U2 on Tour: Our 1992 Cover Story

This text initially appeared within the July 1992 difficulty of SPIN. In honor of Achtung Child turning 30, we’re republishing it right here.

“What you’ll be able to by no means get in your e-book is the utter, whole boredom of being in a band [on tour].” —John Lydon, quoted in Jon Savage’s England’s Dreaming

April 9, 1992: Rolling via the sun-scrubbed Arizona panorama on the way in which to Tucson. Final night time was, I feel, Austin. Axl Rose was on the present, I assume he needed to hang around with rock stars who’re even shorter than him. Unusual that the desert actually does appear to be a Roadrunner cartoon; besides in actual life, the rock-infested hills are much less pleasant, looming like scars carved from the unrealistically blue sky. Antitank fighter planes swoop low over the cactus, trying, we hope, for another person.

Slumped within the entrance seat of my Ford Aerostar minivan, I stare out the window on the occasional patches of yellow poppies. The vista rushing previous, I’m pondering, intently parallels my impressions of U2 on this tour: massive, romantic. Lovely. Overwhelming. Distant. Untouchable. And, lastly, empty.

Zoo TV is an Essential Occasion not simply because it’s the primary tour in a number of years by one of many biz’s greatest, however as a result of it represents an additional step within the evolution of rock music as spectacle. That is hardly information—it’s been occurring no less than since Led Zeppelin, and doubtless additional again within the Darkish Ages of rock—however U2 got here out of a supposed response to the pomp and circumstance of ’70s prog overkill. And regardless of indications of superior pomposity as early on as 1984’s The Unforgettable Fireplace (most pronounced, after all, on the band’s 1988 live performance film ego-fest Rattle and Hum), U2 has not often let the occasion overshadow the music. That’s not the case with this tour.

Which is one cause I like Zoo TV a lot—it renders not solely the efficiency secondary, however the performers as nicely. Wander via the backstage hubbub and you may’t assist however really feel that the 4 band members are little greater than equipment to the large, and massively detailed, manufacturing. U2 whisks out and in of the varied venues in a stream of white limos to the 2 chartered MGM Grand jets ready on the airport, spending no extra time within the dressing room or elsewhere than is completely essential. The extra they hang around, the extra they get in the way in which of the actual work.

The Zoo TV crew, by my lower than scientifically exact depend, numbers no less than 100—midway via the tour, crew members had been nonetheless introducing themselves to one another, or working into previous associates (“You’re on this tour, too?”). It takes this crew roughly 12 hours to arrange the stage, so if the following present is the following night time, a separate crew is already at work within the subsequent city, organising a reproduction set of rigging at 3:00 a.m. whereas the crew within the earlier city is engaged in packing it away. There’s little or no margin for error, regardless of which, within the month and a half I tagged alongside behind the tour, no present went on greater than quarter-hour late, with one exception.

It’s much more spectacular contemplating {that a} good portion of that 100-person crew is comprised of administration, accountants, publicists, non-public safety, wardrobe workers, caterers, drivers, and so forth. All these are honey-combed in as many makeshift places of work as a given venue could have house for.

Right here’s the true zoo: laminate-bearing henchmen and girls, walkie-talkies strapped to their sides, power-walking with tight, pressing faces down countless corridors; telephones always gurgling; tattooed strongmen barking incomprehensible Irish orders; wheeled crates stuffed with unidentifiable however probably phenomenally pricey tools hurtling down corridors; unusual wispy males in capes. I do not know what any of those folks do. (Is that Kafkaesque or Felliniesque? I can’t bear in mind.) In comparison with this maelstrom, the present itself is nearly anticlimactic.

Ensuing maybe partly from the behind-the-scenes anarchy, sure bizarre hierarchical inconsistencies crop up backstage. Little issues, primarily, most of which aren’t most likely even underneath the purview of the band members themselves, however they give the impression of being to me like clues. As an example: Though the Pixies have been handpicked as opening band for the primary leg of the North American tour (the Edge and Bono are reportedly massive followers), U2, which has gone to the difficulty of printing up indicators for nearly each conceivable subset of its personal group, can’t handle higher than to slap “Assist Act” signage on the Pixies’ dressing room.

