Friday February 27th of 2009 was a brilliant day to be a U2 fan in London. The BBC brought us closer than we’ve ever been before for hours of brilliant coverage. My friend and I won tickets to the Radio 1 Live Lounge in the morning, and stayed until the end of the rooftop gig in the evening.

After waiting out in the cold from 9am we finally got into the BBC Radio Theatre and secured a spot at the front next to Edge. Everything was amazingly organised and fans were led into the theatre in the order in which they had queued up. Take note venues of the world!

First song was Get On Your Boots which was deafeningly loud and will clearly inspire mass pogo-ing on tour – just as Vertigo did last time. As the backdrop was simple lighting, there were no lyrics being flashed on a screen as in previous outings at the Grammys and Brits (something of a bonus!). Bono immediately spotted a pregnant woman in the audience who transfixed him. He gave several shout outs to the lovely Gemma throughout the rest of the set.

Next up was one of the undoubted highlights of the new album – Magnificent – which is also going to be a massive live song. It was like being hit by a wave as Edge’s guitar swam in and out of Bono’s yodelling vocals – ‘only love, only love, can leave such a mark’. Magnificent is already a classic and can stand proudly among U2′s other live monsters like Streets and Bad.

Then a surprise – apparently tracks from 2000 are considered to be ‘vintage’ as Beautiful Day was introduced by Jo Whiley. It sounded much the same as usual, no new motifs from Edge, apart from a fluff when he was distracted by Bono frantically waving his arms. Prior to the song Jo Whiley told the crowd that the band wouldn’t be playing the traditional Live Lounge cover because they had been too busy recently to rehearse something. This was greeted with good natured heckling from the audience so Bono chirped up with the line “I kissed a girl and I liked it”. Then at the end of the song he decided to include the Blackbird snippet – informing Edge by way of lead singer sign language. Edge eventually got the idea and Bono managed to squeeze in his homage to Macca.

Breathe was the final track, not a personal favourite from the album, but the band play it with real passion that helps to sell it live. Bono was so into it that he broke out some air guitar during Edge’s solo!

After the show we spoke to Willie who told us that he’s really excited about the tour and album. The band has had a lot of time to prepare the tour due to the delay in the album release and the staging they have planned is going to be fabulous.

All in all it was a fantastic day, and thank you so much to Radio 1 and the BBC for giving us the opportunity to be so close to The Edge (four feet!).

Monday evening’s show was an exceptional event, since U2 had never done any live performance on any French television set before. Canal + was totally themed around U2 for the night, even broadcasting their advertising jingles under the colors and design of U2.

The excitement, the pressure, and the emotion were tangible amongst everyone on the set, including the exceptionally numerous VIP guests: TV presenters, singers, music business personalities. The set was “invaded” by dozens of guests, most of them having to stand or sit wherever they could, on the stairs and on the floor.

U2 appeared at 8.10 pm in a flood of music and images in front of a giant screen – starting “Get on your Boots” with a few notes of the French national anthem and a spoken French translation of the sentence “I don’t wanna talk about wars between nations”. Bono made the audience even louder and crazier as he kept diving into the crowd, shaking hands and embracing people. He even finished standing on the central table at the end of “Breathe”, performed right after a 20-minute interview with Bono and The Edge.

The interview was rather classic, revealing nothing that had not been said earlier. But it was really refreshing thanks to the light, whimsical mood and humour of Bono and The Edge. Both of them actually kept evading the presenters’ questions, making jokes and laughing, closer to each other than ever.

Asked first about the secret of their longevity, they mention that it’s all about the shoes. When Michel Denisot asks a rather complex question about the limits they set to themselves in the band, they naturally answer that “playing golf” would mean instant elimination for any member of the band. When the subject of The Edge’s particular taste for disco music is raised, Bono pretends to leave the set, explaining that the band would have to split up after this revelation. The political commitment of Bono was – deliberately – mentioned only briefly: the interview had to focus on music, Canal + had announced.

U2 left the set in the middle of a huge chaos, just after Bono embraced his friend Michka Assayas, whom he had spotted in the audience.

Originally, they had considered taping “Magnificent” as an outside broadcast but they finally did not: they had to rush to the NRJ radio studios for another interview.

U2′s performance and interview can be viewed in full on the Canal+ website:

• Get On Your Boots
• Interview
• Breathe
• Rehearsals

They were patted down, then let into the arena where they joined radio contest winners from all over the United States. Together they filled five first-level sections on either side of the stage.

Ruth Barohn was one of the lucky fans to get a preview of U2′s Vertigo tour. She reports for U2log.com:

The reason

U2′s stage manager Rocco Reedy came out and addressed us from the catwalks, explaining that the band had just been rehearsing for the crew in empty arenas and needed feedback from the live audience.

The G.A. procedure
We were told that on show night, admission to the floor area will be be handled in a lottery-type fashion and that it will allow for people to enter with a buddy.

The stage

Once inside, we found out the stage setup is strikingly similar to the deeply-loved heart setup from the Elevation Tour. The round stage is made to look like the “Vertigo” video bulls-eye, with circular lights during certain songs to emphasize it.

Bono’s microphone is is set a bit deeper back with a step down in front of him to bring him closer to the crowd. The catwalks are identical to the previous tours. There is, once again, a huge big video screen, also identical to the Elevation Tour screen. It has additional screens coming down further back when needed.

Six lights hang above the stage. They resemble heat-lamps in a beauty shop, light ‘shower-screens’ come down during many songs for additional interesting lighting effects -– think beaded curtains from the ‘60’s.

The show

The intro music for the set was The Arcade Fire’s ‘Wake Up’ and at the end of the song, Bono’s voice was heard saying ‘everyone’ loudly, over and over again. The the lights slammed down and the intro of ‘City of Blinding Lights’ chimed through the hall. As the lights came back up, confetti dropped from the ceiling and four familiar figures filled the stage. Bono was standing out at the tip of the catwalk brandishing a light while Adam played the keyboard intro. The crowd excitedly shouted the chorus back to the band.

For the next song, Bono said that they were going to go back to where they started and a single screen descended above Larry with the album cover of ‘Boy’ as they launched into ‘The Electric Co.’. The trip back to the band’s premiere effort continued with ‘An Cat Dubh’ and ‘Into The Heart’, both of which the die-hard crowd was surprised -– and thrilled –-to hear, evidenced in how they screamed along throughout.

More recent material followed with the next six selections. ‘Beautiful Day’ included the Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’ at the end and ‘Miracle Drug’ had Bono saying to the crowd, ‘I don’t need to tell the story… you know the story,’ referring to the tale of the song’s inspiration. ‘Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own’ was dedicated to Bono’s father, Bob Hewson, and an image of a man walking moved from one shower-screen to another as Bono passionately sang the song from the tip of the catwalks.

A truly powerful rendition of ‘Love And Peace Or Else’ beginning with that unmistakable heavy bass drone followed, with Larry joining Bono at the tip. Bono walked over to him and together they sang the ‘release, release, release’ part of the song. As Bono danced, Larry played the single drum and when the words concluded, Larry walked back to the stage and Bono picked up Mr. Mullen’s drum sticks and pounded away till the song’s conclusion.

Edge’s guitar and Bono’s vocal were the only instruments used during the first verse of ‘Elevation’ before the rhythm section kicked in. An acoustic ‘Stuck In A Moment’ followed, with Edge on piano and Bono on guitar. The ending was extended as Edge sang his beautiful falsetto part several times over before Adam and Larry joined and upped the pace to the conclusion.

‘Yahweh’ saw Larry on the keyboards and Bono highlighting the bass talents of Adam Clayton during the end of the song.

A couple of Joshua Tree favorites followed with ‘Bullet the Blue Sky’ and ‘Running To Stand Still’. After Edge’s guitar solo in Bullet (complete with blood red lighting), Bono said how he didn’t know what to do there; to give a speech or what, so he told Edge to just continue his impressive solo.

At the conclusion of a powerful Running (one of the obvious favorites of the crowd) smoke filled up around the stage as Bono introduced the Declaration of Human Rights. The powerful document scrolled up the big screen with taped video of people reading along with it.

The band then touched their next album, ‘Achtung Baby’, with ‘Zoo Station’ and ‘The Fly’. During ‘Zoo Station’ Bono and Edge (who was singing into a microphone head-set) came out to the tip and played, sang and danced back and forth. Bono even broke out his I’ve-been-electrocuted spasm at the beginning and later adlibbed the line, ‘I’m ready, I’m ready for San Diego”, anticipating the upcoming tour opener.

‘The Fly’ was very much a throwback to the Zoo TV Tour version including random words (‘Everything You Know Is Wrong’) flashing across the shower-screens and Bono on guitar.

‘A Spanish lesson,’ according to Bono, followed: ‘Vertigo’ had part of ‘Stories For Boys’ worked in toward the end and Bono encouraged the crowd to respond to his ‘hello, hello’ call.

Three staples were next. During ‘Pride (In The Name of Love)’ Bono asked the crowd to be quiet at one point so Edge could find his place again. Then ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’ had the shower-screens morphing from one country’s flag to another.

