I reviewed Collapse Into Now in last month’s Big Issue.
U2: Excess Baggage
Now, more timely! Considering that even U2’s producer is now saying (though trying not to) that the last album was not so great, actually.
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U2, as they should be remembered, perhaps in the form of a commemorative stamp.
On 23 September 1997, U2 became the first major international pop act to perform in Sarajevo since the Bosnian War ended in December 1995. They accepted a million-dollar loss to bring the ‘Popmart Tour’ to 45,000 Bosnian rock fans, who had forked out A$18 each to see Bono and the band emerge from inside a giant mirrorball lemon and strut the Koševo Stadium stage dressed like Village People.
Also inside the stadium were 10,000 soldiers, posted there to keep the peace among an ethnically diverse crowd, many of whom had travelled from Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia (visa restrictions were temporarily lifted so people could attend the concert). Later that night, another 10,000 fans flooded the stadium when the doors were opened to anyone else who didn’t have enough money for a ticket - a welcome gesture to a post-war city with a 50% unemployment rate.
Halfway through the show Bono’s voice would need a backstage jab of cortisone to make it through to the end. Missing the high notes (which were carried by the audience), he led the band through the set list comprising all the rousing unification touchstones for which U2 are famous: Sunday Bloody Sunday; New Year’s Day; Where the Streets Have No Name; their plea for togetherness, One; and the song written for the city, Miss Sarajevo, about a Dadaist beauty pageant held there in spite of the raging war.
The studio version of that song features a verse sung by the late opera singer Luciano Pavarotti. Bono has singled it out as his favourite U2 track (released in 1995 under the pseudonym Passengers). Band members have singled out the Sarajevo gig as the proudest moment of their career.
Now imagine that on that night in September 1997, while flying out of the city, riding high on the boundlessly optimistic energy of the crowd, U2 had decided to take early retirement, effective immediately. They would part ways and never be heard from publicly again. Especially Bono, who would live out the rest of his days a contented, Salingeresque recluse.
You can read the rest here.
