March 17 – U2’s St. Paddy’s Day ‘Surrender’

Who would be more appropriate to discuss on St. Patrick’s Day than U2. Which is what we’ll do today! The musical pride of Eire had two significant events in their history on March 17. First, way back 46 years ago, they won a talent competition there which led to their first record contract. 45 years later, this day in 2023, they released their 15^th album of new material (with an asterisk, mind you) , Songs of Surrender.

We say “with an asterisk” because the songs weren’t new…but the recordings were. For Songs of Surrender, they reimagined a number of their existing songs and re-recorded them, mostly in a fairly stripped-down, acoustic form that led Pitchfork to compare it to an MTV Unplugged album. Which is a fair observation but also a bit of an understatement, since this one didn’t merely have them play the same songs the same way but with acoustic guitars and pianos instead of electric ones, but in many cases do them quite differently (and often without the rhythm section.) Guitarist The Edge said “we gave ourselves permission to disregard any sense of reverence for the originals” and redid some of the melodies and Bono re-wrote lyrics for some, such as “Walk On” which he now dedicated to the Ukraine people. So, although most of the songs were familiar (all were pre-existing but a few, like “Invisible”, a 2014 standalone single and “Ordinary Love” from a 2013 movie soundtrack, might have been overlooked by the fans before) they were also radically different. Acoustic instruments reigned , some songs had session cellists and other strings and for the most part, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen were absent. It was clearly a Bono & The Edge project, and they based some of what they did on a love for old Simon & Garfunkel records. It worked out OK for Mullen, who was undergoing neck surgery during some of the recording period and wasn’t available to drum as he usually did, but it’s unclear what Clayton thought about it.

Recording wasn’t a quick process; it began during the Pandemic lockdown and much of it was done at Bono and The Edge’s houses, with some in studios in England and L.A. as well. Overall it took about two years to complete. Although two members clearly ran the show, each of the four in the band got to choose ten songs from the catalog they felt worthy of redoing. Tellingly, only one song from Pop was chosen – “If God Will Send His Angels”. The idea for 40 songs came presumably partly from the song of theirs entitled “40” and from Bono’s book which came out a little before the album. That was titled Surrender – 40 Songs, One Story.

Although 40 songs were chosen, some chose to economize and get a stripped-down version of the album of stripped-down songs. It was made available in various formats including a deluxe boxed set of all 40 songs on 4 discs, a 20 song CD, and a 16 song double-LP or CD or cassette tape! The vinyl versions were offered in an array of at least a dozen different colored vinyls including a blue one only for Sirius Radio subscribers and a green & white edition for fans of the Boston Celtics. We couldn’t make things like that up! The release was accompanied by a TV documentary hosted by David Letterman who accompanied Bono and the Edge to Dublin to see their city, hoist a few Guinesses and watch a concert of the acoustic material there.

It was an unusual offering, but surprisingly most critics liked it quite a bit. In Britain, The Guardian and NME each rated it 3-stars, while the Daily Telegraph gave it 4. They found it a “measured, inventive, introspective collection” that was “so compelling.” Over here, Rolling Stone applauded The Edge (who is listed as the primary producer) who “reminds you these are sturdy songs that can be rethought without any window dressing.” Only the New York Times seemed to disagree, finding the songs “far too muted” and telling U2 they would be “better served looking forward than being reminiscent.”

“With or Without You” and “Beautiful Day” were put out as singles but weren’t massive hits like the originals on radio nor on streaming services. The album itself was a hit – when it arrived. It went to #1 in Ireland (their tenth such one there, from The Joshua Tree on only 2014’s Songs of Innocence failed to go to #1 in their home island), in Britain and Germany. In France, it hit #2 but sold enough to get them a gold record. In Canada it was a #5 hit, as it was in the States. But there’s an odd piece of trivia to that- it debuted at #5 but spent just that one week on the album charts! Dropping from #5 out of the top 200 is, as far as we can tell, unprecedented. In case you’re wondering, it’s reported that the first week actual sales in the U.S. were about 46 000 and of those, 19500 were LPS, 13 500 were CD and a mere 500 were tapes; the rest were paid downloads.

Whether or not you liked their reimagining and new image, old fans who like their old anthemic sounds can take heart. Adam Clayton said in November they are working on new songs and “we are turning the amps on! I certainly think the rock that we all grew up with as 16 and 17 year olds …is something we would love to connect back into.”

February 21 – 3 Grammys, 1 Night …That’s A Beautiful Day!

The fondness the Grammy Awards showed for Ireland’s U2 turned into a full-blown love affair this night 23 years ago, as Bono & the boys took home a trio of major awards at the L.A. ceremony.