During ‘One’, Bono explained to the crowd that they wanted to get one million people during the North American tour to use their cell phones to text to UNITY (86489) to support www.one.org to bring attention to the AIDS and poverty crisis in Africa. The names of those whom text during the show would run across the big screen later during the concert.

Bono rocked the tambourine during ‘All Because of You’ as Edge ripped the big, open chords a la Pete Townsend. The singer stepped back from the mic and let the crowd scream for him during the bridge.

Reminiscent of tours up through Lovetown, this night closed with the anthem ’40′. Edge and Adam switched bass/guitar duties as in the past, as well as switching sides of the stage. Bono said goodnight right then and apologized to the crowd, saying that they would not be able to come back out to say goodnight because they had to go talk about what they had screwed up.

The show ended with a spotlight on Larry alone at the drums after his bandmates had left the stage and the crowd singing ‘How long to sing this song?’ over and over.

Although there were some technical difficulties, hitches with Bono’s memory of some lyrics and awkward segues between differently arranged parts of songs, by show’s end Bono felt confident enough in the performance to tell the crowd that this was not a rehearsal but rather the first show of the Vertigo 2005 World Tour.

The eggs
At the conclusion of ‘Yahweh’, Bono had wished the crowd a Happy Easter and told everyone to enjoy ‘the eggs’. As people exited the arena, they were handed Cadbury chocolate Easter eggs as a parting gift.

The setlist

1. City of Blinding Lights
2. The Electric Co.
3. An Cat Dubh
4. Into The Heart
5. Beautiful Day (with Blackbird)
6. Miracle Drug
7. Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
8. Love And Peace Or Else
9. Elevation
10. Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of
11. Yahweh
12. Bullet The Blue Sky
13. Running To Stand Still
14. Zoo Station
15. The Fly
16. Vertigo (with Stories For Boys)
17. Pride (In The Name of Love)
18. Where The Streets Have No Name
19. One
20. All Because of You
21. 40

U2 were surrounded by the people who have been instrumental in their career as they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this week. Among those supporting the band as they were ushered into the prestigious music organization were the band’s wives; manager Paul McGuinness with his wife Kathy Gilfinnan; many from Principle Management’s team (both past and present), including Keryn Kaplan and Ellen Darst; “band consultant” and friend Gavin Friday; producer Steve Lillywhite; concert promoter Barry Fey; sound engineer Joe O’Herlihy; and Until the End of the World author Bill Flannagan.

U2 owned the night, even though it wasn’t solely their party. Also inducted into the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame with U2 were Percy Sledge, The O’Jays, Buddy Guy, and The Pretenders. Sire Records exec Seymour Stein and talent agent Frank Barsalona were honored with the lifetime achievement award in the non-performer category.

In rebel style, U2 played by their own rules for the entire induction ceremony. They skipped the red carpet arrivals, disappointing the paparrazi and mob of fans who hoped to catch a glimpse of them. (They had arrived at New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria, where the event was held, earlier in the day to rehearse and avoided the arrival hoopla.) Instead of playing the three songs they were scheduled to perform, they threw in a fourth — and, as usual, Bono couldn’t be contained on stage while they performed.

Cindy Trickel and Ruth Barohn report for U2log.com
(Includes full transcripts of speeches. Click on images for enlargements.)

Friend and contemporary Bruce Springsteen had the honor of inducting U2 into the Hall of Fame. In his speech, which was both moving and funny, Springsteen recalled the first time he saw U2 perform.

“It was the early 80s. I went with Pete Townsend, who always wanted to catch the first whiff of those about to unseat us, to a club in London,” Springsteen remembered. “There they were: a young Bono (single-handedly pioneering the Irish mullet), The Edge (what kind of name was that?), Adam, and Larry. I was listening to the last band of whom I would be able to name all of its members. They had an exciting show and a big, beautiful sound. They lifted the roof. We met afterwards, and they were nice, young men.”

Springsteen outlined what makes U2 special among bands and described the talents of the individual members. Of The Edge, Springsteen said, “There are only a handful of guitar stylists who can create a world with their instruments and he’s one of them. The Edge’s guitar playing creates enormous space and vast landscapes. It is a thrilling and a heartbreaking sound that hangs over you like the unsettled sky. In the turf it stakes out, it is inherently spiritual. It is grace, and it is a gift.”

Springsteen credited Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton as the “great rhythm section [in which] the band finds its sexuality and its dangerousness.” Of Clayton, Springsteen said, “Adam always strikes me as the professorial one, the sophisticated member. He creates not only the musical but physical stability on his side of the stage.”

After detailing Mullen’s unique drumming style, Springsteen had fun by calling him “the band’s requisite good-looking member” and joked about how his own band had overlooked the importance of having such a member and had to settle for charismatic members instead.

In his description of Bono, Springsteen nailed the singer’s true talents: “He is gifted with an operatic voice and a beautiful falsetto rare among strong rock singers. But most important, his is a voice shot through with self-doubt. That’s what makes that big sound work. It is this element of Bono’s talent, along with his beautiful lyric writing, that gives the often-celestial music of U2 its fragility and its realness. It is the questioning, the constant questioning in Bono’s voice, where the band stakes its claim to its humanity and declares its commonality with us.”

[Read Springsteen's complete induction speech.]

When U2 took the stage to accept their awards from Springsteen, Bono spoke first.

“Born in the USA, my arse! That man was born on the northside of Dublin!” joked Bono about Springsteen.

In his acceptance speech, Bono acknowledged the people who contributed to the band’s success, speaking at length about Island Records’ Chris Blackwell and his unwavering belief in U2 in the early years. Bono also thanked the “really gorgeous women that have worked for us for a long time” from Principle Management and RMP, as well as Interscope Records chairman Jimmy Iovine, Universal Music CEO Doug Morris, and manager Paul McGuinness, whom he described as U2′s bodyguards.

In closing, Bono offered the audience three touching “Kodak moments” that provided insight into how he feels about his bandmates. The first moment took the audience back to 1976 and revealed how much Bono respects Larry Mullen’s “brutal honesty.” The second moment detailed the skills and no-nonsensibility of The Edge. The third moment described the true friendship and utter trust Bono feels for Adam Clayton.

[Read Bono's acceptance speech.]

The Edge’s acceptance speech focused on the serious and ridiculous nature of rock and roll.

“It’s so hard to keep things fresh and not to become a parody of yourself,” Edge told the audience. “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.”

“Rock and roll, when it is great, it is amazing. It changes your life. It changed our lives,” Edge acknowledged, before thanking the people who have worked with U2 over the years.

[Read Edge's acceptance speech.]

Larry Mullen, always the minimalist, kept his speech brief. He paid tribute to the artists in U2′s “Hall of Fame,” mentioning the Sex Pistols, Television, Roxy Music, and Patti Smith. He credited those artists for U2′s existence.

Mullen expressed how U2′s journey to the Hall of Fame seemed unimaginable to him. “I feel like we’ve cut the line or jumped the queue along the way, someplace along the way and never got out of my kitchen in Artane, Dublin,” Mullen shared.

[Read Larry's acceptance speech.]

In his acceptance speech, Adam Clayton recalled the band’s history and shared how being in the band saved his life.

“Yesterday it was my 45th birthday. That’s a fine age to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” said Clayton. “That means 25 years ago, we released our first recording. That means 29 years ago, we all met and formed our band. Thirty years ago, I got my first bass guitar or, as I thought, the guitar with only four strings. I had no idea what a bass was…I just knew that I had a weapon and a shield to take on the world.”

Clayton acknowledged the band’s management team and crew, and ended his speech by thanking all the band’s wives and girlfriends, as well as his bandmates.

[Read Adam's acceptance speech.]

Grand applause followed the band’s acceptance speeches. Bono then joked about what was next that evening. “About 35 songs to play. It won’t be long,” he promised the audience, who were sitting through their sixth hour of the induction ceremony.

U2 began the performance part of their induction with “Until the End of the World.” “The next one up is a little pop ditty,” said Bono, introducing the song. “It’s a conversation between Jesus and Judas. I’m not kidding.”

Not content to perform on the stage, Bono went into the audience and sang to actresses Carey Lowell (aka Mrs. Richard Gere) and Catherine Zeta-Jones before grabbing a bottle of champagne off a table, popping the cork, and spraying it into the air. At the end of the song, Bono motioned for everyone to get up out of their seats, and they complied.

“Pride (In the Name of Love)” was the band’s second song performance. Bono added lyrics at the end of the song to pay tribute to the man who had inducted them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Bono sang:

No, I ain’t a boy; no, I’m a man, and I believe in a Promised Land.
No, I ain’t a boy; no, I’m a man, and I believe in a Promised Land.

The lyrics are from Springsteen’s song “The Promised Land,” released on the 1978 album Darkness On the Edge of Town. The lyrics were a fitting homage to Dr. Martin Luther King, the man who inspired U2′s song.

Over The Edge’s opening chimes of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” Bono again honored Springsteen by saying, “When I say that America is not just a country but an idea, I’m thinking about people like Bruce Springsteen.”

At the end of the third chorus, Bono shouted, “I’m looking for The Boss!” Hearing the call, Springsteen walked out on the stage with a Strat in hand and joined the band’s performance. Before the last verse began, Bono cued Springsteen to sing the verse. The two singers traded lines and then sang the chorus together.

