JOURNAL / REPORTING — TAPE #231, SIDE #1
Q: Mark Russell Bell
S: Scott, WRCX Chicago (message left on answering machine)
V: Program Montage Voices/Station Radio Spot Voices
R: Commercial Announcers
J: Jed The Fish, KROQ interviewer (radio broadcast)
B: Bono (radio broadcast)
E: The Edge (radio broadcast)
A: Adam Clayton (radio broadcast)
L: Larry Mullen (radio broadcast)
T: Ted, caller from Tarzana (radio broadcast)
C: Caller from yesterday (radio broadcast)
H: Heather, caller from Kansas City (radio broadcast)
N: Angel, caller from New York (radio broadcast)
D: Deborah, caller from Des Moines (radio broadcast)
Q: So when I got home from the party at APLA, I checked my answering machine and I realized I had a message so all afternoon I was miserable and upset when if I had just checked my messages I would’ve been delighted and had something to look forward to. Because I have a message from Scott at WRCX — a nationally syndicated morning radio show in Chicago that’s syndicated in 15 different states. He wants me to call him to schedule an interview so how exciting now that I can mention https://testament.org. It should really help with the sales and boy do I need sales. But I think that there is a lesson to be learned here unless all that carrying on is what made Mighael go back in time to give me the interview. I’m just kidding, Mighael. Sort of.
( . . . )
Q: Well I just called Scott back and told him I was going to be out of the office all day but I think he said it’s a “Morning Madhouse” program so that will be fun for a change of pace.
( . . . )
Q: So it’s Friday afternoon and I just got home. I forgot my tape recorder today.
( . . . )
Q: Let me check my message machine.
( . . . )
S: Hi, Mark. It’s Scott at WRCX Chicago just calling you back. Give me a buzz. (leaves number) Thanks a lot.
( . . . )
Q: Ellen just called and I was sort of teasing her and I said, “Don’t think. Just channel me a message from Mighael. Say whatever comes into your mind.” And she didn’t say anything because she was thinking about what to say. So I kept saying, “Say whatever comes into your mind.” So she finally just said, “Boo hoo hoo.” So I explained to her, of course, what that means.
( . . . )
Q: So I gave another reading today at the Hotline. A listener whose name is Maryland Troy Bolds Jr. His mother’s maiden name is Morrison. He shares his father’s middle name of Troy. Luckily, Pat was there. She’s an expert on the Trojan War. One of her favorite periods. So I told him that I think he must be very God conscious to have both R and A and AN combinations in his name plus his last name Bolds is interesting. Of course, it has old in it. He probably is an Old King. I think most people who volunteer at the Hotline are Old Kings because they’re obviously very spiritually aware in terms of giving back to others and serving society. So Pat threw out a few names of the principles involved in the Trojan War and I think Maryland’s the reincarnation of Paris. Not Odysseus or Hector but Paris. In fact, there’s the same AR combination in his name. By the way, he does know Helen. I asked him and he said he knew her. He’s very artistic in this life. He paints and things.
( . . . )
Q: So the other U2 extra ticket is going to Marie’s friend, Wendy, the one who lost the jewelry at the Music Center that time. I guess Mighael wanted those tickets for those two of Marie’s friends. Mine’s going to be available at Will Call two hours before the concert under my name — thanks to my brother and Rogers & Cowan.
( . . . )
Q: One thing about living right on the beach is that radio reception can be really bad.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: THE FOLLOWING IS A TRANSCRIPT OF A U2 RADIO INTERVIEW TRANSMITTED FROM KROQ IN BURBANK. I WASN’T HOME FOR THE BEGINNING OF THE SHOW AND FIRST TAPED ONTO REGULAR CASSETTES. I ORIGINALLY TAPED EXCERPTS ONTO MICROCASSETTES BUT RETURNED TO THE CASSETTES TO OFFER A FULLER TRANSCRIPT SO THAT NOTHING WOULD BE TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT. THE LINE THAT FOLLOWS IS FROM A SONG THAT AIRED JUST BEFORE I BEGAN RECORDING THE INTERVIEW IN PROGRESS.)
. . . Well remember when I moved in youAnd the holy dove was moving tooAnd every breath we drew was hallelujah . . .
V: I feel great.
V: “Pop Mart.”
V: Space offspring.
V: Open your mouth.
V: Time for commercialism.
V: You can’t take it with you.
V: Spend all your money.
V: Buy everything.
V: Big sale.
V: You do.
V: The pop invasion.
V: Will be back.
V: Purchase everything.
R: This is Agnes Gooch. . .
( . . . )
R: They’ll be blasting through the streets of Los Angeles on Labor Day weekend. . .
( . . . )
R: The Universal Amphitheatre and Pepsi presenta “Rockenvasion ’97” . . .
( . . . )
R: You need a pager at a great price . . .
( . . . )
V: This is U2’s “Pop Invasion.”
J: (laughs) We have U2 here in the studio on 106.7 KROQ and actually, Bono, you were sort of pointing out something you really admired about Jeff Buckley as a singer during that last song. Could you share that with our audience please?
B: Oh just envious — just raw envy. It was just that last coda on that last tune. It’s a Leonard Cohen song.
J: Extended note about twenty-two seconds.
B: He lasts — well yeah, twenty-two seconds of just singing without a new breath. It’s not important to the outside world —
J: And it’s emotive.
B: — but for me as a — you know it’s very . . . (hard to make out — humbling?)
J: Well the reason why I thought it was important was because it was meaningful to you and if there’s anybody listening to the Jeff Buckley song and appreciative of the comments we made just before that, they can just know that Bono was sitting here admiring the very same thing.
B: Yeah, I was.
J: Alright it’s U2 “Pop Invasion.” Tammy . . . just walked in with her singles right now. We’re trying to figure out exactly what older songs we’re going to be playing because we are going to play some older U2 songs. We’re going to play “Seconds” in just a few minutes but, Edge, of course you picked the show that I didn’t see up in Oakland to do a karaoke version of “San Francisco.”
E: This is true, Jed. I’m sorry. What can I say?
J: So tell everybody. Describe what was on the video screen and then where you sang it and the response you got from the audience at last night’s “Pop Mart” show.
E: I was watching a screen with the lyrics. That was it, unfortunately. We hoped there would be some cheesy images to go with the karaoke visuals but it was just the lyrics. But the people of San Francisco responded with bouquets of flowers which was, I thought, very appropriate and they got into the spirit of it. And they didn’t mind when I completely messed up halfway through the song.
J: Oh you weren’t reading the lyrics off the video screen?
E: Even though I was reading the lyrics on the video screen, I still managed to get lost. It was just one of those great moments which this show affords us. We can do stuff like that when you’ve got a screen. You can do some really cheesy karaoke numbers and it’s a bit of fun.
J: Okay well —
B: A cheddar version.
E: The cheddar —
J: Tammy had a question —
E: What should we do in Los Angeles, by the way? That’s a question.
J: Well yeah that was it. That was going to be it.
B: I think people should send in.
J: Is it going to be “L.A. Woman” or is it going to be “I Love L.A.”? If you guys did “L.A. Woman” — but don’t do a karaoke — just do your own “L.A. Woman.”
A: I think . . .
E: “Hotel California” is another possibility.
A: — a request for “Hotel California.”
J: Your own version or a karaoke version?
B: Can you get a karaoke version of “Hotel California” because, if you can —
J: Please don’t think about that.
B: — that’s the one. That is the one. That would be brilliant.
J: Please do your own version of it. Please don’t make me listen to studio musicians replicating an Eagles song.
B: You have something against elevator music?
J: (laughs) Actually no. Actually I heard “No Rain” by —
B: That’s where we’re all going . . .
A: I thought The Eagles were studio musicians.
J: Yeah, they kind of are. Maybe your right. Okay we have U2 in the studio here all last year recording Pop, spending this year and part of next year with “Pop Mart” — big project. Do you guys have anything else to do but work on this tour while you’re on tour? Do you get any time to yourselves at all? I’m getting a frown from Larry.
E: It’s a bit of a sore subject, Jed.
A: . . . no tea party, unfortunately.
E: The old time off issue. We don’t — we haven’t really had a day off in a while. We have non-show days but —
A: It’s very hard for us —
E: — watch the whinjing rock star. Listen.
A: Okay.
B: Watch the whinjing rock star.
J: The whinjing rock star. (laughs)
A: Be careful.
E: I’m getting dagger looks from Bono across the studio. He hates that. Seriously, it’s been fun. It’s been hard but fun putting it together.
B: It’s been hard fun.
E: Hard fun?
J: Well answer the question.
E: That’s the best kind of fun. What is the question again?
J: Do you have any time to yourself? Just not in a long time?
E: We have. No, we do. We sleep four or five hours every night.
J: God — you mean every morning?
A: We get to be in U2 every day which is pretty good fun. That’s alright. We’ve always got something on every night. We get to see a show.
J: Okay. That’s Adam. That’s great. Okay, so a follow-up question to that would be: do the logistics of doing such a big tour and having it be this all-consuming thing compromise the performance?
B: You’re looking at me?
J: Yeah.
B: You’re looking at me? Have you got a problem with that?
J: “You’re looking at me?”
B: Well I don’t know. Every — people — when we played the Tibetan show there — the free Tibetan concert organized by Adam Yarch of the Beastie Boys.
J: Right — a week and a half ago in New York.
B: Yeah, we played at that in New York and it was just a stripped down thing. You know we just turned up with a couple of amps and we played and people were going, “Wow, that was amazing and it’s great to hear you play like that.” The thing is we play like that every night. It’s just a lot cheap(er).
J: Well it’s not too late. You know you can call your crew and tell them not to put up the big screen. You know, leave the olive in the crate. Just leave it in the truck. We’ll just show up on the stage.
B: But we just play like that anyway. I like all the — I like the opera. I think it’s like — I’ve always liked the big music. I’ve always liked rock and roll to run away with itself. I hate the miserableism that has been around at the end of the ’80s and the start of the ’90s where it was against the law to be in a big band or have big conditions for your music. We want to see how far we can take it. That’s the same thing — we were like that when we were sixteen, you know?
