u2 info service archive
issue 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16
    home


U2 MAGAZINE No. 12 - AUTUMN/FALL 1984

UNFORGETTABLE FIRE
Hello everyone - here's the news we've all been waiting for. The title of the new album is 'Unforgettable Fire' and will be released on September 17th. A single will precede it, and may even be out by the time you read this. It is titled 'Pride (In The Name Of Love)' and is backed with 'Fourth Of July'. There will also be a special limited edition 7" double pack, as has happened in the past, but with new studio tracks rather than live recordings. Adam talks about recording the new album over the next few pages, which is the first of a series of exclusive interviews with the band which will continue in each issue from now on. Another new feature is the tour map, which we plan to include in each issue, to eventually build up a complete documentary on U2's touring schedules.

Talking of which, the 'Unforgettable Fire Tour' will be the biggest U2 have yet done, and really is on a worldwide basis. The welcome news is that U2 kick off with their first ever dates in Australia and New Zealand - and I know how rapturously this news was received from the response already coming in, not discounting the fact that all the dates sold out within a matter of hours.

The dates are: New Zealand - Christchurch Town Hall 29th August, Wellington Show Building 30th, Auckland Logan Campbell Centre 1st September. Australia: Sydney Entertainments Centre 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 Sept, Brisbane Festival Hall 11th, Melbourne Entertainments Centre 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19 Sept, Adelaide Apollo Stadium 21st, Perth Entertainments Centre 23rd, 24th September.

From then to the end of October U2 will be touring in continental Europe, but as at the time of writing not all the dates have been confirmed yet I won't list all the details here. The next stage is the U.K. Tour, and dates for this run as follows:

Brixton Academy, London 1st & 2nd November, Edinburgh Playhouse 4th & 5th, Glasgow Barrowlands 6th & 7th, Manchester Apollo 9th & 10th, Birmingham N.E.C. Arena 12th, and London Wembley Arena 14th and 15th.Guests are The Waterboys. From then on the tour continues through North America but dates for that have not, as yet, been confirmed.

Bono joined Bob Dylan on stage for 'It's All Over Now. Baby Blue' at Slane this summer.

Please send in your reviews, photos and comments on the new album and tour. Finally, congratulations to Edge and Aislinn on the birth of daughter Hollie!

ADAM CLAYTON IN CONVERSATION WITH NEIL STOREY
Windmill Lane, Dublin, Sunday 29th July

N: The album - how difficult has it been?
A: Well the album has been no more difficult than any other album to make - it's taken slightly longer this time. It's obviously not the right time for post-mortems at this point, as we haven't even finished yet, but certainly a lot of the reason why the album has taken slightly longer is the nature in which we did it. We started with a new producer for our fourth studio album, so it was a big change.

N: What were the reasons for choosing Eno as opposed to any of the other people that were mentioned at one point - the Jimmy lovine's of this world and people like that?
A: I think they were all good ideas at the time, and we considered them but it came closer and closer to making a decision and none of them felt spot-on. I think the band basically has a very personal attitude to the way it works, and people around us who are close are important, and I think if we'd gone for somebody American it would have been very alien to our world and way of working. And there wasn't really any anybody English who was available or right, that we felt 100% right about, until Brian came along.

N: Where did the original idea of using Brian come from?
A: I don't remember. It's one of those ideas that crops up - somebody says 'What about using Brian Eno?' and people say 'Yeah, that's interesting'. I think it had been around for a while, I think we couldn't have done it if he had still been working with Talking Heads, and at the time when it had cropped up, he had been working with Talking Heads, and it wouldn't have been right to have used him then. We wanted him to actually come to this project with something of a period to move away from Talking Heads and be prepared to start with a rock band again. And he was certainly interested and excited by that idea.

N: How surprised do you think he was by being approached by basically rock 'n roll band like yourselves?
A: I don't think he was sur prised by us. I think some of the other people who approach him are the ones that surprise him - like Whitesnake, or what ever. He said he gets two or three requests a week, and most of them are fairly normal, but he said the odd time when he gets metal bands approaching him, he finds that very odd. Mind you, it's probably the next thing he'd do, knowing the way he thinks. (laughs)

N: So therefore as soon as he was confirmed you took the decision to move to Slane Castle...
A: Well, Slane had been an integral part of it long before he'd been committed to it, because Iovine had seen it with a view to recording there as well.

