Edge's Acceptance Speech

I am, in the end, the technology guy of U2, which, really, all it
means is that I can fix the printer -- but I don't tell them that.
Above all else, what U2 have tried to avoid over the last 25 years is
not being completely crap. But next on the list down from that was to
avoid being typical and predictable and ordinary, because it's so very
hard to avoid the clichés -- everyone else's, of course, but most of
all your own.

It's so hard to keep things fresh and not to become a parody of
yourself. If you've ever seen that movie "Spinal Tap," you'll know how
easy it is to parody what we all do. The first time I ever saw it, I
didn't laugh, I wept. I wept because I recognized so many of those
scenes. I don't think I'm alone amongst all of us here in that and,
you know, we're all guilty of taking ourselves and our work way too
seriously. We have all gone to hang out in a hotel lobby like we were
doing something really important. But the reason we're all here
tonight is that, in spite of all the clichés that do exist, you know,
rock and roll when it is great, it is amazing. It changes your life.
It changed our lives. Witness for instance, tonight, the O'Jays, Percy
Sledge, Bo Diddley, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, BB King, the Pretenders -
- I mean, amazing, really magic stuff.

You can break it down, uou can study it all you want, but you cannot
just dial it up. It doesn't work like that. As far as U2 goes, I've
stopped trying to figure out how -- or, more importantly -- when our
best moments are going to come along. But I think that's why we're
still awake. That's why we're still paying attention, and we know in
the end, you see, we know that it is magic. And so we end up waiting
around like if we all, sometimes, like actors in some Beckett play.
Just like they did in that "Spinal Tap" movie -- in the lobby --
waiting around, waiting for some magic to happen. We've done a lot of
that over the years, I have to say. I've done a lot of waiting with
Bono, with Adam and Larry and Paul for those moments to come along.

And we've had some brilliant people with us during those times: Steve
Lillywhite, Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Jimmy Iovine, Nelly Hooper, our
great engineers, Principle Management team that Bono's talked about,
Flood. Our show collaborators who've been with us from the beginning:
Willie Williams, all his team, our road crew -- fantastic people --
Joe O'Herlihy, Bucky, Jake, Dallas, Fraser (who isn't here), Stuart...
incredible people who we couldn't have hoped of going through the past
25 years without. And tonight it feels like it's just about half over
the room has been along with us on that journey. So I just want to say
thank you to my family for being so patient, my dad for showing me
showing me how, the rest of the band particularly, and tonight, you
know, for all of you, for this evening. And most of all for just
making space for me as we all waited together for something magic to
happen. Thank you.