J: I’m talking to my engineer, Rick, here. Do you think you can find something on the little hard disk here that we have about the girl who called yesterday and said — asked that question about selling out? Do you remember what we labeled it as? If you can find it, just play it because I thought it was kind of funny. So Elise asks do you ever get on each other’s nerves? Larry — come on, Larry.
L: No. Never.
J: No? You don’t do any nerve getting oning or —
L: No, I’m a very happy fellow here . . . rose in the garden.
J: Okay, that’s the dysfunctional cousin talking right now. Is there anybody else in the family that gets on each other’s nerves? Adam?
A: No no, not at all.
J: Not even recording?
A: We wear each other’s clothes all the time. It’s fine.
J: Do you ask?
A: Wear each other’s make-up.
J: (laughs) Let’s see. So thanks, Elise. Oh here’s one.
A: I hate it when they don’t put the top back on the toothpaste. That’s what really does my head in.
J: You know I got to admit I was checking out your toilet articles the other night when I was using your bathroom.
B: You know what they say. The group that flosses together —
J: Right. These are healthy people. Okay, do you have that little bit? Okay.
B: What was it, anyway?
J: Alright, we’ll play it in just a second? I’ll go over there and look for it. Alright we got U2 here at 106.7 KROQ. Here is “Seconds.” We’ll be right back.
V: Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr. will control all that you see and hear. U2’s “Pop Invasion.”
. . . They’re doing the atomic bomb,Do they know where the dance comes from?Yes, they’re doing the atomic bomb,They want you to sing along . . .
V: Erica’s been living a lie.
V: Man, you’re so pathetic.
V: Maria’s been paying the price.
(blip)
V: Lying around all day smoking pot.
V: Erica knows what she has to do.
V: Watching these stupid reruns.
V: Pop invasion. Pop invasion. Pop invasion. Pop invasion.
V: U2’s “Pop Invasion.”
J: Wow, that was so weird. I thought I was listening to a commercial but that was our own jingle. Alright, it’s Jed The Fish in the studio with U2 and, Edge, I forgot to point out that that was one of your requests for an older U2 song. What do you like about “Seconds” that we just played?
B: He sings it.
E: I sing it. (laughter) I’m sorry you didn’t know that, Jed.
J: I didn’t know that. Alright, let’s go to Ted from Tarzana. He’s on the phone. He has a question for U2 “Pop Invasion.” Hello there.
T: How are you doing?
J: Can you guys all hear? Okay. Whip it out, Ted.
T: Well I just want to ask the question — so much popularity of Irish folk dancing and, like, James Galloway music with the Celtic — is there any type of music like that or indigenous music at all that has helped you guys’ influence with your music or your style — if anything like that at all?
J: Okay. Do you understand the question?
B: Larry likes folk. Do you want to answer that? Larry can do some folkdancing for you.
J: Okay.
L: Live on radio.
J: He’s actually going to —
L: I’m actually going to do some folk dancing.
J: Bono is standing up on the counter right here while Larry responds to the question. Would you lean in the microphone, please . . .
L: I need a bit of a beat there for Bono, a bit of a jig.
B: Well can I just say this? First of all, what they did to us in Ireland — okay, they actually castrated our dance movement. We had a dance movement and it was a fantastic thing but I’m going to show you what happened to it. This is how you’re supposed to Irish dance.
E: He’s standing on the desk. He’s moving. (thumping sounds) The legs are moving up and down.
J: Okay. Did you see? He did it. He had, like, his feet going behind his calves and everything and it was like a little —
B: Well did you notice there was no pelvis involved?
J: No pelvis.
B: You see, that was the problem. That’s why we needed Elvis . . .
J: Okay, we don’t need “Lord of the Dance.” We need “Bored of the Dance” and, anyway, thank you very much for your question.
T: Is there any way of — I haven’t been able to get tickets. Is there any way of getting tickets?
J: Alright, we’ll put you in front row. Hang on.
T: Alright. Thanks — (laughter)
J: Alright, let’s play that caller that came in yesterday.
C: My question is their style has changed so much over the years and I’m wondering if they feel that they’ve sold out to the corporation.
J: What does ‘sell out’ mean?
C: Sell out? It just means kind of altering their style for the corporation.
B: I missed that one.
J: For the corporation?
J: Oh I’m sorry. Play it one more time for Bono because he’s really going to want to respond to this. He didn’t know that he had to have his headphones on. (question is again played)
C: Yeah.
J: Oh you mean like for Polygram?
C: Yeah.
J: Yeah. I’ll have to talk to those dicks over at Polygram and see if they’re making U2 change their style.
C: No, you know what I mean. . . .
J: (laughs) They call the tour “Pop Mart” for heaven sakes.
C: I know.
J: You get to go to the Coliseum this Saturday.
C: You’re kidding.
J: Okay, that’s enough. Alright, go ahead and dig into that one.
B: What was her name again?
J: I don’t remember.
B: Or shall we just call her sir?
J: Yeah, just call her sir. (laughs)
B: I think if people think that we have to change our style in order to sell records, they should just look at the charts right now because we’re not in the top twenty and, in fact, what we have to deal with is people telling us, “Why do you keep changing your style?” because that’s actually the most commercial thing to do would be to just keep doing the same thing over and over again.
E: Oh yeah, we didn’t think of that.
J: (laughs) Edge says, “Oh yeah, we didn’t think of that.”
E: Wow.
B: So I understand — well the thing really is — is that it’s really important to know that — I mean we’re not also being deliberately obscure by wanting to change our style. We’re motivated by very selfish goals, alright, but it’s just trying to keep ourselves turned on and trying to keep ourselves interested and that’s what we’re at. And even “Pop Mart” — you know we’re trying to be honest about the size of the group, the scale of the event, the fact that it is a commercial enterprise and that we’re selling tickets. Now a lot of rock and roll groups won’t admit to that and they won’t admit to the fact that they’re actually being paid by the folk that come to see them. (“BUT”) We’re conscious of that and that’s — no, that’s something that we’re trying to put across in this show.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: WHEN I HEARD “NO” ON THE MICROCASSETTE I THOUGHT IT MIGHT BE A SPIRIT MESSAGE. I HAVE BEEN NOTICING THIS PHENOMENA WHERE PEOPLE SAY “NO” IN THE MIDDLE OF A SENTENCE AND IT REMINDS ME OF DAVID JOHN OATES’S WORK WITH SPEECH REVERSALS. I RECENTLY HEARD ON THE RADIO A COMMENT BY MONICA SELES WHERE SHE SAID “NO” IN THE MIDDLE OF A SENTENCE WHILE COMMENTING ABOUT HOW ENTHUSIASTIC SHE WAS ABOUT PLAYING TENNIS AT THIS TIME IN HER LIFE. ON SOME OCCASIONS—NOT THE ONE INVOLVING SELES—PEOPLE MAY BE CONDENSING “YOU KNOW” TO “NO.”)
B: You don’t get this in dance music or hip-hop. In hip-hop people are proud of their, you know, achieving — they’re proud that they’re putting on a big show and people are coming to see it but in white music and in a lot of alternative rock, at least in the last few years, you get this kind of fake modesty.
J: Almost a myth of crud.
B: Yeah and it’s over and the ’90s aren’t about that. It’s about actually taking it on and being honest about the fact that when you were sixteen you wanted to be in a big band and take it as far as you could but the other thing that that demands is not kissing ass. And I don’t think you could ever point to a — you know, in the last fifteen years, we’ve never had to kiss ass. We’ve never had anyone from Island Records or Polygram ever try to tell us what to do and pretty much they stay out of our way, which is the genius of Island Records and we’re, no, we have an independent spirit as a group and we still have now.
J: Is Chris Blackwell a vampire?
B: Chris Blackwell is a vampire.
J: (laughs)
E: He’s a Jamaican pirate.
B: He’s a great gentleman and has been long-suffering, I’m sure, in the various different directions we’ve taken but has always supported us. No, they just get out of our way. It’s very cool.
J: He’s the president of Island Records. Okay I want to play Audioweb right now. Who wants to set up “Bank Robber” here on 106.7?
E: Adam.
J: Adam, be the DJ.
A: This is “Bank Robber.” This is Audioweb. They’re from Manchester.
My daddy was a bank robber.He never hurt nobody. . . .
J: It’s 106.7 KROQ. U2 “Pop Invasion.” And we just played something from Audioweb. Okay, how did you guys find Audioweb? It’s on Mother Records, which is kind of the U2 label.
A: It’s a label that we don’t have as much to do with now as we used to. We kind of handed it over to a guy called Malcolm Dunbar and he found this band Audioweb and —
J: Great band. I played them on “The Catch of the Day” like a month and a half ago.
A: And it’s a great record, great album, really good band and we thought you might be interested in hearing it. It’s also a song that The Clash made famous as well so —
J: That’s right. From their first album. It’s an old song. Alright, we’ll be right back with “Pop Invasion” on 106.7 KROQ.
V: Make more money.
V: What the hell, I’ve got exactly what you need.
V: Take care of everything.
V: You’re the bread winner.
V: American dream.
V: Buy one of everything.
V: Get the second one free free free free free free.
V: U2’s “Pop Invasion” will be back.
V: Why can’t I get a girlfriend like her?
R: You’re listening to “Faded,” the new single from Ben Harper . . .
( . . . )
R: When it’s time for you to get behind the wheel of a BMW, consider this deal from Pacific BMW in Glendale . . .
( . . . )
R: Reno Air to Vegas?
R: Oh Yeah Reno Air is your best bet to Vegas . . .
( . . . )
R: It’s happening now. The police are checking proof of liability insurance during all routine traffic stops . . .
( . . . )
V: And eat them before they eat you.
V: Over the years this old wagon has served our bunch well.
V: Brought to you by Power Bar . . . And now our first casualty.
V: Pop invasion.
V: The U2 “Pop Invasion” radio show.
V: It’s new.
(blip)
V: I love it.
V: Pick one up today.
J: Okay it’s Jed The Fish. 106.7 KROQ. And we’re going to be giving out a number — a different number in just a little while so don’t let it throw you. That’s when the rest of the country is going to join us. But for the next few minutes, we’ve got U2 here at 106.7 KROQ. I had the pleasure of interviewing one of your old producers, Brian Eno, a few years ago and he said some very nice things about you. I said, “Well, is the nature of song structure in pop music going to change: verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus — is there anybody that’s going to come along and change that?” And he goes, “Well actually U2 has because they do it in a very subtle way but they have lots of different parts to their music that a lot of bands don’t have.” And I’ve seen some photographs of the song diagrams that Larry’s made because I guess the drummer kind of has to sort of know the song first. (laughs) And another great thing —
B: That’s the theory.
