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(November 1997)–Soon after this issue of TCI hits the newsstands, U2 and the visually provocative POPMART tour will once again be on display in North American stadiums. For any cave dwellers who may have missed the original media blitz, the tour kicked off in Las Vegas on April 25, and just finished wowing Europe with the world’s first and largest LED video screen (170′ x 56′), accessorized by outlandish props that include a 100′-tall swizzle stick carrying an internally illuminated giant olive with rope light rings and a 35′-tall fuel-powered lemon mirrorball. Yet even among such prodigious production elements, saying that the sound design serves as the linchpin of U2’s spectacular POPMART tour doesn’t come to close to fully describing audio’s obvious importance on any rock tour. This is the first stadium tour in which the traditional bookend speaker clusters have merged, forming one big, bright orange structure, and supported by a 100′ yellow arch. Dubbed “The Great Pumpkin” by the crew, it has become the centerpiece of a stage set that is resplendent with a variety of Day-Glo? colors backed up by a
gold-minted screen with “POPMART” painted in red across its entire length.

Understanding how such a departure from the standard left/right speaker format crystallized requires going back more than a year ago, when tour designer/director Willie Williams and set architect Mark Fisher were presenting visual ideas to the band. Williams had started the brainstorming process in the winter of 1995–long before the band had even started recording the POP album–and he enlisted Fisher to help conceptualize the stage set. “At the time, everyone was going around in circles because every time we showed the pop stars something, they would say, ‘This doesn’t look different enough. It all looks the same.’ Well, of course the reason all rock shows tend to look the same is that you have stereo PA–and the PA is necessarily big–so loudspeakers occupy about 30% of the front elevation of what you see,” Fisher explains. “You have to change the architecture of that if you’re going to make it look like it has a different form.”

Having affirmed with a British PA company that a single-cluster/monoaudio setup could possibly work in a stadium venue, Fisher sent Williams a sketch of the design. “Willie quite liked it, and we showed it to the band and they liked it,” Fisher says. “That’s basically how it came about.” So, in the name of art, the traditional bookend speaker setup was eschewed.

“Putting the PA in a central position was truly the great breakthrough, because we all wanted to do that, and Mark found a solution,” Williams adds. “He originally had the PA held up on these fantastically ornate corkscrew legs, and I reworked that into the arch. Then he spent forever getting the arch exactly right. Mark’s triumph, really, is the architecture of it.”

The triumph for actually making it sound good came courtesy of Joe O’Herlihy, the band’s veteran FOH sound engineer, and the band’s longtime audio supplier, Clair Brothers Audio. O’Herlihy had been Rory Gallagher’s sound engineer for six years as well as the owner of an audio company in Cork City, Ireland, when he met the neophyte band on September 25, 1978. “U2 was fifth on a five-band bill; XTC was the headliner,” O’Herlihy recalls, “and I’ve been with them ever since.” So, when U2 went into the studio in March 1996 to make the POP record, O’Herlihy went along with them. “The setup there was like it is onstage live,” he explains. “We use live onstage monitors in the infancy stage to create the sound structure. That’s where the learning curve begins for me, to know what they are expecting. Understanding the artist is very important for my job. Although it’s often difficult, it’s a crucial element in presenting the show. I’ve always had that feeling. It’s a bit more than just turning the thing on and saying, ‘Go.’”

In September 1996, the album was in the mixing stage, but its release was held up by a series of delays. “But by this time, the conceptual stage was already in the works,” O’Herlihy says. “For the tour, the band had decided to go a particular way based on various creative options, and because of the video screen’s nature and size, the audio would have to be new and different. A conventional audio stadium setup is to have a right and left stacked system, but we looked to the center cluster possibility and running the sound in mono so as not to block sightlines and adhere to the visual design. “Willie and I have worked together for years; we very much respect each other’s talents, and I completely accepted the challenge of putting this system together,” O’Herlihy continues. “It’s taken a lot of hard work, and it changes every day, but the system we have on this tour provides us with wonderful coverage. We had to completely depart from the tested left/right format and create a very adventurous new design. But as a result, the audio quality matches that of any previous tour we have done.”

O’Herlihy set the trim height for the central cluster at 45′ above the stage center, where it is also directly above the video screen’s high-density section. There are 60 Clair S4 P-type speakers (all painted Pantone Orange 21 by Clair Brothers) that make up the center cluster, which is divided into four full-range sections so the frequencies are split into low and high. There are also two columns of 12 S4s each positioned to left and right behind it at the edges of the video screen. The front perimeter of the stage houses 16 P4 cabinets for front fill and 40 sub bass speakers across. “On Zoo TV, we had an 80-degree gap between the staging and the 144 S4 speakers,” O’Herlihy says. “The sound was 45′ behind Bono and 18′ behind Larry and the drum riser, so the challenge there is nothing new. But here we’ve taken away the 72 S4s that would be in the conventional left and right setup, so the system has to incorporate a distributed, delayed, and fragmented format. Each position in the system has its own matrix feed, so we can turn it up or down depending on what is needed. We’ve time-aligned each delay tower; each one can be set independently, which is the most technical way of approaching it.

“Behind the mix position in the field we have our four 62′-tall delay towers, and on each are flown six S4s and four super high
intelligibility horns,” O’Herlihy continues. “There are also two sub bass speakers per tower. The positioning of the delays is crucial to the distribution of the audio, to ensure that they have the same time alignment. It’s like dropping a stone in a pond and watching the ripples fan out. So it’s very true that the best seats for this show, visually and audio-wise, are the nosebleeds in the back.”

For the point in the show when the band moves to the smaller B stage, there are 12 P4 speaker cabinets. “Out there, we want to create an atmosphere so those near the B stage can connect with the audio from where they are,” O’Herlihy explains. At the mix position, O’Herlihy and audio crew chief Jo Ravitch control the sound from two Midas XL4 consoles. “Before a tour starts, I go out and look at the latest technological advances, and this year I looked at the ATI Paragon and the Yamaha PM4000 consoles; but the Midas XL4 is a computer-assisted, not driven, console with moving fader control. That’s very important, because the audio will pass on through no matter what happens. Even if the computer locks up, I’ll have hands-on control, which is certainly nothing new for me. So this new console has had a major influence on the design.

“It’s helped us achieve the same kind of studio quality as the record, because we also have to consider the adrenaline of the band playing live and give the best possible return to the ingredients we had in the studio,” O’Herlihy explains. “We also need freedom to be creative with the live show, and this console accomplishes that. There is quite a bit of fader movement and effects going on throughout the whole show, and being able to preprogram much of that has been very helpful. For the support bands, there is a FOH package that includes a Yamaha PM3000 and a whole set of effects that goes with it.”

Audio effects are also driven from underneath the stage, where the massive monitor department, run by Clair Brothers’ Dave Skaff and Don Garber, resides. Skaff handles lead singer Bono’s and lead guitarist Edge’s mixes, while Garber concentrates on doing the same for drummer Larry Mullen and bassist Adam Clayton. These engineers have yet to see a live show; instead they watch the performances on video monitors, which are perched on four 52-channel Yamaha PM4000M consoles. “Four boards may seem like a lot, but with the amount of mixing required, including effects and the fact the we have to segregate the in-ear monitors from the floor wedges, we use up a lot of channels,” Skaff explains. “But we’re very structure-based here, so it’s actually a Spartan setup. The system is complex but it’s conventional in many ways as well. “We have in-ear monitors and wedges; that would be redundant for most bands, but each system here is twice the size of a normal tour’s monitor system,” Skaff continues. “We have two times as many inputs for each member. Plus, the ear monitors have stereo mixes.”

“Adam is strictly on the wedge system because it’s hard for him to get the feel he likes through ear monitors,” Garber adds. “We have to watch the radio frequencies as well, because the ear monitors are wireless. It’s very important, especially for a show this size, because the lead singer needs to hear the same thing as everyone else, with the same consistency. The problem with having the small stage is the speed of sound coming out there to Bono from the main stage, so they really need the ear monitors. We have signal boxes tell us which mic he is on. With a tour this large, you really need a good rapport with the band, because their attention is split so many ways. But if we do our job well, they’ll never know we’re here.”

Also invisible to the audience is keyboard programmer/technician and occasional player Des Broadbery, who has been with the band for 12 years. From the stage’s underbelly, he operates a sampler and keyboards. “A lot of what is on the album couldn’t be created live. I also play the lemon’s sound effects [during the show's encore] and the cartoon spaceship’s effects on the keyboard,” Broadbery explains. He also handles the show’s recorded material, including the opening song, “Pop Musik,” which plays as the band enters the stadium, and the song “Daydream Believer” during which the Edge leads the crowd in karaoke sing-along. For the latter, Broadbery sends a feed of the recording out to O’Herlihy at the mix position, while the sound engineer handles Edge’s vocals, which are live.

“The regular keyboards during the show are either done by the Edge or me, and then Larry has a click track that he listens to and gets his timing reference from,” Broadbery adds. “A lot of work went into the initial setup. Some songs are greatly flexible live, but some are not, so I made a program to chop between songs or different sections of songs so they’re not tied to strict structures. Everything has worked out really well.”

