And you can go there too.....
This story is by far the least exciting of my music career, the most asked for, and definitely the most life changing.
It's Nov 1980 and Boy, U2's first American album has been out less than a month. This little known Irish quartet is playing a large-ish dilapidated theatre in Downtown San Diego. I decide to go at the last minute, as it's only about 3 blocks from my house. Seven dollars later( which btw I thought was outrageous), I notice that there are maybe 90 people in the audience (probably more like 70, but who's counting?) I wasn't encouraged, that's for sure.
The lights dimmed and four YOUNG lads took the stage. The opening strains of a song that I now know asTwilight started. The show was okay--they struggled a bit--but you could tell it was the beginning of something big. The energy was electric and contagious, ran throughout the house like a giant blue current. You couldn't help but feel it. They played a song called a Celebration (which they FINALLY released in the US just 2 years ago) and it was freakin fantastic! Arena rock at it's best.
Bono (Bono Vox, then, which actually translates to good voice...hmmm?) was more of a punk then, his stage antics were acrobatic yet frenetic. During the last song, Bono invited " the whole lot of you" backstage for a beer...um major faux paus young Bono, in the US they were considered underage as was much of the audience. So orange soda and smarties were doled out like quayludes and red wine.
I found myself talking to a young man, enthusiastic and friendly about being in the U.S. for the first time. "It's so different ," he gushed. "It's fucking brilliant". It was Paul McGuiness, U2's stalwart manager (still all these years later) .
I had just begun to work in the music business and finding it difficult to transition into a "man world". It had become downright discouraging. Paul told me it was "brilliant and to keep at it" His encouragement was life changing for me. Soon Bono trotted over and joined in on the conversation. He too gave out praise for the short girl in a large man's world (one of my later nicknames penned by the Edge was Midge, because I was so short).
Things started to break up and I walked home, ego boosted.
The next morning my phone rang at 7AM, it was Mr. McGuniness asking me to join them for five gigs while one of their current roadies adjusted to having his leg in a cast! (????) I said sure (of course) and by three hours later, I had quit my day job, packed and arrived at their hotel only to get on the most sketchy tour bus I'd ever seen. We were off...
Not exactly an exciting story, but one that changed the course of my life forever...
I owe those boys a lot...
It's Nov 1980 and Boy, U2's first American album has been out less than a month. This little known Irish quartet is playing a large-ish dilapidated theatre in Downtown San Diego. I decide to go at the last minute, as it's only about 3 blocks from my house. Seven dollars later( which btw I thought was outrageous), I notice that there are maybe 90 people in the audience (probably more like 70, but who's counting?) I wasn't encouraged, that's for sure.
The lights dimmed and four YOUNG lads took the stage. The opening strains of a song that I now know asTwilight started. The show was okay--they struggled a bit--but you could tell it was the beginning of something big. The energy was electric and contagious, ran throughout the house like a giant blue current. You couldn't help but feel it. They played a song called a Celebration (which they FINALLY released in the US just 2 years ago) and it was freakin fantastic! Arena rock at it's best.
Bono (Bono Vox, then, which actually translates to good voice...hmmm?) was more of a punk then, his stage antics were acrobatic yet frenetic. During the last song, Bono invited " the whole lot of you" backstage for a beer...um major faux paus young Bono, in the US they were considered underage as was much of the audience. So orange soda and smarties were doled out like quayludes and red wine.
I found myself talking to a young man, enthusiastic and friendly about being in the U.S. for the first time. "It's so different ," he gushed. "It's fucking brilliant". It was Paul McGuiness, U2's stalwart manager (still all these years later) .
I had just begun to work in the music business and finding it difficult to transition into a "man world". It had become downright discouraging. Paul told me it was "brilliant and to keep at it" His encouragement was life changing for me. Soon Bono trotted over and joined in on the conversation. He too gave out praise for the short girl in a large man's world (one of my later nicknames penned by the Edge was Midge, because I was so short).
Things started to break up and I walked home, ego boosted.
The next morning my phone rang at 7AM, it was Mr. McGuniness asking me to join them for five gigs while one of their current roadies adjusted to having his leg in a cast! (????) I said sure (of course) and by three hours later, I had quit my day job, packed and arrived at their hotel only to get on the most sketchy tour bus I'd ever seen. We were off...
Not exactly an exciting story, but one that changed the course of my life forever...
I owe those boys a lot...