J: Yeah. Another great thing you said is that, Bono, you’re his favorite voice period. Isn’t that a great thing to say?
B: That is a hell of a thing to say because I don’t really think of myself as a singer at all so that’s always nice if people like your voice. (“I’VE”) I personally think I sound like a girl and —
J: (laughs)
B: — especially on the early records.
E: What’s wrong with girls . . .
B: The macho side of me had a problem with that but, you know, I started smoking cigarettes to see what I could do. But, no, I still sound like a girl.
J: What were some of the little pranks because he likes to play little tricks in the studio and little reindeer games and stuff like that? Did he do any —
B: Reindeer games?
J: Yeah.
B: Whoa.
J: You know the — what are they called? The —
B: Oblique strategies.
J: The oblique strategies.
B: What’s extraordinary about Brian Eno is that he’s coming to music from such a different perspective and he loves pop and he loves doo wop and he loves gospel. And then he likes seriously hardcore stuff. You know — and he invented ambient music. A lot of the new styles that have been around in the last few years — Brian was there at their genesis. Like twenty years ago. He’s an extraordinary and luminous mind. But in the studio —
J: Luminous — great word.
B: — he’s — thanks — great shirt.
J: (laughs)
B: But in the studio he just doesn’t let things go asleep. That’s his best thing because, you know, if you go and see rock bands in studios, they’re sitting in there watching the television and kind of eating Chinese takeaway and Brian’s not like that at all. He’s just like having a firecracker around because he’s constantly attacking things. He tried to wipe “Where The Streets Have No Name,” for instance — that was one of his things — (“HE FORGOT”) because we were working on it for too long and a great engineer —
J: He came along and (“YEAH”) tried to wipe it out — (“YOUR”) erase it in other words?
B: Yeah. There’s a great engineer called Pat McCarthy who pinned him to the wall to try and stop that. And, thankfully, he did because there was no other recording of it so it turned out okay.
J: Okay we’re playing “Slug” right now.
B: Oh good. That’s the spirit of Brian. This is a record we made with him when we put him in charge and we formed a group called Passengers. And this is a real magic hour song, I think, so yeah stick it on.
J: It’s 107.6 KROQ.
. . . Don’t want to be a slug. . . .Don’t want what I deserve. . . .
J: (during song) KROQ FM, Pasadena, Los Angeles.
V: With any other plastic wrap.
V: A low $94 a month payment.
V: Make food better.
V: More cottony soft fiber than the leading brand.
V: “Pop Mart.”
V: We don’t think we could afford that.
V: In actual touch tests.
V: Attention “Pop Mart” shoppers.
V: 24% more.
V: U2 “Pop Invasion.”
V: For ultrasoft comfort for your family — soft, thick Kleenex.
V: The radio station has been taken over by U2’s “Pop Invasion.”
V: Here’s U2: Adam, Larry, Bono, The Edge with Jed The Fish live from Burbank.
V: New York, London, Paris, Munich. Everybody talk about pop music.
J: Well good evening. I’m glad you could make it. Hey, it’s Jed The Fish and this is “Pop Invasion” with U2 and we’re having a blast. We’re in the KROQ studios here in Burbank and we’re so glad that U2 made it because everybody in the whole building gets to drink. I mean we’ve got booze all over the place and everybody — it’s like a free day here. And so thank you very much for making it, you guys.
B: Yeah and — can you hear me?
J: Yeah, I can hear you.
B: Yeah. Oh well I — (“YEAH”) somebody close enough, (“I”) Noel Gallagher from Oasis, that said, “Pop stands for paddies on the piss.”
J: (laughs) And paddies are what? Irishmen? Is that right?
B: We are. Yes.
J: Okay. I just had to get that straight. Okay so U2 Spice is here — Nutmeg Larry, Bono Basil, Edgy Spice and Adam Paprika and they have mounted this beautiful . . . (I tried to improve the audio quality on my receiver here) . . . that they insist is fun to do. Something about having these giant toys to play with and play a rock concert. It’s called “Pop Mart.” So we have a question here. By the way, if you want to give us a call it’s (gives number). And also we’re going to play some songs that U2 has picked out. Alright, somebody called and said — oh this is hysterical because they didn’t get the name of the tour right. Okay, okay — (“I[T]”) Edge, could you read this in the microphone and be sure and pronounce every syllable so you get the essence of the question?
E: (small laugh) This is how it is: “Why the hell did you call this the Pot Mark tour? I don’t get it.” The answer is, well, you wouldn’t because we didn’t.
J: See, I don’t understand if they’re like a league ahead of us there and tormenting us and (“YOU KNOW”) tormenting us with their disinformation or whether they actually don’t know it’s called “Pop Mart.” No — the essence of their question is what I was going to ask you about the concept of “Pop Mart.” Who understands that the least in the band so we’ll have them answer the question.
B: I do but I think Adam should put things right.
A: “Pop Mart.”
J: Alright, the concept of “Pop Mart.”
E: Adam’s Pop Smart.
J: Right.
A: Actually I don’t really understand it but I think it’s got something to do with if we didn’t do it, somebody else would.
J: (laughs) How — let’s see — Edge, how was the writing process different for the Pop album which took a long, arduous year that you had no idea it was going to take that long?
E: I don’t think it was any different really. U2 albums are all the same. You go in and you have a couple of ideas and some mates. And you just try and come out at the other end with some great songs. And in order to do that you have to go down some strange avenues, do a lot of experiments and try and hold your nerve.
J: What were some of the experiments that did not work? That did not end up on the Pop album?
E: Well I think we pushed things very much in a direction of loops and samples. And we enjoyed that for a while but when it came down to mixing the album, we discovered that the thing that we were most interested in was the sound of the band and so, in a lot of cases, loops were thrown out the window. Basically, we played everything as a band. That’s basically a testimony to the sound and the chemistry of the musicians. No, we had some great arrangements with loops but it just wasn’t it.
B: We tried a few Spice Girls covers.
J: You did?
B: It didn’t really come off. We were going to call ourselves the Spice Brothers.
A: The accordion tunes didn’t work out either. The accordions and the mandolins — we left them behind.
J: This is U2 “Pop Invasion” and, by the way—Jed The Fish—thank you very much for having me on your radio station. I’m being a guest on your radio station and I appreciate it. So what the — (laughter) yeah because they don’t have to have us there. I guess I’m only there because you’re here but, anyway, it sounds like there could be, like, a second album in the mid-tour if you really wanted to rework some of those loop and Howie B-type stuff that you were using that didn’t make it onto the Pop album. It seems like if you wanted to take a few weeks out, you could put out another album the same way you put out the Zooropa album.
E: That’s a possibility. We’re also using up some of the outtakes as B-sides. We’ve got some fantastic B-sides coming out on the singles and a couple of other tunes are making their way into movies and whatever. That’s always the way. You end up with — at the end of an album you’ve always got about a dozen outtakes that didn’t quite make the record but some of them are really special.
J: Bono, you just untied my shoelace and that’s making me uncomfortable. Can’t you see I picked these shoes specifically —
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: THE FIRST SIDE OF THE REGULAR CASSETTE ENDED HERE. SIDE TWO BEGINS AS FOLLOWS.)
J: . . . a year in New York City. Just step up to the microphone and talk about what you learned about your craft in New York City.
L: Well myself and Adam spent about a year over two years in New York just —
J: I mean what was your intent going to New York?
L: To basically try and learn how to use machines, understand how loops work, try and learn how to play the drums properly, learn how to play base and stuff like that.
E: (laughs)
J: Now what did you learn about playing the drums in New York?
E: And the tap-dancing, Larry. What about the tap-dancing?
L: I actually went to Boston to a guy down there to a guy who was a drum doctor and he just told me I should go back and play the piano so that’s basically the story. So it was a failure as far as drums were concerned but I learned how to use a computer, to make loops —
J: Which kind of computer?
L: It was a Mac actually.
J: A Mac but you guys sold out to the Microsoft Network — your new website is up right now u2popmart.msn.com and I want to know — Bill Gates — how much did he give you? Was it in the terabytes? Was it in the billions of terabytes? How much ram was it?
E: He’s given us flesh. He’s actually given us flesh. He’s given us lots of fantastic men and women to actually do a great website. That’s what he’s given us.
J: That’s good because it takes a full-time job to do a good website — probably a whole staff of people.
E: Well there aren’t any, unfortunately. That’s the problem with the Internet is there’s a lot of not very interesting stuff out there so — and we’re lucky in some ways that we have the best websites out there but they’re all run by our fans. So we reckoned if we were going to do something ourselves, we were actually going to have to work very hard to do something better than the U2 fans on the Internet were doing already so we were lucky enough to be able to do something with Microsoft and they’ve helped us with a lot of personnel and a lot of hardware and software and men’s wear and it’s looking great.
J: And the fact is you guys must have a lot of pictures, a lot of pieces of audio that you can use and just really don’t have any place for — you know, worthwhile stuff — so why not put them up on a website? Right?
E: Well yes and no. The thing is trying to do something that hasn’t been done before. There’s no end of useless U2 information but actually putting together something that people are going to be interested to go and check out. That’s the real prize and we’ve got some ideas. Some really interesting ideas.
J: Okay and this is —
B: Adam’s brother Sebastian . . .
J: I’m sorry — oh Adam’s brother Sebastian is working on it?
B: Yeah and so the site’s coming from us and that’s the important thing. You have to be involved. You can’t farm it out completely.
J: Okay. By the way, if you want to go to that website, it’s u2popmart.msn.com. Okay we want to play “Please.” But what we did is we got jingles for all you guys. They’re custom-made jingles. So since you’re taking over this radio station we thought we’d go into a jingle, come out of the jingle with your song and then you’ve got like twenty-three seconds over the intro of “Please” — actually thirty-seven seconds so can you fill up thirty-seven seconds following your jingle over the intro of the song?
