Remember when the New Media was the Big Idea?

It is interesting to note that back in 2001 during the height of the Elevation Tour, there was no such thing as 'Bit Torrent', dvd burners were barely visible on the technological horizon, and if someone called you a 'leecher' you might have been insulted. There were several methods of getting shows, primarily via b&p (blanks and postage) requests in newsgroups, or logging onto sites such as u2bloodredsky.com and hoping your connection was fast enough to get a show or two by the end of the week. How the show was sourced really wasn't a concern and it was actually a status symbol in fan circles if you had a large collection of ... (oof!) mp3's! (lossless schmoshless!!) Broadband internet service was not nearly as mainstream as it is today and we could only dream of the day of being able to download just about any U2 show that was out there, in a fraction of the time (well at home anyway). Actually, some of the best sites for downloading live shows have already come and gone (i.e. sharingthegroove.org ..). We also couldn't have imagined that a gadget called an 'iPod' (which was introduced for the first time more than halfway through the Elevation Tour) would eventually be branded in U2 black & red. So here we are today, in 2005, and our expectations are justifiably higher. With digital recording devices getting smaller and providing better quality audio and video, it is not surprising that there are groups getting organized to 'document' the upcoming Vertigo Tour. The Vertiblog has just received an email from the crew at u2preservation.com and they're having a fund drive to help subsidize their tour travels this year. 2005 will undoubtedly provide U2 fans with unprecendented live recordings from the die hard fans and tapers whose passion it is to capture the live experience. We can't wait to hop on the first torrent...