Thank you, Boston Globe music critic James Reed, for noticing our little conference and writing it up at the Globe’s blog today.

We’ll save a spot for you should you want to tackle this topic: “Bono’s Global Impact on Sales of Tinted Sunglasses.”

From time to time I’ll be posting about our featured speakers.  This week our speakers are answering some basic questions about their connection to U2 and their interest in our conference. If you have a question you’d like to pose to our conference speakers, please leave a comment here or send it through our contact page using the “Conference Director” message option.

Matt McGee

Matt McGee is the founder and editor of @U2 (www.atu2.com), the oldest independent site for U2 fans on the Internet. Founded in 1995, the site has received numerous awards and accolades from the likes of Entertainment Weekly (#1 music fan site on the Internet), Rolling Stone (#1 independent U2 site), Hot Press (”arguably better than the official band site”), and other media and web sites around the world. Matt is also the author of U2 - A Diary, a new book that chronicles U2’s history in a timeline format, out now from Omnibus Press.

Q: When did @U2 begin and what does it do best?

@U2 started in October, 1995 as a way for me to express my fandom. In surveys, our readers say news coverage is the best thing we do. I like to think what we do best is help fans connect. We help our readers get closer to the band through our news coverage and our original content. We help them connect with each other through our blog and forum. That,  to me, is what it’s all about.

Q: What sets U2’s fan community apart from other band’s fans?

I don’t know that I’m familiar enough with other fan communities to answer that with any authority. I do think U2 fans are generally a great group, but there may be nothing that sets U2 fans apart as a  community. Surely other bands have fans who are active in humanitarian causes. Surely other bands have fans who follow tours around the world. Surely other bands have fans who collect everything they can find with their band’s name on it, and create mini-shrines in their homes. Maybe if something sets U2 fans apart it’s that we do all of the above, and don’t consider it unusual in any way!

Q: Why should there be a conference about U2?

In one word: depth. There’s so much about U2, from the music to the lyrics to the personalities to what they do outside U2, that deserves to be mined and explored. I’m surprised there hasn’t been a conference like this before. It’s about time!

Q: What interests you about being at a U2 conference?

As much as I love seeing U2 in concert, I’ve felt for a long time that being around other U2 fans before and after the show is just as fun — and sometimes more fun! The great conversations and stories, the way we analyze and debate the songs and lyrics … I love that. And that’s what I’m looking forward to next May.

Q: What do you hope is a result of this conference?

U2 has helped so many of us broaden our horizons, and I hope this conference does the same thing. I think the great lineup of presenters, not to mention the U2 fans that will be taking part, will make for an eye-opening, educational, and fun few days.

From time to time I’ll be posting about our featured speakers.  This week our speakers are answering some basic questions about their connection to U2 and their interest in our conference. If you have a question you’d like to pose to our conference speakers, please leave a comment here or send it through our contact page using the “Conference Director” message option.

Neil McCormick

“I was Neil McCormick’s fan in school. He was much cooler than me, a much better writer and I thought he’d make a much better rock star. I was wrong on one count.” - Bono

Neil McCormick is one of the UK’s best known music critics. His weekly column in the Daily Telegraph is syndicated around the world and he is a regular guest on BBC Television and radio. He started working for Hot Press music magazine in Dublin as a 17-year-old punk rock art school drop out in 1978.

Neil was a school friend and confidante of U2, witnessing their first ever gig in the Mount Temple Gymnasium in 1976. Neil misspent most of his youth as singer in a succession of obscure bands, including Frankie Corpse and the Undertakers, The Modulators, Yeah! Yeah! and Shook Up! His musical misadventures are laid out in painful detail in the acclaimed 2003 memoir Killing Bono (published in the UK as I Was Bono’s Doppelganger) which Bono described as “Very funny, very moving.’ Indeed, Bono was so impressed with Neil’s autobiography, he asked him to collaborate on U2’s U2 By U2, the best selling music book in the world in 2006.