N: The ambience of actually recording out of Windmill Lane, and in somewhere like Slane, means that you can actually live there and almost record in your dining roam.
A: There were three essential reasons, I think. First of all Windmill isn't conducive to live recording, they don't have a live room, it's very much a controlled studio atmosphere. And our plan has been progressively over the albums that we've done, that we want to get back to doing live takes rather than the usual way of recording from the bass drum up. So we needed a place where we could do that, we needed a place that sounded good - now Slane we could play live and the rooms sounded good, and also we've done three records here (Windmill Lane) and to be perfectly honest it was nice to have a different environment.

N: Coupled with the fact that when I was up there I saw you had a rehearsal room so that meant you were rehearsing the songs prior to going in and putting down the basics?
A: We spent a month or two writing up there anyway, so we had a good technique, so if we had a problem we could work it out in the rehearsal room, and then go into the main room to record.

N: So therefore down in Windmill the finishing off process has happened?
A: Yes, we saved a lot of overdubs for down here because the desk that we'd basically recorded the backing tracks on is a very simple desk, and you couldn't do that much special treatment and that sort of thing with what you were doin so we did more of that here.

N: And for the first time you've used a Fairlight.
A: Only out of convenience really. We had done some demos in a studio with a Fairlight, we had Brian who obviously knows about synthesizers, and we've just filled out the textures of the songs with instruments and sounds. In fact we've only really used the Fairlight on one track, and in fact we've added to that with real orchestration. We used the fairlight just for convenience to put down some string ideas, and came back to it later with an arranger and put down real strings as well. So I think the Fairlight was only really used as a means to an end, to see if an idea worked.

N: The extra instrumentation - Edge is presumably using various keyboards and so on?
A: In a funny way we haven't ended up using as much keyboards as we thought we might. In that I menu none of the keyboards at any point are ever highlighted. In the past, because we didn't have keyboards a lot of the overdubs would end up being guitar or bass - to fill out all the extra textures. Now that we've got keyboards it's a lot quicker and easier to find a sound on a keyboard and put a part down that doesn't necessarily have to be highlighted in a stage situation.

N: How much do you think the playing has changed or shall we say matured. I remember Bono saying as the album was beginning to be conceived, that it was the giant leap forward. Do you think it has been that great leap forward for U2? Was it really the end of U2 Mk.1 and the beginning of Mk2?
A: I think so, but it's not something that you put the record on and say instantly 'wow, haven't they changed, haven't they matured, it's completely different'. It's not that - it's a small step. Larry's playing is amazing - well it always has been, but it's developed even more on this record. I think in a way Edge and probably do much the same as we've always done, except just better. Bono's singing and structuring of songs has improved, it's more mature.

N: Don't you think that's a direct result of having someone like Eno working as obviously closely as he is? In the sense that this time round you're using a producer with an engineer as opposed to an engineer turned producer. I think that's the crux of it.
A: That s right. I think the effect that Eno's had is because he hasn't known how we've worked in the past. He's forced us up avenues we wouldn't naturally have gone in the confines of our comfortable relationship with Steve Lillywhite - and that's what's changed it. I think also the whole feel of the record is deeper emotionally. We still have the hard songs that we've always had, but I think they're treated in a less hard way. I don't think that takes away from the excitement of them, I just think it gives them more depth overall. And it means you can go back to them more and more.

N: How was the title of the album reached - because that has connotations which go beyond just a name on a record sleeve?
A: Well on the last American tour the Chicago Peace Museum contacted us, and they were putting on an exhibition basically of various peace-type statements - not so much in a Sixties way - it was more various people in the public eye's contribution to peace in a general sense rather than the peace movement or anything, and of course Yoko Ono was seriously involved and was donating bits and pieces of John's, bits and pieces that were no longer of any use to her. (laughs) And they contacted us and we in fact exhibited the stage set of the 'War' tour, but the mainstay of the exhibition was a series of paintings - Japanese paintings - called the 'Unforgettable Fire' paintings. Now they are in fact Japanese National Treasures, and what they are - they are scribblings and paintings and sketches by the victims of the two A-Bombs, and they're basically first hand information on what those people saw. They didn't necessarily have any technical background, they just had the fact that they'd gone through this horrific experience and this was the only way they could communicate what it was like. So, essentially they're crude, but I think they display the message.

