There’s a U2 Conference and it’s coming to Australia
A screening of U2: LoveTown, directed by Richard Lowenstein, a deep dive into the hundreds of U2 fan tattoos, and the setlistorian of the U2gigs.com concert database; these are just a few of the offerings set to make up The U2 Conference in Australia.
Set to take place in Sydney on November 21 to coincide with U2’s mammoth Joshua Tree Tour, The U2 Conference Australian Edition 2019: Image + Experience is every U2 fans’ wet dream.
The conference lineup features André Brett, the Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow in History at the University of Wollongong, who is also the setlistorian of the U2gigs.com concert database, and a panel discussion titled ‘London, Belfast, Sydney and Beyond: Does U2’s Touring Make It The Biggest Band In The World?’
The special guest of the day is Australian filmmaker Richard Lowenstein, who made the rarely seen U2 documentary U2 Lovetown in 1989 when U2 when played 27 shows in Australia with BB King.
Bono was the first person Lowenstein interviewed when he made the new movie, Mystify Michael Hutchence, which will be screened to close out The U2 Conference.
Richard Lowesntein. credit: Andrew de Groot
Conference Organiser, Naomi Dinnen said:
“This is a hugely exciting event for U2 fans and anyone interested in researching popular music and culture. The U2 Conference has never been held in Australia before, and it’s never been held in the city where U2 are playing the next night, and there are fans and academics from all over the world coming to Sydney for the experience.
“The title of the conference ‘Image + Experience’ is a play on the name of the album. ‘Songs of Innocence’ which U2 famously gave to all iTunes uses for free in 2014 whether they wanted it or not.”
The U2 Conference follows three other global instalments in 2009 at North Carolina Central University; 2013 in collaboration with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio; and 2018 at Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
The U2 Conference was established by Scott Calhoun, author and Professor of English, Cedarville University, Ohio, USA.
U2 CONFERENCE SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.