Another U2 Crisis?

Below is a thought provoking quote from an article by Brian Boyd in the Irish Times.  My feeling  (and that of many other long-time U2 fans,)  that U2 are at another major crossroads in their career once more, seems to be confirmed in this article.  Over 20 years after their pre-Achtung Baby crisis can they weather this storm and come out with another classic album?  I'm not sure they can, but they often do their best work when under pressure, so they may just give us something special. Just don't be so obsessed with the "mainstream" Bono......

The article is from an interview in Toronto and also reviews From the Sky Down.  You can read the whole article here.

Back to the future: 'The app format brings you back to that world of gatefold sleeves' 

Looking back at the trauma of getting Achtung Baby on its legs and having to forge a new sound and identity, Bono says, “It’s actually worse for us now than it was when we went to Berlin.”

He shrugs off the fact that the band have just recorded the biggest-grossing live tour in the history of popular music and wonders whether U2 can still be relevant. “We can play the big music in big places. But whether we can play the small music, meaning for the small speakers of the radio or clubs, where people are living, remains to be seen,” he says. “I think we have to go to that place again if we’re to survive.

“There are so many U2 albums out there. We need a reason for another one. The whole point of being in U2 is that we’re not here to be an art-house band. Our job, as we see it, is to bring the art house to the mainstream; our job is to puncture the mainstream.”

Earlier, he was using an iPad with the Achtung Baby songs and videos on it. “That’s probably what our new album will look like,” he says. “I’ve been talking about this for the past four years.

“Our last album was the first album to be made available as an app with BlackBerry devices, but it didn’t work: the functionality was not what it could have been. New formats are going to happen. I’m always banging on about this. The app format brings you back to that world of gatefold sleeves, of being able to read lyrics – and [now of] being able to play the album at home on your plasma TV.”

Bono at the One foundation, in Paris, this week.
Photographs: Fred Dufour/AFP/ Getty Images

From the Sky Down Review

To be honest I've found it very hard to write this review, there is so much in it and it's hard to know what to write about and what to leave out.  So I suppose the best way to start is to say I really enjoyed the documentary.  I wasn't sure what to expect, knowing that U2 can be control freaks I thought it might be more of a promo for the Achtung Baby remasters released at the end of this month.  But, it was far from this, it was a, sometimes painfully, honest picture of U2 at a very vulnerable point in their personal and creative lives together. It doesn't focus on the making of Achtung Baby, but moreso on the difficult, personal transition from The Joshua Tree to Achtung Baby.

The format was a mixture of old and new footage of the band interspersed with excellent animation.  Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Flood and Paul McGuinness also said their bit, but most of it was left to the band members to talk on and off camera.

There was more pre-Joshua Tree history and footage from previous documentaries than I would have liked, but, as not everyone watching would be an avid fan,  it was necessary to have some history of the band's career to set the context for what happened after The Joshua Tree Tour.

The honesty displayed was both touching and revealing.  The fact that they felt they were flying by the seat of their pants during The Joshua Tree tour was surprising.  They were not ready for the Big Time and felt they were not up to the mark and were full of self doubt.  Bono talked about how difficult it was to cope with certain sections of the gigs and they showed him having a rant about something that had gone wrong in a show.  He generally comes across as uber-confident, but this documentary shows he has his struggles and self doubts like anyone else.  So at a time when those outside of the band thought the tour was triumph, to the band members themselves it felt anything but.

The self doubt continued on into Rattle and Hum, though done for the right reasons, it turned out to be a huge mistake for the band.  Ironically, if they had been as honest as in this documentary in the Rattle and Hum film there is a good chance it would have been received better.  They were truly shocked by the negative reaction to it.  The documentary showed a little of the famous 1989 New Years Eve gig and the "Dream it all up again" speech from Bono.  

There was not much communication after the tour and Bono and Edge took themselves off and Larry and Adam felt a sense of abandonment.  They re-grouped in Hansa Studios in Berlin at the time the Wall came down.  Bono's more human, funny side does come across in this documentary and his impersonation of the British Airways pilot landing the last plane in a divided Germany was hilarious.  I can see why Hansa is a special place to record in, it is a beautiful space to be creative in.

It was a time of great change for Europe and that was echoed in the band.  As Alan Yentob said in his introduction, the city was seeking to renew and reinvent itself just as U2 were. Hansa had inspired numerous artists, but initially it wasn't happening for U2.  The Hansa sessions from twenty years ago were interspersed with their recent visits to record there for the Achtung Baby remasters.  There were also clips from footage recorded for the remasters in Winnipeg this year.  Plus there was even a little from "Dogtown" in Dalkey where they continued to work after the Berlin sessions. Sometimes that was a little confusing, but at the same time it was interesting to intersperse the four different recording environments.

