pedestrian crossings, waiting for the green go symbol even if there is no traffic in sight! My friend Chris told me something interesting about the traffic lights. There were two kinds, one rather like what we have in the UK and other set featuring a red symbol of a man with a hat holding out his arms for stop and a walking man with a hat in green for go. The latter type (known as ampelmann) are the East German lights, one of the few things to remain intact from East in the modern city. They are quite cute!

At 2.30 I set off for the meeting point I’d arranged with Chris. On the way I passed the Holocaust Memorial, dozens and dozens of coffin-shaped black granite blocks of different sizes. It was moving in it’s simplicity and a beautiful memorial.

I met up with Chris at the hotel beside the Brandenburg Gate. It was lovely to see her again, we hadn’t managed to meet up during the tour earlier this year, so this unexpected opportunity to meet up was lovely. She introduced me to her friends, a lively bunch of people who were very friendly and kind to me. We all went to an outdoor café near the Gate for something to eat and drink. Tiny bottles of vodka shots appeared from everyone’s pockets and they generously shared then with me, they warmed me up! It was starting to get dark by now and the temperature was dropping rapidly.

At 5pm some of us went into the concert site leaving the other still hitting the shots and beer. My ticket was for a different area, so after arranging a meeting point for after the show, Chris and I went our separate ways.

I could have got fairly near the front but because I’m not very tall it was pointless staying there as I couldn’t see over people in front. So I went much further back and I could see the stage pretty well from there. Time dragged and the cold started to bite. The crowd was easy going and I heard quite a few languages around me, there was a tangible excitement in the air. Floodights shone into the sky their beams hitting the very low cloud peppering it with discs of light, giving the impression that there was a grey canopy overhead.

The gig was supposed to start at 6.30pm, but that came and went. I paced about to try to warm up, no U2, it started to rain, the drops sparkled like diamonds as they were illuminated in the beams of light.

The rain didn’t last long thank heavens. Quarter to seven no U2. More pacing, I cursed Irish time, I was so cold. At last at 7pm U2 came came onstage to massive applause and cheers from the crowd. They went straight into One. As the music swept over me I suddenly felt really emotional, tears came to my eyes and I had a lump in my throat. I think it was a combination of seeing U2 again, being in Berlin, the significance of the event and the general emotional atmosphere within the crowd. I was so moved. Colourful graphics relating to the Wall were beamed onto the Brandenburg Gate during the song and it worked really well. Next was Magnificent which was wonderful, what a brilliant song that is! The third song was Sunday Bloody Sunday, a song I am really tired of in live shows, but for this occasion it was appropriate, Bono changed the lyrics too. Jay-Z joined the band on stage and rapped for a while, something I could have done without, but the crowd seemed to enjoy it.

Bono talked a little about Berlin and recalled the time the band spent there whilst recording Achtung Baby “wrote some tunes, met some beautiful spirits". Another time he said - in a strong southern US drawl - “swayin’ like a field of golden corn” (or something very similar) I’ve no idea what he was talking about!

Next was Beautiful Day another very appropriate song for the occasion, again I felt very emotional and I never normally feel like that during that song. I think it again was the atmosphere and the crowd singing on top of their voices, I could only imagine how special this occasion felt for native Berliners.

Vertigo rocked, and they closed with Moment of Surrender. Short but wonderful, U2 never disappoint live. For those who have read about U2 erecting a “wall” around the gig site that’s rubbish. There was a security fence around the site which I fully expected. There were rumours of up to 100,000 people coming to listen and they needed to have some safety measures in place. Also anything that was done at that gig was nothing to do with U2 anyway as it was an MTV production.

The crowd dispersed and I met up with Chris and we went back to the café to meet up with her friends. During the gig I hadn’t felt or thought of the cold, but now sitting in this outside café it really got to me. After a while I said I’d have to go as I was so cold. So I said my goodbyes to Chris and her friends and walked back. I passed the back entrance of the hotel and a handful of (hardy!) fans were waiting for the band. I walked past, no way was I going to join them, all I could think of was to get out of the cold!

At the hotel I had a hot coffee in the restaurant before going to my room. I was still cold, had a hot shower, slightly warmer, turned the heating up as high as it would go and after about twenty minutes I felt better (I am very cold-blooded!). How I suffer for U2!

Looking back now on the trip I almost find it hard to believe it happened! It was all so quick. Berlin is one of the most unusual cities I’ve visited and I find it hard to sum up how it felt for me. Berlin is a city that has risen up from the ashes twice in 45 years, it’s been ripped apart and is trying to heal itself. Much of the city I saw has re-grown into a vibrant modern place, but there are still scars of the past, maybe the Fall of the Wall celebrations will help them heal.

Brandenburg is GO!

Well, thanks to good friends in Germany who had a spare ticket for the U2 Brandenburg concert I am going to Berlin next week! Today (well yesterday now) I've been frantically making the travel arrangements inbetween events of an already busy day. But I got it sorted and will have a few days in Berlin to make the trip worth it. U2 alone are worth the trip but as I've written before, it's a city I've always wanted to visit so I have time to see some of the sights as well as U2!

Thanks a million Chris and Andy for thinking of me!

The Brandenburg Concert-o!

Late last night U2.com announced that U2 were going to play in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on November 5th as part of the EMTV Awards Show. Their appearance also marks the beginning of the Fall of the Wall celebrations marking 20 years since the Berlin Wall came down and Germany was re-united. I can hardly believe it was that long ago!

