1979 has been a very good year for U2. Amongst other things, it saw the release of their successful debut single ‘Three’ (consisting of ‘Stories For Boys’, ‘Out Of Control’ and ‘Boy/Girl’) on CBS, a number of TV appearances, including a concert broadcast from Cork Opera House and a recent Late Late Show. It also saw an initial foray across the Channel, where their gigs attracted such luminaries as Jimmy Page and Bob Geldof, and which prompted Sounds magazine into voting their single to the dizzy heights of 89th place in their top 100 singles of the year. However, despite such dubious distinctions the band is now consolidated as Ireland’s brightest hope for the future.
At the moment they’re busy preparing themselves for a thorough assault on the English scene sometime in February. It seems that by this time next year U2 will be a lot more than just another rock band.
Ferdia MacAnna talked to three of them — lead singer Bono, bassist Adam Clayton and guitarist Dave Edge — about their hopes, their dreams and their comments on Roman civilisation.
Ferdia MacAnna: It’s almost three years since the Boomtown Rats left. A good many Irish bands have attempted to follow in their wake but failed; is there any likelihood that U2 will go to London and disappear?
Adam Clayton: Not a chance, we’re too good!
Bono: No. The band has a lot to learn and knows that it has a lot to learn and one thing we’re good at is realizing just how much we don’t know. We’ve gone out and done Youngline and Our Times on RTE and made complete fools of ourselves. We’ve written songs that people burst themselves laughing at… we’ve done dire radio interviews… we’ve done so many things and failed, but it’s because of those failures that we’ve advanced.
Clayton: But also there’s the unknown quantity. Bands often fail and then break up because of personality clashes etc but we’ve gone past all that. We’ve survived a long time now and things like making asses of ourselves or failing London just wouldn’t worry us. We can get over those kinds of problems.
Bono: Also, we have the advantage of youth.
How about talent and ability?
Dave Edge: Well, when we started it was very much a case of do-it-yourself rock. We did what we could do rather than what we wanted to do. Now it’s much better. We don’t have to compromise too much and the songs are flowing.
Bono: Like, the main reason we used to do ‘Neon Heart’ was not because The Rats influenced us but because it was so easy to play. It’s just an unbelievably easy song to do.
Edge: The main thing the Rats had was their dynamism, their get-up-and-go. They really fought for themselves…
Bono: It’s that belief in yourself that’s important, the ability to see past the Dublin scene… for instance, the first thing our manager said to us was forget about Dublin… I mean if your ego depends on having good or bad gigs in Dublin you’re eventually going to just collapse. At first we were interested in hyping up the band by impressing people but we realised that it doesn’t matter a shit.
Clayton: One thing the Rats taught everybody was don’t just be happy with any old sloppy photo of yourselves — make sure that if you’re giving a photo to a newspaper it’s a good one or that the content of your interview is worthwhile and well thought out. People think Dublin’s just a local scene is as important here as anywhere else.
How important is TV etc?
Bono: Very important. Bil Keating [of Our Times] has been very good to us, maybe better than we deserve, and a gig like the Late Late show puts you over to a whole new audience.
Clayton: Cork Opera House was important in that it showed people around the country, who would normally go to see Horslips, or the Bogeys, that here was a young band aspiring to the same league, sort of contenders to the throne. Similarly, our coverage in the British music press showed people where we’re at. In other words, they wouldn’t just regard you as another Dublin band.
How does London compare to the Dublin scene?
Edge: Much more organised!
Bono: Our first gig was a place called the Moonlight Club. We looked down from the stage and saw all these strange little cliques, some mods, some skinheads, punks etc. All these people in the so-called City of Freedom — you know, the permissive society — trapped in little boxes like that! It was so sad! And we told them that. We said, “We’re from Dublin and we don’t want to become part of your set of boxes; sorry and everything but that’s the way it is.”
So what do you identify with, as opposed to cliques?
