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U2 MAGAZINE No: 10 - February 1984

U2 are at present at home in Dublin, working on ideas and recording material for a new album due out in the summer. As far as I know there aren't any songs that have been completely finished yet, but Bono is reportedly very excited about how it is working out. At one stage U2 were hoping to fix that elusive Australian trip and play some festival dates end of January/early February, but it would have completely disrupted the recording schedule, so it remains something to fit in later in the year.

With the new year, Adam had some comments on how he saw things changing. 1983 - People are re-evaluating what they're going to be doing, where they're going - trying to get more of a firm direction. It's been very much a year of re-assessment. A lot of bands are coming and going, particularly bands that have done three or four albums and have gone as far as they can go in that formats Paul Weller and The Jam, The Beat, the Clash. U2 certainly intends to make a change from what we've done so far. 1984 - I think music will become a lot more vital, maybe a bit rougher, not as smooth and produced as it has been. It may go in a more political way overall. The synthesizer bands are already having problems: they can't really tour, and they're very reliant on that floating market that buys hit records. They have no more longevity than their next song. A lot of those bands may well disappear. The vanguard of the new direction is certainly the Alarm and Big Country.

In the recent Hot Press Reader's Poll, U2 were clear leaders in just about every possible category, with awards running: No.l Best Polling Act. No.1 Group, No.1 Male Vocalist for Bono, No.1 Album 'War', No.2 Album 'Under A Blood Red Sky', No.1 Live Band, No.1 Irish-based Act, No.1 Instrumentalist for The Edge, No.1 LP Sleeve for 'War', No.2 Single 'New Year's Day', No.2 LP Sleeve 'Under A Blood Red Sky', No.2 Songwriter Bono/U2, No.2 Video 'New Year's Day', and No.2 Love Of The Year.

In the New Musical Express Poll: U2 were voted No.2 Best Group, No.3 Best Album with 'War', No.6 Best Single with 'New Year's Day', No. 3 Best Dressed Sleeve for 'War' and No.20 Best Dressed Sleeve for 'Under A Blood Red Sky'. Bono scored in several personal categories - No.19 Best Dressed Male, No.8 Best Male Singer, No.11 Best Songwriter, and No.9 Most Wonderful Human Being. The Edge was voted No.1 Best Guitar and Adam No.7 Bass.

U2 did equally well in the 'Sounds' Poll - No .3 Best Band, No.15 Best LP for 'War' and No.18 Best LP for 'Under A Blood Red Sky' No.9 Best Single with 'New Year's Day', No.9 Best Male Singer for Bono, No.2 Best Guitarist for The Edge, No.12 Best Drums for Larry, and No.17 Best Keyboards for The Edge!

The Edge also got a special mention for Musician of the Year along with Stuart Adamson From Big Country, in 'One, Two, Testing' magazine.

In the poll for 'Rip It Up' in New Zealand the band did very well also - No.1 Best Group of '83, No.1 Album with 'War', No-5 Best Single with 'Two Hearts Beat As One', and No.1 Best Vocalist for Bono - no mean feat considering the band haven't yet had the chance to tour down there.

The Big One

U2 ended a very hard-working year by headlining a show called 'The Big One', a charity show for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. The band don't often get the chance to do shows like this, and it did come in the middle of working on material for the new album, but they felt it was very important.

A lot of people had offered their services for the concert, so to fit everything in the sets were kept fairly short and included fine performances from Mari Wilson, Ian Dury, Hazel O'Connor, The Alarm, Style Council, Elvis Costello, and Costello and Paul Weller sang a duet of 'My Ever Changing Moods'.

After all this it was quite late when U2 came on as headliners, but there was no doubt in the minds of the audience as to who they had come to see. And U2 left no doubt in anyone's mind what sort of message they wanted to put across. They played an excellent set, including such favourites as 'New Year's Day', 'I Will Follow', 'll 0'Clock Tick Tock' and of course 'Sunday Bloody Sunday'. The fact that the concert was taking place the night after the Harrod's bombing in London didn't go unnoticed by Bono - he felt that made the show all the more important.

