With the release of No Line on the Horizon the little U2 groups and message boards I check on for info have been a flurry of activity.
When the question was posed on one of them, “What Are Your Top 10 U2 Moments?” – various members of the clubs posted about a live version of this song, or listening to a certain album at a certain time in their life.
And then there was this response from “Ratlenhum”:
For me it would be
1. Meeting Edge for the first time
2. Discussing why they didn’t play BAD in the US during the Popmart tour with Bono
3. Giving Edge a baby blanket I made for Sian right after Morleigh had her, and watching the coolest guitar player in the world walk around with a gift bag with a little teddy bear sitting in a rocking chair on it.
4. Being backstage at Giants Stadium for Popmart, getting thrown out, and as we were walking away we turned to see the guys loading up in limos. We stopped to wave as they drove by and instead, one by one the limos stopped. Adam got out in the rain to take pictures with us. Then came Bono who talked to us through the window for about 10 minutes. Then came Larry and Edge in the same car. Pretty cool.
5. Collecting rocks on the beach in front of Bono’s house and finding a nearly perfectly round rock, half green half white. My ying yang rock. Not quite a U2 experience but it was a memorable one for me.
6. Being outside Hanover Studios and talking to all 4 of them day after day for a week. Adam was even kind enough to let one of my friends into the studio to use the bathroom.
7. Being chased away from Larry’s house by Larry himself. LOL We weren’t that close and we really just wanted 1 picture.
8. My first GA experience being 3 months pregnant and having some really tall guy help get me in on the rail, and protect me from behind from being bumped. U2 fans are the best aren’t then. Near the end of the show I was dying of thirst and I grabbed David Guyer as he walked by and asked him for water. I knew there was a bucket of cold water bottles under the stage at the tip of the heart. He smiled and handed me 2 bottles. Love ya David. You look like a tough guy but over the years I’ve had a few experiences with you and I know you’re really a pussy cat!
9. Eating lunch at the next table over from the band at the Delano trying so hard not to stare or eavesdrop
10. Gotta love Edge. One time I told him he has a great voice and I asked him why he doesn’t sing more often. He kind of chuckled and smirked and said “then what would Bono do?” and we both cracked up.
My only horrible U2 experience was at one of the 3 Popmart shows at Giants Stadium I was right on the rail at the front stage and I kept getting bumped up against the rail. I turned to find out why the idiot behind me was basically beating me to find out that some guy was doing his girlfriend from behind and she was using me to hold on to. EWWWWW…and yeah, her underwear were on the floor when we left.
Smirk here again,
Surprisingly, no one on the list had a whole lot to say about the post except for a brief response from a “Mark R” who wrote:
Is it any wonder U2 think some of their fans are weird? What’s wrong with listening to the music, and having a life?
M
There is “good” weird and there is “bad” weird.
For the sake of demonstration here is an example of “good” weird:
U2 performing the Abba song Dancing Queen with Bjorn & Benny from Abba during the Zoo TV tour.
Can you see the difference Ratlenhum?
No?
Well Joanne, another message board member, leapt to her defense against the dastardly Mark with this short missive:
In regards to the comment made by “M”, it’s not that us U2 fans
don’t have a “life”, it’s just that we just like to get a little bit
crazy once in awhile. It’s fun and doesn’t hurt anyone. It’s not like
we’re really stalking them. Just enjoying a band that’s given us
amazing music and has aspired us to look beyond our own lives and
become more socially and politically conscious. Yes, they make great music that we enjoy. But it’s fun to have our little adventures with the band.
For Joanne: Here again is an example of “good” weird on the “good” weird/”bad” weird dichotomy line:
“Good” weird = Cover of cd single for “If God Would Send His Angels” featuring the same imagery as the Eddie Murphy album Love’s Alright from 5 years earlier. Intentional or unintentional?
Mark R was having none of this and was determined to make both Ratlenhum, and now Joanne understand exactly what “bad” weird is:
Is it? How do these experiences enhance ones life? When I hear of people who camp out overnight outside Bono’s house, or go through his rubbish, or hang around outside his beachhouse with mobile phones to hear new U2 songs, I just think of people who have an absence of an internal narrative : there’s a multitude of experiences in this world, and hanging around a beach to bump into a millionaire seems to me to be a waste of the precious little time we have on the planet. If you want to enjoy the band, enjoy the band, but don’t confuse that with looking through a grown adults rubbish or following them around. If I were Bono, people who do things like that would scare the bejeezus out of me. Because you never know when you’re going to meet your own Mark Chapman. or whomever that guy who shot the guitarist from Pantera on stage was.
M
Here, for demonstration purposes only, is Mark R’s definition of “bad” weird:
Mark David Chapman – Murderer of John Lennon
I’d say he’s pretty right on with that definition, and his further elaboration on personalities that lack an “internal narrative” actually stung.
Unphased, Joanne replied,
Alright, well, that’s your opinion. Life is too short to be serious all of the time, which is my opinion. Gotta have a little fun once in a while, inbetween the seriousness of daily life.
Yeah – got a GA. 🙂
And went skipping off about her day to eat sweet, sweet Twinkies and Hoho’s out of Larry Mullen Jr’s garbage.
(By the way, GA stands for General Admission, meaning that there’s a decent chance that Joanne will be right up there next to the stage. Lucky guys!)
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