U2-A Diary

I just want to offer a HUGE THANKS to everyone who responded so quickly to the last-minute call for fan photos for the 2nd edition of U2-A Diary. In just 3-4 days, dozens of great photos came in from fans all over the world. If I recall correctly, I heard from fans in North America, South America, Australia/New Zealand, Europe and Asia. And maybe more!

I’ve just posted the photos for Omnibus Press (the publisher) to consider, and the final tally is 60+ photos from 21 fans. That’s pretty darn good for such a short period of time. Best of all, there’s some really great photos in the group and I know we’ve made the photo editor’s job difficult! I certainly wouldn’t want to have to try to decide which photos can or can’t be included.

So, anyway, THANKS AGAIN to all who submitted. I won’t know what photos were selected until the book is printed and published, so we’ll all find out at about the same time. That should be sometime this summer.

It’s time to put out a call for fan photos for the second edition of U2-A Diary. If you’ve taken some great U2-related pictures in the past three years, and don’t mind offering them for possible publication in the book at no charge/payment, here’s what you need to know:

Deadline

Due to my travel schedule, we have only 3-4 days to collect fan photos. I was on the road last week when the publisher’s photo editor contacted me about photos, and today is the first chance I’ve had to post about it.

We need your photos by Tuesday, March 15.

What We’re Looking For

Just about any U2 photo from 2008 through 2010. We’re NOT looking for photos from any other years.

Photos of the band signing autographs outside the studio, photos of them at movie premieres, other bands’ concerts, other appearances, etc. — those are all great.

Concert photos will be great, too, but we have a TON of those already so we’d only be looking for really amazing/unusual concert photos. Since live gigs are not the focus of U2 – A Diary, we may not need a ton of those photos.

Photo Requirements

We need high-resolution photos, 300 dpi or higher. That will give the most flexibility in terms of how big the photo can appear in the book. We may be able to use smaller photos (like 180 dpi), but those will appear smaller in the book. We can’t use any 72 dpi (web-ready) photos, sorry to say.

Since we’re on a tight deadline, we can’t use prints, either. We need digital images.

What about copyright?

You will retain full copyright and ownership of the photo(s) you share for U2 – A Diary. There’s no money to be exchanged and no change of ownership/copyright.

How to Send in Photos

If you’re not sure we’ll want your photo(s), feel free to send me an e-mail giving as much detail about what you have, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

If you just want to send your best shots, my address starts with matt and ends with the domain you’re on right now (u2diary.com).

When You Send…

Please include as much detail as you can about each photo: Date, Location, Explanation (if it’s not obvious). Since this is a date-based book, it will be difficult to use photos that we can’t tie/associate to a particular date.

Also, be sure to include your name so we can give you full credit if a photo is used.

Thanks!

I obviously can’t guarantee we’ll use everything that gets submitted, but whether or not your photo(s) make the book, I appreciate your willingness to help!

Any questions? Email me or use the comments if the answer will benefit other readers, too.

(camera image via Shutterstock.com)

Last night at about 11:00 pm, I finished the manuscript and all associated documents for the 2nd edition of U2-A Diary! I’ll be sending Omnibus a little more than 40,000 words and the new book should be 400 pages total when it comes out this summer.

But I have one last question for U2 fans.

I’ve written a short, three-paragraph Introduction that covers only the new material – 2008 through 2010. The Introduction is sort of a big picture, high-level assessment of the material in the diary. I reviewed these past three years and found the major themes/events to include

• relatively poor album sales compared to past U2 albums
• poor sales/response to U2′s singles
• shut out at all the major awards, even the Meteor Irish Music Awards in their own country
• Bono’s back injury
• the long-running Spider-Man problems
• huge success for the U2 360 tour

The Introduction as I’ve written it basically says that this was a difficult three years for U2 and that there were more negatives than positives.

The question to you: Is that accurate/fair? Or, were the past three years better for U2 than I’ve painted them? Your feedback is appreciated! Please leave a comment below and I’ll process them for posting as quickly as possible.

Can anyone find an article confirming if, when and/or why BP Fallon was removed from his role as pre-show DJ during the Zoo TV Tour? My searches have come up empty.

How perfect that I discovered this video yesterday … on January 1st? It’s a studio “performance” of “New Year’s Day” — but the band is just playing along to the album version, so it’s not really a live performance. The YouTube description & comments indicate that it’s from French TV, but I don’t know when or where. And in the first edition of U2-A Diary, there’s no mention of a French TV documentary/appearance.

So … anyone know anything about this?