N: Presumably that had a fairly profound effect on you...
A: Yeah, not in a particular gory way, because that wasn't the feeling that comes over in these things. What is interesting in what comes over in these pictures that actually can be explicit at times is the utter sadness that mankind has actually got to this point where it can inflict this sort of suffering on each other for a crazy ideal, or perhaps not so crazy if one is trying to defend peace, but it certainly seems an extreme to go to.

N: Do you think that the theme of the album will come very much to the fore in the live shows?
A: I don't think that by calling the album after that exhibition the similarity necessarily goes any further than just endorsing that. I don't think it's all album of songs about peace. I think just the feelings and the textures and the colours of those paintings, and the emotions, are the things that are transcending themselves onto the album, rather than any special message.

N: This is one mighty tour isn't it! It's New Zealand and Australia for the first time...
A: Well I actually feel good that on the eve of our fourth album release there's actually somewhere in the world that we haven't been! (laughs) It certainly makes it easier to get back out there and tour, because you know over the years we've done a hell of a lot of touring, and there's only so many hotels in New York that you can see, and you do get to the point where you feel as if you've been there forever.

N: Do you ever get fed up with it?
A: Yeah, but it's an occupational hazard. I think everyone assumes that if you have an interesting job that it must be marvellous 24 hours of the day. Of course it's not, but as long as you believe in it enough to get through the times that are tough, then it's the right job for you.

N: The other thing is that you are now moving to the stage that inevitably there's wierd criticisms being levelled at you in the sense that you're no longer playing The Marquee and Hope 6 Anchor and the Moonlight Club, you're now moving on to the stage where you're actualy going to be playing Wembley.
A: I think largely it answers itself...

N: I think it does as well, but there are obviously people out there who are going to think U2 have sold out, they're going out to play Wembley - Why? Why do our band have to go out and play places that Styx and that kind of group play?'
A: There are several answers to that. Firstly, if people want to come to a stand up show, there's two shows at the Brixton Academy, that's their choice - and we've done that with that in mind. One of the Wembley shows, we're donating the proceeds to Amnesty. Then the next show, if there're that many people that want to buy tickets, it's pointless putting the show on in the Marquee because it turns into an elitist gig then - it means the price of the tickets for everyone ends up being up around f250 and the only people making money out of it are the ticket touts.

N: Coupled with the fact that the production for this tour is obviously going to be more major than for the last tour.
A: There is the alternative that we could play seven nights in the Hammersmith Odeon, but that in a way diffuses the whole point of a U2 show, which is that we do the definitive show, and that's it - it moves on. If we did seven nights in the same place I don't think it would be doing justice to us. Obviously people are going to say well why don't you do 10 days at the Hammersmith Odeon, but that's a bit like doing a run at the Old Vic and just diffuses any energy out of the situation.

N: In retrospect, how do you feel to the other albums. How do you feel now to having made this one to 'Boy'? Do you actually look back on Boy with affection or...
A: Yeah - I think you always remember the first child with affection. Not necessarily favouritism.

N: Was 'October' therefore the problem child?
A: It was the problem child at the time, but when I listen to all the records I really can't fault them an awful lot. What's nice about them is that there's no ambiguity in terms of what it is at that time. They do for me sum up that year's work and there's no loose ends on those records, they seem to tie it up nicely. All the way through to 'Under A Blood Red Skv' even, and this record in a way I'll only realise the full potential in a year's time. When I've had the chance to play the songs live, listen to it, go back to it, and I don't think it'll disappoint me in a year's time or even 10 year's time.

N: Are there any parts of any albums that you'd like to re-do?
A: There's probably certainly things that I'd like to re-do in terms of how, say, a song has developed live - but I would never do it because I think it would be disrespectful to the actual time and period.

N: I was thinking of the way something like 'The Ocean' developed when you were doing that live.
A: Yeah - it developed, but it still has it's own charm on the record, and I stand over that charm in a way.

N: Do you actually have a favourite U2 song?
A: I think 'Drowning Man' is my favourite. It's got so much emotion and poise in it. And it's quite odd sounding as well. I mean the vocals are terrific and I think the backing track is just a lovely swell, and feel of water almost, to it. It's like a waterfall.

