U2 'Go Home' Slane Castle

   There's a U2 album due out, predicted and in completion... such has been the standard U2 media machine hype for maybe 12 months... they haven't finished recording it yet, but anyone annoyed by that is no U2 fan!! This is just standard angst from a creative force who strive for music that people want to hear alongside their own drive to tell a story nobody else is telling. They are over hyped, so 80s, and yet find a way to produce songs like 'Ordinary Love' for the Mandela bio pic [albeit with Chris Martin's help to finish it]!! I love this band and the way that despite ample material for lampooning, for people to get sick of them and their classic rock n roll excess... they find a way to critique the times, to share a story of faithful wrestling and speak into the mass population about their 'following' of Jesus and their fallible humanity.
   This t-shirt represents lots of things... on the one hand it's a concert that yielded one of the most moving live DVDs I've seen as they returned to the place they had been a support act 25 years earlier, cranking out their first song and then a stunning album and concert with huge screens, the usual and powerful themes and what some see as a huge ego but I see differently!!
   Alongside that however, this t-shirt was also a favourite as I set about the task of losing weight to better fit into it... actually 32kgs in 2007/8 to be precise... My ruptured kneecap tendons in 2003 were catching up with me and lack of ability to jog/run well, walk downhill really... It's only possible when you have enough energy or desperation to focus, priortise and stay committed... results for your efforts are a bigger part of it!!
   And yep, sadly I began to slip from almost reaching my goal to putting 27 of those back on and have been engaged way less successfully in the ask of turning that around over the last 24 months. I'm swimming 20-30 laps 3-4 times a week and was cycling 45mins a day before that... BUT not quite able to cut back enough of the wrong stuff and apply sufficient discipline... I haven't given up!!
   All that said, this t-shirt is a reminder it's possible... I just don't have a strong enough connection between the action of eating and the consequences... enjoying the food is the burnt out fuse in between.
   This t-shirt shows the four band members much as they were seen on giant screens in their show which included an eliptical heart shape with fans inside and out and an ability to run/walk around that stage, to do 'unplugged' at the front and to change up the tempo and vibe of the concert. The screens allowed images and lyrics, messages and historic clips to augment the songs. Later indoors, whole songs were projected onto the audience as well... eventually leading to the need to invent a staging 'claw' to go even bigger but stay even more intimate...
   You get reminded of all that emotion and theatre, just wearing a  type t shirt. I look forward to U2's new disc... 2014-2015???????