25 years

After attending the Amsterdam show of U2 vertigo tour last night i had some thoughts..great show, not my favoirute band but a great show..

New Order / Joy divison 25 years in the musicbizz and U2 is also 25 years in the bizz...

Funny thing is, that U2 seems like a band full of energy and full-on power, still kicking it off with new shows, tours and tunez and everybdoy is still not tired of them..so hats of to them although U2 are NOT not one my favourite bands!

New Order 25 years on, we are not tired of them! but the the shows seem to have calmed down, only a handfull of shows, the tunez have changed a bit and they sometimes look tired of it..New Order ' the greatest rockband of the world'?? would you think they could have achieved the status of U2 if they tried????

Martijn de Blaauw wrote: would you think they could have achieved the status of U2 if they tried????

Rob Gretton believed in that. If I remember right..

I don't believe JD or NO would have ever gotten to U2's level of fame. If Ian lived they would have still been a cult band, perhaps done another album then broken up. Ian probably would have a solo album and other guys would go on to join other bands.

NO were always on Factory, still an independent so they didn't have the major $$$ push that U2 got. Besides, up until 1992 U2 took no chances with their music. It was all radio friendly. NO always took risks.

rubberlover666 wrote: I don't believe JD or NO would have ever gotten to U2's level of fame. If Ian lived they would have still been a cult band, perhaps done another album then broken up. Ian probably would have a solo album and other guys would go on to join other bands.

NO were always on Factory, still an independent so they didn't have the major $$$ push that U2 got. Besides, up until 1992 U2 took no chances with their music. It was all radio friendly. NO always took risks.

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I agree. NO were always take chances. They were never concerned about rock stardom. U2 were already rich before they tried anything new. No risk involved.

I'm not going to speculate on what might have happened 'if Ian had lived', as it's pointless speculation. He died.

But I don't believe they could have ever become as big as U2. To do that you have to be working through the big themes (love, hate, god, war, peace) and they've done that shamelessly and by-numbers since the start. That way you forge connections to the man & woman in the street. NO have always been a little bit hard to fathom for joe public. You could argue that True Faith, BLT, TPK are as sonically uplifting as anything ever. They might well be, but there's no obvious hook in for the masses.