B: How do you want us to fill up this whole —
J: Well I would suggest —
B: Holes.
J: — talking about the song, please.
B: Oh that old thing.
J: Alright let’s give it a whack here. It’s U2 “Pop Invasion.”
V: They can design a future world.
V: It’s Bono.
V: The pop invasion.
B: Oh I felt like Desi Arnaz there for a second.
J: (laughs) He had his arms out.
B: Do you want me to talk about this tune?
J: That’s right. You have about thirty seconds left.
B: This is the tune — this is the sleeper on the record. It’s the song that’s, I think, connecting with people the most on the tour because, all the bollocks aside, of the fifty-foot lemon and the screen, it’s about songs—this tour—and this is a great song.
So you never knew love until you crossed the line of grace . . .‘Cause you my love I could never believe.
Q: Why be a passenger when you can be a messenger?
V: Crystal clear CD-quality sound.
V: Pop Mart.
V: Commercial-free, interruption-free.
V: I honestly enjoyed every minute.
V: I love this show.
V: U2’s “Pop Invasion.”
V: Wonderful. It really is. I’m very glad I got it.
J: Hey, it’s Jed The Fish and I need your help. I’ve got U2 here in the studio and we need questions. (gives number) It’s the “Pop Invasion” with U2 and I’m having a little trouble understanding exactly what Howie B’s role was in creating, for instance, “Please,” the song we just heard. What’s the — I mean explain in layman’s terms what a DJ-type remixer can do to inspire a band.
B: Well I mean Howie was more than that in that he produced the record along with Flood and one of the ways that we got to some new places was just, rather than jamming with an extra musician in the studio like, say, The Beatles or The Stones would do to try and get them to a different place, we brought in this DJ. He has a library of other musicians so we could be playing with an orchestra one minute. We could be playing with a conga player. We could be playing with anything. It’s just he’s got everything on tap so we would just jump off and he would set the tempo of the tune with some groove, Larry would start playing with it. I’d just start singing.
J: So, Larry, you found it inspirational as well to use loops?
L: Oh yeah, it was really a lot of fun and the — sort of the general view from a lot of drummers is that technology and loops are sort of destroying the culture. Well I feel the opposite. I feel like bring on more because it really helps you out.
J: And that’s part of what you did when you went to New York is to embrace that whole movement rather than run from it.
L: Yes, I wanted to learn how to do it myself and it was great working with Howie. And I did some stuff with him. Then I went back in and did my own things and played . . . which was sort of nice as well so I didn’t feel like I was stealing from the thieves.
J: . . . Who is Nelly Hooper and what have you guys done with him so far?
B: Nelly produced the “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” thing we did for “Batman.”
J: Ohh. The last “Batman.”
B: Yeah. He also produced the thing for the Marvin Gaye tribute album that I did, “Save The Children.” He’s just a great kind of — he’s just a great source. He’s just a great — he has a great set of ears and pretty good nose.
J: Enough about him. Let’s talk about his girlfriend.
B: What’s that? Yes.
J: Let’s talk about his girlfriend.
B: She was extraordinary.
J: (laughs) Yeah.
B: Yes.
J: Where’d he get her? And what does she see in guys named Nelly?
B: Well she like the rest of us thinks that Nelly Hooper is a big black guy.
J: Ohh.
B: When she finds out he’s a short guy from Bristol, it’s (“ALL”) — it doesn’t seem to put her off.
J: Okay, we’re going to go to the phones right now since you’ve been nice enough to call (gives number). Would this happen to be someone named Heather from Kansas City?
H: It sure is.
J: Oh wow, what a miracle. Hello, this is Jed and you have U2 listening to you right now. Do you have a question?
H: Oh yes. Hi, guys. I love you guys. You’re awesome.
B: Awesome’s a great word though, isn’t it?
H: Well it sums it up I think.
J: It can kind of mean anything but it is a great word.
B: It is. The Americans use it better than anyone else. In Ireland we say awful. And the English say you are awful.
H: Well what I wanted to know is how did you like making the video “Last Night On Earth” here?
B: That was a trip. They closed down Kansas City there for a day and that was fun. The mayor was out. He was very cool. He thought it was fine to have a rock and roll band run riot through his city. We were making a good film. It’s going to be out next week. We had Bill Burroughs, which has got to be the greatest American writer — greatest living writer. He was in our video.
J: He’s got the greatest voice. Sort of gravelly.
B: Yeah. We asked Bill — William Burroughs has a thing with guns. He does paintings with guns and he does he does a lot of things with guns actually. We asked him about his guns that day and he said, “Well I don’t have the guns with me right now but I have quite a cane. Check out my cane.”
J: (laughs) That’s a great Bill Burroughs (imitation).
B: And he unscrewed the top of his cane and he pulled out a two-foot saber that was laying inside and he chased us down the street. So our memories of Kansas City were really something. And we went out in Kansas City and there was a lot of great club music. In fact, the whole thing was pretty extraordinary. I had a great time. Thanks, Heather.
H: Great.
J: Thanks a lot. Heather.
H: Thank you very much.
J: Alright. Thank you. Okay. You like Heather can call too. (gives number) We’ll be right back with more “Pop Invasion” with U2.
V: I feel great.
V: “Pop Mart.”
V: Space offspring.
V: Open your mouth.
V: Time for commercialism.
V: You can’t take it with you.
V: Spend all your money.
V: Buy everything.
V: Big sale.
V: You do.
V: The pop invasion.
V: Will be back.
V: Purchase everything.
R: This is Agnes Gooch . . .
( . . . )
R: . . . Labor Day weekend. It’s the first annual Ford Los Angeles Grand Prix Vintage Race . . . race through L.A.’s new cultural and historic district . . . see nearly fifty million dollars worth of Ferraris on display . . . Proceeds benefit the LAPD Widows and Children’s Pension and the City Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect.
( . . . )
R: The Universal Amphitheatre and Pepsi presenta “Rockenvasion ’97.”
( . . . )
R: You need a pager at a great price so listen to this . . .
( . . . )
V: Erica’s been living a lie.
V: Man, you’re so pathetic.
V: Maria’s been paying the price.
(blip)
V: Lying around all day smoking pot.
V: Erica knows what she has to do.
V: Watching these stupid reruns.
V: Pop invasion. Pop Invasion. Pop invasion. Pop invasion.
V: U2’s “Pop Invasion.”
( . . . )
J: Alright. Well that means that U2 is in the studio and we’re borrowing your radio station here. U2 — going to do a version of “Pop Mart” tomorrow night here in Los Angeles where we are and, you guys, do people ever try to meet you and act like they don’t know who you are — (“NO”) like they don’t know they’re talking to a famous person like when you just encounter people? Has that ever happened?
B: Yeah. Frank Sinatra was like that. (laughter)
J: Have you ever made just a complete idiot out of yourself when you’re — you really want to meet someone — you’ve idolized someone forever and then you just open your mouth and just say what you think is totally the wrong thing and get embarrassed?
B: Yeah. I’m really a fan and when I — and I think — funny, all the bands that you meet — all the great bands are always fans as well. You know? It’s just I don’t think you get into a band unless you’re a fan so I do get really — I get awful sometimes when I meet somebody who’s like Lou Reed or somebody whose work just blows me away.
J: And you just kind of get nervous and don’t know what to say to him and —
B: Yeah, I met Lou Reed and he wouldn’t speak to me. I was sitting there. He wouldn’t speak to me for a while and I said to his girlfriend at the time — I said, “Well he really doesn’t — can’t even speak to me?” She said no, he actually can’t speak because at Live Aid we did “Satellite of Love” and . . .
J: Oh.
B: And I just — you know, that was really cool for me to think that we made any kind of impression on Lou Reed.
J: That’s right.
B: And since then we’ve worked with him and he did stuff on “Zoo TV” for us. But when I met him I was shitting.
J Alright, we’ve got the “Pop Invasion” line (gives number) and Angel from New York, do you have a question for U2?
N: Hello.
J: Hi.
N: Hi. Hello Bono, Edge, Larry, Sparky.
A: Hi, how are you doing?
J: What’d she call him? Sparky?
N: Sparky.
J: Oh okay.
N: Throughout the world.
A: I know why I’m called Sparky but why are you called Angel?
N: Well that remains to be seen. Actually —
A: Keep up the good work.
N: (laughs)
J: Quit flirting and ask your question.
N: I wanted to ask you guys about your relationship with the fans. Whether or not it’s changed since the last tour.
B: There are no photographs.
N: Do you guys still enjoy meeting us? You know — when we hang out in front of your hotel?
B: You know what’s getting really hard is there are a lot of professional fans out there now and they’re selling our autographs off and it’s hard to tell the difference sometimes and actually we’ve got, like, fifty people down at the hotel at the moment outside. And there used to be times when we used to have fifty people sleeping on the floor of our rooms and it was — I miss that bit. And it’s hard sometimes to get through the knots to the people who actually are taken away by our music and I miss that but it still happens. You know?
N: Yeah.
J: Okay well thank you for your question. We’ve got to run.
N: Thanks.
J: So we’ve got Bono saying he actually misses the days when fans used to spend the night on their hotel room floors. Alright, Deborah from Des Moines, Iowa, you’re talking to U2 “Pop Invasion.”
D: Okay. Hello, everybody.
J: Hello.
D: My question is your last few tours have just gotten bigger and bigger and more spectacular. Do you ever wish that you can go back to doing the smaller clubs college scene?
B: Who wants to answer that one? I don’t mind answering because there is this thing where people glorify — “Oh it was great playing the clubs and I really miss it.” My attitude is if that’s what you think then stay playing the clubs. I’ve always loved, even when we were like fifth on the bill, playing these big places. It’s hard to get 50,000 people to agree on anything and when they’re in one place and they’re agreeing on their love of this band, well then I’m just not going to complain. I love that. As far as the opera and the — or the soap opera of “Pop Mart” and all that stuff, that’s just a way of making it good for people at the back of the stadium. And some of the best seats at our gigs are at the back of the stadium. That’s where — there are people going back there because —
J: Wait a minute. You would sit at the back of a stadium for a U2 show?
B: Yeah, I would and I know Harry B — that’s where he’s spending his time when he’s not working. And I know a lot of people who work for us go up there. There is sometimes a bit of a fog up there because —
J: If you know what I mean.
