Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

INTERVIEWS, REVIEWS & RELATED ARTICLES

Billboard SEPTEMBER 14, 2009 - by Michael D. Ayers

U2 EXPANDING 'UNFORGETTABLE FIRE' THIS FALL

While U2's "360 Tour" just got underway in Chicago this past weekend, fans are in store for another treat this fall as the twenty-fifth anniversary of the band's classic 1984 album, The Unforgettable Fire will be celebrated with a host of reissue configurations. Due October 27 from Island/Universal, four options will be available that include B-sides, rarities, alternate versions, and previously unreleased songs including Disappearing Act (AKA White City), a song that was originally started in 1983 with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. Only recently the band put the finishing touches on Disappearing Act in France, according to an interview with BBC Radio 1.

Handling the re-mastering duties was U2 guitarist The Edge. The four versions will include a hundred and eighty gram vinyl album version, a standard remastered CD version, a deluxe double version with a thirty-six page bound book and a limited edition super deluxe box set, which includes the 2 CD version, a fifty-six page bound book, five portfolio prints and a DVD that will feature rare videos, concert footage and a "Making of" documentary of the album.

Although no official announcement has been made on U2.com, fans who have visited the group's merchandise table at recent concerts have received wind of this release from a shopping bag advertisement. In a possible nod to the upcoming anniversary, the band has been playing the title track The Unforgettable Fire at recent shows for the first time in many years. The Unforgettable Fire continues in a series of deluxe reissues of U2's earlier work. 2007 saw the expanded release of The Joshua Tree, for that album's twentieth anniversary and in 2008 the group reissued War, Boy, and October in similar deluxe formats.

U2 is currently in the midst of a stadium and arena tour of North America, with the next shows scheduled for September 16 and 17 at Toronto's Rogers Centre. The band's latest album No Line On The Horizon was released this past February and has sold nine hundred and ninety-one thousand copies according to Nielsen SoundScan.