Unanswered Questions, vol. 4
Okay, last week I promised a new set of questions, so here we go!
1.) Issue 7 of Collectormania says that Larry performed four songs with Nanci Griffith when she played the Point Depot in Dublin in October, 1994. I can’t find any confirmation or an exact date.
2.) U2 performed on an RTE TV show called Pop On the Box early on. According to this video, it was sometime in 1979. I would love to get closer on the date. Even knowing the month would help. (And BTW, that song is also known as “The Magic Carpet.”)
3.) There are many articles online that reference the fact that U2 “swept the competition”, winning five awards in the 1979 Hot Press Reader’s Poll — which would’ve been published in January, 1980. But I can find no record of what those 5 awards are. I have an e-mail in to my contact at Hot Press, but some backup help would be appreciated!
4.) Here’s a tough one: In Bill Graham’s book, U2 – The Early Days, he says that Edge enrolled briefly at the College of Technology on Bolton Street in Dublin in September, 1979. But, a Seventeen magazine article (that’s included in the U2 Reader book) says Edge was supposed to enroll, but never did. I e-mailed the school (which has a new name now, I recall) about a year ago and chatted with someone about it, but they weren’t very interested in digging through the enrollment records looking for a “Dave Evans.”
I would love to get an accurate answer on this, because this is a key time for U2. U2-3 is just about to come out, and the band’s parents are telling the boys it’s time to get an education or get real jobs. Knowing if Edge actually started going to this school would shine a new light on how desperate they were for U2-3 to succeed.
5.) What day was the Zoo TV Live from Sydney home video (VHS) first released? I have one source saying May 17, 1994. And another source says April, 1994.
6.) According to this article, Larry played drums on June 1, 2006, at a going away party for a guy named Stephen Galligan. No disrespect intended, but who is Stephen Galligan?
That’s all for now, but there’s always more to come…. thanks in advance for the help on these!
number 5 is april 5th 1994
2) I have this down already on June 1978 – or is that a different thing. The show was called Youngline as part of RTEs youth programme:
http://www.u2tour.de/tour/show1198.html
4) is actually a really easy one matt 🙂 just check page 83 (right column) on U2 by U2 its all there…
Hi Matt,
For number three according to “U2 In the Name of Love: A History From Ireland’s Hot Press the Readers Poll there is no mention of the 1979 Readers Poll but the 1980 Poll published in Vol 5 No. 1 January 1981 lists four categories with U2 winning two spots in one of them.
Results are:
Single
1. U2:”11 O’Clock Tick Tock”
2. U2:”A Day Without Me”
3. Radiators:”Dancing Years”
4. Paul Brady:”Crazy Dreams”
5. The Atrix:”Treasure On The Wasteland”
Best Group
1. U2
2. Boomtown Rats
3. Rory Gallagher
4. Undertones
5. Thin Lizzy
Male Singer
1. Bono
2. Paul Brady
3. Bob Geldof
4. Rory Gallagher
5. Feargal Sharkey
Album
1. U2:”Boy”
2. Undertones:”Hypnotized”
3. Rory Gallagher:”Stagestruck”
4. Bagatelle:”Bagatelle”
5. Scullion:”Balance and Control”
For the 1979 Poll they wouldn’t have won the Album category obviously but they could have had U2-3 in the single category and won best group and male singer.
It could be that the other references mention the wrong year. The only previous Reader’s Poll mention is that they polled well in what must have been the 1978 poll published in Vol 2 No. 18 February 22nd 1979. The poll they did publish in this book would have been the first one that they had an album out for. In support of the wrong year theory, look at U2 Live. The entry on January 15, 1980 states that they beat established favorites such as Thin Lizzy and Boomtown Rats. The 1980 poll results I listed above were published on January 15, 1981 and they beat Thin Lizzy and Boomtown Rats. So maybe Pimm misread the date by a year as he does not list the Hot Press poll in January 1981.
For number 6 it sounds like he’s just a local Howth resident immigrating to Australia so probably noone in particular as Larry was just there because he knew the guy.
Dana
Guys, on the Hot Press awards, have a look at this:
http://www.richard.hare.dsl.pipex.com/u2info1.html
That’s the official “U2 Magazine” and it says the awards announced in 1981 had U2 winning 9 categories, not five.
