New Year's Day. Cuando ya pensábamos que U2 no tendría un recuerdo para sus fans U2.com publicó ayer día 1 de Enero de 2015 un artículo escrito por Bono haciendo balance del extraordinario Año 2014 para U2.
Haciendo un repaso de la A a la Z, Bono nos mostró algunos de los momentos más especiales del 2014 y algunos detalles muy importantes de cara al 2015.
A destacar la parte en la que Bono revela que no sabe si será capaz de volver a tocar la guitarra debido a la grave lesión en su brazo tras su caída en bici en Noviembre 2014 y que tendrá que dedicar el primer semestre de 2015 para recuperarse a tiempo de iniciar la gira en Mayo 2015.
1 de Enero de 2015
LITTLE BOOK OF A BIG YEAR: Bono's A to Z of 2014
Es 1 de Enero, 8 de la noche. Casi no llego a enviar esto, y claramente estoy delirando en algunas partes. Es muy personal, pero siento de una manera no-cursi que U2 tiene una relación muy intima con su audiencia.. Así que ahí voy.
Es demasiado largo. No deberías tener tiempo para leer esto. Si llegas al final, entonces probablemente tomas los mismos analgésicos que yo. Desde hace unas semanas no he sido capaz de moverme físicamente, así que lo he compensado dejando a mi mente con su espíritu viajero, sin ataduras, excepto por vía electrónica…
He escrito letras para nuevas canciones, pero también he tenido la oportunidad de mirar hacia atrás y revisar el año de una manera que nunca he tenido tiempo de hacer antes.. ha habido más altos que bajos, pero tal vez la razón de este esfuerzo de abecedario es un intento de aprender de los errores, el primero es el descubrimiento de que no soy un vehículo blindado. Edge dice que veo a mi cuerpo como un inconveniente.. El problema, como yo lo veo, es que creo que mi cabeza es más dura que cualquier otra superficie.
En el día de mi 50 cumpleaños tuve una lesión porque me excedí haciendo ejercicios de boxeo y ciclismo, que era en sí mismo una compensación por excederme en el alcohol que llega en el gran cumpleaños. Me prometí que iba a ser más consciente de mis límites, pero sólo cuatro años después, pasó otra vez: una enorme lesión de la que no puedo culpar a nadie más que a mí mismo, principalmente porque me quedé en blanco del impacto y no tengo ningún recuerdo de como terminé en el Presbyterian Hospital de Nueva York con mi hueso húmero atravesando mi chaqueta de cuero. Lesiones muy punk rock.
Las consecuencias de este extraño accidente son lo suficientemente significativas que tendré que concentrarme mucho para estar listo para la gira de U2 en términos de buena forma.. como resultado he cancelado cada aparición pública y decidí que esta carta es toda la comunicación que puedo hacer en esta primera mitad de 2015, más allá de murmurar y cantar para mí, por supuesto.
A de ALI
Si su nombre fuera Zena empezaría el alfabeto con ella de todos modos. Mirar a Ali esta mañana mientras ella y una tenue luz de sol de invierno limpia nuestra cocina de la noche anterior.. estoy escribiendo en una larga mesa que anoche estaba rodeada de familiares y amigos en casa por Navidad y Año Nuevo.. el mar y el cielo eran de tinta después con manchas de pequeñas luces festivas, infiltrando nuestra noche de invierno. Yo no quería que acabara la noche, que no siempre ha sido el caso, para mí, durante las últimas seis semanas.
La parte de Ali es más inexpresiva, menos obviamente romántica. Dice que el solsticio de invierno es su día favorito porque después las noches son cada vez más cortas como yo... jaja.
El padre de Ali, Terry, tuvo una serie de ataques al corazón, al mismo tiempo que me estrellé con mi bicicleta en Central Park. No se puede comparar, pero Ali ha hecho mucho por los dos hombres. Todos los días desde la invención de Internet, me ha enviado documentos o escritos científicos o chistes verdes que terminan con la reprimenda ¡PIENSA! Evocando la famosa fotografía de Albert Einstein con su lengua fuera.