Broadbery’s nearest neighbor is Dallas Schoo, who maintains the Edge’s 32 guitars. “He generally uses about 11 of them during a show, but only one is a new guitar; the rest are all completely vintage,” Schoo says. “There are five Sony transmitter packs, which I rotate during the show. The amps have designated delays and include a TC2290 digital and three Roland SDB3000s, which are analog. “Edge really likes the analog amps because he feels they’re warmer sounding,” Schoo says. The main system is onstage, but there are 36 effects controlled by two Bradshaw computers, which have old and new effects. He’s a handful to take care of, and he requires a lot of himself as well.”

The other side of the stage’s underworld houses Bono’s tech, Fraser McAlister and Adam Clayton’s tech, Stuart Morgan.

We’re very lucky to have the crew that we do,” O’Herlihy says. “Sam O’Sullivan, the backlinecrew chief/drum tech, is the best. All of the backline technicians are exceptional musicians themselves, which is a great asset–especially for us when we do sound checks without the band.” O’Herlihy also uses CDs or DAT tapes to gauge the sound and scope out the reflective surfaces in particular stadiums. “That allows us to judge technically how the stadium will respond as a building,” O’Herlihy says. “Of course, temperature and environment change the frequency as well, and you have to adjust to that. I’ve got 25 years of experience, so that’s what I rely on to judge.”

From The Independent (Britain)
(U2 held their historic gig in the Bosnian capital and although Bono’s voice gave out, Andrew Meuller witnessed a set which lit up the city).

There probably hasn’t been as strange a cast of characters at a backstage party since the reign of Caligula. It is not often, as you elbow your way to the free drinks after a concert, that you find yourself standing next to the Irish Minister for Defence or tripping over cables trailing behind a CNN crew, or sharing a couch with the Bosnian ambassador to the United Nations.

By this point of the night, however, any previous conceptions of what constituted weirdness have been well and truly run through the shredder. We live in an age in which rock n’roll gigs are routinely described as history in the making. These stakes on posterity are at best silly and at worst mendacious, as if a few thousand people standing in a paddock, or a group of middle-aged bores deciding to speak to each other again are events comparable to moon landings. Tonight, its happened for real.

As Faris, the drummer with the local support act, Sikter put it: “It’s one of the most important things that’s ever happened here. The railway has
opened today, after four years, just for this. It’s like when the Winter Olympics were held here, in 1984. But it’s bigger than that, even. Look, my
father made me some new shoes, just for tonight.”

Faris smiles. There’s been a lot of that this evening, a night which has been four years in the planning. In 1993, U2 were on the road in Europe
when their Zoo TV tour. At a concert in Italy, a film crew from Sarajevo presented themselves. After being granted the interview they’d come for, the crew explained to the band something of what was then being done to their city by the Bosnian Serb Army. U2’s response was to suggest that they go and play there. The band were persuaded that, as things stood, that wasn’t practical - aside from the fact that such a trip would have induced spectacular apoplexy in U2’s insurers, the crowd such a show would have attracted would doubtless have been all too tempting a target for snipers and gunners who had already demonstrated that they considered marketplaces, water queues and funerals to be fair game. The idea was shelved.

The compromise arrived at was the satellite link with Sarajevo, which saw part of each night’s Zoo TV multi-media overload being devoted to the beseiged city. A young American aid worker called Bill carter, then working in Sarajevo for London-based organisation, The Serious Road Trip, operated a hook-up, enabling various citizens to speak, live, to whichever audience U2 were playing to at the time. Memorably, during a show at Wembley Stadium, one young woman scoffed via satellite that “Nobody cares. You’re going to let us die. Why not let them get it over with?”

Back in Sarajevo, Bill Carter had been aiming his camera away from the headlines. His acclaimed documentary, `Miss Sarajevo,’ recording a beauty contest heald during the war, inspired a song of the same name by Passengers, a group consisting of U2, long-time producer and mentor Brian Eno and, for that one song, Luciano Pavarotti. Bono finally made it to Sarajevo at the end of 1995, three months after NATO’s bombers had put an overdue stop to the city’s misery. He sang at impromptu sessions in a few bars, put in several hours being deafened by local groups in snad-bagged rehearsal spaces, said he’d be back, and that next time, he’d bring the band.

And that he did as part of the current world tour, PopMart. He brought with him the most complicated and expensive live rock show ever assembled. PopMart employs 250 people, costs around ?160,000 a day to run, and requires 55 trucks and a Boeing 727 to carry it. When I heard, earlier this year, that U2 were definitely going to play Sarajevo, I assumed they’d be taking the bare minimum equipment. When I heard they intended to take the whole show, I assumed they’d been out in the sun without hats on.

In July 1996, I covered the first post-war visit to Sarajevo by a British band. Newcastle punk trio, China Drum travelled a good deal lighter than
U2. All their gear, crew and me, just about fit into one van. They did two shows at one small club. The trip was a logistical and administrative
nightmare.

We were turned over by Croatian customs, run off the road by a deranged woman who then abused us for trying to hurt her baby, pestered by a rogue Bosnian Serb Army checkpoint, menaced with a pistol by a clearly insane Bosnian policeman, refused entry to Slovenia, and if it hadn’t been for thebottomless kindness of the Queen’s Lancashires British Army regiment, we would probably still be camped in our broken-down truck, somewhere near Vitez, drawing lots to see which of use we ate next. It could be said that Bosnia doesn’t really have an infrastructure for dealing with touring rock groups, especially if you were trying to win some sort of award for understatement.

“We thought it was going to be difficult,” agrees Paul McGuinness, U2’s long-sewrving manager, speaking after the show. “But it’s been quite
straightforward. People have just wanted to help. We’ve blagged a lot of equipment, forklifts and son on, from the military, and the local crew have been incredibly enthusiastic. There was talk of just doing a scratch show, but we felt it was important that we treat this as another city on the tour, to pay them that respect. To come here and not do the whole show would have been rude.”

McGuinness cheerfully confirms that U2 will lose a tidy fortune on the gig recognising Sarajevo’s post-war poverty, tickets were sold cheaply - by McGuiness’s estimation, the last time it cost that little to see U2 was around 1983 - and whatever surplus wa realised from sales of the concert to radio stations around the world wa earmarked for the coffers of the War Child charity. Crucially, tickets were also sold in the Serbian and Croatian areas of Bosnia-Hercegovina, as well as in Ljubljana, Zagreb and Belgrade. Sarajevan friends had been telling me all day of their happiness that the night before the show, Sarajevo’s bars had been full of people from all over what was once Yugoslavia and there’d been no trouble - although, the next day in town, I see one local knock on a window of a car with Belgrade license plates and scream uncomfortable obscenities at the occupant.

Inside the 45,000-capacity Kosevo Stadium, as showtime nears, no such bad vibes are evident. Even the stands containing the khaki ranks of troops serving with the multi-national stabilisation force (SFOR) are getting in on the act - the Spanish contingent have tied their national flag in
bandannas around their heads and are crowd surfing among themselves. They also try to institute a Mexican wave among the foreign troops but, in a neat metaphor for the western military presence during Bosnia’s war, this collapses amid confused signalling and lack of communication.

The first two acts on stage are a local choir and local rock group, Protest, one of the better acts to have emerged from Sarajevo’s startingly
vibrant wartime rock n’roll scene. Sikter, who follow them, start by tearing up the Bosnian national anthem i the style of Hendrix’s `Star
Spangled Banner,’ - an astute populist touch that properly kickstarts the evening.

U2’s show is perhaps not everything it could have been, as Bono’s voice gives out on him about six songs in and he struggles with high notes after that. It doesn’t really matter, of course. What’s important tonight is that one of the biggest bands in the world is here, that their set lit up when it was plugged in, and that, with the exception of a few entirely forgiveable yelps of “Viva Sarajevo!,” there’s no hint of self-congratulation up on the stage. The only moments tailored to the evening are Edge’s lovely solo rendering of `Sunday Bloody Sunday,’ and the first tentative live performance of `Miss Sarajevo,’ for which the band are joined onstage by Brian Eno and on tape by Pavarotti. “We wrote that song for you,” laughs Bono, as it closes, “and we can’t fucking play it!” This, like everything else, gets a huge and heartfelt roar.

There’s anothing touching moment as the lights come up. Led by the Spanish, the SFOR troops rise and applaud the crowd, the people of Sarajevo, as they file out of the stadium. The people stop, turn around, and clap back. The Spaniards, who appear to enjoy their work, respond with spirited renditions of `Y’Viva Espana’ and `The Macarena.’

By Caroline Smith

SARAJEVO, Sept 21 (Reuter) - In what is being billed as the biggest concert ever staged in Sarajevo, the rock group U2 is about to fulfil a promise lead singer Bono made to the city shortly after Bosnia’s war ended in 1995.

The Irish group’s concert in Kosevo stadium on Tuesday will be the first major pop spectacular in Sarajevo since the war ended and is already providing welcome relief to a people tired of politics and the memory of years under siege.