U2 WORLDWIDE POLL 1984 - FAVOURITE SONGS
With Adam choosing his favourite track immediately above, this seems a good point to announce the results of the 1984 Poll. Many thanks to everyone for your very enthusiastic response! The general consensus was that I was asking the impossible, so I hope it didn't take too long to list your top 10 choices. A few points to make: the results are derived from 10 points for No.l down to 1 point for No.10; where the live version has been selected (or 'October' with Wally Badarou) these have been included with the main title, though I should point out that for 'Party Girl' the live version was predominantly preferred. It's interesting to note that the first six include two choices from each of the three studio albums to date, an interesting - and deserving - coverage. Well, on to the results -

1. GLORIA (1404) 2. SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY (130) 3. TOMORROW (1270) 4. NEW YEAR'S DAY (1048) 5. 1 WILL FOLLOW (866) 6. OUT OF CONTROL (778) 7. A CELEBRATION (752) 8. 11 O'CLOCK TICK TOCK (656) 9. REJOICE (600) 10. LIKE A SONG (598)

11. The Electric Co.(452), 12. Twilight(412), 13. "40" (366), 14. A Day Without Me(326), 15. Drowning Man(306) 16. Party Girl(302), 17. Two Hearts Beat As One(262), 18. October(260), 19. Another Time, Another Place(238), 20. Fire(230), 21. I Fall Down(224), 22. Surrender(216) 23. 1 Threw A Brick Through A Window(200), 24. An Cat Dubh(178), 25. With A Shout(Jerusalem)(174), 26. Shadows And Tall Trees(170), 27. Into The Heart(158), 28. 28. Another Day(152), 29. Stories For Boys(132), 30. Red Light(126), 31. Seconds(108), 32. The Refugee (106), 33. Treasure(Whatever...)(102), 34. Stranger In A Strange Land(84), 35. Boy/Girl(66), 36. Touch(64), i. Things To Make And Do(38), 38. Is That All?(30), 39. Endless Deep(20), 40. Scarlet(18), 41. The Ocean
(16), and 42. J. Swallow(8).

I should have made it clear that the Poll was to cover released tracks only; for those with long memories here are the points for some early live songs and others: 1. Judith(No Man's Land)(24), 2. Father Is An Elephant(BBC Powell Session 81)(10), 3. Jack In The Box(8), 4. Southern Man(N Young)(Live)(6), 5. The Dream Is Over(2).

U2 'I WILL FOLLOW' COMPETITION
The answers to this competition ran: 1. I Will Follow 2. Trash, Trampoline and the Party Girl 3. Two Hearts Beat As One 4. Rejoice 5 Sunday Bloody Sunday

Congratulations to the winners who each get a copy of the rare live Dutch pressing of 'I Will Follow'. They are -
Catherine Brady, Carrigaline, Co. Cork; John Devery, London Sue Steele, Coral Springs, Florida; Brian Gilmour, Kirkcaldy Scotland; Supo Lahtinen, Turku, Finland; Michael Day, Oldham Lancs; Stephanie Shanks, Christchurch, New Zealand; Julia
Mulcaster, Blaydon, Tyne & Wear; Karin Remmerswaal, Zoeterwouderdorp, Holland; and Kieran McGonigle, Coleraine, Co. Derry.

U2 EARLY SONGS
Here's a list of some early U2 songs that never made it onto record - perhaps you can recall some others?
Street Missions, Concentration Cramp, Night Fright, Inside Out, Hang Up!, Judith (No Man's Land), Father Is An Elephant(?), The Dream Is Over, Jack In The Box, The Magic Carpet, Walk Away, The Speed Of Life, Alone In The Night.

U2 PEN-PALS/SWOPS AND TRADES SECTION
To contact other friends and fans of U2, send in your name and address and we'll 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. We will not accept listings for illegal recordings of U2 however obtained.