B de BLOGOSFERA
Es suficiente decir que es una cuestión de libertad de expresión.. pero el problema de tratar de averiguar lo que la gente piensa es.. que averigües lo que ellos piensan. ¿Quiénes son esas personas? Bueno si pusieran sus verdaderos nombres a su inventiva entonces imagino que serían personas como yo, gente con la audacia de pensar que tiene un pensamiento o un sentimiento que otros deberían escuchar.. si ellos se esconden, no estoy interesado.
Si estás en un viejo pub en Dublín, en realidad en la mayoría de los lugares, entras al baño de caballeros y vas a los wc, cierras la puerta y estudias las paredes.. no hay nada allí.. limpio como una patena. ¿A dónde se fueron todos los grafitis? ¿El malhumor y el malgenio, el dibujo grotesco, la divagación sexual, las amenazas de violencia a las minorías? ¿A dónde se ha ido? Está en la dichosa internet. Desplazarse hacia abajo.. ya sabes que estás mirando tu teléfono en el baño de todas maneras.
B de BONO
Hablar de uno mismo en tercera persona es un poco raro.. Pero Bono lo acepta. Bono cree que el solipsismo (solo yo existo) para un artista es como una tiroides hiperactiva para un cómico, es difícil de solucionar si se está pagando tu camino..
B de BIRTHDAY (Cumpleaños)
Comparto un cumpleaños con mi hija Jordan.. lo que significa que ella tiene que compartir su fiesta de cumpleaños con su padre. Este año no creo que le importara, fue una maravilla. Cuando nació, pensaba sólo cinco libras.. la comadrona dijo que sería reconfortante para ella dormir en mi pecho donde oiría mi latido como cuando su madre la está amamantando. Ella todavía se encuentra allí.
C de CLAYTON
El bajo de Adam en "Songs Of Innocence" es tan fresco y original como su trabajo en nuestro primer álbum, Boy, una genialidad en lo que a mí respecta. Canciones como "The Troubles" o "Volcano", o "This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now" dependen de Adam.. para unir elementos que de otro modo podrían salir volando en diferentes trayectorias.
Adam está más feliz que nunca desde que se casó con Mariana.. ella es tan especial y comparten una pasión por el arte contemporáneo, que los hace grandes amigos y amantes. Lo único que me molesta de Adam Clayton es que parece comprar mejores regalos que yo. Compró a Ali un colgante de copo de nieve que casi nunca se quita a pesar de todos mis intentos por llenarla de cosas que brillan.
La verdad es que Ali es demasiado modesta y frugal como para llevar cosas ostentosas. Otra lección. (Nota mental. Buscar "frugal".) Persona que se alimenta con comidas sencillas y poco abundantes.
C de CEDARWOOD ROAD
Justo antes de Navidad nuestros cuatro hijos fueron al Nº 10 de Cedarwood Road para hacer una foto de una banda de broma como un regalo para mí, U2 lanzó una canción este año acerca de esa calle, en la que crecí con mis mejores amigos Guggi y Gavin en el norte de Dublín.
Cuando el actual propietario decidió hacerles el “photobomb” a mis hijos con caras graciosas a través de la ventana, casi se les saltaron las pieles del lado sur. Ella no tenía idea de que esos chicos tenían alguna conexión con el nº 10, pero los invitó a nuestra vieja casa familiar de todas formas. Y a mi viejo dormitorio. Y a nuestro viejo BAÑO, por el cual su padre solía usar para entrar a la casa tarde en la noche a través de la pequeña ventana. Hay algunos verdaderos espíritus espontáneos en el mundo y los Ryans viviendo en esa casa están definitivamente entre ellos.
D de DAVOS
Yo fui uno de los peces gordos en la nieve nuevamente este año. Irónicamente, pero lo suficientemente brillante, el Foro Mundial Económico de 2014 en Davos comenzó con un mensaje del Papa Francisco. Y cuando el Papa te habla en un resort de ski dejas tu cóctel, católico o no. Su mensaje: “Les pido que se aseguren que la humanidad este servida por la riqueza y no gobernada por ella”. "I ask you to ensure that humanity is served by wealth and not ruled by it".
Amén.
El capitalismo no es inmoral, pero es amoral. Recibe las instrucciones de nosotros. Es una máquina indiscriminada, y nuestra obligación es ver que provea movimiento hacia delante a todos, no solo a aquellos cuyas manos están en las palancas de la máquina.
