4. U2 - The Unforgettable Fire
So my Dad knew this bloke from Thailand or Korea or thereabouts who sold bootleg cassettes for a quid each, anything you wanted that was in the charts, with glossy colour Xerox copied inlay cards and labels on the tapes with artist and album title all spelt more or less correctly. And I sold them at school for two quid each.
This was in 1984 and 1985, the last great years for albums in that much-panned decade. The most popular orders included Springsteen - Born in the USA, Kate Bush - Hounds of Love, Dire Straits -Brothers in Arms, Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair, Phil Collins - No Jacket Required, Sting - The Dream of the Blue Turtles, Marillion - Misplaced Childhood, Prince - Purple Rain, Tina Turner - Private Dancer, Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasure Dome, Madonna - Like a Virgin. Not a bad line-up, eh? There were other even better albums available in those years, notably a couple by The Smiths and REM, but few people (Bern being perhaps the only one) had knowledge of such Indie and alternative treasures. The rest of us 14-15 year olds thought we were cutting edge enough by getting into proper pop-rock music.
Martin Hayes, Chris Watt perhaps and a couple of others who seemed to know a bit more than most of us about music, all ordered The Unforgettable Fire by U2. Before I passed on their tapes, I had a listen and found it to be like nothing else I'd heard. It wasn't instantly melodic or commercial sounding, so it took a couple more listens before I fell in love with it. The title track, I still think is one of the most perfectly crafted songs I've ever heard.
So, I became a U2 obsessive, bought some boots and grew my mullet so I'd look like Bono. (I had the wrong-way-round height and nose ratio already.)
This was of course in the years before U2 became insufferably pretentious nob-heads peddling the most earnest and bland rock imaginable (until the Manics and Coldplay made it much easier to imagine). Admittedly, they WERE probably a bit too earnest and pretentious and insufferable to some even then, but they weren't bland by any means, so we were more forgiving. (Also, you can forgive a lot of that shit when you're a teenage boy and aspire to be equally egocentric and pretentious.)
Within a short time Bono was being pretentious...er, super cool... on the Live Aid stage, pouncing about in his boots and pulling a girl out of the crowd to dance with, while the rest of the band played 5 more minutes of Bad than they'd intended and told themselves that Bono had fucked up their big chance to make themselves a global brand... while helping poor African children to eat of course, let's not forget that, that's what they were there for after all. (Incidentally, one of my favourite jokes is something said in response to Bono during the Make Poverty History campaign in 2005. Bono clicked his fingers in 4 second intervals and told a crowd that every time he clicked them, a child in Africa died from starvation. 'Stop fucking clicking them then!' was the wry retort.)
Two years after, Bono swapped his tall bowler hat for a Stetson, U2 released The Joshua Tree and a bunch of us bunked off school to make sure we were first through the doors at Wembley for what was my first ever gig. Sadly, U2 only had one more excellent album in them and I've not been tempted to see them again. But I kept my Bono mullet for a couple more years.
This was in 1984 and 1985, the last great years for albums in that much-panned decade. The most popular orders included Springsteen - Born in the USA, Kate Bush - Hounds of Love, Dire Straits -Brothers in Arms, Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair, Phil Collins - No Jacket Required, Sting - The Dream of the Blue Turtles, Marillion - Misplaced Childhood, Prince - Purple Rain, Tina Turner - Private Dancer, Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasure Dome, Madonna - Like a Virgin. Not a bad line-up, eh? There were other even better albums available in those years, notably a couple by The Smiths and REM, but few people (Bern being perhaps the only one) had knowledge of such Indie and alternative treasures. The rest of us 14-15 year olds thought we were cutting edge enough by getting into proper pop-rock music.
Martin Hayes, Chris Watt perhaps and a couple of others who seemed to know a bit more than most of us about music, all ordered The Unforgettable Fire by U2. Before I passed on their tapes, I had a listen and found it to be like nothing else I'd heard. It wasn't instantly melodic or commercial sounding, so it took a couple more listens before I fell in love with it. The title track, I still think is one of the most perfectly crafted songs I've ever heard.
So, I became a U2 obsessive, bought some boots and grew my mullet so I'd look like Bono. (I had the wrong-way-round height and nose ratio already.)
This was of course in the years before U2 became insufferably pretentious nob-heads peddling the most earnest and bland rock imaginable (until the Manics and Coldplay made it much easier to imagine). Admittedly, they WERE probably a bit too earnest and pretentious and insufferable to some even then, but they weren't bland by any means, so we were more forgiving. (Also, you can forgive a lot of that shit when you're a teenage boy and aspire to be equally egocentric and pretentious.)
Within a short time Bono was being pretentious...er, super cool... on the Live Aid stage, pouncing about in his boots and pulling a girl out of the crowd to dance with, while the rest of the band played 5 more minutes of Bad than they'd intended and told themselves that Bono had fucked up their big chance to make themselves a global brand... while helping poor African children to eat of course, let's not forget that, that's what they were there for after all. (Incidentally, one of my favourite jokes is something said in response to Bono during the Make Poverty History campaign in 2005. Bono clicked his fingers in 4 second intervals and told a crowd that every time he clicked them, a child in Africa died from starvation. 'Stop fucking clicking them then!' was the wry retort.)
Two years after, Bono swapped his tall bowler hat for a Stetson, U2 released The Joshua Tree and a bunch of us bunked off school to make sure we were first through the doors at Wembley for what was my first ever gig. Sadly, U2 only had one more excellent album in them and I've not been tempted to see them again. But I kept my Bono mullet for a couple more years.
Comments
Post a Comment