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Police probe missing U2 songs


Eggplant

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From CNN.com

PARIS, France -- Irish rock band U2 have called in the police after a copy of songs from their new CD disappeared while they were posing for the cover photo.

An unfinished copy of the group's upcoming CD disappeared while the Irish rock band was posing for the album cover in a studio outside Nice, southern France.

About 20 people who were at Tuesday's photo shoot were questioned by police, who told The Associated Press it was unclear whether the CD's disappearance was accidental or theft.

"A large slice of two years work lifted via a piece of round plastic. It doesn't seem credible but that's what's just happened to us... and it was my CD.," guitarist Edge told the band's official Web site.

The CD contained tracks to be included on their new album, the first in four years, tipped to be called Vertigo.

According to U2.com, the band recently completed much of the recording of the much-awaited new album in Dublin and have been involved in post-production work in France.

It was to be the first new studio album from U2 since "All That You Can't Leave Behind" nearly four years ago.

"The recording of this album has been going so well," added Paul McGuinness of Principle Management.

"The band is so excited about its release. It would be a shame if unfinished work fell into the wrong hands."

"This matter is of great concern to us," said Lucian Grainge, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group UK.

"As the missing CD is our property, we're very keen find it as soon as possible and the French police are being extremely helpful in this regard."

Reports say the new album could end up on the Internet where fans would be able to download it for free -- costing the band and the record company millions in lost revenue.

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I'm surprised it wasn't under high security, seeing as how they are a major band, I remember reading that bit about having money stolen in 1981 in their biography, as listed in the previous post. The songs are due for being released to the world of peer downloading anyways, there's not much point in stealing the material.

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This isn't the first time something like this has happened to U2. In 1999, Bono's laptop with lyrics to the songs on All That You Can't Leave Behind was stolen. It was recovered by a guy who bought it and found the lyrics.

I think it's interesting how the name of the album leaked. They claim that an enterprising U2 fan noticed that someone was registering domain names like u2vertigo.com and figured it out. U2 has a history of innovative marketing (Remember the K-mart appearances to promote the PopMart tour?). There may be a bit of media maniputation involved here.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Well apparently they got everything sorted out...

By Jonathan Cohen

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Irish rock band U2 has revealed the names of six of the 11 tracks, including first single "Vertigo," on its as-yet-untitled album, due Nov. 23 via Interscope.

Other songs include "A Man and a Woman," "Crumbs From Your Table," "Yahweh," "City of Blinding Lights" and "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own." "Vertigo" is due to arrive at U.S. radio outlets in late September.

Band members previously named the songs "Tough" and "Full Metal Jacket" as contenders for the album, but it is unknown if they have made the final cut.

The upcoming release will be the follow-up to 2000's "All That You Can't Leave Behind," which has sold more than 4 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. A world tour is expected to launch early next year.

In other U2 news, frontman Bono was scheduled to appear Sept. 1 on the Fox News Channel show "The O'Reilly Factor" live from the Republican National Convention in New York.

Bono will kick off the 2004-2005 International Speaker series with an Oct. 20 speech at Portland, Ore.'s Rose Garden Arena. The event is sponsored by World Affairs Council of Oregon. Tickets go on sale Sept. 13 via Ticketmaster.

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