U2: The Best of Propaganda, 20 Years of the Official U2 Magazine

Details

Initially published: 2003-11-17
Author: Ian Gittins

Description

In 2004, with the official fan club finally winding down in print form, a book was printed which collected the best articles, photos and memories from the long running magazine. It collected content from both the “U2 Fanclub Magazine” and the later incarnation, “Propaganda”.

The book also featured a new foreword by U2 and the band’s manager Paul McGuinness. The editor of the book was Ian Gittins and design was done by Steve Averill of Four5One Creative. With the nature of such a book it is impossible to list all the authors and contributors to the original fan club magazines.

This book is a great look into the fan club magazine many of us treasured getting in the mail at random intervals. I would love to receive them and would spend hours going through every page, reading every note, and this book brings back some of that feeling. It isn’t a complete reprinting of all the fan club magazines, but does allow someone the first peek inside, perhaps on the road to tracking down the originals some day. As they have escalated in price, it is nice to have a book which documents this aspect of the bands career.

Abstract

Started in the band’s very earliest days, from 1986 until the year 2000, Propaganda was the only official U2 fan-club magazine to ever exist. Each issue carried exclusive in-depth interviews, plus behind-the-scenes insights into U2 operations and unique never-seen-elsewhere photographs. An impressive selection of the best features appear here in this very first Propaganda anthology, offering a fascinating chance to see the extraordinary development of one of the biggest bands in the world through the writers and photographers who have been closest to them throughout their successful career. U2’s Propaganda includes 250 color photographs—some of which have never appeared anywhere else, a tribute CD made up of various artists appearing in stores in October 2002, articles written by the band members themselves, exclusive band member interviews never printed before, and a full discography.