They’d already won seven of the trophies prior to that, dating back to The Joshua Tree which took home Album of the Year and Rock Performance by a Group or Duo in 1987. But this day in 2001 was a “Beautiful Day” for them, with the song of that name taking home Record of the Year and Song of the Year as well as winning them the Best Rock Performance again. Fittingly, they played the song live at the awards show that night, to an excited crowd.

“The whole year has been quite humbling,” said Bono who, along with his three bandmates would also take home the Brit Award for Best International Group that year. Surprisingly perhaps Steely Dan, newly re-formed, won the Best Album Grammy that year, not Ireland’s finest.

The hot streak continued on to the following year, with U2 winning four more Grammys for the same album – All That You Can’t Leave Behind. In 2002, it took the Best Rock Album, Performance by a Rock Group or Duo, Best Pop Performance for “Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” and Record of the Year for “Walk On.” While several artists – Henry Mancini, Roberta Flack, Eric Clapton and even the 5th Dimension – had won Record of the Year twice before, U2 became the first to pull off that trick with songs from the same album. Appropriately enough, Rolling Stone call All that You Can’t Leave Behind “U2’s third masterpiece”, after The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby.

The Grammys and U2 continue their amorous relationship to this day. Currently, U2 have won 22 of them, most recently five in 2006 including Album of the Year for How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.  At 22, that’s seven more than any other group, with the Foo Fighters coming in runner-up in that department.

February 6 – Many Minds Figured Kerr’s Band Simply Sparkled

Call it envy or admiration or simply coincidental change, but once U2 began to sell out stadiums and seemed quickly on their way to becoming the biggest band from Europe, some other acts began to sound just a little more like Bono and Co. than they had before. Case in point, Simple Minds, who on this day in 1984 put out their boldest and most anthemic-sounding record to that point – Sparkle in the Rain.

They had been the opening act for U2 in a number of shows back ’83, including some massive ones in Ireland. That’s where Jim Kerr, the singer of Simple Minds, had the realization that he wanted to sound a bit different than they had previously in their new wave-y, often ethereal previous records. “In places like that, 50 000 people, there’s no room for subtlety and there’s no need for it, no want for it.” That was the concert where they premiered the first single off Sparkle in the Rain, “Waterfront,” a song he’d written for his hometown of Glasgow and its dwindling ship-building industry (a theme that resonated with Sting too as we know.) “You always see your home town differently when you come back,” Kerr explained.

So they decided to write music that had “a bit more dirt in it”. They called in super-producer Steve Lillywhite to help them, who had also worked with two of the other “Celtic new rock” bands, U2 and Big Country. As was often the case, Lillywhite brought his wife, Kirsty MacColl along and she added some backing vocals on a couple of the ten tracks. The band wrote nine of them themselves, with the other one being a cover of Lou Reed’s 1978 epic “Street Hassle.” Although they cut down Reed’s song by half, at 5:14” it was still the longest song on the record. While A&M released a pretty conventional version in the U.S., Virgin Records went all out on the first pressing of LP, making them on white vinyl for the British Isles and on clear wax for the Canadian market!

At the time, most liked the new, louder approach. Rolling Stone gave it 4-stars, Smash Hits, 8 out of 10. The former said “Scotland’s Simple minds continue to dazzle and impress” with their “complex web of sound…churchy keyboards, lace-like appregiated guitar lines and soaring wisps of feedback…” . Their only complaint was the Reed song “which doesn’t bear covering by anyone.” CMJ thought it sounded “more cohesive” than past records and “the words and music (are) forming a complete whole rather than two antagonistic elements.” Britain’s The Guardian however, dissented, declaring “pursuit of U2 and world domination” led them to “shed all that was good about their sound.”

“Waterfront” did sound big and bold and got to #13 at home for them, tying their best showing to then. It was a #1 hit in New Zealand and a top 5 in Ireland, where perhaps they remembered their opening spots for U2. “Speed Your Love To Me” was another UK top 20 while “Up on the Catwalk” didn’t do quite as well, resulting in it later being called their “most under-rated single” by Melody Maker. The album opened a few doors for them in the U.S., crawling to #64, their first significant chart entry there. To the north, it made #14 in Canada and went gold, largely on the strength of play in Toronto, where CFNY ranked it as the #3 record of the year (amazingly, that was less successful than earlier albums of theirs from the ’80s). Of course in Britain they were already established and the album became their first #1 hit, and spent over a year on the charts, eventually going double-platinum. Which perhaps had Jim Kerr hoping we “don’t you forget about me”… which after their Breakfast Club movie work the next year, nobody will!