B: — but I think it’s the place for that kind of a deal. I mean that is what this — all this trouble, all the shenanigans was just about trying to make going to a stadium a really special event because, let’s face it, if you don’t do that, it’s just the worst place in the world to be. Then you should be in a club. But recreating the ’70s and standing in a muddy field where you can’t hear or see anything, I think that’s over. That’s the last century.
J: That’s great. I mean it’s how they take it to the next level. It’s U2 on “Pop Invasion” talking about the “Pop Mart” tour and how they are able to take it to the next level. Thanks a lot, Deborah.
D: Thank you.
B: Thanks.
( . . . )
Q: Well I just called Scott back and told him I was going to be out of the office all day but I think he said it’s a “Morning Madhouse” program so that will be fun for a change of pace.
( . . . )
Q: So it’s Friday afternoon and I just got home. I forgot my tape recorder today.
( . . . )
Q: Let me check my message machine.
( . . . )
S: Hi, Mark. It’s Scott at WRCX Chicago just calling you back. Give me a buzz. (leaves number) Thanks a lot.
( . . . )
Q: Ellen just called and I was sort of teasing her and I said, “Don’t think. Just channel me a message from Mighael. Say whatever comes into your mind.” And she didn’t say anything because she was thinking about what to say. So I kept saying, “Say whatever comes into your mind.” So she finally just said, “Boo hoo hoo.” So I explained to her, of course, what that means.
( . . . )
Q: So I gave another reading today at the Hotline. A listener whose name is Maryland Troy Bolds Jr. His mother’s maiden name is Morrison. He shares his father’s middle name of Troy. Luckily, Pat was there. She’s an expert on the Trojan War. One of her favorite periods. So I told him that I think he must be very God conscious to have both R and A and AN combinations in his name plus his last name Bolds is interesting. Of course, it has old in it. He probably is an Old King. I think most people who volunteer at the Hotline are Old Kings because they’re obviously very spiritually aware in terms of giving back to others and serving society. So Pat threw out a few names of the principles involved in the Trojan War and I think Maryland’s the reincarnation of Paris. Not Odysseus or Hector but Paris. In fact, there’s the same AR combination in his name. By the way, he does know Helen. I asked him and he said he knew her. He’s very artistic in this life. He paints and things.
( . . . )
Q: So the other U2 extra ticket is going to Marie’s friend, Wendy, the one who lost the jewelry at the Music Center that time. I guess Mighael wanted those tickets for those two of Marie’s friends. Mine’s going to be available at Will Call two hours before the concert under my name — thanks to my brother and Rogers & Cowan.
( . . . )
Q: One thing about living right on the beach is that radio reception can be really bad.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: THE FOLLOWING IS A TRANSCRIPT OF A U2 RADIO INTERVIEW TRANSMITTED FROM KROQ IN BURBANK. I WASN’T HOME FOR THE BEGINNING OF THE SHOW AND FIRST TAPED ONTO REGULAR CASSETTES. I ORIGINALLY TAPED EXCERPTS ONTO MICROCASSETTES BUT RETURNED TO THE CASSETTES TO OFFER A FULLER TRANSCRIPT SO THAT NOTHING WOULD BE TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT. THE LINE THAT FOLLOWS IS FROM A SONG THAT AIRED JUST BEFORE I BEGAN RECORDING THE INTERVIEW IN PROGRESS.)
. . . Well remember when I moved in youAnd the holy dove was moving tooAnd every breath we drew was hallelujah . . .
V: I feel great.
V: “Pop Mart.”
V: Space offspring.
V: Open your mouth.
V: Time for commercialism.
V: You can’t take it with you.
V: Spend all your money.
V: Buy everything.
V: Big sale.
V: You do.
V: The pop invasion.
V: Will be back.
V: Purchase everything.
R: This is Agnes Gooch. . .
( . . . )
R: They’ll be blasting through the streets of Los Angeles on Labor Day weekend. . .
( . . . )
R: The Universal Amphitheatre and Pepsi presenta “Rockenvasion ’97” . . .
( . . . )
R: You need a pager at a great price . . .
( . . . )
V: This is U2’s “Pop Invasion.”
J: (laughs) We have U2 here in the studio on 106.7 KROQ and actually, Bono, you were sort of pointing out something you really admired about Jeff Buckley as a singer during that last song. Could you share that with our audience please?
B: Oh just envious — just raw envy. It was just that last coda on that last tune. It’s a Leonard Cohen song.
J: Extended note about twenty-two seconds.
B: He lasts — well yeah, twenty-two seconds of just singing without a new breath. It’s not important to the outside world —
J: And it’s emotive.
B: — but for me as a — you know it’s very . . . (hard to make out — humbling?)
J: Well the reason why I thought it was important was because it was meaningful to you and if there’s anybody listening to the Jeff Buckley song and appreciative of the comments we made just before that, they can just know that Bono was sitting here admiring the very same thing.
B: Yeah, I was.
J: Alright it’s U2 “Pop Invasion.” Tammy . . . just walked in with her singles right now. We’re trying to figure out exactly what older songs we’re going to be playing because we are going to play some older U2 songs. We’re going to play “Seconds” in just a few minutes but, Edge, of course you picked the show that I didn’t see up in Oakland to do a karaoke version of “San Francisco.”
E: This is true, Jed. I’m sorry. What can I say?
J: So tell everybody. Describe what was on the video screen and then where you sang it and the response you got from the audience at last night’s “Pop Mart” show.
E: I was watching a screen with the lyrics. That was it, unfortunately. We hoped there would be some cheesy images to go with the karaoke visuals but it was just the lyrics. But the people of San Francisco responded with bouquets of flowers which was, I thought, very appropriate and they got into the spirit of it. And they didn’t mind when I completely messed up halfway through the song.
J: Oh you weren’t reading the lyrics off the video screen?
E: Even though I was reading the lyrics on the video screen, I still managed to get lost. It was just one of those great moments which this show affords us. We can do stuff like that when you’ve got a screen. You can do some really cheesy karaoke numbers and it’s a bit of fun.
J: Okay well —
B: A cheddar version.
E: The cheddar —
J: Tammy had a question —
E: What should we do in Los Angeles, by the way? That’s a question.
J: Well yeah that was it. That was going to be it.
B: I think people should send in.
J: Is it going to be “L.A. Woman” or is it going to be “I Love L.A.”? If you guys did “L.A. Woman” — but don’t do a karaoke — just do your own “L.A. Woman.”
A: I think . . .
E: “Hotel California” is another possibility.
A: — a request for “Hotel California.”
J: Your own version or a karaoke version?
B: Can you get a karaoke version of “Hotel California” because, if you can —
J: Please don’t think about that.
B: — that’s the one. That is the one. That would be brilliant.
J: Please do your own version of it. Please don’t make me listen to studio musicians replicating an Eagles song.
B: You have something against elevator music?
J: (laughs) Actually no. Actually I heard “No Rain” by —
B: That’s where we’re all going . . .
A: I thought The Eagles were studio musicians.
J: Yeah, they kind of are. Maybe your right. Okay we have U2 in the studio here all last year recording Pop, spending this year and part of next year with “Pop Mart” — big project. Do you guys have anything else to do but work on this tour while you’re on tour? Do you get any time to yourselves at all? I’m getting a frown from Larry.
E: It’s a bit of a sore subject, Jed.
A: . . . no tea party, unfortunately.
E: The old time off issue. We don’t — we haven’t really had a day off in a while. We have non-show days but —
A: It’s very hard for us —
E: — watch the whinjing rock star. Listen.
A: Okay.
B: Watch the whinjing rock star.
J: The whinjing rock star. (laughs)
A: Be careful.
E: I’m getting dagger looks from Bono across the studio. He hates that. Seriously, it’s been fun. It’s been hard but fun putting it together.
B: It’s been hard fun.
E: Hard fun?
J: Well answer the question.
E: That’s the best kind of fun. What is the question again?
J: Do you have any time to yourself? Just not in a long time?
E: We have. No, we do. We sleep four or five hours every night.
J: God — you mean every morning?
A: We get to be in U2 every day which is pretty good fun. That’s alright. We’ve always got something on every night. We get to see a show.
J: Okay. That’s Adam. That’s great. Okay, so a follow-up question to that would be: do the logistics of doing such a big tour and having it be this all-consuming thing compromise the performance?
B: You’re looking at me?
J: Yeah.
B: You’re looking at me? Have you got a problem with that?
J: “You’re looking at me?”
B: Well I don’t know. Every — people — when we played the Tibetan show there — the free Tibetan concert organized by Adam Yarch of the Beastie Boys.
J: Right — a week and a half ago in New York.
B: Yeah, we played at that in New York and it was just a stripped down thing. You know we just turned up with a couple of amps and we played and people were going, “Wow, that was amazing and it’s great to hear you play like that.” The thing is we play like that every night. It’s just a lot cheap(er).
J: Well it’s not too late. You know you can call your crew and tell them not to put up the big screen. You know, leave the olive in the crate. Just leave it in the truck. We’ll just show up on the stage.
B: But we just play like that anyway. I like all the — I like the opera. I think it’s like — I’ve always liked the big music. I’ve always liked rock and roll to run away with itself. I hate the miserableism that has been around at the end of the ’80s and the start of the ’90s where it was against the law to be in a big band or have big conditions for your music. We want to see how far we can take it. That’s the same thing — we were like that when we were sixteen, you know?
J: I’m talking to my engineer, Rick, here. Do you think you can find something on the little hard disk here that we have about the girl who called yesterday and said — asked that question about selling out? Do you remember what we labeled it as? If you can find it, just play it because I thought it was kind of funny. So Elise asks do you ever get on each other’s nerves? Larry — come on, Larry.
L: No. Never.
J: No? You don’t do any nerve getting oning or —
L: No, I’m a very happy fellow here . . . rose in the garden.
J: Okay, that’s the dysfunctional cousin talking right now. Is there anybody else in the family that gets on each other’s nerves? Adam?
A: No no, not at all.
J: Not even recording?
A: We wear each other’s clothes all the time. It’s fine.
J: Do you ask?
A: Wear each other’s make-up.