“Vertigo” was the band’s final song performance for the evening. Bono introduced it by describing it as a “Spanish lesson for Bruce.” Several minor lyric changes were made throughout the song — one being “your eyes are blind” instead of “your eyes are wide.”

Following their induction and performance, U2 participated in a Q&A with the media backstage, where U2log.com asked the band about their relationship with their audience. See video of the band’s answer to our question:

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Another journalist asked Bono to comment on the rumor of his becoming World Bank head and the possibility of his winning the Nobel Peace Prize. See video of Bono’s response:

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Highlights of the induction ceremony will air on VH1 this Saturday.

Additional Photos

All photos and video ©U2log.com. Please do not use the photos or video that appear here on your website or forum without explicit permission.

U2log.com staff members Ruth Barohn and Chris Conroy both attended the Empire Fulton Ferry State Park performance in Brooklyn on Monday, November 22nd. The following is their report on the show — text by Chris Conroy, photography by Ruth Barohn.

[click on images for enlargements]

They were not even remotely kidding when they said U2′s appearance in New York City today would “stop the traffic.” Ask any of the poor schmoes who got trapped behind the band as they spent the afternoon rocking away on a flatbed truck, driving the length of Manhattan Island from Harlem to the banks of the East River. As U2 made their way across the Manhattan Bridge into the borough of Brooklyn, helicopters swarmed their position, and a crowd of some 3,000-plus New Yorkers gathered in Empire Fulton Ferry State Park went absolutely insane as they figured out who that strangely flamboyant little speck on the back of the eighteen-wheeler was. And you’d be surprised at just how recognizable the silhouette of the Edge and his guitar is, even from several thousand feet away.

A few minutes later (traffic on Flatbush Ave. permitting), the band bounded onto the stage in an insanely scenic concert location. Directly behind the stage, the immense brick pylons of the Brooklyn Bridge loomed, floodlit and glowing, while beyond the river shimmered the unparalleled skyline of Lower Manhattan. Cameras on cranes swooped over the outstretched hands of the audience as the band crashed into “Vertigo,” with Bono leading his acolytes in frantic call-and-response. Trust us, if you had any doubts about the chorus of U2′s first single being, well, a bit silly, you won’t feel the same way after you’ve found yourself — and several thousand of your closest friends — bellowing it back at the stage. “Brooklyn,” he informed us as the song pounded to a close, “you’ve just been jammed.” (The concert was being taped for a program titled “MTV Jam” — not to be confused with the hip-hop show of the remarkably similar title.)

From “Vertigo,” the band kicked directly into a tight, energetic rendition of “All Because Of You” (the song they were said to be filming a video for as they cruised across New York). The Edge’s remarkable guitar work earned the greatest cheers during that song, and it was very well-received by the crowd, who were a surprising — and pleasing — mix of diehard U2 superfans and just-plain-folks who weren’t as familiar with the new material. (One European couple we met had had no idea that the band would be playing today; they’d just been out for a walk in the park. They immediately hopped in line behind us and waited like troopers for the three-plus hours before the show.) The crowd fell respectfully (almost eerily, for such a sizeable mass of people) silent as Bono related the story of Christopher Nolan and “Miracle Drug,” now well-known to the U2 faithful.

It was “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own,” however, that officially cemented this show as a U2 concert unlikely to be forgotten. After explaining how his father used to conduct the radio with knitting needles, Bono told us that when Bob Hewson died, he gave his son a gift: a singing voice of the kind of strength he hasn’t had in years. There’s an “incredible note” in this song, he told us, and then, addressing his father, he cracked, “Don’t fuck it up now.”

Did he hit the note? Well, not really, but who can blame him? Reaching a note as high as the one in the climax of “Sometimes” must be difficult for even the most trained singers. To do it, night after night, in a song of such wrenching emotional weight is almost inconceivable. But it’s true that Bono’s voice on this night had a force, a range, and a power that we haven’t heard in some years — possibly even since before the beginning of the All That You Can’t Leave Behind shows. Nearly every note was nailed, with strength to spare, including the powerful turn of “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own” — “Can you… hear… me… when I… siiiiiiiiiiinnnng,” he exclaimed. There was absolutely no question that we could. The onlookers thronging the decks of the Brooklyn Bridge, hundreds of feet above, could hear it too and, no doubt, Bob Hewson could as well.

After “Sometimes,” Bono began to talk to us about every New Yorker’s favorite topic: New York City. “What a sight,” he said, gesturing to the absolutely gorgeous, blue-steel silhouette of the Manhattan Bridge to the northeast, and, as if on cue, a subway train rattled across it, a string of glowing lights in the setting sun. When they first arrived in New York as teenagers, Bono said there was “snow on the ground” (sound familiar?) and as they swept over the bridge for the first time, they were taken aback by the city’s beauty. “The chorus of this song,” he informed us, “is set in New York City.” And so began “City Of Blinding Lights,” the early contender for the next tour’s transformative “Where The Streets Have No Name” moment. The audience howled the song’s simple, potent chorus back to him, pumping their fists in the air — “Oh! You! Look! So! BEAUTIFUL tonight!”

“How do you know this shit?” he asked the audience after the song’s close. The crowd’s enthusiastic participation in the new songs had occasionally drowned out his own vocals, and their cheers as he announced “Original of the Species” had taken him by surprise. “Original of the Species” was the only song of the night that hadn’t yet been performed live by the full band. Bono informed us that they were most definitely “still working out how to play it.” The Edge forsook his guitar entirely, moving to the back of the stage to play keyboards (“Is there a light on The Edge?” Bono asked us, concerned for our sightlines. “I know there’s a light in The Edge, but on him?”), and Bono filled in on the six-string. “I don’t play guitar very often,” he said, “and you’re about to find out why.”

It took the band some time to tune up and get ready, which Bono filled with banter: “Adam Clayton, wearing a very fancy jacket…” (It’s true, he was: a fetching and somewhat reflective black waistcoat) and “Larry Mullen, the only man hard enough not to wear a jacket in Brooklyn in the middle of winter. Sure you haven’t got any thermals on under that?” he jabbed. Larry immediately stood up and, much to the delight of the audience, began to strip — though he stopped himself just before the shirt parted for good. The band then began a truly remarkable performance of the song, with only Bono and Edge (and the slightest backing beat from Larry) playing until shortly before the second chorus, when Adam and Larry enthusiastically joined in. The sound of it became a bit lopsided by the end, and Bono was grinning like a fool as it glided to a close. “Well, that was… funny,” he laughed. The levity continued through a twinkling, gentle version of “She’s A Mystery To Me,” originally penned for Roy Orbison, with Bono busting out a remarkable high note at the end of each chorus. “I don’t know how to finish it,” he admitted after the second chorus. Laughing, Larry mouthed, “Oh, I’ll do it — one, two, three, four” as he counted off the final beats of the song.

From then on, though, U2 were on much more confident territory, and the crowd exploded as the familiar strains of “Beautiful Day’s” lovely keyboard part echoed off the bridge behind them. The band tore through the tune with abandon, Bono effortlessly going for — and reaching — the high note he often avoids in it. “Re-ee-ee-EACH me,” he sang, with impressive clarity. And just when we thought they’d finished, The Edge ripped into the ecstatic opening riff of “I Will Follow,” kicking off another wave of frantic leaping and fist-pounding.

The band then thanked the crowd and turned to leave. The fans immediately began an intermingled chant of “One more song! One more song!” and the familiar refrain of “40″ — “How long… to sing this song?” After a very short pause, Larry appeared again behind the drums, and Bono shoved The Edge back on stage. Adam and Larry snapped into the instantly recognizable rhythm of “Out Of Control,” with The Edge joining in shortly thereafter. When it finished, Bono told us, “One more song! One more time…for us now!” and resurrected the band’s age-old tradition of playing their first song twice, treating us to an encore of “Vertigo” that far surpassed the set-opener in ferocity, intensity, and, crucially, volume (it seems the initial performance may have been set at MTV’s broadcast volume, as it was slated to be used on the network’s TRL program — hence Bono’s “for us”).

And with that song, they were done — but it was a magnificent finale. Bowing together, the band thanked the audience, MTV, the Brooklyn Police Department, and New York City, before finally taking their leave of the stage and bringing an end to what was, unquestionably, one of the most visually beautiful shows of their career — a cracking start to the American campaign and an unquestionable reminder that U2 are one of the best live bands on the planet, performing new and almost entirely untested material with invisible skill and grace. The guy with the big mouth and the way with a catchphrase was right — New York had, indeed, been jammed. And we liked it.

All photos ©Ruth Barohn/U2log.com. Please do not use the photos that appear here on your website or forum without explicit permission.

Bono speaks in Portland, Oregon, about Africa: a continent of tragedy and opportunity.

Darci Chapman Hanning reports for U2log.com. Photos by Peter Hanning.

Beginning his speech with a surprise announcement, Bono revealed that two women had returned the lyrics and notes that had been stolen from him 23 years earlier, just after U2′s first gig in Portland. The notes and lyrics were for U2′s then upcoming album October.

