Posts Tagged ‘springsteen’

Dubliners U2 have grossed over $123 million during their 2009 tour of North America beating Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band ($94.5m) to the number two spot.

U2′s ’360°’ stadium tour was not able to touch the Rolling Stones record set back in 2005 when Jagger and Co. raked in an astounding £162 million during their shows in the US and Canada.

Our highlights this week include a new album from one of the biggest US acts around, the beginning of a UK tour by one of the best live bands in the country, and a documentary on one of the greatest records of the seventies.

Albums

US heavyweights Pearl Jam release their ninth studio album ‘Backspacer‘ this week, which has already received widespread praise from music critics. Former Longpigs and Pulp guitarist Richard Hawley releases ‘Truelove’s Gutter‘. Hawley is enjoying a successful period in his career; after his 2005 record ‘Coles Corner’ was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, he was nominated in the Best Male category at the 2008 Brit Awards. He will now be hoping for further success with his new album, which one critic has described as “quietly passionate, graceful, elegant, utterly moving, and unequivocally beautiful in its honesty and sophistication.”

Details for next year’s Glastonbury festival have been released today, and reveal a £10 increase on prices from last year.

The tickets will be on sale from 9am on Sunday, October 4th. The new price will be £185, with a £5 booking fee and £4.95 postage charge on top. As in keeping with the past few years, a registration scheme will be implemented in an attempt to discourage ticket touts. Fans will have to register before 9am, Friday October 2nd, although those who registered last year will not have to re-register.

Speaking on the price rise this year, organiser Michael Eavis said: “(The price has risen) a little bit, I’m afraid. I do try and hold it down, but the girls doing the budgeting are so thorough and so clever, and they said: ‘Look, the minimum rise we can get away with is 10 quid more’. It is a shame, because I really wanted to hold the price.”

Singer VV Brown got Saturday underway on the Pyramid Stage, playing her second show of the festival after appearing on the John Peel Stage on Friday. ‘Fictional’ rock band Spinal Tap played a crowd pleasing set in the afternoon. During ‘Stonehenge’ an inflatable model of Stonehenge was brought on to the stage, echoing the famous scene from the movie ‘This Is Spinal Tap’. Former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and jazz musician Jamie Cullam joined the band on stage. As ever, Kasabian stormed through their set, with ‘Fire’ making a strong case for song of the weekend. Nothing could over-shadow headliner Bruce Springsteen however, who played to the biggest crowd of the weekend so far and was on stage for well over two and a half hours. The Boss had earlier guested on the John Peel Stage with fellow New Jerseyans ‘The Gaslight Anthem‘.

The Other Stage saw Peter Doherty play a career-spanning set, with Libertines classics such as ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’ and ‘Time For Heroes’ getting the biggest response. Maximo Park put on a set with hits including ‘Our Velocity‘ and ‘Going Missing’ and Paolo Nutini performed songs from acclaimed new record ‘Sunny Side Up‘. Alex Kapranos, lead singer of headliners Franz Ferdinand, told the crowd Glastonbury was a “beautiful place to be”.

Blur will bring the curtain down on this year’s festival tomorrow when they headline the Pyramid Stage.

Sean Lennon has criticised Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis’ decision to book Bruce Springsteen for the Saturday night headline slot at this year’s festival. Speaking to The Sun newspaper, Lennon said “It’s shocking. I’ve been to a few Glastos in my time, I’ve even played a few, and it just didn’t seem like that was the kind of artist they had headlining. I heard they called him and he didn’t even know what it was.”

It is the second time in two years that Eavis has faced criticism for the Saturday headliner. Last year Noel Gallagher famously blamed poor ticket sales for the festival on the decision to book Jay-Z, saying hip-hop at Glastonbury was ‘wrong’.

Lennon did however praise the decision to book veteran Neil Young, who will headline the Pyramid Stage on Friday. “I love Neil Young” he said, “I feel like he’s one of the only people who managed to stay cool the whole time, which is really hard isn’t it.”

Organisers of the festival changed the ticket policy this year in an attempt to avoid the slow sales of last year, and as a result Glastonbury sold out months in advance. The festival, which sees reformed band Blur headlining with Springsteen and Young, kicks off at Worthy Farm on Friday.