So yeah, anyway, Zoo TV. Throughout its exhilarating course, I began pondering lots about how the the sheer weight of amassed element concerned in mounting a manufacturing of this kind left little room for the kind of spontaneity, or no less than unpredictability, that, for me no less than, defines rock (and that, previously, helped outline U2). The entire course of was depressingly rational—and whereas I can’t assist however admire the consequence, I’m wondering on this case if the ends justify the means. Which isn’t a lot U2’s fault as that of the equipment that calls for of our rock musicians a hugeness that leeches their humanity; after which tears them down once they inevitably fail to reside as much as the unimaginable requirements we set.

Lakeland/Tampa, Florida, February 29: The 45-minute drive from Tampa, the place I’m staying, to the Lakeland Civic Middle, previous Mango, Thonotossassa, Zephyrhills, innumerable Stuckey’s (“Contemporary Fried Hen and Tater Logs”), and an indication for the Largest Citrus Market in Florida (operated by R. E. “Roy” Parke and Household) brings me to a tangle of crew buses and semis on the rear entrance. It’s the primary gig, and apparently nobody’s found out the right parking order but. I depend 11 semis and seven crew buses for U2. I wander into the catacombs to the bone-shaking thud of U2’s soundcheck (the band has been there for the higher a part of every week already, organising the stage and ironing out the kinks). An awe-inspiring tree of U2 signposts directs passersby in no less than ten conflicting instructions, relying on the place precisely we wish to get misplaced. I wander out to the empty area as a result of it’s the simplest place to seek out, and sit down close to the stage to observe the soundcheck.

Onstage, the Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen, Jr., run via bits of two or three songs. The sound is amazingly pristine even within the huge, echoey corridor. Varied video screens flicker on and off because the crew exams this and that gimmick. No signal of Bono although—after which, instantly, the world fills together with his unmistakable vox, driving simply excessive of his bandmates’ accompaniment. I lastly spot a diminutive determine standing out by the soundboard, arms crossed, watching the band onstage. He’s not holding a microphone, he’s sporting it, in his hat. Cool—it’s the primary time I’ve seen somebody use a headset mike in a non-dork method.

Throughout U2’s present later that night time, youngsters who handle to stretch far sufficient to press Bono’s flesh react as if touched by the hand of God—U2’s viewers, no less than essentially the most frenetic half, is right here to not reward however to bury with worship. His each gesture, irrespective of how small, provokes them to a near-religious frenzy out of all proportion to what’s really occurring, musically. Bono exaggerates his rock star-ness, performs with the stage set’s toys (rock-star trappings), stretching his persona to the purpose the place his ego really ceases to matter; he inflates it till it bursts, and he turns into as egoless as he’s ever needed you to consider. There’s an actual sturdy sense of the ridiculous concerning the course of, which is all of the extra endearing despite the fact that you recognize that they know that you recognize . . . oh, hell, I don’t know.

It’s simply nice, that’s all. However, as nice as it’s, it has nothing to do with my concept of rock ‘n’ roll. Nearer comparisons—and that is true of area rock on the whole, however is made particularly obvious on the Zoo TV tour due to its emphasis on spectacle and due to the weird depth of the band’s die-hard devotees—can be with mass non secular ceremonies or Monster Truck reveals. That is the circus a part of “bread and circuses,” which in a recession-fraught yr in some way makes good sense, and even helps.

Again in Tampa, me and my babe saunter right down to the Vacation Inn lounge (“The Casbah”) for a nightcap. It’s near midnight, and few patrons occupy the tables. All of the sudden, midway via our first Bailey’s Irish Cream, the stage-lights (we hadn’t even observed the stage) come as much as reveal For Your Eyes, a synth-only male-female lounge duo whose eerily on covers of Toto’s “Maintain the Line” and Journey’s “Any Approach You Need It” are accentuated by dim, pulsing lights that make the 2 members look, I swear, like boy and woman variations of that android man on Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology. Their stage patter is cheerful and awkward, though they should spend an inordinate period of time keeping off drunken Metallica requests from current Rush live performance returnees (that present, on the identical night time, drew over 12,000 to Zoo TV’s 7,000 and acquired nearly no press protection). The whole lot about their efficiency makes me distinctly uncomfortable; the stress between the band and the Rush rowdies makes me cringe. For a couple of minutes, it looks as if something might occur. Now this is extra prefer it.