“People who could have published or sold my back pages, for absolutely no award, have handed them back. An act of grace, an act of goodness; you will never know how much that means to me. You will never know the contents of these letters because of the decency of these two women. They’re here tonight, and I want to thank them.”

After his surprise announcement, Bono then launched into a short history of his own personal awakening to activism. With a nod to The Clash, whom he called “a public service announcement with guitars,” Bono admitted to being the kid in the crowd who took it all at face value and described how the seed of activism was planted. Years later, the month he and his wife spent in Ethiopia marked the beginning of his journey as a “rock star with a cause.” Since that time, the journey has led him to meet with presidents, prime ministers, and the Pope.

On October 20, Bono’s journey led him to Portland, where he kicked off the World Affairs Council of Oregon’s 2004-2005 International Speaker Series.

Before a nearly sold-out crowd of 4,300 people, Bono spoke about the AIDS crisis that has become pandemic in Africa. With more than 6,500 Africans dying each day, he made it clear that Americans can and must do their part by forgiving the overwhelming debts that African countries have accrued and by providing the drugs and education that can prevent AIDS.

“It shouldn’t be that where in the world you live determines whether you live in the world,” said Bono.

Bono brought up a theme that those familiar with his work readily recognized: as a fan of America, he wants everyone else in the world to be a fan too. He was quick to point out that America could use all the fans it can get these days.

“The war against terrorism is bound up in the war against poverty,” Bono stated. “Isn’t it cheaper to make friends of potential enemies than to fight them later?”

Bono closed his 45-minute talk in elegant style, talking about how history will remember this generation: “This is our space race, our moon shot. This is our run for greatness. I believe that when the history books get written for our age, we will be remembered for three things: the rise of the internet, that one is obvious; the war against terror; and this AIDS in Africa business, a continent in flames and what we did or what we did not do to stop it.”

Next, Bono introduced Agnes Nyamayarwo, the African AIDS activist who accompanied Bono on the Heart of America Tour. In a moving speech, Agnes shared her personal history in the battle of AIDS and gave the statistics a very human face. She talked about losing her husband to AIDS, about discovering how she had passed on AIDS to her children unknowingly, and about the children she lost. She also talked of hope and how medicine and education were already saving so many lives, including her own.

The program ended with a question and answer session with Bono. The moderator of the program selected written questions collected in advance from the audience and the World Council of Oregon’s web site.

Bono used his humor and charm to respond to the many questions, which covered everything from “What was the Pope like?”–to which he responded that although the Pope, who tried on Bono’s sunglasses, had a sense of humor, the Vatican guards did not and made sure none of the photos of the Pope left with Bono–to “How does your faith influence your passion, your commitment to these concerns?” In response, Bono said, “I generally find it very hard to talk to people who can sum up their whole faith in three minutes–the kind of people who bleed all over you.” He also mentioned being inspired about how the Bible teaches us to care for the poor and not about how to judge one another.

The final question was one that asked what those in the audience could each do as individuals to get involved. Bono replied that there were enough issues and organizations to suit everyone in the audience–that everyone just needed to find an issue they cared about and to get involved. It could be a local issue or a global one, but the important part was to get involved. And, in fact, a Global Action Fair had been hosted in the venue’s concourse before Bono’s talk, showcasing projects from up to 30 different schools and encouraging young people to get involved.

After hearing Bono’s speak so passionately, it is difficult to imagine that anyone could walk away wanting to do anything less.

U2log.com wishes to thank Laura Connelly for her contribution to this report.

All photos by Peter Hanning for U2log.com. Please do not use the photos that appear here on your website or forum without explicit permission.

Readers should know something about U2log.com: We are damn good at being discreet. Almost a year ago, one of U2log.com’s editors was contacted by Danielle Rheaume from Olympia, Washington (now a Vancouver resident), who claimed a friend of hers, Cindy Harris, had found some “interesting U2 material” in the attic of her Tacoma home. Harris had found the material when she and her husband purchased the home many years earlier and had forgotten about it. Last year, however, Harris brought up her discovery in a conversation with her friend Rheaume, who is a U2 fan.

When Rheaume heard what her friend had in her attic, she was astonished because she recognized exactly what it was: the contents of Bono’s briefcase that had been stolen 23 years earlier in Portland.

The saga of the stolen briefcase is well known within U2 fan circles. It contained lyrics for U2′s second album ‘October’, and disappeared when U2 played a club in Portland in 1981. The theft influenced the making of the U2′s crucial second album, as Bono had to rewrite from scratch. Over the years, Bono’s briefcase has become the Holy Grail of U2 mythology. Only recently a U2log.com reader commented how finding it would be ‘quite the story’.

This is the story. Rheaume contacted U2log.com to help her and her friend get in touch with U2′s management so the two could return the material to Bono in person. Knowing that anyone would find their claim unbelievable, we asked for photographic evidence to provide to U2′s management and received the photos that are published with this report.

The contents of the briefcase–which itself is lost (that is, only the contents were found and returned)–include a visa for the USA in the name of “Paul Hewson,” notebooks and lyric sheets, letters to Bono from Ali, letters from fans, tour documents, letters from Bono to journalist Paul Morley, photos, and contact sheets.

When U2log.com contacted U2′s management, they were as astonished as we were to see the photos and hear the story of the discovery. Attempts to schedule a return of the contents to Bono went unfulfilled for months because of Bono’s commitments to DATA and work on U2′s new album. The scheduling of Bono’s appearance in Portland for the World Council Affairs International Speaker Series apparently offered the perfect opportunity for all involved to meet up and the material to be returned.

In his speech in Portland’s Rose Garden Arena Wednesday evening, Bono thanked the two women for returning the material.

U2log.com is happy to have played a small part in Bono’s receipt of the lost material. We are now moving on to matching other items in our “Lost and Found” department to their rightful owners. We have a couple of CDs, one mysteriously labeled “HTDAAB – Edge,” a set of master tapes labelled “AB,” and a barely used Powerbook. If you know to whom they belong, please contact us.

The historic city of Memphis, Tennessee, with its shores resting on the mighty Mississippi River, keeps any resident or passerby out and about busy with everything from the musical legacy of Elvis Presley’s Graceland, Sun Studios, Stax Records, the Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum, Beale Street’s jazz and blues clubs, to wondrous riverboat rides, museums, and sporting events. A visitor’s most important stop during a stay in Memphis, however, might very well be a motel.

Ruth Barohn reports for U2log.com

[click on images for enlargements]

The Lorraine Motel, the site of the April 4, 1968, assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was resurrected in 1991 into the National Civil Rights Museum (NCRM). The museum chronicles key episodes of the American civil rights movement and its legacy to inspire participation in civil and human right efforts globally through collections, exhibitions, research, and educational programs. The NCRM annually bestows its prestigious Freedom Award, honoring individuals who have made significant contributions to the cause of freedom.

Past recipients of the Freedom Award include Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter of the United States; South Africa’s Nelson Mandela; Poland’s Lech Walesa; the Soviet Union’s Mikhail Gorbachev; Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin; activists Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, Andrew Young and Elie Wiesel; Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall; Archbishop Desmond Tutu; and the man who broke baseball’s color barrier, Jackie Robinson.

The 13th annual event, held on October 18, 2004, deservingly honored U2 frontman and DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) cofounder, Bono, with the International Freedom Award and Representative John Lewis (D-Ga) with the National Freedom Award.

The full day and evening of events in celebration of the NCRM honorees began with a public forum in the morning. Held at the historic Temple of Deliverance Church, the forum offered members of the Memphis community, particularly the children, an opportunity to hear the honorees speak about their historic roles in the struggle for civil and human rights and about the challenges still ahead. The event also highlighted achievements of some of the community’s extraordinary children.

After the room filled with hundreds of enthusiastic local school children, Bono and Representative Lewis took their seats in the front row facing the stage. Following a musical dance prelude by local African-style dance troupe Watoto D’Afrika, which Bono visibly enjoyed (as he did every musical performance that morning, by keeping time with his tapping foot and bobbing head and with a smile continuously on his face), NCRM Executive Director Beverly C. Robertson ascended to the podium on the stage.

Behind Robertson stood 12 children, ranging in age from 12 to 18, who were honored for outstanding contributions to their communities. The achievements of each remarkable teen were read aloud and prompted standing ovations.

Following a video introduction, Representative Lewis also received a standing ovation as he prepared to address the gathering. Lewis, the son of sharecroppers in rural Alabama, heard Dr. King speak on the radio as a young man and was inspired to get involved in the civil rights movement. He became a young leader in the movement, organizing freedom rides and voter registration campaigns. In August 1963, at only 23 years old, he gave a keynote address at the historic “March on Washington,” which he helped to organize. Lewis also led the 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, which became known as “Bloody Sunday” after state troopers attacked more than 600 nonviolent marchers. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Lewis to direct the Federal Volunteer Agency. In 1986, he was elected to Congress, representing Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District, a position he holds to this day.

Lewis spoke about his long journey of equality and how it was an important to make.

