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Jo Whiley, von BBC Radio One, führte durch die Fragen & Antworten (Q&A) - sie war in London. Bono, Edge und Larry waren an verschiedenen Plätzen in New York, während Adam irgendwo in Asien war. If you want to listen to three great audio clips of the chat click here If you want to listen to the whole seventy minute kaboodle, click here If you want to know what was said, word for word, read on! JO WHILEY: Welcome to U2.com and MSN, everybody listening online at the moment, and welcome more importantly to U2. We've got Bono and Larry and Edge. I'm Jo Whiley from Radio One and the BBC. Hello, welcome along. Now, you are all where? Bono, where are you and what can you see? BONO: I'm in the office of Rolling Stone Magazine [in New York], where I just had a meeting with a load of the journalists here and the staff here, and they let me bend their ear about Africa and AIDS for an hour-and-a-half. JO WHILEY: You're not all talked out, are you? BONO: I'm not. I'm just warming up. JO WHILEY: Okay. Larry? LARRY MULLEN: I'm in upstate New York. I'm just on a bit of a sabbatical with my family for a few weeks. JO WHILEY: And, Edge? EDGE: I actually happen to be in New York as well. I didn't know that Larry and Bono were in New York. I am in the offices of Principle Management, looking out the window across West 57th Street. JO WHILEY: And you're up for a pint afterwards, aren't you? EDGE: I certainly am. JO WHILEY: I thought you were kind of faking this when you were talking beforehand and you were saying, oh, my God, I'm in New York as well. I think people would be very, very surprised to know that you didn't actually have a clue you were all there. BONO: Well, having spent the last 22 years joined at the hip, it's actually something we relish… having to know where the other members of the band are. So, it is actually an unusual situation, but it's one I quite enjoy. JO WHILEY: And we should point out here that Adam is in Nepal, in the Himalayas at the moment, and we will hopefully get him online and we'll be talking to him as well. Surprised that that's where he is? BONO: He's always had a bit of the wanderlust… our Adam. And, he's searching enlightenment, and God knows we need that. JO WHILEY: Do any of you genuinely know what he's doing there? BONO: I presume he's walking, because I don't think the public transport is particularly good in the Himalayas. I'm sure he's just enjoying the scenery. JO WHILEY: I should say some flowers and a bottle of champagne and some Guinness, which have come courtesy of you lot. So, I should say thank you very much, indeed, for that. It just turned up about five minutes ago. BONO: There should be instructions with it, Jo. JO WHILEY: Yes, half Guinness, half Champagne, in Dublin they call this ?? BONO: Black Velvet. We thought you might like that. JO WHILEY: You know, I'm always up for getting educated when it comes to drinks. So, I'll be trying that later on tonight. Now, we're going to go through loads of questions. We have tens of thousands of questions coming in from all over the world, so we'd better crack on and do some of these. The first one says, Dear Bono, Edge, Larry and Adam, I absolutely love Electrical Storm, and was wondering if you could tell me what inspired the lyrics to this song. Bono, do you want to go with that one? BONO: It's hard. You know, I generally, when I'm writing songs, I mean the lyrics to songs, I try to put into words what the band are doing musically. You know, their lyric tends to grow out of the melody, and the melody grows out of the chords, and the way the band ?? the music the band are making. The title Electrical Storm came to me as a sort of just a suggestion about the nervous times that we live in, and post 9-11, and all that, but actually it ended up being a song just about lovers trying to clear the air, really. And I just left it there. JO WHILEY: Okay. Larry, if I could just ask you about the video for this, congratulations, I love it. LARRY MULLEN: Thank you. JO WHILEY: And so, when I speak, how much hard work had to go into the romantic scenes? LARRY MULLEN: Well, you know, it was one of the hardest day's work I've ever had. It was very tough getting my hands around Samantha, who I have to say was fantastic, was really very cool. It was, you know, kind of an odd and interesting experience. And I have to say, I enjoyed it. I was a little alarmed after I saw it, because during the day you sort of get into the swing of it, and off you go, and there you are romancing in a bath. JO WHILEY: With a mermaid. LARRY MULLEN: With a mermaid for MTV, and all of a sudden you watch back on TV, and there are ?? BONO: And you're a porn star. LARRY MULLEN: And I'm a porn star, electrical porn. JO WHILEY: It's very sexy, but it must be very embarrassing to watch. LARRY MULLEN: It's kind of odd. I have to say, it is odd to watch back, but, you know, it's like the guys have been struggling for years and years to figure out what to get me for my birthday, so that was an early birthday present. JO WHILEY: Okay. We'll move on to another question. And this is from Jammal. He says: Hi, U2, I'm an African living in the UK, and I just want to let you know, I think you're the best band in the world. You have very big hearts for the underprivileged people around the world. My question is, what Prompted you to start the fight against poverty? It's a bit of a big one, bit of a big question. Who wants to go with that one? Edge? EDGE: Well, I have to say, Bono should probably be answering it. But I think as it relates to the band, which is, I suppose, you could say that the band over the years have had a kind of interest in taking advantage of our situation. And I suppose the reason why we have over the years gotten involved with these different issues, and been part of movements, is really a sense within the band that comes with the great success that we've had comes a great responsibility to do something, to give back something. And while none of us ever want to try and forget that the reason that we have the opportunity is because of music, the focus for us always has to be music, but the other things that we do are really important to us, really necessary, and without them I don't think we would be in the position we are. JO WHILEY: Do you think every band who happens to become a success should have that kind of responsibility? Do you think enough bands actually realize that, recognize that, and get on with the job? EDGE: Well, I don't think it's just related to the bands. I think it's relating to people who, like we, live incredibly privileged lives. And I think that there's great examples of people who do have those kinds of epiphanies, and