U2: The Greatest Show on Earth

It started with the CLAW.

“Ground Control to Major Tom… Commencing countdown, engines on”

Blackout. 90,000 odd people on their feet at the Holy Ground of football, the legendary and smashing new Wembley Stadium. There’s a laser show, some smoke, lights and

5-4-3-2-1…

click, click, click, click…someone walks on stage. The crowd erupts, almost collectively, we scream out the names...

“Larry! Adam! EDGE! OH MY GOD, THAT’S BONO”

Yep, this is EXACTLY how the greatest band in the world, U2, took off for a spellbinding display of music, emotions, technology and spectacle. On August 15th, 2009, the Wembley Stadium was a place to be seen, a place to be at in person as its very hard to describe what we call “the experience”. Just like that. They walked on the stage and captured our hearts and imagination and left us with memories of a lifetime.

But our journey did not start off with the (now-known-to-al) CLAW lighting up. In London for work, we couldn’t have been luckier to have our travel dates coincide with the concert! Or maybe, we’d planned it that way.
With tickets booked over three months ago, we still reached the Wembley Stadium early- at 11AM when the show was due to start at 6PM- and witnessed it all. From Bono’s mad dash to shake hands with fans and making everyone sign on to One.Org; to the band sound checking “New Year’s Day” and “Until the End of the world”; It was a carnival like experience on a very hot day in London.

They had played the night before, and had set the record for maximum turnout, with approx 100k people, edging out “Foo Fighters” from the top spot for the number of people for a single concert. That would’ve made it close to 200k people in two days in London


After buying souvenirs, consuming ample food & beverages and experiencing the Wembley Stadium (could talk days on about the stadium… alas!), we made it inside around 4PM, and surprisingly saw that the U2 Heart has been completely replaced by the magnificent claw, moving bridges, giant screens, strobes and other such complicated equipment. It took us sometime to actually digest the grandeur of the stage. There were people who had travelled all the way just for the concert from Italy, Spain, Belgium, Malaysia, Australia… it was chic and fancy for us to claim that we too had travelled all the way from India, specifically for the show. J

To say these Irishmen are still VERY cool would be an understatement.

The support act started with a good set from ‘The Hours’ which was well received. They engaged well with the audience who were starting to fill up the pitch at that point. “so you guys here to see the boys from Dublin, eh?” was all that was required to get the crowd hearing their songs. Might add, they’re a band to lookout for in the future. The second act, ‘Glasvegas’ was a disaster. The lead singer gave us the band’s name and then they played on for an hour, primarily songs of hate and disgust. The audience didn't care, and the band didn't care for us either. Phssst.



With Bowie’s voice and the legendary “take your protein pills and put your helmets on” the Claw lit up like a spaceship. Before you knew it, the crowd was on their feet, in earnest anticipation. The band walked in one-by-one, as always, and by the time Bono jumped on stage to belt out “Breathe” most around were dancing, jumping and crying.

The lighting, videos and the overall paraphernalia worked, and worked BIG time. The stage design was ingenious and the 360 degree video screen was very clear and amazing when extended. Do take the time to google search the U2 Claw; and imagine the most amazing laser display, with the screen opening up, the stage bringing them-Gods closer to us than ever before, the innovative animations, effects… in one word, BRILLIANT.



After playing four songs from the new album (Breathe, No Line on the Horizon, Get on your boots and the iconic Magnificent), mischievously, they started playing “London Bridge is falling down” before going for the big shots (Beautiful Day, Stay, etc) They didn’t get to sing “Still haven’t found what I’m looking for” because as the song started, the crowd took over. Larry and Edge went on playing, whilst Bono and Adam simply clapped on with the crowd. There was a twist tribute at the end of the song “Stand by me” on the same beats. And Bono returned wearing Amitabh Bachchan in Yaarana style-laser-light suit for the encore, which whilst looked cool, was stupidly funny for the Big B fans.

There were snippets ALL through (we’ve managed to get the list) but we were thoroughly disappointed that they dropped the MJ tribute which was the highlight at most of the earlier gigs this tour. (Yep, ‘Stranger in the Mirror’, ‘Don’t Stop till you get enough’, and ‘Beat It’ made it to Barcelona, Berlin and some other cities, but not London) Also, a relatively well known musician Paul, who incidentally has headlined ‘The Beatles’ was there in person, but the band chose not to honour the great man on stage.

