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February 15, 2005
U2: biggest vs. best
An interesting examination of U2 by the Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot includes some remarkable quotes from fan-evangelist Patty Culliton:
The ticket fiasco was the latest eye-opener for longtime fans who once saw U2 as a beacon of integrity incapable of selling out its integrity or selling short its audience. Even as the band raked in $80 million on tour in 1997 and $67 million in 1992 and sold 5.4 million copies of "Achtung Baby" (1991) and 2.3 million of "Zooropa" (1993), Bono stepped up his social activism by campaigning around the world to reduce Third World debt and combat the AIDS epidemic in Africa. But the goodwill gestures are ringing hollow for many fans, says Patty Culliton, 32, of Chicago, who has attended more than 80 U2 concerts.
"What a shame," she wrote recently at a U2 fan Web site, interference.com. "U2 used to want to be the best band in the world. Now they just want to be the biggest band in the world. And they lost the plot along the way."
In an interview, Culliton stood by her posted comments: "In the past, they could have done just about anything except kill someone and I would have understood their motives, I would have defended them because I always believed their intentions were good," she says. "But not anymore. The blinders are off. We can see the little old man behind the curtain on this tour."
Kot argues U2 sold out smaller concert promoters it had courted for 20 years in favor of the biggest promoter in the business.
The band also partnered with a big online company to create a fee-based fan club that eventually led to a big ticket disaster. (The band apologized for the fiasco during its acceptance speech for a Grammy award it won this week.)
Maybe what fans like Patty are trying to say is that biggest isn't always best.
UPDATE: MTV updates the U2 ticket bomb and places the blame squarely on a fan-unfriendly design:
The ticket snafu began with the January 25 Internet presale for the band's upcoming Vertigo 2005 Tour (see "U2 Finally Announce Tour Dates"). U2's most dedicated fans — members of their fan club, who pay a $40 subscription fee — were supposed to get first crack, but things didn't end up working that way.
Those running the Internet presale didn't rank fan club members according to length of membership when they issued presale access codes. Instead, they randomly issued codes, which opened the door for scalpers who signed up for the fan club just to get in on the presale action. For them, $40 was a small price to pay, especially when tickets to U2's first tour in four years could go for four to five times that on eBay. Needless to say, the scalpers gobbled up tickets, and many longtime fans were left empty-handed.
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U2 is my all time fav band. They're terrific.
But they've always had a HORRID Web presence. The latest debacle just cemented their place in bad Web history.
I'm with ya Jake on the U2 love.
What seems to happen too often with artists is they think their websites have to be as clever as their art when most Internet users crave simple utility.
The sad thing is this ticket disaster had less to do with "selling out" and more to do with the concert tour being delayed by family issues with one of the band members.
Seems like we tend to believe the worst in people if left to our own devices. A good reason to keep the communication lines as open as possible. Of course, I can see why they wouldn't want to broadcast their private lives to the world.
