U2-A Diary

Did you know that Bono nearly died 15 years ago today? Not exactly the cheeriest of episodes to bring up, but it’s true. Here’s the U2-A Diary entry for January 16, 1996:

January 16

Bono and his family are on the receiving end of police gunfire as their plane lands in Negril, Jamaica, where they plan to meet up with Adam. Local police had been tipped that a plane loaded with drugs would be landing in Negril around the same time and open fire – but not until after the Hewsons, Chris Blackwell and Jimmy Buffett had all gotten off the plane. The police apologize for firing at the wrong plane.

Scary stuff. Can you imagine? Wow………

You may have seen the reports from tonight’s concert in Brussels that the band celebrated their longtime sound engineer, Joe O’Herlihy. Today marks the 32nd anniversary of the day U2 met O’Herlihy, an amazingly long tenure that reflects the deep loyalty that exists in the U2 organization.

What’s not as well-known, though, is that O’Herlihy didn’t exactly “join” U2 32 years ago today. He worked for them occasionally for a couple years, but it wasn’t until Spring, 1980, when they could finally afford him permanently.

Here are the two diary entries from U2 – A Diary that talk about how O’Herlihy got involved with U2.

September 23, 1978
- Arcadia Ballroom, Cork, opening for D.C. Nien. U2 are one of a handful of bands on the bill. They meet Cork native Joe O’Herlihy, who owns a local sound-hire company, at this show. Though U2 is only a supporting act, they’re impressed by the attention O’Herlihy gives them and his efforts to make them sound good – a rare thing for supporting acts. O’Herlihy, though, is somewhat less impressed with U2.

[SIDEBAR]

Joe O’Herlihy meets U2 for the first time

“They barely knew how to turn on their own gear they were so inexperienced but we looked after them pretty well and they got a good sound. Things like that are noticed in this business….”

O’Herlihy works with U2 on a for-hire basis on and off over the next two years, sometimes renting gear for their use, and sometimes being their sound man. He doesn’t join the tour crew on a full-time basis until spring, 1980.

May 22, 1980
- Hope & Anchor, Islington, with Fashion. U2 opens its first tour since signing the Island Records contract in support of the ’11 O’Clock Tick Tock’ single. The band ask Joe O’Herlihy to be their sound engineer, but settle for a local sound crew when O’Herlihy passes.

[SIDEBAR]

Joe O’Herlihy recalls how he finally joined U2′s tour crew

“I gave them a price for doing the tour and they wouldn’t pay me the money. We had a fierce argument and I told them to f**k off – that was it. They basically had three and six to spend – I had a sound system worth thirteen and six and they wouldn’t pay! In the course of the band doing the tour, they went through approximately five different engineers in the space of a ten-day tour, so I was called up to go and work somebody else’s equipment. I went.”

O’Herlihy and McGuinness talk more about a permanent position handling U2′s sound. Confidently, McGuinness tells O’Herlihy “this thing’s going to go big”, and O’Herlihy eventually agrees to come along for the ride.

Around this time, U2 does an interview with French journalist Michka Assayas for Le Monde de la musique magazine.

Time to share another book sample, don’t you think? I was just browsing through the Book Sample category to see what I’ve previously shared, and realized that almost all of my earlier samples are from the 1980s. So, here’s a look at the diary entries for three days in February, 2002 — an important trio of days for U2 and Bono.

February 1
Still at the World Economic Forum, Bono meets with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who promises that Africa will be the main topic of discussion at the upcoming G8 Summit in Canada. Later, Bono offers comments to delegates gathered for an evening concert. There are reports that Bono also sings during the concert, but these reports are never confirmed.

Meanwhile, U2 lose some of its musical gear when a pipe bursts, causing an eight-foot tidal wave to rage through the Crosbie Business Centre in Dublin. U2 and the Corrs both use the facility for storage. Fortunately, much of U2′s most important equipment is with them in New Orleans.

Edge Counts His Blessings After the Dublin Flood

“We lost an awful lot of instruments…. The storage area where we had all our equipment was completely flooded. But luckily my main guitars were with us in New Orleans … the Gibson Explorer that I’ve had since I was 17-years-old, and the amplifier I’ve used on every album for every show since we got a record deal.”

February 2
On day three of the World Economic Forum in New York, Bono sits on a panel and debates foreign aid with US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill. Many summit participants crowd the stage afterward to get Bono’s autograph.

Later in the day he joins Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates to announce the creation of a new organization, DATA, whose purpose will be on eliminating extreme poverty and AIDS in Africa. The name is an acronym for “Debt AIDS Trade Africa.” Gates announces that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will pledge $50 million to support the DATA agenda. The formation of DATA shifts the burden of scheduling and promoting Bono’s humanitarian activities away from Principle Management.

Meanwhile, the rest of the band attend a Super Bowl party at the House of Blues in New Orleans.

February 3
- Superdome, New Orleans. U2 performs at halftime of Super Bowl XXXVI. Bono walks through the crowd to take the stage as ‘Beautiful Day’ begins. A larger version of the Elevation Tour’s heart is used for the stage, surrounded by people on the field and in the heart. As ‘MLK’ starts, a screen rises from the back of the stage, which scrolls the names of the people who lost their lives on 9/11. The scrolling continues through most of ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’, before dropping to the ground. As the band’s performance comes to an end, Bono reveals the US flag-like lining of his jacket. Unconfirmed reports later say that only Bono and Edge perform live and Adam and Larry are pre-recorded.

