June 14, 2001

9:28 PM

"The members of U2 kindly request that all fans of the group be physically attractive. In order to have a Beautiful Day, we require Beautiful People. Thank you for your understanding." (BTW, it turns out the article is wrong. HBO had nothing to do with it; it was entirely U2's decision.)
posted by aaron (7 comments total)

Just curious, do you have a link that verifies U2's complicity in this?
posted by kphaley454 at 9:47 PM on June 14, 2001

U2 film grounded, from 6/13 Boston Herald (the Herald is the one that broke this story)

Well, well, well, it now looks like HBO is NOT broadcasting the U2 Boston concerts - a small detail which the band forgot to mention to the FleetCenter!

HBO spokesgal Tobe Becker said the cable network had "conversations''with the band, but at the last moment, they took a pass. Which wasn't What U2's management Was Looking For.

Sources close to the band say Bono & Company, which self-produced the shows with director Hamish Hamilton, is still shopping it around to Showtime, CBS and other media venues. And a DVD is also in the works. Which would put U2 in the position of competing with HBO concert extravaganzas like the Bruce Springsteen show at Madison Square Garden, which just concluded its HBO run, and the upcoming Madonna show, which is being filmed in Detroit in August for broadcast.

FleetCenter cheese Rich Krezwick told the Track he didn't learn HBO wasn't involved in the filming until the final U2 show Saturday night. "I would say through our communications with the show, we assumed it
was an HBO production,'' he said. ``We didn't realize they didn't have firm plans with HBO.''

Which wasn't music to anyone's ears!
posted by aaron at 9:55 PM on June 14, 2001

A-ha. Thanks.
posted by kphaley454 at 10:02 PM on June 14, 2001

dude. as if bono is a good looking man.
posted by sugarfish at 10:34 PM on June 14, 2001

FYI: During the gig, the band were visibly upset with what went on, and Bono wrought some lyrics into the songs. Don't have the exact quote here but it was something like 'after 25 years, tonight it doesn't feel right'.'

This would never be a band decision. I'd blame it on corporate America. But then I blame everything on corporate America.
posted by prolific at 11:27 PM on June 14, 2001

Didn't their Pop Mart TV special, which appeared on one of the big three broadcast networks on a Saturday night a couple years ago, end up with the dubious honor of being the lowest-rated television program of all time?

Good luck, U2. They jumped the shark long ago, with the lame Batman movie song they did.
posted by Ben Grimm at 7:27 AM on June 15, 2001

Millions would disagree with you there ben. And that song was far better than the lame movie it accompanied.
posted by DiplomaticImmunity at 11:01 AM on June 15, 2001