“As a young black boy brought up in the heart of the deep south, I saw those signs that said ‘white men,’ ‘colored men,’ ‘white women,’ ‘colored women,’ ‘white waiting,’ ‘colored waiting.’ I’ve tasted the bitter fruits of racial discrimination, and I didn’t like it. So like hundreds of thousands of others, I got involved. Blacks and whites, rich and poor–we got involved, we got in the way, we got in trouble. But when I was growing up in Alabama, my mother and father would tell me not to get in trouble. ‘Don’t get into trouble’ they would say, but I got into trouble. It was good trouble. It was necessary trouble, and I wasn’t the only one getting into trouble. During the Sixties, I saw many young students standing up by sitting down. By sitting down and sitting in, they were standing up and speaking out for the best in America–justice, equality, and freedom. Because these students–because nameless and countless individuals from across the country decided to act–we witnessed nothing less than a nonviolent revolution under the rule of law, a revolution of values, a revolution of ideas.”

When Bono took the stage, he referenced the revolutionary ideas Lewis spoke of and how they inspired him growing up in Ireland.

“The song we wrote 20 years ago, probably to the week, was called ‘Pride (In The Name of Love).’ I could never live up to the songs I sing, but it’s extraordinary, isn’t it, how these big ideas like Martin Luther King’s travel so well? I was an Irish kid who was looking at the problems in his own land–problems of a different kind of segregation between Catholics and Protestants, which was happening in the north of our country. And it’s strange that the message of Dr. King should travel to an Irish budding rock star. But it did, and it changed me forever. They didn’t need cultural explanation; they didn’t need to be translated. You didn’t need to have a PhD to figure them out. Ireland was beset with its own troubles. We were looking for somebody like Dr. King, a black reverend who refused to hate because he thought love showed a better way. Forget the International Freedom Award, I should come to Memphis just to thank you people in the civil rights movement for the lessons you taught the world. Truth is, I know I’m not getting this award for the things that I’ve done. I’m here for the things that I ask other people to do. I’m getting this award for being a pain in the ass.”

Referring to the name of the church, Bono continued, “I’ve played some funky places over the years, but I got the shivers when somebody said, ‘Do you want to talk at the [Bono lowered his voice to a deep bass] Temple of Deliverance?’” After audience laughter, Bono joked, “Temple of Deliverance? More like the Temple of Delinquents! That’s something I’ve spent some time in. And by the looks of some of you, you probably have too, so be careful when you laugh at me.”

Bono was enthusiastic to address the audience of youngsters.

“So what’s it like going to school in Memphis?” he asked. “I must say in Dublin I don’t think school kids would get off a Monday afternoon to go and listen to a rock star. I hope you’re getting some extra credit for this. If the grown-ups ask, that’s what you should tell them,” he joked with the children. “By the way, that is my definition of a rock star: someone who has gotten to my age and hasn’t grown up. If your parents ask you what you learned from me, don’t mention the delinquent thing. Just tell them I said to do whatever John Lewis did.”

Bono then explained his admiration of Memphis and its history: “Growing up in Memphis must be amazing, like living in a history book except the history is alive, walking right among you, living in your neighborhood, sharing your pew at the church, maybe asking for a bite of your sandwich. Amazing! When I came to Memphis, I spent a lot time thinking about what’s happening here and what people from here have made happen. But you’re the ones who are going to write the next chapter in Memphis’ history and in American history, and that’s why I want to talk to you today. I would love to visit Sun Studios, I want to visit Stax, Graceland–but more than that, I want to talk to you today because Memphis, to me, it’s like the city of three Kings. Everybody talks about Elvis Presley, the king of rock. Everyone talks about BB King, the most extraordinary, royal person I’ve ever met. But when I think of Memphis, I think of another King: Martin Luther King. And not because he died here, but because the civil rights movement that cradled him and his ideas seem to feel like Memphis to me. So it’s a bit of a pilgrimage for me.”

Following his remarks, Bono returned to his seat to hear a young, all-female choir from the Stax Music Academy sing “Pride (In The Name of Love),” which concluded the public forum.

Representative Lewis, Bono, and his family then left the church to go to the site of King’s assassination just down the block, where they received a private tour of the NCRM.

As they entered the lobby of the museum, Bono, Ali, and Representative Lewis had a special tour guide in the person of Dr. Benjamin Hooks, NCRM Chairman of the Board and previous Freedom Award winner. The group toured the different rooms and exhibits of the museum for approximately an hour.

One extraordinary caveat of this tour was the rare opportunity the group had to stand out in the normally chained-off area of the balcony, the exact spot marked with a wreath, where Dr. King died. Of standing outside room 306, Bono later said, “They let me stand on the consecrated ground. To stand with these two men [referring to Representative Lewis and Reverend Samuel "Billy" Kyles, an eyewitness to the assassination] who lived their dreams through actions is something that I will never forget. It’s been a very special visit for my family and myself. Standing there with my family, my wife and my kids, on that balcony today with Reverend Kyles talking about the last hours he spent with Dr. King is a very big deal to me, and I don’t think I’m ever going to forget it.”

Bono also has not forgotten his first job: rock-and-roll singer. With a new album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, set to drop worldwide in late November, Bono reconciled his passion for both his occupations at a press conference following the museum tour.

“I’m back at my day job now. We’ve got an album coming out. It’s a thrill to be the lead singer of U2. It really is. This stuff feels to some very removed from being in a rock-and-roll band, but it’s not. If rock and roll means anything, surely it’s liberation: spiritual liberation, political liberation, sexual liberation…whatever. It has always been associated with liberation, and they are not at all antagonistic, being in a band and doing my political work. U2′s audience are very smart, active people. When we did a tour for Amnesty International, they doubled their membership. People who come to our shows want to get off–we are a rock-and-roll band–but they also want to get involved. I’m very excited to be starting back touring again next year. It’s going to be good. This is also who I am, and it started for me reading about Martin Luther King as a 24-year-old and he changed the direction of my life. To come to the Civil Rights Museum now at 27 years old,” Bono smirked, “is an amazing thing. But the circle is not complete, because the work has just started. When Martin Luther King talked about the dream, he was not just talking about the American dream; he was talking about something much bigger. He was talking about equality in the rest of the world.”

Representative Lewis, who was obviously moved by the tour as well, agreed with Bono about the need to globalize the effort.

“I first met Martin Luther King, Jr. when I was 18 years old in 1958. To walk through this museum, to walk through this artistry, tells something about the distance we’ve come, the progress we’ve made, and the distance we still must travel–not only to make America a better place, but to make our world just a little bit better. If Dr. King could speak to us today, he would tell us over and over again that war is obsolete, that violence is obsolete, that the way of peace, the way of love is the better way. I want to commend the National Civil Rights Museum for all that you do and continue to do to keep the dream, to keep the story, and to keep our history alive.”

That history would further be celebrated later in the evening when the banquet and Freedom Award presentation took place. At the banquet, both the American and the Irish flags adorned the stage on the sides of the podium. Many state and local politicians were on hand to give homage to the honorees, among them Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn) who noted, “I first met Bono in 2001, and I was impressed by his irrepressible passion. We have teamed together to fight HIV/AIDS.”

Bono and Frist, the Senate’s only current doctor, have traveled together to Africa touring HIV/AIDS care centers.

During the banquet, both Lewis and Bono were presented with a key to the city of Memphis by Councilman Joe Brown. As Bono left the podium, he exclaimed, “Cool. Very cool!”

The finale of the daylong festivities were very cool as well. After the gathering moved from the banquet dining gala to the auditorium, the awards were presented.

In accepting his National Freedom Award (which included a $25,000 honorarium), Lewis communicated the same ideals that have long graced his civil rights and public service record.

“By standing up, sitting in, getting in the way, and getting into trouble, we literally changed not only America, but we changed the world; therefore, the distance we have traveled, we still have many miles to go. The scars and stains of racism remain deeply embedded in our society. Too many of us–black, white, Asian, hispanic, Native American–are being left out and left behind. We continue to poison the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. Our challenges do not end at our shores. There is no higher human right than to grow up in a society free of violence and war. There is no greater human right than the right to peace. The quest for peace is as old as the dawn of history and as fresh as the morning dew.”

When Bono approached to accept his International Freedom Award (which included a $50,000 honorarium), he joked, “I am a rock star. I’m a lot of other things, but Dr. Hook and Beverly [Robertson] were willing to overlook them and give me the award anyway.”

On following Lewis, Bono’s extreme admiration was obvious: “Walking on a stage after John Lewis is like the Monkees going on after the Beatles. It’s just a very, very big honor to be onstage with John Lewis. I’d be honored to be anywhere with John Lewis, but this is one of the great Americans–one of the greatest Americans who ever sat down at a lunch counter in Memphis. That’s for sure,” he said as the audience applauded in agreement. “One of the greatest Americans who ever marched across a bridge in Selma!”

As the applause built, so did Bono’s animation: “One of the greatest Americans who ever walked the halls of Congress, John Lewis. I am proud to be on a stage with him.” Bono smiled and then began to sing, “And when I saw your face, I’m a believer. That’s the Monkees,” he informed the room already filled with laughter.

In accepting his award, Bono made those in attendance aware of the cold, hard facts about AIDS in Africa.