Bono told us that Joe O’Herlihy buried one of The Edge’s plectrums in the stadium when it was being build hence ‘Edge is all around you, always be with you !’ which made the British particularly go mad with happiness. Thankfully, he didn’t get very preachy as he sometimes does, though he educated us about Women in Iraq, Amnesty International, Aung San Suu Kyi, and many, MANY other social causes that the group has championed. He also said “it feels great to perform in the greatest city of the world…London” and “we were really poor whilst growing up. YOU guys have given each of us a great life, full of fulfilled dreams, comforts and grandeur. Thank you”. Ahem. That’s great, Bono. So, where do I sign up for my refund? :D

Reality check. The boys have become old. We felt the energy lacked in some places. For example, ‘With or Without You’ was lackluster; as was ‘MLK’. But they more than made up for the energy with a truly badass “BAD”, “ULTRA VIOLET” and “I’LL GO CRAZRY IF I DON’T GO CRAZY TONIGHT”. Guess they like re-inventing themselves, hence the magnanimous techno display, but all in all, they promised entertainment and they delivered more than that.


We all knew it, that we had just seen the greatest show on earth. How we wish we could experience this evening again and again. When they took the final bow, and as the pictures of all those who had signed up for Bono’s charities popped up on the giant screen appeared, we were in a state of disbelief- as were most around us- that this magical evening had come to an end. As we walked out the aisles of the great Wembley Stadium, we turned back every ten steps to see if they’d return for an encore. But these were tears of joy, and straight from the heart. Once we reached the foyer area, reality sunk in that the concert had actually ended. We saw lots and lots of people hugging each other and crying. The concert only cemented their status in our hearts, and we know we’d love to see them again, soon. If we had to rate the show, we’d give it a 10/10. Even if you don’t enjoy their music, you’d come back happy, and starving for more!


Kudos to the London Police who got near 90,000 people out of the narrow Wembley passageway on to trains and away into the city. No commotion, no chaos, in spite of some very drunk and loud people around. Oh, and the bobs do have a sense of humor. Sample this- “Ladies and Gentlemen, keep on singing your songs while you wait. We will get you all out of here ‘in a little while’, definitely by tomorrow, that is, before ‘Sunday, Bloody Sunday!’ What, it’s a ‘Beautiful Day’! “ Something for us to learn from!


And just like that, it was over. Yep, you guessed it, with the Claw. Thank you U2 for giving us such amazing music. Thank you for the memories! Walk on!
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Playlist:

1. Breathe

2. No Line On The Horizon

3. Get On Your Boots

4. Magnificent

5. London Bridge Is Falling Down (snippet) / Beautiful Day / Here Comes The Sun (snippet) [The crowd was in SPLITS!]

6. Until The End Of The World / Break On Through (snippet)

7. New Year's Day

8. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / Stand By Me (snippet) [very sweet, extended snippet. Though sounded like a drunk karaoke towards the end!]



9. Stay (Faraway, So Close!)

10. Unknown Caller [take a bow, Edge!]

11. The Unforgettable Fire / A Day Without Me (snippet)

12. City Of Blinding Lights

13. London Calling (snippet) / Vertigo / Rock And Roll (snippet)

14. Reverend Black Grape (snippet) / I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight / Two Tribes (snippet)

15. Sunday Bloody Sunday / Get Up Stand Up (snippet)

16. Pride (In The Name Of Love)

17. MLK

18. Walk On / You'll Never Walk Alone (snippet)

19. Where The Streets Have No Name

20. One

21. Bad / Fool To Cry (snippet) / 40 (snippet)

Encore(s)

22. Ultra Violet (Light My Way)

23. With Or Without You

24. Moment of Surrender



Best songs of the evening: 1. Magnificent 2. I’ll go crazy if I don’t go crazy 3. Bad. 4. One 5. Ultra Violet & Unknown caller.

Eye-moistening songs: 1. I still haven’t found what I’m looking for 2. One. 3. Where the streets have no name

If you haven’t seen the 360 Tour yet, book yourselves a flight to the US of A. Trust us, it would be worth the effort!

Priyanka (1st concert) and Kanak (2nd concert, following the Vertigo Tour in 2005) watched the U2 360 Degrees LIVE Concert in London, UK on August 15, 2009. Contact them for more pictures and videos.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE:::::: PLEASE DON’T VOTE

"There is no point in voting. A pack of mentally challenged chimpanzees would run this country. Politicians are immoral, unnecessary and just don't work" bellowed my friend.