Even this “official” timeline on one of Universal Music’s sites says they won five awards in January 1980:
http://www.universalmusicpublishing.com/spotlight.aspx?ID=212
And on pg. 39 of “U2 – Touch the Flame,” it also says they won 5 HP awards in January 1980.
Hey Bjorn – what’s your source for April 5, 1994? Donal pointed me to this Billboard page, which says it debuted on the sales chart on June 4th — that would make a May 17th release more likely.
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/esearch/chart_display.jsp?cfi=388&cfgn=Videos&cfn=Top+Music+Video&ci=3017409&cdi=6834048&cid=06%2F04%2F1994
The Irish Times website,lists Nanci Griffith playing 4 concerts at the Point that month, the dates were 4th October to 7th October 1994 inclusive.
Her first gig was reviewed in the Irish Times of 5th October, Larrys appearance is not mentioned on the review and it is not mentioned in the paper later that week either.
To see the actual digital version of the Irish Times (full archive of every edition)one must sign up as a “Premium Plus” member.
Hi Matt,
Regarding your Nanci Griffith question, I did some searching and eventhough i didn’t find the exact date of the show i do think i can narrow it down to “It happened BEFORE the 11th of october!”
According to this link, where you can find a reference to a bootleg cd of one of her shows, she played the Royal Albert Hall on october the 11th as part of her Flyer Tour in 1994.
http://www.grantguerrero.com/nanother.html
Then on another site where you can read an interview with Mary Margaret a good friend of Nanci, there is question related to a photo she took of Nanci sleeping. The interviewer asks about the origin of this picture and Margaret answer that the shot was taken in the plane on the way to Ireland to kick off the Flyer Tour!
If you put the two together then it is most likely that the gig she did in Dublin was part of the kick off of the Flyer tour and since she was playing in England on october the 11th it makes sense that the dublin gig happend before that date! Unless of course she went back to dublin at the end of her tour.
Also, there is a Tour Programme available of her Flyer Tour, you can find it on ebay… I read somewhere that the tourdates are in there!
I hope this helps!
i forgot to link to the interview with Margaret:
http://members.aol.com/Keystory/interview.htm
Hi Matt,
I Googled “Stephen Galligan” and “Ireland” and a lot of pages came up about professional motorcycle racing. Since Larry is an avid fan of motorcycles, it would make sense for him to be friends with a motorcycle racer. Here is the page from my Google search:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Stephen+Galligan%22+Ireland&btnG=Search
I saw that, too, Erika. But on this link, it looks like the racing Stephen Galligan died in 1997:
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:DFAHjuCSisUJ:www.iommgp.com/news/FullStory.asp%3FStoryID%3D184+%22Stephen+Galligan%22+Ireland&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us
By the way, Nos. 3 and 6 above are the only unanswered questions at this point. I don’t necessarily have exact dates for the others, but I have enough info. to belong in the book. Thx to all for the replies!
5) how did you decide on this? could it be that there were different release dates (again) in the US and UK/Europe?
Yep, decided it has to be different release dates.
Hey Matt – you can file me under “long time listener, first-time caller” – can’t wait to read the thing that’s kept you off of the weekly column so long – we miss your insight, humor and never-ending band news! I have a DVD I got at a cool little store called Rolling Stone in Chicago titled “We Will Follow” (TV appearances 1978-1981) and it has this video on it “Life On a Distant Planet” from the RTE program. It’s listed as October 1979 on the DVD sleeve. Nothing on the DVD gets any more specific than that, but at least it gives you the month.
Hi Laura – thanks for the kind words. Is that TV performance the same one as here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ3-qqHOCNQ
?
Yep, Matt they’re one and the same. The imagery brings me back to my parents den with the orange shag carpet when I was a kid.
The DVD also has “Street Mission” on Irish T.V’s “Youngline” in March of 1978. Larry looks like he’s 12. It has 8 other TV appearances on it from 1980-1981. Let me know if you want more info on it.
now this all gets me pretty confused. do we have two appearances with the same setlists on RTE?
laura says ‘street mission’ was on young line in march 1978 (I have this down as june 1978). And I thought they also played ‘Life on a distant planet’ on that very same show. is that all wrong and mixed up with a 1979 performance, which then – of course – wasn`t their first? matt?