Matt McGee - U2: A Diary

Introduction

Theres a diary entry in this book that I really love: May 21, 2007. U2 are in Cannes, France. Over the course of 24 hours, the band performs at the Cannes Film Festival and premieres their groundbreaking concert film, U2 3D, Bono parties on Kid Rocks yacht, and an Irish government official announces that Bono has joined an international Hunger Task Force.

In so many ways, that explains everything you need to know about U2.

But U2 is much more than that, too. To really understand U2, you have to understand Friendship, Faith, Heart and Soul, Heaven and Hell, Boyhood, Parenthood, Spirit, Death, Ambition, Contradiction, Irony, Ireland, Swagger and Style, Art and Fashion, Europe and America, Africa, Dublin, Punk Rock, Roots Rock, Grunge Rock, Opera, Rhythm & Blues, Elvis, Magic, Myth and Mystery, Dreaming Out Loud, and the decision to Reveal or Conceal. Oh, and some Bible knowledge would also go a long way.

How else to explain U2? Well, if youre inclined to believe in destiny and/or divine intervention, you can see some of both in the U2 story.

Four boys decide to form a band even though they cant play music very well. Luckily, this happens just as punk rock arrives and renders musical chops unnecessary. They live in a country with no rock and roll tradition, where theres no rock scene worth mentioning - nothing to help lift the band out of obscurity. But thats okay, because pirate rock radio begins to flourish at about the same time the band does, and a new rock magazine called Hot Press starts to capture the fancy of Irelands youth.

The young band struggles to find a label willing to sign them internationally, and wouldnt you know it while every other label has said no, Island Records just happens to be looking to add some rock bands to its stable. And unlike other labels, Island wont demand hit singles and Top 10 albums right from the start. (Good thing, too, since it takes a few years before U2 sniffs the Top Ten.)

As U2 develops, theyre one of several hot, upcoming bands that gets tipped for major success. It looks like theyll have to compete for the worlds attention with The Police, Talking Heads, The Pretenders, Big Country, The Alarm, The Clash, and others. But none of these bands survive the fashion-conscious 8os, and that clears the path for U2 to become rock royalty, the biggest rock band in the world.

What an odd title for U2 to claim! Heres a band with three members whose idea of fun was reading the Bible on the back of the bus in between shows. Heres a band whose most egregious behavior in 30+ years was when the bassist was arrested for having 19 grams of marijuana on him, and when a bad hangover forced him to miss a show four years later. Thats a typical week for some rock bands. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll? Hardly. Even the National Enquirer, a US tabloid that loves to dig up celebrity dirt, gave up in 1988 and printed an article with this headline: Surprise! Red-Hot Rockers U2 REALLY Are Squares. U2 must be the least rock and roll rock band ever.

Or maybe theyre the most rock and roll band ever, because rock is all about rebellion, and U2 has been doing that since 1976. They did things on their own terms from the beginning. They rebelled against every rock clich they encountered. They cared when indifference was cool. They went huge when rock wanted to be small. They openly flaunted ambition, said they expected to reach the top, and didnt stop taking care of business when they got there.

No one - including the band themselves - would be so nave as to claim U2 have enjoyed a bump-free path from Dublin to the top of the music world. Faith almost destroyed U2 in 1981 after everyone but Adam got wrapped up in prayer meetings and the Shalom group. Some delicate and smart negotiating by manager Paul McGuinness helped U2 survive that period. Later in the 1980s, a dose of hubris led U2 to turn the ultra-successful Joshua Tree tour into a Hollywood film. Fans loved it, but a lot of US rock critics thought it was vanity run amok. In the mid1990s, U2 misjudged the zeitgeist, and the irony of announcing a world tour in the lingerie department of a K-Mart store was lost on many fans. That, combined with an underwhelming opening night concert in Las Vegas that some media called a flop, and an album that the band believes was never finished, produced an era that the band doesnt look back on fondly to this day.

But in each of those cases, and others, U2 has shown remarkable survival instincts. They have an uncanny ability to recover, regroup, and return even stronger and more popular than before. After three decades together, youd think that a rock band - like a marriage - would settle into a routine. But U2 has avoided that trap so far.

U2 might be the last great rock band. Well probably never see another band come along and do what U2 has done, and certainly not the same way U2 did it. The music industry is a different landscape today than in the 1980s. Bands arent given years of financial support and allowed to grow an audience slowly. Its all about hit singles and album sales; one dud and youre done. If U2 were starting today, they wouldnt last past October.

In 1980, Bono told Rolling Stone magazine that he believed U2 would someday have a place in rock history alongside The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Who. At the end of 2007, with 16 albums to their credit, 22 Grammys won, more than 30 years together, close to 200 million albums sold, countless lives touched, and at least one party on a yacht off the coast of France on the same day as an appointment to a hunger task force, we can say with certainty that Bono was right.

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Though U2 is rightly known as an Irish band, Paul Hewson and Larry Mullen are the only two members who are natives of Ireland. Dave Evans and Adam Clayton are both born in England, but move to Dublin early in their childhood.

The four boys grow up separately, though for a brief period Dave and Adam attend the same school and see each other occasionally with their parents outside of school. While all four grow up enjoying music, only Dave and Larry show an early interest in playing. Adam comes to the bass guitar as a teenager, while Paul is more interested in pursuits such as chess, painting, and theater.

The signature event of this period occurs in 1974 when Pauls mother, Iris Rankin, dies just four days after the death of her father. The loss of his mom has a dramatic impact on Paul. Typical teenage pursuits are overshadowed by thoughts on life and death, and a developing interest in matters of faith. Faith, in fact, is one of the defining issues of Pauls childhood -thanks to his parents bold marriage in 1950. And thats where we begin .