decide to do amazing things. Somebody like Bill Gates, who I know gets a lot of bad press, but I mean the work that he has done over the last three or four years is absolutely astonishing. BONO: No single person has done more than Bill Gates. JO WHILEY: Really? BONO: Yes, for the people in Africa, and the developing world. It's kind of extraordinary. JO WHILEY: A lot of people would be quite ignorant of that. BONO: Yes. He is spending fortunes, billions and billions, on research and particularly on the immunization of children… putting into practice these programs to immunize kids from malaria, all kinds of things. Yes, it's amazing. And then at the other extreme there are people on the street, just regular people, mothers, fathers who get involved in the Jubilee 2000 Campaign, and it wasn't just student activists, people got out on the street in large numbers, just regular Joes, and I think that, in a way, they're the ones that the politicians are afraid of. They're not afraid of me, or the regular student activists. When people get on the streets whom they don't expect, like mothers, and say look, it's not acceptable that an accident of longitude and latitude can decide whether you're going to die of AIDS. If you lived in London or New York, you can live because you can get access to the drugs. But if you're in Africa, you can die because you don't. I don't think that's acceptable anymore, and people are getting out on the streets to say it. JO WHILEY: How many albums have you made to date, and which one was the hardest, and which one came easiest. So, Larry, do you want to do that, the hardest album you've made to date? LARRY MULLEN: Again, these are personal things. I think that one of the most difficult records was Achtung Baby, it was a tough record to make. We went to Berlin, the story is well documented. I think before that October was a very difficult record to make, and the reasons for that was Bono's lyrics got stolen, again, that's all been well documented. I think the reasons that records are difficult to make tend to be more to do with external matters than internal matters sometimes. JO WHILEY: Okay. LARRY MULLEN: And in my experience that's what it was. And the best fun record to make, there are always fun moments in making records, but they're hard work. The easiest record for me to make, I think, and the one that I enjoyed most was Zooropa. JO WHILEY: Okay. Edge, are you in agreement? EDGE: Yes, I think also the Boy album was a great record to make, because we had so much time to prepare all the arrangements for the songs, and so when we actually got in the studio it was a time to just experiment, to discover what the studio was about, and we had a great producer with us, Steve Lillywhite, who was leading us through the process, because we'd never made an album before. And it was a real pleasure to sort of record our songs, to bring them forth, and to find out what they could be when recorded with a bit of artistry and that was a really great moment for us, I think, as a band. BONO: I'd run with that, too. Boy was just a lot of fun, because we'd worked up the songs live, and we knew what they were, and we recorded it really quickly, in and out in three weeks. JO WHILEY: A triumph, and what about most difficult, Bono? BONO: Yes, I'd run with Achtung Baby. JO WHILEY: Because? BONO: Just I think there was some tension in the band about which way we were going, and we were Enjoying a certain amount of experimentation, but I think there was genuine concerns that what was Unique about U2 might get lost in that experimentation. And we were sort of pushing the band to its elastic limits, that and Zooropa, and we didn't know where the walls were. Then I suppose on Pop we actually walked into a few walls, came up with bruises. JO WHILEY: Came up with bruises, but then carried on. BONO: That was the funnest, actually, that might have been since our first album the funnest album to make was probably Pop, until at the very end we kind of ran out of stamina. Still very, very proud of that record. The song writing on that record, the finishing of it, but we had run out of gas. JO WHILEY: Okay. Bono, another one for you, this is from Nikie Copus. I'm trying to get these names right, and I apologize if I'm getting any of them wrong. Nikie is curious if you constantly talk to yourself. BONO: Well, that's a great question. JO WHILEY: I don't know what they mean by that, to be honest. BONO: That is a great question. I mean, I'm too busy ranting to get time to listen to myself. I wake up in the morning, I must say, I wake up in the morning with questions that I try to answer over the day, and that's as close as I get. JO WHILEY: Okay. Do you dream very much? BONO: Yes, I do, and I tend to - the most exciting dreams for me are the waking dreams, you know, the ones that you have when you're walking down the street, and you get a big idea in your head, and you figure out a way of trying to realize that idea. They're the best ones, I think. Again, some of the political work we've done over the while, started as waking dreams. And you know, that you have to then make this abstract idea you've got… to make it concrete. I really like that. I don't believe in wishful thinking, you know, sort of dreams and that sort of thing, you know, Imagine, that John Lennon song, it's my least favorite of his songs. And he's the man for me, but it's like I don't believe that imagining is enough. First, you have to imagine, but then you have to build it, and with concrete, and scaffolding, and the sort of unromantic aspect is, to me, now more interesting than it was, say, when I was younger, and I thought just having the dream was enough. JO WHILEY: Okay. This is from Martin McLaughlin. The question is, if you knew 20 years ago what you know now, would you do anything in your career differently? Edge, do you want to answer that one first, 20 years ago. EDGE: I would have kept the bagpipe lessons I let slip, 20 years, I don't know. BONO: You took the high road there, didn't you? EDGE: For every record, to some extent, at the end of it, you want to go in and make it all over again. But, really, I think that's because we're such ridiculous perfectionists. Really, if you put the gun to my head there's nothing I would do differently. JO WHILEY: What about Bono? BONO: Well, I'd start with the mullet. JO WHILEY: The DVD collection must be quite excruciating at times for all of you to have to watch. I mean, a CD collection is almost like a wonderful scrapbook, but a DVD is pretty painful documentation, I'd imagine, of mullets. BONO: Well, it's the '80s. I'm glad we're on to the Best of the '90s, because the mullet is definitely something. I don't think people