If you know anything about how WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE FROM GLOBAL WARMING, you know that one of the most vigorous finger-waggers around is none other than Bono of the modern “rock-and-roll” ensemble U2. And if you know that, you also know he’s totally full of crap.
Case in point. According to the Associated Press:
Dubliners angry over the around-the-clock dismantling of U2’s monumental concert stage mounted street protests Tuesday, snarling the Irish band’s plans for the next stages of their European tour.
Residents around Croke Park stadium said their aim was to embarrass Dublin City Council and the Gaelic Athletic Association – which authorized the all-night noise – not delay Ireland’s most famous musical export.
But U2 managers said the protests meant more than 50 trucks carrying much of the band’s 390-ton stage, TV screens, lighting and sound equipment missed their intended morning ferry…
“We should all not be talking to you and (should be) on a boat,” the tour’s production director, Jake Berry, told reporters as several dozen residents protested beside three road junctions outside Croke Park, Ireland’s largest stadium…
Berry said singer Bono, guitarist The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. were told of the Dublin disruption about 5 a.m. Tuesday as their private jet landed in Nice, France, where they are staying in between European gigs.
Got that? When they’re not playing their cute little songs on the 400-ton stage that has to be transported from one city to the next using, y’know, fuel, they’re flying back and forth to France in their private jet. Now Nice! Which almost rhymes with “sheesh.”
Did you know U2 has a new album out? I’d forgotten. The last I’d heard about them, people were all ticked off about them dodging their taxes. Silly commoners. Taxes, environmental responsibility, singing talent: Those are for the little people!
P.S. Thanks to commenter AlleyKat for pointing out that U2’s website has a big load of carbon about how environmentally friendly their tour is. “Zero emissions.” Without explaining how exactly that works, of course. If you want to be environmentally friendly, don’t go on tour.
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It gets better. They are billing the tour as “carbon neutral” on their website. Do you think they included the private jet emissions when they purchased whatever crap offsets?
I think Bono can sing.
I didn’t know they were still on tour. Private jet? How Zeppelin of them.
Oh, but if he stayed home he wouldn’t be able to use the media to publicly tsk-tsk us commoners on how to live because we are doing it all wrong in the Laws According To Bono. Which are similar to but not to be confused with the Laws According To Gore.
I do have one question…how can one be “carbon neutral” if one is still breathing?
50 trucks carting around a 400 ton stage and a private jet?
That’s a whole lotta carbon offsets!
I will dare listen to the “Leftist Artistic Brigade” message when they will do their tour by bus, with their roadies. Want to reduce your mythical carbon footprint? don’t burn the carbon in the first place.
50 trucks? I’m sorry, but am I the only one just a little bit more than astounded at that? Even assuming that only half of them are 52-footers, what in the hell are you hauling that requires THAT many trucks?
Which also begs the question: why the holy hell don’t these stadiums and concert venues just adopt some relatively uniform audio/visual setup so all these bands have to bring is a tour bus and maybe two semis of special equipment? I’m not even an environmentalist and it disgusts me that it takes 50 trucks to transport ONE band’s crap.
Forget the environment, imagine how much of your ticket price goes into just trucking this crap from city to city, especially in Europe where the fuel prices are already astronomical. Is watching the newest generation of epileptic inducing light show really worth that? If you say it is, you might be better off finding bands with decent MUSIC.
All I can say is, don’t knock it til you try it, folks. I saw U2 in concert in 2001 and 2005, and they were far and away the most spectacular concerts I have ever been to. Music, lighting, video, audience involvement–all spot on. Sure, ticket prices are high, but at least you feel like you’ve gotten something for your money, unlike many comparably-priced shows, especially those with aging rock or pop acts. The only thing bad about either show was that Gavin Rossdale’s sucktastic new band opened for them at the 2005 one. I’m going to see U2 again this September.
Why do you hate the environment?
Eve is right. I hate U2 more than I can describe. If you hate U2 I promise I hate them more. But I saw them in I think it was ‘96 or ‘99 or…who knows… Zoo TV? Does that sound right? Anyway that is easily the best concert I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot of concerts. I don’t even know why I was there I didn’t pay for the ticket. I must’ve lost a bet.
I wouldn’t see them again though. Unless I finally get my “punching machine” ready. You really don’t want to be surrounded by 20,000 U2 fans. Trust me.
While there was a time I would have paid the money to see them, a dime of my hard earned cash will not go to them. Any musician or actor who thinks they know better than I do and likes to tell me how to live yet does not live themselves like that (ya know – practice what you preach) will never get my business again.
50 trucks and private plan rides between concerts? Sounds like he has been taking lessons from Al Gore.
I would never go see a U2 show. Not because I don’t like the music – I love some of the old stuff – but I am so sick of this sanctimonious git telling us what to do, I can’t even listen to U2 on the radio and I have none on my MP3 player. Hearing the band just gets my bile up.