For many years, I have been prophesizing the benefits of voting; for years, I have been arguing with the Voter ID and the CENSUS people to get me on the voter list; for years, I have patiently followed each and every major political party’s written manifesto, election propaganda and actions. Hence, my ecstasy knew no bounds when I realized that after all these years, I would be in the country at the time of elections and finally cast my vote in favor of my chosen candidate. (I could have voted whilst abroad, but getting the consulates to make the process smooth in a foreign land is subject to theory only). As I was discussing this exciting, hopefully-once-in-five-years-event with a close friend, he retorted with many reasons to not cast a vote, and summed it all up with the line above.


He bellowed “Make a difference. Don’t vote. Utilize the time and energy to finish a profitable task for yourself “! He pointed out that more than 55% of us have never voted, and this year thanks to the IPL in South Africa, the number would touch 70%. ONE solitary vote won’t make any difference.

We sat down to draw up a list of as many reasons (serious or plain lame) that could be there to not vote in this year’s elections. The deal is that we would have to go through our own list a day before the election, and then make up our mind whether its being a good citizen by casting your vote and simply selecting the best amongst the worst of the lot, or more productive cleaning my toilet, reading a good book or watching TV.

So this is written with all hints of sarcasm and to be taken with a pinch of salt & pepper… and keep adding to the list! Hopefully, we’ll have it on the upswing and have a hundred reasons pre-election day! Cheers!!

Reasons for not voting in these elections

1. Politicians are immoral, unnecessary, and just don’t work (wouldn’t this be true for every politician who has walked the face of the earth though?)

2. You play hard to get. You want a party to do something for you: AVOID voting for them. Whether they come in power or not, they’d pursue you & try please you.

3. Most would ask you to "shut up"—that if you don't vote, you have no right to complain about politics or society. REALLY?! When you vote, you play into the hands of the ruling party. And then, you play by their rules. Remember how many people at bars complain about the fact that they can’t smoke there anymore? Now who made that rule? The Government. And who gave that power to the government? The voters! Au contraire, then, those who vote they should not complain. Those who don’t, can be whiners and grumblers all their lives! And that’s far more exciting than following the written word!


4. People would tell you “if everyone follows your words and don’t vote, then…” well, then GREAT! The only people voting then would be the political candidates themselves and their supporters. And if 99% of the population doesn’t vote, where is the majority?!

5. These resources being used for the elections can quite easily be better used for organizing IPL and other sports tournaments.

6. Come on, do we really care about cleanliness, healthcare and safety? When was the last time you stopped yourself from tossing garbage on the streets? When did you make a deal about too much noise in your locality? We never go to government hospitals, so let healthcare goto hell… and hey, if some women feel unsafe on the road at night, they should stay home; so what if the on-duty personnel has decided to take off for a movie?

7. Statisticians comment that it would be a mathematical miracle to make ONE solitary vote, YOUR vote make a difference; its all in the trends-like calculation of the TRPs or the Duckworth-Lewis in cricket. The collective effect of the votes is negated by the presence of anti social elements.

8. It’s all about the media and people’s perceptions change as advertisements change on TV & on social networking sites. Remember the movie “WAG THE DOG”? Hah! End of the day, the better marketed candidate on LinkedIN and Facebook would win!

8. Voting is a waste of time. Elections are rigged. In the sense, the more powerful dumbass gets to be the victor; end of the day, its dumbass against dumbass


9. Voting is dangerous. The probability of your vote making the difference in the outcome has a lower probability than some mad man shooting you down or driving over you on election day. Why risk it?

10. Does ANY politician offer anything new? Do we have even the basic necessities sorted? Can you get a glass of clean water in any village in the country? Well then why vote? Any winning party would make false promises and the viscous circle would continue. Why contribute to the chaos?You’ve never really voted, right? Why venture into the unknown?

11. Those who’ve voted before have always complained that their vote got wasted. Telling you, its all rigged


12. All of the media supports voting. If we vote, we support the media. Hey, the media should follow our thought process, not vice versa

13. Voting means taking a stance. Come on, who wants to leave the good-two-shoes position of the neutral man?


14. Eeeu. Most of our politicians look so old, hogged, ugly, and dirty. Who wants to make an effort to see a lot more of them around?