should ever look like their hair has been ironed. JO WHILEY: Are you talking about Larry or yourself? BONO: The flat iron. JO WHILEY: Larry, is there anything that you wish you knew 20 years ago? LARRY MULLEN: I think there probably are lots of things. But, in general I think everything is as it should be. I think had various things on a personal level been different I think the course may have changed ?? BONO: The course may have changed? It does change, that's perfect. JO WHILEY: Question here from Navid, we'll go with this one. I was wondering which of your many concerts that you've done over the past 22 years has been your favorite, for each of you then. Larry, do you want to go with your favorite gig ever? LARRY MULLEN: I think that there have been a few moments that are really outstanding. The first time playing in Slane Castle, the first time playing in Croke Park with U2, and the first stadium in the U.S., and then it goes on. But, the one that probably stands out more than any other one is Sarajevo, we played there on the Pop tour. There's no doubt that that is an experience I will never forget for the rest of my life. And if I had to spend 20 years in the band just to play that show, and have done that, I think it would have been worthwhile. JO WHILEY: Is that the same for the other two, Edge? EDGE: Yes, Sarajevo, I have to say, is hard to beat. We did the show at a time when most of the People who lived in Sarajevo were really trying to persuade themselves that the war was really over, and so, for a long time afterwards we were told in Sarajevo they would refer to before and after the U2 concert, like it had become some kind of weird milestone, some signification that the war was really over. And even people who didn't really know what the band was about, or didn't know music, or had never heard of U2, there was something resonant about the fact that a concert had gone on at that moment in time. Every one we spoke to, all the U.N. troops, the locals, everybody was just so delighted that this was possible. And it was only possible because of all the hundreds of people, both on our crew and people that work in the city itself, that really some of them put their lives on the line to make it happen. And I think there was a lot of risks taken to make it happen, because it was still such early days. But, it went off so brilliantly, and it was an incredible, and incredibly emotional moment. BONO: They ran trains into Serbia and into Croatia, they put on a special trains for the day. The railroad lines had been down, and they were reopened for that, it's unbelievable, to get the three main groups there. JO WHILEY: Bono, is there another gig that means an awful lot to you, or meant an awful lot to you in your career? BONO: Maybe Belfast, the Waterfront Hall, when we were trying to help the campaign to pass the Good Friday Peace Agreement. I think that was a great moment for us, again. It looked like it was a potential pit fall, and we're from the South of Ireland, not from the North of Ireland, and I think people in Belfast, that they were very generous to let a southern band be on stage. We were on with Ash, who are an extraordinary band. They're from that part of the country, and they had a real reason to stand there. We had a reason, too, because everyone would benefit or suffer if the peace agreement was to pass or not. But, it was a very, very emotional moment. The leader of the Catholic community [John Hume], and the leader of the Protestant came on [David Trimble], and we asked the two politicians to do some thing that would be almost impossible for a politician to agree to… to walk out on the stage and not say anything. This is about a photograph, and yet we're going to ask you to shake hands, in public, because they'd never done that before. It was really a great moment. JO WHILEY: I'd imagine also playing America after September 11th there were some pretty powerful gigs there. BONO: That was off the map, completely off the map. JO WHILEY: The first gig you did? BONO: Yes, just coming ?? we were the first band to come into New York, first big band. Most people cancelled their tours. I think people, Americans really were pleased that we hadn't. And we had a tribute to all the people who had lost their lives, and we had their names projected on our TV, on our screens at the back of stage, to remind people that they weren't statistics, they were actually people. And as the roll call went in Madison Square Garden, I think it felt like a whole nation was just in tears. And just everyone ?? I've never seen a rock and roll show where everyone is weeping, including the band, you know. It was a very, very extraordinary moment. JO WHILEY: To perform and sing through that, though, must be extraordinary. BONO: Yes, because people were spotting the names of people they knew going by, and you would see families, you would see three names, obviously a father, son, and a brother, or a daughter. It was overwhelming, to be let in to that level of intimacy. I mean, again, it was a ?? it was a risk, but I think people knew that we were doing it in a very respectful way. JO WHILEY: Can I just check at this stage, it's all going so well so far, you're being looked after? BONO: This is mad, isn't it though. I've never been in a chat room, and now we're having ?? so this is the biggest chat room -? and there's no walls in it, and just coffee. JO WHILEY: Coffee? BONO: Where's Adam, though, have we found him? JO WHILEY: I don't think Adam is with us just yet. ADAM CLAYTON: I'm here, I don't know if you can hear me. BONO: Yes, we can hear you, Adam. ADAM CLAYTON: Oh my goodness, I'm in. Well, good afternoon, New York, and good evening, London. JO WHILEY: Welcome, Adam, how are you doing? BONO: Came down from the mountain. ADAM CLAYTON: I'm doing well at the moment. JO WHILEY: What exactly are you doing there? ADAM CLAYTON: Well, there's a very interesting Hindu festival here at the moment called the Festival of Light, and they're celebrating their new year, and they're 57 years ahead of the rest of us, so it's 2057 here. EDGE: Adam, that makes you in your 90s, how do you feel? ADAM CLAYTON: I feel as young as a spring chicken, actually. It must be the restorative Ganges water here, I think that's what it is. BONO: Have you been in the Ganges, Adam? ADAM CLAYTON: Ganges, that's a river. BONO: Yes, have you been in it? ADAM CLAYTON: No, I haven't done yet. It looks a little dirty. BONO: Wow, that would be an amazing thing. JO WHILEY: It would be, yes. Adam, I have a question for you. This is from Morgan, it says, do you really have a spoon collection? I presume this has hidden meaning? ADAM CLAYTON: I do now, thanks to the Simpson's, but prior to