Despite the discouragement of some of his fellow critics, Neil continues to make music on the sidelines under the alias “The Ghost Who Walks.” Bono sang snatches of Neil’s song  “People I Don’t Know Are Trying To Kill Me” as part of “Electric Co.” during U2’s Vertigo tour.

Q: How long have you known U2?  When did you first meet?

I knew U2 before they were U2. Indeed, I have known them in circumstances where it would be impossible to envisage them as future rock stars. We all went to the same school, Mount Temple Comprehensive in north Dublin. We shared an interest in music, art and fame, though we tended to fall out on the subject of God. I saw their first gig, though I suspect (given our debate about whether playing a Bay City Rollers song was homage or irony) that they sometimes wish I hadn’t.

Q: What about U2 says to you “conference worthy”?

U2 have been a remarkable group who have impacted the world creatively and politically in significant ways over three decades. I ghosted their autobiography but even in that massive tome it wasn’t possible to cover every facet of what makes this band so remarkable.

Q: What do you hope is a result of this conference?

World peace, obviously. What else would you expect from a U2 conference?

From time to time I’ll be posting about our featured speakers.  This week our speakers are answering some basic questions about their connection to U2 and their interest in our conference. If you have a question you’d like to pose to our conference speakers, please leave a comment here or send it through our contact page using the “Conference Director” message option.

Steve Turner

Steve Turner has written about music for many publications, including Rolling Stone, Mojo, NME and Paste. His books include A Hard Day’s Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles’ Song, The Man Called Cash (the authorized biography of Johnny Cash) and Trouble Man: The Life and Death of Marvin Gaye.

He first met U2 in the early 1980s. He co-authored Rattle & Hum, the book-of-the-film, and Bono wrote the introduction to his poetry book The King of Twist. His proudest U2 moments include supplying the book that inspired “Red Hill Mining Town” and personally introducing Bono to Roy Orbison.

Q: How long have you known U2?  What brought you together?

I was tipped off about U2 in 1980, wrote to The Edge in 1981 and saw the band in concert that year at The Lyceum in London. I must have met The Edge for a meal in either 1982 or 1983. I met Bono through my old friend T Bone Burnett in July 1985. Bono was in London for Live Aid. He gave me his address and that’s when we began staying in touch.

The first piece I wrote about them was for Q magazine. I was flown out to see them in concert on the Joshua Tree tour when it came to Chicago in 1987 and interviewed Bono backstage. The band all signed the cover of the then recent Time magazine cover story for me (’Rock’s Hottest Ticket’).

Q: What about U2 says to you “conference worthy”?

I’ve always been interested in music that raised the Big Questions and which entertained but also did something more than entertain. I think you have to at least have done that to warrant a conference in your name! I think that U2 has had an impact on so many different levels - social, political, spiritual, musical - that there’s plenty of material for scavengers, pundits and cultural commentators alike.

Q: What interests you about being at a U2 conference?  What do you hope is a result of this conference?

I like staying in hotels close to Times Square and only having to work an hour a day! Seriously, I’m most looking forward to meeting other contributors. Much of a writer’s life is spent in solitary confinement so it’s good to get out, meet people and get stimulated. I’ve previously spoken at conventions on Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and the Beatles.

From time to time I’ll be posting about our featured speakers.  This week our speakers are answering some basic questions about their connection to U2 and their interest in our conference. If you have a question you’d like to pose to our conference speakers, please leave a comment here or send it through our contact page using the “Conference Director” message option.

Cathleen Falsani

A die-hard, rabid and unapologetic U2 fan since the autumn of 1982 when she heard the first chords of “Gloria,” Cathleen Falsani is also the religion columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, where, since 2000, she has covered her diverse “God beat” from locations as far a field as Vatican City, Vedic City, Ireland, Germany, the Caribbean, the West Wing, and the dugout at Wrigley Field.  Her first book, The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People, includes a lengthy spiritual profile of Bono, and was named one of the best non-fiction books of 2006 by The Christian Science Monitor. Her new book, Sin Boldly: A Field Guide for Grace, is out now and The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers is forthcoming in the Spring of 2009.

