Breaking Waves (Late Late, Listening Sessions, YouTube Specials)

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2024-11-15)

Adam Clayton made an appearance on The Late Late Show this evening in Ireland, introduced as the “first rock god to ever appear on Gardener’s World.”

Adam talked about performing at Sphere in Vegas with the other guests, one of which had seen performances there. Adam himself said he heard from one person who saw the show that it “sounded so amazing, I could hear your bass!”

He spoke briefly of the How to Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb album, but it was mostly information covered in other interviews to date, and he quickly moved to talking about other things that he’s been working on, including his garden, his appearance on Gardener’s World, adopting three hedgehogs for his daughter recently, and his upcoming two part documentary Ballroom Blitz which focuses on Irish Showbands.

Ballroom Blitz will air in two parts, November 27 and December 2. We’ll be adding them into our upcoming events calendar shortly!

The first fan listening party was held in London on Friday, November 15, for a small group. (The venue has a capacity of 67 people.) Fans were invited via U2.com to listen to a Dolby Atmos mix of How to Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb a week before general release in a space tailored for such events. The Edge sent along a brief special message ahead of the session. On Saturday events will be held in Los Angeles, New York and Dublin.

The Edge thanked people for attending, and pointed out he loves the fans, while the others in the band only like the fans. The How to Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb album was played accompanied by a photograph of the band from the era. A couple of tracks from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb were also previewed.

Out front of the event was an LED truck which featured graphics from the album and advertising next week’s release.

The second fan gathering was held in a theatre in Dublin on November 16. The venue has a capacity of about 400 people, but was only half-full for the event. This was expected to be the biggest of the events being held. Like London, fans were invited via U2.com. The same introductory message from The Edge was played ahead of the album preview. Like London, three songs from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb were also included, “City of Blinding Lights”, “Sometimes You Can’t Make it On Your Own” and “Vertigo”.

A couple of special guests were present in the Dublin presentation. Long time friend, and supporter of U2, Dave Fanning was present. Dave did share that the whole How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb album had been mixed in Dolby Atmos. Alastair McMillan, the engineer who worked closely with The Edge on the Dolby Atmos mix was also present, and shared that work was done in Belfast. He shared that Bono was looking for a feeling of the recording surrounding you, where Edge preferred to keep more of a stereo feeling, and magnify certain areas of the recording. He said the work on the album had taken several months now.

New York was the third listening session, also held on November 16, 2024. It was a smaller space, similar to London, with a capacity of 88 people, but some seats went unfilled at this session. (Check your junk mail if you applied for later listening parties, a lot of people are finding the invites in their spam folder!) No special guests were present for the New York event, and it ran through pretty much as the London one had, with a Dolby Atmos introduction, followed by Edge’s opening comments, a listen through of How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb and ended with the same three songs from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb as the other sessions had. The event ran just under an hour in length.

The Los Angeles session, was the fourth session, the third held on November 16. Again, the space was on the smaller side, with a capacity of 70, and like other sessions, not all of the seats were filled. Fans had a good time dancing in their seats and listening to the new album, and there were no special guests present.

On November 19, 2024, three additional listening sessions were held in Berlin, Toronto, and Mexico City. In the event in Berlin, posters were given away to attendees to the session, and drinks and popcorn were made available to fans at the event. The posters were given out after the session. Like other events, Berlin was an audio only session, and the only art seen was the cover of the CD while it was being streamed.

These event are phone / smart watch free events. No swag was given out at any of the events to date.

Many thanks to those who sent information our way about these events including Kelly, Allison, Adele, Irma, Joseph, Harry, Tony, Jon, Paul, Pawel, and a few others who chose to remain nameless.

Further updates on these sessions, and the later ones, can be found here in a separate article.

The full list of sessions via U2.com are as follows:

  • London, November 15, 2024
  • Dublin, November 16, 2024
  • New York, November 16, 2024
  • Los Angeles, November 16, 2024
  • Berlin, November 19, 2024
  • Toronto, November 19, 2024
  • Mexico City, November 19, 2024
  • Sao Paulo, November 21, 2024
  • Tokyo, November 21, 2024

An additional listening party being held via Universal is being held in Sydney, Australia on November 18.

As well as these listening sessions for fans, there have been recent listening sessions for the press as well, so expect to see reviews of the new “shadow album” popping up in the week ahead.

A couple of U2 events are happening on YouTube next week on the release day for the anniversary album.

First up, U2 will be streaming the complete Live in Chicago show from 2005, which is included in the box sets of the 20th anniversary editions of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

This one launches at 12:00pm on November 22. It will be available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9sImLsUT1M

Another event happening the same day is called an “Archival Q&A” and is advertised as “The afterparty with U2”. Users are invited to “join the conversation to interact with the creator and others watching this live…”

This one is an event for YouTube Premium members however. If you are a member, it will be available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI7L__nMH6w

This one launches at 2:21pm on November 22. (Just after the Live from Chicago stream ends.)

For those on Facebook, check out the post from Island Records UK, inviting fans to have your photo included in a #ReassembleAtomicBomb mosaic and “get notified when the final mosaic is ready to be revealed featuring a Picture Of You!” All you have to do is leave a comment on the post to participate.

If you’re looking for us on Social Media, we’ve set up a space on Bluesky some time ago, and have been posting all of our content there as well as our normal locations. Give us a look!

For those who are looking for more information on the releases over the next two weeks celebrating the 20th anniversary of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb there is no better place to start than our discography entries:

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