Wide awake on the web

Forgive us if we’re not our usual exuberant selves this week, but Caught In The Net is feeling a bit of a failure. We had hoped to bring you an authoritative guide to the best of U2 on the web but due to such extraneous distractions as eating, sleeping and going to the toilet, there were a couple of the 10,200 dedicated fan sites that we were unable to visit. Needless to say, resignations have been tendered and bottoms bared for a good old-fashioned thrashing.

There’s no way you’d get such slothfulness from www.atu2.com, a news service that’s as authoritative as it is sharply written. Updated daily by a worldwide team of stringers, it’s arguably better at delivering scoops than the band’s own official site. They’re not afraid to take the piss either, with a nice line in cartoons and funnies.

"Hot as a handbag and a can of mace" proclaims www.u2log.com and, sure enough, there’s much fun to be had with the likes of ‘Elevation Review Bingo’, ‘Airport Truth’ and the ‘Plastic Promo Band’ spoof that duped everybody last year, us included.

While obviously vicious criminals who ought to be rounded up like cattle and killed like pigs, one has to admire the bootlegging fraternity for their industry. A visit to achtung.topcities.com reveals that every single date on their recent American tour has illicitly made it onto CD. The packaging, in most cases, is superb and the sound almost mixing-desk quality. Apart from that, though, they have nothing whatsoever to recommend them.

If you’re the sort of obsessive who goes in for video cursors, sounds, icons, wallpaper and tiles, it’s safe to say that members,nbci.com/_XMCM/electrico/downloads/u2.html will leave your sausage well and truly battered.

There’s more visual niftiness to be had at www.Enjoyu2.com, which also enables you to ‘Learn German With Bono’.

Finally, you can see – and hear – some of the dodgiest U2 tributes known to man at www.u2links.com/links/Cover_Bands After much deliberation our "Leave it out, lads!" Award goes to a bunch of Aussies called The Real Thing. Gentlemen, we two-fingered salute you!