Atlanta, Georgia, March 5: Though my backstage laminate reads “All Entry,” I can’t a lot as stroll by U2’s dressing room with out being accosted by one of many two units of safety guards (venue safety, which adjustments nightly, and U2 non-public safety, who journey with the band). They preserve a blue curtain drawn in entrance of the dressing room door, for obscure, although probably occult-related causes. Curtains are massive on the Zoo TV tour; there’s a curtained room simply offstage the place Bono runs to alter costumes mid-set (a woman waits there whose solely obvious job is to carry the mirror for him), and there’s a closely-curtained pit beneath the stage the place they preserve some man surrounded by strange-looking electronics.

One factor I miss on the Zoo TV present is the way in which U2 used to have the ability to stretch out and improvise in the midst of its songs and units. There’s little room for surprises on this tour—the set checklist is so firmly established that it’s printed on the again of a number of the crew laminates, proper right down to the encores. It needs to be: The beautiful video accompaniment is keyed to a selected music size. Additionally, regardless of what the Edge implied when he cohosted MTV’s 120 Minutes (to the impact that the band selected this tour to play solely what the 4 band members can really produce reside, necessitating the Edge’s fearsome array of guitar results pedals), my ear detects a good quantity of sequencer and extra keyboard accompaniment on most of the songs. Why else does Larry the drummer put on headphones, if to not hearken to the press monitor? And what precisely does that little man who sits within the closely-curtained pit surrounded by machines that look an terrible lot like sequencers and keyboards do, if not present keyboard and sequencer accompaniment? Huh?

Improvisation is thus restricted to nonmusical points of the present, equivalent to who Bono calls up on the cellphone, or what channels he switches to on the banks of video screens.

After the present, we drive via the wet Georgian night time to Virginia, previous a large statue of a peach (“Take Exit 92 to view peach”) and a tumbledown shack (“the Alamo”) that sells one thing known as “fatback” and advertises steaks and dancing. Which is all, actually, anybody might ask for. Profound road-related commentary: Irrespective of how briskly you go, somebody at all times desires to go sooner.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 10: Tonight’s live performance left me feeling form of dry. We seek for a bar in Chinatown close to the resort, nevertheless it’s Sunday night time and nearly all the pieces is closed. Nearly—Saigon Plaza, a pleasing Vietnamese joint, is having karaoke. We wander in, the one two non-Viets, and are introduced with a thick binder of xeroxed pages itemizing roughly a billion doable songs, principally in Vietnamese. There are just a few English titles, too, although the closest they get to rock is Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale.”

Many of the individuals select unintelligible-to-me Vietpop songs, singing most of the time in heart-rendingly stunning voices, closely laden with tacky reverb. Particularly the children, of which there are a stunning quantity for previous midnight on a Sunday—one younger girl even duets together with her child, to resounding applause from all. Unusual type of household leisure for this late hour. My favourite new Vietnamese pop songs are “I Am the Batman of Love” and “Ultrasong,” each enhanced by their accompanying cheesy movies, which appear to be soft-porn shorts with out the flesh.

Unusual that it’s simpler to listen to the out-of-time, Raggedy-Ann heartbeat of rock in a greasy, roach-ridden restaurant than at a, um, rock live performance.

Worcester, Massachusetts, March 13: Oh, the ephemeral nature of this enterprise we name present! Final night time the U2 live performance right here on the Centrum was the one factor on the hearts and minds of roughly 13,718 (reserved seating capability) followers, and this morning, as we put together to go away for Windfall, there’s a baseball-card conference in the exact same area. The circus involves city, the circus leaves city, and all you’re left with is a ticket stub, a extremely costly T-shirt, and possibly an official Achtung Child condom. (At $3 a pop, no cut price, although the between-sets DJ assures the group that they’re offered “at price.” At price in Eire, possibly. They’re a hot-selling merchandise amongst 12-year-old boys who’re not precisely positive how they work.) And a handful of indelible reminiscences, presumably.

First signal of U2 band members mingling with mortals: again within the crew catering space, the Edge and Adam Clayton sit down for dinner. I’m wondering in the event that they’re consuming meat, as I discover {that a} honest variety of each the U2 and Assist Act crews appear to be confirmed vegans. Aggressive well being is the brand new rock ‘n’ roll perspective. Extra is out, man, though Bono reportedly has a weak point for high-quality champagne (however you wouldn’t, you recognize, crucify a person for that).

