" whatever happened to making dreams come true ? "


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Florida Marlins to play 'home' series in Seattle to accommodate U2 concert



BY CLARK SPENCER
[email protected]
"Home'' for the Florida Marlins in late June will be Seattle.

Major League Baseball announced Thursday that the Marlins will host the Mariners in Seattle's own ballpark -- Safeco Field -- June 24-26.

The reason: A U2 concert at Sun Life Stadium is scheduled for June 29. The popular rock group also requires extra time to set up the show.

The uprooted Marlins will bat last as the home team in all three games of the Seattle series, which will be played under National League rules -- no designated hitter, in other words.

It won't be the first time that the Marlins find themselves serving as the ``home'' team in another team's ballpark. They took on the Montreal Expos at Chicago's U.S. Cellular Field for two games in 2004 because of the threat of Hurricane Ivan to South Florida.

lmao!!!!!

jb will not be back in 2011




In early April, while the group is performing somewhere in Latin America, U2's 360 tour is projected to become the highest-grossing tour off all time.

The previous record-high gross of $558 million, set by the Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang tour of 2005-07, won't just be broken but, to quote the Stones, shattered. When U2 concludes its two-year, 110-show trek in North America in July, the 360 tour is projected to top $700 million in total gross and 7 million in attendance. The feat is even more remarkable when one considers that the band will break the record on a tour that spanned trying economic times around the globe.

U2 won't claim the all-time highest-gross mantle because it has the highest ticket prices -- the tour tops out at $250 and prices go as low as $30, well short of what acts the Stones and Barbra Streisand have charged. Rather, the record-breaking numbers are made possible by the band's enduring popularity and the tour's groundbreaking 360-degree staging, which expanded stadium capacities by double-digit percentages.

The success of the tour is also a milestone achievement for 360 producer Arthur Fogel, Live Nation chairman of global music and CEO of global touring. Fogel has played a key role in seven of the top 10 tours of all time, including treks by U2, Madonna, the Police and the Stones.

The 360 tour's record-high gross will stand for a long time, given the ambitious scale of the production, the band's willingness to invest in its show and its ability to stay on the road for such an extended period. Few acts can play stadium tours. And even if an artist attempts to emulate the staging that has enabled 360-size capacities -- a massively expensive endeavor that few would dare take on -- filling those seats would be a tall order, particularly over 100 shows in markets around the world. In all likelihood, U2 can only be topped by U2.

(c) Billboard, 2011.

Joey, I snuck downstairs to the third floor RR and wrecked it.



"The Edge" wants to build five ridge-top homes in the mountains above Malibu, but the California Coastal Commission staff says the project would violate state law by ruining a wild area and scarring hillsides visible from Pacific Coast Highway.

In an analysis released late Friday, the commission's staff said the 156- acre project north of Malibu's landmark pier would violate the Coastal Act in several aspects.

Among other problems cited by the state is that nearly 50,000 cubic yard of rock and soil must be mined and moved. A proposed private access road up the mountain would have a 19 percent grade -- so steep that the fire department says it needs several "staging areas" for fire trucks to stop to let their brakes cool.

The cluster of five multimillion-dollar estates is proposed by David Evans -- better known by his U2 band name "The Edge" -- and his wife and business partners. They have called it "Leaves In The Wind," and set up an elaborate web site to paint it as a green project.

"I hope you will agree that my partners and I have worked diligently to design homes that will meet the highest environmental standards," The Edge wrote on his web page. "Why did we go to so much effort? Because we love Malibu."

Evans/The Edge is promising to build houses that will blend with natural rock outcroppings, and use natural and native plants to screen them for privacy and to make them blend in with the environment.

Despite that pledge, Evans' lawyers are fighting the Coastal Commission vigorously, and have even broken the project up into five separate applications. They argue that it is unacceptable for the Coastal Commission to consider the "separate" application in one proceeding.

The state has investigated and found that the "separate" applicants are all linked to Evans by marriage or longstanding business relations. The state stops short of calling recent actions to split ownership of the land a sham, but notes that all five applications were filed on the same day and employ the same consultants.

The staff report also notes that Evans has told reporters he wants to sell three of the multimillion dollar estates to pay for the entire project, and make a profit, which in turn destroys his lawyers' claim that the projects are unrelated and cannot be considered together.

The Coastal Commission staff report said the five homes would straddle a "significant ridgeline" visible from the pier and Malibu Lagoon, which are state parks, and from PCH, which is a state-protected scenic route where new development must be screened from view.

"The area is undeveloped and comprised of steep, rugged mountain terrain that blanketed by various natural rock outcroppings and primarily undisturbed native chaparral habitat," the state report concluded.