Although Simple Minds never matched up to U2 in terms of commercial sales later on, they have matched their Irish rivals/friends in durability. They released their 21st studio album, Direction of the Heart, last fall and it reached the British top 5. And they are currently on tour, heading to Australia for nine shows later this month with a bevy of European concerts scheduled for this spring and summer. Thus far though, only one North American date has been set, May 11 at a festival in the L.A. area.

October 1 – U2 Took Pride In Changing Gears Musically

“All we had to do was keep doing what we were doing and we would have become the biggest band since Led Zeppelin,” Bono declared looking back on U2 in the mid-’80s. Their fanbase and reputation was growing steadily through their first three albums, Boy, October and War. Yet, he adds “something just didn’t feel right. We felt we had more dimension…something unique to offer.” Thus instead of writing nine or ten more straight-ahead rockers and recording them in a modern studio to follow up War, they wanted to shake things up every which way. The result was The Unforgettable Fire, released this day in 1984.

Shake things up they did. For starters, as much as they liked Steve Lillywhite, the talented producer they were used to working with, they wanted someone with new ideas. They talked to Rhett Davies, who’d just done Roxy Music’s atmospheric Avalon but they didn’t really hit it off, so they turned to Eno (curiously enough a former member of Roxy Music, pre-Avalon.) Bono said something like “we knew what was right about our band, we needed someone to tell us what was wrong.” Eno was a good choice for that. He was in fact, not especially impressed with U2 at that point. But when he talked to Bono, he was charmed and liked the talk of changing gears. He agreed to record with them, and brought along his friend Daniel Lanois to be an engineer (Lanois took on more responsibility as time went by and became a co-producer.) And the first thing they decided was that they needed somewhere new to work, so they ended up in an old Irish castle where they did most of the recording through the summer of ’84.

The final result was a change indeed, although listeners wouldn’t have known it right away. The first single, “Pride (In the Name of Love)” wasn’t that different than the previous rock singles they’d been known for, even if Chrissie Hynde was adding her voice in the background. It rocked and was about a suitably socio-political subject – Martin Luther King Jr.

Likewise, the album title refers to the bombing of Hiroshima in WW2, a very suitable follow-up to War. But that was about as far as the parallels would go.

While some of the other songs did tackle weighty subjects (“Bad” for example, was about heroin, which at the time was a scourge on their hometown of Dublin, as Bono would often tell crowds) the sound was decidedly more ambient, less frantic and less predictable than prior work. Eno brought in a string section to compliment the title track for instance, and while it might have been somewhat about Japan and the war, the lyrics “don’t tell you anything”, Bono admits.

The result was an album that was at once recognizable yet utterly different for the fans. Critics weren’t sure what to make of it. Rolling Stone particularly didn’t like the new direction, giving it 3-stars but calling the title “perversely suggestive” since they thought the band “flickered and nearly floundered” amidst the “soggy” music. the NME was more positive, saying “the old four-square rock unit has been deconstructed. In its place there’s a panoramic soundscape, multiple textures.”

Fans took to it though. “Pride” became their biggest hit to that point, hitting #3 in the UK, topping New Zealand charts and being their first top 40 in the U.S. The second single, “The Unforgettable Fire” became their first #1 hit in their home of Ireland. The album itself was their second #1 in Britain and made #5 in Canada, #12 in the U.S. Strangely, it was the first of their records to be put on 8-track tape, by then a dying format – indicative of their label’s belief in them and desire to get them into as many ears as possible. When all was said and done, The Unforgettable Fire sold similar amounts as War. It was 3X platinum in North America, double-platinum in the UK.

Of course, retrospectively, the album’s great tracks (like “Pride”, the title and “A Sort of Homecoming”) stand out well, some of the others have become irrelevant (does anyone still listen to “Elvis Presley and America” these days?) but the album was a landmark. The different sounds, the ambient flourishes, the subject matter touching on the U.S., the collaboration with Eno and Lanois, even the ephereal infrared B&W photography on the cover all set the stage for the follow-up megahit, The Joshua Tree.

As it turns out, they managed to become the biggest band since Led Zeppelin… doing things differently.

June 22 – Blackwell’s Island A Sea Of Talent

Today we wish a happy birthday to the man Music Week called “the most influential figure in the last 50 years of British music” not long ago…and no, it’s not Paul McCartney. Nor Elton John or Mick Jagger. Happy 86^th, Chris Blackwell!

Chris may not be a household name, but if you love music, there’s a good chance you have records (or CDs) in your house only possible because of him. Blackwell was the force behind one of pop’s greatest record companies, Island.

