1. Every month we put an U2 fan in the spotlights, the fan of the month October 2009 is user markp91. Mark is one of our most active forum members so it gets time to get to know him better. Read along!

    Tell us something about yourself, who are you and what do you do for a living?
    Hello everyone, I'm Mark. I come from the south of the Netherlands and I turned 18 last August. At the moment I'm studying financial management in the city of Eindhoven (for the football fans among us: that's where PSV comes from). Next to my study I work some at a very well-known dutch warehouse called Hema. Other dutchmen will know it, maybe some french, belgians and germans are familiar with it as well It's a nice job and if anyone happens to visit a town called 'Boxtel' someday, come by to visit me. Mi casa et su casa.

    How did you become a fan of U2, tell us how it happened?
    I remember it happened quite a while ago, when I was still 9/10. I used to go to school during daytimes, but during lunch break we always got to get home. So at home I usually watched some tv and eat some sandwiches. At one point, I suppose during spring 2000, I was watching MTV and this very interesting first chords were played; Beautiful Day was shown. It was at #1 in the dutch charts back then and I saw that videoclip a zillion times those weeks. I was 9, so I loved the airplanes flying over the band, I loved that man just grabbing an apple and following the luggage through the mysterious hole. As I remember, Beautiful Day was also my very first "favorite song", by any band. It's my earliest memory of a song I liked.
    Later, songs like Vertigo, City Of Blinding Lights, Original Of The Species and Window In The Skies helped me a bit further....

    What does your U2 collection look like? What kind of stuff do you have and how is it organised?
    My collection is very small, I have to admit that. At the moment I have, obviously, all songs nicely organised in iTunes. In my room, on some drawer I have all albums, plus a couple of albums double. A couple of singles are inbetween those as well (Vertigo, City Of Blinding Lights, Electrical Storm and Window In The Skies out of the top of my head). In another corner I have the boxsets of No Line On The Horizon and The Joshua Tree.
    My bootleg collection isn't very large either, but most of the famous bootlegs are already in it. Usually I have one bootleg on my iPod...right now that's Amsterdam 1 from the 360 tour.

    In a house fire, which one of your U2 items would you save?
    That is a rather easy question. I suppose I'm not surprising the people who know me by saying I'd bring along the Zooropa album.
    Zooropa is, and probably always will be, my favourite album by this magnificent band, so that should definitely go with me. The album doesn't have any big hits or songs that could really be considered as 'classic', but the album 'fits'. I really love the style, the songs connect with each other. It's not just a collection of songs, that is why I love this album so much. Now I must admit that IF a fire would occur in my house I would probably not think about U2, music or anything hobby related and I'd rather run for my life...but that's another thing I guess?

    What would you like to ask U2 if you got the chance to?
    I would probably ask them why they have played Dirty Day only 10 times. I love this song so much and I can watch a thousand times to the version played on the ZooTV-dvd. The lyrics are beautiful ("throw a rock in the air and you'll hit someone guilty" and "there's no blood thicker than ink") and Bono's voice sounds beautiful.
    Also, I find it awesome that the album version and the live version(s) are completely different from eachother, which is even better than the real thing.
    So I would probably end up asking them to play this one again this tour.

    Does anyone in your family or one of your friends like U2? If so, did they
    introduce you to U2, or did you "convert" them?

    Well, no-one in my family is a really big fan, but my dad certainly likes them a lot. He already knew them of course (Sunday Bloody Sunday, Pride, I Will Follow were hits when he was young) but he was never a really big fan. Until I invited him to come along to see them live, so on 20-07-2009 we were in the Amsterdam ArenA and the show blew him away Obviously he loved the old hits, but also the new songs and recent hits were a pleasure for him (He named Vertigo, City Of Blinding Lights and Moment Of Surrender as highlights).
    Also, my cousin is a big music-fan and he enjoys them a lot. We listen to a couple of the same bands (he converted me to Radiohead, The Prodigy and Sigur Ros, I converted him to U2). It's always nice do discuss music with them.

    Where does your love for the Dutch band Voicst come from?
    Haha, that is a very good question actually.
    Well, every year there's this festival here called Pinkpop (U2 played there in 1981 I believe).
    And in 2008 I was watching a broadcast from this festival and I fell in love with this unknown dutch band Voicst. The guys seemed really nice, their music sounded pretty good and the performance of THIS song really got me interested. So I purchased their album "The Tale Of Two Devils" and from that moment I was caught by this nice upcoming band
    For those who like britpop; you might like them.

    What is your favorite U2 bootleg, and why? Do you often listen to bootlegs?
    At the moment my favorite bootleg is Amsterdam, 20-07-'09, but that probably has to do with the fact I was there. My other favourite bootleg would be the 31-07-'01 in Arnhem. Beautiful bootleg, with great sound. Awesome setlist and probably the best Sunday Bloody Sunday ever (also the longest one btw).

    Another favorite of mine, and probably performance-wise the best among these, is the 1992 show in Stockholm, Sweden. Being broadcasted by MTV makes it already legendary but I can't remember hearing the band more in top form than back then.

    Which member of the band would you most like to share a pint with?
    Adam Clayton (and, if possible, Larry on some mobile version of Skype next to him...not likely to happen tough...). Adam is the coolest man of them all and, in my humble opinion, also the most talented one on his main instrument. There are better singers than Bono, there are better guitarists than The Edge, there are better drummers than Larry (very few tough), but are there better bas guitarists than Adam Clayton? Not in my book.
    I'd like to ask him if he really is the most 'gifted' one of U2 lol

    What are your hobbies and interests away from U2, musical or otherwise?
    I very much enjoy football. I play it myself, altough I must admit we are not exactly a dreamteam lol. Let's just say we use the first and second half to warm-up for the third half...
    Next to that I'm a fan of Ajax Amsterdam, definitely the best team in the Dutch football-league.
    More hobbies: a good movie now and then, going out now and then, other sports now and then (squash, cycling, even some running now and then)

    I hope you all enjoyed that. I wanna thank the crew for making me the fan of the month and I'll c'ya all around. Adios

    Thanks for this interview markp91!

    Note: Our crew members randomly pick fans of the month, you can't sign up for it.
  2. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

    WE LOVE YOU MARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Great interview here mate, very interesting, hope your ok, speak to you soon matey
  3. Good choice yet again. Nice answers to some great questions too!
  4. "Normal" people's interviews are the best ones!

    The excepetion is U2 of course...

    Congrats

    Greetings from Brazil
  5. Very nice interview!

    I specially loved the bit of: Even though there's a small mistake... It's "Mi casa ES TU casa", S and T, not T and S. Nice anyway, glad to see you moreorless speak spanish. Good thing
  6. ..and so was Mark inducted into the U2start Hall of Fame. Loved to read this one, my dear friend.
  7. Another one prefered above me

    Without trying to be funny: nice interview, totally share your view about Zooropa
  8. FINALLY, it's mark's turn
    nice interview, champ!
  9. Very nice interview Mark!!!
    congrats!!!
  10. Good stuff Mark
  11. Great stuff Mark, good to read your stuff
  12. Nice stuff. But what kind of sport is "squash?"