W L INTERVIEW
Credit : Anton Corbijn Credit : Danny North
AN INTERVIEW WITH U2
U2 are one of the biggest bands on the planet . Here they talk to Wirral Life in an exclusive interview ahead of their forthcoming tour .
The excitement level for U2 fans is ramping up this month as for the first time in 13 years , the band will return to the North West as part of their eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE tour .
The band have sold more than 170 million records , placing them among the best-selling music artists in history and they are the only group to attain number-one albums in the 1980s , 1990s , 2000s , and 2010s . This is the long-awaited follow up to U2 ' s 2015 Innocence + Experience Tour as the second in a pair of tours in support of the group ' s companion albums , Songs of Innocence ( 2014 ) and Songs of Experience .
You were originally going to take to the road soon after completing the first album tour in December 2015 , but you delayed when Brexit arrived , and Trump was elected in the 2016 US presidential election . What other challenges did you face when putting together this new tour ? Adam Clayton : “ I think what was challenging for us was that the Innocence tour had been such an extraordinary success in terms of how it connected with people and how it changed the environment . The sound was really great , that screen was a real innovation and the stage running the length of the arena was an innovation . There were so many things that showed people there was a different way of doing things that all added up and reinforced the emotion of the journey . I think the audience had a very personalised , emotional response to it . It was a bit of a challenge figuring how where this one was going to land . We ’ re in a very different era now and people are looking at the jeopardy and the risk in a different way .”
Bono has also written about his ‘ brush with mortality ’ between Christmas and New Year in 2016 that inspired at least three songs on the new album , what happened there ? Bono : " People have these extinction events in their lives - it could be psychological , or it could be physical . I am the f ***** luckiest man on Earth . I didn ' t think that I had a fear of a fast exit . But , you know , people have had so much worse to deal with , so that is another reason not to talk about it ."
The Edge : " He definitely had a serious moment , which caused him to reflect on a lot of things . But where that brought him to as a writer was an amazing place .”
The 2018 tour picks up the narrative from the 2015 tour , along with the original huge stage . This time though there ’ s an augmented reality concert app , so fans can get interactive with the show . How easy was that to implement ? Bono : “ It was going really s ***, but I think we put some things in place that will make it a little less indulgent . The show is a very personal
story , because even though it ’ s my story , because I ’ m the singer and we use me to tell the story , it could be Larry ’ s , it could be Adam ’ s , it could be Edge ’ s .”
You ’ ve also got a lot of homage to growing up in north Dublin particularly Cedarwood Road . Are you showing what it was like in your youth here ? Bono : “ It ’ s a personal story and trying to take the solipsistic aspect out of it is impossible . But you don ’ t want to be too self-indulgent either because it ’ s a rock ’ n ’ roll band in the end . Cedarwood Road is a beautiful street but of course it ’ s what ’ s in your head that counts . So , I ’ m walking down Cedarwood Road going through a war zone , it was a war zone in my teens . It probably wasn ’ t , but it was in my head - it felt that way .”
We ’ ve been told not to expect any of the old favourites . Having toured in 2017 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of The Joshua Tree , you ' re not playing them this time ? Adam Clayton : “ We drew a line in the sand . If you really wanted those songs , we did it . It ’ s done . We ’ re moving on here .”
Was that unanimous or was there debate about that ? Adam Clayton : “ I think we were all excited about the idea of not delving back to Joshua Tree . That ’ s because Joshua Tree has cast such a big shadow over everything we ’ ve done . We felt that by doing that tour that we , to an extent , had laid that to rest for the moment . There will be another time to come back to that material .”
Are we going back to the days of the U2 years long tours and ‘ Mega Gigs ’? I understand the huge video wall , takes a day to assemble with a crew of more than 50 ? Adam Clayton : “ It is a short tour . We made that decision because we ’ ve done a lot of shows over the last four years in total . There are parts of the world we just haven ’ t been to in the past for years as well . We haven ’ t been to Australia , Japan , Southeast Asia . We really haven ’ t spent that long in Europe .”
Bono : “ It ’ s like a Marvel film , where you ’ ve got to method act . You ’ re taking this to a different city every few days , so it ’ s a bit mad . It ’ s a big technical monster but it has to have a big bloody heart inside of it , in the machine , and that ’ s what we do so it is unusual .”
U2 are playing the Manchester Arena on Friday 19th and Saturday 20th October 2018 . At the time of writing , according to their website , there are still some tickets available , what are you waiting for ???
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