Although born in London, it’s not improbable that Chris would consider himself more Jamaican than British. His mother was Jamaican, and he spent much of his childhood and adolescence there, the island being a territory of the UK at that time. There he developed a love of the local ska/reggae music and the lifestyle. Not long out of school he started running a chain of jukeboxes in clubs and restaurants there, finding himself more and more immersed in the music, and at age 21 he had a boating accident. He was rescued by Rastafarian fishermen, and developed even more of a fondness for the culture. In 1958, while still only 21, he started Island Records.

Their first record was a jazz piano record, but soon he was putting out local Jamaican reggae and rocksteady acts on disc. When Jamaica became independent in 1962, he returned to London and was selling records from his car. His first big break was probably signing Millie Small, and producing her record. She had an international, six million-selling hit in ’64 with “My Boy Lollipop”… on Fontana records. Blackwell, astute businessman as well as music fan, decided to let them license the single.

“Independent record labels in those days couldn’t handle hits, because (they) couldn’t pay the pressing plant in time to supply the demand.” Back home in Britain, he soon discovered the Spencer Davis Group, and expanded his interests to rock music. He remains fond of Steve Winwood (the singer in Spencer Davis) to this day. “Steve Winwood was really the cornerstone of Island Records,” he recalls. “He’s a musical genius, and because he was with Island, all the other talent really wanted to be on Island.”

Talent that soon ranged from Queen to the Cranberries to Robert Palmer (the subject of today’s other post). And of course, some of Jamaica’s greats, including Bob Marley and Toots and the Maytals. Although Marley clearly is the best-known artist from the island, Blackwell is actually even fonder of Toots, whom he produced himself and even helped set up the Maytals backing band. “The Maytals were unlike anything else,” he’s said, “sensational, raw and dynamic… Toots, one of the purest human beings I’ve met.”

Many of Island’s later discs were recorded in their own studio, Compass Point that Chris built in the Bahamas. Eventually, Island Records were sold to Polygram in 1989, by which time they were ranked as the largest “indie” label in the world. Blackwell kept working in the company though and later with a film company, Palm Pictures.

He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, with that institute calling him “the single person most responsible for turning the world on to reggae music.” He was inducted in by someone more famous – Bono, from Island’s most successful act ever, U2. One more credit for Blackwell. He had the sense to sign them when CBS Records dropped them after one small distribution EP in 1979. They remain on Island to this day, 120 million or so albums on.

Blackwell was married to designer Mary Vinson until her death from cancer in 2004, and has two kids. Among his homes is one known as “Goldeneye”, formerly owned by James Bond-creator Ian Fleming.

May 9 – Seems Like U2 Day In Canada

On this day in 1987, U2 got to the top for the first time in Canada. On the singles charts that is, about a month after The Joshua Tree hit the #1 spot on the album chart there. “With or Without You”, the first single off that album zoomed up the Canuck charts as it did throughout much of the world…it did in the U.S. as well, but almost astonishingly, they only scored one more #1 song there.

But in the Great White North, fast forward five years to the day, and in 1992, they’d place their fifth song atop the charts there – the appropriately titled “One.” (In between they’d had chart-toppers with “Desire”, “Angel of Harlem” and “Mysterious Ways”) In their native Ireland, mind you it was their tenth #1. Although it didn’t quite get to #1 in the U.S. or UK,(it made #10 in the former and #7 in the latter) it’s widely seen as close to the band’s finest hour. As Jon Bon Jovi gushes, “Achtung Baby was bigger than life. It was unique. A song like ‘One’- beyond ridiculous!” Entertainment Weekly at the time called it “biting and unprecedentedly emotional” while Rolling Stone thought it a “radiant ballad… few bands can marshal such sublime power.” Q readers agreed, in 2006 voting it the fifth greatest song ever. Bono likes the song but says it’s not a love song. “It’s a bit twisted. I could never figure out why people want it at their weddings!” Michael Stipe and Mike Mills of R.E.M. performed the song with U2’s Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen in ’93 at a concert for president Bill Clinton.

They’d go on to top both the Canadian and Irish singles charts 11 more times…and counting. That included “Staring at the Sun”, which was #1 exactly five years after “One”, this day in 1997! U2 should really like May 9^th by now. With a new album out recently, Songs of Experience, and another one rumored to be coming shortly, one might not bet against them making that a dozen!

April 2 – Playing Live On Streets Which Had Names

U2 kicked off the Joshua Tree Tour on this day in 1987. The tour helped propel The Joshua Tree to become one of the decade’s biggest albums and them into superstar territory. Fittingly (for an album named after a place in the American desert) the tour began in Tempe, AZ at the Arizona State University Activity Center (now known as the Wells Fargo Arena) ,on a Thursday night. Bono was struggling to ward off laryngitis, and invited people to sing along which they apparently were happy to do.

