U2-A Diary

Who knew?

Scott Cleaver, a U2 fan in New Zealand, sent me an article about Greg Carroll that appeared in a Maori magazine. The article is recounting Carroll’s story, which I thought I knew pretty well, until it says this:

Bono was in Texas to appear in concert with American country star Willie Nelson when the sad news reached him. “I had been in my hotel one hour after a 13-hour flight,” he said. “I caught the next plane back to Dublin.”

Carroll died on July 3, 1986, so Willie Nelson would have to be doing a concert on July 4 or thereabouts for this to make sense. Sure enough, Farm Aid II happened on July 4, 1986.

Am I the only one who never knew Bono was planning to appear at that? I had no clue….

Does anyone have:

1) … the January 14, 1978, issue of NME in which Adam placed the fake classified ad as a manager named “Brian” who’s trying to get in touch with The Hype? I’d love a scan of that for the book. (I’m pretty sure the issue is dated Jan. 14, 1978.)

2) … the Old Grey Whistle Test DVD that came out a few years ago with U2′s early performance on it? I’m actually more interested in The Specials performance that’s on the DVD, and my question is: Does the DVD tell the exact date of The Specials performance/appearance?

Thanks, folks!

There are certain U2 facts that have been repeated and reported enough that we assume they’re accurate. One of these is the idea that U2 signed with CBS Ireland in March, 1979. That’s mentioned in several magazine articles and other places, and up until a few moments ago it was in U2 Diary, too.

But I think it’s wrong. I’m going to say that the contract was signed in the summer of 1979.

On the surface, think about it: If U2 signed in March, 1979, with CBS Ireland, what on earth would’ve taken them a full six months to put together U2-3 and release it? They didn’t even go into the studio to record those songs until August, so why would they have waited?

Then there are some relevant facts:

• A March 19, 1979, article in Hot Press doesn’t say anything about a CBS Ireland contract. It’s a lengthy interview by Bill Graham with the whole band and Paul McGuinness, so you have to assume they’d say something if a contract was signed or about to be signed.
• The CBS Ireland contract is mentioned in a lengthy Hot Press interview dated October 26, 1979.
• Here’s the key evidence — this Record Collector article on @U2 has Chas de Whalley explaining that the contract was signed after he saw U2 play at McGonagle’s in June, 1979.

So that’s all the proof I need. I’ll be going against the grain with this and many other facts/events, and someone will probably accuse me of getting it wrong in U2 Diary. But I think I have enough evidence, at least in this case.

… until I have to submit the manuscript for U2 Diary to Omnibus Press. Yikes! January 2, 2008, is just around the corner.

When I think about it as 2-and-a-half-months, it seems like nowhere near enough time. When I think about it as 10+ weeks, it seems a little better. But I prefer 75 days — that sounds a lot more manageable.

I’m now back from almost a week away at a business trip in New York City. I have a trip to Seattle coming up in a few weeks, but after that I really hope I’ll be home for the rest of the year. Researching and writing is a lot easier here at home where I have access to all my books, magazines, emails you’ve sent, and so forth.

Here’s a Status Report…

The two main things on my TO DO list are:

1. Add all the known concert dates from U2tours.com, U2tour.de, U2-Vertigo-Tour.com, and U2 LIVE.

2. Add dates and info. related to all of U2′s official releases. Aaron has given me the okay to use U2Wanderer.org for this, and I plan to take him up on that offer. :)

Once those are done, I need to start fixing up the manuscript. Right now I have every entry written out with full month, date, and year, like this:

June 3, 2005

blah–blah–blah….

June 4, 2005

blah–blah–blah….

June 7, 2005

blah–blah–blah….

But the final formatting of the book needs to be like this:

2005
June
3 – blah–blah–blah….
4 – blah–blah–blah….
7 – blah–blah–blah….

So, as you can imagine, that’s going to be a lot of editing on my part.

While all this is happening, I’m still reading old magazines in my collection and highlighting facts/dates/events that need to be added to the book. I’m finished going through my book collection, but if time allows before the deadline, I’ll go through the books I’ve skipped. U2 Show is probably the most noteworthy of that group.

There are also several people I’d like to track down for interviews to get some more details about a few important events.

And, it goes without saying that I need to proofread and edit and make sure the book tells a somewhat cohesive story. I also plan to write an Introduction.

At this moment, I’m at 167,000+ words.

Here’s What’s Next…

Now that I’m done a lot of my own reading/research, I hope to start getting more active here on the blog. Of course, the more I post here, the less I’m actually working on the manuscript. So I have to figure out the right balance there.

I’m going to post an update about the book on @U2 one of these days, and hope that brings in a lot of new visitors to get involved in the mad rush at the end when I’ll be looking for last-minute dates, confirmations, etc., and also putting out calls for photo submissions.

Lots to do! I hope 75 days is enough time. Thanks for all your help to date, and for your future help, as well.

As I finish up U2 by U2, I see Larry mentioning that he once marched in an anti-war rally in Dublin. I vaguely recall seeing a photo of him doing that….

Does anyone have a clue what day that happened? Must’ve been 2003, 2004 or 2005, right?