1. Carina Atexanderason, Ekgatan 34B, S-63223 Eskilstuna, Sweden.
2. Sudhir Patel, 14 Leighton Ave, Park South, Swindon, Wilts SN3 2HN, England.
3. Rachel Addison, 42 Warren Ave, Gray's Pt 2232, NSW, Australia. Wants anything on U2, prepared to swop.
4. Gary Finch, 2 Watley Drive, Morecambe, Lanes IA3 3AP, England.
5. Alison Rose, 319 CHS 37th 6 Spruce, Univ. Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
6. Christina Lin, F309 Block F, Sea Park Apts, Jalan 21/13, Petaling Jaya, Selangor,
Malaysia.
7. Sandi Turner, 122 Kennedy St, Picnic Point 2213, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
8. Andrew Steward, 'Riverwood', Coppice Row, Theydon Bois, Essex CM16 7DS, England. Wants double pack of 'Fire' or single 'Fire'.
9. Harry O'Dell, 324 West 44th St, Marion, Indiana 46953, USA.
10. Robert Ross, 55 Valley Gardens, Kirkcaldy, Fife KY2 5UB, Scotland. Would like penpals and rarities.
11. Yvonne Upton, 4 Stretton Ave, Wallasey, Merseyside L44 5UZ, England.
12. Dean P., 19 Hawkshead Green, Anlaby High Road, Hull HU4 7SZ, England. Wants 'A Day Without Me' in pic cover.
13. Neil Craig, 8 Welbeck Ave, Sidcup, Kent DA15 9BU, England.
14. Suzi Hutchinson, 18 Shanreagh Park, Limavady, Co. Londonderry, BT49 OSF, Ulster.
15. Paula Chow, 236 Manchester Road, Warrington, Cheshire WAI 3BE, England.
16. Sue Adams, 7 Piper's Croft, Dunstable, Beds. LU6 3JZ, England.
17. Ian Stevens, 23 Beech Grove, Pinewood, Somerton, Somerset TA11 6LQ, England. Wants Phoenix Park photos and programme, etc, plus any rare items.
18. Sean, 2 Telford Terrace, Grosvenor Road, London SWlV 3AE, England. Wants to hear from all U2 followers - esp. in Eire.
19. Jane Round, 13 Beech Close, Southau, Leamington Spa, Warks, England.
20. Colin Cole, 29 Montague Road, Southall, Midd:, England.
21. Michael Jagger, 57 Lyndhurst Ave, Brighouse, West Yorks HD6 3RY, England.
22. Jackie Hodge, 3 Shallowford Rd. Egabuckland, Plymouth, Devon.
23. M. Mardini, 13 High Street, New Kilns, Ayrshire KA16 9EE, Scotland.
24. Gareth Stephens, 53 Alconbury. Bishops Stortford, Herts CM23 5DE, England.
25. Andrew Osborn, 99 Broadfield Rise, Ballinteen, Dublin 16, Ireland. Has autographs in exchange for photos or rarities.
26. Detlev Schnincke, Postfach 10 57 22, D-2000 Hamburg 1, West Germany.

IN TUA NUA
If you recall the superb touches added to 'October' by Vincent Kilduff on uillean pipes and to 'War' by Steve Wickham on electric violin, you'll want to investigate In Tua Nua. Apart from Steve and Vinny, the line-up is Ivan O'Shea guitars, Jack Dublin on bass, Paul Byrne drums, Martin Clancey keyboards and Lesley Dowdall vocals. Their first release will be out soon.

U2 CROSSWORD
Thanks to Paula Chow of Warrington, Cheshire, for coming up with this new crossword. All of the words fit across the grid in the correct order. Some of the letters are already given to help you solve each clue. Clues are - 1. Does this member of the band give the beat to the music? 2. The plural form of the time it takes to say ?goodbye. 3. Can't he swim? 4. She is the star of the 'October' album. 5. The traffic must stop at this. 6. The name of the song about Dublin where, as Bono says 'They're pulling the buildings down'. 7. A shade of red. 8. A large expanse of water. 9. Who is Dave the guitarist better known as? 10. First day of the year. 11. Do they wish to drop their weapons? 12. Should 999 be dialled? 13. U2 frontman 14. What happens, 'When I get up...' 15. The black cat. 16. Not today. 17. The month of the LP. 18. How is something said on the 'October' album? 19. What time of day was it when 'The old man tried to walk me home...'? 20. If you walk away what am I going to do? 21. First name of Mr Clayton 22. Time to get out the champagne? 'A ?????????'. 23. U2's home. 24. Tales for lads? 25. Number of hearts beat as one. 26. Bono introduces the song with 'We're going home now...' 27. '??????? Deep'. 28. Don't the band want peace for this album? 29. The studios. 30. U2's debut LP. 31. First name of the band's 'War' producer. 32. U2's manager. 33. U2's second single ? released in Ireland only. 34. Bono's real name. 35. Which company? 36. Question asks=d on 'October' album. 37. Where did I throw a brick? 38. U2's record label.
Good luck - answers next time.

BONO TALKS ABOUT THE NEW ALBUM
"Brian Eno, apart from David Bowie and Talking Heads, walked away from producing records a few years ago. He was very much disillusioned with rock 'n roll. The reason he was disillusioned with rock 'n roll is pretty similar to the reason why we are not a rock 'n roll band in the true classic sense. He was interested in the passion of our music as I was interested in his innovation, and U2 are about that. Daniel Lanois is the person he's been working with for the last three years. He was awarded Producer of the Year in Canada last year and this year. He's a French-Canadian chap and Eno believes he's remarkable and we were talking to him to see about working in sort of an engineering capacity cum generally just' working with Eno himself."