The announced crowd was 25 000, even though the arena is only designed for 14 000 or so, and the band played through 21 songs (most of the Joshua Tree plus some old favorites like “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “New Year’s Day” as well as a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm”) . the first leg of the tour wrapped up in New Jersey in May, by which time they’d done 29 concerts for 465 000 fans. Eventually it wrapped up in december of that year after 110 shows, and not only did it help them make a major impression on America, it helped America make a major impression on them. Their follow-up album, Rattle and Hum was inspired by their time in the U.S. and even included a few live tracks recorded on the tour, including “Bullet the Blue Sky” from the Tempe.

They decided to revisit it six years back,  with a 30th Anniversary tour for the album. Although that tour lasted only 51 concerts, it still took in over $300 million and pleased better than 2.5 million fans. Which should have inspired some “Pride (in the name of love)” in the Irish foursome. Of course, it set them on the road to superstardom and the album did so well, they decided it was a tour so nice, they’d do it twice! In 2017, they went on tour again for the album’s 30th anniversary, playing every song on the album – remarkably they’d not done “Red Hill Mining Town” before in concert – headlining the Bonnaroo Festival during it, and playing some 66 shows for over 3-and-a-quarter million fans. That tour brought in close to $400M, all the better to pay for the expenses of things like the 200′ wide hi-res screen they used behind the stage! Typically they supplemented The Joshua Tree with eight or nine other tracks including “Sunday Bloody Sunday” to open, “Bad”, “Pride” and “Beautiful Day” and the once-panned “Miss Sarajevo” as an encore.

Although U2 just put out a new album, Songs of Surrender, so far they don’t seem to have any grand tour plans for it, although Bono is scheduled to appear at the Beacon Theater in New York City for 11 nights this spring doing his “Songs of Surrender” show which he labels “an evening of words, music and some mischief.”

March 23 – U2 Say You Can Go Home Again

Forty years ago this week, in March 1983, U2 put out the single “Sunday Bloody Sunday” in continental Europe. In the UK and North America, they picked “Two Hearts Beat As One” as the single instead; rather a “Sophie’s choice” since both were excellent tunes deserving hearing and hit status.

“Sunday Bloody Sunday” got to #3 in the Netherlands and did pretty well across Europe and of course, has become one of the band’s enduringly popular songs in their live set. We’ve looked at the song here before, but in summary, the rebel rocker was thought up by guitarist The Edge, inspired by the horrendous Bogside Massacre that occurred in 1972, when the lads in U2 were still children. It was perhaps the tipping point in the years-long civil war in Ireland… and a good starting point for today’s feature.

It might seem like U2 have been quiet for some time now, but that’s actually not the case. In fact, the opposite is true. This week U2 have put out a new album and a TV documentary. Which seemingly are inter-connected.

A Sort of Homecoming is the TV special, the name of a song off their fine fourth album, An Unforgettable Fire, and the shorthand for the documentary’s content. 75 year old fan David Letterman goes to Dublin to visit Bono and The Edge (Adam and Larry from the band were busy elsewhere on other projects) and tour their hometown, meeting some interesting characters along the way and seeing the front side of U2 perform an acoustic concert (sort of U2 “unplugged”) for hometown fans.

The show’s well-worth a watch if you’re a fan, with not only some fine musical performances but interesting interviews with Bono and The Edge (as well as some of their friends in the music world). Bono reveals that the others in U2 get weary of all his activism at times; The Edge talks about his crisis in faith early on – feeling torn between doing something obvious to show his religious faith and being in a rock band – when the idea of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” came to him and he realized that his music could be a platform for change. They talk about – and show – how far Ireland has progressed from their childhood when it was a war-torn, uptight conservative land to now, a modern, rather open-minded society. And Letterman joins them for a spontaneous drop by a real Irish pub.

On the music side, The Edge gives the talk show host chills by demonstrating how he plays “Where the Streets Have no Name” on his usual electric guitar. Otherwise, the songs are stripped down versions of many well-known, and a couple of lesser-known U2 songs through the years, played with just acoustic guitar, an old upright piano and a woman on cello behind them. The pair said they wanted to see if there really was something to their old music, if the bombast of the group was taken away, and for the most part, songs like “Vertigo”, “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “One” pass the test. They might not be better than the originals we know, but they certainly sound good in the unplugged fashion, and in some cases the lyrics stand out and speak far more than they had before. And yes, they introduce a brand new song in it, ostensibly written in honor of their guest – “Forty Foot Man”. “Many nice things have happened to me in my life, this would be right at the top of my list,” Letterman said and while the song may not go down in their canon alongside “Sunday Bloody Sunday” or “Beautiful Day” as an all-time classic, it’s a pretty decent return to form for them… especially for one they supposedly banged off from the top of their heads at 3AM one night!