Bono used U2 concerts to attack Western powers for failing to end the war in Bosnia and celebrated New Year’s Eve here with his wife Ali in 1995. He did not perform but promised to return and hold a concert in 1997.

“Don’t worry, next time I’ll bring the band,” he said after arriving on a United Nations aid flight in December 1995, just a few weeks after the war ended.

In a telephone interview with Bosnian state television on Sunday, Bono said that if rock and roll music could be summed up in one word, it would be the word liberation.

“Music doesn’t know political divides and music has a joy that ignores borders and defies borders even, this is what we’ve always stood for as a group.”

He said he did not want to patronise Sarajevans by pretending to have a great message but said the whole U2 tour “extravaganza” would show “this is a cultural city for the future and this concert belongs to the future not the past.”

Bono said the band could relate to Bosnia because of the long-running dispute in Northern Ireland between pro-British Protestants who want to be ruled by London and nationalists who want to create a united all-Ireland state.

“We come from Ireland, it’s a small country and we have been divided also. We are trying to wrestle our world from the fools of the past and give it to the wise men of the future.”

Kosevo stadium is being transformed by hundreds of workers, 450 of them just to build the stage and sound system.

An advance guard of 250 of U2’s own technicians was due to arrive in Sarajevo on Sunday to help build the 30-metre (90 foot) high stage backed by a giant screen. Organisers said the group had invested $1 million to stage the concert.

Organisers have printed 45,000 tickets, which have been priced three to four times lower than anywhere else on U2’s PopMart tour, but expect around 50,000 people to turn up, a spokeswoman said on Sunday.

Special trains will bring fans from across Bosnia and thousands are expected to arrive from other former Yugoslav republics Slovenia and Croatia — Slovenes have been told they will not require a visa for the evening.

The inflow of visitors is likely to cause havoc around the city, reachable only on narrow, winding mountain roads which 60 U2 trucks will have to navigate to bring in equipment.

The organisational board for the concert groups most of the government of the Moslem-Croat Federation, which makes up half of present-day Bosnia, including the head of the country’s collective presidency, Alija Izetbegovic.

Izetbegovic told Bosnian state television: “This concert…will not only be an event for Sarajevo but I could say without exaggeration it is an event for the entire planet.”

<Tonster> nate says:
<Tonster> paul: do you play any musical instrument and if so have you ever been on a U2 album

<Paul> No, I play no musicial instruments. I had an early and unhappy experience with the piano when I was about 12 years old.
<Paul> Since then my only contribution musically to a U2 album was some hand clapping on one track on the War album.
<Paul> I suppose the lesson from that is that I wasn’t good enough to be asked again.

<Tonster> Miss_Fly says:
<Tonster> Paul: hi. how did you find U2, and how were you able to spot their potential so early in their career?

<Paul> I met them in 1977, I think, at a concert in the Project Arts Centre in Dublin. They wer elooking for a manager and I was looking for a band to manage and we were introduced by a Dublin music journalist named Bill Graham, who was afriend of mine.
<Paul> They had attracted him to one of their rehearsals and he had told them that I should be their manager so I suppose we owe it all to him.
<Paul> As for spotting their potential, I would have to say that I have no technique for that anymore now than I did then.
<Paul> Since I’ve only ahd to be right once, I wouldn’t claim a technique. I just thought they were very, very good and I suppose they were doing more or less as they are doing now, except that then they were doing it quite badly and now they’re doing it rather well.

<Tonster> U2isABLE says:
<Tonster> Paul–are you pleased with the way Sarajevo’s turning out? And, are you concerned about the gig in Israel?

<Paul> Sarajevo is turning out very well. As of today, we’ve sold prettyclose to the capacity and we’re flying in there tomorrow omrning. As you know, we’re doing a webcast of the entire concert.
<Paul> There’s a lot of excitement around the world about this ocncert. I’ve seen a story today on CNN and European newspapers are paying a lot of attention to it.
<Paul> It’s an usual situation because Sarajevo is absolutely still devastated by the war. On account of that we’re charging a very low ticket price.
<Paul> We’re paying Sarajevo the compliment that it is a Eyuropean city, a center of cultrure.
<Paul> It was always very clear that the people of Sarajevo wanted us to do the whole show. They weren’t interested in us turning up doing a scratch concer or a benefit.
<Paul> If we’d charged the same price as in other European cities, the people of Sarajevo wouldn’t be able to afford the concert. So we’ve reduced the price to about $12.

<Tonster> U2isABLE says:
<Tonster> Paul–are you pleased with the way Sarajevo’s turning out? And, are you concerned about the gig in Israel?
<Tonster> whoops!
(Ed. note: Tonster never said the correct Q. here. Make it up :P)

<Paul> Gosh, well, when people ask me who is the best manager in history I suppose I would have to say Brian Epstein. He really did a brilliant job. He was the first person on mys ide of the quation who understood how big pop music could be.
<Paul> I’ve always had enormous admiration for what he and the Beatles did together.
<Paul> I suppose they would have to be anyone’s favorite client. They had so much talent and they really invented the musical world we all live in now.

<Tonster> Aingeal says:
<Tonster> Question: What do you do with yourself while the show is going on?

<Paul> I watch every show! I think it would be crazy to be the manager of U2 and not have the pleasure of seeing the concert.
<Paul> I’m a connoisseur of their live performances and I look forward to the show every night and if I possibly can watch it from start to finish.

<Tonster> salome269 says:
<Tonster> paul, which has been the most exciting date on the tour so far?

<Paul> I suppose Belfast. Belfast was pulled together at very short notice as people will probably have heard, we had legal difficulty playing Dublin.
<Paul> Even as the two shows sold out, local residents objected to the shows going ahead. We had acontingency plan to move those shows to Belfast where the authorities were frankly much more cooperative than in Dublin.
<Paul> When the Dublin shows received permission to go ahead, the people in belfast said why not come here and play as well./
<Paul> Becasue the ceasefire was only a few weeks old, the authorities were incredibly cooperative and we had a spare date and we were able to fit it in.
<Paul> We used to play there a lot in the early days but we hadn’t played there since 1987. The exdcitement of playing to 40,000 in Belfast made it the most exciting show to play to date.

<Tonster> kdaniels says:
<Tonster> Question — There have been a few celebrities who have said some negative things about U2 (i.e. George Harrison). What are your feelings about their statements?

<Paul> I was a bit surprised about that. George is alittle out of touch. If he wanted to come see a U2 show he’d be most welcome. I’m not sure he’s in contact with the modern world at this stage. Nonetheless he’s got a fine bodyof work behind him even if some of it turned out in court to be borrowed from other authors.
<Paul> Bono has regularly quoted from George Harrison’s songs since he did that interview. I think in recent times George has been more concerned about his taxes and perhaps his garden.

<Tonster> U2isABLE says:
<Tonster> Paul–what went through your mind when the Lemon did not open in Oslo?

<Paul> Utter panic. But also a feeling of immense relief that it was not me inside. I was standing there as it opened. It did open about a foot and I could see the 8 feet of my clients but not the rest of them.
<Paul> As I watched, they tried to close it first and open it again and it was well and truly jammed. It then made a retreat to its starting position and they had to climb out the back and out to the B stage. I really felt for them. It was, of course, the ultimate Spinal Tap moment.

<Tonster> Aingeal says:
<Tonster> Aingeal says: What made U2 decide to take a presence on the net?

<Paul> Well, it’s a thriving area of cultural activity.
<Paul> We’d had many approaches from people who wanted to work us on producing a site but we felt that in order to do a truly great site we would have to be with some people from “that culture” rather than make it up for ourselves.
<Paul> The Microsoft Network came to us on a creative basis and said for the first time rather than make money on this, let’s get sponsors and we can alll make a fortune, the approach from Microsoft was particularly attractive because it was creatively led.
<Paul> Microsoft wanted to do something that was groundbreaking and state of the art. It was a creative decision, if you like, and I’m very happy we made the arrangement.

<Tonster> salome269 says:
<Tonster> paul…if you could change one thing from the popmart tour, what would it be?

<Paul> I suppose we would’ve put the tickets on sale later and released the album earlier. I think the timing at the beginning of the campaign was out of whack and we’ve been catching up ever since.
<Paul> Becauase we were late delivering the album, the two more of less coincided and I regret that because it made the campaign less organic. The early part of the campaign was a bit too compressed.
<Paul> But these were the consequenes of our own decisions and our own delays. But we’re adults and we take the responsnibility.

<Tonster> Ibon says:
<Tonster> Paul: Where you at Barcelona’s concert? What is your opinion about the happenings in the karaoke?

<Paul> Oh it was a disaster. It was just a complete misjudgement on our part. That song, the Macarena, is very much identified with Spanish-speaking Spain. In Barcelona, they really thought it was utterly gauche and I think we just didn’t do our research properly.
<Paul> I hope the population of Barcelona will get over it by the time we come back there.

<Tonster> U2Reverand says:
<Tonster> Question: do you think Bran Eno’s gonna come back for a future U2 album?