10,000 free tickets were up for grabs from 9am CET, I tried for them (though it would have been a bad time financially for me to go, I've always wanted to go to Berlin and some U2 things you just have to have a go for no matter what don't you?) but the site either froze or locked me out. Oh well, I never win anything anyway! The performance will be broadcast during the Awards show, the U2 set is supposed to be 20 minutes long, I hope they show all of it. At least I'll be warm and snug watching it on my TV, Berlin in November can be very chilly!

360 Ending and Coming Around Again

So tonight, in Vancouver, is the last gig of the 2nd leg of U2's 360 Tour. It's been a shorter tour than usual, but of course we have it all over again next year. Maybe the boys ar epacing themselves now they are hitting 50 LOL! I've enjoy the shows I saw in the summer, though am still not convinced that the claw actually does get the band nearer the audience. Though spectacular, it sometimes comes close to over shadowing the band, and the outer walkway if not utilised enough by the band members can seem like a barrier to those on the outside of it.

No UK or Irish announced yet either, and not that many places to fit any in. Surely they will play those countries again? My friend and I are nervously holding off buying gigs for other European countries (though we have been thinking of going for a couple of German gigs that still have tickets available) in the hope we'll know if we have gigs closer to home to work into the logistics! Please U2.com, let us know one way or another!

We have also been musing on seeing a show in the US again, namely in New York. Though I've been to the US a few times, I've never been to New York so I'd like to go there and take in a gig at the same time. I've been faithfully collecting Tesco points and converting them to airmile and I have quite a lot now which would pay for a big chunk of the airfare! We're going to decide one way or another when the New York gig goes on sale.

So, it's goodbye to one phase of U2 360 and planning for the next! Though it will drain the finances even more I can't wait for it all!

I ordered a foldable, soft dog crate on the Internet and it arrived today. I could not believe the size of the box and amount of packing there was for this relatively small item, in fact I thought they had sent me the wrong size crate! But they hadn't, below is a photo of the box and packaging and the crate, no wonder the forests are disappearing!!

Smile!

The Daily Mail has done it again with a great animal picture. This bull seal was obviously having a great day whilst lounging on a beach in Lincolnshire. How can you not smile along with him? Read all about him here

Thankless Task....

I was sitting in a traffic jam today and saw a man doing what must be the most thanksless job ever - sweeping up leaves on a windy day. No sooner had he got a heap of leaves together than the wind blew them all away again. Yet he patiently plodded on with his work, sweeping another pile together and repating the process over and over. I think the City Council should be a bit more practical and get the poor man one of those leaf sucker machines (no idea what their proper name is)!

Mission Control It's Bono and Edge!

Bono and his sons Eli and John and Edge visited Mission Control at NASA in Houston the other day and had a fifteen minute chat with astronauts on the International Space Station. Some lovely moments (Harold the giraffe!) and what an amazing experience for Bono's boys, something I'm sure they'll never forget.

The Proclaimers Live

A while ago my cousin Glenys asked me if I fancied going to see The Proclaimers. I'm not a massive fan of theirs, but I have this thing now that if anyone asks me to do something and I can afford it and don't hate the thought of it I'll do it, so I said yes. Last night I went to the concert here in my home city.

The Proclaimers must be one of the strangest bands around, twin brothers with short, neat hair and geeky glasses, they sing in a Scottish accent instead of the usual mid-Atlantic drawl. They are not cool, but they are unique and certainly do have staying power. It is over twenty years since they had their hit records in the UK, though there has been a bit of a re-surgence in their popularity since "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" was re-recorded with various famous people as part of Comic Releif in 2007 and released as a charity single.

The venue was full with young and old, after the gi-normous U2 set-up it felt strange to see a small gig like this. The Proclaimers' music is very Scottish, rousing, singalong, contemplative, the lyrics being of more substance than many people realise, moving personal words, biting political ones and all inbetween. A lot of their songs are well observed tableaux of ordinary life and I think this is one of the things that appeals to people, the Reid twins even look very ordinary, people can relate to them and their music.

The crowd had a whale of a time, it was all standing so there was a lot of dancing - I've never seen so many men bopping in my life, I think the beer they were consuming was part of it! But it was fun and there was a party atmosphere. Carlisle is on the border with Scotland so we are as much Scottish as English! The well known songs, "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), "Letter From America" (about the clearances in the Highlands and subsequent emigration of many people) and "I'm On My Way" went down really well. But the other songs they played were well received too. Throughout, the singing was impeccable, with fabulous harmonies.

So, all in all a good night, the "ordinary" guys who are truly unique entertained us well - and ever since I've been singing:

"And I would walk 500 my-els

And then would walk 500 mo-or

Just to be the man who walks a thousand my-els

To fall doon at your do-wa

Da da da (da da da)

Da da da (da da da)........."

God it's a catchy tune!

Tour Jitters!

More dates are coming onsale for the U2 360 2010 European Tour and I'm getting jittery! This time I think we will be approaching getting the tickets differently. I'm not re-subscribing to get a presale, I think it's disgusting that they are making fans do that when things are hard for ordinary people financially and I'm not going along with it. So, we'll probably be going the route of public sales and red zone. At the 2nd London and Glasgow you could buy tickets on the day at the stadiums, so I think we will be ok. It's just a bit weird doing it this way after all the years of getting most of our tickets via the fan club. But hey, who needs U2.com?!