Take these boots, they're going nowhere....

My, U2 are testing us lately. I am exhausted with all the hiccups and "reasons" why this and that is not finished, or why it's delayed etc. And amazed at all the faux pas they seem to have made. For a band of their stature to be embroiled in artwork copying and copyright scandals is ludicrous. I wonder if they have been so "hands off" lately for whatever reason (time, mostly, while people who will remain unnamed are busy doing something else for 99.9% of the time), that they are just relying blindly on people who do not know, or do not care, what they are doing.

I just got an email from u2.com telling me to "click here" to watch the video premiere of Get On Your Boots, and ten minutes later, it is still stuck on 46% loading!

Oh well, I've seen it anyway. And don't even get me started on U2.com!!!

I really admire Bono for what he is doing with his time. I understand why he has to do it, and why he wants to carry on doing it. It's essential work and important that he does it. I respect that. But there must come a time when all that has to be weighed up against the fact that U2 are a band. Musicians. Do they still want to do that? I suspect that they do, but appreciate that it must be so hard.

And yes, I was getting impatient for a new U2 album... last September when myself and three of my friends were enjoying a week in Dublin, we had long conversations about it. It was about then that we had learned of them scrapping it all and starting again, and that they had 60 songs to try to get through. It didn't sit well with us. We were getting itchy feet. How can a band be out of the public eye for so long and survive, we mused. We were loyal and devoted fans who had stuck with them for years, and probably always would, but there were surely the lesser devoted who would get bored and turn their backs. U2 needed to act fast.

Maybe they thought that too. And maybe they acted too fast.

Because depsite my impatience about the album, I would much rather they get it right, than offer something up that is not up to par. Maybe, on some level, they think that too. Maybe they are getting nervous about just what is on that album.

I'm just musing and speculating. I don't know. All I know is that it is very weird, all this.

But amongst the confusion is hope and optimism. Deep down I feel it will be worth it, and that the very reason that there is all this confusion is because our guys want to give us all that we want.

And the tour.... that's something to look forward to. My friends and I are already dreaming about a sun-drenched French riviera, and gourmet food and good wine along with the music of the band we love!

It will all come out in the wash, as the saying goes!