J: (laughs) Let’s see. So thanks, Elise. Oh here’s one.
A: I hate it when they don’t put the top back on the toothpaste. That’s what really does my head in.
J: You know I got to admit I was checking out your toilet articles the other night when I was using your bathroom.
B: You know what they say. The group that flosses together —
J: Right. These are healthy people. Okay, do you have that little bit? Okay.
B: What was it, anyway?
J: Alright, we’ll play it in just a second? I’ll go over there and look for it. Alright we got U2 here at 106.7 KROQ. Here is “Seconds.” We’ll be right back.
V: Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr. will control all that you see and hear. U2’s “Pop Invasion.”
. . . They’re doing the atomic bomb,Do they know where the dance comes from?Yes, they’re doing the atomic bomb,They want you to sing along . . .
V: Erica’s been living a lie.
V: Man, you’re so pathetic.
V: Maria’s been paying the price.
(blip)
V: Lying around all day smoking pot.
V: Erica knows what she has to do.
V: Watching these stupid reruns.
V: Pop invasion. Pop invasion. Pop invasion. Pop invasion.
V: U2’s “Pop Invasion.”
J: Wow, that was so weird. I thought I was listening to a commercial but that was our own jingle. Alright, it’s Jed The Fish in the studio with U2 and, Edge, I forgot to point out that that was one of your requests for an older U2 song. What do you like about “Seconds” that we just played?
B: He sings it.
E: I sing it. (laughter) I’m sorry you didn’t know that, Jed.
J: I didn’t know that. Alright, let’s go to Ted from Tarzana. He’s on the phone. He has a question for U2 “Pop Invasion.” Hello there.
T: How are you doing?
J: Can you guys all hear? Okay. Whip it out, Ted.
T: Well I just want to ask the question — so much popularity of Irish folk dancing and, like, James Galloway music with the Celtic — is there any type of music like that or indigenous music at all that has helped you guys’ influence with your music or your style — if anything like that at all?
J: Okay. Do you understand the question?
B: Larry likes folk. Do you want to answer that? Larry can do some folkdancing for you.
J: Okay.
L: Live on radio.
J: He’s actually going to —
L: I’m actually going to do some folk dancing.
J: Bono is standing up on the counter right here while Larry responds to the question. Would you lean in the microphone, please . . .
L: I need a bit of a beat there for Bono, a bit of a jig.
B: Well can I just say this? First of all, what they did to us in Ireland — okay, they actually castrated our dance movement. We had a dance movement and it was a fantastic thing but I’m going to show you what happened to it. This is how you’re supposed to Irish dance.
E: He’s standing on the desk. He’s moving. (thumping sounds) The legs are moving up and down.
J: Okay. Did you see? He did it. He had, like, his feet going behind his calves and everything and it was like a little —
B: Well did you notice there was no pelvis involved?
J: No pelvis.
B: You see, that was the problem. That’s why we needed Elvis . . .
J: Okay, we don’t need “Lord of the Dance.” We need “Bored of the Dance” and, anyway, thank you very much for your question.
T: Is there any way of — I haven’t been able to get tickets. Is there any way of getting tickets?
J: Alright, we’ll put you in front row. Hang on.
T: Alright. Thanks — (laughter)
J: Alright, let’s play that caller that came in yesterday.
C: My question is their style has changed so much over the years and I’m wondering if they feel that they’ve sold out to the corporation.
J: What does ‘sell out’ mean?
C: Sell out? It just means kind of altering their style for the corporation.
B: I missed that one.
J: For the corporation?
J: Oh I’m sorry. Play it one more time for Bono because he’s really going to want to respond to this. He didn’t know that he had to have his headphones on. (question is again played)
C: Yeah.
J: Oh you mean like for Polygram?
C: Yeah.
J: Yeah. I’ll have to talk to those dicks over at Polygram and see if they’re making U2 change their style.
C: No, you know what I mean. . . .
J: (laughs) They call the tour “Pop Mart” for heaven sakes.
C: I know.
J: You get to go to the Coliseum this Saturday.
C: You’re kidding.
J: Okay, that’s enough. Alright, go ahead and dig into that one.
B: What was her name again?
J: I don’t remember.
B: Or shall we just call her sir?
J: Yeah, just call her sir. (laughs)
B: I think if people think that we have to change our style in order to sell records, they should just look at the charts right now because we’re not in the top twenty and, in fact, what we have to deal with is people telling us, “Why do you keep changing your style?” because that’s actually the most commercial thing to do would be to just keep doing the same thing over and over again.
E: Oh yeah, we didn’t think of that.
J: (laughs) Edge says, “Oh yeah, we didn’t think of that.”
E: Wow.
B: So I understand — well the thing really is — is that it’s really important to know that — I mean we’re not also being deliberately obscure by wanting to change our style. We’re motivated by very selfish goals, alright, but it’s just trying to keep ourselves turned on and trying to keep ourselves interested and that’s what we’re at. And even “Pop Mart” — you know we’re trying to be honest about the size of the group, the scale of the event, the fact that it is a commercial enterprise and that we’re selling tickets. Now a lot of rock and roll groups won’t admit to that and they won’t admit to the fact that they’re actually being paid by the folk that come to see them. (“BUT”) We’re conscious of that and that’s — no, that’s something that we’re trying to put across in this show.
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: WHEN I HEARD “NO” ON THE MICROCASSETTE I THOUGHT IT MIGHT BE A SPIRIT MESSAGE. I HAVE BEEN NOTICING THIS PHENOMENA WHERE PEOPLE SAY “NO” IN THE MIDDLE OF A SENTENCE AND IT REMINDS ME OF DAVID JOHN OATES’S WORK WITH SPEECH REVERSALS. I RECENTLY HEARD ON THE RADIO A COMMENT BY MONICA SELES WHERE SHE SAID “NO” IN THE MIDDLE OF A SENTENCE WHILE COMMENTING ABOUT HOW ENTHUSIASTIC SHE WAS ABOUT PLAYING TENNIS AT THIS TIME IN HER LIFE. ON SOME OCCASIONS—NOT THE ONE INVOLVING SELES—PEOPLE MAY BE CONDENSING “YOU KNOW” TO “NO.”)
B: You don’t get this in dance music or hip-hop. In hip-hop people are proud of their, you know, achieving — they’re proud that they’re putting on a big show and people are coming to see it but in white music and in a lot of alternative rock, at least in the last few years, you get this kind of fake modesty.
J: Almost a myth of crud.
B: Yeah and it’s over and the ’90s aren’t about that. It’s about actually taking it on and being honest about the fact that when you were sixteen you wanted to be in a big band and take it as far as you could but the other thing that that demands is not kissing ass. And I don’t think you could ever point to a — you know, in the last fifteen years, we’ve never had to kiss ass. We’ve never had anyone from Island Records or Polygram ever try to tell us what to do and pretty much they stay out of our way, which is the genius of Island Records and we’re, no, we have an independent spirit as a group and we still have now.
J: Is Chris Blackwell a vampire?
B: Chris Blackwell is a vampire.
J: (laughs)
E: He’s a Jamaican pirate.
B: He’s a great gentleman and has been long-suffering, I’m sure, in the various different directions we’ve taken but has always supported us. No, they just get out of our way. It’s very cool.
J: He’s the president of Island Records. Okay I want to play Audioweb right now. Who wants to set up “Bank Robber” here on 106.7?
E: Adam.
J: Adam, be the DJ.
A: This is “Bank Robber.” This is Audioweb. They’re from Manchester.
My daddy was a bank robber.He never hurt nobody. . . .
J: It’s 106.7 KROQ. U2 “Pop Invasion.” And we just played something from Audioweb. Okay, how did you guys find Audioweb? It’s on Mother Records, which is kind of the U2 label.
A: It’s a label that we don’t have as much to do with now as we used to. We kind of handed it over to a guy called Malcolm Dunbar and he found this band Audioweb and —
J: Great band. I played them on “The Catch of the Day” like a month and a half ago.
A: And it’s a great record, great album, really good band and we thought you might be interested in hearing it. It’s also a song that The Clash made famous as well so —
J: That’s right. From their first album. It’s an old song. Alright, we’ll be right back with “Pop Invasion” on 106.7 KROQ.
V: Make more money.
V: What the hell, I’ve got exactly what you need.
V: Take care of everything.
V: You’re the bread winner.
V: American dream.
V: Buy one of everything.
V: Get the second one free free free free free free.
V: U2’s “Pop Invasion” will be back.
V: Why can’t I get a girlfriend like her?
R: You’re listening to “Faded,” the new single from Ben Harper . . .
( . . . )
R: When it’s time for you to get behind the wheel of a BMW, consider this deal from Pacific BMW in Glendale . . .
( . . . )
R: Reno Air to Vegas?
R: Oh Yeah Reno Air is your best bet to Vegas . . .
( . . . )
R: It’s happening now. The police are checking proof of liability insurance during all routine traffic stops . . .
( . . . )
V: And eat them before they eat you.
V: Over the years this old wagon has served our bunch well.
V: Brought to you by Power Bar . . . And now our first casualty.
V: Pop invasion.
V: The U2 “Pop Invasion” radio show.
V: It’s new.
(blip)
V: I love it.
V: Pick one up today.
J: Okay it’s Jed The Fish. 106.7 KROQ. And we’re going to be giving out a number — a different number in just a little while so don’t let it throw you. That’s when the rest of the country is going to join us. But for the next few minutes, we’ve got U2 here at 106.7 KROQ. I had the pleasure of interviewing one of your old producers, Brian Eno, a few years ago and he said some very nice things about you. I said, “Well, is the nature of song structure in pop music going to change: verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus — is there anybody that’s going to come along and change that?” And he goes, “Well actually U2 has because they do it in a very subtle way but they have lots of different parts to their music that a lot of bands don’t have.” And I’ve seen some photographs of the song diagrams that Larry’s made because I guess the drummer kind of has to sort of know the song first. (laughs) And another great thing —
B: That’s the theory.
J: Yeah. Another great thing you said is that, Bono, you’re his favorite voice period. Isn’t that a great thing to say?
B: That is a hell of a thing to say because I don’t really think of myself as a singer at all so that’s always nice if people like your voice. (“I’VE”) I personally think I sound like a girl and —
J: (laughs)
B: — especially on the early records.