Bono: Individuals! Most of what we say in the music has to do with individual things, like getting away from the projected hero images — the Bionic Man etc. It has a lot to do with the song ‘Stories For Boys’. For instance, I remember looking in the mirror and wondering why I didn’t look so nice, or wondering would I ever find true love.
Edge: Or even get off with a mot.
Have things improved now that you’re in a band?
Bono: No, because we rebel against the accepted rock ‘n’ roll norms. Rock ‘n’ roll itself used to be a form of rebellion but now it’s just the status quo. Punk rock started as a violent form of expression — look at me. I’ve got spikey hair and all that. Like, the Stones and the Beatles said we’re gonna get drunk, get stoned and lay every woman we can. That’s now the accepted thing! We don’t believe in that. It’s just as bad as the old standards of the 40s and 50s and 60s.
Do you have your own set of standards?
Bono: Yes. We don’t like to be part of what we find to be boring. Some people might consider us boring because we don’t get involved in the nonsense they call the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, but I’ll get drunk if I want to, not because it’s the accepted thing to do. But 20th century imagery is against you, because of the fact that you’re made to look up to heroes — like footballers or rock ‘n’ roll stars.
Like yourselves?
Bono: That’s true! Once you’re on stage there’s an elevation — a star status. But the difference between ourselves and someone like Phil Lynott is that when he leaves the stage he actually believes he’s a star whereas we’re always aware that, basically, we’re pretty ordinary guys. Like, when I wake up in the morning I fart. It’s just playing a role.
Clayton: It’s more to do with entertainment than anything else. The problem is when people expect you to throw the same shapes off stage as you do on. That’s not what it’s about.
What about overnight success; if that happened how would U2 react?
Edge: All I know is that it changed Pete Briquette’s situation. Like now, because he’s a star, all his old friends avoid him, whereas all the assholes, who he detests, come up and buy him drinks. That sort of thing can really upset you.
Bono: But we have a close relationship with our home, a kind of village relationship with good friends like the Virgin Prunes, people we identify with, who see things in much the same way as ourselves. It’s not just a clique of bands. It’s much more than that. It’s a firm base.
How about the future? What do you see happening?
Bono: Well, I look at it this way. Take painting for instance. It’s always been ahead of music. It’s gone from Impressionism to Post-Impressionism to obscure things like Cubism, then full stop! Suddenly it has all been done. Nothing was new anymore. Nowadays, you can put a pile of crap on a stick and people will applaud. Music is the same. You could liken punk to Impressionism in many ways — trying to explain something fast — bam! But you find there’s no longer any new fashions, just a rethreading of the old. It seems to me that everything is coming to its natural end. You can see the pattern in other things. In Roman civilisation there was a breakdown in the moral code, an erosion of discipline, a fall-off of all forms of spiritual thinking, and a loosening of basic standards. At that stage the whole civilisation just crumbles away.
Edge: Like a Mars Bar.
What about your own music?
Bono: By the time people read this, U2 will have undergone a metamorphosis! A lot of material is coming in and we won’t reveal it until we’re truly ready.
Edge: The main problem with most bands here is that they haven’t sussed out their direction yet. The Atrix and The Blades are really talented people but they’re not organised.
Clayton: It’s like when you’re in London, you have to do things that much better than anyone else to get people’s attention. Over here, sometimes, people get away with delivering grotty, shoddy goods.
Bono: Look at it this way. If you’re a fifty-pence piece in a pile of ten-pence pieces you have to shine so much brighter in order to be noticed. It’s like all these music biz people in Dublin who really have nothing to do with the music biz but who turn up at all your important gigs and wink at you and tell you that they know what they’re talking about and scribble things down in their notebooks, probably for their diary, and you know that they’re just, well, liggers, but it doesn’t matter really because it’s all just part of the fun, you know, just part of the game. Whatever turns you on!
(c) In Dublin, 1980.