The staff report is advisory, but the Coastal Commission relies heavily on such findings when it decides on proposed coastal development, as required by a California constitutional amendment approved by voters in 1972, and as implemented by the Legislature in 1976. Its decisions can be appealed, but they can only be overruled if a court finds it violated its discretionary power.

The Coastal Commission will consider the matter at a meeting on Feb. 10 at the Chula Vista City Hall, 276 Fourth Ave., in Chula Vista.

© LA Daily News, 2011.

Sometimes a band can suck balls for years, even decades and still continue to be hugely succesful. This can be accomplished by way of two magical words: "CRITICAL ACCLAIM." If critics love your band it doesn't matter how much you blow. You will continue to sell millions of records. You will continue to sell out huge arena tours. You will continue to get your mugs posted on the cover of every music magazine, everytime you so much as mention you might be heading into the studio to record the sounds of your own flatulence. I mean your band's newest release just got a 5 star rating in Rolling Stone for the fourth consecutive album. Why shouldn't people run to the store to pick it up? Your new cover story proclaims "Confessions of The World's Biggest band." Why shouldn't people sleep outside ticketmaster outlets to buy overpriced tickets for your arena tour? No band has skated by on the strength of douchebag critics opinions for longer and to a greater degree than this weeks Band That Sucks Balls: U2.


U2 has been around for my entire lifetime. And I can't remember one point where they weren't huge. When they weren't deified as rock gods. I can't remember one U2 album coming out that critics panned as "average." All this of course blows my mind becase U2 FUCKING SUCKS. There are actually some people I know who might hate U2 more than I do. I am at least old enough to acknowledge that at the outset decades ago, U2 had some potential. They emerged as four working class Irish kids with a chip on their shoulder who were kinda punkish/rebellious. They released like two or three decent songs. They were all about "standing for something" (Sign #1 a band is destined to bury their heads up their own asses). Bono didn't even wear sunglasses. For some reason this minute amount of halfway decent music they released led to critics absolutely falling in love with them. Suddenly U2 was the world's "Greatest Rock Band." They were universally proclaimed the best live act around. Their albums sold more and more records. Their stadium tours got bigger and more elaborate. Bono put on sunglasses and became an authority on the world's problems. The rest is history.


There must be some sort of underground conspiracy in the music world I am not aware of that is responsible for U2's continuing success and critical acclaim. They have been making shitty music for two decades now. Do any of these jackoff critics actually LISTEN to any of U2's albums before giving out 5 star ratings like candy? I could have written "IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAAAAAY." Jesus Christ. Hearing that song makes me want to kick baby strollers into oncoming traffic. When I inevitably end up in Hell, I assume "Beautiful Day" will be blared on repeat while I am forced to watch an all Tyler Perry cable network. Then U2 decided to apparently sign a deal with Apple and now I have to hear the new shitty U2 song everytime an Apple commercial comes on. Fuck you Apple. I would be a lot more interested in purchasing the new IPhone if "HELLOOOOO HELLOOOOOO!!" wasn't blaring during your God damn commercial. U2's latest project was...writing a Spider Man musical.


(head explodes)


WHAT?? Why the fuck do we need a U2 Spiderman musical?! Spiderman sucks. U2 sucks. Who the hell came up with this idea? What happened Broadway...did the deal for the "Twilight" musical scored by R.E.M. fall through??


U2's band is pictured above in it's entirety. U2's Wikipedia page will tell you that Adam Clayton plays bass and Larry Mullen Jr. plays drums in the band. Yeah nobody knows who the fuck these people are. You could replace Adam and Larry with Gilbert Godfried and a homeless Mexican and nobody would notice. U2 is the single-named douche duo of Bono and "The Edge." I've already covered what a jackass Bono is off the stage. Onstage he is no less of a pompous cock. He sings in an over the top operatic whine. He poses in elaborate stances with his arms spread while the arena spotlight shines on him like he is Jesus resurrected. Everything is a production with him directing attention to himself. He also always wears sunglesses, and not cool rock star sunglasses. NO. He wears colored see-through sunglasses. You know who else wears those sunglasses Bono? My mother (who I might add is way cooler than fucking Bono).


The Edge is the Silent Bob to Bono's Jay in the world of shitty arena rock. He also sucks. If you are gonna go by a cool moniker like "The Edge" you had better be a pretty badass guitarist who plays..."edgy" music. The Edge is a horrible guitarist. Since he has no actual guitar skills, critics choose to praise him as "a master of reverb and subtlety." WTF does that mean? His ability to play two chord "DING DING...DANG DANG" riffs on repeat makes him a master of "subtlety?" That's retarded. That's like saying my inability to dunk a basketball makes me a "master of subtlety" on the hardwood with my stirring layups. The Edge like Bono has a signature look: The fitter winter cap. Hey EDGE. You're playing an open air stadium show in July. Take your fucking stocking cap off dickhead you're not a chemo patient.


