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"Although spending a couple of months a year [in Ireland] is only a vague impression of home, any place else would seem like work." -- Adam |
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"Although spending a couple of months a year [in Ireland] is only a vague impression of home, any place else would seem like work." -- Adam |
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@U2 QOM January 2008: What's the best -- or worst -- moment you've ever had as a U2 fan?
@U2,
February 06, 2008
(Each month, @U2 puts a spotlight on U2 fans with our "Question of the Month." We pose a question to our readers and invite answers of 200 words or less. If you're interested in taking part, check our home page to see if the current question is still open. If not, check back shortly after the beginning of next month and we'll have another question ready to be answered!)
After almost 4 hours in the freezing rain, Adam indulged us and came out briefly, clad in an Edge-esque beanie. I snapped a few photos and he signed my poster. It actually happened! Then I settled in and enjoyed the show, thrilled to hear "Until the End of the World" in the set. The perfect night! When the show ended, I joined the throngs outside searching desperately and unsuccessfully for a taxi to take me to the hotel. For over two hours I wandered the streets of Portland, gripping my poster tube and wondering how I would ever get back. Finally, I spotted a taxi across a busy road. I sprinted hard to catch it. When I got to the hotel, I got out of the cab, glanced down at the poster tube, and noticed that the end cap was missing. Somehow, in wandering the streets, I hadn't noticed the cap pop off and the poster fall out. The treasure was gone! It must've happened when I ran across the road to catch the taxi. I couldn't believe it. The next day, we loaded our family up in the van and headed home. Ten minutes into the drive, our transmission died. We were stranded on the side of the highway four hours from home, with three kids under the age of 5. Eventually we got home, and the whole ordeal cost us over $3,500. But my wife can attest to the fact that I was more depressed over losing the poster than the car repair bill. Now, whenever we pass through Portland, the family tradition is to scan the streets in the vain hope that it will somehow appear, none the worse for wear. -- Glen Hoos Waited forever to get close to Bono; was one foot away and all I could scream was "I love you." How intelligent. I'm 52 years old. My husband was mortified. Such is life. Maybe next time I'll have something intelligent to say! -- Linda Phillips My best and worst moment as a U2 fan came in the same year. Imagine having waited for 9 years to see U2 again; camping out for tickets (successfully); getting friends to get tickets for shows in other cities. And then missing out. As we all know in 2006 U2 postponed their Australian tour from March until November. Unfortunately, I would be overseas in November so I was going to miss out. To say that I was gutted was an understatement. 200 words isn't enough to say how disappointed I was. However, late 2006 my luck changed. I was in London and heard a rumour that U2 were doing a book signing for U2 by U2. I had to go and try to meet them. So I woke up at three am, drove to where the book signing was. And waited. I was 73rd in the queue. Even when I got into the bookshop I was sure that I wasn't going to get to see the band. I was sure that someone was going to tap me on the shoulder and say, "Sorry, we only have enough room for 72 people -- bad luck." But that moment never came. I got to meet the whole band. I shook their hands. I mumbled something. (Sorry, I can't remember what that was. My brain turned to mush) They signed my book. I was shaking like a 13 year old. And that is how 2006 will always be the best of year in my U2 fandom. Not my worst! -- Brian Madl In February of 1999, I received some information about Bono being in Los Angeles for the Grammy Awards. I was a new mother and my son was four months old. Since I was a stay-at-home mom, I just took Weston along wherever I went. He was an easy child, never cried or fussed. My friend and I made our way through Los Angeles traffic to Bono's hotel. Two other fans that we knew were waiting also. We wait for a short time and out comes Bono and he heads over to us. In a quick utter he says, "I don't have time to talk to you now. I'm late. But can you guys come back tomorrow at 1:00?" Wow...I thought...We have a scheduled appointment to meet Bono! Of course we would come back. And we were early, too! We came back at noon, as we didn't want to miss him! I nervously wait, infant in tow on my back in a carrier. Sometimes even forgetting he was back there. Sure enough...at 1:00 right on the dot, Bono comes driving down Sunset Blvd. (this was not a pretty sight!), and makes an illegal U-turn in front of heavy traffic in his black Mercedes convertible. He hops out and bounces over to us. He is immediately enamored by baby Weston. I ask if he wouldn't mind taking a picture with him and he agrees happily. I take Weston out of his carrier and the child starts to cry for the first time in what seemed like days! Oh my goodness, not now son! He does NOT like Bono! Bono suggests that I get in the picture, too, and I agree wholeheartedly. I grab Weston's bottle to quiet him down and we pose for a beautiful, memorable picture. Bono admires Weston for some time and says he looks like a "little Marlon Brando." He only visited with us for about ten minutes but it seemed like a lifetime!  