“Six and a half thousand Africans dying every day of a preventable, treated disease for a lack of drugs you can get in any pharmacy. That’s not a cause, is it?” Bono questioned the entire audience, as if he were speaking to just one person. “That’s an emergency. That’s why I’m here. I’m not a rock star with a cause. I’m a rock star talking about an emergency. Eleven million AIDS orphans in Africa, 20 million by the end of the decade–that is not a cause, is it?” he asked, this time getting some responses of “No!” His voice gathering momentum, he continued, “That’s an emergency. A whole missing generation of active adults wiped out, children bringing up other children–that’s not a cause, is it? That’s…” Bono extended his hands toward the audience asking them to answer. They responded with equal passion, “An emergency!”

He then called back to them, “Amen!” and a big smile swept his face as he exclaimed, “I’m black. Wow!”

Feeling the part of preacher-behind-the-pulpit, Bono loosened his tie from around his shirt collar. “Preachin’,” he said–interrupted by someone shouting out “Preach, Bono!”–”that’s today, tomorrow, and every other day for the rest of the year. They say 9,000 Africans will catch HIV because of stigmatization and lack of education. That’s not a cause,” he stopped and held his hands up to the audience who feverishly replied, “That’s an emergency!” Bono concluded, “Amen.”

“All of the above bewildering facts are, of course, Africa’s crisis. But that we are so numb to it that it does not make the nightly news, well, that is our crisis. It’s not news to men like John Lewis. He’s had his eye on Africa for many decades now. I think it was 1964, he and some of his compatriots took a trip to Africa, the continent freeing itself in large part from the shackles of colonialism. They went to Senegal, they went to Guinea, and they were there as Zambia raised its flag for the very first time–a new country’s independence day. When John Lewis got back he wrote a letter to the SNCC and he said in it, ‘I am convinced more than ever that the social, economic, and political destiny of the black people of America is inseparable from that of our brothers in Africa.’ Wow. There’s a prophetic utterance if I ever heard one. ‘Inseparable’ was the word he used and it’s more true today than ever before. Not just for black people of America, but for all people of America–in fact, for the people of Ireland and the people of the rest of the world. Distance no longer determines who is our neighbor. Our destinies are linked, our fates are one. It’s a fact. The war against terror is bound up in the war against poverty. I didn’t say that. Secretary of State Colin Powell said that. When a military man starts talking like a hippy, we should perhaps listen. The perpetrators of 9/11, they may have been wealthy Saudis, but they found sanctuary and they found succor in the collapsed state that was Afghanistan. There are potentially many more Afghanistans in Africa. In tense, nervous times, isn’t it cheaper to make friends of potential enemies than to defend yourself against them later?” Bono queried, drawing thunderous applause.

“Amen!” he continued. “Isn’t it cheaper and simpler to prevent the fires than to have them put out later?” he said over the clapping. “Some say we can’t afford to. I say we can’t afford not to. Our journey of equality, it’s a long journey, but we will see the Promised Land. I do believe we’re going to get there.”

As the day’s moving festivities concluded, everyone joined hands and voices to sing the old spiritual “We Shall Overcome.”

There is a big, black gate outside one section of the NCRM. Stenciled out from within it is a quote from Dr. King: “I MAY NOT GET THERE WITH YOU, BUT I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT WE AS A PEOPLE WILL GET TO THE PROMISED LAND.”

If we dare to follow the courageous example set by this year’s National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award recipients, John Lewis and Bono, we will get there sooner than we think.

All photos by Ruth Barohn for U2log.com. Please do not use the photos that appear here on your website or forum without explicit permission.

The hype surrounding I Was Bono’s Doppleganger by Neil McCormick is no surprise. With remarkable anecdotes about U2′s earliest days, it is essential reading for any U2 fan and a fascinating account of making it (or not) in the music business. Moreover, it shines out as one of the most candid memoirs one could hope to read–an incisive meditation on the lure of fame.

U2log.com’s Jack A was lucky enough to visit the doppelg䮧er in his London lair and get the inside line.

I had the pleasure to meet Neil McCormick on a warm, weekday morning at his home in North London. I envisioned meeting a man in dark glasses and a tight leather suit wielding a large remote control. It turned out that Bono’s doppelg䮧er is on the surface a very regular man. I had greatly enjoyed his book and was itching to follow up on some of the questions that it raises, as well as touch on issues I’d always wanted to ask as a U2 fan. This might have been rather annoying–particularly in between back-to-back interviews with TV, radio, and the press–yet from the word go, my subject was articulate, effusive, and generous with his replies. I left with a reinforced sense that U2 are lucky to have such a friend. If anyone’s going to dish the dirt, it should be Neil McCormick.
–Jack A

The way Bono is quoted in the book makes him comes across as constantly, exclusively, reflective and wise. Is Bono really like this?

You know, Bono is like that. I don’t think I have ever heard him say something trivial. That’s a funny thing.

In some ways, he has come across as the Buddha or something. I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration. He’s not the fount of all earthly wisdom, but he is really entertaining company. He thinks before he speaks; he doesn’t just blab. He thinks deeply about things and lives life to the full, and that’s reflected in the way he speaks.

How were you able to quote Bono directly and accurately?

I’ve often sat down after a conversation and jotted down some notes. In the last few years, I’ve been more sensible and had a tape recorder knocking about here. I just bang it on when he’s chatting–but not all the time. Obviously, you wouldn’t want to record conversations like, “How was that cup of tea?”

I documented our conversations because I realised that Bono has an incredible take on things. He thinks about pop music, and he knows everybody. And so you say, “I saw Pavarotti last night.” Well, the first think he’ll do is say, “I saw Pavarotti this morning–for breakfast.” But after that, he’ll talk about Pavarotti in a really enlightening way.

How does one go about writing a memoir properly?

You have to be honest. There were times, of course, when I was tempted to improve a scene and put myself in better light. The problem with that is that falsehoods takes things awry. If you stack up falsehoods, you end up with a completely false book. It was a conscious decision to be truthful.

I wanted to write a book that read well, whether you cared about Bono or whether you cared about music. I wanted it to be something good. I wanted every paragraph to have something in it that might entertain or amuse.

Was it difficult to confess that you began to dream of Bono?

Sharing my dreams was probably the most embarrassing part of all. Bono did become to haunt my dreams. Someone said to me, “This book is like a love letter to Bono.” That’s a slightly embarrassing aspect of it, though I do think very highly of him.

There was a time when I was feeling quite bad about my own self, when he really started invading my dreams. I woke feeling embarrassed. I thought, Am I so crazy for the approval of this man that he is in my dreams, or am I so envious for what he has achieved? Am I that shallow?

You can’t control your dreams. In fact, the dreams stopped with the writing of the book. If he wanders into my dream now, he doesn’t wander in as this dark god of everything I never attained. He might be in my dream in the same way that my next-door neighbour might be in my dream.

What was your logic behind writing the book?

I had an idea. In these secular times, people still reach out for the kind of archetypal figures who used to belong to myth and then belonged to religion–people who give us an idea of how we can be as human beings. I think the archetypes of our age are the famous, and so the truly famous people are like the saints of yore or the gods of mythology.

Bono is about as big a rock god as you can find. He’s attained the status of the John Lennons and Bob Dylans. He’s come to represent something in the psyche of Western culture. It was my misfortune to have gone to school with God.

You witnessed U2 form. Did they ever doubt their ability to succeed at the beginning?

They had great confidence in each other and great loyalty, which stood them in great stead. In the bands that I had, we had no loyalty and when someone wasn’t up to it, they left or got booted out and somebody else replaced them. Success isn’t pre-destined. It often looks that way retrospectively. People start to believe it, and possibly even the members of U2 believe it. I believed it was my destiny too, but I learned otherwise. They never learned otherwise; they dreamed of something and they got it.

It is often suggested that U2 have had to be ruthless to get to where they are. Are they ruthless?

There was obviously a degree of ruthlessness right at the start when Adam dispensed with the services of my brother Ivan, lying blatantly by telling him that they had a pub gig and that he wasn’t old enough to get in. Clearly, they didn’t have a pub gig because they didn’t have any songs to play at a pub gig. The first gig they did they only had two songs, and one of them was the Bay City Rollers.

I would say it is characteristic of U2′s rise that they have been incredibly kind to people and incredibly inclusive to people. Bono is very gracious to the people around him. He doesn’t give a person status according to their status in the world. He recognises people for what they are. That graciousness imbues them. I don’t think the nasty side lurks. People fish around for it, but I don’t see it.

In the book, you portray Lypton Village as being slightly unbearable. Were they?

Lypton Village is the club you wished you had when you were a kid. They were a very interesting bunch of characters. They were deliberately provocative. They were all maybe a year older than I was, and that can carry a lot of intimidation at that age. I hung around with a refusal to be intimidated, but inside they certainly intimidated me with the guerrilla art tactics they were making up for themselves.

They were really a big part of Bono’s creative life. Guggi and Gavin Friday have influenced him a lot throughout life. They have a lot of ideas about things, and Bono is a man of ideas. He is constantly talking to them. Gavin is probably as close as you get to him ever.

Is Bono the genius of the band?