The set came to a close with Mike Peters from The Alarm joining the band on stage for a powerful version of 'Knocking On Heaven's Door'. The encore was "40" with everyone joining in, and the chorus of 'How long, how long to sing this song' echoing out into the night.

U2 had made their point.

(There are some plans for an album and a video from this show apparently, but no details have been finalised yet.)


Bono on the New Album

The new album is likely to make quite a break with the past. After the War tour, Bono said, "Everyone feels a weight off their shoulders. We feel like we're in a new group now. I can't sleep at night with thoughts about the next record."

"It would be wrong for me to say, yes, we can change the world with a song. Hut every time I try writing that's where I'm at. I'm not stupid. I'm aware of the futility of rock 'n roll music, but I'm also aware of its power. We're only coming to terms with our trade. We've yet to become craftsmen. Well, maybe we should never become craftsmen. It's great fun being in this band."

"You can't parody yourself", Bono states. "There were so many groups sounding like us at one point that when we'd play a song we'd say 'that sounds a bit like U2 hold on a second we are U2!' (laughs) that was happening. You nearly parody yourself and you've got to stop. That was what Edge had to do anyway.

"People all over America say 'what about these people who are robbing your sound?' and Edge's reply to that has always been, 'well look, y'know fine, take the sound - but it's not a sound that makes music good - it's where that sound comes from and why it's coming out of a person and they can't copy that.

"And it is definitely The Edge. The crew have a joke about it. They have to set up his amps and put the guitar on and I've put my fingers where Edge puts his fingers and I've had his amps and his machines and the settings that he has them on and I've played and it sounds like - no good: And it's him it's truly the way he plays and I think whatever instrument he plays will always have that distinctive quality. But there was a time he was so distinctive he was running into trouble. So he stopped playing it and got into rock 'n roll guitar and he got into acoustic guitar".

When Bono says that "everyone has their own theory about this group - what it is we really are", he's scarcely being self-indulgent. For a band who have so openly and honestly expressed themselves from the outset, U2 have paradoxically had to deal with an inordinate amount of misinterpretation and even prejudice. At the very least, there have been a lot of misconceptions. Bono catalogues a few of them.

"First of all we started out and made 'Boy' which is 'a sexual LP and we changed the cover in America to stop any concern there might be about paedophilia and the like because it was our first album. But import copies got in and, as you know, in America a lot of music is broken first in gay clubs and so we had a gay audience, a lot of people who were convinced the music was specifically for them So there was a misconception if you like.

"Then in London there was the whole conception of 'Paddies' maybe. 'What are they?' They thought of the Boomtown Rats, Rory Gallagher, Van The Man - 'Irishness' was even a box people tried to put us into, but that's a box we're quite proud to be in because our music is Irish.

Then after 'Boy' we made 'October' which is a spiritual LP and a lot of people went: 'what the hell is going on here' - especially in England where people wouldn't be aware of how much religion is part of everyday life here in Ireland and how much stick people get here. They're not aware of how deep that runs. So they went off' on that one for a while.

"So then 'War' came out and to some people in America again, it was 'the political band' and they loved it and they failed to see that 'War' was an emotional LP rather than a political one. So there have been misconceptions all the way and it's like chasing your tail. So I just stopped. But I find it interesting to see the amount of controversy that surrounds a group. I mean, I have heard amazing stories, about myself that I only wish were true. (laughs)

"People talk about taboos in rock 'n roll. They talk about all this and it's totally conservative. They talk about music and how it should open up to new areas. Look, there're few singers, few musicians, few painters who aren't aware of the third part of their being - the spirit. And I just expressed that in the music and a few people pressed the panic button. Because if I lie the music will choke on itself. That's the choice. And I was going through that on 'October' - what is the choice, write about Johnny and Mary or what? Would you like me to ram love songs down your throat, love songs that I don't believe in? People used to say that U2 have never written love songs - well what do they want instead of that? I mean, do people prefer lies? I think that's the question people should ask.

