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"Flood is a fan of my guitar playing; he thinks I'm the only punk in the band, because I don't want to know everything about the instrument that I'm playing." -- Bono |
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"Flood is a fan of my guitar playing; he thinks I'm the only punk in the band, because I don't want to know everything about the instrument that I'm playing." -- Bono |
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Column: off the record..., vol. 3-86
@U2,
July 13, 2003
 About missing last week... My computer died just as I was starting to put together the column. Answer Guy had his stuff in on time. All my fault. 18 years ago today ... Live Aid. Wow. That brings back a flood of memories. I grew up in the Philly area, and with the U.S. concert happening there at J.F.K. Stadium, the newspapers, TV, and especially radio stations gave Live Aid enormous amounts of coverage. The London concert was set to start at 7 a.m. Philly-time, although the passage of time has me thinking it felt more like 4 a.m. when I woke up at my friend Brian's house to start watching. And recording. We were recording geeks back in the day. We had multiple VCRs going, and multiple cassette decks to get the radio feed. I still have the original cassette that has U2's segment recorded 18 years ago. This, of course, was long before the Internet and long before I was exposed to any large segment of U2's community of fans. I was known -- well-known -- in high school as the U2 fan of our class. U2 was my band. When the seniors decided to do a performance of "Do They Know It's Christmas?" at a school talent show, there was no debate about who would sing Bono's part. Back then, I remember spending something like $45 for a vinyl bootleg called "Soul Revelation and the Baptism of Fire," which was a recording of U2's concert at Massey Hall in Toronto in December, 1984. And I remember thinking that, by virtue of my willingness to spend $45 on a U2 record (keep in mind you could buy vinyl albums for about $7.99 then), I MUST be the biggest U2 fan in the world. How wrong I was... Anyway......before Live Aid, U2 wasn't yet the Big Thing. They were on their way, that's for sure, but U2 was slotted to perform BEFORE the likes of Dire Straits, Elton John, David Bowie, etc. They were still a bit of an unknown. They were still my band. I remember being groggy through many of the early performances. INXS was cool. It was fun seeing the Hooters since they were from my hometown and grew up about 4-5 miles from me. Sting was cool, Sade was beautiful. But at about 12:20 in the afternoon I was wide awake for U2. I remember being incredibly nervous for them, hoping everything would go well, and I remember being amazed by the number of U2 flags and signs in the Wembley crowd. Their performance, as we all know, was amazing. And the one thing I remember most about July 13, 1985, is realizing that I would have to give them away. U2 wasn't going to just be my band anymore. That's the day they started becoming everybody's band. How right I was... As you've probably seen by now, and as I mentioned several OTRs ago, there are a TON of new U2-related books hitting stores over the next few months. One that has piqued my interest is the Propaganda book. The listings on Amazon.com and Amazon U.K. don't match, but I'm hoping the cover image is the one shown on Amazon UK. A spokesperson for the U.S.-based publisher has confirmed that they are working directly with U2 on this project, and that the book will be published November 1st. A source close to the band made an interesting comment about this book: "I wouldn't pre-order it through Amazon." That made me curious, and I came up with a theory that the book might be given away to all members as Propaganda's farewell and to complete everyone's paid subscription. Makes sense, doesn't it? My source says "It will not be a farewell for Propaganda subscribers." Oh, well. I still think it's a good idea. Couple things at Four5One's web site that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere:
Lastly, NFL season is just around the corner. We're going to be doing Fantasy Football leagues for U2 fans like we did last season. Email me <matt @ atu2.com> if you're serious about joining a league. We'll be doing some leagues through Sandboxplus.com, which is a fee-based site (and worth every penny), and some leagues through a free service, probably Yahoo! Games. If you email to express interest, make sure to mention if you want to do a Sandbox league or a free league. If you want to do a Sandbox league, let me know if you already have a Sandbox membership.
See ya next time! © @U2/McGee, 2003.
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