The great musician in U2 is the Edge. Bono is a musical force and has a lot of musical ideas, but the musical genius of U2 is the Edge. He’s not been given the credit he deserves because he’s outweighted by this primal force of Bono’s personality.

There’s a running joke about Adam Clayton’s bass playing ability in your book. Will Adam be amused?

I don’t think he has read the book. Adam is a very kind and humble man, in his later incarnations especially. He is a true gentleman. I think he’d be amused. I’ve told him some of the stories in it, and he just sat there and laughed.

I hope I’m not being unkind to him, because his musical bluff is part of the U2 story. It’s kind of been recognised, and he’s kind of recognised it himself. That’s where U2 become greater than the sum of their parts, because he was not technically accomplished initially and yet his bass playing is a huge part of the U2 sound.

In an early article in Hot Press, you ‘outed’ U2 as Christians. How big an effect did that have on the band?

I think it had a massive effect, but I don’t think they could have kept a lid on that for very long. I think I was right to do it at that moment in time because somebody else would have done it in a hostile fashion. And probably quite soon.

I think it had a massive effect because if you look at the difference between Boy and October, [it's clear] October is a religious album. It kind of released them from pretending that this wasn’t their big concern and allowed them to express that.

Tell us about the new album.

The album is a great album of big songs. It refers back to practically every period of U2′s musical history and yet it sounds like a cohesive album. It’s not dissimilar to All That You Can’t Leave Behind in terms of the fact that there are some very structured songs in there. It’s got more flow, it’s got more guitars, and it just hangs together that little bit better. It’s a great album.

Do U2 struggle to have things to say now?

The struggle for U2 is to maintain relevance. To keep achieving the things that they want to do–not just artistically, but politically–they need to maintain that status. That’s quite a big pressure to put on yourself, so the songs have to be big songs about big themes. They have to have interesting ideas in them. They also have to be inspirational. They can’t sit down and make a quiet, intimate album. That is their choice. It might be their loss, artistically. You don’t get U2 Blood On The Tracks or the acoustic sessions; you get the big album every time. There is nobody else at that level in the world trying to do that, so thank God for them!

What do you hope readers will gleam about Bono and the band from your book?

U2 are four very intelligent, very passionate, very driven people. At the centre of that four is Bono. He’s an incredibly intelligent, passionate, and driven person–possibly more driven than anyone else I know.

In my book, I write about the difference between someone who achieves success and someone who doesn’t. Is the difference in them or is the difference in how the public perceives them? Ultimately, the public chooses who it is going to deify. One of the revelations, if it could be called that, is this kind of dark hole at the centre of stardom–the fact that Bono lost his mother, that fact that he didn’t get the love he needed from his father, the fact that there’s something in him that needs to find expression by getting the love of the world, because he hasn’t got it in his psyche from his youth. That’s not a very nice combination of factors, but it’s a very powerfully driving factor. And so, Bono wants that, he seems to need it, and he’s got the personality to meet it head on.

What kind of rock star would you have been?

It would have very much depended on what level I was at when I achieved success. Artistically, my aspirations were very high, but I was also into the paraphernalia of stardom. I was also full of myself. The danger would have been that my ego would have got out of all proportion to reality.

But you wouldn’t have become unpleasant?

I possibly was as it was, so who knows? But later on when you’ve struggled a bit, you’ve learned a few life lessons and maybe become a different person. Success feeds your self-confidence. I wanted the chance to have a fully creative life. I feel there are songs that have been lost and wasted. I’m 43 and am just putting out an album [as The Ghost Who Walks]. I’m putting 12 songs on it, and there could have been 200, which have been lost in the ether. There were other songs that were never written–the babies that never were born because I’ve had to do other things.

Fame can imprison you, success can narrow you, and it does that for a huge number of people. Bono is someone whom fame and success have built and so he’s become a larger-than-life person. He’s really made a difference in the world. One hopes that one would have gone down that route. Probably with friends like Bono, I would have had to have gone down that route because I would have been told in no uncertain terms if I was going wrong.

So, the book’s real goal is…?

To get that man out of my head.

–
On the Web:

Bonosdoppelganger.com
Penguin Books
The Ghost Who Walks

Photo: Jack A/U2log.com

I volunteer for Jubilee USA Network, a continuation of the Jubilee 2000 movement, part of a worldwide campaign to cancel debts of countries in the Global South (Third World or developing countries). Debts of these countries are far from being completely canceled. Debt is a large stumbling block for countries fighting AIDS epidemics, poverty, lack of education, unsafe water, unfair trade relationships, and so many other social and economic problems. Through my involvement with Jubilee, I have learned much about the global AIDS pandemic. All of these issues are interrelated, and I believe they should be addressed as such.

On 9 a.m. Tuesday morning, two friends and I entered the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. After going through security, we made our way to Room 124, where we would hear testimony from U.S. Global AIDS Program Coordinator Randall Tobias, Bono, and AIDS activist Agnes Nyamayarwo. As we walked down the hallway, we passed Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and General Peter Pace, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who were on their way to testify at other hearings in the building.

To my surprise, when we arrived at Room 124 we found only six people waiting to be let in. I guess I expected to see more people because Bono usually draws big crowds. I peeked inside and was amazed by the smallness of the room. There were only about 100 seats, in front of which was a table with three chairs and three microphones. In front of that was the counter and chairs where the senators would sit.

Everyone participating in the hearing entered from a door behind the senators’ counter. When the hearing started, Agnes Nyamayarwo and Ambassador Tobias entered relatively unnoticed. When Bono entered, however, cameras began flashing like an electrical storm (pun intended). I found it absurd that the press care more about a rock star than a U.S. government official, who has the power to change lives.

Only five members of the subcommittee were present (a full list is below): Mitch McConnell (Chairman, Kentucky), Pat Leahy (Vermont), Mike DeWine (Ohio), Dick Durbin (Illinois), and Mary Landrieu (Louisiana). Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania was conspicuously absent. After the phone message Bono left for him at the rally in Philadelphia the previous Sunday, I think he may have been afraid to attend!

HealthGAP (Global Action Project), an organization that campaigns for free global access to AIDS medications, planned a silent protest during the hearing. During Ambassador Tobias’ testimony, two women who were sitting next to me stood up behind Tobias and held up a large blue banner that read “Drug Company Puppet.” A security guard quickly grabbed the banner and escorted them from the room. Over the next several minutes, other activists stood up in pairs or individually with smaller signs with the same message. All were escorted out of the room by security, but eventually were allowed to return without the signs. Their message was that Tobias, a former pharmaceutical company CEO, and the Bush Administration, which receive a large amount of “campaign donations” from pharmaceutical companies, have shown a strong preference for using brand name HIV/AIDS medications instead of much less expensive and equally effective generic medications. With generics, funding for treatment goes about three times as far as with brand names. There has also been a lot of support for single-dose combination treatments, in which three drugs are combined either in a single pill, or three separate pills packaged in one container, making it easier for patients to take. The Bush Administration only began to support this form of treatment after the pharmaceutical companies agreed to start testing them.

Before the hearing began, my friends and I considered participating in the protest, but decided not to so we could hear all the testimony. Bono, who was warned about the protest in advance of the hearing, did not react to it at all.

AMBASSADOR TOBIAS’ TESTIMONY
Tobias read a prepared statement (interestingly, not made available to the press in advance like Bono’s was), stating that the Bush Administration’s Global AIDS Plan has been a success, with the first wave of funding (a mere $350 million, which has actually been spent) used to treat about 50,000 people living with HIV/AIDS with anti-retroviral medications (ARVs), and helping 60,000 children orphaned by the disease. He stated that the $15 billion in the original plan, spread out over 5 years in 14 (soon to be 15) countries in Africa and the Caribbean, would be used to provide 2 million people with ARVs, prevent 7 million new infections, and care for 10 million infected and affected people, including orphans.

The Fiscal Year 2004 budget only provided $2.4 billion in funding, short of the maximum $3 billion allowed per year. Of that $2.4 billion, only $547 million went to the Global Fund, the multilateral (multi-country) fund that gives donations to groups within developing countries that are on the front lines of the pandemic. The rest of the money is used bilaterally, directly from the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator’s office to groups that are working to fight AIDS. Money from the Global Fund comes from many donors, so in many people’s opinions (mine included), it is distributed to groups who will use it most efficiently and do not serve any one country’s agenda. In FY 2005, the Bush Administration only wants to contribute $200 million to the Global Fund!

The Bush Administration has been criticized for giving a lot of the money to American faith-based groups who have missions in developing countries. Because of their religious beliefs, these groups discourage the use of condoms with the justification that condoms are not solely effective in preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS. I do not disagree (prevention education is needed), but I am aware that part of the money that comes directly from the United States (tax dollars!) has gone to churches in the United States that not only don’t provide condoms, but also don’t even provide medical treatment to those living with HIV/AIDS. One church with missions in Africa is given funding to minister (i.e., preach the Christian gospel) and provide food and hygenic care for patients and orphans, but it does not distribute ARVs or condoms. To my knowledge, only abstinence is discussed as a means of preventing the spread of AIDS.