Boston, Massachusetts, March 17: An Irish band enjoying in Boston on St. Patrick’s Day. Pandemonium exterior Boston Backyard earlier than the present, green-garbed natives lining the road in entrance of the Backyard with adulatory banners. Recognizing the significance of the event, the band really alters the set tonight to incorporate a few conventional Irish numbers (very properly executed), throughout one among which Bono takes a activate the congas. Assist Act’s bass participant studies first contact with a band member. Passing the Edge on the way in which to the stage, she intentionally catches his eye and says, “Hello!” He replies, “Hello!” smiling.

Afterward, drunks sway via the streets bellowing “rock ‘n’ roll!!” earlier than proudly vomiting within the gutters.

Earlier than the present, we go to the bar that Cheers was modeled after and break into the theme music, which most likely solely occurs there 35 instances a day, judging from the world-weary demeanor of the (non-Sam-like) bartender.

Meadowlands/Madison Sq. Backyard, New Jersey/New York, March 19-20: Three consecutive nights of karaoke (it has develop into an habit), one in New Jersey the place massive fats white guys in enterprise fits stand up and do Tone Löc’s “Wild Factor” and “Funky Chilly Medina,” and two in a bar throughout from Madison Sq. Backyard in New York. Late on the third night time, the gospel group opening for Harry Connick, Jr., treats us to a ravishing impromptu a cappella devotional quantity.

Movie star depend (precise sightings): In New Jersey, Little Steven (quick). At Madison Sq. Backyard, Bruce Springsteen (quick), Paul Simon (quick), Christie Brinkley (not quick).

Toronto, Ontario, March 24: “So Stevie Ray Vaughan goes to heaven,” relates a barely inebriated concertgoer, within the resort bar after the present, “the place he will get launched to Jimi Hendrix, and Elvis, and Janis Joplin, and all these actually cool rock folks, after which he walks by a room the place he sees Bono trying intently at himself in a mirror. ‘Hey, wait a minute,’ says Stevie Ray, ‘Bono’s not lifeless.’ ‘Oh, that’s not Bono,’ Jimi reassures him. ‘That’s God. He thinks He’s Bono.’”

Strolling by, I discover that Assist Act shares its dressing room tonight with mysterious, self-styled “DJ-guru” BP Fallon, who wears cloaks and vests bearing high-tack work of Elvis’ mug, and sits in a type of little Trabant automobiles between units enjoying Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, and Bob Marley and speaking about peace—he says “you recognize” one entire hell of lots; and Christina the stomach dancer, who’s each beautiful and good, and moreover makes her personal costumes. The ground is scarred with skate-marks; as with most of the dressing rooms on this mostly-sports-arena tour, this room is normally the provenance of the visiting hockey group.

I spend my time doing a little fast calculations, whereby I uncover that if Assist Act had been to scalp its total every day allotment of U2 tickets at present avenue costs (anyplace from $150 to $500 a ticket), as an alternative of giving them to associates and VIPs, it will make much more cash than it will get paid for taking part in. Likely the band is just too lazy to make the most of my revelation—it will most likely babble one thing about “ethics” as an alternative.

U2’s present is so good tonight I practically begin crying. “Any person has to play rock star,” Bono tells the group. “Everyone else is into dance music today.” Then he launches into their dance hit “Mysterious Methods,” the one which Christina performs on. Simply earlier than U2 takes the stage, the group does the Wave for about ten minutes, which is enjoyable despite the fact that my timing’s a bit off.

Final night time in Montreal, Dave Grohl from Nirvana got here to say howdy to Assist Act, of which he’s a significant fan, and Larry from U2 made his (and the band’s) solely look of the tour within the Assist Act dressing room. Apparently Dave was a sufficiently big star to warrant his slumming. Later, Dave was additionally handled to a grandfatherly discuss by Bono, who spent an hour lecturing him on the evils of success (“Don’t let it go to your head”) and didn’t take his wraparound fly-shades off the entire time. Dave additionally revealed Nirvana’s need to place collectively a tour enjoying reverse Lollapalooza this summer time in the identical cities on the identical nights, to be known as “Lollapaloser.” Sadly, this plan later falls via.

Cleveland, Ohio, March 26: Hate to disagree with John Lydon, however touring, today, when you’re a giant mega-platinum rock star act like U2, is a bit of heavily-frosted cake. 5-star accommodations, chartered jets, and fleets of limos actually assist ease the admittedly life-sapping pressure of performing and touring. I drive with my babe to Cleveland. We take the flawed approach round (by the use of Detroit relatively than Buffalo) and I find yourself wishing we’d flown. Alongside the way in which we focus on the mysterious methods of area rock, particularly whether or not any quantity of success is well worth the form of broad posturing you apparently should do to succeed in the spectrum of individuals an area act should attain.