As for the new album, Songs of Surrender came out on St. Patrick’s Day, fittingly enough, and is their first new product in six years. It is a sort of extension of the Dublin concert, with old U2 songs done newly; reimagined. “We gave ourselves permission to disregard any sense of reverence for the originals,” The Edge says. In all, 40 songs are included, ten picked by each of the members. If you get a deluxe 4LP set. It’s also available in CD, vinyl and believe it or not, cassette tape with 16 songs including “One”, “Invisible” (a little known single from 2013 which was a highligt of the TV show), “Pride” and of course, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, which like a few others, Bono has tweaked the lyrics to. Sadly, no “Forty Foot Man”… but hold on! There are persistent rumors of another U2 album this year, which would be new material.

A Sort of Homecoming is now on Disney’s streaming service. I don’t know when Disney stopped being the one with the talking mouse and white princesses in distress needing saving and became THE music station, but following on the heels of last year’s Beatles doc, Get Back, it’s seeming like a service music fans might grudgingly need to have on their TVs.

March 15 – A Lillywhite Album Usually Turns Gold Or Platinum

Happy birthday to one of the best, and best-known producers of our lifetime. Steve Lillywhite turns 68 today. Lillywhite helped put U2 on the map…and that’s just for starters.

Born in Surrey, England, he like most kids of the British Invasion-era loved music, and began to play bass a little. But it never amounted to much for him. But in contrast, his first real job as a tape operator for Polygram Records did. He learned the ins and outs of recording studios, and soon produced a demo for then-unknown Ultravox. That got them signed and drew him to the attention of Island Records, who hired him on as an in-house producer. He quickly had some success there, working on the Siouxsie & the Banshees debut which produced a major UK hit, “Hong Kong Garden.” Quickly he became the “new wave go-to guy”, producing hits for XTC and Peter Gabriel’s acclaimed third album. That was where he met another guy who’d become pretty big in the biz, Hugh Padgham, who was Steve’s sound engineer on the Gabriel record. “I love Hugh,” Lillywhite’s said, “he’s great.” People like Phil Collins would surely agree!

In 1980 he helmed two impressive debuts – the Psychedelic Furs and, even more, U2’s Boy. He’d also produce their next two, October and War before the band decided they needed new input and looked to Eno.

He stayed very busy in the ’80s, doing works for a range of bands including Simple Minds, Big Country and even the Rolling Stones (Dirty Work), and he got married along the way to singer Kirsty MacColl. She’d at time join him and add backing vocals to projects he was working on, notably including the Pogues anti-Christmas carol, “A Fairytale of New York.” The couple had two kids before splitting up (and then, tragically MacColl dying in a strange boating accident.)

He rolled on into the ’90s working on a trio of big Dave Matthews Band records as well as doing some work with Eno & Daniel Lanois on U2’s Achtung Baby. Just before that, he’d worked on the final Talking Heads effort, Naked. It seemed to be one of his favorite works, and the band, despite its reputation for bickering found it “a really wonderful experience”, recording the album in Paris. Lillywhite said he realized he had grown by that time. “It wasn’t mixed so loud…I, in those days was known for this big bombast…sound, like on U2’s Boy.”

Although he briefly worked as an executive with Universal Music and a VP for Sony-Columbia, his favorite place seems to always be in the studio. He reunited with U2 for their How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, which won him a Producer of the Year Grammy… one of five trophies he’s won with them in all including Record of the Year for 2000’s “Beautiful Day.”

For all that, he isn’t universally adored. Rush call him “a man not of his word”, because he apparently baled on them when he’d agreed to record their Grace Under Pressure. (The band went on to essentially self-produce it. Since it continued their string of platinum, top 10-selling albums in both Canada and the U.S., they probably did alright themselves) and Dave Matthews Band unceremoniously fired him while they were working on a fourth record together. They didn’t say exactly why, but perhaps he acknowledges the reason while talking about himself. “I micro-manage like crazy. I tried to be that Rick Rubin sort of ‘sit back and see the big picture’ guy, but I have to be in there, getting my hands dirty.” Something I bet U2 can forgive him for. And the country. He was made a Member of the British Empire in 2012 for his contribution to music.

February 17 – Turntable Talk 11 : They Were The Champions, & They Rocked Us

Welcome back to Turntable Talk! Thanks to all the regular readers and welcome to any new ones. If you’re keeping count, this is our 11^th instalment! But for new readers, briefly, on Turntable Talk we have a number of guest columns from other music fans and writers, sounding off on one particular topic. This month, our topic is A Really Big Show. We’ve asked our guests if they had a time machine, and could go back and see one concert what would it be? It could be a show from before they were born, one tey missed or one they actually attended and would like to relive. Big festival, small club show, you name it.