"As it is the lyrics are autobiographical - and there are four people in this group not one. Our music is not just inviting people to my own nightmare or daydream. It's much more than that. It is, when it comes down to it, very aggressive rock 'n roll music - very aggressive. I think it's aggressive in its insight as well as in the music. And I think you feel you're doing something right when you get plus and minus reaction like we've been getting.

"People say that a U2 concert and a Clash concert are similar in terms of reaction, but I think they're worlds apart. I like the Clash and I like Joe Strummer, I think he's an honest man and I don't want to be hard on them. But sometimes people go to a concert, any concert, and they're nervous. There's tension there and, at some concerts I've been to, the tension is still there at the end when people walk out. A U2 concert seems to be different, and that's the healing thing, the washing thing. I really believe that rock 'n roll is very powerful. There's unity for an hour and a half - musicians can do what politicians can't do and I think those feelings, those communal feelings are quite addictive. You feel that warmth and you go after it. Rock 'n roll should be a release. If the Garda Siochana realised that at our concerts in Gaiety Green car park, there was a real explosion, a real release, the steam pouring from the valve... Rock 'n roll is for that and it's best expressed in music, which is a positive thing, than to express it all over somebody's face in a blow.

"I want to inspire people and fire up people. You know that thing: 'Lie down in your own mess'. our music is not something to lie down to, to get out of to, to die to, to commit suicide to. It's not a soundtrack to a nervous breakdown.

"People would not react if I went out and carried on like Elvis Presley or Mick Jagger or David Bowie. People do react if I go out and car-y on like Bono. And I like that. That's the best indication that I'm right for my time."

"Half of me says 'I know I can't change the world' and there's another half of me that, everytime I write a song, I want it to change the world. I don't know if that's naivety or stupidity in me but I do know that music has changed me and I know that in Vietnam music helped change a generation's attitudes. I don't try to change the world, I don't even try to change people - but in the same way I've changed I think other people change too. That's what's important - the individual, that's where you start. In 'Rolling Stone' I said that revolution begins in your heart, in your refusal to compromise your own beliefs, and I think that expresses it.

It's music to fire people up so that maybe they will fight back, not again, with sticks and stones but in some other way, some other channel. And I think that's a fact, that's real. I know that a lot of good things have happened. Sometimes with U2 you can end up talking about U2 in the abstract but the music is very real."

"People are quite aware that there's no stage big enough for me - I like to stretch the stage and I've often found myself singing from the back of the hall rather than the front. I'm always trying to get across, to communicate. At the US Festival, I climbed to the top of the stage to get to the people at the back - there were 300,000 there - and I put a white flag at the top and it counted as a symbol, a broadstroke to that mass of people.

"But another time I went into the audience in L.A. at a big sports complex - there were about 12,000 people there - with a big white flag, and the flag was torn to shreds and I was nearly torn to shreds I got onto the balcony and found myself looking down and then I found myself jumping about 20 feet into this sea of people, and they caught me and passed me along from the back until eventually I got up onto the stage nearly naked, wondering 'what have I done, what's happened?' Because although the people caught me some other people jumped off the balcony after, and there was, but there may not have been, people to catch them. And it was at that stage I had to think - responsibility. I mean, the place had gone beserk - what if somebod had died.

"My ambition for U2 has always been to push it to its limits - the most aggress- ive music ever made and, at the same time the most sensitive, different levels. I woke up a few months ago and found out I was Irish (laughs and that has made an impact and it's going to make an impact on the music. Because this is an Irish group and I'm realising that the very weapons you need are all around you.

"I can't tell you where we're about to go but I know that I can't sleep at night with the thought of it all. I'm so excited about this idea that we've just begun - the way I feel is that we're undertaking a real departure. I can't stop talking about it. It would take about ten men to hold me down at the moment.