<Paul> Oh yes, I’m sure we’ll work with Brian again in some way. We’re actually meeting him tomorrow in Sarajevo.
<Paul> We remain in closetouch with everyone we’ve ever worked with! Steve Lillywhite, Daniel Lanois are all very much friends of ours and people whose oopinions we take very seriously.

<Tonster> u2pride says:
<Tonster> Paul: what do you feel about boot legs

<Paul> Well, I would distinguish between bootlegs and counterfeits. Counterfeits I take avery dim view of because they’re taking money from my clients’ pockets.
<Paul> The bootleg phenomenon I’m very relaxed about, quite honestly. I think everyone knows the difference between an authorized recording we’d put out.
<Paul> The fact that people circulate and swap recordings they’ve made at our concerts I’m actually very relaxed about even though the industry is formally opposed to it.
<Paul> I do have a problem with the recordings produced in Europe, particularly in Italy — you can find a whole range of things that look like official U2 recordings in full color packaging — they are extremely poor quality with a very high price tag and I think there should be more legal protection against things like that.
<Paul> But in Italy the law is inadequate to deal with that.

<Tonster> salome269 says:
<Tonster> paul, do you have any say in what goes in and what dosen’t in a setlist?

<Paul> I have an opinion — I wouldn’t call it a veto. One of our rituals is that we have a post-mortem after every single concert and discuss what worked, what didn’t work.
<Paul> Now it’s not just the 4 members of the band and me, now it’s Howie B as well. He’s much more musical than I am.
<Paul> It’s the old Chinese communist technique of ruthless self-criticism. Because a day later you can’t really remember much of the show. I will certainly make suggestions about what should and shouldn’t be in the setlist.
<Paul> At the beginning of this tour, neither Still Haven’t Found nor Pride were in the set and I really thought that would be very bad. I still meet a lot of people who want Sunday Bloody Sunday and Bad. Who knows, maybe they will turn up in the set list before the end of the tour.

<Tonster> Ai says:
<Tonster> It is said that U2 will move on to smaller venues/concerts after Popmart. Any truth to that?

<Paul> We have no such plans at the moment. I wouldn’t rule it out. I get asked whether we’d like to play clubs and the answer to that is no. We were pretty crap band in clubs. It was really only when we got into the bigger places that the scale seemed right.
<Paul> At the same time we played two nights ago to 150,000 people at least. There’s an obvious loss of contact and intimacy even with a show like PopMart with that size — but it’s still a very big crowd.
<Paul> When I walked through the crowd, even way in the back, I was amazed that people were still singing along.
<Paul> It’s really not planned at the moment. One of the things about having developed the expertise of playing very large shows is that you want to extend it and see how far the art form of the stadium rock spectacular can be taken.
<Paul> I’m very surprised there aren’t more bands who want to take it on. The only other people in modern times who do anything on this scale are the Rolling Stones.
<Paul> But there’s a change in the culture at the moment and it’s becoming hip again to be big. I think that may lead other rock and roll artists into performing on a large scale rather than doing that veryboring thing of putting a stage up at the end of a stadium.
<Paul> You really have to embrace the scale of a stadium.

<Tonster> ^BadCop^ says:
<Tonster> Paul : What is the secret of keeping a huge band like U2 together for 20 years?

<Paul> I don’t know that there’s a secret. I think it’s about getting the right people together in the first place.
<Paul> They were a band before some of them before some of them could play very well. The peole were more important than the instruments. Over the 20 years we’ve been toegher we’ve learned how to be together and how to keep out of each other’s way at times.
<Paul> I think that’s the secret to any friendship or any business relationship.

<Tonster> sirkits says:
<Tonster> Paul: do you sing along at the shows?

<Paul> I think I have caught myself singing along once or twice. But I don’t think anyone would want to hear my harmony.

<Tonster> salome269 says:
<Tonster> paul, who has been your favorite bono character so far? macphisto, the fly…etc…

<Paul> I think MacPhisto. MacPhisto who came from lots of different directions — I don’t know if you know the character of Archie Rice in John Osborne’s The Entertainer — I think MacPhisto derived a lot from him.
<Paul> I thought MacPhisto was terrific and I definitely miss him.

<Tonster> salome269 says:
<Tonster> paul, does it surprise you when people ask you for an autograph and/or a picture?

<Paul> It does a little. I’m not as good as dealing with it as the band are and I do sometimes feel they’re only asking me because they can’t get an autograph from the band.
<Paul> If I have time, I certainly will always sign somebody’s autograph.

<Tonster> swagger says:
<Tonster> Paul…Do you spend a lot of the time in the studio when U2 are recording?

<Paul> As little as possible <laughs>. The recording process is definitely not a spectator’s sport. I’m filled with admiration but certainly no wish to be there!
<Paul> I’m filled with admiration for the concentration that’s required to spend months in a studio producing a great album. For a non-participant it’s a bit like watching paint dry.

<Tonster> U2isABLE says:
<Tonster> Paul–how does your family handle these long tours and what do you do in your precious spare time?

<Paul> My family are old enough now to come out and visit the tours, so I see them every couple of weeks. My son is 11, my daughter is 12. I’m delighted that they think U2 are pretty cool.
<Paul> They go to school in Ireland and send me tapes of music they’re listening to and try to educate me what’s cool.
<Paul> This is obviously a difficult year in that we’re away from home.

<Tonster> U2isABLE says:
<Tonster> Paul…what is the most fulfilling aspect to your job?

<Paul> Managing a great band like U2 is still enjoyable for me because they still are getting better. They’re doing their best work now. I’m sure the work they do after this will be even better.
<Paul> i’m sure it’s very hard managing a band who’s lost its creative spark. I’m sure if that ever happens with U2, they’ll hang up their instruments and stop. The fact that it hasn’t happened is exciting.

<Tonster> sirkits says:
<Tonster> Paul: what exactly did you grow up listening to?

<Paul> Very much the Beatles and the Stones, Dylan . . . I was never into Led Zeppelin until Adam turned me on in the early 80s. I also listened to opera, classical music. I have an involvement in an ethnic label from Ireland called Celtic Heartbeat.
<Paul> Riverdance is one of our records. I would like to think I have very broad tastes. I’m always a little disappointed when people express their interest in a single genre.
<Paul> This is ag reat failing in the record businss in that they don’t care to address the great variety of people’s taste.

<Tonster> Victum says:
<Tonster> Paul: who else do you manage?

<Paul> Through Principle we manage PJ Harvey. We recently starting managing Sinead O’Connor. And we manage another artist called Lazlo Bane. He’s just made his first record.
<Paul> Those are our only management clients. We’re also involved in Celtic Heartbeat which is a business of mine.
<Paul> With U2 I’m owner of a label called Mother Records, which is a joint venture with PolyGram.

<Tonster> L`edGE says:
<Tonster> Who chooses what bands open for U2 ?

<Paul> Like many other things that’s a committee process based on who we like and who’s available. We rarely choose those bands on the basis of selling tickets.
<Paul> We do expect people to come to a U2 show without trying to attract them with the opening act.
<Paul> We tryto have bands that the audience will be into even if they’re unknown to them. We’ve had some good bands on this tour — Rage Against The Machine, Oasis, Fun Lovin’ Criminals.
<Paul> In some countries we try to choose bands from that country — in Italy we had a band called Casino Royale. In France and Spain we had a band called Placebo. In Ireland we had Ash. In Wembley we had Audioweb and Long Pings. We had a band called Skunk Anansie.
<Paul> It’s a fairly organic process and I think U2 audiences have learned if youcome early the opening act will be worth seeing.

<Tonster> Gibigiane says:
<Tonster> Paul - what are the plans for the POPMart stage after the tour is over - can we bid on the inflatable olive or slices of the lemon?

<Paul> <laughs> if anyone wants to buy the lemon, theyshould get in touch with us! Adam has said it’s the transport of the future.
<Paul> The screen will probably be sold to a sports facility. The other bits — who knows. I’m not sure anyone will have much use for the arch. I don’t know. Maybe we could have an auction.

<Tonster> U2isABLE says:
<Tonster> Paul…any truth to the rumours that Pearl Jam will open in Seattle?

<Paul> That’s the first I’ve heard of it, so I suppose the answer is no. But if they want to, that would be fine. They know how to get in touch.

<Tonster> Victum says:
<Tonster> Paul: What are your thoughts as to the state of the music industry today? Bono believes music is too boring. Do you share this thought?

<Paul> Boring music is too boring, but there’s a lot of good music around. I think what I was referring to before, the lack of interest by the industry and the diversity of people.
<Paul> Selling lots of one thing is not good for developing acts, or baby acts, as we call them. I’m delighted by the phenomenon of Oasis in that candidly admit they want to be a big band.
<Paul> Big is cool again whereas for a few years it was decidedly unhip to be in a big band which is ridiculous. People join bands in order to get onstage and sell lots of records. That’s the rock and roll instinct. I believe that’s why people join bands.
<Paul> The grunge movement was very joyless and there’s a lot of joy being a rock and roll band on a roll.