Today we wrap up this round, with a few thoughts from me here at A Sound Day.

A big thanks to my guest contributors again! I hope you’ve enjoyed their columns and thoughts as much as I have and I have to admit, I’ve been surprised at the range of shows they’d have liked to go back and see. From Count Basie in a swingin’ pre-war show in the Big Apple to the post-modern Talking Heads at their creative zenith in California to a huge hard rock festival I’d never heard of, we saw some great shows through their eyes (and ears).

If asked the same question myself, I’d be quite torn… so many good choices. First let me say, that honestly I would not have picked some obvious choices. Beatles? No thanks. Hey, I love their music and think they influenced modern music more than anyone else but, let’s face it – they quit playing live when they were coming into their real peak period and the shows they played leading up to that – Shea Stadium, etc –  had a poor sound system and the fans in the stands were screaming so much you could barely hear the Fab Four. Their rooftop show, documented in Get Back, a cool idea and some fine tunes, but I’d probably be with the few other amused fans and passersby on the street below, in the cold, not being able to see them and hearing it amidst the other street noise. Woodstock? Certainly a historic event, and some fantastic bands, but honestly, quite a few acts that were just a bit before my time and didn’t wow me all that much. Not enough to endure all that rain and mud… plus, I’d not like that some of the better artists were showing up onstage literally in the middle of the night!

I’d also consider going back to re-live a few concerts I did go to, to appreciate them more. U2 on The Unforgettable Fire tour at Maple Leaf Gardens. Powerful, brilliant rocking show finishing with all 18000 or so of us singing the chorus to ’40’ as we exited the building onto Carlton Street in Toronto. Today’s other column’s subject, The Stranglers, in a mid-sized bar in Toronto promoting the Norfolk Coast. Unlike their ’80s concert I saw in a big theater, this time the sound was perfect and they picked a great set of both their old ‘punk’ singles and newer, refined tunes. Frontman JJ Burnel even posed and grinned for a few photos for me while I was only feet from the stage – a marked contrast to the band’s ’70s behavior when he’d likely have cut the song and jumped off the stage to kick my camera out of my hands. This time around I wouldn’t end up losing the SD card! And R.E.M., my favorite band of my own generation. I’ve seen them several times but would probably go back to the Up tour show. Oddly, it was the first album of theirs I’d bought that under-whelmed me a little, and was the first without drummer Bill Berry but the concert was aces. Michael Stipe was chatty and humorous, they played some old nuggets I’d not heard them do before like “Cuyahoga” and they had an incredible, gaudy, fun backdrop of dozens of bizarre neon signs, flashing and looking like a Las Vegas cartoon. And as a bonus, Wilco opened the show! At the time (1999) I remember thinking they were quite good, but only knowing two songs they played. Twenty-odd years later, I’d appreciate their set more too I bet. But for all that, there’s really only one show that would win the “time travel trip” for me. The ultimate live music event of Gen X and in fact, of many of our lifetimes – Live Aid. Set the Time Travel dial to July 13, 1985, destination, London, England.

First off, it was a piece of History. I mean, you can’t think of ’80s music and not think about Live Aid and the fundraising records for the same African charities, notably “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and “We Are The World.” People (like me) who weren’t there on that – happily – sunny day, were able to watch on TV for the most part. It was shown on television in over 150 countries and the audience was estimated at over a billion people! Talk about an event bringing the world together. As co-organizer Bob Geldof said, “thru the lingua franca (common language) of the planet – which is not English, but rock’n’roll – we were able to address the intellectual absurdity and the moral repulsion of people dying of want in a world of surplus.” Which brings me to another point – it was for good. George Harrison had started the ball rolling over a decade prior, with his Concert for Bangladesh; Bob Geldof and Midge Ure drove it home this day. Rock and pop music can bring about change for the better in the world both by raising money for worthy organizations that help and, more importantly by shining a light on serious problems many might not have known about. Obviously, the African situation – millions starving, droughts, civil wars – was complicated and throwing a few million dollars at it wasn’t going to solve all the troubles. But at least it helped a little, fed some and made people think about the world scene and how they could make a difference more than they had before.

All that aside, the day was about great music first and foremost and boy, did it deliver. I might add that of course a companion show took place closer to home, in Philadelphia. It too had a great lineup, including the Four Tops, Neil Young, Tom Petty, the Thompson Twins (oddly since they were London-based), riding high still from their Into the Gap, and a perhaps less-than-all-that reunion of Led Zeppelin with Phil Collins on drums. But still, for a non-stop tops show, the London one was it. No doubt to the delight of Princess Diana and not so much for Prince Charles (now “King Charles”) who were in attendance.