"People say we take ourselves too seriously and I might have to plead guilty to that. But really I don't take myself too seriously, we don't take ourselves seriously, - but we do take the music seriously."

"40"

I waited patiently for the lord
He inclined and heard my cry
He brought me up out of the pit
Out of the miry clay

I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song
How long to sing this song
How long to sing this song
How long, how long, how long, how long
To sing this song

You set my feet upon a rock
And made my footsteps firm
Many will see
Many will see and hear

I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song
How long to sing this song
How long to sing this song
How long, how long, how long
How long to sing this song

Music and lyrics by U2.
"40" (O) 1983 Blue Mountain Music Ltd
"Trash, Trampoline And The Party Girl" (C) 1982 Blue Mountain Music Ltd.
Reproduced by permission.
Illustrated by Barry Cross 1983

TRASH, TRAMPOLINE AND THE PARTY GIRL
I know a girl, a girl called party, party girl
I know she wants more than a party, party girl
And she won't tell me her name

I know a boy, a boy called trash, trash can
I know he does all that he can, wham bam
And he won't tell me his name

I have a heart, a heart that's been a son
When I was three I thought the world revolved
Around me, I was wrong
And so I sing oh

And if you dance then dance with me
I know a girl, a girl called party, party girl
I know she wants more than a party, party girl
I know a boy, a boy called trampoline
You know what I mean
I think you know he wants
I think he known what he wants

U2 PEN-PALS/SWOPS AND TRADES SECTION

To contact other friends and fans of U2, send in your name and address and we will include it here. You can also include U2 items that you're offering to swop if you wish, like the early deleted singles, etc, but please keep the listing fairly brief.

Sophie Heath, 23 Clifton Terrace, Brighton. E. Sussex BN1 3HA
Katarzyna Plichta Tadzino, 84-251 Kostkowo, Gdanskie, Poland.
Julie Boyd, 8C Saint Domingo Grove, Anfield, Liverpool L5 RR, Merseyside.
Margaret O'Neill, 16 Ballytromery Road, Crumlin, Co. Antrim, N. Ireland
Gillian Scott, 133 Clifton Rd, Aberdeen AB2 3RH, Scotland
Thea, 151 Swift Road, Woolston, Southampton 902 9ES. Has U2.3, Another Day, 11 O'Clock, Day Without Me etc to swop (in pic sleeves) for anything, like live tapes, cuttings..
Graham King, 19 Freemantle Ave. South Shore, Blackpool, Lancs FY4 1SX
Nancy Langfeld, 6007 Musket Road, Fort Washington, PA 190 ,United States. Has live tapes for trade.
Hiyori Minato, Nishihara 4-25, Fuchu, Tokyo, 183 Japan.
Julian Taylor, 102 Moira Road, Lisburn, N. Ireland BT28.
Keith McGregor, 113 Woodstock Ave, Shawlands, Glasgow G41.
Kay Towlard, 50 London Road, Wymondham, Norfolk.
Michel Delhausse, Ave de la Basilique 382, Box 28, B-10 0 Brussels, Belgium.
Wendy Wylo, 25026 Westfield, Detroit, Michigan 48239, USA.
Margaret McKechnie, 8 Iachlan Crescent, Linburn, Erskine, Scotland.
John O'Reilly, 21 Ard No Vergh, Maugheaboy, Sligo, Eire.
Paul Short, 60 Englefield Close, Kingston Park, Newcastle on Tyne, Tyne & Wear NE3 2TU.
Alison Wharton, 32 Collingbourne Ave. Hodge Hill, Birmingham B36 8JP. Has '11 0' Clock' to swop for 'A Celebration/Trash etc'. Also wants Tube/TOTP VHS videos.
Chris Pike, 70 Cassland Road, Hackney, London E9 SAN. Is also looking for 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' on 12".
Julie Ounsworth, 32 Grasmere Road, Longlevens, Gloucester GL2 0NQ.
Detler Schmimke, Postfach 105722, D-2000 Hamburg 1, West Germany.
S. Dickerson, 28 Sprowston Road, Norwich, Norfolk NR3 4QN.
Minna Petra, Kivalterintie 23, 00670 Helsinki 67, Finland.
Kieran Dineen, Saleen, Cloyne, Co. Cork, Ireland.
Richard Levy, 2 Greenhill Way, Wembley Park, Middx HA9 9H
Graeme Johnson, 13 Loweswater Crescent, Stockton on Tees, Cleveland TS18 4PY.
David Ogleby, 7 Arnham Grove, Hastings Hill, Sunderland, Tyne & Wear SR4 9NH.
Timo Mettala, Kettusentie 5, 40270 Palokka, Finland.
Brent Kinsey, 1 The Avenue, Edwardsville, Treharris, Mid-Glam, South Wales CF46 5NN.
Marylou Ready, 96 Pershing Ave, East Haven, Connecticut 06513, USA. Wants photos, tapes of Phoenix Park, has many photos col. & B&W of U. S. shows.
Goran Isacsson, PL326, S-76100 Norrtalje, Sweden.
Richard Spiller, Fernhill Post Office, Hastings, , New Zealand.
Miss Yuko Ueda, 1-4-4-202 Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 155, Japan.
Paul Ladley, 29 Heather Avenue, Droylsden, Manchester M35 7JZ. Has some spare 'A Celebration' posters, plus 'Out Of Control' and other rarities for offers/trade.

