Week In Review: July 2, 2020
@U2 brings you all the news U2 fans can use in the Week In Review.
It’s only Thursday morning, but this has been quite a full week for U2 news. Unless you’ve sworn off all social media—and why on earth would you do that?—you know that U2’s SiriusXM channel, U2 X-Radio, went live on Wednesday, July 1. I was able to tune in for the first hour while hunkering over my phone at work, and it was just lovely to hear those voices, both in song and in conversation. You can read about the channel in detail here and check out our U2 X-Radio wish list here.
You might also want to watch this short video in which The Edge presents U2’s new “community number” where you can send texts directly to The Edge—or to a team of his hardworking minions, who will be checking the messages regularly. If you have a suggestion for a guest for his show, Close To The Edge, text him. This is also the number to use if you’d like to be featured as a guest DJ on Desire.
Always working on new songs: The Edge talks to Rolling Stone
In related news, The Edge spoke recently with Rolling Stone’s Andy Greene about U2 X-Radio and about how U2’s future might take shape. “We had like five years of touring where it was an impossibility to consider [the Sirius station],” The Edge said. “This year particularly seemed like an opportunity in terms of our availability, our bandwidth. Radio over the years focused on certain songs from certain albums, but there’s a lot that are really worthy of more attention. And we’ll be showcasing some unheard, live recordings.”
The Edge also hinted at a dance-oriented show. “Since the Eighties, we’ve been generating lots of mixes designed for clubs. That would be a Friday evening slot to get people ready for the weekend.”
Regarding the possibility of celebrating next year’s 30th anniversary of Achtung Baby, The Edge said, “It’s one of those very important records in our career. We do want to celebrate it, but we’ll see. […] At some point, I’d love to do something again with the Zoo TV idea. It’s weird how it’s come around. It was very prescient. [Zoo TV] was all about cable news and that overload. Now look where we are. It’s like times a thousand.”
The big question: Is there a new album in the works? “I’m always working on new songs,” The Edge said. “I’ve not stopped since we came off the road, so yes. The question, I suppose, is whether we have a plan to finish or release it. Not so far. But there’s a lot of exciting music being created.”
Q Magazine asks Bono the tough questions
As if The Edge isn’t enough to get your mojo working, there is also a new interview with Bono in the UK music magazine Q, which finds itself in danger of folding due to a drop in advertising sales brought on by the pandemic. A special collector’s edition of Q, called “Anecdotal Evidence: A Few Of Our Favorite Tales, 1986-2020,” dedicates several pages to U2.
Up front, writer Tom Doyle recounts a few days of Pop-era mayhem with the band. Highlight: Bono drinks too much red wine, acquires a rash, takes a nap in a car and returns to the bar as if nothing had ever happened. Back in the present, Bono answered a series of “last of” questions posed by Mr. Doyle.
The last famous person he pocket-dialled (or “butt-dialed,” as we say in the U.S.): “Probably Matt Damon. He spent most of lockdown across the road in Dublin. There was a lot of FaceTime…some intentional, some not so. I heard some stuff I shouldn’t have heard. I have a lot on Damon. A lot.” (AtU2’s own Fake Edge may not be happy about this.)
Asked when he last cooked for his family, Bono said, “I’m more of a hoovering man myself.”
The last piece of great advice Bono received: “Joe Dolan, the late great showband singer, told me, ‘Never let the punters see you taking a piss.’ And that was some great advice. He was standing next to me at the time.”
Finally, Bono answered the rather ominous question, “Do you have any last words?,” in typical Bono fashion, leaving us with something we probably need to hear: “There’s an expression in Ireland: ‘There’s no such thing as the last race, there’s always another day, another chance. So there is no final word, there’s always tomorrow. Always.’”
If you’re unhappy with next year’s Oscar® winners, blame Larry?
Never last and certainly never least, local matinee idol Larry Mullen Jr. has been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, along with Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin. Both men are now eligible to cast votes for next year’s Oscar® nominees.
Mr. Taupin recently won an Oscar® for the song “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again,” co-written with Elton John for the film Rocketman. Our man Larry has acted in the films Man On The Train and A Thousand Times Good Night. Along with the rest of U2, he has been nominated for Oscars® for the song “Ordinary Love” from the movie Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, and for “The Hands That Built America” from Gangs of New York.
Enjoy U2 X-Radio if you have it, and while you’re at it, be sure to check out our recent podcast “Walk On—We’re Stealing It Back,” as well as an article about the song that inspired it.
© @U2/DeGenaro, 2020