U2 in others eyes....

Obviously all forums/websites/social media feeds etc are just a small snapshot of opinion and of course fan sites like this one carry bias (both ways) but opinions are opinions and always interest me...

So there is a football (soccer to you americans) forum i am a member of who have a large and vocal membership and who have a very active and very diverse 'general chat' area of the forum.

Music is one of the most discussed topics on it.

Those of you who may have read the PJ Harvey thread in here will know I recently referenced a tournament they ran to crown the 'Greatest Female Solo Artist' 64 female artists were in it and my girl PJ got to the final - only to lose to Kate Bush.

They are at this moment running a 'Greatest Rest of The World Band' tournament after running a UK and a US one.

U2 are of course one of the runners!

In the first round they are up against Steppenwolf.

I thought it would be fun and interesting to share the comments being made about u2 there in the thread....it gives us an interesting insight into how u2 are seen by 'Joe Public' outside of our little bubble.....and to be fair amongst a pretty lively online community that draws from people across a pretty wide spectrum.

So good or bad - i'll post stuff from there here for you to have a look at - hopefully u2 will make it through a few rounds so should be plenty to digest.

So here we go....

"Up to around 92/93, U2 were brilliant.

Nobody can name more than 2 Steppenwolf songs, so this is easy."

"I’ve seen a lot of travesties in life, a lot of things happen to good people that our collective conscience shouldn’t allow. I’ve seen worlds destroyed and rebuilt in images of hatred. Seen the weak pushed further into suffering by the strong. Thousands of years of tragedy and travesty, but I have never seen anything as downright disgusting as ‘The Edge’ win guitar innovator of the year award!

A boss digital delay, that’s it, nothing else, shit cunt.

Stupid hat as well, the big baldy, shit guitar playing prick."

"Not Being U2 would be enough for me to vote for anyone in this tournament, but Steppenwolf were actually rather good."

"Oh no Edge wears a funny hat they must be shit" This is probably the best live album of all time"

(Posts video of UABRS)

"U2 are absolutely fucking shit."

"Dont forget ENO was the 5th member of the band (joke)

Seriously, when this album came out it blew my mind from a songwriting and production perspective. Stunning."

(POSTS VIDEO OF ACHTUNG BABY)

"Not a massive fan of U2 but took advantage of a mate’s spare ticket and went to see them at the old Wembley Stadium on their Zoo TV Tour. Everything was big, expensive and hugely entertaining but the best bit was a short acoustic set which I have to say was fantastic.

I like a few Steppenwolf songs. I like a lot of U2 songs.
 

Unlucky draw for Steppenwolf but this has to be U2."

"I agree about Edge, he's a shit cunt. Bono is both ends of a giant shit.

But they are a part of one of the most successful bands of all time.

U2 have some amazing songs and albums and to deny this is just plain silly.

Steppenwolf as good as they are aren't in the same league as U2."

U2 pre 2000 were mostly boss.

U2 post 2000 have been absolutely dogshite - settled into really bad MOR pop rock and bad dad rock.

The pre 2000 U2 gets my vote here.

Haha, I don't know a single Steppenwolf song, but then I'm not the right age (I don't think?) and didn't have the advantage of having an older sibling whose music I would overhear and get into.

"When U2 came into my music library and dumped a massive steaming turd there "for free" I stopped using iTunes completely. Cheeky fucking twats."

"That's the first thing I think about whenever I hear U2 mentioned nowadays, for the next week practically the entire internet was asking how they could remove this horrible album that had invaded their painstakingly curated iTunes library"

"It's funny how everyone has a different U2-were-great-then-they-were-shit period. Mine is up to the Unforgettable Fire, I added Joshua Tree for completest reasons and than binned them off. First 4 or 5 albums were either good or innovative or relevant followed by several highly accomplished commercial but not very interesting albums and then they seemingly became the world's most annoying band, judging by people's reactions. They probably lasted far too long for their own good."

2 questions:

a) who are Steppenwolf?

b) can you link a certain somewons to this chat, so that he may go in there and set these blokes straight?