Breaking Waves…Fan club subscriptions, Sphere, Wrecking Ball and more…
Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2025-02-17)
The 2025 subscriber offer has been set up on U2.com, but the gift has not been announced. However, if you are up for renewal, as many of us are, you can now pick the unknown 2025 gift offering, instead of picking an item you already have.
If you’ve already had to resubscribe before the 2025 offer went live? Use the ticket system at U2.com/help to let them know what happened and ask that they switch you to the new gift when ready.
There have been a few updates in the FAQ at U2.com/help:
- The 2024 gift (volume 2 of the lyrics book) is expected to start shipping in April. At this point no one has received the 2024 gift.
- They explain the delay in the 2024 gift was so they could include the lyrics from How to Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb
- They say that the 2025 gift will be announced in the “coming weeks” (The last time they did the “yet unknown gift” option, it took about two months for a gift to be announced.)
The help page has answers to a number of questions we are seeing repeatedly on social media. Please have a read through if you do have questions. And use the ticket system on that page if you do have questions that remain unanswered.
If you are unsure what you ordered in the past, check your profile page on U2.com, it may provide some information. (You’ll need to be logged in.)
In 1995 Emmylou Harris released Wrecking Ball. The album, produced by Daniel Lanois, and including contributions from Larry Mullen throughout is getting a special honour this year. The album is being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame at the Grammy Museum and Recording Academy gala. The gala is held in Beverly Hills on May 16. The award honors musical recordings of historical significance and was established in 1973. Albums must be over 25 years to be considered. U2 themselves have one album on the list, The Joshua Tree which was inducted in 2014.
Speaking of Larry, he’s contributed music and co-produced the film Left Behind. Additional screenings of the film have been announced. A full list can be found here.
The other film U2 are involved in, V-U2 has added showings until the end of April at Sphere. The film will likely be playing for some time to come.
There’s been some questions about the photo book by Ross Stewart that U2.com have been selling recently. The first edition is numbered out of 3000 copies, with a hand number applied to the back of the book. This first edition is being sold at Sphere, and was sold for a limited time on U2.com. Originally the sale was for 24 hours, but the book was popular, and sold out in 21 hours.
A second edition of the book, which has all of the same contents of the first is now available for sale on U2.Com. This version however, is not numbered. Numbered copies of the first edition, are still available at Sphere itself.
The book itself was planned as a piece to accompany the film in Las Vegas, but the photographs are not stills from the film. They were taken throughout the 40 show residency by Ross Stewart, and they do feature songs beyond just those in the film.
While at Sphere, U2 played on a stage modelled after Brian Eno’s Turntable artwork. The stage colouring and shape resembled the “Turntable“ artwork of Eno’s. That artwork debuted in 2021 and was a limited edition of 50 copies.
Eno is back with a new artwork now, called Turntable II. Once again the artwork is available via the Paul Stolper gallery. This new version of the artwork features a circular platter instead of square. The site itself lists “White 8.6” Pro-Ject aluminium tonearm Ortofon white 2M cartridge Precision cast acrylic platter High precision stainless steel bearing block Belt drive 15v motor with electronic 33/45rpm speed switch.”
This time out the turntable is an edition of 150 copies, and retails for £24,000.00.
Eno worked with U2 on the 1995 album by Passengers, Original Soundtracks 1. Record stores will be the only place to buy the release the day it comes out, April 12. However, if stores do have quantities left over they can begin to sell those after the Record Store Day event ends. In North America and Japan, expect copies to go on sale online starting on Sunday April 13. In the UK it is Monday April 14 where extra copies go on sale. If the item sells out on Record Store Day itself there are not copies held back for online sales.
One questions we’ve seen is why the record is split across two vinyl. The release will be at 45RPM. If the master is the same quality, it is generally accepted that music at 45rpm will have slightly better sound than those at 33rpm. The faster speed allows for more groove space to capture audio information, and less distortion.
The downside of 45RPM? Less music in general will fit on one side of the record. So the Passengers album which fit on one vinyl record at 33RPM, now needs a second vinyl. The upside? We get an extra track. “Bottoms (Watashitachi No Ookina Yume)”, which translates to “Our big dreams”. The track was used in 1995 on the Japanese version of the album, and on the “Miss Sarajevo” single as a B-Side. This will be the first time it appears on vinyl. The song itself is an instrumental version of “Zoo Station” mixed by Brian Eno.
Now if we could just convince U2 to release those other Brian Eno remixes of songs from Achtung Baby that were heard at Zoo Station and in the lobby of Sphere…Right?
Finally, For King + Country have released a cover of U2’s “40” which is being featured on Amazon’s show House of David. Have a listen now below:
Thanks to Keith, Michael, David, Monica, and Jason for contributions to this piece.
< Next News Entry | Previous News Entry >
u2songs.com was formerly known as u2wanderer.org. Follow us on Twitter | Facebook