Fui allí porque Davos me da una visión de primera mano de la élite del poder en el trabajo que he encontrado, bueno, educacionalmente, en mi trabajo como un activista.. para entender mejor esas fuerzas que moldean al mundo de la política y la economía. El mundo fuera de la vida de aire acondicionado de U2. Nunca he tenido un trabajo, trabajé a tiempo parcial en una gasolinera, en un almacén, y pasé un verano vendiendo botas de cowboy.. así que eso me hace un experto ¿en qué? ¿¡En tacones altos?!
Los artistas persiguen lo que se llama el espíritu de la época como los perros a los coches.. a menudo no queremos alcanzar las ruedas de velocidad, solo queremos ladrarles. Podría pasar mi vida entera en una burbuja de composición de canciones, me encantaría eso, pero me he dado cuenta que es el artista en mí el que no lo quiere. Tengo que aceptar que no es solo la cultura que informa del espíritu de la época. Quiero entender al comercio, quiero entender a la política. Quiero entender la revolución digital como otros antes lidiaron con la revolución industrial. Y si quiero aprender acerca de algo que tengo que hacer, no solo funciona leyendo sobre eso. Eso no fue bien conmigo cuando pensé que podría ser un pintor de paisajes.. pero con “MANTENERSE FUERA - VALLA ELÉCTRICA” mi dislexia lo lee como “¡INGRESE! ¡BEBIDA GRATIS!”
E de EDUN
Después de 10 años de trabajo duro y ahora bajo el ojo genial de la diseñadora Danielle Sherman, EDUN finalmente floreció. Este año Danielle fue votada por Vogue como una de los ocho diseñadoras a los que mirar. Uno de sus mayores logros (y el mío y el de Ali) es que ahora el 95% de esta línea esté hecha en África, el continente que nos vió nacer a todos nosotros.
EDUN apoya a 8 mil granjas de algodón en Uganda. Así que incluí una foto de un campo de algodón, que pienso que es uno de los lugares más bellos en el mundo. La agricultura es sexy. Echa un vistazo a “Cocoa na Chocolate” con las estrellas pop africanas incluyendo a Su Maravillosa Majestad D’Banj.
Por encima de todo E de EDGE
Este año durante la grabación de "Songs Of Innocence" la banda terminó compartiendo casas en Londres. Tenía la habitación debajo de la de Edge.. eso fue un error. El tipo no duerme. Cuando grabamos, a menudo toca la guitarra toda la noche. Le ofrecí pastillas para dormir. Dijo que preferiría que el disco se rompiera en vez de Valium.
Edge no solo es uno de mis más queridos amigos, él, como mi mujer, sigue siendo un misterio para los que lo conocen mejor.. una paradoja.. un verdadero caballero pero con la rabia del rock n’ roll bajo la gruesa piel.. a pesar que es el pararrayos de U2, se mueve como una calmada brisa.. no lo notarías solo por sus huellas en la arena, las sutilezas en su forma de tocar, sus ganchos en la composición de canciones.. algunos de ellos no son obvios a la primera pero terminan siendo eternos. Él es el único que no sabe que es el guitarrista más influyente en un cuarto de siglo.
Edge está muy orgulloso, como el resto de la banda, de nuestra participación en Music Generation.. asegurando en Irlanda que cualquier Edge futuro pueda tener en sus manos una guitarra. En noviembre, 19 mil chicos han tenido acceso a instrumentos y lecciones gracias a la brillante Rosaleen Molloy que dirige el programa.
F de FANS
U2 es una banda que empezó como fans, y con este disco nuevo quisimos recordar a nosotros mismos y a otros que no nos hemos olvidado de eso. Salimos del público de los Clash y de los Ramones.. En épocas anteriores tuvimos fans durmiendo en los pisos de nuestras habitaciones de hotel. Después eso se volvió extraño. Pero siempre hemos entendido que ellos estaban pagando nuestro salario.