An Almost-Super Disaster

Bono explains how U2′s Super Bowl performance almost ended before it began.

“Our idea was to have a music crowd on the pitch and then walk through that crowd to get up on the stage. I had on these earphones that were wireless. The band are walking through the crowd [sic; only Bono walked through the crowd] and there’s a camera right in front of me, and the punters start slapping me on the back. I realise that the tiny wires of my earplugs are vulnerable. All one person has to do is pull the wire, and I’m off air. I would hear nothing. Off the air in front of a billion people! And this is going out live, and there’s nothing you could do. So because this wire had been left exposed, I just started to quietly panic. But if you look at the film of that, you’ll see me swaggering with the most annoying smirk ever seen. You just think: That guy is such a prat!”

U2′s performance is well received by both football fans and the media, as well as by other musicians who performed prior to the game including Paul McCartney and Mariah Carey. Many call it the best Super Bowl halftime performance ever. All That You Can’t Leave Behind reaches number 25 on the charts after the Super Bowl. As for the game, the New England Patriots beat the St. Louis Rams 20-17 on a field goal on the game’s last play.

After the game, U2 and friends enjoy a celebratory dinner in the French Quarter. Though he’s allergic to red wine, Bono has a glass and later passes out on the floor in the restaurant’s bathroom.

Been a while since the last post, and a while since the last book sample, too. With the band about to release remastered versions of the first three albums, I thought I’d post the book entry for October 12, 1981 — that’s the date October was released. Hope you enjoy!

———

October 12
- Top Rank, Brighton, with Comsat Angels.

U2 releases its second album, October. The cover features an unflattering photo of the band at the Grand Canal Docks in Dublin. As the story goes, Island Records had reportedly sent a rep to Dublin to tell the band the label wasn’t happy with the album artwork they submitted. But when U2 objected to the interference, Island backed down and the album is released today as U2 designed it.

The songs reflect the difficulty U2 had in making it. Having lost his briefcase on tour in Portland, Bono makes up many lyrics as he sings the songs in the studio. Thematically, October is a deeply Christian album with lyrics that call out for and question God – just as three members of U2 have been dealing with their own spiritual questions.

[SIDEBAR]

The difficulties of the October era

Adam: “It was a case of, ‘We’ll make it up as we go along.’ I think we probably would have pulled it together okay if, in the middle of it, we hadn’t had Bono, Edge and Larry going, ‘Maybe this isn’t what we want to do.’”

Edge: “October was a struggle from beginning to end. It was an incredibly hard record to make for us because we had major problems with time. And I had been through this thing of really not knowing if I should be in the band or not. It was really difficult to pull all the things together and still maintain the focus to actually finish a record in the time that we had.

“At that stage we were going through our most out-there phase, spiritually. It was incredibly intense. We were just so involved with it. It was a time in our lives where we really concentrated on it more than on almost anything. Except Adam, who just wasn’t interested.”

Adam: “I didn’t have a problem at all with spirituality and identity. I just had a problem with the disruptiveness that it brought to the band’s activities. And then later, as we got into the October album, and the others were considering whether rock’n'roll was the right form of expression – I never wanted to go to those meetings. I didn’t like the tone of what was going on. It was another band. It was an exclusivity that I didn’t buy into.”

The album enters the British charts at number 11, and peaks there. It climbs no higher than 104 in the US.

Reviews are mostly positive. In Hot Press, Neil McCormick says: “October is a musical and spiritual growth for U2, a passionate and moving LP for me. U2 have evolved constantly, songs changing and growing over a period of time.” Dave McCullough raves about the album in Sounds: “It all breathes fire, recovering too from the pair of standouts appearing at the start of each side – ‘Gloria’ being possibly Their Finest Moment and ‘Tomorrow’, low and muted, gently oozing emotion. This October will last forever.” Writing in Rolling Stone, Jon Pareles calls the album “barely coherent” and dismisses Bono’s lyrics as cliché: “… the way to enjoy U2 is to consider the vocals as sound effects and concentrate, as the band does, on the sound of the guitar.”

Tracks: ‘Gloria’, ‘I Fall Down’, ‘I Threw a Brick Through A Window’, ‘Rejoice’, ‘Fire’, ‘Tomorrow’, ‘October’, ‘With A Shout (Jerusalem)’, ‘Stranger In A Strange Land’, ‘Scarlet’, ‘Is That All?’

——–

(In case you missed it, I posted the book entry for War release earlier this year.)

I’ve spent the past three days re-reading U2: A Diary (and I’m nowhere near finished). But instead of reading a MS Word doc, I’m actually reading proofs of what the book will look like when it’s published later this year. Sweet!

I can’t keep this to myself, so here are a few sample pages (click to see a larger version of each one):

The above is the beginning of the 1981 chapter. This is (currently) pages 38 and 39 in the book. You’ll see some gibberish text below the color photo — that’s where a photo caption will go.

And this sample is the next two pages from the 1981 chapter – pages 40 and 41.

The reason I’m going through all the proofs is to try to catch any remaining typos, make sure photos are generally placed in the right places, write some photo captions, and stuff like that. Need to wrap this up soon so the book can get sent to the printer! Back to work I go…..