“Yeah,” I say, “you couldn’t pay me to stand up there and dance like Bono. I love his braveness in doing that.”

“Nicely, what sort of endears Bono to me,” she remarks, “is that he can’t dance.”

Detroit, Michigan, March 27: Pizza night time. Bono tries to order 10,000 pizzas from onstage, manages to provide you with 100, which they distribute to the group. I snag one from the crew by pretending to be in Assist Act. “We love the Pixies!” they inform me. “Have a pizza!” Movie star report: Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito (on the town filming a film). Nicholson wears a beret, nullifying with one dangerous haberdashery choice all my respect for him. Except it was a disguise.

Tonight all people has to have new photos taken; the laminates must be changed as a result of the previous ones preserve getting bootlegged. I’m unsure why anybody would go to the difficulty. Simply to hang around backstage, possibly? It’s not such as you’re gonna have the ability to cruise into the U2 dressing room with that piece of plastic—you additionally should have a word from an authorized deity, or, uh, you need to be one.

Subsequent day we drive ten hours to Minneapolis, via desultory grey snow flurries. Wisconsin has an inordinate variety of massive plastic animals resident beside its roadside fuel stations and reward outlets (pink elephant, brown moose, white cow), however we did handle to see an precise reside deer, frozen in our headlights.

The following day, arriving on the Goal Middle, there’s a rumor that Julia Roberts is visiting U2 of their dressing room. What’s it about movie star that it might solely relate to different movie star? Why does Julia Roberts have an computerized reference to some rock band from Eire? Do all of them sit round and focus on how laborious it’s to get good assist today?

Chicago, Illinois, March 31: Somebody tells me that Bono’s arm is killing him—to the purpose that he requires particular therapeutic massage help—because of being pulled on on a regular basis by overeager viewers members. The worth (sigh) of fame.

For me, the spotlight of the night is the free Terminator II: Judgment Day online game backstage. Kill! Kill! Kill! Some man from the U2 crew performs with me, and collectively we practically save humanity from extinction earlier than becoming bored. Later, associates take us bar-hopping in Chi city, to the purpose the place I get actually sick, which I assume means we had a extremely nice time.

Austin, Texas, April 7: After three tries, Bono manages to place a mike stand via one of many video screens in Houston final night time. Perhaps he was moved to violence by false studies that there have been extra folks killed final yr by gunshot than by automobile accident within the state of Texas.

Houston, and Dallas earlier than that, are scary cities proper now. Tall glass buildings sway emptily within the Texan breeze, constructed within the sure information of an excellent, oily future for all, and now mute reminders of laborious instances. The creaking, once-proud accommodations we keep at sit within the midst of rising decay. We run from bar to resort, heads down.

Austin is a unique story. Sitting atop the Sheraton within the tallest bar within the metropolis, mild and life unfold out for miles in each course, I resolve by no means to go away. Later we stroll throughout the road to the native head store (“The Gasoline Pipe”—I didn’t know these locations nonetheless existed). Improbably, however in some way inevitably, as we stroll in, “Stairway to Heaven” is enjoying. I can’t determine between the freebase pipe or the hydroponic plant rising system, and go away with out shopping for something.

Los Angeles, California, April 12: Christina the “Mysterious Methods” stomach dancer have to be beginning to really feel claustrophobic. She has to sit down or squat on this tiny black field for a lot of the earlier music; the field received’t open till it’s time for her to make her look. After her gig. although, she will get carried backstage by some burly U2 crew man, after which she doesn’t should do anything for the remainder of the present, so possibly a little bit claustrophobia isn’t so dangerous.

Ringo-friggin’-Starr, man. He walks proper by me, nodding coolly, as if to say, “Yeah. You realize who I’m.” The children at SPIN will simply by no means consider my luck.

U2’s visitor checklist is so absurdly star-choked that they lease a type of low cost wraparound electrical indicators and mount it close to the stage, endlessly displaying the visitor checklist to the group. Watching the present from the soundboard in the midst of the world, I’m as soon as once more awestruck by the banks of computer systems, screens, and unusual radar-scope machines (these analyze the precise shade of shade of the lights to permit for exact mixing and matching) wanted to manage the lights and video screens. If solely I might get a system like that for my condominium.

