I find U2 fans at parties, in the grocery store checkout line, in the pub when “Streets” comes on the PA and the two guys in overalls covered with cement dust at the next table start singing along with such feeling… We are everywhere.

It turns out we’re even inspired by the way U2 does business.

I came across this article because I just launched my own management consulting business last week, and so I’m building relationships with folks in the industry… and it’s been a surprise and a delight to find so many U2 fans in the mix. And you know what? It’s no different than making friends in the GA line, or sharing a hug with a stranger in the ellipse because U2 makes you both feel so good. People find out I write for @U2, and suddenly we are no longer formal, we’re no longer suspicious or particularly competitive — we’re just two people on email or on the phone talking about what we love about the band and their music. The U2 fans I’ve met in business (including Michael Lee Stallard, the author of the article) have been really nice people, supportive and helpful. Isn’t that cool?

And isn’t it cool that U2’s values may be inspiring people not just in spiritual or community terms, but also in business as well? I’d love to hear what you think about it.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

What if more business was like U2?

U2, Coldplay, Killers Help Launch (RED)WIRE
by Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
Some of the biggest names in music are contributing exclusive songs to RED(WIRE), a new digital music magazine launching on World AIDS Day (Dec. 1).

U2, Coldplay, the Killers, the Dixie Chicks, John Legend, R.E.M. and Bob Dylan are on board for the initiative, which is an outgrowth of the Bono-reared activist organization (RED). All proceeds from subscriptions will benefit HIV-infected people in Africa; MSN.com will host a kick-off party on Dec. 1.

For $5, users will receive a new issue of RED(WIRE) every Wednesday, featuring an exclusive song from a major artist, a song from an artist (RED) aims to showcase, a multimedia piece that could encompass video or photography and a look at how proceeds are directly benefiting Africans in need. The materials will be downloaded to a custom player and automatically loaded into iTunes.

Users can send two free issues to friends, and will be rewarded if they join RED(WIRE). “Artists are already saying, ‘I want to give you a track for those people who brought friends in,’” (RED)WIRE founder Don MacKinnon tells Billboard.com. “That’s the biggest idea: using social networking to actually change the world in a unique way.”

U2’s track was recorded just last Wednesday, while the Killers, Elton John and the Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant teamed up for the Christmas song “Joseph, Better You Than Me,” which MacKinnon describes as “like a power ballad.” This is the third year in a row the Killers have penned a holiday song and donated proceeds to (RED).

Meanwhile, John Legend’s take on Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” finds him eschewing piano for a
stripped-down arrangement with guitar, bass and backing vocalists, according to MacKinnon.

Also coming is the first new Dixie Chicks song since the group’s Grammy sweep in 2007, “Lucky One,” and Elvis Costello and the Police jamming on “Watching the Detectives” and “Walking From the Moon,”
taped during Costello’s new Sundance Channel show “Spectacle.” Additional (RED)WIRE offerings will
be announced in the coming weeks.

MacKinnon is particularly enthused about the creative directions open to (RED)WIRE, especially with such high-profile artist participation.

“I had a meeting with Jay-Z, and he wants to talk about artists to be featured in that spotlight slot,”
he says. “Big artists may curate an issue. The whole goal was to create a creative platform. When somebody says, ‘I do all this photography and I want to put it in as an extra,’ That’s when I go, this is going to be really cool.”

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

New U2 Music Next Week?

This partnership between the Hewsons’ ethical clothing label and Zazzle, a retail platform famous for their fast production, will give back in a joint venture for good:

“20% of proceeds from the sale of the three tee shirt designs will benefit the ALAFA, an industry-wide program providing education and prevention, as well as counseling and management of AIDS through health management and treatment for HIV-positive workers in Lesotho.”

