A year after Irish supergroup U2 shamelessly hijacked Britain’s publicly funded airwaves to promote their new album, you might be wondering what all the fuss was about.

U2 took to the roof of BBC Broadcasting House last February to perform a 20-minute “surprise” gig, ahead of the launch of their new album, No Line On The Horizon. The stunt recalled the group’s promotional video for the single Where The Streets Have No Name, shot on the roof of a Los Angeles Liquor store in 1987.

Bono at the Beeb

Nothing wrong with a free gig, you might think, and U2’s London appearance was quaintly reminiscent of The Beatles’ famous concert on the roof of Apple HQ on Saville Row in January, 1969. But that’s where the comparison between Bono and Co. and the Fab Four had to end.

It took the best part of a year for the BBC to admit that its coverage of the album launch gave “undue prominence” to the band. As reported by the Irish Times, the broadcaster’s own editorial complaints unit ruled that a “U2=BBC” on-screen graphic to mark the launch of the album was “inappropriate”. Critics said the BBC had given U2 “the sort of publicity money can’t buy”.

The BBC’s Editorial Complaints Unit also said that a reference to the BBC being “part of launching this new album”, in an interview between Radio 1 presenter Zane Lowe and U2 singer Bono, was inappropriate.

Britain’s airwaves had hummed for a whole week with the sound of U2 as part of a deal with the BBC, the provider of free public service broadcasting in the UK, and many viewers and listeners were wondering why their licence fee was being used for airtime to hawk the recordings of a group described by their own manager as “a global business”.

Nobody was questioning U2’s global artistic appeal, or their championing of humanitarian causes including the present Haiti relief appeal, albeit while enjoying Ireland’s favourable tax laws. But it seemed inexplicable that the release of such a long-awaited new album should require a marketing blitz to undermine the principles upon which the BBC was founded.

Conservative MP Nigel Evans complained at the time that the Corporation was granting free publicity worth millions of pounds to U2 Inc. He told the Daily Mail, “Why should licence fee-payers shoulder the cost of U2’s publicity?”

The band enjoyed a month’s airtime including a week of prime-time TV appearances and a spot on Jonathan Ross’s flagship chat show. They were featured by BBC One, BBC Two, Radio 1, Radio 2 and Radio 4,  clearly in the context of the imminent album release. The rooftop spot included live performances of Get On Your Boots, the first single from the album, another new track, Magnificent, and the U2 oldies Beautiful Day and Vertigo.

Then it was the turn of the United States, with an unprecedented five-night promotional gig on the “Late Show with David Letterman”, although this did not raise issues of free public service broadcasting. Paradoxically, the new album sold “only” 484,000 copies in its first week.

Tags: BBC, Bono, broadcasting, marketing, media, music, rock, U2
Categories: culture

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