<Tonster> With your filmmaking background, did you ever find yourself sitting on your hands during Rattle & Hum?

<Paul> I was the exectuve producer of that and I was deeply involved in that! I never sat on my hands. I thought it was a good film but a band campaign. I’ve said before that we underestimated the impact of a full-blown 1400 screen movie release.
<Paul> I think movie marketing operates in a very different way from record marketing in that you get hit over the head with it all at once. It’s an inappropriate way of marketing formusic and I think our audience were turned off by that. Underlying it was a very good film and a very good record.
<Paul> The movie had one of the most unusual openign weekends of all time. It had a huge Friday night, Saturday it tailedoff, and no one turned up on Sunday. Gave Paramount a bit of a shock, but exciting to U2 fans.

<Tonster> teafan says:
<Tonster> Will there ever be a U2 “box” set ?

<Paul> I wouldn’t rule it out and in fact we need to do it at some time. There’s an enormous quantity of records made — B sides that have never been compiled properly, remixes . . .
<Paul> We’re wary of it to the extent that the release of a boxed set signals the end of somebody’s career and we’re certainly not at the end or anything like it of U2’s career.

<Tonster> ^BadCop^ says:
<Tonster> Paul : What makes you really angry?

<Paul> In the context of our business overzealous security people, ticket scalping, people taking advantage of our audience, those sort of things.
<Paul> People doing things in U2’s name without our approval. It’s not so much that we’re control freaks, we just want to ensure if you buy something U2, it should be worth the money.

<Tonster> salome269 says:
<Tonster> paul, do you ever get frustrated with the americans’ taste in music? bands like the spice girls are topping the charts while bands like u2 are not doing as well?

<Paul> I rather like the Spice Girls, actually. It’s in a long tradition of pop-of-the-moment and I think they do what they do rather amusingly.
<Paul> I can see why people are drawn to it. They’re all very pretty.

<Tonster> What kind of conclusions have you drawn on online U2 fans? How do we differ from other fans? Are they positive or negative differences?

<Paul> There’s been a lot of U2 web activity over the years and the people who go online are slightly more studious.
<Paul> Sometimes on individual pages you can see a sort of party atmosphere generating. I don’t think the people who tune into the PopMart site on MSN are different from U2’s other fans.
<Paul> We seem to have intelligent fans wherever we go.

<Tonster> U2isABLE says:
<Tonster> Paul…why is U2 choosing to perform at awards shows?

<Paul> Like the MTV Awards? MTV hhas an enormous reach. The VMA’s had a verysignificant rating. It’s a way of reaching the audience. Showing people who might not otherwise see U2 perform live how good they are.

<Tonster> Vini-Brazil says:
<Tonster> PAUL TALK ABOUT BRAZIL TOUR !!!!!!!! We WAIT many years FOR THIS !!!!!!!!!!

<Paul> We’ve been putting together the last details of the South American tour. We’re very excited about going to South America and indeed we’re overdue.
<Paul> I’m sure the concerts in Sao Paolo and Rio, Buenes Aires and Santiago will be absolutely wild.
<Paul> We’ve had recent experience of the Latin audience in Spain and Portugal and no doubt about it, the further south you go, the more exciting it is.

<Tonster> Victum says:
<Tonster> Paul: can you describe, as briefly as possible, your various tasks and responsibilities in a typical day of touring?

<Paul> An awful lto of it is to do with staying in touch with the record company in all the countries in the world where we sell records.
<Paul> This album went to #1 in 29 countries. Stay in touch with the production — our command structure is quite military adn the people who run the stage show are briefed to put up the show physically in an identical way in each city.
<Paul> I’m responsible to the band to produce a working environment. Watching out for trouble. I’m basically in charge of worrying.

<Tonster> ^BadCop^ says:
<Tonster> Paul : Why is the Red Hill Mining Town video still locked up in a vault? A lot of fans would love to see it.

<Paul> The real answer is that it’s not very good. We thought that song was a hit and went straight into making a video before the song was played on the radio.
<Paul> The moment it was played on the radio it was the 11th most popular track in 1987 so clearly it wasn’t the hit single we imagined it to be.
<Paul> We threw ourselves into amking that video withNeil Jordan without checking to see whether the audience liked the song.
<Paul> The other part is that the video was really terrible and embarassing. That’s the reason it’s been deep sixed.

<Tonster> U2isABLE says:
<Tonster> Paul..who’s idea was it for the band to walk through the crowd during Pop Muzik?

<Paul> I think it was Bono’s idea. Then we were in Vegas and Oscar de la Hoya — we wanted to copy an authentic boxer’s robe and I think he suggested the traditional Las Vegas boxer’s entry.
<Paul> Like most good ideas it came from the ether — good ideas have many claimants. Success has many parents and failure is an orphan.

<Tonster> Zye says:
<Tonster> Is U2 really doing that Simpson 200th episode. Any cameos from you :)?

<Paul> That is true. I can indeed confirm that U2 will perform in the Simpsons episode. I do not have a role myself.
<Paul> Keep logging on and let us know what you think of the site at u2popmart@msn.com.

<Tonster> Thanks to all of you for coming!
<Tonster> Paul has left the v-building.

<Alex> So, everybody sit tight, welcome to the auditorium and start asking questions now over in the #U2_Questions room.
<Tonster> Adam is on his way to the chat!
<Alex> We should be starting in just a few minutes now.
<Alex> Hi everyone. We’re live in Dublin with U2 bassist Adam Clayton.

<Alex> We’ll start now.

