1. Every month we put a U2 fan in the spotlights, the fan of the month October of 2022 is user bpt3. Read along for the interview we had with this U2 fan.

    "I remember seeing my dad's copy of The Joshua Tree and asking to listen to it, probably when I was 13 or 14, and really enjoying the first three songs especially, and and then being amazed when I saw the original version of "Bullet the Blue Sky" on there!"

    Tell us something about yourself, who are you and what do you do for a living?

    My name is Ben Tameling. I am nearly 35 years old and live near Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, with my wife and four daughters! I am a high school Bible teacher at our local Christian school.

    How did you become a fan of U2, tell us how it happened?

    As a kid in the 1990s, I grew up in a loving and nurturing home, but one in which as kids my siblings and I were only really allowed to listen to "Christian music." This kind of American Christian subculture was very white and very conservative, being a byproduct of the Religious Right movement that started in the 1970s and 80s, and my parents were well-meaning, wonderful people who simply thought they were raising their children right by only allowing them to listen to certain kinds of Christian artists. (By the way, I highly recommend the book "Jesus and John Wayne" by Kristin Kobes DuMez which tells the history and critiques how white evangelicalism in the US has corrupted the Christian faith with their allegiance to Trump!) I have a lot of gratitude and nostalgia toward how I was raised and the music I grew up on, but over time began turning toward "crossover" artists that were Christians but could exist outside the "Christian music" kind of bubble (U2 seems to have gone through a similar transition period when they almost broke up around "October" and perceived conflict between three of the members' Christian faith and the music business). P.O.D. was a big band in the late 1990s/early 2000s that was similar in style/sound to other "nu-metal" of the time and I really grew to love them - they even did a cover of "Bullet the Blue Sky" on their 1999 album. But my parents, especially my dad, were always big fans of all kinds of music, and had an extensive CD collection that I remember often looking through and playing in our house growing up, even if they weren't all "Christian music" artists. I remember seeing my dad's copy of The Joshua Tree and asking to listen to it, probably when I was 13 or 14, and really enjoying the first three songs especially, and and then being amazed when I saw the original version of "Bullet the Blue Sky" on there! Shortly after, I can remember playing at a basketball summer camp at my school and the coach playing songs from "All That You Can't Leave Behind", so that would have been probably summer of 2001. Over the next couple of years, I bought digital downloads of a lot of "greatest hits" of U2 and burned my own CD that I listened to often.

    By 2004, I was enough of a fan that I asked for and received How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb for Christmas. I definitely considered myself a U2 fan by that point...but not quite enough to jump at the chance to buy tickets for the Vertigo Tour in 2005. However, I spent all that year and the next delving extensively into and buying all their other albums, with their 90s trilogy especially becoming my favorites. By the end of of 2006 I was completely hooked and couldn't wait to see them live...but of course by then the Vertigo Tour had left North America! It was a long three year wait - including seeing "U23D" in IMAX theaters twice! - before I finally saw them live for the first time in Chicago, opening night of the 360 North America leg on September 12, 2009.

    Your first U2 show took place in 2009 in Chicago, tell us about that first experience.

    It was incredible. I remember the day very vividly. We live about 2.5 hours from Chicago, so my parents, wife, and I all stayed in a hotel in Chicago overnight the day before the show. The day of the show, my wife and I got up early and were in the GA line by 7:00 AM that morning. When we got inside Soldier Field, we decided to stand just outside the inner circle, right on the rail of the outer catwalk to see all of the U2 guys walk right by. I'll never forget the sound of "Space Oddity" starting up, then "Soon"...then the epic buildup of "Breathe" as each band member came out one by one. Highlights of that first show also included hearing "The Unforgettable Fire", "Where the Streets Have No Name" (of course), "One," a surprise appearance of "Bad", and "Ultraviolet" with Bono's laser jacket, still in my top 5 favorite live performances of all time. I also loved "Moment of Surrender" as the closer.

    Two years later you attended two more 360 shows, how were they different from the first?

    I saw U2 in East Lansing at Spartan Stadium right after their Glastonbury gig in 2011 and then again in Chicago at Soldier Field. I loved the inclusion of more Achtung Baby songs, but missed the No Line on the Horizon songs that they had dropped by that point. I also really loved hearing "Stay" as that's in my top 3 favorite U2 songs ever, and "Zooropa" was also excellent. In Chicago, in particular, hearing "Out of Control" instead of "I Will Follow" was fun, and the surprise addition of "One Tree Hill" after MoS was very memorable.

    You have seen U2 indoors and outdoors, which one did you prefer and why?

    This may be a minority opinion here on the site, but I actually prefer U2 outdoors. That's not to say that I don't appreciate and experience the intimacy of a smaller indoor arena show, as I still loved their Innocence tour and Experience tour. But I like experiencing U2 on the biggest, most epic scale possible, being outside under the stars. Maybe it's because their 360 show is still my favorite of all the tours I have seen since then.

    Does anyone in your family or one of your friends like U2? If so, did they introduce you to U2, or did you "convert" them?

