1. Every month we put an U2 fan in the spotlights, the fan of the month October 2010 is user dieder. No need to introduce this dutch man, so here is the interview:


    Tell us something about yourself, who are you and what do you do for a living?
    I was born a child of grace, nothing else about the place.
    Well, I'm currently enjoying my last month as a teenager, and I was born in Friesland (province in the north of The Netherlands), but currently living in Gelderland, pretty much in the center of the country.
    I still live at home with my parents, and my older sister (she's five years older) lives in one of the more bigger cities, she also studies there.

    Myself I'm in the second year of my study Communication at the best university of the country (in Ede, near or at the Biblebelt ). Despite it being known as very christian I must say I'm having a really great time there. Not that I have something against christians, as I'm a believer myself. It's more the whole lifestyle that I absolutely don't like. I don't do anything for a living right now, but that will be solved in a few weeks I reckon


    How did you become a fan of U2, tell us how it happened?
    My dad used to play cassette tapes of Rattle and Hum in the car, (very loudly) and although I didn't know who or what U2 was, I liked that album. I was very young back then, approximately a year of 8/9, but even then I was really attracted to the sound of honesty and love in songs like Pride. Because my dad was and is a really big fan of The Rolling Stones I always thought Rattle and Hum was a Stones album, but I just recently found out it actually is a U2 record. Oh, and I also found out that the guy with the glasses on the back sleeve is the bass player, and not the singer which for a time I thought he was (don't know why, Adam just always looks way more friendly than B. ).

    I became more known with U2 when All That You Can't Leave Behind was released, really digging Elevation and Beautiful Day. But again, nothing big since I listened to all kinds of music back then. I by the way almost attended one of the Elevation shows in Arnhem, but because our holiday plans changed that never happened, unfortunately.

    2003: The Best of 1990-2000 was a big revelation for me. I remember listening to songs like Even Better Than the Real Thing, Mysterious Ways and Gone for the first time and thinking: 'This is one of the craziest and confusing sounds I ever heard!' I also found the bits on that promo dvd -that was included- mesmerizing and awesome at the same point.

    Some years later, say 2005 or 2006, something happened with me and U2. I can't really recall the moment, but in a way I got hand on all the U2 albums -and although skipping albums like Pop and Zooropa at first hand- and became hooked.

    Some people are addicted to smoking and the longer they're addicted and the more they smoke they become even more addicted. I sometimes like to think that the same counts for me with my U2-fanshipness. Don't think it's only U2 that I listen too, I also like Snow Patrol, Scissor Sisters, REM, David Bowie and Muse is also starting to grow on me. Don't feel as attached to them as to U2 however


    What was the best show you visited?
    Easy, the second show in Brussels of the current U2 360 tour. Everything was perfect. There was rain (I hoped already a few weeks prior to the gig that there would be rain at one of the two shows), there was a loud crowd, there was a band on fire and there was Bad in the setlist. Brussels I actually had the best setlist for any gig I've attended, but hearing Bad is always such a special moment, they really treated us that night with a great long rendition. The band also seemed really relaxed, lots of smiles and lyric fuck-ups etcetera.

    Second best, up close, comes Brussels I. Like I said, great setlist. Absolutely thrilled to hear the new stuff ánd Ultraviolet, which is after all my all time favorite song. Most memorable moment of that night was the crowd going on with the With or Without You chant (oh-oh-oooh) after the song. We were so loud that Bono couldn't make his usual speech and we went right into Moment of Surrender. I have heard loud crowds from bootlegs, but to see and hear something like that when you're there is just brilliant. You can hear it in the bootleg

    All U2 shows I attended are notable in my opinion, but I don't want to bug ya. Little bit about the Brandenburg Tor show: that was awesome! A special show (despite the standard setlist) at a special location. I would like to thank Kirsten again for the ticket to the show, without here I wouldn't have been there (or maybe I would have, but without watching the show. Anyway...)

    Are there any shows you'd trade for one you didnt visit?
    However I really hate the fact that I never had the chance to experience a Zoo TV or PopMart show I wouldn't trade one of my five 360 shows for one of them. I would trade one for one of the famous New York shows during the Elevation Tour the month after 9/11 though. The stories I heard are just incredible, the complete crowd crying on Where the Streets Have No Name... Absolutely one of the most, if not the most emotional U2 show ever. Same counts for PopMart Sarajevo I think, but PopMart wasn't an emotional happening, while the Elevation tour was made for such shows.

    I have no idea one of the six shows I would trade for that one though, I have great memories to all of them.


    So Twitter, Facebook and other social media. Why do you think U2 isnt participating much?
    They're maybe not participating that much, but at least they are active in some way. The Edge uses Twitter (although he merely updates it and if he does it's just pictures), they have MySpace, Facebook and Ping accounts. I don't think it's laziness or a generation gap, I think they know what they're doing. They have a website, they can put things on that, no need for Bono to tweet. Also, most big musicians who are on twitter sometimes ridicule themselves. I like to use twitter as some kind of sms, but with a wider range. I like how Gavin Friday is using Twitter though, short and mysterious updates.

    I don't think it would be fun for the band to use something like Twitter, because too many people will aks questions and request Acrobat etcetera.

