The band are taking plenty of flack for the carbon emissions from taking this gargantuan beast on the road and you can understand why. Personally though, I believe  The Edge when he says they will offset that carbon footprint in some way. They’d probably already thought about it long before all the knives came out.  Unfortunately at around the same time he bought 156 acres on a cliff in Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean to build an eco friendly  home. Well five in fact, his own 10,000 square foot palace and another four to flog. Nice work if you can get it! He does want to make it his main homestead though and having seen the place I think I would too! Needless to say the activists came out in force stating that to build whatever he was building they would need to flatten a part of the cliff to build an access road.

No matter what anyone says about U2, whether it’s the new album, the carbon non friendly size of the tour or anything else for that matter the one thing you can’t ignore is the experience almost every single person who attends the show takes home. For them it’s worth every penny. U2 bring them a happiness that a lot of other bands don’t and for them it’s the best night of their lives. Paul McGuinness  has been quoted as saying they don’t break even until the back end of the US tour so you cannot argue about their desire to give people an experience second to none. The Edge on the edge. Of a cliff.

I don’t think the tour will have a significant effect on their record sales either and I’m sure they know that better than anyone. Their motivation will be their desire (no pun intended) to give something back to the people who have stuck with them forever, it’ll be trying to let them experience something unique, something completely different…….to anything. Add to that the corporate, footballer world flocking to the U2 show as the place to be seen and we have ‘the event’. It’s kinda funny too, what about those who haven’t seen a live show before? Where do they go from here, anything is going to seem sub standard after Claw Wars!

And where do U2 go from here, the return of The Claw? I don’t think so , it won’t be anywhere other than rest for a while and I think we can all allow them that indulgence! But what next, where can you go. Personally I think it’ll be stripped right down and four guys will take their songs to the masses. U2 have reached such a level now that being the ‘hottest ticket’ they could do anything. They’ve earned it. They haven’t earned it because of a gigantic claw and a production of epidemic proportion, they earned it from 30 plus years on the road. They’ve earned it from playing every tiny club that wanted to book them to every fan who wanted to see them. They’ve earned it from signing every autograph for every one of those fans who believed in them enough to give them a chance to do this. And through it all they stuck at it. They posed for every picture with every fan no matter how exhausted they were after giving their all in a performance, and for many years to under a hundred people and not a hundred thousand. They stepped out front to meet and greet the fans for as long as it was safe to do so. They paid their dues, they have earned it.

For me U2, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Bruce or Led Zeppelin don’t have to prove anything to me or anyone else. They earned it, damn right they earned it. It’s called a work ethic and it’s called graft. Blood, sweat and tears. It’s called taking chances and making mistakes and it’s called entertainment. It isn’t about any one tour, it’s about understanding why you came in to this business and giving people something they have earned. The opportunity to take their hard earned cash and spend it how they want to. And if that is on two hours of a thrill of a lifetime who are we to judge?  When entertainers get this big let’s not lose site of the fact that they are still meant to entertain. It’s what they do and it’s what they should always do.

Nevertheless it’s popular. The adds run at $3 million for a 30 second commercial and sadly they were all booked pre recession.$100,000 per second! Rhianna played the other night, The Eagles last night, there’s Fleetwood Mac, Puff Daddy, whoops P.Diddy who turned up in St Pete early this morning for a party. Snoop is snooping around, it’s all going on. Meanwhile I’m checking out Fox Soccer Channel and I think Wigan on the box will do just fine, no problem. Leave ‘em all to paaaaaaaaarty.

Oh and then of course there’s The Boss, the man who knows about as much about the game as me, Bruce Springsteen. He’s turned it down a million times but Boss times are hard and like he boldly admits, he has a new album out. There’s no fee but they’ll cover expenses, nice, him and Patti get a hotel room but then again the audience for his 12 minute half time show is a billion! No need for a sweat drenched 3 hour show. Boss move by Boss man. Nice work if you can get it.

Bruce did a press conference on Thursday and no suprise, it was all over everywhere. It was the first he’d done since 1987 and the media lapped it up. Brucey boy seemed in good spirits and I did like his honesty about not being a football fan and wanting to shamlessly plug his new album. One thing both he and Miami Steve said got me thinking. They said they came out of an era when the music was brilliant and the artists set a very high standard and they felt it their job to maintain those standards, they wanted to be great. It’s a wonderful philosophy, admire you’re peers but at the same time try and emulate them.

