Saturday, June 25, 2011

U2 “Out of Control” at Glastonbury

U2 have just concluded their headline act at Glastonbury, finishing with “Out of Control.” (Full set list here). U2 tend to finish with a quieter, more reflective song like Moment of Surrender or 40, while “Out of control” tends to be played early in the “energy” part of their sets.

So the use of Out of Control to conclude a show is interesting. A nod to the difference between a festival compared with a concert? A nod to the sort of schedule which seems them play Baltimore (USA) on the 22 June, Glastonbury (UK) on the 24, then flying back across the Atlantic for East Lansing (USA) on the 26th?

Or perhaps it was because of the lyrics;

Eighteen years of dawning
I say how long; You say how long

given that this was U2’s first ever Glastonbury appearance and given the postponement, due to emergency surgery on Bono’s spine, from last year.

“Out of control” is from their first album, Boy, and the song was first played live in 1979. That’s like 30 years ago. It’s a pretty gusty call to finish a headline performance at a global music festival with a song from your first album. It got me thinking about my first attempts at creativity – those early sermons and fumbling attempts at alternative worship. Would they stand the test of time?

While on the subject of U2, this week by email arrived the Table of Contents and the cover image for the Exploring U2. Is this rock and roll? book in which I have a chapter (one of 16) titled (“Bullet The Blue Sky” As An Evolving Performance). The book is (still) on track for publication with Scarecrow Press (academic reference and professional books publisher owned by University Press of America) in October/November of this year.

Given the accessibility of the subject matter (popular music) and that this is an international publisher, it got me wondering about having a bit of book launch here in Adelaide. Perhaps linked with the new Bible and Culture topic being taught for the first time ever this second Semester at Uniting College?

Posted by steve at 12:08 PM

1 Comment

  1. Love U2…might have to check the book out.

    Comment by Christian X — June 30, 2011 @ 12:44 am

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