appearing on the Simpson's as a voice, no I'd never even heard of anyone who was a spoon collector. JO WHILEY: Explain what the deal was? ADAM CLAYTON: I'm not sure where they got it from, but it's certainly changed my life. JO WHILEY: Okay. And there's another question for you, while we've still got you. This is from Jason Peterson, it says Your Blue Room is one of the tracks on the best of compilation, and it's also the only song that includes your voice. No offense to Bono, of course, but do you think we'll get to hear your voice on anything in the future? ADAM CLAYTON: You know, that's a tricky one. The opportunity only comes around sort of once or twice a decade. I don't know, you know, it's very hard to find material that suits my voice. But, occasionally something comes along, and I'm open to suggestions. JO WHILEY: Maybe you could do a cover of Wandering Star, or something, Lee Marvin did it first. Okay. I've got some more questions for you. We'll talk about the next album then, because there's quite a lot of people asking this, Andrea Barber in particular. What will be the theme of the next album? Bono, do you want to go with that one, or Edge? EDGE: Well, we don't really know ahead of time. You don't sit down and say, I'm going to write one about Thursday afternoons. When you're writing a song you sort of, as John Lennon put it, you sit down with your guitar and open a vein, and whatever comes out comes out. JO WHILEY: Okay. So when do you think you'll be sitting down to record it? EDGE: Well, we're actually ?- we're working on it at the moment, I'm putting some music together on my Mac. I know Bono is working on lyrics. BONO: I have to tell you this, because Larry and Adam haven't heard it. Edge brought around a CD of a new tune. It's just a provision title, Full Metal Jacket. It's the roughest, it's the mother of all rock and roll tunes. I don't know where it came from, but it's a remarkable guitar thing. You want to hear it. It's a reason to make a record. This song is that good. JO WHILEY: Wow. BONO: Unfortunately, Edge is singing on it. EDGE: We're at the great early phase where it's all about possibilities and nothing has to be ?? it doesn't have to be finished right now, we can just try out all sorts of things and see where it takes us. JO WHILEY: It must be one of the most exciting times? BONO: Yes. It's the best thing being in a band is to wake up in the morning with a melody in your head, or to be in the studio when the band stumbles onto a great song, and it gets ?? and it forms in front of your eyes. It is the most exciting thing about being in U2. JO WHILEY: I guess that's one of the reasons to just keep on keeping on, being in the band, because so many bands quit. While you still get that feeling, while the possibility is still there ?? EDGE: Actually, I want to tell Larry that the tune Bono is talking about, I used some drum loops that you did last week, and they sounded really amazing in it. LARRY MULLEN: Excellent. Which drum loops are they, are they the ones that I did in the studio with the man who does the drum loops? JO WHILEY: This is a global web cast. LARRY MULLEN: We've got some business to deal with, all right? This is how great records get made. JO WHILEY: Could I just ask, are there people that you still want to work with, be them vocalists or producers, have you kind of got a wish list at the moment? EDGE: We've been very lucky, we have worked with some of the greats, we think. But, Rolf Harris would definitely be high on my list. JO WHILEY: I think he's with Jarvis Cocker, they're doing something together. BONO: Well, Steve Lillywhite, who produced ?? this is Bono here - Steve Lillywhite who produced our first few albums, and then has always come in at the end, from the Joshua Tree to All That You Can't Leave Behind, he said one of the most innovative people he's ever worked with in the studio was Rolf Harris. And Rolf Harris was famous for the song Two Little Boys. In fact, on occasions Edge and myself are known, with some drink taken, to sing it. But, apart from that he's Australian, he used to play the digeridoo, and he had a wobbly board. And Steve Lillywhite said, in the studio he was just one of the most innovative people, he was always looking for ways of making new sounds and everything. So big up Rolf. JO WHILEY: Big up Rolf, okay. EDGE: Wasn't he behind the stylophone, remember that thing. JO WHILEY: Yes, well, he promoted it. What's the most trouble that drink has ever gotten you into, Larry? LARRY MULLEN: I've got a family to think of… JO WHILEY: We've done the video already. So, I think there's nothing you can't talk about. BONO: I can answer that question. JO WHILEY: I thought you might. BONO: It's particularly spectacular. If you're going to drop a name, drop a big one. But I tried to keep up with Frank Sinatra, and Jack and ginger was his particular cocktail, Jack Daniels and ginger. And, I tried to keep up with him, and I ended up falling asleep in his house on a couch, and when I woke up, I thought something dreadful had happened, but, in fact, I just spilled my drink. JO WHILEY: That will do. That will do. Rita from Lebanon said: I want to ask every one of you what's the most important events in his life. Edge, can you answer that one first? It's a bit of a biggie. EDGE: It's the big one. Well, I think the birth of my children have to be the most amazing and important event in my life. But ?? JO WHILEY: Are you a hands-on father? I mean, were you actually there at the birth, you kind of ?? the eyes are open and you're kind of encouraging, or were you outside? EDGE: No. I'm actually fairly a new dad in that sense. I do try and be there, and it's ?? with the touring schedules and all, I actually have failed to be there on one occasion, which wasn't a great thing. But from my daughter Sian's birth, I have been at all my other children's birth. BONO: And there are many, believe me. EDGE: It's just so astonishing, you know, to be there. And you can't describe what you're feeling. So that has to be for me. JO WHILEY: Okay. Larry, what's the most important event in your life? LARRY MULLEN: Well, it has to be when in the early '70s, the Irish government had a huge backlog of provisional drivers, and so they had an amnesty, and we all got full driving licenses in one fell swoop, and that would definitely be the most important because it meant I could drive on my own as opposed to my father, which was a very, very big deal. JO WHILEY: Bono, bumped into anything lately, in your car? Because the driving is legendary, of course. BONO: Well, you know, people often point to Larry as a very good example of why they should have sorted out that backlog. And they point to me as a very bad