    Taking it a bit away from social media into fan interaction: looking at bands like Muse and Radiohead, and see what they do for and with their fans (example: Muse has contests for tourshirts, Radiohead gave fans soundboard sound for a multicam video they made), and I think U2 should interact some more with their fans online. They're great in interacting on stage (while Muse just isn't) and while meeting fans though.

    But while writing that down I almost forgot that U2 did some cool things this tour: you could put in questions to appear on the screen, request a song and put your face on the screen after the show That's something.


    What did you do to get your face up on the screen?
    Not much really, U2.com had that thingie on their website where you could snap a picture with your webcam and raise your hand for Aung San Suu Kyi and appear on the screen. Normally I'm not really an attention-whore, but I thought it was fun. I actually was planning to write something on my hand, but my webcam makes pictures in mirror mode, so that would've been awkward. Was really funny to see yourself back after the show, together with the other narcists.


    Mercy: leaked studio or live and why?
    I always liked the studio version, it was not a favorite of mine, but I thought it was decent and should've been on HTDAAB (intead of dreadful songs like All Because of You, A Man and A Woman...)
    I always liked the 'ripping the stitches' bridge, mainly 'cause of the melody, the lyric itself makes me cringe. They made it shorter, less boring (was way too consecutive) and they added a solo. Fair enough.

    When they first played it in Zurich I wasn't that positive, but after hearing it myself in Brussels I prefer the live version. The lyric 'You want to kill me and I want to die' is strange for a U2-song, I don't know what to think of it yet, it's kinda dark but way more direct than the really dark ones on Achtung Baby and Pop. 'Because because because we can we must' is a bit lame though, Bono can do better than that. Even it was worse live we still have to give them a lot of credit for playing such song live.

    Lot of credit also to Willie Williams who, interpreting his tour diaries on U2.com, really knows what's going on in the U2 fan world, and pushes the band to experiment with the set lists.


    The band prefered Pride over Sunday Bloody Sunday during a few shows. What is your view on this?
    Frankly I was kind of bored with Sunday Bloody Sunday recently. It's a great song (as is Pride by the way, both should make it into the top-25), but to to hear the opening chords of Pride was great at Brussels 2. I think it's fair they rotate these two rather than play them both like they did last year. I know people who would go to a U2 gig just to hear Sunday Bloody Sunday though haha.

    Overall I can't complain about the way they mix things up this leg. New, unreleased songs, a different opener, even some rotation in the encore...I don't think they ever did rotate as much as they are doing right now. Eventually it doesn't really matter THAT much what they play, a U2 show is always great and never boring. Unless of course you visit almost every show, I can imagine that even songs like Streets or Vertigo become boring by then.


    What are your hobbies and interests away from U2, musical or otherwise?
    U2 is not a hobby, it's an obsession I like and do sports, especially tennis and cycling. Also football (soccer for you Americans out there), but I don't do it, I just support SC Heerenveen. I'm not really a musical genius, I have a terrible singing voice (I just could myself hear singing along with North Star in Brussels as I was one of the few obviously, and it was very bad. Funny to see people around you looking like 'Didn't Bono say that was a new song? How on earth is it possible that he knows it then?), forgot to read notes but still are trying to learn to play the guitar. I will succeed. Hopefully.

    Apart from that I'm very much interested in politics, and also an active member of the D66 party here in Holland. D66 are liberal and progressive, they're not hippies though, seen in the political spectrum they're central. I think it's important for everyone to have some interest in politics. When it comes to ambition I would like to have a seat in the government in fifteen, twenty years, but that's just ambition. Ah well, I may dream out loud right?

    Other than that I think I may end up somewhere in a marketing company, which isn't that bad either. I like to do some graphics (you might have seen or even bought a U2start shirt I designed last summer), although I'm not very good at it, but still enough years to learn. I won't exclude me becoming some kind of journalist, either. Squeezing some complicated lives into a simple headline and stuff like that.


    Disclaimer: while giving answers to these questions I was having a major hangover 'caused by a crazy night out, so it's possible that I sometimes failed at my English or to make sense in any way (that also happens without having a hang over, but less I think). Thanks anyway for having me here, for giving us the opportunity to download bootlegs, to discuss with our fellow U2 fans and more, this site really is U2 heaven

    Thanks for this interview Dieder!

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

  3. Really cool read man, you deserve it I don't think the answer to the "Which U2 are would you go back to" question is yours though
  4. Originally posted by jofice:Really cool read man, you deserve it I don't think the answer to the "Which U2 are would you go back to" question is yours though


    Why not? he was 2 or 3 years old then, so perfectly old enough to go and travel on his own to Dublin....
  5. My mistake. Used Gerry's as a template and missed it.

    Beer on me guys
  6. Haha I read it and noticed nothing and then was like " Wait a minute..." lol
  7. You can all come and get your beer

    Again a great interview though! Nice read Dieder.
  8. nice interview , Congrats man
  9. Cool read Diedier
  10. great read...laughed my ass off when reading you though Rattle and Hum was a Stones album Priceless....
  11. I thought you might have already got the fan of the month An interview well overdue, great read!