Anyways U2 are firmly entrenched as media darlings. So there is no end in sight to their reign as critically acclaimed rock gods that dominate our air waves. I guess we can just pray that Bono catches malaria on one of his upcoming Save Africa expeditions. Otherwise we will have to hear U2's epic shitty music forever. Just know that I'm not on board to go see "With or Without You" performed live with you anytime soon. If you purchase a ticket to see U2's Spiderman musical I have no choice but to assume you are either a terrorist, a pedophile, or a Nicolas Cage movie buff.

The U2 tour will probably gross $750- $800 million by the time it finishes in 2011, according to band manager Paul McGuinness.

He told the Financial Times that the 44 sold-out dates since June, which saw the band play in front of 3.2 million people, grossed about $320 million.

With a similar number of dates planned for 2011, he calculates the full tour should gross about $750- $800 million including merchandise sales, dwarfing The Stones.

He says using the 360º stage has enabled each venue to increase capacity by one-fifth. Partly because of the custom-built, claw-shaped set, the tour costs are about $750,000 a day, “whether we play or not.”

He says the tour should still be “highly profitable” but very often that gross figure is carelessly written about as having gone “straight into Bono’s pocket.”

McGuinness also told the FT about the importance of attention to detail when auditing the band’s payments from record companies and publishers.

“On not one of those occasions did we fail to uncover an underpayment,” he said.

"With the band having another 15-20 years to tour, the ultimate goal is to smash all bands career gross and be the best ever" he said.

!!!!!!!!!!!

' joey  ......... what kind of music does jb enjoy ? '

******** SIGH !!! ************


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Cable thieves won't crash U2's party
Sapa, February 04, 2011
By: Victoria John



If everything goes according to plan, U2 and its custom-made "claw" stage will escape the clutches of cable thieves for the band's highly-anticipated concert at FNB Stadium next weekend.

Stadium Management SA chief executive Jacques Grobbelaar said on Friday he was confident the tens of thousands of fans expected to converge around the 360-degree, four-legged steel structure on February 13 would not be left in the dark.

First cable thieves were blamed for a power outage that caused the postponement of a Premier the real football League (PSL) match between Kaizer Chiefs and Moroka Swallows this Saturday, but then the blame shifted to the rainy weather.

Either way, Grobbelaar is adamant the U2 extravaganza next Sunday would not be affected.

"Repairs are going well and should be done by Saturday or Sunday... the U2 concert will definitely be taking to the stage next weekend."

Grobbelaar said there had been sporadic cable theft at the stadium since late December 2010.

"We don't notice the thefts immediately because we only power up the stadium a few days before big events... so this theft was only noticed on Tuesday when we tested the stadium systems in time for the PSL match. The theft could have taken place that morning, or it could have taken place a week ago."

He said by Friday morning 35 percent of power had been restored to the stadium already. It was still unknown how much the repairs would cost, he said. Johannesburg police told Sapa on Friday no cable theft had occurred at the stadium.

"There was no cable theft at the stadium, no case of cable theft has been opened and there will be no investigation," spokesman Warrant officer Gordon Billing said.

Grobbelaar said problems with the power supply were a combination of cable theft and rain.

"The cables obviously got wet from the rain because they were exposed after they were chopped, so this made the problem worse... the power kept tripping."

A case of cable theft was not opened with the police because "City Power is responsible for the power in that precinct, so we reported the incident directly to them and it is up to them if they opt to report it to the police or not."

The stadium's security service providers had met with the police.

"Our security providers will patrol the area around the stadium 24 hours a day and will report any unidentified activity to the police... in this way we hope to prevent any further incidents."

© Sapa, 2011.

" Very upset about ABB gross being toppled in April by U2...the writer to glee in mentioning how much more popular U2 was as they didn't need to charge high prices like the Stones ....we have no more records to hold on to, no tour, no respect from media...terribly upsetting.   "

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" Very upset about ABB gross being toppled in April by U2...the writer to glee in mentioning how much more popular U2 was as they didn't need to charge high prices like the Stones ....we have no more records to hold on to, no tour, no respect from media...terribly upsetting.   "

!!!!!

' jb will cave any day now '

Too Late Some Guy !!!!!!   .... Too Friggin LATE !!!!!! :