example, because I did get my hands on a driver's license, and most of my friends don't think I should have. JO WHILEY: What would be the most important event in your life? BONO: I think getting married. I think my marriage. JO WHILEY: Yes? BONO: Yes, it was a long time ago, and I know I was late. JO WHILEY: You were late? BONO: Yes. JO WHILEY: What was the reason? BONO: It was a big crowd, and I couldn't get in from the back. JO WHILEY: Okay. BONO: And, there was a lot of out-of-tune tin whistle playing, and stuff. But, yes, it was a very, very big, big event for me. JO WHILEY: Okay. Adam? We've lost Adam. ADAM CLAYTON: No, no, I'm here. JO WHILEY: What's the biggest event of your life so far, it's a major question? ADAM CLAYTON: So far, well, the biggest one I was there for has to be my own birth, at nine months after my conception. So, that's a big one, and I'm still getting over it. JO WHILEY: And as is everyone who knows you. I've got a question here for Bono, from Chloe Rogerson in Western Australia, in Perth, Bono - say if Larry, The Edge and Adam were to give you the sack, what would become of you? BONO: I would be down on my luck, and I am a vagrant at the best of times. But ?? JO WHILEY: I think it's a difficult question to answer probably. BONO: It is. I mean, I really ?? you know, outside of my family and friends, I can't think of anything more that I want to do with my life than writing music, and singing for this band. The political work that I do, I do because there's no one else that's doing it. It's not that I want to do it, there's just not enough people doing it. I think there should be people who are better qualified, and I do get an incredible satisfaction out of, you know, getting money out of governments, but it's not like writing a song, and not like being in U2. I wouldn't know what to do. It would be awful. But, you know, two crap records and you're out. JO WHILEY: Yes, that's right. Where is it going in terms of the landscape, where music is concerned at the moment, new bands that are genuinely exciting? Do you think it's a good scene at the moment? BONO: Edge. EDGE: Well, I do actually. For as long as I can remember, there's a lot of really impressing music out there. But in amongst the dross, there is, I think, a lot of very exciting things going on. And I have to say, there's a lot of vitality and a lot of life in the rock-and-roll band kind of scene right now. BONO: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is a great example. JO WHILEY: Queens of the Stone Age, have you seen them? EDGE: Yes. You know, it's just great to see bands coming through. BONO: Mooney Suzuki, have you checked them? JO WHILEY: No. EDGE: Yeah, they're great, too. JO WHILEY: Where from? EDGE: I think they're from America, and just full on rock-and-roll. JO WHILEY: And these are kind of biting at your ankle. EDGE: Yes. Things go in cycles. I think we've had as many really awful, disposable records as we've had over the last five or six years, it's time for rock and roll to come back and just blow it all out, and that seems to be what's happening. JO WHILEY: You haven't made contacts with The Neptunes at all, have you? BONO: No. EDGE: I'd love to work with The Neptunes. JO WHILEY: I think they'd be great for you. EDGE: I think that's a great idea, actually. And they've done some very, very innovative work, usually in R&B and they've worked with Lauryn Hill, I think, on a couple of things. But their name keeps cropping up whenever you hear something that feels fresh on the radio. They're really something. I like some of the new country as well that's coming through. And even in the UK, Richard Ashcroft, that album, I think, is some really powerful songs on that Richard Ashcroft and his kind of Glen Campbell vibe. I'm really into that. JO WHILEY: Okay. Another question ? they're coming out with the big ones now. Adam, we'll ask you that first. Actually, it's from Charlotte in Wales to give the proper credit. What is your favourite U2 song? ADAM CLAYTON: All right. I guess it would have to be ?? I can't think of what it's called. JO WHILEY: Sing it to us. ADAM CLAYTON: Well, there's a reason why it would be really good. But I actually can't remember the title. It's off the last album, and it's a song that Bono always dedicated to his father. BONO: Kite. JO WHILEY: Kite, right. ADAM CLAYTON: Kite. I don't know, it's just one of the great U2 moments for me in probably the last five years. I think it really suited what Bono was trying to do in terms of honoring his father, so it's very powerful in the studio when we were putting it together and working it out live. It just blows me away. JO WHILEY: Great. That's great. Charlotte says, are there any songs that you've worked on that now make you cringe? Adam, let's stay with you. ADAM CLAYTON: A song that makes me cringe? JO WHILEY: Yes, a U2 song. ADAM CLAYTON: Oh, I love all of them. No. JO WHILEY: Larry, what about you, we'll try you with that one? ADAM CLAYTON: I've probably forgotten the ones that I'm not backing up. JO WHILEY: Okay. LARRY MULLEN: Which part of the question am I supposed to answer, my favorites or the ones that make me cringe? JO WHILEY: No, we'll do the ones that make ?? oh, there's a list, is there? LARRY MULLEN: No, there's no list. The U2 songs that make me cringe don't make me cringe because I think they're not very good, thankfully. I cringe sometimes ?? I mean, I hear them, Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, I heard that in a ?? I happened to be in a drinking establishment, and they were just all playing some U2 music, and this came on. I thought, what a brilliant song, and how we ?? how, well certainly from my point of view, how I screwed it up, how it could have been so much better, potentially so much better. I cringe because we weren't smart enough, or proficient enough at our job to actually bring that to its conclusion. So, there are several songs that I feel like that about. JO WHILEY: Are you generally the most critical in the band with what you're doing? LARRY MULLEN: No, not by a long shot. No, we're all as critical as each other, and that's the beauty of being in U2, is that everybody has got very deep roots in the best things, and the consensus in the band is only if it's great. If it's great, you know, that's the consensus, everybody moves ahead. And if it's not great, there's going to be fighting. Someone is going to get a dig. JO WHILEY: What was the last major ruckus that you all had then? LARRY MULLEN: I would say probably ?? it was definitely during All That You Can't Leave Behind, that was a major one, where I just ?? somebody got a dig, because they weren't playing fast enough. JO WHILEY: And about these