To see the designs, or order a shirt, click here.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Edun Partners with Zazzle for World AIDS Day Anniversary

Larry Mullen, Jr. is listed as a member of the National Geographic Society Council of Advisors. This is the mission of the Council from the National Geographic website:

“The Council of Advisors comprises industry leaders and influential community members. This group is charged with forging connections and building relationships that will result in increased broad-based philanthropic support for, and awareness of, the activities of the National Geographic Society.”

National Geographic was the distributor for U23D, which might explain the Mullen connection on the Council. However, given Larry’s latest video on U2.com…one might think there’s a bit of nature lover in him after all. All I know is that I keep hoping to see him come out of the water dragging a bathtub, but that would mean that Samantha Morton would be in the picture…and for *this* Larry fan, I’m glad I don’t see her

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Larry Goes National Geographic

But that’s not to say I own everything—with the economy like it is, and a tour on the horizon (wink) I’ve scaled back on my collecting and tried to buy only “necessities.” This means that my list this year includes the re-issue of October, the fish shirt that Bono designed for the Hard Rock Café and the Edun organic knit scarf I’ve had my eye on all year.

And that begs the question: what’s on your U2 wish list?

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

What’s on your holiday (U2) wish list?

Elsha makes Christmas Cards and uses the proceeds to benefit children in need in Africa. That’s cool in and of itself, but what makes her story inspiring is that Elsha has Muscular Dystrophy. In fact, rather than me explaining what she’s doing and how she does it, click this link below and spend a couple minutes watching a news feature about Elsha’s Christmas Cards that ran this past weekend on Fox-13 in Salt Lake City:

Woman With Muscular Dystrophy Praised for Christmas Card Artwork

Amazing, isn’t she? To learn more or place an order, here’s the link: Elsha’s Christmas Cards.

Congrats, Elsha — keep up the great work!

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Elsha’s Christmas Cards for Africa

A study of almost 500 U2 fans queuing overnight for four concerts in Philadelphia and Atlanta discovered those seeking to gain entry to “the rail”, a sought-after area at the front of the concert, organise themselves in a remarkably systematic fashion without prompting from concert organisers.

The study’s authors, who have a background in anthropology and one of whom describes herself as a U2 fan, discovered that concert queues “are managed largely by fans themselves who organise a system in which the first fans in line keep a list with names and numbers assigned to people as they arrive”.

Venue staff support the system by telling newly arrived fans to get a number from the “line Nazi”, a fan at the top of the queue who invariably takes control at each event.

To test the strength of the system, researchers invented a series of scenarios in which people jumped the queue. Fans were then asked to fill in a questionnaire that assessed their reaction. The academics discovered that fans of the group, who had an average age of 30, got upset even when someone cut in behind them, not affecting their place in the queue. Hardcore fans were more incensed than more moderate devotees.

For those who may not have experienced a GA line at a U2 concert, I can confirm that this does indeed happen; and I’m pretty impressed that the researchers have even used the terminology that U2 fans who have experienced this phenomenon have dubbed the practice. While I can only speak of the American concert experience, my husband informs me that the GA queue experience in the UK is more of an understood social norm as opposed to someone overtaking a GA line to enforce the “rules.”

After U2 graduated from the clubs, general admission has only been available at US gigs since 2001’s Elevation tour. General admission is a relatively newish phenomenon because of venue rules enforced after fans died attending other concerts because of crushing or trampling. This is the reason why there are somewhat strict rules set by venues to capacities both inside the heart/bomb shelter/etc., and elsewhere on the floor.

From my experience with the “line Nazis” at various US shows in 2001 and 2005, the level of enforcement did change as U2 changed their policy of who got into the inner-circle of the venue and who didn’t. While it caused a great deal more disappointment among those who were first in line when they didn’t get scanned into the bomb shelter (as opposed to first-come, first-served in 2001), it did change who the band saw in front of them night after night. This only seemed to be an issue in arenas because of the smaller numbers in a more confined area. While there were the occasional few who did manage to get their same concert viewing position show-after-show, it was harder for them to do so. Fans who followed the tours know this story, so I’m not going to revisit that.