So when did you decide you weren't going to work with Steve Lillywhite again" has he been a contender up to now?

"No. He hasn't been a contender, actually. We decided that after our last record. Steve was helping us to decide about a new producer and he is very close to the group but it's very important to keep away from becoming a parody of yourself and there are many, many groups all over the world, where people say 'Oh U2. You sound like that group.' Progressive music must progress so we took that decision and it's very difficult to replace Steve Lillywhite. It was a very, very difficult decision."

I noticed in a couple of interviews you gave last year that you said you were considering some far more radical steps for the next album and obviously this is a pretty radical step.

"Yes, it is. At the same time I think it is very important that at this point in our career that we do not mellow out. You know, I see so many groups they accept, they accept the bait, accept the bribe and they mellow out. For U2 our hunger and our thirst as a group has never been so intense. We want to make our music more aggressive, more exciting, more melodic."

More of everything? -

"Yeah, we feel we are only beginning as a group. We feel that U2 hasn't been born yet. I see that 'Boy', 'October' and 'War' in some ways was a cycle. And if you take 'Under A Blood Red Sky' as the full stop at the end of the sentence, you know, we are beginning a new paragraph. 'Boy' is a sexual record of sorts, 'October' is a spiritual record. 'War', I don't know what. It was as if U2 were learning how to be U2. Now we want to find out what U2 can do."

You get the impression that each member of the group is a very important part of the group.

"There aren't actually many groups in the world right now. You have singer/ songwriters and their accomplices or you have two singer/songwriters and their accomplices. But you rarely have a group of four parts where each part has its strong and distinct personality - probably not since The Beatles or The Stones or The Who. I think there was a period music went through. It seems to have lost it recently and I should stress that I probably do the others a disservice in doing this interview. They're well able to speak for themselves and even if Larry doesn't want to speak even in that he makes a point (laughs)."

Are having names like Bono and The Edge a way of distancing yourself from your public image or your public self?

"I would suggest the opposite. The name 'Bono' was a term of affection amongst a group of people that U2 broke out of. I don't know what you would cal1 it but a set of people who had a different approach to what was going on in this city Dublin and this country Ireland. We are very, very close and these were nicknames , and in allowing our audience into those nicknames, I think we are in fact stating a closeness with our audience. The people whom I love and who love me refer to me by the name Bono. My father refers to me as Paul Hewson. If that makes any sense?"

Yes, certainly does. The Edge seems to be a very serious person on stage. Is he the same in day to day life, or is he just concentrating very hard?

"As you noticed, he's often playing two instruments at the same time. If it's not the guitar and the piano, it's the guitar and various treatments he's putting through. He's got an extremely high IQ, he's very bright, at the same time ... he's in charge of silly suggestions. He's usually the one who diffuses me. I'm the one who can end up standing on the table during the board meeting shouting at people and he'd be the one who remarks on the bad smell. You know, somebody's cheap after-shave (laughs). He's got a gift of using things. He's a special guitar player. He doesn't hold the guitar up as an instrument to be worshipped. In fact, it's said of him that he only takes the guitar out on formal occasions. He takes the music very seriously, but he doesn't take himself very seriously."

"U2 is not a political band or anything like it you know. We are four people and it's a part of us. As is an emotion of love which is the strongest emotion on the LP of 'War'. As is many other things - the throw away side of the group in a son like 'Party Girl'. That's important too. That song was written in ten minutes and I think it took about ten minutes to produce and record. It was half an hour and it was completed. It's as important in some respects."

U2 MAGAZINE compiled and edited by Geoff Parkyn. Published by U2 INFO, P.O. Box 48, London N6 5RU, England, and U2 INFO, P.0. Box 156, Princeton Jctn, New Jersey 08550, U.S.A.
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, Nick Stewart and Blue Mountain Music. Front cover Hans Arne Nakrem/Hilde Jakobsen, rear cover Youichi Saitoh. Other photography Antoine Moonen, Steve Rapport, Hans Arne Nakrem/Hilde Jakobsen, Akemi and others.

Thanks to U2 - all the best for the tour.
Best wishes,

(c) 1984 U2 Magazine

top

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