Her work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Christianity Today, the Chicago Tribune, Kansas City Star, and elsewhere. She has been a commentator on CNN, Fox News Channel, NPR, WGN-Radio and The Tavis Smiley Show. In 2005, Cathleen was named the James O. Supple Religion Writer of the Year by the Religion News Writers Association.

While riding on the Heart of America tour bus in 2002, an Irish rock star grabbed her camera to take her picture.

Q: When did you meet Bono and what brought the two of you together?

I got to know Bono back in December 2002 when I traveled with him for a week during DATA’s “Heart of America” tour. We’ve been in touch a number of times over the years since then. My husband and I also have known Paul McGuinness for a number of years. We met Paul socially in Chicago in October 2001 and have been friendly since.

I have”known of” U2 since I was 12 years old. A friend in 7th grade told me about the band and their music and I had my first spiritual epiphany listening to “Gloria” on his father’s turntable after school in the autumn (probably even October, come to think of it) of 1982.

Q: Why should there be a conference about U2?  What about U2 says to you “conference worthy”?

I can’t think of a better topic - apart from, say, grace or hope or justice - about which to gather a disparate group together for a few days to have heady conversation. And I would argue that U2’s music is often all about hope and justice and full of grace.

Beyond that, they have of course had a significant influence in shaping popular music in the last 30 years. They’ve also made great, lasting contributions at the intersection of music and faith, and music and social justice.

Q: Why do you want to come to a conference about U2, and what do you hope is a result of this conference?

I’m expecting to be surprised, learn some knew things, hear different perspectives, and be blessed by the music and discussions of the music that has so blessed me for, gulp, more than 25 years, with like-minded and unlike-minded fans of the iconoclast that is U2.

From time to time I’ll be posting about our featured speakers.  This week our speakers are answering some basic questions about their connection to U2 and their interest in our conference. If you have a question you’d like to pose to our conference speakers, please leave a comment here or send it through our contact page using the “Conference Director” message option.

James Henke

Jim Henke is Vice President of Exhibitions and Curatorial Affairs at the Rock and Roll  Hall of Fame and Museum and the first American journalist to interview U2.  Henke began his career at Rolling Stone magazine in 1977 and served as the magazine’s music editor for nearly a decade. While at Rolling Stone, Henke co-edited The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll and The Rolling Stone Album Guide.  Henke’s recent books include Lennon Legend, a biography of John Lennon, published in 2003, Bob Marley Legend, his biography of Bob Marley, published in 2006, and The Jim Morrison Scrapbook, released in fall 2007.

Henke once gave Bono a book about Martin Luther King Jr., which Bono later said helped inspire him to write ‘Pride (In the Name of Love)’.

Q: How long have you known U2 and how did you first meet?

I have known U2 since 1980. The band was due to release its first album, Boy, in the U.S. in January 1981. I had been buying their singles as US imports and I loved the music. The band was basing itself in London, playing dates around England. I was a staff writer for Rolling Stone, so I flew to England to see them. I met them at the apartment where they were staying in London, and they told me they were playing a show that night in Coventry, England. They invited me to ride in their van up to Coventry to see the show, so I took up their offer and rode with them to Coventry, where they played a show in a school gymnasium. I was totally knocked out and I went back the US and wrote a story. The headline said: “U2: Here Comes the Next Big Thing.”

Q: Why should there be a conference about U2?  What about U2 says to you “conference worthy”?

Over the past 28 years, U2 has released a tremendous body of work that ranks as some of the greatest music of the rock era. The band has always been serious about its music and its message. In that first interview I did back in 1980, Bono said, “We are playing to an audience in Britain that ranges in age from 17 to 25. There is massive unemployment, and there is real disillusionment. U2’s music is about getting up and doing something about it.” In addition, Bono has become a major player in world affairs.