<Tonster> salome269 says:
<Tonster> Adam: what has been the weirdest experience during this tour so far?
<Adam> The weirdest experience is always the moment the lemon opens. You always go, is this gonna work? Is this what it feels like to be Michael Jackson?
<Tonster> Patrick_M says:
<Tonster> Adam: Did the huge success of the “Mission:Impossible theme” - The most sucesseful U2-related single on the US chatrs on this decade - give you & Larry the satisfaction of proving you two can survive without the “other two” :-)?
<Adam> I don’t think either of us saw it as an opportunity to give up our day jobs. We realized it was because of U2 it was received so well.
<Adam> It was great to do something on our own without Edge and Bono. Creatively it was easier to communicate between the two of us.
<Tonster> ^BadCop^ says:
<Tonster> Adam : If the Smurfs wanted to do a cover of one of U2’s songs, would you let them????
<Adam> I guess we would, yeah.
<Tonster> upoo2 says:
<Tonster> have you ever noticed your bass is out of tune on Two Hearts Beat As One?
<Adam> On the recording version on that it’s quite possible. Back then I didn’t pay attention to tuning or timing. But I’ve learned to count til 4 since then.
<Tonster> Shades says:
<Tonster> Adam…if you had just one record to listen to for the rest of your life…which would it be?
<Adam> That’s very veryhard. It might be a VanMorrison record. Or a Bob Marley record. I couldn’t narrow it down any clkoser than that. Could be a Miles Davis record.
<Tonster> LEKO says:
<Tonster> Adam, in 1992 ZOO TV I was in front of you during the Montreal concert, and I admire your standing, you looked proud and very cool… This kind of behaviour comes from your mother or your father?
<Adam> My goodness this person must know my Mum or my Dad. I don’t know where the good genes come in our family — maybe from our grandparents.
<Tonster> Guybrush says:
<Tonster> Adam : What exactly is the process during songwriting where you come up with those basslines? Are the songs built around your lines or is it theother way round?
<Adam> Each individual case is different. Sometimes Edge will co me together with a chord sequence that just needs a bass part added to it. Other times we’ll take a bass part that happens in a rehearsal situation or a sound check and we’ll work
some chords over that. Please was a case where we put some chords over that.
<Tonster> deseree says:
<Tonster> Adam, do you ever sing in the shower?
<Adam> Very, very occasionally.
<Tonster> godpart3 says:
<Tonster> Adam, do you ever try on bono’s stage costumes when he’s not around?
<Adam> Every band needs someone like Bono in it. When you join a band you don’t know who’s good at what — I’m really pleased that Bono took the job that he took and that I took the job that I took.
<Tonster> upoo2 says:
<Tonster> are you happier now than in 1987?
<Adam> I was pretty confused in 1987. I’m still confused, but definitely happier.
<Tonster> Kelly says:
<Tonster> Adam, has Larry sold his soul to thee devil….is that why he looks so young?
<Adam> It might look that way sometimes, it’s just that he’s actually 2 years younger than the rest of us.
<Tonster> Guybrush says:
<Tonster> Adam : How do you feel when the crowd responds so wildly to the memorable basslines like in New Years Day or With or Without You?
<Adam> Everytime you get that great response in your head you go I wish there were a few more where those came from.
<Adam> But I playdifferently now. Back then you took an idea and played it for all it’s worth.
<Tonster> Any truth to the tale that the lyrics to “Drowning Man” were written to you?
<Adam> I don’t think so. I think one of the aspects of the way Bono writes lyrics is he draws on a broad base of experience that’s based on everyone he’s involved with. He takes little bits and we’re all the same in many ways.
<Adam> We each have our own tragedies or loyalties or successes and he just makes it universal.
<Tonster> danie says:
<Tonster> Adam—do you like to sit and listen to your own records..or is it hard for you to listen to your own music?
<Adam> I listen to them sometimes. Usually the record that we’ve just finished making I’ll listen to quite a lot because we’re trying to learn how to play it live and I’m still moving things around in my head with it.
<Adam> I goi back to older records sometimes but you tend to hear just mistakes. You realize that your initial instincts about it are absolutely true.
<Tonster> arielle says:
<Tonster> adam, which song do you feel is most changed by a live performance vs. studio recording?
<Adam> In the show that we’re doing at the moment I think Velvet Dress would be a candidate for that. Discotheque is a different live version.
<Tonster> cyrelle says:
<Tonster> adam, what profession would you be involved with were it not for u2
<Adam> I think about this one every couple of years and I always come up with somehting pretty good. Maybe a truck driver or something. I like being on the road.
<Tonster> cyrelle says:
<Tonster> adam, what profession would you be involved with were it not for u2
<Adam> It’s a very confusing bundle of emotions. Playinig one night is bad enough in as much as it’s much easier to pose in front of a mirror than in front of your friends and family.
<Adam> The show is the easisest part of the dayin your hometown because you come home and everything catches up with you.
<Adam> Playing two nights just kind of doubles trouble. But Irish audiences are fantastic and wellworth it.
<Tonster> JOEJOEJOE says:
<Tonster> Any comments on Princess Diana?
<Adam> I heard the news this morning at 10:00 and it kicked me sideways and I don’t really know why.
<Adam> She represented a change within Britian and the aristocracy. And that’s been swept away.
<Adam> it was also such a senseless thing. I understand what happened in being chased by the paparazzi.
<Adam> They’re risk-takers. There were motobikes involved and it’s quite likely someone pulled in front. It is senseless. It’s a complicated issue because we all like to read the newspapers.
<Tonster> omar says:
<Tonster> ADAM: Which is your favorite writer?
<Adam> I haven’t read a book for a while! I like the Flannery O’Connor books, things like that, they’re an influence on what we were doing around the time of Joshua Tree.
<Adam> I really like The English Patient — it was a bewitching book. The film was great as well.
<Tonster> POPsickle says:
<Tonster> Adam, U2’s videos are pretty striking.. do you enjoy being involved in making music videos?
<Adam> I absolutely hate being involved in the making of music videos. I abhor them.
<Adam> The visual presentation of music is upon us — I never know what the videos are about, but hey, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
<Tonster> Greg says:
<Tonster> A D A M: Have you ever played a porno on your awesome HUGE Popmart screen for fun?!
<Adam> It’s an idea that has come up a couple of times! But it hasn’t been done as yet, maybe sometime in the future.
<Tonster> salome269 says:
<Tonster> Adam: how do you feel about performing for the mtv awards?
<Adam> Kinda looking forward to it becvause we’ve never really performed at those things before. Doing TV shows can be fun. We used to do it a lot a few years back. I think it’s better to be performing at these things than in the audience.
<Tonster> Patrick_M says:
<Tonster> Adam - A question about remixes. Some of them are great and really take the song a step further - Lady with the spinning head being a fine example. Others, like Lemon - Version Dub - areproduced with hardly anything from U2’s original encarnation of the song. What is U2’s real involvement with the DJ’s that remixes the song?
<Adam> Our involvement with the Djs is you tell them how great the track is, and normally they only really want a vocal so you send them a DAT and then they build up the rest themselves.
<Adam> It’s always interesting to us to get them back and see what they’ve done with them. It’s kind of nice that they’re a surprise because it’s never what you expect to hear.
<Adam> That’s the nature of a remix — you want to be surprised.
<Tonster> How do you feel about bootlegs?
<Adam> I think bootlegs are something that’s very difficult to stop. There are fans out there that want to buy them. I don’t like overpriced bootlegs that are ripping the fans off. If they’re good quality recordings of a show then I’m happy enough that people have access to those things.
<Adam> I know there’s a culture out there that listens to these things so I sort of tolerate it, providing no one’s getting ripped off.
<Tonster> Leia says:
<Tonster> Adam-Who are your major influences?
<Adam> Again this is a question that comes up every so often . . . I think Peter Hook who used to be in Joy Division was an influence in that he showed me something different he could do with a bass.
<Adam> And then James Jameson who played bass on a lot of Motown records in the early days, electric bass playing, showed me how you could funk it up with rhythm and melody. I aspire to move between those three spirits when I’m playing.
<Tonster> MichaelW says:
<Tonster> Adam: What are your (as well as the band’s) feelings towards ‘overzealous’ fans at shows? Also, do you think the Internet has made fans more overzealous, or does it just seem that way?
<Adam> It depends what you mean by overzealous. I think people being excited or moved by an experience — that’s what it’s all about. But there is a tendency for people to be obsessive.
<Adam> Certainly I don’t mind meeting people who love the music and if there’s an opportunity to talk about that I’m happy to take it.
<Adam> There was a time people were just looking for an autograph and I’m happy to do that as well. But there are people taking it to extreme — an autogrtaph, a photo, a video recorder, and could you fill this bag up with old clothes.
