1. Every month we put an U2 fan in the spotlights, the fan of the month October of 2014 is user thejonner. Read along for the interview we had this this U2 fan.

    "I had to get rid of most of my U2 CDs and vinyl, I left them all behind in a second hand record shop in Crouch End"

    Tell us something about yourself, who are you and what do you do for a living?
    Wotcha. My name's Conrad, I've just about come to terms with my age (I was 40 last year), and I live just outside of Oxford in the UK. My work is brainless warehouse fare, booking in deliveries of books. It leaves my mind plenty of time to wander, which it does freely, but it also pays me enough to live reasonably well and travel fairly frequently.

    How did you become a fan of U2, tell us how it happened?
    I was on a school skiing trip when I was 13 (we were going to Romania - Ceausescu's Romania, I might add. It must have been cheap; it was also the scene of my first proper hangover. The teachers weren't particularly attentive...) and a friend had a copy of The Joshua Tree on his Walkman. He let me borrow the tape, and that was it - I didn't give it back. I remember listening to the opening of Streets (over and over) and thinking that I'd never heard anything like it. The strange, ethereal, ambient sounds and then Edge's guitar gradually rising in the mix, that chiming guitar... And then Larry and Adam come in, driving it along. I'd never heard singing like Bono's before, either. That breathless delivery... Well, safe to say, I wore the tape out and then started buying everything else they'd released up to that point.

    What do you think of the new album?
    It's a great album, I think. I don't know if it sounds like an album with five years' work put into it, but it's very solid. Songs like The Miracle (of Joey Ramone), Iris and The Troubles are right up there for me with their very best work.

    Songs Of Innocence has some interesting intros to the songs. Which do you like?
    The opening vocal "Oh -oh-oh"s of The Miracle are fantastic and grab the listener immediately. I think that it will be a fantastic gig opener - it'll get the whole audience on board and participating in concerts from the start. The intro to Iris is glorious, too.

    With a new tour ahead of us, what are your tour plans?
    I'd love to see the band play in smaller, indoor venues, although this will, of course, make tickets harder to come by. I don't think trying to go big again after 360 is a good idea - that said, their stage shows are always surprising and innovative, so who knows? I went to four shows on the last tour, in three countries, so it'd be nice to try and organise some sort of European holiday along those lines again.

    What does your U2 collection look like? What kind of stuff do you have and how is it organised?
    I don't have anything physical, apart from some of the live DVDS. To my eternal shame and embarrassment, I had to get rid of most of my CDs and vinyl (not just U2) to pay my rent during an extremely misjudged move to London several years ago. I had a lot of 12 inch singles, including New Year's Day, Pride, all of the singles from The Joshua Tree up to ATYCLB. Which is ironic, really, because I did, indeed, leave them all behind in a second hand record shop in Crouch End...

    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?
    After I returned from the Romania trip, I was very much pumped up on U2. I spoke to my Father about it, acting like a 13 year old know it all and telling him how great they were and asking if he'd ever heard of them. He told me to follow him to his music room (which has several thousand vinyl albums and CDs in it, by the way) and he pulled out The Unforgettable Fire, Wide Awake in America and The Joshua Tree on vinyl. He's a huge fan of Brian Eno and especially the work he did with Talking Heads and bought the albums due to that. As it went, I wasn't able to convert him to U2, but he was able to turn me on to loads of different music. In a way, U2 got me listening to lots of of the different music because they led to me talking to the old man about it. At that age, I didn't really want to listen to whatever my Father had in his collection. How little I knew...

    What are you expecting from the supposed follow-up album? Do you think it'll come before, during or after the tour?
    I don't know what I'm expecting from it, other than another collection of strong songs. I'd like to see them pull a Zooropa with it and release it during the tour, incorporating those songs into the live shows. It'd make going to different legs feel, well, different, like you're going to two separate tours.

    How different is U2 compared to other artists that you like?
    It's just the connection the music makes with me. From that first listen, I was hooked. It's not very fashionable these days, but there's a genuine sincerity to their music, and in these cynical times, that's hard to come by.

    What are your hobbies and interests away from U2, musical or otherwise?
    Travel is my true passion. I've been to India 7 times and I'm trying to visit a new country every year. I've been to several countries in Asia and I'm going to Vietnam in February - I'm counting the days... Musically, I'll listen to almost anything, but I love hard dance music (once a raver, always a raver). I'm a huge movie fan, and took a Film Studies degree a few years ago (really using it in that warehouse), and wrote and directed a few short films, alongside the academic theory studies. I like to read, and have just reread Catch-22 for the nth time... Most of my time is spent running around after my kids, though, so I don't have a great deal of spare time, but time spent with them is time well spent. Not that I felt that way yesterday, watching my youngest playing football in the pissing rain...



    Thanks for this interview thejonner!

    Note: Our crew members randomly pick fans of the month, you can't sign up for it.
  2. Nice read!
  3. NOOOOOOOOOO!!! You could have sold a kidney or prostitute yourself, but WHY sell your record collection!?!?! Noooo That's the saddest bit I've read in over 6 years of doing FOTM interviews
  4. Originally posted by LikeASong:NOOOOOOOOOO!!! You could have sold a kidney or prostitute yourself, but WHY sell your record collection!?!?! Noooo That's the saddest bit I've read in over 6 years of doing FOTM interviews

    Well, I tried the prostitution thing, but I ended up having to fork out even more cash. I'm not sure if that's how it's supposed to work, but there you go...
  5. Also, I had to eat/house myself. Not much of a choice at all. London's a killer, man.
  6. Originally posted by LikeASong:NOOOOOOOOOO!!! You could have sold a kidney or prostitute yourself, but WHY sell your record collection!?!?! Noooo That's the saddest bit I've read in over 6 years of doing FOTM interviews

    Hahaha
  7. Originally posted by thejonner:[..]

    Well, I tried the prostitution thing, but I ended up having to fork out even more cash. I'm not sure if that's how it's supposed to work, but there you go...

    hahahahahaa!! You tried the wrong side of the businness then (or the right one, now I think about it..)

    Now seriously, great interview!! I liked the story of your father having the albums and all
  8. Great read, Conrad. So much in agreement about being a U2 fan in this day and age - the honesty and sincerity of the band's music really sticks out, and it irks me that much of the music world completely misses that particular point. Top stuff
  9. Originally posted by Remy:
    Most of my time is spent running around after my kids, though, so I don't have a great deal of spare time, but time spent with them is time well spent. Not that I felt that way yesterday, watching my youngest playing football in the pissing rain...



    I understand you very well ... nice read !