Hack at work.
Killing Bono
"The best book I have ever read about trying to make it in the music business" - Elton John
"A fantastic book, which manages the difficult trick of being simultaneously very funny and very sad." - Bob Geldof
"I was Neil McCormick's fan in school. He was much cooler than me, a much better writer and I thought he'd make a much better rock star. I was wrong on one count. He's written a great book" - Bono
Why do U2 want to play Glastonbury?
November 24th, 2009
U2 are to headline Glastonbury this year, on the festival’s 40th anniversary. There has been some predictable scepticism expressed about this from the anti-U2 brigade, although it seems a bit of a no-brainer to me: rock band plays rock festival – let the controversy begin!
Like last year’s headliners, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, the Irish group have a long established reputation as outstanding live performers, which has helped make them one of the most consistently popular live attractions of the last few decades. It was probably a given that U2 would get to Glastonbury sooner or later (The Rolling Stones are really the only other band of that stature never to have played the festival), the real question being why has it taken them 26 years.
The answer lies partly in the fact that U2 just don’t need Glastonbury, or any other festival. They are one of the few bands who can pull mass crowds under their own steam on a regular basis anywhere in the world. And, certainly since they ascended to stadium status with The Joshua Tree in 1987, they have put a great deal of care and effort into creating their own unique and artfully integrated live environments. Whenever the issue of Glastonbury has arisen within the U2 camp, the same questions tend to arise, which, if I might paraphrase the succinct directness of their very pragmatic drummer, boil down to: “So, if I understand this correctly, we wouldn’t be playing to our fans, right? It’s not our sound system? It’s not our lighting rig? And we would be doing this for a fee that would be less than we would make on the gate at our own gig? And the point of this would be …?”
So what has changed? Well, Glastonbury itself, for one thing.
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Is Bono a Conservative?
Bono’s appearance in a pre-recorded video message at the Conservative Party Conference caused a bit of an internet uproar. Such was the outpouring of hostile comments on Twitter (with popular taglines including #Bonoisatwat and #BonoToryScum) that the social networking site temporarily broke down. So you are a rock superstar for 30 years, a Nobel peace prize nominee and tireless charity proselytiser and what do you have to do to become a trending topic on Twitter? Talk to the Tories.
William Hague seemed thrilled to have a contribution from a rock star, introducing him as “someone you don’t normally hear from at Conservative conferences” but Bono’s appearance actually seemed to horrify both the left and the right. One side apparently felt betrayed that a rock and roll exponent of good works, civil rights and Third World aid would actually deign to talk to the Conservatives at all, while many Tories (at least judging by responses to yesterday’s blog by Lucy Jones) appear concerned Bono’s contribution might actually lose them votes.
It has left me wondering if the problem is really Bono or the Conservatives? Bono’s speech fell well short of an endorsement, rather concentrating on his particular hobby horse by encouraging the party to maintain its commitment to spending 7 per cent of Britain’s GDP on international aid. It’s the kind of speech the Irish rock star makes all the time, at all kinds of public event. There is (as I know only too well, being an ally and supporter) a large and vocal anti-Bono brigade, who blithely ignore all evidence of the tangible benefits of his good works, preferring to cast aspersions about his motives, regularly accusing him of being a messianic megalomaniac, only involved in charitable works for his own egotistic self-aggrandisement. These sensitive souls are heartily sick of being preached to by a wealthy and unelected rock star, and can be counted on to sneer and bray whenever he intrudes on their mental space. But Bono talks about this stuff all the time, at all kinds of public events, and it never broke Twitter before.
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The end of the guitar? The Edge & Jimmy Page talk shop
After U2’s shows at Wembley last Saturday, I found myself in a huddle with The Edge, Jimmy Page and Noel Gallagher. Inevitably the talk was of guitars. Well, they were talking guitars, I wisely refrained from offering my thoughts on how I mastered the lead solo from ‘Johnny B. Goode’.
The white haired Page was effusively enthusiastic about Edge’s performance, almost wide-eyed with childish pleasure at the sheer array of dazzling sounds he produced. Page is amongst the most lyrically virtuoso players of his rock generation, although it is easy to overlook how much of his breakthrough style was based around a specially constructed board of effects pedals now considered the rock standard (including Fuzz Box, Wah, Chorus and Delay). The Edge has taken this approach to extremes. He is an effects maestro, who never plays two songs on the same settings and has a futuristic hub beneath U2’s stage to house his vast array of sound altering technology.
Both appear in what must be the first feature length film aimed entirely at guitar geeks, the soon to be released ‘It Might Get Loud’, along with Jack White (of The White Stripes). The three guitarists compare and contrast styles, with White playing the role of plucky primitivist, ready to squeeze sound out of any piece of wood with strings. In one fascinating / incredibly dull sequence (delete according to your level of guitar obsession), Edge demonstrates how he creates the pulsing, phased riff of U2’s ‘Elevation’. With his effects units turned off, the riff is revealed as just two notes, which he cheerfully acknowledges would be unlikely to impress your friends if played on acoustic guitar.
Somehow I doubt this is going to be one of the great date movies.
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U2: secrets of stadium rock
The Claw: stage set or intergalactic people transporter?
U2 were in London this weekend, playing two dates at Wembley Stadium. Now, I am well aware that not all rock critics share my enthusiasm for the band (my colleague Michael Deacon awarded the show a mere three stars) but I was blown away once again. I have watched them from the school gymnasium all the way to this latest attempt to simultaneously transport 88,000 people to another galaxy on what appears to be a home made rocket ship. I thought the show was as powerful, exciting and transformative as a big rock show can be. The teething problems of the opening night in Barcelona’s Nou Camp have been ironed out, and the band have gained both a sense of the dynamics of that stage space and complete mastery of the set of songs. The second show, on Saturday night (when they had overcome some of the sound problems mentioned by Michael on Friday, apparently caused by Wembley’s roof being partially closed), was phenomenal.
From the epic statement of intent that is the opening ‘Breathe’ (“I’m gonna walk out, into the street / Got my arms out, got a love you can’t defeat”) to the raw, emotionally exhausted closing ‘Moment Of Surrender’, U2 just throw everything at their audience: lights, music, Acthung (Baby). Something seemed to happen about six songs in, when they delivered a particularly rich and emotional version of ‘Until The End Of The World’ which left them wreathed in smiles. The joy of the band themselves mirrored the joy in the audience, who pitched into ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I Was Looking For’ like they were auditioning for the role of the biggest gospel choir in the world. The sound was broad and open, the performances clipped and focussed, the rhythm section thunderously driven, Edge flying on his one man orchestra of sound, and Bono singing high and hard, utterly lost in the music.
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