Under A Blood Red Sky
U2
Island
****

This Irish band's incantatory power is no more vividly demonstrated than in concert, and this eight-song mini-album, culled frown their last tour, gives ample evidence why people have been calling U2 the best live band of 1983. Producer Jimmy Iovine and his chief engineer, Shelly Yakus, have toned down the distorted guitar-and-drums sound of the band's previous boardman, Steve Lillywhite, without sacrificing die sheer rock & roll energy and slashing attack that have already made U2 popular.

Iovine 's approach uncovers U2's secret weapon: the versatile, elastic playing of bassist Adam Clayton. Clayton's steady bottom creates the space for guitarist the Edge's dazzling fretboard wails throughout the record. "Gloria", which in its studio version sank under the weight of its overwrought piety, here turns into a blaring rocker, while the Edge's lonesome keyboards bring forth a "New Year's Day" that outstrips its original. But the high point is "Sunday Bloody Sunday" It may not be a rebel song, as Bono tells a presumably baffled German audience, but it is practically everything else: an anguished, thoughtful synthesis of religious and political beliefs, backed by the bone-crushing arena-rock riff of the decade. This is "Stairway to Heaven" for smart people-even if it is played a tad too fast-and it kicks Under a Blood Red Sky over the rainbow.

Through it all, Bono is his ineluctable self, whether he's getting carried away (the "Send in the Clowns" interlude in the otherwise admirable "The Electric Co.") or carrying us away, as on the sweetly elegiac "40." I once saw U2 play "I Will Follow" three times in one set, establishing a never-to-be-broken major-band record for repetition. If I can still enjoy the version on this album, imagine how much you'll like it. - CHRISTOPHER CONNELLY

U2 - On the right lines?
Compiled by Barry Cross

The 24 lines below are all quotes of lyrics from songs by U2, each line is from a different song. When you have the titles of the 24 songs you will be able to find their names hidden in the diagram below. They run horizontally, vertically or diagonally - many of them are printed backwards, but always in a straight line with the letters in the right order. Put a line through the names as you find them. Answers next time.