E: What’s wrong with girls . . .
B: The macho side of me had a problem with that but, you know, I started smoking cigarettes to see what I could do. But, no, I still sound like a girl.
J: What were some of the little pranks because he likes to play little tricks in the studio and little reindeer games and stuff like that? Did he do any —
B: Reindeer games?
J: Yeah.
B: Whoa.
J: You know the — what are they called? The —
B: Oblique strategies.
J: The oblique strategies.
B: What’s extraordinary about Brian Eno is that he’s coming to music from such a different perspective and he loves pop and he loves doo wop and he loves gospel. And then he likes seriously hardcore stuff. You know — and he invented ambient music. A lot of the new styles that have been around in the last few years — Brian was there at their genesis. Like twenty years ago. He’s an extraordinary and luminous mind. But in the studio —
J: Luminous — great word.
B: — he’s — thanks — great shirt.
J: (laughs)
B: But in the studio he just doesn’t let things go asleep. That’s his best thing because, you know, if you go and see rock bands in studios, they’re sitting in there watching the television and kind of eating Chinese takeaway and Brian’s not like that at all. He’s just like having a firecracker around because he’s constantly attacking things. He tried to wipe “Where The Streets Have No Name,” for instance — that was one of his things — (“HE FORGOT”) because we were working on it for too long and a great engineer —
J: He came along and (“YEAH”) tried to wipe it out — (“YOUR”) erase it in other words?
B: Yeah. There’s a great engineer called Pat McCarthy who pinned him to the wall to try and stop that. And, thankfully, he did because there was no other recording of it so it turned out okay.
J: Okay we’re playing “Slug” right now.
B: Oh good. That’s the spirit of Brian. This is a record we made with him when we put him in charge and we formed a group called Passengers. And this is a real magic hour song, I think, so yeah stick it on.
J: It’s 107.6 KROQ.
. . . Don’t want to be a slug. . . .Don’t want what I deserve. . . .
J: (during song) KROQ FM, Pasadena, Los Angeles.
V: With any other plastic wrap.
V: A low $94 a month payment.
V: Make food better.
V: More cottony soft fiber than the leading brand.
V: “Pop Mart.”
V: We don’t think we could afford that.
V: In actual touch tests.
V: Attention “Pop Mart” shoppers.
V: 24% more.
V: U2 “Pop Invasion.”
V: For ultrasoft comfort for your family — soft, thick Kleenex.
V: The radio station has been taken over by U2’s “Pop Invasion.”
V: Here’s U2: Adam, Larry, Bono, The Edge with Jed The Fish live from Burbank.
V: New York, London, Paris, Munich. Everybody talk about pop music.
J: Well good evening. I’m glad you could make it. Hey, it’s Jed The Fish and this is “Pop Invasion” with U2 and we’re having a blast. We’re in the KROQ studios here in Burbank and we’re so glad that U2 made it because everybody in the whole building gets to drink. I mean we’ve got booze all over the place and everybody — it’s like a free day here. And so thank you very much for making it, you guys.
B: Yeah and — can you hear me?
J: Yeah, I can hear you.
B: Yeah. Oh well I — (“YEAH”) somebody close enough, (“I”) Noel Gallagher from Oasis, that said, “Pop stands for paddies on the piss.”
J: (laughs) And paddies are what? Irishmen? Is that right?
B: We are. Yes.
J: Okay. I just had to get that straight. Okay so U2 Spice is here — Nutmeg Larry, Bono Basil, Edgy Spice and Adam Paprika and they have mounted this beautiful . . . (I tried to improve the audio quality on my receiver here) . . . that they insist is fun to do. Something about having these giant toys to play with and play a rock concert. It’s called “Pop Mart.” So we have a question here. By the way, if you want to give us a call it’s (gives number). And also we’re going to play some songs that U2 has picked out. Alright, somebody called and said — oh this is hysterical because they didn’t get the name of the tour right. Okay, okay — (“I[T]”) Edge, could you read this in the microphone and be sure and pronounce every syllable so you get the essence of the question?
E: (small laugh) This is how it is: “Why the hell did you call this the Pot Mark tour? I don’t get it.” The answer is, well, you wouldn’t because we didn’t.
J: See, I don’t understand if they’re like a league ahead of us there and tormenting us and (“YOU KNOW”) tormenting us with their disinformation or whether they actually don’t know it’s called “Pop Mart.” No — the essence of their question is what I was going to ask you about the concept of “Pop Mart.” Who understands that the least in the band so we’ll have them answer the question.
B: I do but I think Adam should put things right.
A: “Pop Mart.”
J: Alright, the concept of “Pop Mart.”
E: Adam’s Pop Smart.
J: Right.
A: Actually I don’t really understand it but I think it’s got something to do with if we didn’t do it, somebody else would.
J: (laughs) How — let’s see — Edge, how was the writing process different for the Pop album which took a long, arduous year that you had no idea it was going to take that long?
E: I don’t think it was any different really. U2 albums are all the same. You go in and you have a couple of ideas and some mates. And you just try and come out at the other end with some great songs. And in order to do that you have to go down some strange avenues, do a lot of experiments and try and hold your nerve.
J: What were some of the experiments that did not work? That did not end up on the Pop album?
E: Well I think we pushed things very much in a direction of loops and samples. And we enjoyed that for a while but when it came down to mixing the album, we discovered that the thing that we were most interested in was the sound of the band and so, in a lot of cases, loops were thrown out the window. Basically, we played everything as a band. That’s basically a testimony to the sound and the chemistry of the musicians. No, we had some great arrangements with loops but it just wasn’t it.
B: We tried a few Spice Girls covers.
J: You did?
B: It didn’t really come off. We were going to call ourselves the Spice Brothers.
A: The accordion tunes didn’t work out either. The accordions and the mandolins — we left them behind.
J: This is U2 “Pop Invasion” and, by the way—Jed The Fish—thank you very much for having me on your radio station. I’m being a guest on your radio station and I appreciate it. So what the — (laughter) yeah because they don’t have to have us there. I guess I’m only there because you’re here but, anyway, it sounds like there could be, like, a second album in the mid-tour if you really wanted to rework some of those loop and Howie B-type stuff that you were using that didn’t make it onto the Pop album. It seems like if you wanted to take a few weeks out, you could put out another album the same way you put out the Zooropa album.
E: That’s a possibility. We’re also using up some of the outtakes as B-sides. We’ve got some fantastic B-sides coming out on the singles and a couple of other tunes are making their way into movies and whatever. That’s always the way. You end up with — at the end of an album you’ve always got about a dozen outtakes that didn’t quite make the record but some of them are really special.
J: Bono, you just untied my shoelace and that’s making me uncomfortable. Can’t you see I picked these shoes specifically —
(TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: THE FIRST SIDE OF THE REGULAR CASSETTE ENDED HERE. SIDE TWO BEGINS AS FOLLOWS.)
J: . . . a year in New York City. Just step up to the microphone and talk about what you learned about your craft in New York City.
L: Well myself and Adam spent about a year over two years in New York just —
J: I mean what was your intent going to New York?
L: To basically try and learn how to use machines, understand how loops work, try and learn how to play the drums properly, learn how to play base and stuff like that.
E: (laughs)
J: Now what did you learn about playing the drums in New York?
E: And the tap-dancing, Larry. What about the tap-dancing?
L: I actually went to Boston to a guy down there to a guy who was a drum doctor and he just told me I should go back and play the piano so that’s basically the story. So it was a failure as far as drums were concerned but I learned how to use a computer, to make loops —
J: Which kind of computer?
L: It was a Mac actually.
J: A Mac but you guys sold out to the Microsoft Network — your new website is up right now u2popmart.msn.com and I want to know — Bill Gates — how much did he give you? Was it in the terabytes? Was it in the billions of terabytes? How much ram was it?
E: He’s given us flesh. He’s actually given us flesh. He’s given us lots of fantastic men and women to actually do a great website. That’s what he’s given us.
J: That’s good because it takes a full-time job to do a good website — probably a whole staff of people.
E: Well there aren’t any, unfortunately. That’s the problem with the Internet is there’s a lot of not very interesting stuff out there so — and we’re lucky in some ways that we have the best websites out there but they’re all run by our fans. So we reckoned if we were going to do something ourselves, we were actually going to have to work very hard to do something better than the U2 fans on the Internet were doing already so we were lucky enough to be able to do something with Microsoft and they’ve helped us with a lot of personnel and a lot of hardware and software and men’s wear and it’s looking great.
J: And the fact is you guys must have a lot of pictures, a lot of pieces of audio that you can use and just really don’t have any place for — you know, worthwhile stuff — so why not put them up on a website? Right?
E: Well yes and no. The thing is trying to do something that hasn’t been done before. There’s no end of useless U2 information but actually putting together something that people are going to be interested to go and check out. That’s the real prize and we’ve got some ideas. Some really interesting ideas.
J: Okay and this is —
B: Adam’s brother Sebastian . . .
J: I’m sorry — oh Adam’s brother Sebastian is working on it?
B: Yeah and so the site’s coming from us and that’s the important thing. You have to be involved. You can’t farm it out completely.
J: Okay. By the way, if you want to go to that website, it’s u2popmart.msn.com. Okay we want to play “Please.” But what we did is we got jingles for all you guys. They’re custom-made jingles. So since you’re taking over this radio station we thought we’d go into a jingle, come out of the jingle with your song and then you’ve got like twenty-three seconds over the intro of “Please” — actually thirty-seven seconds so can you fill up thirty-seven seconds following your jingle over the intro of the song?
B: How do you want us to fill up this whole —
J: Well I would suggest —
B: Holes.
J: — talking about the song, please.
B: Oh that old thing.
J: Alright let’s give it a whack here. It’s U2 “Pop Invasion.”
V: They can design a future world.
V: It’s Bono.
V: The pop invasion.
B: Oh I felt like Desi Arnaz there for a second.
J: (laughs) He had his arms out.
B: Do you want me to talk about this tune?
J: That’s right. You have about thirty seconds left.
B: This is the tune — this is the sleeper on the record. It’s the song that’s, I think, connecting with people the most on the tour because, all the bollocks aside, of the fifty-foot lemon and the screen, it’s about songs—this tour—and this is a great song.
