Bono's botoxed performance persona...

September 27^th – On this day in, U2, performed two songs from their new album. Nothing new in that until you discover that they did it (seemingly for free) on the roof of Dublin’s Clarence Hotel (more later) and I thought;

Well, there’s original (not)

and that’s what got me to thinking…

Mud sticks, and so does the residue of a good deed; in neither case is it always deserved. What follows is my own take on things, it’s not perceived wisdom or fact just my musings and feelings of the events as they happened…and my take on things may well be up shit-creek without a paddle but this is before the iTunes download debacle.

The band, U2, have come up before in this daily spiel of mine and not always for the best of reasons. I still think their opening to the title track of their album, The Joshua Tree is amongst the best; it features in my top ten f’ goodness sake. But composing a blistering opening to what is, essentially, a pop song is insufficient in guarding against the slings and arrows that have come U2’s, and in particular Bono’s way, over the past few years.

Although no one person is the band (many would have you believe that they are; I’m here to tell y’s: not true. Some may be the focal point of a band – Andy Fairweather Lowe – Jeff Beck – Jimi Hendrix et al – but trust me, it’s the musicians around them that made the sound that gave the impetus and opened up the musical air for these supposed leaders to perform within; just that sometimes these supposed leaders forget, start to believe their own press cuttings and usually crash and burn in a series of ill-advised and ill-thought-out solo projects). It’s fair to say that Bono, closely followed by The Edge (where do they dream these names up from; the toss-pot fairy?) is the recognisable face of U2 (can you name anyone other than those two) and Bono’s’ kudos was nothing if not enhanced when he sang a line on the Band Aid single Do They Know It’s Christmas? way back in ‘84’ alongside Midge Ure, Bob Geldof and a host of also rans.

His contribution to that recording and his undoubted promotion of the ethos behind that track and the subsequent Live Aid concert at Wembley in ‘86’ (U2 were part of the Wembley/JFK link up) has to be applauded…but it’s always been, for me, tinged with a feeling that at some point in the process beyond Live Aid that Bono began to lose the plot a little; the ZOO TV tour was the turning point as far as I could see. Conceived as a more light-hearted stage show (much they had done before had been fairly angst-ridden) it seemed to me that the characters Bono portrayed on stage (caricatures, if you will) entered his psyche, became the add-ons he loved and loathed about the business – like a shadow of Bette Davis in All About Eve’ – didn’t David Bowie do something similar...?

He did nothing to endear himself to me when he schmoozed with Cassius Clay and a host of slebs and proto-politicians at a Jubilee 2000 funder (£1k a plate probably, y’know, so’s to keep out the riff-raff…y’know, all those people who marched and supported and demonstrated…those losers) and, IMHO, lessened the impact of all the work done by ordinary Joe’s by giving all those politicians attending, who should have been held accountable for the shit that Jubilee 2000 was set up to highlight, that event gave them all an escape clause…not helped by Bono’s bit of back-slapping of Mr. Clay; just seemed at that moment to be all about the $1,000 plated supper and slebritee and not about the message. I’m not saying meetings such as this don’t need to take place, but why do they have to be accompanied by a feast; a feast that was held to highlight the plight of the starving…excellent. I mean, can’t policy be decided over a sandwich and coffee, that way the mind is concentrated on the job in hand and not just something you discuss between courses…whatever…

All the work Bono has done for international relations (?) was rubbished when his less than supportive individual’s contribution to the upkeep of the social fabric of society (ie tax) arrangements became known. His offloading of his assets and wealth to an offshore account and out of Ireland (struggling with debt and needing all the tax money it could get) was, according to Bono and probably according to Mr MacPhisto (one of the characters in the ZOO TV concert) the right thing to do for Ireland. In a classic piece of politico-speak that could have been cribbed from a copy of George Orwell’s 1984, Bono said, in answer to a question about his questionable tax policy:

At the heart of the Irish economy has been tax competitiveness. Tax competitiveness has taken this country out of poverty.

closely followed by the masterly,

The Irish government will ultimately appreciate the band’s decision to offshore a share of its income through the Netherlands.

I’d leave you to work that one out but we don’t have that much time so I’ll just précis a Terence Blacker article which says it so much more succinctly than I could put it:

Rearranging your tax…in other words, is no longer a black and white issue. As with the pop star and his ‘tax competitiveness’…..there are many shades of grey, each one lightening the darkness of personal responsibility.

Well yes. I guess when your personal wealth stands at 600 million dollars you need every shekel you can lay your hands on.

That hotel we opened this chat with? The Clarence Hotel in Dublin upon which U2 did their original rooftop performance on? Situated on the waterfront in the Quayside district of Dublin, Bono and a group financiers own it and they’ve been pulled into a deep discussion with the archivists of the city over their plans to expand the hotel. To do this the consortium has purchased several properties of historical importance around the hotel and are planning to gut them, leaving just the facades, an expansion that has met with fierce opposition from historic preservation groups, one critic saying;

 The Clarence demolition is an old-fashioned money-driven, anti-environmental exploit. Bono is behaving like just another private-jet-addicted property speculator feeding on Ireland’s greedy.

I don’t know that I’d support the German anarchist’s placards that they waved as they chased him through the streets which read

MAKE BONO HISTORY

but I do think that The Fly - copyright ZOO TV Tour (oh really, but, didn’t Jeff Goldblum…? Oh never mind…) is becoming too much a part of Bono’s private persona and if he was to look into the reflection that is MirrorBall Man - copyright ZOO TV Tour) he just might have a revelation about the next mistake…before it happens.