U2-A Diary

There’s a really wonderful story in Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas that belongs in U2 Diary, too, but I don’t see any way to make that happen.

It’s near the end of the book, in the “Faith Versus Luck” chapter. It’s on ppg. 290-91 of the U.S. hardback edition, and ppg. 322-23 of the U.S. paperback edition. It’s the story of Bono going to Cork with Ali and her family, and while there, placing a bet on the Irish Grand National horse race. Bono gets a tip at the last minute from a stranger walking out of a men’s room, bets the horse, and the horse wins. Bono makes like £500 and uses the money as a gift for a friend who’s getting married.

Bono tries to remember the name of the horse that won for him, and comes up with “Rolled Gold.” Problem is, there’s no horse by that name on the list of winning horses. (It’s not on this list, either … for those who don’t trust Wikipedia.)

ARGH! :)

Bono and Ali met in November, 1976. The horse race is on Easter Monday. The band had a gig on Easter Monday in 1977, so this was probably 1978 … but how on earth could I ever confirm that?

—–
“Dear Bono,

Was the horse “Billycan” in 1977, “Brown Lad” in 1978, or “Tied Cottage” in 1979?

Thanks,
Matt”
—–

(You know, just in case yer man is subscribed to the RSS feed or something….)

I’m really trying to nail down some dates and information about Bono’s trip(s) to Central America in 1986.

Actually, the first thing I don’t know is whether he made one trip there or more. I always assumed he went to El Salvador and Nicaragua on the same trip. But in Michka Assayas’ book, Michka asks, “But before that expedition in El Salvador, you visited Nicaragua….” So, is he saying they were separate trips? Or is he saying it was one trip, but that Nicaragua came first?

That’s one issue.

On the bright side, there’s this: In the answer to Michka’s question, Bono says he listened to Daniel Ortega speak on Revolution Day. Thankfully, there’s a web page that lists Holidays and Festivals in Nicaragua, and that tells me Revolution Day is celebrated on July 19th.

I do believe Bono made that trip to Central America in July, 1986. So it fits. Sweet!

I don’t really expect any readers to have answers on the “one-trip-or-two” question from above. Just posting it here for my own logic/thought processing, and perhaps to share some background on how difficult some of the research is for this book. In fact, I’m gonna file this in the “Researching” category instead of “Call for Help.”

This book is like a giant puzzle, except you don’t know how many pieces are in it, and you’re pretty sure many of the pieces are lost and never to be found. :)

I’ve mentioned that my research right now involves re-reading the U2 books I have and looking for dates, events, facts, quotes, etc. And what happens is that the same story or event is often mentioned in more than book (or article, for that matter).

The problem is that sometimes the various stories don’t jive with one another, and that leaves me wondering who I should trust as the authoritative source.

As an example, there’s U2 meeting with presidential candidate Bill Clinton in 1992. In Anton Corbijn’s book, he says this happened in March, 1992. But in Bill Flanagan’s book and BP Fallon’s book, it’s said to happen in September, 1992. Who to trust?

Well, in this example, it’s easy. That meeting happened in Chicago right after the band arrived from a ZOO TV show in Madison, Wisconsin. That show was September 13, 1992, so the Clinton meeting happened on the 14th. (Not the 16th, as BP has it.)

Unfortunately, picking the authority source is rarely as easy as that. Maybe I’ll try to put together a list of known conflicts and post them here a few months down the road to see what everyone thinks….

How about a little background into the research and writing process, and then an update on tonight’s mini-milestone? Sound good? Cool.

I continue to re-read every U2-related book on my bookshelf. It’s a long-but-enjoyable process, and has really helped me remember some interesting facts from the old days that had slipped my mind.

I’m doing this in spare time, of course. The day job keeps me quite busy. Some books take about 2 weeks to re-read; others take much longer.

As I re-read each book, I have a colored highlighter with me. When I come to an interesting factoid or quote, two things happen:

1. I highlight it.
2. I dog-ear the page for quick access later.

And when I’m done with the re-read, I go back through all the dog-eared pages and compare what I’ve highlighted to what’s already in my manuscript. If there’s some additional information to add, I write it in. Each little bit of info makes the book better, and more complete.

With most of the books I’ve re-read so far, maybe 1/3rd or 1/2 of the pages are dog-eared. Not so with The Rolling Stone Files … that one was probably 2/3rds dog-eared. It’s a testament to the generally great material, especially band interviews, they’ve published over the years. Shame the book only goes up to the Zooropa tour, though. It really needs an update with all their more recent U2 stuff.

Tonight, I’ve just finished adding facts and events from U2 At the End of the World, which came close to the Rolling Stone book in percentage of dog-eared pages. And that’s such a thick book, it took me probably 5-6 weeks to battle through it.

Next up: BP Fallon’s U2 Faraway, So Close. With this and Flanagan’s book, the Zoo era should be well covered. I hope.

Current word count: 118,532 (316 pages in MS Word)

After getting TDIH in place as the foundation of U2 Diary, I put together a TO DO list to keep the research and writing organized and moving along.

Item No. 1 on the TO DO list was to start re-reading my entire collection of U2-related books. I believe I started with The Unforgettable Fire. Knowing that it has some mistakes in it, I figured if I read that one first, I could correct anything that didn’t stand up as accurate against all my future research. (And that plan has worked, thankfully.) To date, I’ve re-read the following books specifically as part of the research for The U2 Diary:

The Unforgettable Fire
U2 (by Mark Taylor)
The Complete Guide to the Music of U2
U2 – A Conspiracy of Hope
Outside Is America: U2 in the U.S.
Killing Bono
U2 – The Early Days
The U2 Reader
U2 & I: The Photographs 1982-2004
Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas
U2 – The Rolling Stone Files
U2 At The End Of The World
Race of Angels

What’s cool about reading book after book after book is seeing the variety of information each book has, and knowing that when U2 Diary is finished, all that information — and a lot more researched on my own via interviews, etc. — will be available in one book.

I can’t wait.