disagreements, is it lots of shouting? BONO: Fast songs are better than slow songs. That's a very simple rule being in our band, fast songs are better than slow songs. LARRY MULLEN: Jo, you asked how it manifests itself. JO WHILEY: Yes. LARRY MULLEN: You might be just sitting there, and the next thing you've got a boot in your ass. JO WHILEY: It's physical. LARRY MULLEN: It's physical. And it's like foot in ass, and a sign saying, play faster. JO WHILEY: And, Edge, what's your favorite U2 song? EDGE: It changes all the time, I have to be honest, because I'm just that kind of guy. But I think this week it's probably Running To Stand Still. JO WHILEY: Okay. And what about songs that make you cringe? EDGE: There were a few early on, I think, that have not stood the test of time. JO WHILEY: This is Bono speaking. EDGE: No, this is Edge. JO WHILEY: Edge sorry. BONO: We're turning into each other. EDGE: And I would quite happily never hear a song called Jerusalem from the October album again. It's not that it isn't without any merit, it's just so over the top, which was one of our great talents early on was to be over the top, but it's more over the top than even we were normally capable of. JO WHILEY: Bono, what about your favorite song? BONO:I heard the other week Miss Sarajevo, and it just kind of blew in like a breeze, you know, the way it rolls in, and then this volcano erupts in the middle, having Luciano Pavarotti sing: Dici che il fiume. Just the most extraordinary thing, and that's my favorite. JO WHILEY: And the opposite? BONO: if a song doesn't make you cringe, it can't be that good. I think the great songs do kind of make you a little nervous, and certainly the more emotional songs should always make you feel embarrassed. And I can remember being at a stop light in Dublin when they played on RTE [Irish National radio station], they played MLK, which is the tiny sort of song in the middle of The Unforgettable Fire album, and I thought I just sounded like a girl singing that. Actually, I got embarrassed. And it was at a stop light, and there's people looking at me, and I was purple. But the truth of it is, what it is, is just when you sing, you have to open yourself up, you have to be raw. And you have to reveal yourself, and sometimes it's very difficult for me to listen to that back, because it might not be as macho as you see yourself. JO WHILEY: Okay. This is from Decker Vincent, Vincent Curry, Vincent P. Curry, in the states: Which member of the band will be most likely to avoid the dinner check upon its arrival? EDGE: It's a good question. I think we all are very competitive in getting to the dinner check quickest. JO WHILEY: Yeah, right. EDGE: Honestly. It's ?? it's a very Irish thing, but it's like our rows tend to be, no, no, no, give that to me now, you bollix, give that to me. You got last week's. So, we tend to have stand up rows about who gets the opportunity to pay the check. JO WHILEY: Okay. So who normally gets that? EDGE: Bono is the most devious when it comes to getting the check. I'm afraid I would tend to get a little wrapped up in conversation. I don't get to it as quick as Bono. Larry is about the same as myself, and Adam ?? Adam doesn't go out doing the dinner thing as much as the others. BONO: He brings you around to his house, and he kills the fatted calf. EDGE: Yes, he's more, I'll bring you up to my house and show you a nice time. BONO: It's an incredible thing, because Adam since he's given up drinking, he still, if you go to his house, he brings out the absolute finest wines, the most ridiculous, over the top expensive wines. And just seems to get a laugh out of us drinking them, and probably being stupid afterwards. Maybe that's what he's laughing at. JO WHILEY: Is that right, Adam? ADAM CLAYTON: Not at all. I guess I was very ambitious when I bought it, so somebody has to drink it. JO WHILEY: And you're a good cook, Adam? ADAM CLAYTON: Actually I wish I was better, but, yes, I do like to put on the apron every so often. JO WHILEY: I'm sure it suits you. BONO: That's just to go out, Adam. What about your cooking? JO WHILEY: Okay. This is from Yolka, it says: What are you doing, when you have any free time, what do you do? When you're not playing music and you do get free time, how do you spend it? Outside of the family, because I know you obviously spend a lot of time with your families, there must be pursuits that you have, whether it's sporting, or what do you do? Edge, are you up for that? EDGE: Me, well, I like to go to the movies, or to the theatre. JO WHILEY: Last great film you saw? EDGE: Jim Sheridan's movie as yet unreleased in America is absolutely amazing. Funny enough, it's featuring Samantha Morton, and she's incredible in it. She's just an incredible actor. JO WHILEY: Did you fight to get in that video out of interest, or did it just come down to Larry obviously? EDGE: Did we fight to get in it? JO WHILEY: Electrical Storm. EDGE: Well, in the video ?? no, I think, you know, there's a proper order, which is your LV, your lead singer is your ?? the guy that does the lead roles for the video. That's fairly well established. I think this particular treatment, Bono ?? ADAM CLAYTON: He was looking a bit rough. EDGE: He recognized there might be someone else in the band even more suited to this particular role, hence he asked Larry if he'd be interested. So, it wasn't a case of fighting or anything like that. It's more a case of, you know, the man who was best suited to the particular job was basically press ganged into it. ADAM CLAYTON: Edge is very difficult to get into a bath. JO WHILEY: And, Larry, are you still there? LARRY MULLEN: Yes, I am. What was the question again, I got lost there for a minute. BONO: He's watching the video back in his apartment, that's why he keeps getting distracted. JO WHILEY: All right, concentrate. What do you then outside the group or when you're making music or when your with your family? LARRY MULLEN: Well, you know, there are other things to do. I mean, apart from like social, of course, everyone does social things. There are things to do within ?? the band is not just a musical group. There are things to be taken care of in the band, and we all share those responsibilities. There's always lots of stuff to do. And there are very rarely moments of freedom where you can like have a hobby, like the collecting of coins and stamps. JO WHILEY: You do have an extensive collection. LARRY MULLEN: No, I mean, I'm saying that if I had a little more time, I'd definitely would take up coin collecting, or stamp collecting. I think it's a very, very interesting hobby. But I can't because I don't have enough time. BONO: That's one of Larry's great regrets. You're going to have