1. To claim the victory Jesus won
2. Started a landslide is my ego
3. I believe in this citys children
4. I can't think what it's for and I just wanna, know
5. A child on the ground says he'll do it again
6. Your skin is coloured strawberries and cream
7. To the side of a hill blood was spilt
8. If he stops to think he starts to cry
9. You better not leave me here anyway
10. If I could drown I'd drown with you
11. And the children come out to play
12. Push the button and pull the plug
13. Toy broken toy
14. If your running from yourself
15. I can't find the door
16. To take me for more and more
17. Revolution once again
18. I know the truth about you
19. With wings like eagles
20. Soaking through the skin
21. I can smile I can go there
22. I thought the world could go far
23. I'm going home
24. Fight but he don't know what for

Y A D N W O D L L A F I R S J O L
A D R O W N I N G M A N E E G U F
D L R I G Y O B H T S M D E R E B
N A E C O E H T C S T A S G I C O
U S O N G N O S U U U C G U B O Y
S D S C A T D U O R O E N F R H T
Y N U E S H H H T R H L O E T B O
D O N A C G T E T E S E S R W U T
O C D N A I J O W N A B A E O D H
O E A O W L O C 1 D H R E H L T G
L S Y Y S D I J R E T A K T L A I
B F A L L E C O E R I T I I O C L
Y D O W N R E J D R W O L O F N I
A E R I F E E R U S A E R T L A W
D R O W N F J E O R A I R O L G T
N O N O I T A B E L E C A N I L E
U F R H Y A D R E H T O N A W I F
S U N T R A E H E H T O T N I W I
Y D O O C C I R T C E L E E H T T

U2 EQUIPMENT UPDATE

THE EDGE: Guitars - Fender Stratocaster, Gibson Explorer, Epiphone Lap-Steel, Washburn Acoustic 6-string. Piano - Yamaha CP70. Amps - Vox AC30, Roland JC120 Combo. Effects - Electro Harmonix Memoryman Echo, MXR Compressor, Furman Parametric Equaliser.

BONO: Guitar - Fender Lead II. Amp - Roland JC120 Combo.

ADAM: Guitars - Fender Precision Bass, Fender Jazz Bass, Ibanez Musician Bass. Amps - Ampec SVT Stack, Harbinger 516 Cabinets, BGW 750 Power Amplifier, Alembic Stereo Pre-Amp. Effects - Ibanez Stereo Chorus, Ibanez Digital Delay. Roland Phase Shims

LARRY: Drums - Yamaha 9000 series. 24" bass drum, 18" floor toms, 16" floor toms, 14" rack toms, Yamaha 6z"x14" wooden snare, 31"x 13" Ludwig Piccolo snare. All stands and fittings by Yamaha. Cymbals by Paiste, Rude Cymbals and 2002 series. Assorted Latin Percussion.

U2's stage manager Steve Iredale passes on the following advice:

"Buy the best equipment you can afford. If possible stick to well known names you're already familiar with, and you should also make sure that the equipment you buy can be serviced, and parts replaced locally."


This issue was delayed as I had hoped to include all the new details on the 'U2 Live At Red Rocks' video, but as the details still aren't completely finalised I can't really hold the magazine up any longer. It is due out in about a month's time. I don't have a full track listing yet, but if you've seen the previews on TV you'll have a good idea of what to expect!

By next issue we should have a lot more news on the recording of the new album, and the next phase of U2 will start to unfold itself.

All the best,
Geoff

Compiled and edited by Geoff Parkyn. Published by U2 INFO SERVICE, P.O.Box 48, London N6 5RU. England. Please remember to include return postage for personal replies to any correspondence.

Special thanks to Paul McGuinness, Anne Louise Kelly, Neil and all at Island Records, N Stewart and Blue Mountain Music

Photography by Anton Corbijn Andrew Catlin, Didier Buriez, Yoshinori Okano, Kos Hasebe, Youichi Saitoh. Thanks also to Alice Jackson, Barry Cross, Mami Omata And thanks to U2.

If you wish to write direct to the band personally, we can pass your letters on, or write direct to Sister Sister, 39 Chestnut Grove, Kingwood, Clondalkin, Co. Dublin, Eire.

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Richard F Hare
Purveyor of poor quality U2 tribute sites since 1996