<Tonster> Guybrush says:
<Tonster> Adam : Was it a pleasant experience hanging your willy out for all to see on Achtung Baby??
<Adam> I had to be talked into it, I have to say. I was very nervous and apprehensive about revealing myself in such a way. But I got into the spirit of wickedness, I suppose. I objected to the censorship that happened in some countries. I think nude photography is absolutely appropriate and shouldn’t embaraass anyone.
<Adam> I think the photos Robert Mapplethorpe took of male nudes helped me look at myself as a man and looking at penises. It’s a hard thiing to overcome but it’s good. I only wish I had an erection at the time.
<Tonster> CyberMoon says:
<Tonster> What is your favorite song off Pop?
<Adam> Again it kind of changes on a weekly basis. Maybe my alltime favorite is Please, which we’ve just rerecorded for the single. Playboy Mansion always brings a smile to my face.
<Tonster> adamsgirl says:
<Tonster> Adam: You are, arguably, the best dressed man in rock. How do you do it?
<Adam> That’s definitely arguable if you talk to me other three mates.
<Adam> I don’t really operate on that level very often but I’m glad somebody notices that I’m well turned out.
<Tonster> adamsgirl says:
<Tonster> Adam: How well do you get on with your bandmates after a few months on the road?
<Adam> It’s not really a question of months, it’s years at this stage — 20 years together. Every so often youlook at that and go 20 years, it’s like being married.
<Adam> How many people really have friendships that have survived 20 years. I value it and think it’s an amazing achievement.
<Tonster> Guybrush says:
<Tonster> Adam : Do you feel you’ve toned downed on stage during the concerts over the years?
<Adam> I certainly have. You get a little wiser. I remember being very enthusiastic and active — a lot of that came from fighting for our lives, living hard to mouth.
<Adam> We didn’t know if we’d get to release another record and every tour and evyer performance counted. I was fueled up on adrenalin. Now the music has become a lot more important to me — the playing of it. Listening to Larry, supporting Bono — that’s important. Now my concentration is more on 1-2-3-4 hwere we go rather than any athletic ambitions I might have.
<Tonster> may says:
<Tonster> Adam,what do you want that you don’t have?
<Adam> Gosh, again, one of those things you can think of something really insightful to say . . .
<Adam> I suppose nowadays I wish I didn’t have to work nights, but that’s not very rock ‘n’ roll.
<Tonster> POPsickle says:
<Tonster> Adam, do you ever plan on writing an autobiography?
<Adam> No I don’t. I’m not sure if the world would be that interested in my inner thoughts and feelings nad if I was to write something that’s what it’d be about because I would not write something that would compromise relationships and
loyalties.
<Tonster> Gurt says:
<Tonster> ADAM, where do you think U2 will be in 2010?
<Adam> I don’t know. Again it’s something that you think up and wonder if there’s a time limit — youwonder if you can plan for that eventuality, whatever that is.
<Adam> I think probably U2 will be making music and performing in some stage and theatre somewhere. It’s kind of the only thing we know how to do.
<Tonster> rick says:
<Tonster> Adam tell us about your experience in Kansas with W.S: Burroughs!
<Adam> William Burroughs is an amazing man. I don’t really know that much about him. I’ve read some of his work and I know he’s got a feisty attitude about some things.
<Adam> He seemed to have a lot of spirit and a lot of youth and we sat and talked and he was very switched on to what was going on.
<Adam> It was an amazing experience and his subsequent deathmakes it even more precious.
<Tonster> Shades says:
<Tonster> Adam…do you feel any sort of competition with the Rolling Stones new tour?
<Adam> I don’t think we think in terms of competition with other tours. The Rolling Stones do what they do very well and they have an amazing history. It’s amazing that at this stage they want to get up on stage and is a real testament to their friendship.
<Adam> I think it’s about more than how much they’ll have in their bank account at the end.
<Tonster> salome269 says:
<Tonster> adam: how do you feel about bands like spice girls and hanson taking over the radio waves?
<Adam> There’s always been pop music and pop bands and every couple of years there’s a new band comes up with a different sound. I don’t know what’s going to happen to Hanson when their voices break. I certainly like looking at the Spice
Girls.
<Adam> They get people into record shops and talking about music.
<Tonster> mofo says:
<Tonster> adam,do u ever go sightseeing in the citys that you tour?
<Adam> No. Very very rarely. You end up really seeing the inside of the hotel and the inside of the gig and usually we have the same furniture that travels so I don’t think I’ve been going anywhere for the last year, I’ve been in the same place goiong backwards and forwards.
<Tonster> deseree says:
<Tonster> Adam, do you see U2 working with any rap artists, such as Dr. Dre?
<Adam> Well, I wouldn’t rule out working with Dre. We’re big fans of his and we’ve met him a couple of times.It’s a question of tempos ‘cuz those guys work at slower tempos.
<Adam> We met up when we were mastering our album in New York with Aza because we wanted to get him to a remix of Discotheque at the time but in the end he said that the speed of this is too fast for rap or hip hop.
<Adam> I think we’re going to give him a go with If God Would Send His Angels.
<Tonster> adamsgirl says:
<Tonster> Adam: Does being on tour tend to make one a less responsible citizen?
<Adam> Yes, unfortunately. It’s very corrupting.
<Adam> You do kind of forget the values of the real world because your values tend to reflect what you’re doing which is the show is the most important thing and the show happens at roughly the same time every night and there can’t be a problem that can’t be gotten over.
<Adam> When you get back in the real world you have to negotiate a little more with the citizens.
<Tonster> salome269 says:
<Tonster> Adam: would you rather be invisible or be able to fly?
<Adam> I’d like to be able to fly.
<Tonster> salome269 says:
<Tonster> Adam: what do you wish to achieve in the coming year?
<Adam> I’d like to get to the end of this tour feeling fulfilled from having accomplished something tha thas been very hard and has tkane a lot of hard work.
<Adam> I’d like to have my sanity. I’d like to feel creatively stimulated to kind of go back in there and make another great record.
<Tonster> Patrick_M says:
<Tonster> Would U2 ever release an Anthology-like box-set?
<Adam> Maybe at some point it would be interesting to people. I was there when some of that first stuff was recorded and I’m not sure how interseting it is.
<Adam> At the moment I’d prefer that people didn’t get access to the bottom drawer.
<Tonster> Ai says:
<Tonster> in one word, what is popmart to you?
<Adam> It’s the next century.
<Tonster> ariel says:
<Tonster> adam, when you are being interviewed, can you tell the difference between a journalist who has simply researched your history and one that is truly a fan?
<Adam> It is a contradiction. People who are truly fans ask certain kinds of questions that sometimes you haven’t thought about. A journalist who’s really reserached yourhistory is a lot more academic in their approach and you tend to respond more academically.
<Tonster> SpanishEyesU2 says:
<Tonster> ADAM: Do you think U2’s music is reaching out to the younger audience?
<Adam> Definitely. It wasn’t so apparent in America and I guess that’s because a lot of people don’t really like going to stadiums. But since we’ve come to Europe and are playing genearl admission we’ve found we’ve gotten a younger,
more aggressive audience that’s ready to party.
<Adam> Our music has stayed relevant to people who are just getting turned on to music. If we’d stayed oding what we were dong on the Joshua Tree I think we we would’ve gotten older musically.
<Adam> We still have our Joshua Tree fans but we also have other fans who come at us different musically and every other which way,.
<Tonster> Cambot says:
<Tonster> What’s your favorite food?
<Adam> Sushi.
<Tonster> Anne says:
<Tonster> Adam would you mind it if the band i’m in played some U2 cover tunes?
<Adam> Not at all. Maybe she’d be able to figure out what i”m playing!
<Tonster> CyberMoon says:
<Tonster> How was the concert tonight?
<Adam> It was amazing. The audience is what the concert’s all about because we’re the same every night, so for us it’s how the audience reacts.
<Adam> Concerts this size very often are about what’s happening in the audience and the music is a catalyst for that to happen.
<Tonster> Gurt says:
<Tonster> adam, in the early times (1975…) did you ever think to be where you are now?
<Adam> Well, back then you had to have blind faith and absolutely self-belief, which I had in those days. In reality, it’s a surprise and a wonder to me that we actually have achieved the things we have achieved and there’s still more to come.
<Adam> I never really accepted it. Be careful what you set your sights upon because it just might happen.
<Tonster> from_Chile says:
<Tonster> Adam: if you were in my chair, Who would you like to be asking questions?
<Adam> I guess I’d be interested in asking questions to Tony Blair, this guy who just got in with the Labour government.
<Adam> In America, Bill Clinton represents the changing generations. I think it’s very important coming at the end of this century, people who have control over our lives are people you’d actually like to sit down and talk to.