During the hearing, the subcommittee queried Tobias about the approval process for generic drugs. Effective generic drugs are already being produced in countries like India and Brazil, but they haven’t been distributed in Africa through President Bush’s initiative. The World Health Organization says that these drugs are safe to use anywhere in the world, but the Bush Administration has said the WHO is not a regulatory organization and that only drugs that pass U.S. Food and Drug Administration testing would be distributed from U.S.-sponsored programs. Approval of these drugs could take two to six weeks, which isn’t terribly long, but the Administration’s argument, in my opinion, is ludicrous. The United States is claiming that an international health organization basically doesn’t know what it’s talking about, and that the United States needs to approve these drugs AND that they need to comply with drug patent laws, which favor large pharmaceutical companies that own the patents on the chemical formulas of the medication. During his testimony, Bono commented on this by saying that he didn’t care whether pharmaceutical companies made a profit, but not with the lives of people in poor countries.

When asked what the Administration was planning to do after the Mother to Child Transmission (MTCT) Program expired at the end of this year, Tobias replied with the single positive statement to come out of his mouth that morning. He said they are going to start MTCT Plus, a new program that prevents mother-to-child transmission and also cares for the entire family — because when AIDS affects one person, it affects everyone in the household. I will be keeping a close (and skeptical) eye on this new initiative to see if it delivers on its promise.

The subcommittee scrutinized Tobias’ testimony and subjected him to critical comments. Senators Leahy and Durbin were particularly hard on Tobias when he said that the Bush Administration was doing as much as it could do. Leahy responded, “We’re 20 years too late and $20 billion short” on funding to fight this pandemic. Durbin added, “There is a fundamental error that the Administration isn’t helping the Global Fund. We don’t need commitment [from Tobias' office to do more], we need money.”

WHENEVER I CALL YOU FRIEND: BONO’S TESTIMONY
Bono read a prepared statement, which is available on DATA’s web site. He pretty much read it verbatim, so I will only review the highlights.

There was a short break between Tobias’ testimony and Bono’s, because there was an important vote in the Senate. Bono and the DATA staff left the room during this time.

Before the hearing, a lot of groups expressed concern about Bono’s presence at it. Bono himself said that the subcommittee should be hearing from a doctor in the field of HIV/AIDS or someone like Agnes, who lives with HIV and is from Africa, because they are far more qualified than he to speak about the pandemic. However, the subcommittee asked Bono to testify. The concern was that they asked because he didn’t know that much, and so he might look less informed compared to Tobias, leading the committee to support Tobias’ testimony. The senators, however, were extremely and openly pro Bono (again, pun intended).

After the break, Bono began by providing an update about debt cancellation, after having been a pest in the Senate offices three years earlier campaigning on behalf of the Jubilee campaign. He said that the money used from debt cancellation was used to send millions of children to school in Uganda and to dramatically reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS in that country. As members of Jubilee, my friends and I were thrilled that he talked about debt.

Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), the chairman of the subcommittee, changed the topic briefly to discuss the situation in Myanmar (formerly Burma). McConnell had co-written an op-ed supporting Aung Sun Suu Kyi last year. He asked Bono whether he supported sanctions against the Burmese government for its suppression of political dissent. Bono replied, “Not only do I support it, I applaud it. The government runs that country like a business” and that hurting them “in the place they will feel the pain [financially] is crucial.”

Bono talked about what a great opportunity it is for the United States to become a force of good in this war on AIDS. He repeated many of the remarks he made at the rally in Philadelphia and in many interviews. He said — very correctly — that we have the resources and the power to end AIDS. We need to cut through the red tape and use our resources NOW. This is not a difficult problem; we are making it difficult because we’re afraid of messing up — afraid that some of the money may not be used as efficiently as possible. But the thousands of people who die every day can’t wait.

Senator DeWine asked Bono what works and what doesn’t work when he travels across the United States talking to people about the pandemic. Bono replied, “We need everyone talking together…What doesn’t work is when we play politics with people’s lives.”

One of the nicest parts of the hearing was witnessing the genuine camaraderie Bono has created with members of the U.S. government. Senators McConnell and Leahy — and even Tobias — referred to him as their friend. I was really heartened to hear that Bono — and everyone he represents (which is all of us who are working on this issue) — had made such a strong impression on them.

AGNES STEALS THE SHOW
The wonderful, brave spirit that is Agnes Nyamayarwo, a nurse from Uganda who is HIV positive and who traveled with Bono during the Heart of America tour and spoke at the rally in Philadelphia last week, joined Bono at the table and told the senators the story of her life with HIV. She spoke about the deaths of her husband and youngest child, and the disappearance of her oldest son. She also shared that she had been taking generic medications but now takes brand name drugs, and that they work exactly the same.

She spoke about a meeting she had with President Bush last July, when she asked him what the United States was going to do about the people who die every day of AIDS. He promised her that he would give treatment to all the people in Africa quickly and immediately. Ten months later, most Africans are still waiting.

When Agnes visits the United States and speaks to people here, she always receives an excellent response, which gives her hope for the future. However, when she returns to work at TASO, her organization in Uganda, people ask her if she’s brought back AIDS drugs, and she has to tell them no. She asked the subcommittee to remember her and all the people and orphans of Africa, the young people who need education, and the problem of poverty.

Everyone in the room, including the senators, was openly moved by her testimony. Her voice, her story, was crucial to this hearing and to the debate on AIDS funding. The subcommittee asked her what the people of Uganda need most in fighting the AIDS pandemic. She replied that they need to fight poverty and the lack of education of young people. She said they need fair trade so African countries “will be able to stand on their own.” They need clean water so people can take their medications and mothers who are HIV-positive can mix formula to feed their babies, so they don’t have to breastfeed and risk passing the virus onto them.

BONO-ISMS AND MEMORABLE MOMENTS
When you read Bono’s statement at the hearing, you will notice a healthy dose of humor. As he did at the rally in Philadelphia last week, he made reference to the FCC woes over his “exuberant language.” Bono also made reference to the “pest” nickname he’s been given because he spends so much time lobbying in Washington. He said many people in Washington would probably like him to leave, including his band, but that AIDS is too important not to talk about, so he’ll be a pest for as long as it takes.

During the break in the hearing, right before he left the room, a gentleman called out to Bono to share his story of being HIV positive but healthy. Bono walked over to talk to the man, who thanked Bono for all the work he’s done and commented on his appearance on Oprah. Bono said, “Well, you know I’m her second cousin!” which made everyone who heard him burst out laughing.

After the hearing, Bono walked around before moving on to the press conference. He shook hands with one of my friends and talked with some other people who witnessed the hearing.

The press conference was extremely short. It was more of a photo opportunity than anything else, but Senator Leahy did express his appreciation that Bono, as a European, cared enough to come to the United States to talk about AIDS.

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
I was really pleased to attend my first Senate hearing and see Bono participate in it. I wish I could express the amount of pride I felt. I’m proud to be from the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a state that has so much power in the presidential election and whose senators (Specter and Santorum) have been supporters of AIDS funding and debt cancellation. I’m proud of the opportunities I’ve had working with Jubilee, for which I’ve been volunteering for about 3-1/2 years. I coordinated almost half of the Jubilee information tables during the Elevation tour and met so many wonderful people. Sometimes it’s difficult to see real results when you work for a goal that seems so distant, like debt cancellation or eradicating AIDS, but hearing United States senators support something in which you believe so strongly is encouraging.

I was also pleased that the hearing was dignified and a lot of U2 fans did not show up just for the opportunity to see Bono — although DATA, Jubilee, and other organizations need the energy that U2 fans bring when they support Bono. I was there because it is my life’s work, even though I don’t get paid for it. I’m proud to be a part of a big idea.

WHAT YOU CAN DO if you live in the United States

The following are members of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations:

Senator Mitch McConnell (Chairman) (KY)
Senator Arlen Specter (PA)
Senator Judd Gregg (NH)
Senator Richard Shelby (AL)
Senator Robert Bennett (UT)
Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (CO)
Senator Christopher Bond (MO)
Senator Mike DeWine (OH)
Senator Patrick Leahy (Ranking Member) (VT)
Senator Daniel Inouye (HI)
Senator Tom Harkin (IA)
Senator Barbara Mikulski (MD)
Senator Richard Durbin (IL)
Senator Tim Johnson (SD)
Senator Mary Landrieu (LA)

If they are your senator, write, call, fax, or email them and express your support for full funding of the President’s AIDS Initiative.

The Appropriations Committee is the one that “writes the checks.” They are, therefore, incredibly powerful in determining where our tax dollars go. Learn more about the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations at its web site.

The person with the most power to decide U.S. policy, however, is President Bush. You can email him, but phone calls and handwritten letters are always most effective.

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Phone Numbers
Comment line: 202-456-1111
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD Comment line: 202-456-6213

If you live outside the United States, write, call, or fax your government officials! Your president or prime minister, finance minister, and members of your law-making body make decisions that affect you and your country’s relationship with the rest of the world. Raise your voice and tell them how you feel!

If anyone would like to find out more about U.S. policy toward the Global AIDS pandemic, debt cancellation, or other related poverty issues, please email me. If I can’t answer your question, I can definitely point you in the right direction. For more information about DATA, visit www.data.org and for more information about Jubilee USA Network, visit www.jubileeusa.org.