Springsteen has worked relentlesly for several decades to be where he is. He shunned CBS’s (now Sony) hype campaign and the posters that claimed ‘I have seen the future of rock n roll and it is Bruce Springsteen’ He hated it, he demanded they take them all down. As was the case with his heroes and when he was growing up, he wanted to be judged on merit and not some overhyped record company campaign.

He was right, he was more than a commodity, he had a vision and he wasn’t prepared to compromise.The artists that have survived are the ones who had a say in their career, they too had a vision and weren’t prepared to stand back and let the record company turn them in to what they thought they should be, and create something that would make their job easier, make them marketable. They had belief and they had guts and if was going to take time then so be it. It worked then but they won’t let it work now, they all watched as everything came tumbling down. They pushed the self destruct button while blaming everyone apart from themselves.They knew it all.

Music industry people like Chris Blackwell and Ahmet Ertegun, Herb Alpert and a smattering of others from the past together with the Michael Lippmans and Paul McGuinesses of the present still retain their mantles and their success is deserving. In their own domain they have successfully managed every part of the process and gained the respect of their artists. But where do the others turn to for guidance. These people have their own houses to keep in order but nowadays what do they see around them, where do they turn find the like minded people of old that they rely on to work with? Where is the support, the back up they once had. Labels believed in their artists and would do everything they could to show that support, they used to inspire one another.

Where are the people who once were so enthusiastic about the music they couldn’t wait to spread the word. They needed to make money but it was the music that drove them. When I first started in the music business in 1974 my immediate boss Ray Cooper was first and foremost a fan, it was why he wanted to work in the music business. And he’s still a fan today. Back then we’d spend as much time discussing music on other labels as we did on the stuff we were selling, the same at Island later on. There didn’t seem to be anyone there who wasn’t there for the right reasons.

Once this was an industry abundant with adventurous, creative people, now it’s an industry scared of risk, frightened by mistake, confused, tried and tested. And found guilty.

We can hope for change but this isn’t the change President Elect Obama had in mind. This is one thing he or no one else could manage to change. We will look at what happens now in the music industry and if last year was a year of radical change then this year is going to see even bigger change. And for those that can survive it, good luck.

Springsteen has done well to hold on to his crown but when you look around it’s not hard to understand why. He’s the real thing, he lives and breathes every minute of every show. What I love about him is that even though he has adoring fans he still plays as though he wants to win over a new crowd. His stamina never falters and he has a unique charisma. Springsteen plays like he is playing just for you. I think he is still the greatest exponent at working a crowd, he pushes each and every button, every time. You certainly know when you’ve been to a Bruce Springsteen concert.

Bruce has sincerity, he’s one of us. He feels for the common man and he cares and although he has amassed a small fortune from his many years at the top he still has an understanding of the world we live in and he prays for things to change. He’s the sort of guy you feel you’d like to get to know, the type you could sit and have a beer with him. If you had a problem, you could tell him. In fact when I met him briefly after the Talking Heads,U2 show in London in the early 80’s he was lovely, a real gent. I wanted to take him home and sit up all night listening to and discussing records. I wanted to find out all about him.

Indeed long may Bruce Springsteen reign, he’s a hard act to follow. When I saw him earlier this year it was a particularly difficult time for him as he’s lost his long time friend and fellow band member Danny Federici after a long illness. The show was on off for a few days but eventually he played and although a little subdued to begin with he still gave us all a great show. I only wished it could have been at a small, intimate venue not just for me but for him too.

I think I remember the pool area (not the swimming type but the grubby green, beer sodden baize and splintered cue variety) as being more interesting than what was happening on the stage. It was the furthest point from the stage and where everyone I knew had congregated. Enough said! Ian Curtis was fairly ‘well oiled’ on cheap alcohol and seemed to be ranting about anything and everything. I think he was particularly miffed that Kevin Cummins’ made up combo ‘ The Negatives’ had been generating a lot of interest in the place, as well as in the press and they hadn’t even existed. Kevin, knowing how gullible the music press were invented all these stories about where they were playing, how they were creating a buzz and the music press lapped it up. Because of Manchester’s significance in the birth of punk from the famous Sex Pistols Lesser Free Trade Hall gig, to The Electric Circus, So it Goes, The Buzzcocks and beyond, anything muted from this nation’s hallowed turf would be worth writing about. Kevin along with his writing colleague Paul Morley thought it was hilarious, who wouldn’t have? A clear case of the music press being so far up it’s own ass.