15. It’s all karma. All those who have voted, have complained of boyfriend/girlfriend issues, severe stress and aggravated emotional trauma. You don’t have to get into a similar group!

16. If you vote, you end up supporting one or the other evil; its just about thinking that who is the lesser evil

17. Voting is doing what they tell you to do; not voting is more controversial, rebellious hence a much cooler exercise!

The Funny side to the Satyam saga!

As the Satyam saga unflods, as the other IT majors declare Satyam employees untouchables, and as the Government of India steps in to rescue the company, many people have already started seeing the funny, satirical side to the Satyam truth story. I came across this rather interesting (for the lack of a better word) article, which proudly declares that the Government is converting Satyam into a bank. Hilarious read!

http://www.fakingnews.com/2009/01/government-buys-out-satyam-to-convert.html

I couldn't resist making this remark to a friend in the outsourcing industry. "America does not need to pull off another ENRON or WorldCom, now, they can just outsource their scams to India"

As you'd expect, in good banter, my friends and colleagues from across the seas have written in with wide ranging jokes.

Sample the following:

- Maybe Satyam could rescue Citi Group

- American bankrupt companies are now not the only one's responsible for recession!

- The name SATYAM means TRUTH; if this is the truth, God bless

- What Raju has done was creating money out of thin air; that's the latest invention at Satyam!

However, the icing on the cake for me was this particular image on the careers page of Satyam. No, I did not make this page! The careers page at Satyam says "THINK LIKE A CEO" . I am guessing that if you do think like Mr. Raju, the Satyam HR managers are on the lookout for you!

Leave a comment if you have something funny to add on! Cheers!

Motivating employees during recession

In today’s tough corporate times, one of the biggest challenges faced by the top management corporates is that of handling a competent yet shrunk workforce whilst delivering the utmost quality of work. Attracting and retaining quality talent is the key to build a top workforce; this is challenged during recessionary times when the focus shifts slightly to motivating the existing force to perform and meet ends, rather than have progress at the heart of things. During an economic slowdown, employees have many fears bottled up and growing inside them. To enlist a few:

1. Survivor’s guilt: Recent psycho-analytic reports have revealed that those who have survived the chopper often feel guilty about it. The need re-instilling faith in their own abilities that the quality and value of their work is top notch and deserves recognition. Also, one has to make them feel secure in spite of them seeing their friends & colleagues being given the pink slip.


2. Apprehensions of external factors: Many employees fear that the external facets such as company closure, re-haul of complete workforce, economic crisis affecting payments amongst others would lead to them getting their monthly pay cheques.

3. Floating rumours, more piling up work, less motivation: Most employees are reviewing as to how their bosses are handling the situation and the additional work. They need to be pepped up because their rampant fears are bringing them down. Moreover, there are creepy elements in every organization who float rumours at other’s emotional deprivation, leading to wide-spread anguish and guessing game of “who is going next”

4. Marketing and sales not in-sync with times: No matter what, the company had to put up a brave face in front of clients, customers, contractors and investors that their roots are strong enough to weather the storm. If the management does not explain this to the employees top down, the perception would be quite wrong.

The idea is not to simply give an inspirational lecture, or take the team out for a champagne and beer lunch. The idea is to address their fears and make them competitive again for company’s sakes and in their own sphere for the marketplace. How long would the twenty pitchers of good German beer drown the sorrows of cash crunch and failing to meet rent? An evening of movies and bowling might look good on the agenda and everyone might pretend to lap it up, but the emotional state of affairs would really let the worker be at ease doing this.

I have found the following measures to be highly effective.

1. Guilt, fear, paranoia is comprehensible and give it time: Most people would be going through these feelings right now, and performance under such severe stress levels is difficult. Give this time, be empathetic and create flexible boundaries where such sentiments could be shared. Device a strategy to overpower these emotions and work with (and not against each other) to see the testing times through.

2. Be understanding, but don’t be an agony aunt: Most employees run to their bosses every ten minutes these days and continue with the “oh, isn’t it awful that the markets crashed” and “oh my God, the price of potatoes has gone up ten fold”. Well, the boss probably has more money invested thus suffered a bigger loss due to the market crash, and chances are that potatoes are similarly priced in the supermarket where the boss shops. So, bring a halt to that and invest time wisely into getting the work done. If in spite of all efforts an employee can’t be motivated to concentrate on work and talks about the bad times too much, in all probability he is too focussed on things around than the work he is being paid for.

