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Bono Keeps the Magic Alive
Daily Telegraph, November 10, 2006
Kathy McCabe
WHEN Bono sings, millions listen. When Bono talks, action follows. But how U2 write and perform their music remains as big a mystery to them as it did when the Irish band formed in Larry Mullen's kitchen 30 years ago.
As revealed during our chat last week in his backstage dressing room at the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre, Bono and bandmates remain committed to keeping the magic alive for them and their audience.
It is their respect for the magic and the audience that keeps them at the top of their game.
"You have to be really wary of craft. Because in the end, alchemy is where it's at. Turning heavy metals into gold and silver is the business of the day and that's not cash but that's nice too," he says laughing.
"You want magic; it's a magic trick to turn a stadium into a club, and that's impossible by the way. It's a small miracle. You don't just do that by craft.
"There's a name for people who, when they see the rabbit go into the hat are still surprised when the rabbit comes out of the hat – they're called magicians. They are as surprised as anyone even though they know where the wires are.
"We have all the wires, all the lights and the trickery but for it really to be magic something else has to happen and that isn't all to do with us.
"It also has to do with the people who come to the show and how much they want it to happen and their connections to the songs."
One big step for U2
It also has to do with the band members not falling flat on their face. Having walked on to the gargantuan Vertigo stage myself and down its very steep ramp to the smaller, circular B stage which extends into the crowd, it is surprising Bono, The Edge or Adam Clayton rarely misstep.
"I came off a couple of times I think during the last tour," Bono says. "It's a very physical thing to be a performer on that stage and it's either going to dwarf you, so you better dwarf it.
"This is the lesson that we learned on Zoo TV – which I'm very, very proud of – is that you know the size of the screens do not dictate how less or much you can own a stage. You have to own it some other way. In a way you have to step inside the songs, let them tell you what to do. And there does seem to be this thing with our audience, like a lot of our music, it's like a lovers' row."
"There's a little bit of wrestling about it. Is is wrestling or boxing? Actually it starts out boxing, it goes through judo and if things are going really well at the end, it's tai chi."
Setting the tone
That "boxing" also means U2 can't please everybody. With a catalogue of songs which span 11 studio albums, a considerable amount of B-sides, covers and soundtrack tunes, coming up with the perfect set that would meet with universal approval is impossible.
"So to make this thing happen there needs to be this relationship. People don't want to be patronised, they don't want to have their buttons pushed, in fact, they like to push your buttons. When it's really good you feel the crowd making you better," Bono says.
"That is one of the greatest feelings you can feel. It's hard to get 70,000 people to agree on anythingso when it happens ..."
Man talk
U2 may not have been teen poster boys but they still attract their share of female adulation. Does Bono get marriage proposals from women in the front rows, with handwritten signs?
"They say other things. I am delighted to report they don't consider me marrying material. I keep telling them I am not purely a sexual creature, I'm a person, I have feelings, I am a human person," he minces, feigning hurt that any fan would just want him for his body. "But I am amazed (by that). I think what it is we are not a boy band, we are a man band. We make men's music and girls like that."
Singled out
Bono credits The Edge as the man behind their third retrospective collection, U218 Singles, released on November 18.
And admits he cannot stand to listen back to the band's early work.
"I had nothing to do with it. I can't stand it. I can't stand listening to our music, I break out in a rash. It's all the coulda, shouldas. And in the'80s, I think I sang like a girl. A girl with a mullet," he laughs.
"One of the reasons why we did the book (U2 By U2) and the album is that if we're caught in retrospection, it seems like a good moment to stop for a while.
"We have a younger audience that has come through because of the last two albums. And (this) makes it easy for people to get it all in one.
"Edge, when we did the decade collections, actually made me sit down and listen to the running order.
"As gauche and as raw and as unfinished as a lot of the lyrics felt to me, there was an ecstatic quality to the early U2 that's very rare.
"I can now understand why somebody wouldn't like it but I understand more why other people thought it was great. The hardest thing to contrive is joy; it's actually impossible and there's pure joy in there in places. And there's also a little boy screaming his head off, or a little girl."
*U2 perform at Telstra Stadium tonight, Saturday and Monday, with limited tickets still available.
U218 Singles is released on November 18.
(c) Daily Telegraph, 2006.
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