<Alex> Thanks so much for talking with us, Adam. And thanks to everyone for joining the chat. Don’t forget to come back to the site for tour updates, live chats, and live show cybercasts.

<tom_mcmail> Are you going to put out a live album or video from the tour?

<Tonster> We have no plans for an album as yet…we are putting together some live tracks that will probably be released with te next single…

<Tonster> as one or two CD’s we’re putting out.

<Tonster> There’s no video planned, but we might try to do something on TV at the end of te tour

<Tonster> It will probably be a broadcast on TV.
*** Tonster is now known as Edge
<tom_mcmail> tiempo says:
<tom_mcmail> Edge: Are you going to make a different setlist to places where you hadn’t been. (South America, South Africa, etc ) ? We’d like you to play some oldies too.

<Edge> The intention would be to try to change things around..
<Edge> do a few songs that we haven’t been to before.
<Edge> GA

<tom_mcmail> Aingeal says:
<tom_mcmail> Question: Does your love/need to play live ever influence or even interfere with what happens in the studio? do you ever look at a song and wonder. ‘how are we going to do this live?’ would you ever alter a song solely for the reason of making it easier to recreate on stage?
<Edge> We change songs alot when we’re playing them live - almost every song is rearranged for live because
<Edge> it demands a differnet approach
<Edge> some songs, that becomes more changes,
<Edge> other songs, like Staring at the Sun, we stripped back to 2 acoustic guitars and 2 voices.
<Edge> I think that pure acoustic arrangements have a place on a record,
<tom_mcmail> Are you going to do more acoustic stuff on the album or further on the tour?
<Edge> but I have a feeling that for us, if we were to go into an acousic arrangement it would be for an enitre record.
<Edge> We’re interested in it, but it’s something that we want to explore fully.
<tom_mcmail> pix says:
<tom_mcmail> Question: what’s the next step after Surrealism and Pop Art ?
<Edge> I think that it’s too soon to say where we’re going next - it seems that music, like art, is starting to look back on itself.
<Edge> The 90’s have turned into a post modern period for music, and we’re going to try to go where it leads us.
<tom_mcmail> U2AB says:
<tom_mcmail> Edge.. Do you find it difficult composing songs on the road? Are you working out any new songs now, like you did on Zooropa?
<Edge> We’re working on new songs all the time….
<Edge> any days off, I take up the guitar and use whatever time off I have to work on some songs in hotel rooms.
<Edge> GA
<tom_mcmail> Reno“ says:
<tom_mcmail> Hi Mr.Edge, this PopMart Tour seems to have an exuberant, well thought out theme, and yet I think its essence goes above people’s head, so what exactly is PopMart?
<Edge> Popmart is just our way of making sense of playing in big open air stadiums
-it’s a big show and it’s really a setting as much as it a theme for the concert.
<Edge> IT’s trying to be humorous about the position we find ourselves in as a big band playing big stadiums…
<Edge> we don’t want to make the mistake of taking our position too seriously.
<Edge> We take the music seriously, but we’re able to laugh at the sheer commerical size of what we’re undertaking.
<tom_mcmail> MaryG says:
<tom_mcmail> how do you feel about fans putting your copyrighted material on their web pages??
<Edge> I don’t have a problem with music being on the internet, as long as it’s not resold because I don’t believe that music on the internet is bad for music…
<Edge> I think it’s okay for music.
<Edge> To me, it’s a bit like when cassette tapes were first made available, the music industry thought that blank tapes would
<Edge> destroy the business because people would be at home churning out copies for their friends.
<Edge> It never happened.
<Edge> I think music on the internet is going to work out as just another place for people to discover new things.
<tom_mcmail> Host Kirsten says:
<tom_mcmail> what’s the U2-Willie Nelson relationship?
<Edge> We recorded a track with Willie Nelson that Bono and I recorded a few years ago, called Slow Dancing.
<Edge> He was in Dublin making a film and he walked into the studio.
<Edge> We just cut the song, it took 2 hours to record, but at the right time for the right project, it’ll come up.
<tom_mcmail> sun says:
<tom_mcmail> cAN we expect you will do again more small stadiums? Edge?
<Edge> We’re happy playing big venues right now because we’ve taken on that challenge.
<Edge> I do like playing smaller arenas and maybe for the next tour we’ll play smaller venues.
<tom_mcmail> Are we going to hear “Van Diemen’s Land” in Dublin?
<Edge> I doubt it - I think that Van Dieman’s Land is a tune that I wrote for Bono to sing - I ended up singing it on the album because I was just working it out, really.
<Edge> Although I like the tune, I don’t think I’ll be singing that one.
<Edge> I always thought Bono could sing it better, but he never got around to it.
<tom_mcmail> Mirrorball says:
<tom_mcmail> Edge: were you and the guys shocked by William Burrough’s death?
<Edge> I was very surprised and saddened by his death - he seemed so full of light when we met him for the Last Night on Earth video.
<Edge> We’d met him before and he was always incredibly funny and smart and sharp and if I was half as bright as he was at his age, I’d be very happy.
<tom_mcmail> Aingeal says:
<tom_mcmail> Edge you have said in past interviews that you won’t play a song like “Bad” live because you feel it has been played too much over the last fifteen years. The same could be said for Pride, yet you ARE playing it…why?
<Edge> All the songs we’re playing in the show are songs that we feel we can make sense of in this tour, in Popmart.
<Edge> I wouldn’t rule any old song out, I feel we can play any of our old songs, bur we’ve chosen the ones we have because they work - they make sense.
<tom_mcmail> brii whispers to Kirsten:
<tom_mcmail> Edge - does anyone on the crew/in the band ever read wire? Have you figured out what it IS yet? ANd if so, what do you think of it?
<Edge> I haven’t read it recently.
<tom_mcmail> MsTheEdge says:
<tom_mcmail> QUESTION: Do you use the internet on your own time for personal purposes?
<Edge> Occassionally, but mostly just for email and what have you.
<tom_mcmail> Eric says:
<tom_mcmail> Why haven’t ya’ll played any Zooropa tunes on your tour yet and do you plan on putting any Zooropa tunes on the tour in the future?
<Edge> We might well, we haven’t made a decision not to, it’s just we found ourselves leaning towards other tunes.
<Edge> We don’t think about what album something’s come from, we just figure out if it’s going to make sense in the context of what we’re doing.
<tom_mcmail> bonowannabe says:
<tom_mcmail> Please tell us about the oh so Spinal Tap moment when the Lemon wouldn’t open!
<Edge> It’s just funny for us - we knew that there was a chance that it would happen at some point on the tour.
<Edge> When it finally did, we couldn’t stop laughing.
<tom_mcmail> Delaware_usa says:
<tom_mcmail> QUESTION- Edge if you could have personally witnessed one event in history, what would you want to have seen?
<Edge> I’m happy living right now and seeing what I’m seeing - I wouldn’t have liked to have lived at any other time.
<tom_mcmail> RENZO says:
<tom_mcmail> EDGE-Will there ever be another U2 movie ala Rattle and Hum
<Edge> I don’t think we’re going to do another movie in a hurry <laughs>
<tom_mcmail> Mr_Jetlag says:
<tom_mcmail> Do you find after a tour when you hear the opening song on the radio you get a tinggle like you’re about to go on stage
<Edge> Yeah - it’s a strange sensation. You’ve heard of Pavlov’s dog? I can tell you it’s all true.
<tom_mcmail> Bonedog says:
<tom_mcmail> EDGE Question: Are worried about safety in Belfast?
<Edge> No. Not at all. We’re just looking forward to a great show and a great day.
<tom_mcmail> Gibigiane says:
<tom_mcmail> What do you think of Sojourner - the Mars Probe
<Edge> I’m all in favor of Mars, I think Mars is a fantastic idea.
<tom_mcmail> ParadiseCowgirl says:
<tom_mcmail> edge, what’s one of your favorite songs to perform live right now? (asking for someone who can’t be here now)
<Edge> Right now, Please, because we’re having a lot of fun playing different arrangement ideas.
<tom_mcmail> Severian says:
<tom_mcmail> QUESTION : What do you think of bootlegged concerts?
<Edge> I have no problems with bootlegs, I think, again, if people make recordings and give them to fhier friends - as long as people don’t get ripped off.
<tom_mcmail> Boogaloo says:
<tom_mcmail> what happend to your Gibson Explorer?
<Edge> It’s actually just on a long vacation, but it’s still around.
<tom_mcmail> NYCGavin says:
<tom_mcmail> EDGE: What can you tell us about your next single?
<Edge> It’s gonna be finished in another few days and we’re going to be giving it to the radio probably in another 3-4 weeks and it’s a new version of Please.
<tom_mcmail> Candy says:
<tom_mcmail> Edge:where do you think you’d be if you weren’t in u2 now?
<Edge> Sitting at home. <laughs>
<tom_mcmail> KatrinaD says:
<tom_mcmail> EDGE>> will there be anymore songs off future albums that you will be singing lead vocals?
<Edge> We actually have a very good singer, so I don’t know if I’ll do any more lead vocals, but maybe.
<tom_mcmail> USTAY2 says:
<tom_mcmail> What is your most memorable moment of the whole tour so far?
<Edge> I think the opening night, and realizing that everything worked and no one had been killed trying to get out of the lemon and that we’d remembered all the songs and that we hadn’t had a big argument…
<Edge> just that it went so well in the end.
<tom_mcmail> godpart3 says:
<tom_mcmail> Is the chemistry in the band on a personal and professional level still as strong as it was in 1977 or whatever?
<Edge> We’re still getting on just as well as we always have and everyone does what I say, that’s the important thing.
<tom_mcmail> RENZO says:
<tom_mcmail> Edge- where is the coolest place you’ve ever been in your travels with u2?
<Edge> The coolest place - I’ve been to a lot of cool places along the way, it’s hard to say which is the coolest.
<Edge> Currently, Tokyo is somewhere I’m fascinated with because it’s so different to where I grew up, but it changes, you know, I love America.
<Edge> The southwest in particular.
<tom_mcmail> NYCGavin says:
<tom_mcmail> Edge: Will Brian Eno and/or Daniel Lanois be involved in producing future U2 albums???
<Edge> I hope we do end up working with Brian and Danny again because they’re fantastic to work with.
<Edge> It would depend on what record we were trying to make was and what they were doing at the time.
<tom_mcmail> Host Kirsten says:
<tom_mcmail> have your parents ever been to a show?
<Edge> They tend to come out a couple of times every tour to have a laugh.
<tom_mcmail> Chia_Pet says:
<tom_mcmail> Edge: how’s it feel to be getting older in a business that’s rough even when you’re young?
<Edge> I still feel like I’m 16 - that’s not a problem.
<tom_mcmail> Patrick_M says:
<tom_mcmail> Mr. THE EDGE: Rumor has it U2 recorded over 30 songs for Pop However, only one brand new song has emerged - “Holy Joe” so far on the B-sides. What about the other songs? Will they ever hit the surface?
<Edge> Yeah, they definitely will along the way - we have to finish them first.
<tom_mcmail> Wintermute says:
<tom_mcmail> Question: Any chance of collaborations with people like Bjork and David Bowie?
<Edge> We’re always interested in a new collaborator, but there’s no plans to work with either Bjork or Bowie.
<tom_mcmail> Guggi says:
<tom_mcmail> Question: any idea who will open up for U2 on the third leg of the tour?
<Edge> We’re still listening to CD’s and seeing who’s available. We can’t really say just yet.
<tom_mcmail> Host Kirsten says:
<tom_mcmail> what advice do you have for bands just starting out?
<Edge> Write brilliant songs.
<tom_mcmail> salome269 says:
<tom_mcmail> edge…what keeps you motivated for performing??
<Edge> Just playing every night with Adam and Larry and Bono and the fact that every show is different and every time we play, there are new discoveries.
<tom_mcmail> alison2 says:
<tom_mcmail> QUESTION: Edge, why did all of you choose the Microsoft network for your website?
<Edge> We wanted to do something that was more ambitious than most other websites.
<Edge> To do that, we felt that we needed a partner and Microsoft Network seemed like the perfect partner for us to put this together with.
<tom_mcmail> USTAY2 says:
<tom_mcmail> Question:how do you manage to keep an exceptional relation ship within U2 for over 20 years?
<Edge> We met before we were a band, so that helps everything.
<tom_mcmail> ParadiseCowgirl says:
<tom_mcmail> edge, what’s your least favorite thing about touring?
<Edge> Coming home and having to figure out how to live a regular life again.
<tom_mcmail> metal says:
<tom_mcmail> hi edge, im pastry chef at the intercontinental in helsinki ..did you get the birthday cake me and steve made for you
<Edge> yes, it was fantastic! Sorry I couldn’t bring it with me.
<tom_mcmail> VON says:
<tom_mcmail> Are U2’s tours actually going to get any bigger? Or are you going to go back to smaller venues
<Edge> I can’t see them getting any bigger…but we haven’t decided what we’re going to do next time.
<tom_mcmail> m_doughty says:
<tom_mcmail> edge: what bands have you been listening to lately?
<Edge> All kinds of stuff…I lov