It kicked off at high noon with the Royal Coldstream Guards playing a little royal salute and part of “God Save the Queen” – the one Elizabeth would approve of, not the Sex Pistols one – before turning over the stage to Status Quo. No disrespect to them, but that would probably have been my cue to try to get to the snack bar to pick up a bite to eat and some drinks, because after that… it was a pretty jam-packed list of great music I liked, starting with the Style Council. Geldof’s own Boomtown Rats were up next and brought down the house with “I Don’t Like Mondays”. That awed Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp who said “you would follow (Geldof). He has just great charisma. He’d make a frightening politician.”

Spandau Ballet were on themselves soon after, but not before a brief appearance from Adam Ant and a longer one from Ultravox, the other organizer ‘s (Midge Ure) band. They kicked off their set with my two favorite songs of theirs, “Reap the wild Wind” and “Dancing With Tears in My Eyes”. It was barely 2 PM when Elvis Costello came on to do a “little northern folk song”, which turned out to be “All You Need is Love.” Next up, Nik Kershaw, one of the more promising newcomers from the New Wave who was hot at the time but seemed to close to disappear from the scene not long after. Stylish Sade came on and then a super-pairing of Sting and Phil Collins. They cranked through eight songs including “Roxanne” and “In the Air Tonight” before dueting on “Every Breath You Take.” As Phil no doubt ran offstage to catch the Concorde – remember he also appeared at the Philly show later in the day – Howard Jones was on. Unfortunately, he did just one song, and honestly, “Hide and Seek” wasn’t one of his best.

No time to worry about that, because then Bryan Ferry, fresh off the release of his first post-Roxy Music record, Boys + Girls, was up with a new guitarist … David Gilmour of Pink Floyd! Continuing in the stylish vein, Paul Young appeared, joined by the great voice of Alison Moyet for one song. By the time he’d cleared off, I might be getting a bit hungry, but I wouldn’t have been going anywhere because it was U2. More than anything else, their short-ish but express train-energetic set of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and a long take on “Bad” with bits of other tunes worked in was probably what made them rise from popular to contenders for “biggest band in the world.” Remember, they were on in a great time slot and about a billion pairs of eyes were watching Bono & Co.

Speaking of bands who were at the top back then, next up – Dire Straits, who brought Sting back out to help deliver “Money For Nothing.” By the time they were done, the sun would have been dropping in the sky a little. It was nearly 7 and coming on were some ’70s favorites who’d not been making much impact lately on my side of the ocean. But let’s hope no one looked away or dashed to the bathroom, because Queen put on their performance of a lifetime.

Following that was an unenviable task, but David Bowie tried and put on what Rolling Stone said was “arguably his last triumph of the ’80s”. He was in turn followed by The Who. There are people around who like The Who more than I do, but it’s always been a band who knew how to put on a power-packed, entertaining show, and in this case they played one of their (to me) under-rated songs, “Love Reign O’er Me.” It brought to mind a hypothetical question – if you had that time machine, could you take modern equipment like digital cameras with you? Hope so, because I’d want momentos of the day and would have tried to record a bit of the Who for our friend Max from Power Pop Blog.

Not many could properly come on after Queen, Bowie and the Who … but Elton John could. And he did with the longest set of the show, six songs and over half an hour. Interestingly, he brought George Michael on to do “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” which they put out as a single in the ’90s. Also unexpected, he finished with a Marvin Gaye cover, “Can I Get A Witness?”. No chicken suit for Elton but a pretty great set nonetheless, all the more surprising since we now know his mental state and addictions in that period.

Well, it would be almost time to go home with a headful of magic and music, but before doing so, Brian May and Freddie Mercury of Queen came back to sing “Is this the World We Created?” (I wondered if that was scheduled or a  last-minute kind of encore for them after seeing how well their own set went over), and a grand finale. And for a British rock show, what could be more fitting that than The Beatles? Sadly we didn’t get a reunion of ¾ of the Fab Four but did get Sir Paul doing “Let it Be” with a little help from his friends, including Bowie, Pete Townshend, Moyet and Gedof. Sure, Paul’s mic was wonky and the sound for it wasn’t great but hey… after that day, who’s complaining?

Live Aid ’85. The Show of Shows, and one I rather think, regrettably, will never be matched. It’s hard to imagine these days how one could get 30 or more top name acts together for a big concert that would appeal to over a billion people and have a lasting generational impact. I was there, via the TV screen. If I had a time machine, I’d have been there with 71 999 others at Wembley Stadium.