There was a fabulous version of Love Is Blindness sung by Edge with acoustic guitar.  Sometimes you forget what a lovely voice he has.  Again, there was such honesty here as they talked of how this song was influenced by the break up of Edge's first marriage.  He said he was running away from his personal problems and was trying to find refuge in the music.  This created a huge resonance within U2 which until then had felt very stable and whole.  I think it was Bono who said that it felt like all of U2's community and music was cracking and falling apart.

The most captivating moment in the documentary is when One (working title Young Blood, I think it should have been New Blood) is born.  It starts in a section within Mysterious Ways (working title Sick Puppy).  And it is fascinating to see it form and develop in the footage from the original sessions.  Bono experimenting with the words and melody while the others tried to build the music around that.  You can feel that excitement of something special happening within the band, it is riveting stuff to say the least.  One is truly a song about the rebirth of U2.

It seems the band regains it's belief in itself after that and can move forward into a new U2 age.  Bono reinvents himself,  if he's going to be The Fly he  needs "some protection ... some armour"

Lou Reed's glasses
Jim Morrison's pants
Elvis's jacket - and a bit of his hair.

As Adam so succinctly puts it the band move "Into a brighter light."

Towards the end of the documentary the 1990's trips in the famous East German Trabants are interspersed with recent film of the band in the same cars in Berlin.  It is strangely touching to watch.  In new footage the band drive about in a Trabbie and then stop and get out of the car.  Adam, in the back, laughs as he initially can't get the seat in front of him to move forward so he can get out of the car.  Bono, holds out his hand to help him out of the car and they share a moment of laughter together.  It's a sweet moment, and I feel it's symbolic of why U2 survived the difficulties of the post Rattle and Hum trauma.  They fought to survive both because of their musical creativity and their friendship for each other, both were too special to lose.  And that is something that is special and still holds them close to this day.

This documentary gives us the truest insight into U2 I've seen, they should have done this a long time ago.  For fans like me it gives a unique insight and for people who are not fans, hopefully it will show them the human side of U2, how seriously they take their music and what they have achieved.

I don't feel my review has done the documentary justice, watch it and enjoy, you don't often get the chance to see this side of U2.

Double dose of U2!

October 9th BBC1

22:25–23:55
Imagine
U2: From The Sky Down
Davis Guggenheim charts the making of U2's 1991 album, Achtung Baby.
23:55–00:55
Glastonbury
2011, U2
Highlights of U2's Friday headlining slot at Worthy Farm.

From the Sky Down, Gigwise Review

I read this review of the documentary and thought I'd share it on my blog.  I think all U2 fans knew Achtung Baby was a make or break moment for the band and it'll be so interesting to see what happened at that time and how this seminal album was created.  I have a feeling U2 is at a similar point in their career now, though for different reasons. But twenty years on, I honestly doubt they can come up with an album the likes of Achtung Baby.  We'll see.


Why Every Music Fan Should Watch U2's From The Sky Down
Jason Gregory, Gigwise, September 23

There's a fantastic moment in From The Sky Down, the new Davis Guggenheim-directed documentary about the making of U2's 1991 album 'Achtung Baby', when you get to see the Irish band in the process of creating the song 'One'.

It is, in my mind, the single most interesting example of the songwriting process caught on film.

With the benefit of hindsight, it's very easy to take a song like 'One' for granted, even though, as the band's manager Paul McGuinness noted at a Q&A about the movie I attended in London last night, it long ago earned the status of being a "classic". It's one of those songs that's ingrained on the musical memory of every music fan, whether they like U2 or not.

But during footage in the film showing U2 at the Hansa Studios in Berlin at the end of 1990, we see it in its rawest, most unadulterated form, with a different second bridge to the one on the album and before Bono had even formulated the lyrics. Indeed, it's not even called 'One'.

The reasons it's so interesting are two-fold.

Firstly, it's genuinely thrilling and absorbing to be so closely exposed to the craft of songwriting. The process, in all honestly, looks painfully destructive and frustrating. But as a music journalist who has never held an ambition to be in a band (and believe me, that's quite a rare thing), to watch a song like 'One' being crafted as meticulously as an artist working on a painting, it's capitvating; as parts get taken out and then put back in, until the finished song we are all familiar with begins to emerge, as Bono says in the movie, "from the sky down".