Q: Why do you want to come to a conference about U2, and what do you hope is a result of this conference?

I am looking forward to hearing what other critics, historians, journalists and academics have to say about U2 and their place in rock history. I think there should be some terrific conversations about U2 and their many accomplishments. This is truly a band that is deserving of this kind of serious treatment.

It’s Monday as I write this and registration for the conference opens in just five days.  Anyone getting excited yet? (Yes, I am!)

Mid-week I will post a preliminary schedule for the conference program here and give more information about the registration cost and booking your lodging at the Marriott Marquis.

We will also start a blog contest for the chance to win a coupon for a discount on the price of full conference registration.  I’ll announce the contest details here on the U2 Conference blog.

We are closing in on the deadline for accepting presentation proposals.  If you’ve been thinking, “I’d love to talk to some intellectually curious U2 fans and get their feedback on my thoughts,” now is your chance to give it a shot.  Check out the proposal guidelines and then submit an abstract of your presentation by November 1.  We’re getting proposals on all sorts of topics, from different walks of life and from multiple points around the globe.  We’d love to have one from you too.

Starting today, I’m beginning a series of posts in our Speakers category to introduce our featured speakers.   I asked each one to answer the same three or four questions for this week’s postings, and then periodically between now and next May we’ll do more rounds of Q & A.  If you have a question you’d like to pose to our conference speakers, leave a comment here or send it to me through our contact page using the “Conference Director” message option.

Thanks for reading.

Scott

It’s true . . . and we want the better days to be May 13-15, 2009 at the U2 conference!

Our planning team is working on developing a preliminary conference schedule to post later in October.  This draft of the program will give everyone an idea of the basic timetable and flow of the conference days; surely we will refine the program in the months to come.

Still, our goal is to have the blueprint in place to share before registration opens on November 1. And we could use your help.

Most academic conferences have these basic components:

* General sessions: everyone sits in a big room to hear one special speaker or a panel of two or three special speakers.

* Breakout sessions: several smaller presentations are going on at the same time in different meeting rooms and attendees pick one session to attend.

* “Down” times to visit vendor and exhibitor tables, visit book tables, meet with colleagues and make new friends.

* Meals (!): in our case, this will be one evening reception (Wednesday), two lunches (Thursday and Friday) and two mid-morning “enhanced” coffee breaks (Thursday and Friday).

The trick for building the program is to find the right balance of all these elements, especially of the first three.  We will start the conference on Wednesday evening with the reception and a special event.  Our full days will run from about 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. on Thursday and Friday.  (Plans are in the works for some optional evening events, but we know many of you will want to hit the town in the evenings.)

We’d love to have your input on structuring the program.

What would you like to see on Thursday and Friday in terms of balance of the basic elements?  Lots of breakout session options?  Several general sessions spread through the day?  Mornings used for X and afternoons used for Y?  How much unscheduled time would you want to meet with friends and soak up the conference scene?  And what would you suggest we add to the program that might not be on our radar?

Let us know.  Help us build the conference you want to attend!

Thanks,

Scott

Welcome to the U2 Conference blog.

Here I will share news, updates and the occasional comments on the odds and ends involved with creating the first academic conference on U2. As Conference Director, a lot of what I’m doing does not make for, shall we say, the most interesting reading; but, I’ll try to make it worth your while to check here from time to time.

With the opening of registration a month away, October should be an active month for getting the word out. Look for some coming news about speakers we are adding to the program, more information about the conference schedule and cost, and about a contest to win a registration fee discount.

Please help us spread the word by using the Tell a Friend feature on our website. And if you’re considering submitting a presentation proposal, remember that the deadline is November 1.

My plan is to post something new about once a week. Another great way to stay in the U2 Conference loop is to sign up for e-mail alerts here.

While you are here, leave us a comment. Here’s a question to help get the ball rolling: What sounds like the best thing to you about attending a conference about U2?

Thanks for reading,

Scott Calhoun