3. Lead by setting an example: Remember the case study discussions during your B-school lectures when you would spring your point forth with excessive passion on how you want to make a difference to the global economic scenario? Or remember watching TV on how some distinguished faces talk about changing the world and international peace & harmony? Somewhere, whilst satisfying a job description, this fervour died down. Well, now is the time to actually put it in action. Forget what your job specification says; forget how you are to review your subordinates and co-workers; simply, be pro-active & for the first time (B-school promises not withstanding) think outside the box.

4. Set targets, let the employees know their distinctive roles: Yes, the tough times have made you pull the plug on many; those remaining are your crème de-la-crème. Make sure THEY know this fact. Make them feel important and special. And ensure this aspect does not go cause inflated egos; set fair targets for the turbulent times and account each worker for it.

5. Don’t excuse poor performance due to lacking effort: You wouldn’t do that in an ideal scenario, would you? Good times or bad, there is no excuse for lacking effort. And that should be the norm even if the worker in question has been your top dog

6. Good service, good relations, good strategy: One has often heard the best time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining bright- you’d need it when the rains come pouring. So, in tough times, as a collective unit, encourage your team to keep chin up and weather the tough times. Provide top quality customer services; the intra company relations should be top notch, and this is the time to lay the platform for future course of action. Remember, what comes down will go up. So pick up the sticks and be prepared, for the good times maybe a fair way off, they are still foreseeable.

Lastly, whatever you do, please don’t panic. You may take a hit, but you have to learn to survive. Look forward, and make your employees do the same. Keeping the morale high is one of the toughest jobs a manager would ever face. Given that the current crop of high flying managers have encountered easy profits primarily, this would be tougher. Learn to operate as collective unit- togetherness would help face monstrosities better than solitude!

Employees during recession and a sports team losing

Think of any sports team training. The coach spends a LOT of time developing strategies, improving skills and motivating the players, building up for that moment on the field when they could put it all together and achieve victory. The coach is hailed as a visionary, the players as heroes and the hurrahs go around for a long time.

 

Now, what if the best laid plans go horribly wrong, and the team loses? There are two scenarios. If the team puts a solid fist in the fight, then there’s praise on the effort and the ‘we’ll get them the next time’ jargon. Yes, the coach and non performers could face a lot of grief and spared no slack, to the extent of being given the pink slip. However, if the team gets a pasting, the situation changes. there would be talks of lack of spirit, lacking motivation, wrong strategies, new methodology in training, finding inspirational leadership and so on and so forth. This would lead to sacking of the coach, new captain, and re-shuffling of the squad. The non performers could kiss their careers goodbye. 

 

End of the day, if the going is bad, the blame game in bad times pretty much drowns everyone with it. What if the conditions work in favour of the opposition? What if the main player gets injured? What if the opponents are much better trained and “pumped-up” for the fight? Do we remember the fact that the team trained hard for years and the coach kept them motivated for all the time? Probably not.

 

Most of us wouldn’t care, because even in our everyday lives, we crouch down and praise all the successes, but our rewards our subject to the end results, the goals, the pre-set targets and expectations; there is are performance appraisals based on efforts and in tough situations, it causes more angst than one can envisage.

 

Like for a sports team, the work force never lost the apparent talents they had; hence the most motivation required is when the going gets tough. This is where a good coach and a bad coach differ. A bad coach would try work on the lacking skills of his player or look for some other player making up for those skills. A good coach would target the cause of the problem, and ensure that not only would he remove the fear and anxiety from his troubled players’ hearts but imbibe a spirit of confidence as well as work on the lacking skills. Similarly, good managers and leaders nurture their employees during a downturn.

 

Make your quarter-back realize his importance; let the pitcher know that its his job to achieve the strike-outs; the best batsman does not simply give an account of runs scored on a dead pitch in a dead-rubber; the pouring down rain and puddles wont make the best strikers run back to defence; if the majority workforce played the baseline in the sun, maybe its time to run up and volley when it gets cloudy.

 In short, believe in your team, and believe in yourself. Don’t bring in too many changes if this was the unit that brought in the championships in the previous years; a couple of bad series’ wont alter the course of great players. Winning is a habit- in life as in sport. Form of a player would come and go; however, if the ability, fitness and desire to win goes a-lacking, maybe its time to bet on a new horse.