    Like I mentioned above, my dad had a copy of The Joshua Tree, but was only really a casual fan until I got hooked. Since then, of the 10 times I have seen U2 live, I've gone to 8 of those shows with him. My wife has also become a fan, though not as obsessed as me...she's only seen them 3 times with me! Haha.

    If there would be only one U2 song you could hear the rest of your life, which one would it be?

    One. I love it in every way: lyrically, musically, thematically, hearing it live, knowing its significance as basically "saving" U2 while trying to record in Berlin, and more. It's one of their old classics that I never get tired of hearing. The "hear us coming, Lord" snippet at the end makes it even more transcendent for me.

    What are your expectations of U2's upcoming albums, Songs of Surrender and an album of new songs?

    I don't have too much of any expectations for Songs of Surrender, honestly. It will be fun to listen to the band attempt to re-invent their back catalogue of material, but I'm not expecting amazing things. I think one critique of U2 that many of us have - especially in their latter years - is their tendency to overthink everything they do, so I'm not sure these new editions of old songs will be improvements at all.

    Their new album, on the other hand, I'm excited for. I love that U2 as a band are still the same four guys continuing to record - albeit much more slowly - new material and then go tour in support of it. Sure, they've had too many producers involved the last couple of albums and I think they need to stop worrying about relevance in their 60s, but I still love them for it. I just hope that this new album is more of a 90s-inspired, experimental album that is just bold and daring rather than searching for a hit. But I know with U2 that it will be a bit of both.

    How different is U2 compared to other artists that you like?

    I continue to appreciate U2, as I always have, for their blend of faith, musical experimentation, and social justice. As a Christian who hopefully continues growing, I really resonate with the way that Bono has modeled an honest, questioning kind of faith and that the band as a whole want their music and art to really mean something and impact the world in a positive way. That's the kind of faith I want to keep growing in - one that makes connections between following Christ and working for a more loving, just, peaceful world. That's the hope I have.

    With that said, the artist beside U2 that I've really gotten into in the last several years has been Kendrick Lamar, for many of the same reasons as I just mentioned, though he is of course a hip hop artist. His musical experimentation, artistic live shows, and grappling with faith as it relates to issues of race and justice in the USA, especially, have me captivated as a listener. Listening to him started to grow as a result of Kendrick sampling "American Soul" on his DAMN. album, and with Kendrick also appearing on "Get Out Of Your Own Way" and "American Soul" on Songs of Experience. In turn, getting into Kendrick has inspired me to listen to more hip-hop and music by black American artists, and it's been really beneficial for me spiritually to try and better understand the experiences of artists of color in the US, since I come from a place of privilege as a white male in American culture. Other artists besides Kendrick Lamar that I've enjoyed listening to have been Kanye West, Beyonce, J. Cole, Frank Ocean, Chance the Rapper, and others, many of whom have had their work analyzed on the "Dissect" podcast that I've really appreciated the last few years too.

    What are your hobbies and interests away from U2, musical or otherwise?

    My family and I attend a multi-ethnic church in our city, where I play guitar and sing once a month or so on a rotating worship team. As a Bible teacher, I love reading the Bible itself with my students and on my own, as well as just reading in general, both non-fiction and fiction. I enjoy hanging out with my family, whether that's playing games, watching movies, going to parks, or tent camping in the summers together. I also love the fellow Christian educators I work with, as we have a lot of fun together, doing things like going out for beers after school functions or singing karaoke together over special conferences that we have. Really any kind of live entertainment I enjoy! A few of these friends and colleagues I also do exterior painting with over the summer months when school is not in session. I also have recently taken over as Cross Country coach at our school and personally like running, having done a marathon, many 5Ks, and a 25K in our city the last several years.
    Sports and being active I enjoy, and living just a couple of miles from our school I typically bike to work each day.


    Thanks for this interview bpt3!

    Note: Our crew members randomly pick fans of the month, you can't sign up for it.
  2. Enjoyed this read. Cool that you are a Cross Country coach. I was a high school freshman in fall 1987. Joshua Tree had just been released, and was my introduction
    to U2 from the older teammates. JT & UF always played in the locker room or on bus to race meets.
  3. Great interview. Thanks for sharing your experiences! I'm not a believer but so I'm always curious about other fans' religious connection with U2
  4. Originally posted by pearlvr4:Enjoyed this read. Cool that you are a Cross Country coach. I was a high school freshman in fall 1987. Joshua Tree had just been released, and was my introduction
    to U2 from the older teammates. JT & UF always played in the locker room or on bus to race meets.
    Great memories, I'm sure. It's been a fun first season for cross country but I'm also glad it's almost the off-season!
  5. Originally posted by LikeASong:Great interview. Thanks for sharing your experiences! I'm not a believer but so I'm always curious about other fans' religious connection with U2
    Thanks! For me it's certainly one of the more interesting things about them as a band.
  6. There's a good chunk of Bono's memoir about it. I think you'll have a blast reading that