Ian’s slagging off of Tony Wilson was more the drink talking, although to anyone passing it might have appeared that it could ‘go off’ at any time. Wilson handled it very well though .. when people behave like this we all know the slightest comment can set them off. Tony smiled like only he could, a smirk, a grin, cordial, professional all the time, all combined as an excellent way of defusing the abuse (sounds like a Pixies anthem ) Ian stomped around a little more and then became more frustrated that everyone was going on before them, something he could hardly hold Tony accountable for. A set close to 3am could hardly be considered a headliner, more ‘Er turn the lights off on your way out will you.’

Neither Stiff nor Chiswick signed anyone that night and I couldn’t even remember the name of anyone who played, with the obvious exception of Joy Division that is. The performance was less than memorable and whenever anyone recalls the evening all you hear mentioned is Ian’s ranting. The band were no strangers to the place either, the year before they had played there a couple of times under their previous name Warsaw, and just a few weeks earlier as Joy Division. Ian probably thought this was going to be ‘the one.’

A while ago I reminded Dave Robinson, the co founder of Stiff Records about Joy Division playing that night and he couldn’t even remember!

Nowadays, where you need the artist to do so much for themselves ,it’s the role of manager that has changed. At the top end you need a powerful, influential manager who can act as the buffer between the artist and the record company. Where the record company might want to exert their influence because they have money invested, the manager can ensure protecting their act. Record companies will want to pressurize them to deliver records to suit their projected quarterly targets as a successful act is their lifeline there. No good manager would ever allow that and where they have good management, the record company would be less inclined to ask.

At the other end where the act is unknown it is difficult to secure good management. Some of the more reputable ones are ‘full up’ with no room to take on new acts. Sad but true, it’s the smaller acts that often require the greater work. An unknown manager without a reputation is going to find it hard to get to record companies. Apart from them signing fewer and fewer acts, they rarely listen to unsolicited material. What that effectively means is if they don’t know you they won’t listen to what you have. In defense of the record companies, they simply don’t have the resource any longer to wade through endless CD’s of mostly crap artists. With regard to the better managers, it is very hard to spend all the time you need to on an act that is earning you nothing, and at the expense of the one that is. They could get very pissed off and that could jeopardize their managerial position with them. Whichever way you turn you can’t win, but at least the good are wise to that.

The Factory Club, housed on Friday’s at the Russell club in Hulme was the next phase in Tony Wilson’s mission in creating the musical heritage of the city of Manchester. Everything he did from there on helped create a legacy and something everyone should remember him for. Tony’s passion and enthusiasm for everything he did for the city he loved so much should never be underestimated. He put Manchester firmly on the map in a way that generations down the line will remember. Tony was so vocal about the place, always putting himself out there and using his position to the benefit of the city. Tony, whether you like him or not was always heard. He was the type of person who made people listen. That’s all you want from any ambassador, the opportunity for them to get their message across, to make others listen. He was articulate and a brilliant communicator, and if he thought you were a twat he’d say so !

It brings back so many memories of the legendary meetings we had at Factory. Meetings only started to happen once they moved out of the flat in Palatine Road and in to the new building on Charles Street in Manchester. Factory’s new building was directly behind the BBC, how terribly establishment. They’d spent a fortune doing the place up but it was a totally different era. Sometimes all you can remember is all the financial crap that started to happen and how it spelled doom for Factory. It was never a lucky building, too much heartache.

Palatine Road was another place altogether, in every sense of the word! He thought as they’d spent so much on this ‘bloody fancy table’ at the new Factory HQ, the one Happy Mondays famously broke that we should sit around it and meet. Whenever there was a new release we would meet. So many times we would offer opinions about choice of singles, what we needed to do with who and when. At times you thought Tony wasn’t listening, he probably wasn’t. Every time he looked at the table who could blame him for thinking about something else! The New Order meetings were famous where I’d be constantly disagreeing on singles they wanted to put out, and Rob Gretton, New Order’s manager would snigger away at me lambasting Wilson.

Oh happy days.