Jenn, same with Bruce Springsteen and Dave MAtthews Band. I want to go to a concert to enjoy the music and have a great time. Not to hear why we should or should not vote for someone. I get that nightly on the TV. Toby Keith is a great performer who focuses on the troops, which is why I go see him. It will cost me $20 to go see Loverboy, Scandal and .38 Special here in a few weeks and no political talk will be going on
I’m going to go see U2 in September! (The main reason I’m going though is to see their opening act, Muse).
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go outside and spray some aerosol cans indiscriminately into the air for the next two hours.
FAIL. Euro Fags telling me and the people I go to concerts with that I am a bad person for emitting carbon will get them booed off the stage and their equipment trashed. Godsmack could blow them out with their stage shows and music and they actually like their fans, not just for the money they put in their pockets like BONER(BONO)does.
You know what get me? There is a bus company in Colorado that has produced electric buses for the last 12 years. (They are actually used downtown.) If they are so into making a difference why don’t they have the forethought to get one of these electric buses made and converted into a tour bus? Or is that too much effort to help “Save us all from dying from global warming?”.
Even if he wasn’t pompous, even if everything out of his mouth wasn’t a load, I still wouldn’t like his music. He has no redeeming qualities.
…when I worked in the music industry, I think even the MOST elaborate set-up required…a bus and maybe four trucks. Max. WTF, U2. What the hell do you need to haul around with you, an acre of rain forest?
It seems to me that if the biggest pundits for Global Climate Change and carbon neutrality were to stay at home and enjoy the rest of their lives without traveling all over propogating fear of AGW, we would actually HAVE carbon neutrality and there would be no reason for anybody to travel all over propogating fear of AGW.
Hasn’t anybody done a study yet to show that all the AGW is from the people telling us we’re going to die from AGW?
To each his/her own. U2 is so not worth seeing for what they ask per ticket.
I will NOT pay more than $20 for ANY concert ticket….EVER. And I’ve been in the mosh pit of quite a few…Nugent, Dio, Ozzy, AC/DC, Judas Priest, Zeppelin, to name a few. Maybe it dates me by saying that is how much I paid then, I don’t care, ain’t gonna pay more than that now. I don’t go to any concerts now because naturally no tickets are in the $20 range. Plus, it would involve a trip to Atlanta and I hate driving in that city with a passion of 100 blazing suns.
It’s in these artists’ heads that they “need” all that stuff that they tote around in all those trucks. If the music is good, you don’t need any lights or fireworks. You don’t need elaborate stage setup, or costumes.
That explains why Kid Rock needs fireworks, an elaborate stage setup, and strippers…
Bono lost me when he started drinking his own Kool-Aid. Nowadays my slap-upside-the-head hand starts twitching when I see his photo.
That said, TheIrish, Muse is opening for them? I wonder if they’re doing any solo shows…now *that* show would be worth seeing.
We went to an REM show last year around October and Stipe started his usual liberal blathering – the audince was polite until he told us to vote for Obama. The audience booed him. He went back to singing.
Saw Dave Matthews in Nashville and nary a peep about politics though he did make a comment about being a spaceman and a bunny – smoke much Dave?
Pasta- I’ll take you up on your challange. I hate them so much I never seen them live, free ticket, lost bet, drunken bender, gun to head or not. The only thing that would remotely make me go to a show is to see a real live turd sing, but Mr. Hankey he is not.
Last two live shows I saw were the same artist, same venue (different tours), and both times I paid about $50 for seats no more than seven rows back AND eleven to the left of center. I was that close both times.
Alan Parsons Live Project.
Alan Parsons Project is still around? I thought they dropped off the face of the earth years ago.
I got a chance to see U2 years ago (Sunday, Bloody Sunday)(won tickets). Say what you want about idiot, I mean Bono, but he’s a hell of a showman.
DAve Matthews has said enough off of the stage that makes me not want to see him. Same with the actors out there, won’t pay to see their movies. I passed the trucks for Taylor Swift the other day. I heard she was very elaborate but they only used 2 trucks. 50 trucks? To haul his crap around? What takes the cake is he is not even American but loves to boss us around.
I can’t look at Bono without thinking of Larry Linville (Frank Burns from “M*A*S*H*”). Not a good/sexy/hot association, that.
I don’t. I’m giving all those credits something to offset. You’re welcome.
I know people who have been on the U2 road crew, there is huge amounts of metalwork, they have to construct, not just the stage, but also all the superstructure around it. Oh, and a small nugget of roadie info – any power requirement over about 250 amps/440 volts (about enough for a samll arena, about 12000 seater) needs generators to provide, each one takes up a truck back (so about a 45 footer) and actually produces very little power.
I’ve stood in back lots with the gennies going, and it is horrible, overpowering diesel fumes and noise. Just how do you make that carbon neutral?