Later, on March 26, 2005, I would get that picture signed for Weston. It now sits framed in our living room with Bono's writing, "Weston is now six....So is Bono." -- Rhonda Wood I was very fortunate to celebrate my 40th birthday at the Hawaii Vertigo show in 2006. It was a long shot, but a couple months prior to going I e-mailed Oprah's web site and asked for her to arrange a birthday kiss from Bono. I had the concert ticket, the plane ticket, the hotel -- I didn't want anything from her but this little arrangement. Hey, she knows Bono so it was doable, right? I told only my friend Gayle who was joining me on the Hawaii trip. Upon returning to our hotel room the first night, I received a gift basket and the card was signed "From Bono with Love." Oh my God! Oprah came through! Gayle and I screamed and jumped around like teenagers. Then I wondered -- who else could have done this? I called my friend Julie and demanded to know if she sent a basket. Yes, it was her and our friend Rick. Although it wasn't from Bono and I never got my kiss, that moment of possibility was pure joy and excitement. -- Lisa Konarski My best AND worst moment as a U2 fan was meeting Bono outside Radio City Music Hall in 1997 after U2 finished rehearsing "Please" for the MTV Video Music Awards...and losing all ability to speak to him. I went out a side exit, and Bono came out RIGHT BEHIND ME. I stopped, turned around ... and went totally mute. I wanted to say SOMETHING meaningful, to thank him ("I love the way you sing, U2's music made my life more beautiful, etc."), but couldn't. Regardless, Bono shook my hand (thumbs-up, blood brother style), pulled me close and smiled. He signed an autograph for me, then posed while my friend, Caitlin, captured the moment via disposable camera (thank God). After the pic, Bono tugged on my leather jacket, smoothed it, and said: "Okay, man? You take care." My souvenir? A colorphoto of me, one arm around my hero, looking totally geeked out and gobsmacked. Both priceless and painful to see. -- Kevin Byrne  My worst moment as a U2 fan came in 1996 when I learned that the PopMart show in Raleigh, North Carolina had been canceled. This concert was to have been my first. I learned that the show had been canceled from the five messages waiting on my machine when I returned to my apartment after working all day. Every message was from a friend calling to check on my mental and psychological well-being. My then girlfriend (now wife of ten years) ultimately framed our never used tickets to commemorate the occasion. Who would have known then that five years later I would be at the tip of the heart for one of the legendary shows in New York City just weeks after September 11, 2001? I will never forget the tears of joy and sorrow we all shared that night -- my best moment as a U2 fan without a doubt. -- David I would have to say "moments" instead of moment. It all started at the first show of the 2005 Vertigo Tour. Prior to the second concert in San Diego, The Edge came out and greeted me (first in line of the fans standing outside the arena). Next Bono stopped by but he stopped in the middle of the line. Everyone was so nice that they parted to allow me in my wheelchair to go right up to him. I thought that was going to be the highlight of the year, however, we met Bono again in Denver and he invited me backstage to meet the whole band. Bono dedicated "Miracle Drug" to me during the concert. I didn't think anything could top that until Bono gave me his sunglasses prior to the concert in Salt Lake City. Just recently, Bono once again made my wish come true by inviting me in to the premiere of U2 3D at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Bono and the rest of the group, including the crew has been so nice to me. They are the best band in the world! I can't wait for future U2 experiences! -- Elsha Stockseth: The Biggest, Little U2 Fan in the World My best moment of being a U2 fan is discovering through their music a range of acceptance for society in general. I was raised in an extremely racist lifestyle and being a young kid I didn't know any better. I was raised to be judgmental, to be against politics and what it stands for, and the solution for all of the European countries' despair was to just kill them all and their problems will be over with. A horrible way to raise a child, I have to admit. Later in years (15 or 16 yrs) I started listening to U2's music and really grasped hold of the message their music was laying out. I suddenly took interest in this Irish rock band and started to read up on them. Over the years, I've found all sorts of information about them and the foundations they supported -- Live Aid, Martin Luther King Jr., Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Central America, Chernobyl, Sellafield, Apartheid in South Africa, DATA, Bono's relief fund in Africa, and the recent loss of Pakistan's female leader (forgive me her name I cannot remember), and many more. U2 educated me about the world, what was going on, how to help make it a better place, they introduced to me the souls who have suffered through worldwide turmoil. I felt as if I was being re-born, being dealt a new light on life. In truth U2 has brought me to become more familiar with God and to accept all who choose to believe in their "own" religion. U2 has brought me out of the shallow life I was leading and has made me open my eyes to a future of "Coexist." I have always been a U2 fan back when they broke out on college radio in the late '70s and I am now 44 yrs. old and have never faltered supporting U2's voice. What I'm trying to say is U2 has rescued me from a life I could only imagine, and for that I can't think of anything else to be more grateful for, I can easily put U2 on a pedestal and praise them night and day but I know they'd say they're just four normal guys who love making music not out to change the world, so I'll leave the pedestal open for God himself, for He is the truth behind U2. -- Nanc Hernandez Realising that I love U2 and their music was only the beginning of a whole new story in my life. It might be hard for someone to understand that a band can change your perspective of...well, almost everything. I turned to music to escape from the narrow-minded people I was surrounded with. And U2 helped. A lot. The moment I realised that from now on there will always be something in my life that will give me shelter, happiness and even love was the best moment to be a U2 fan for me. I don't need anyone's approval now to know that simply being me is enough. Because their music is always here, telling me it is. -- Anja © @U2/individual contributors above, 2008.
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My
best and worst moment as a U2 fan both happened at the final Vertigo/05 show
in Portland. My family and I drove down from Vancouver, B.C. They dropped me
off at the arena early so I could try to meet the band. I brought a limited
edition poster from the Vancouver concerts, well-protected in a poster tube
and ready for signing. 