that on the gravestone, Larry. LARRY MULLEN: Yes, what I should have done. JO WHILEY: Bono, what kind of stuff do you do in your free time? You have no peculiar habits, or obsessions? BONO: I have a load of peculiar habits and obsessions. JO WHILEY: Do you want to share them? BONO: Unfortunately, I don't have time to enjoy them. I really enjoy actually hanging out with my kids. I'm doing some painting with them, Jordan and Eve, my two girls, we're doing Peter and the Wolf, we're painting for this ?? for the new edition of that book Peter and the Wolf, which is about teaching. It's about sort of waking kids up to what musical instruments are, and what they're capable of. It's an old fable, with Prokofiev's music, and now my friend Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer have done a new treatment, and the book is what me and my two girls are going to do the painting for. I like that sort of stuff. I like hanging out with my kids. JO WHILEY: Okay. And, Adam, still there? ADAM CLAYTON: I guess traveling is something that I like to do if there's a kind of gap. But otherwise, just actually enjoying being in a city, and going and seeing things or whatever, checking the record shops, checking the bookshops, kind of things that you don't normally get time to do, but you can kind of lose yourself in it. JO WHILEY: Okay. And do you have a favorite book, Adam, this is from Ben S, I don't know exactly where he is. ADAM CLAYTON: No, I wouldn't say anything fixed in one particular way. I've been reading the Zadie Smith books, I just got Autograph Man and I haven't started it. But, I thought White Teeth was fantastic, it really kind of summed up certain aspects of what's happened in England. But, I just kind of keep an eye on what's come out, and what's doing well. JO WHILEY: Okay. A question from Cath, who says, do you ever wish you weren't famous. Larry, do you want to answer that one? LARRY MULLEN: You know, I've got the best job in the whole world, because I get to hit things for a living, and I'm kind of… protected to a large degree. And I don't have the profile that Bono, Edge ?? that Bono and Edge particularly have, because I'm not out front. JO WHILEY: You are fairly distinctive, though. LARRY MULLEN: I'm distinctive to those who know me, but I think to the general public ?- I was in a bar the other night, and sure, some people came over to say hello, but I know if Bono walked into that place he wouldn't have been able to sit down and enjoy a pint, Edge probably the same. Maybe Adam would have. I enjoy a large amount of anonymity, and I really enjoy that. My first priority is to protect my family, and I do that vigorously. So I don't really have a lot of the problems of fame, I mean, the discomfort is sometimes you might be there sticking your fork into your vegetarian risotto, and somebody comes over and asks if they can take a photograph of you, and before you actually get your head out of the plate someone is taking a photograph. There are some uncomfortable moments, but in general, the rest of the guys, take much more flack for the fame thing than I do. And I didn't join a band to be famous. And for a celebrity, I think there are certain things that are cast upon you. I joined a band to hit things. BONO: It's fair to say Larry has hit a few autograph hunters. The fork went from the risotto into the eye ?? LARRY MULLEN: I'm a little intolerant of the fan, and when I say fan I mean the fanatic, like hanging outside studios, or hanging outside people's houses. I just think that's a waste of time. JO WHILEY: And do you tell them? LARRY MULLEN: I really do try to avoid it, because people become a little… it becomes more of an infatuation more than somebody who is interested in music. People become too interested in you. And I often think of Bono in these situations, when I see these people hanging outside, and I think I wish those guys would go and spend the afternoon writing letters to different presidents and let Bono back into the studio, and do what he really wants to do. BONO: I have to say the other side of that, though, Jo, is that when I first went to America, when I was 19 and we arrived in Los Angeles, I wanted to go and see where Bob Dylan lived and Brian Wilson. And I went to where Brian Wilson lived, and I wanted to just pay respect. So I often see it as that, I see it as people just wanting to pay respect to music that has meant something to them. And I was like that. Now, that's a different thing from climbing your wall and kind of breaking and entering your private life. And I think that's different. JO WHILEY: Are there occasions when you really wish that you were completely anonymous, and you despise the fame that you have? BONO: You walk differently if people aren't looking at you? JO WHILEY: Do you? BONO: Yes, of course. In Africa, where I've spent a fair amount of time now, people don't know that I'm in a band. They think I'm the 'drop the debt' guy, at best. And so you find yourself walking in some… well, I was in the north of Ghana, in rice fields, or what used to be rice fields, and I just completely forget that I was in a band. I enjoy that a lot. And in Dublin I forget that I'm in a band, believe it or not, because I just hang out with the same people, and go to the same places, and they're nicely bored with me there. But, I love in New York, it's an amazing thing, because I'm walking down the street and people always say hello to me, they beep their horn as I'm walking down. They don't stop you, they just nod. JO WHILEY: So that's good, you actually enjoy being recognized. BONO: If people don't get in your face it's a nice feeling of people saying, we're with you, we're with you. And, in fact, I've just had a lot of that just today, in New York City, and that is an amazing feeling, that the city has taken you to heart, but they're not going to ?? JO WHILEY: Quite an extraordinary feeling, though, that happens to very few people, that must be quite a bizarre realization. BONO: Yes, when cops start nodding at you, usually just from where I come from it usually makes you nervous. But, in New York, because of 9-11, and because a lot of them were from Irish families, American Irish families, it's just an amazing thing. The NYPD are just so good to you if you're in U2, and I mean, I haven't tried their patience in any extraordinary ways, but it's just nice to get that nod as you're crossing the street. JO WHILEY: Edge, what about yourself, do you ever wish you weren't famous? EDGE: Generally I actually have a good time with it, because like Bono, if people come up to you in the street it's generally, you're being approached because they love your music. And I think that is the distinction for us, is