Musicals are the new black

Ever since I was dragged, aged 10 and midway through a bout of mumps,  to watch Phantom Of The Opera, I’ve always had a bit of a problem with musicals.  But while the media were declaring 2009 as the year of electropop, musicals have quietly but confidently emerged as the real success stories for this year.  Gee’d on by the phenomenal success of the Mamma Mia franchise, everyone from Take That to Queen have delivered musicals in recent years, with the latest coming from Michael Jackson and one on its way penned by U2 of all people.  The latest to be announced is perhaps the worst of them all, as the face of rickrolling, Rick Astley has apparently announced that he’s writing a musical based on his songs.  He. Must. Be. Stopped.

U2 return

U2 have launched the first single from their new album, following the recent trend of making it available to hear online, and you can hear it in all its glory here.  Scroll down the page to see some very clever packaging for the album, with non-downloadable exclusives for the fanbase, featuring magazines, hardback books and the like, once again making the physical product an attractive purchase.