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. :)

Just a quick note to anyone leaving comments here on the blog, or using the Contact Me page to send in material: I’ll be pre-occupied for the next week and won’t be working on the book at all. Everything should be back to normal by next Saturday/Sunday, so if you don’t hear from me, don’t be alarmed.

(On the bright side, this past week was a vacation week and I did a lot of work on the book; very productive. If you’re counting at home, I’m at 136,000+ words.)

1) Does anyone remember seeing the advertisement at right? It’s an ad for the Sony Walkman and it appeared in Hot Press and a couple other Irish/UK music magazines/papers. Sony failed to get U2′s permission to use the Joshua Tree in the ad, and U2 was upset that the ad gave the appearance U2 and Sony were business partners, so they got Sony to pull the ad immediately. This is dripping with irony considering U2′s partnership with Apple for the iPod. :)

I’ve only been able to narrow the date of the ad to 1987 or 1988. Would love something more specific if possible.

2) In this interview/article on @U2, Bono mentions that Larry had recently attended a Michael Stipe photo exhibit in New York City. Given the date of the interview, the photo exhibit was probably April, 1998. But I can’t locate an exact date anywhere.

3) An old Rolling Stone clipping mentions that Edge and Adam attended the wedding of Mike Scott, singer in the Waterboys, to Irene Keogh. 1986 is about as close as I can get to a date, but it would be great to have the month or exact date.

4) When did U2 shoot the music video for “Two Hearts Beat As One” in Paris? One of my sources says it was March, 1983, but that seems impossible when you see their concert schedule for that month. They only had four days off!

5) In this 1986 article on @U2, Edge talks about going to Paris to see some of the Heroine film. (see the COLLABORATING sub-heading) He also says “Bono and Adam were on their way back from picking up some awards in Italy.” Earlier in the article, he mentions “it wasn’t until September last year” that he was able to start work on this soundtrack. So I’m guessing this meeting in Paris and the awards in Italy were around September, 1985. Except I have no information at all on any Italian awards U2 won at that time. Help???

6) Achtung Baby – the original version with Adam naked on the inner sleeve … was that covered up in all of N. America, or just in the USA?

7) More Achtung Baby — I found an article that says U2 showed up at HMV in Dublin for the midnight launch of album sales. Can anyone confirm that?

8.) Exact date that Bono and Edge (with Harry Crosbie) purchased the Clarence Hotel? I’ve narrowed it down to November, 1992, but would love an exact date.

9) Sometime around the PopMart opening in Las Vegas, Edge appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and did the weather forecast. Was that on the 25th (the day of the opener), or the 26th (the day after)?

And here’s the list of previously mentioned dates/events I’m missing for U2 DIARY:

10) Exact date (or month) that U2 did their studio voicework for The Simpsons. This video on YouTube only says “1997″ at the beginning.

11) Did Bono and Gary Kasparov ever have the chess match that Paul McGuinness won at a 1993 auction? Here’s the post on that question.

12) When was Dick Evans born? Where?

13) What was the exact date that Mt. Temple opened? (I’ve emailed their web site, but no reply.)

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….