Secondly, 'One', it transpires in From The Sky Down, was integral in the creation of 'Achtung Baby'. Still tired from touring 1987's 'The Joshua Tree', which took U2 from arenas to stadiums, and rocked by the critical backlash thrown at their road movie, Rattle And Hum, the Irish band looked like a shadow of their former selves as they arrived in Berlin to start work on the album with BrianEno and Daniel Lanois.

In the film, Guggenheim captures this turmoil – and McGuinness stressed last night that it was actual turmoil – beautifully. We see Bono unable to write lyrics, TheEdge struggling to write his guitar parts through the break-up of his marriage, and Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr wondering whether they're even in the band any more.

And then they make 'One', and it's like a lighter fuel of creativity is sparked within all four members.

I don't want to reveal any more, because you can watch From The Sky Down when it airs on BBC on October 9 as part of the Imagine series. But If you take one thing away from From The Sky Down, it should be this: if it wasn't for 'Achtung Baby', you wouldn't have U2, and whatever you think of the band and their personal ideologies, that would be a tragedy.




Here's the official trailer from the documentary

From the Sky Down on the BBC

I've heard that U2's new documentary From the Sky Down will be featured on BBC One's Imagine series on 9th October.  Must make sure I'm not going out that night!  Hopefully it will not be cut and we'll get the full version, I've been really looking forward to seeing this.

From the Sky Down Press Conference with Bono and Edge

Bono and Edge at the TIFF interview (Photo: David Abel QMI)

Just got round to listening to this interview from 9th September at the Toronto International Film Festival.  Some interesting stuff there, especially at the end, where Bono is talking about "The edge of irrelevance" appearing quite upset and vulnerable. It's clearly something he's really struggling with at the moment. At this point in their career the band is at another of their crossroads, we know it and they know it, and it seems a bit of a scary place for them.  But as Edge mentioned, they do their best work in when their backs are against the wall. Time for reinvention again guys. hope you can do it!  Watch the interview here

Premiere of From the Sky Down in Toronto

Bono and the Edge attended the premiere of the documentary about U2, From the Sky Down, which opened the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8th.  Below is an article about this from the Toronto Sun website.  Looking forward to seeing this film!

Bono and Edge with Davis Guggenheim at the Toronto International Film Festival, 8th September.
Photo: Michael Peake, QMI agency

Bo

TORONTO - Rock icons U2 descended onto the Toronto International Film Festival’s red carpet Thursday for the premiere of new documentary “From the Sky Down,” admitting to nervousness over letting fans into their private world of making music.

The movie, which is the first documentary to open the Toronto film festival in its 36-year history, looks at the creative process of making their 1991 album “Achtung Baby,” tensions back then in the band.

Singer Bono and guitarist The Edge took to the festival’s opening night stage and confessed that even superstars get nervous when entering a new arena — from music to film.

“We are very protective of our privacy, particularly the creative process, not just because we are precious, which we are,” Bono told a laughing audience, before confiding that the fear was in letting audiences see them struggle to make music.

“If you knew what went into the sausage, you wouldn’t eat it,” Bono said.

The Edge added that it was “shocking” to see a lot of the old film footage from 20 years ago and “to realize how close our band came to disintegrating at that particular moment.”

The appearance of Bono and The Edge made the opening night screening one of the hottest tickets in town at the 11-day festival where other rock documentaries about Pearl Jam and Neil Young are getting top billing.

The festival, a widely-watched event often seen as a starting point in the movie industry’s annual Oscar race, features a long list of Hollywood royalty, from Brad Pitt and George Clooney to Keira Knightley and Glenn Close.

U2 MAKES TIFF HISTORY

But the opening belonged to a nonfiction film for the first time in festival’s history, and organizers noted both the event and U2 originated in 1976.

The band soared to rock stardom in the 1980s, and “Achtung Baby” was seen as a daring reinvention following the huge success of 1987’s “Joshua Tree” and 1988’s somewhat less-well received “Rattle and Hum.”

“This film isn’t just about the biggest band in the world,” director Davis Guggenheim told the audience. “It’s really just about four musicians trying to make music.”

“From the Sky Down” opens as U2 is about to play the Glastonbury Festival for the first time this year and is looking to rework older songs. As Bono says: “there comes a time when it is dysfunctional not to look into the past.”

It then looks back at the rise of U2 through early film footage and leads up to the making of “Achtung Baby,” which was influenced by industrial and electronic music and featured the hits “One” and “Mysterious Ways.”

“I had goose pimples witnessing how they did it,” said Guggenheim, whose 2006 global warming film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ won the Academy Award for best feature documentary.

“I don’t think really it’s a film about our band in as much as it’s a film about the creative process. If you’re interested in that, you’re going to be interested in this film I think, but I find it excruciating,” Bono said on the red carpet.