So you never knew love until you crossed the line of grace . . .‘Cause you my love I could never believe.
Q: Why be a passenger when you can be a messenger?
V: Crystal clear CD-quality sound.
V: Pop Mart.
V: Commercial-free, interruption-free.
V: I honestly enjoyed every minute.
V: I love this show.
V: U2’s “Pop Invasion.”
V: Wonderful. It really is. I’m very glad I got it.
J: Hey, it’s Jed The Fish and I need your help. I’ve got U2 here in the studio and we need questions. (gives number) It’s the “Pop Invasion” with U2 and I’m having a little trouble understanding exactly what Howie B’s role was in creating, for instance, “Please,” the song we just heard. What’s the — I mean explain in layman’s terms what a DJ-type remixer can do to inspire a band.
B: Well I mean Howie was more than that in that he produced the record along with Flood and one of the ways that we got to some new places was just, rather than jamming with an extra musician in the studio like, say, The Beatles or The Stones would do to try and get them to a different place, we brought in this DJ. He has a library of other musicians so we could be playing with an orchestra one minute. We could be playing with a conga player. We could be playing with anything. It’s just he’s got everything on tap so we would just jump off and he would set the tempo of the tune with some groove, Larry would start playing with it. I’d just start singing.
J: So, Larry, you found it inspirational as well to use loops?
L: Oh yeah, it was really a lot of fun and the — sort of the general view from a lot of drummers is that technology and loops are sort of destroying the culture. Well I feel the opposite. I feel like bring on more because it really helps you out.
J: And that’s part of what you did when you went to New York is to embrace that whole movement rather than run from it.
L: Yes, I wanted to learn how to do it myself and it was great working with Howie. And I did some stuff with him. Then I went back in and did my own things and played . . . which was sort of nice as well so I didn’t feel like I was stealing from the thieves.
J: . . . Who is Nelly Hooper and what have you guys done with him so far?
B: Nelly produced the “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” thing we did for “Batman.”
J: Ohh. The last “Batman.”
B: Yeah. He also produced the thing for the Marvin Gaye tribute album that I did, “Save The Children.” He’s just a great kind of — he’s just a great source. He’s just a great — he has a great set of ears and pretty good nose.
J: Enough about him. Let’s talk about his girlfriend.
B: What’s that? Yes.
J: Let’s talk about his girlfriend.
B: She was extraordinary.
J: (laughs) Yeah.
B: Yes.
J: Where’d he get her? And what does she see in guys named Nelly?
B: Well she like the rest of us thinks that Nelly Hooper is a big black guy.
J: Ohh.
B: When she finds out he’s a short guy from Bristol, it’s (“ALL”) — it doesn’t seem to put her off.
J: Okay, we’re going to go to the phones right now since you’ve been nice enough to call (gives number). Would this happen to be someone named Heather from Kansas City?
H: It sure is.
J: Oh wow, what a miracle. Hello, this is Jed and you have U2 listening to you right now. Do you have a question?
H: Oh yes. Hi, guys. I love you guys. You’re awesome.
B: Awesome’s a great word though, isn’t it?
H: Well it sums it up I think.
J: It can kind of mean anything but it is a great word.
B: It is. The Americans use it better than anyone else. In Ireland we say awful. And the English say you are awful.
H: Well what I wanted to know is how did you like making the video “Last Night On Earth” here?
B: That was a trip. They closed down Kansas City there for a day and that was fun. The mayor was out. He was very cool. He thought it was fine to have a rock and roll band run riot through his city. We were making a good film. It’s going to be out next week. We had Bill Burroughs, which has got to be the greatest American writer — greatest living writer. He was in our video.
J: He’s got the greatest voice. Sort of gravelly.
B: Yeah. We asked Bill — William Burroughs has a thing with guns. He does paintings with guns and he does he does a lot of things with guns actually. We asked him about his guns that day and he said, “Well I don’t have the guns with me right now but I have quite a cane. Check out my cane.”
J: (laughs) That’s a great Bill Burroughs (imitation).
B: And he unscrewed the top of his cane and he pulled out a two-foot saber that was laying inside and he chased us down the street. So our memories of Kansas City were really something. And we went out in Kansas City and there was a lot of great club music. In fact, the whole thing was pretty extraordinary. I had a great time. Thanks, Heather.
H: Great.
J: Thanks a lot. Heather.
H: Thank you very much.
J: Alright. Thank you. Okay. You like Heather can call too. (gives number) We’ll be right back with more “Pop Invasion” with U2.
V: I feel great.
V: “Pop Mart.”
V: Space offspring.
V: Open your mouth.
V: Time for commercialism.
V: You can’t take it with you.
V: Spend all your money.
V: Buy everything.
V: Big sale.
V: You do.
V: The pop invasion.
V: Will be back.
V: Purchase everything.
R: This is Agnes Gooch . . .
( . . . )
R: . . . Labor Day weekend. It’s the first annual Ford Los Angeles Grand Prix Vintage Race . . . race through L.A.’s new cultural and historic district . . . see nearly fifty million dollars worth of Ferraris on display . . . Proceeds benefit the LAPD Widows and Children’s Pension and the City Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect.
( . . . )
R: The Universal Amphitheatre and Pepsi presenta “Rockenvasion ’97.”
( . . . )
R: You need a pager at a great price so listen to this . . .
( . . . )
V: Erica’s been living a lie.
V: Man, you’re so pathetic.
V: Maria’s been paying the price.
(blip)
V: Lying around all day smoking pot.
V: Erica knows what she has to do.
V: Watching these stupid reruns.
V: Pop invasion. Pop Invasion. Pop invasion. Pop invasion.
V: U2’s “Pop Invasion.”
( . . . )
J: Alright. Well that means that U2 is in the studio and we’re borrowing your radio station here. U2 — going to do a version of “Pop Mart” tomorrow night here in Los Angeles where we are and, you guys, do people ever try to meet you and act like they don’t know who you are — (“NO”) like they don’t know they’re talking to a famous person like when you just encounter people? Has that ever happened?
B: Yeah. Frank Sinatra was like that. (laughter)
J: Have you ever made just a complete idiot out of yourself when you’re — you really want to meet someone — you’ve idolized someone forever and then you just open your mouth and just say what you think is totally the wrong thing and get embarrassed?
B: Yeah. I’m really a fan and when I — and I think — funny, all the bands that you meet — all the great bands are always fans as well. You know? It’s just I don’t think you get into a band unless you’re a fan so I do get really — I get awful sometimes when I meet somebody who’s like Lou Reed or somebody whose work just blows me away.
J: And you just kind of get nervous and don’t know what to say to him and —
B: Yeah, I met Lou Reed and he wouldn’t speak to me. I was sitting there. He wouldn’t speak to me for a while and I said to his girlfriend at the time — I said, “Well he really doesn’t — can’t even speak to me?” She said no, he actually can’t speak because at Live Aid we did “Satellite of Love” and . . .
J: Oh.
B: And I just — you know, that was really cool for me to think that we made any kind of impression on Lou Reed.
J: That’s right.
B: And since then we’ve worked with him and he did stuff on “Zoo TV” for us. But when I met him I was shitting.
J Alright, we’ve got the “Pop Invasion” line (gives number) and Angel from New York, do you have a question for U2?
N: Hello.
J: Hi.
N: Hi. Hello Bono, Edge, Larry, Sparky.
A: Hi, how are you doing?
J: What’d she call him? Sparky?
N: Sparky.
J: Oh okay.
N: Throughout the world.
A: I know why I’m called Sparky but why are you called Angel?
N: Well that remains to be seen. Actually —
A: Keep up the good work.
N: (laughs)
J: Quit flirting and ask your question.
N: I wanted to ask you guys about your relationship with the fans. Whether or not it’s changed since the last tour.
B: There are no photographs.
N: Do you guys still enjoy meeting us? You know — when we hang out in front of your hotel?
B: You know what’s getting really hard is there are a lot of professional fans out there now and they’re selling our autographs off and it’s hard to tell the difference sometimes and actually we’ve got, like, fifty people down at the hotel at the moment outside. And there used to be times when we used to have fifty people sleeping on the floor of our rooms and it was — I miss that bit. And it’s hard sometimes to get through the knots to the people who actually are taken away by our music and I miss that but it still happens. You know?
N: Yeah.
J: Okay well thank you for your question. We’ve got to run.
N: Thanks.
J: So we’ve got Bono saying he actually misses the days when fans used to spend the night on their hotel room floors. Alright, Deborah from Des Moines, Iowa, you’re talking to U2 “Pop Invasion.”
D: Okay. Hello, everybody.
J: Hello.
D: My question is your last few tours have just gotten bigger and bigger and more spectacular. Do you ever wish that you can go back to doing the smaller clubs college scene?
B: Who wants to answer that one? I don’t mind answering because there is this thing where people glorify — “Oh it was great playing the clubs and I really miss it.” My attitude is if that’s what you think then stay playing the clubs. I’ve always loved, even when we were like fifth on the bill, playing these big places. It’s hard to get 50,000 people to agree on anything and when they’re in one place and they’re agreeing on their love of this band, well then I’m just not going to complain. I love that. As far as the opera and the — or the soap opera of “Pop Mart” and all that stuff, that’s just a way of making it good for people at the back of the stadium. And some of the best seats at our gigs are at the back of the stadium. That’s where — there are people going back there because —
J: Wait a minute. You would sit at the back of a stadium for a U2 show?
B: Yeah, I would and I know Harry B — that’s where he’s spending his time when he’s not working. And I know a lot of people who work for us go up there. There is sometimes a bit of a fog up there because —
J: If you know what I mean.
B: — but I think it’s the place for that kind of a deal. I mean that is what this — all this trouble, all the shenanigans was just about trying to make going to a stadium a really special event because, let’s face it, if you don’t do that, it’s just the worst place in the world to be. Then you should be in a club. But recreating the ’70s and standing in a muddy field where you can’t hear or see anything, I think that’s over. That’s the last century.
J: That’s great. I mean it’s how they take it to the next level. It’s U2 on “Pop Invasion” talking about the “Pop Mart” tour and how they are able to take it to the next level. Thanks a lot, Deborah.
D: Thank you.
B: Thanks.
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