Miami, Florida, March 1: (nonlinear time-space soar—maintain on, all people!): Yesterday’s rumor of U2 having eight chartered jets (two for every band member) has been decreased to a rumor that they’ve two chartered jets (which seems to be true). Strolling by the band’s dressing room, I’m instructed to not discuss out loud, as a result of they’re listening to tapes. “You imply they’re recording?” I ask, pondering I will need to have misheard. “No, they’re listening.”

The present’s delayed right this moment—it’s the primary time the crew has needed to break down the manufacturing and set it up in one other venue, they usually didn’t get an opportunity to follow as deliberate the day earlier than as a result of sound verify ran longer than anticipated. So there’s much more time sitting round than ordinary. U2’s dressing room is correct subsequent door, which wouldn’t be outstanding besides that my mother can also be right here tonight, and he or she’s acquired it in her head that she desires to satisfy the band. We spend a while within the hallway, watching the band sometimes mill round, accompanied by its private safety. Bono even stations a bodyguard exterior the door when he goes to the lavatory. I’m unsure why he thinks he’s in a lot hazard even backstage, the place non-laminate-bearers are summarily shot, however possibly he is aware of one thing I don’t.

Then once more, possibly he simply is aware of my mother is there. Hell, he ought to be scared. Mother takes it as a private affront that not one of the band have come by to say howdy to Assist Act (I attempt to clarify that it’s solely the second day of the tour, they usually’re most likely actually busy, however Mother’s not shopping for it). “I’m going to go inform that Bono how impolite he’s performing,” she pronounces. “Which one is he?”

“The actually quick one,” I inform her, hoping to place her off (they’re all actually quick, really, although Bono appears shortest).

“Nicely, I’m going to go have a chat with him.”

“Uh, simply maintain on a second, Mother. It’s ‘Time Out’ within the halls.”

“Time Out” is the interval of 5 minutes earlier than and after U2 takes the stage when nobody is allowed a lot as to poke his/her head out the door, in case somebody, I don’t know, ought to inadvertently want the band “Good luck” or one thing. God assist anybody caught wandering the halls throughout this era. So me and my dad kind a cordon in entrance of the door to stop my mother from peeking exterior (you by no means know if she’s severe).

On reflection, I most likely ought to have let her free. Bono would most likely have gotten a kick out of being lectured by any person’s mom. What’s occurred with U2—because it has, probably, to many Large Rock Acts earlier than them—is that folks act a sure approach in anticipation of issues that may or won’t trouble the band members themselves, in order that a lot of what goes on round them, they continue to be perpetually unaware of—just like the court docket of some omnipotent king, the place individuals are put to loss of life for imagined offenses that the king himself by no means observed. This explains anomalies just like the current Negativland U2 parody file controversy, and the story somebody informed me not way back a few author for a music TV present who allegedly was fired due to some imagined slight in opposition to U2 that neither the band nor its administration had even observed.

However, organizations—like folks—are normally paranoid solely to the extent that they take themselves severely, and U2, for all their makes an attempt to placed on a comic book face on the Zoo TV tour, takes this manufacturing extremely severely.

As nicely they need to, I assume. Experiences of the proposed late-summer stadium tour counsel that it dwarfs the present present each in scale and in ambition. Zoo TV is a really fastidiously deliberate, long-term (the band is meant to tour worldwide nicely into 1993) assault on the hearts and pocketbooks of music lovers all over the place. A certain quantity of care and warning within the enterprise is comprehensible—however, you recognize, this doesn’t should be a paramilitary operation; all the pieces carefully, boys. Or else I’ll should sic my mother on you.

Postcript: “Hiya?”

“Hello, Mother. It’s me. Looks as if you must have stated one thing to Bono in any case. U2 is outwardly actually upset that I’m printing this story—their supervisor, particularly. Although I hear Bono’s a little bit freaked out, too.”

“What didn’t they like?”

“They haven’t learn it but. They’re not involved with the content material of the story—they simply don’t like the concept that it occurred exterior of their direct management. It’s only a neurotic response, which is outwardly the one approach a megagroup like U2 is aware of react. It’s computerized, unthinking. Pointless. It appears, to me, like one other instance of how a big, and largely paranoid, group tries to manage what’s stated about its constituents. However I don’t suppose that’s proper, you recognize? I imply, they’re only a pop group.”

“Nicely, attempt to not get too upset about it, expensive.”

“I’m not upset, actually. I’m not. Simply disillusioned.”