LOL everyone. And so true Pearce, Koka, and Emma. I’ve been around the roadie/backstage scene myself back in the day, and the average modest concert that can set up within a normal stage setup doesn’t need too many rigs to tote around the stage and audio gear. But everything nowadays has to be gigantic, and U2 are one of the giganticist, on the scale of their stage, SFX architecture, scaffolding, sound, etc. Sometime before or after any concert, take a look behind the venue where the buses and trucks are constantly running, day and night, till the show moves on. No way that’s free of emissions.
I just saw the PBS special on the Stones’ free Rio beach concert, and I believe it was said that about 50 trucks (plus some planes) were filled with all the crap they carted around for their show on that tour, but at least they don’t claim to be “emission free”, what a joke. Here are some pix of that concert: http://www.iorr.org/rio/index.htm
I’d start to believe the greenie weenie rockers if they immediately began to do “Unplugged” concerts, to cut down on waste. But it’ll never happen in our lifetime. :-p
“We went to an REM show last year around October and Stipe started his usual liberal blathering – the audince was polite until he told us to vote for Obama. The audience booed him. He went back to singing.”
*starts giggling madly*
geeesh you sure are some hateful people.
Bono is a humanitarian and should be applauded for his efforts…and oh by the way can sing great with his band U2….if you don’t like it, don’t listen…and don’t go to the shows…I wen tto the 27 July Dublin show….AWESOME!
And the point, she is missed.
Really cares.
Flying jets cashing in on concerts. Do as I say not as I do. How much does his tickets go for…. Does he care that the world is falling a part right now. Wonder if he will have to pay US taxes tooo……… 250,000 and above.
All the Celebrites have no feeling for what is going on in the world. All about their bottom line. Private jets 3 and 7 cars large monsters homes not just 1 extravanged life styles. Nothing but the best for the ahole who preach..
How much electricity is BONEHEAD BONO using while he is catterwhalling into that micraphone and whats the size of his CARBON FOOTPRINT?
As a sociological study, the pattern of these comments is interesting in it’s complete and utter predictability.
Formula…
Rock star. Money – check. Power – check. Fame – check.
Reaction – Unsubstantiated claims about him being the biggest jerk EVER because…ah er ah…well…ah…he just IS. Jerk.
Sing it with me now!!
Schadenfreude and schadenfreude and schadenfreude and why does he have more money than me and schadenfreude…
First of all, it’s “its”, if you’re attempting to use the possessive. Secondly, the formula goes more like this:
Rock star. Repeated, hysterical claims of being so orgiastically in love with the earth that he needs a cigarette after watching “Blue Planet”: Check. Tooling–and I do mean TOOLING–around generating enough Gaia-choking fumes to outdo a small US state: Check.
At least you spelled “Schadenfreude” correctly. Let’s all give Wrong Planet a big hand! Or at least a middle finger.
Schadenfreude means joy in another’s misfortune, so I’m not sure how that applies here.
But enough about you.
Beige,
Thanks for responding with something closing in on an actual response and not a ‘you don’t agree with me, f- you man!’ I apologize for my crimes of grammar, and make no claims that I will always use it correctly on internet message boards.
Thus far I haven’t seen any real evidence of Bono’s “repeated, hysterical” claims about loving Mother Earth, and in particular anything about him chastising other people for not “doing as he says, not as he does” (i.e., moaning about people driving SUVs.) Doesn’t mean it isn’t out there, but I personally haven’t seen it. Hypocrisy is only hypocrisy if you call for people to do one thing and then do another. Quite the contrary, I did a rudimentary Google search and came up with little for Bono + Global Warming other than this:
Acknowledging that a career in rock music was not always conducive to a green lifestyle, Bono compared a conversation with Gore to an act of religious contrition.
“It’s like being with an Irish priest. You start to confess your sins,” he said. “Father Al, I am not just a noise polluter, I am a noise-polluting, diesel-soaking, gulfstream-flying rock star.
“I’m going to kick the habit. I’m trying father Al, but oil has been very good for me — those convoys of articulated lorries, petrochemical products, hair gel.”
So sorry, in my book, if you admit that you don’t live up to your personal ideals, and you’re not running around criticizing others for doing the very things you’re doing, then you are a human, not a hypocrite. I have no problem criticizing Bono, but I find the claims here to be inaccurate.
As far as how schadenfreude applies here, the technical meaning is enjoyment of another’s misfortunes, but it’s been commonly noted in popular culture that people enjoy ‘tearing down’ celebrities as a form of schadenfreude.
Feel free to swear at me all you like now and justify your actions however you wish, I won’t be back! Have fun being really, really angry!
But we were so enjoying your fantasies of victimhood.
Aaaaw, and I was getting all turned on by your nonsensical I Know What You Are But What Am I answers, but I’ve got a plane to catch in about 10 minutes! Cheers!
How can we miss you if you won’t go away?
See, this is the IN-TER-NET. You have no idea if we’re actually angry, or just amused by your pretentiousness.
(Hint: It’s the latter. Sshhh–don’t tell anybody.)