A couple of items the Sunday Times article did not point out was that the two big responsibilities of the “line Nazi” commander was to a) have a different colored sharpie for each show and to b) leave the show early to reform the line if the band had multiple shows in one city. The sharpie marker color changed based on the show to differentiate between the previous gig and the following night’s gig. The fine art of leaving the show early was for self-preservation so that the same group could enforce the rules of the line for the next show. The frustration of having to deal with the “line Nazi” was that you may be third in line, but they had already accounted for all of their group…which meant you were pushed back to 14th in line (give or take.) They took care of their own at the start of the line and sometimes changed the rules as they went along as long as they served their purpose.

From my 2005 experiences, there really was never a coup d’etat to overthrow the “line Nazis” - it was an understood norm where it was better to just put up with it than it would be to confront the same group of people night after night. Part of it was for the sake of keeping peace, and another part of it was personal satisfaction when they weren’t scanned into the bomb shelter…albeit at my own disappointment when I wasn’t scanned in either. It did create more stress to those in the GA line - “will I be scanned in, or not?” - but it was better than doing a head count and realizing they were only letting in 300 and you were number 303 in line.

It is interesting that this research is being publicized now - nothing like getting people all in a tizzy before the next tour is announced and months before tickets go on sale. I’m sure people on the @U2 Forum and beyond will have a lot to say about this topic!

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Anyone Got A Sharpie?

Apparently the production was in danger because of an especially awful broadcast the prior year (sometime in the 90s), so U2 agreed to come back in the middle of their American tour and perform. In the usual fashion, they saved the day.

I’m just amazed I’ve never heard this story before…

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

U2 credited with taking MTV awards show to “another level.”

Thanks to Phil for pointing this out to me this morning on sojo.net’s “God’s Politics: a blog by Jim Wallis and friends”:

Obama’s Harmony of Intellect and Intuition
by Bono 11-07-2008
Mr. President, Barack,

Every room I have ever been in with you was a much easier room for your presence.

It’s rare to meet a person like you, where intellect and intuition make such a perfect rhyme.

Your intuition tells you that the well-being of the American people, spiritually as well as physically, is connected with America’s role in the world. I know you know that the prosperity of your fellow Americans, though hard fought, is less fulfilling knowing there is so much more that can be done to alleviate poverty and suffering in the developing world. You know that less than 1 percent of government income as a contribution from the world’s richest economy to the world’s poorest is not a fair tithe — even in times like these — which is why you have promised to double foreign assistance. As with our own personal sojourn, so it is with country and community -– we discover who we are in service to others.

I know your intellect — fashioned in the halls of Harvard and on the floor of the United States Senate — has weighed up the evidence on how effective American tax dollars are, when converted into smart, targeted, focused aid. Putting children into school where they can think freely of freedom. Giving farmers on the parched land seed varieties that double the size of their crop yields. Giving mothers 20 cent immunizations to protect their newborns from the deadly viruses that they pass on through childbirth. I know your intellect has taken in the data and seen the analysis on the transformative power of effective aid in places where the United States flag is currently not one smiled at. I know you know how much cheaper it is to make friends of potential enemies than to defend yourself at a later date. I know you know all this stuff.

My prayer for you is that your instinct and intellect stay in harmony in the difficult months and triumphant years ahead.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Bono on President-Elect Barack Obama

We had a news byte a few weeks ago about U2’s long-time tour manager Dennis Sheehan being awarded the Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award. The Parnelli site states “The award recognizes pioneering, influential professionals and their contributions, honoring both individuals and companies. It is truly the “Oscar®” of the Live Event Industry.”

U2 was not able to attend the awards ceremony on October 24 in Las Vegas, but they joined Robert Plant in sending their congratulations via video. Check out what they had to say.

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

Congratulations to Dennis Sheehan!