The Edge: Over 35s have more fun
Other than in cities such as New York. San Francisco or Los Angeles. there has been little reaction to Howie B‘s club influence. He is amused by trendy European papers reporting on a techno invasion of America.
Howie B is creative advisor to [72. a post previously occupied by Steve l.illywhite. Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. In 1992 the Glasgow beat master mixed Larry Mullin‘s ‘Hymn‘ for the liuropean l'ootball championships and later underscored Bono‘s version of Leonard Cohen‘s ‘Hallclujah‘ with hip hop.
After work on the Passengers album. the DJ became L’Z‘s co-producer. rising to the challenge of fusing rock and club sounds.
‘At times it was damned hard. but I enjoyed it all the same.‘ he says. ‘Ol‘ten [,2
'Irish folk dancing is a conscious denial of sexuality. The men dance round as if
they had no dicks.’ Bonn
were jamming as I put on discs. I played everything from Miles Davis to Herbie Hancock. which opened many doors.‘
Joining in. The lidge agrees that the crossover between dance and rock culture has been a long time coming.
‘In Dublin I often go dancing. but on tour I don’t have the time.‘ he says. adding: "l‘hc notion that you can‘t go into a club it you‘re older than 35 is a problem for white people. In black culture it's understood that SU-ycar-olds can go to clubs to dance.”
He scol'l‘s: ‘But we Irish are no experts in dance floor matters.’
Bono nods. reaching for his beer: ‘You'vc only got to look at lrish l’olk dancing. It is a conscious denial of sexuality. The men dance round as if they had no dicks. So we would like to stop all this talk about the dance lloor.‘
In any case. at 4.30am no one has the energy to test out the local club scene. It‘s time for these pop tarts to go to bed — it wouldn‘t do to yawn through lunch with Bill ('linton.
U2 play Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh, Tue 2 Sep.
U2
U2 live review
Before touching down in Edinburgh, U2 took Pop Mart to London. The List was there. Words: Alastair Mabbott
WHAT WOULD BONO have thought? The Bono who charged around a stage with a white flag, shouting himself hoarse until every last drop of sincerity was drained from his heart: who was out to prove The Song was more important than The Sound and came up with The Joshua Tree; who held out against using video screens in stadia so crowds would have to concentrate on the four band members on the stage?
What would he have thought if he had known U2 audiences would anticipate the concept, the package, the statement, before wondering which songs the band would play?
Such is the legacy of Zooropa, the tour which deserved an award for Best Use Of A Stadium In The Reinvention Of A Rock Band, but could prove to be their biggest albatross since that damned flag.
I swear, by the time it dawns that we're here to listen to the songs rather than admire some integrated audio-visual package, we're already on the fifth number. It is ’Last Night On Earth' - a song powerful and new enough to pull itself up, kick a bit and demand to be listened to. And the message of the arch Pop Mart logo, the consumerist commentary? Apparently that U2 are happy to sell themselves as whorishly as possible. But . . . um, didn't we know already know that?
It's as though the Zooropa concept was so perfect, so overwhelming, that all they can offer is a descaled version instead of anything new. And, actually, the lo-tech graininess of the giant screen behind the stage - its garish immediacy as contrived as the wobbly camerawork in NYPD Blue — is one of the show's triumphs. The thing everyone will remember - and you will love this, I guarantee - is the band's emergence from the lemon-shaped mirrorball. Village People on a Spielbergian budget couldn't match it.
It's not for me to say whether the band have any fewer sequencers hidden under the stage this time around, but although there are no signs of the under-rehearsal that marred their opening US dates, there is more of a feeling that U2 are playing by the seat of their pants —- that the potential is there to fail. They never actually do, but a certain ropiness hovers around the edges. ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I'm Looking For’ and 'All I Want ls You' seem to be tossed off almost perfunctorily. 'Miami', an unattractive song on record, is more tolerated than enjoyed by the crowd.
But U2 didn't get where they are today without knowing how to pull their arses out of the fire - their whole career is a series of weird triumphs against adversity - and immaculate versions of ’Discotheque’, 'Where The Streets Have No Name’ and 'One' follow, as good as they’ve ever been played.
As a bonus, there's an instant when Pop Mart unexpectedly lives up the postmodern gubbins the band have been spouting since Achtung Baby. It's the show's most bizarre moment, when the band quit the stage and The Edge leads the 80,000-strong crowd through a version of ‘Suspicious Minds' filched directly from a video-karaoke machine, complete with lyrics, cheesy video and tinkly soundtrack.
Like Bowie, U2 have borrowed ideas from cutting-edge artists and diluted them for the rock marketplace. But at that moment, Pop Mart provides a glimpse over the edge (no intentional pun, but what the hey) of its own logic, and, if he was there, I’m sure Mr Eno would have approved. Their own little moment of postmodern art over, it's on with the show. (Alastair Mabbott)
l U2 seen live at Wemb/ey Stadium, London, 22 August.
Bono: boy ’n' the hood
2‘) Aug ll Sept 1997 THE lIST 11