we're famous because of our songs, not for just being famous. And so it's not quite so personal. And you get the opportunity to have a laugh with it, like the other night I happened to be in Los Angeles on Halloween. I was out on the street dressed as the Edge, with a guitar, and I basically wandered through the streets of Venice, and people just would come up and say, you look so like him, that is amazing. And I had some brilliant, brilliant comments, and a complete laugh. One guy said, you're just like him, you're a little short, but you're really, really like him. Trick or treat. EDGE: It was actually amazing, I got away with it. Once or twice I was a little concerned that I would get rumbled, and maybe the joke would turn on me, and I'd end up having to run down the street with a guitar in my hand, so that was a little bit of a concern, but actually as it happened I got away with it. So for all those people who think they saw this really, really impressive Edge impersonator down in Venice on Halloween, actually it was me. JO WHILEY: I interviewed Eminem a couple of years ago, and it was just before Halloween, and he was saying that he was going to go out with his daughter Haley trick or treating. I guess to open up your door and there's Eminem standing there trick or treating was quite funny. LARRY MULLEN: And people are dressing as him as we speak. JO WHILEY: Are they? LARRY MULLEN: Yes, I was out on Halloween, as well. It's a big deal here in America. I was out, as well, and I called to a couple of doors, and there were people dressed as Eminem with Eminem masks. JO WHILEY: Truly frightening. And Adam, what about yourself? Any kind of curse of fame that really bugs you, or do you quite enjoy the notoriety? ADAM CLAYTON: Generally people are really nice, generous, and I think as Bono was saying, they just want to touch base in some way. ADAM CLAYTON: Have you ever lost your temper with a fan, Adam? ADAM CLAYTON: I don't think so. I don't lose my temper very often. I mean, it's possible, but I don't think so. Generally I tend to not get bothered too much by it, and it's people who are more interested on a musical level in a way as opposed to becoming hysterical. And I think that's frightening when people are kind of obsessed and disturbed. But, generally the day goes better with it rather than worse. JO WHILEY: Okay. And a couple of factual questions. Is any material from Slane Castle, from the concert there, going to be released? I would die to see a DVD of that concert. BONO: Larry, I heard it, by the way, you did an amazing job of mixing it. It's going to be on TV but I don't know if there's a DVD coming out or not. But, it wasn't meant to be filmed, we just filmed it for posterity, but we were talked into at least having a look at it on a rough cut. And it turned out it's a very emotional ?? it's a big, extraordinary, tribal event, much bigger than the band. And I don't think anyone has ever seen us play in Ireland, that's the strange thing. You've seen us play everywhere, concerts in Mexico, Sidney, Red Rocks, USA, but never at home. And Larry mixed the sound and it's just extraordinary. JO WHILEY: You did a good job, Larry, then. The most popular topic, I think, the biggest question is when are U2 next playing live again? Who's got the answer for that. EDGE: This is Edge, it will have to be after the next studio record is released, and we don't really know When that's going to be. So I would say at least another year and a half. LARRY MULLEN: Don't say that. EDGE: When you think about ?? BONO: I could have this record finished before ?? well, not before Christmas, but I think we could have it ?? we could certainly have it finished before next Christmas [laughs]. We've got half of it. I think is going to be our easiest record we ever made. These songs are just coming from… I don't know where… but they are arriving, and they're extraordinary, up front, up tempo, full on ?? JO WHILEY: Rock and roll again? BONO: It's really ?? there's a life force. EDGE: Bono is right in that sense, there's an incredible kind of energy in a lot of the new songs that we're coming up with. But, I'm just being realistic, I think it will be a while. But, ideally we'd love to be out, you know ?? BONO: Did you join this band to be realistic, Edge? EDGE: You're absolutely right, cancel that. Give us three weeks. JO WHILEY: Yes, it could happen at any time, basically. We're going to wrap up now, unless there's something I failed to ask that you think you need to tell the world. BONO: You didn't ask me my favorite color? JO WHILEY: Oh yes, do you wear underpants? ADAM CLAYTON: I'd like to say on the book front, if I could, there's the most ?? I know this sounds heavy, but it just really is something that has just blown my mind. JO WHILEY: Say this again ?? ADAM CLAYTON: There's a translation of the Bible that's out by this fellow called Eugene Peterson, and he's a poet as well as a scholar. And he's been working his way through each of the books, and now he's finally this year finished the whole thing. And if you've ever read the Bible, and sometimes when you hear these things as you're growing up you don't hear it anymore, because the words, they don't connect, because they're written in some odd English. This guy has written it with such a poetic sensibility, and such a sense of now, I just ?? if any one has any interest in reading the Bible this is a great version. JO WHILEY: You're pointing the way. Eugene Peterson, you're saying? ADAM CLAYTON: Eugene Peterson, it's an amazing thing. JO WHILEY: Okay. Thank you very much, indeed. What are your plans for the rest of the day, then? You're all in New York, so I guess you're going to get together? BONO: Are you serious about that, Edge? EDGE: Yes, I'll meet you for a pint, no problem. BONO: Okay. Then I'll call ?? I'd better not say right now where it's going to be. JO WHILEY: Larry? LARRY MULLEN: I've got ?? I'm babysitting for the rest of the afternoon, so I'll be drinking tea. JO WHILEY: And, Adam? ADAM CLAYTON: It's about 3:00am here, so I'm going to hit the sack. JO WHILEY: Adam thank you very much, indeed. Bono, Larry, Edge, thank you. EDGE: Thank you, Jo. BONO: Thanks, Jo. JO WHILEY: And massive thanks to everybody who got in touch with all their questions, just tonnes of questions, like I said. I hope you enjoyed this global broadcast. It's certainly been surreal for us, I think. BONO: Amazing, this is certainly one of the most remarkable events we've been a part of, and I want to thank you, Jo, for hanging out. JO WHILEY: Pleasure. BONO: Thank you. JO WHILEY: Okay. I'm off for a black velvet now. BONO: There you go. JO WHILEY: Thank you.



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