You too (U2) can be an annoying bunch of vacuous stadium twats

Down the years, my indifference to U2 has steadily grown into contempt. Once upon a time I didn't care. Now I loathe. 

It’s not that they’re musically regressive (lots of great music is), boring or safe (although they’re both usually hanging crimes). It’s the pomposity and dour self-importance that grates the most. 

You can always accuse stadium bands of duplicity on sustainability issues - this blow from Australian online news and opinion blog The Punch lands a right-cross square on the jaw – but in the end the biggest crime U2 commits can be expressed best in colourful vernacular: They’re up themselves. So far up themselves that a nurse adminstering a suppority might struggle to work out into which end to insert it.

So Bono's fought for social justice. So did Mahatma Gandhi but I bet he didn't spend most of his time telling people about it. And I agree that Bono wrote two shitty fund-raising songs, one of which will be dredged up ad infinitum this festive season. He shouldn't keep reminding us in every interview by claiming to hate them.  

What sort of a misnomer is The Edge for a guitarist who doesn't have one? The Blunt is more like it.    

David Byrne gives U2 both barrels

The ex-Talking Head on Bono and Co's latest tour:

"Those stadium shows may possibly be the most extravagant and expensive (production-wise) ever: $40 million to build the stage and, having done the math, we estimate 200 semi trucks crisscrossing Europe for the duration."

More here. Can you tell I think Bono's a twat?

U2 snooze, U loose

I consider Bono a knob so it was funny to see this reported today online:

Four songs from U2's upcoming album were leaked on to the internet after frontman Bono played them too loudly on his stereo at his villa in the south of France.

A U2 fanatic from the Netherlands who was holidaying in the village of Eze, on the French riviera, heard the new tracks being blared from Bono's window and decided to record them using his mobile phone.

The fan boasted about his find on the forum of U2 fansite Interference.com, and members there advised him to publish the clips on YouTube.

They’ve been taken down but MP3s are still being shared around, the report said. But who’s bothering to listen?

Look, it’s only U2 and the fans are an undiscriminating lot but, come on, MP3s of music recorded on a mobile phone from outside a beachside hotel window? Give me a fucking break, please!