U2 fue el primero en usar las nuevas tecnologías como un escenario satélite y videos en pantallas enormes, para asegurarse que el asiento de atrás del recinto fuera tan bueno como el de delante. Pero ahora con los paparazzi y las cámaras de los teléfonos móviles es más difícil pasar el rato cuando estamos de gira. El sonido de un público de U2 es como rugido de un lanzamiento de un cohete. Esta vez no queremos estar en el espacio.. este cohete nos está trayendo de nuevo a la tierra.
F IS FOR FRIENDSHIP
Friendship like music is a sacrament to me. I can't remember who said it; it might even be Nietzsche, who said one other thing – and if I wore tattoos, I would ink this all across my right arm – that to do something really great, there requires "a long obedience in the same direction".
The other non-nihilistic thing he might have said is "friendship is higher than love". It's more consistent. There are fewer highs and lows. But great friendships especially childhood ones have a width and a breadth that some lovers just cannot attain. I like to think I have both with Ali, but my friends Reggie the Dog, who got me in to U2, Guggi and Gavin and Simon have pushed me to write better, think better, be better. That's what friendship does.
F IS FOR THE F-WORD
Let this be said. But not on live television.
I know this out of order, but there are some things you shouldn't get completely under control. Expletives, for example. Bob Geldof is a master of the art. Me, I got a US TV network into trouble for uttering an involuntary expletive in 2004 on accepting a Golden Globe. It went all the way to Congress, where the legislation became known as the Bono Bill. Not to be confused with Buffalo Bill. It was a pyrrhic victory, but I'll take it. I know it's not cool, this year I managed to keep it clean.
G IS FOR GLAUCOMA
Completely unintentionally, in London in the autumn I confessed to the talk show host Graham Norton the reason that I wear tinted glasses is that I have been diagnosed as having glaucoma for the last seven years, but that I've probably had the disease as long as I've been wearing these kinds of glasses, which is 23 years!!!!
I think it shocked him a little bit… it certainly surprised the band that I'd gone public, but maybe it is time to be honest about such things. I remember I had the nickname old red eyes. I remember the agony of flashbulb staying permanently in my vision for the rest of the day after I'd been photographed. I had many eye checks over the years but one of the sly things about this "silent thief" is that you can have 20/20 vision straight ahead for some years even after your peripheral vision goes... If it's not treated, blindness results. I think anyone who reaches 40 should have their eyes properly checked.
H IS FOR THE HEWSONS
I am so proud of our family... our oldest girl Jordan is studying poetry and fighting for the world's poor as founding editor of Global Citizen. This is a great organisation inspiring a whole new generation to join the fight against extreme poverty.
Eve was the star of the year in our house, even having a billboard to herself in our local village of Dalkey for her role in Steven Soderbergh's THE KNICK. Eve has discipline and mischief, real depth that she chooses to float above, until it's necessary to take that dive.
The boys Elijah and John are men now. I refuse to admit John at 13 is taller than me. I still clip his ear to make him laugh while I can... he's a natural comedian whose heroes are graffiti and street artists like JR. He plays rugby as I did but he's better than I ever was. He broke his nose in a match this year. His mother and I were badly shaken. He rolled his eyes, and explained that greatest living Irishman Brian O'Driscoll broke his nose 13 times. So that's a dozen more to go.
Elijah Bob, or Eli as he's known, is 15 and already a guitar shredder. Royal Blood is his favourite at the moment and their debut album is quite something. Motorhead is right up there too. I told him that Lemmy once helped U2 unpack their gear into the Marquee Club in 1980. When everyone wondered what he was still doing there mid-morning from the night before he said "playing space invaders". He wasn't joking. A master. Our boy Eli won't be a student for long.
I IS FOR ITUNES
Our album was to be like a bottle of milk dropped at the door of anyone interested in music and iTunes. As I understand it, the journey from the front door to the fridge and into what to some people felt was their bowl of cereal has something to do with a switch called "automatic download" — if you turn it on, you sign up for being pushed stuff.
That's about it...no flagrant abuse of human rights, but very annoying to people who a) like being annoyed, and/or b) felt it was like someone robbing their phone in the pub and taking a couple of photos before leaving it back on the table... some kind of breach of privacy which was really not intended. I empathise with the b)'s, but for the a)'s I've started referring them to the philosopher Jimmy Kimmel.
That Apple remains a music company is the best news for any one who wakes up with a melody in their head or wanting to hear one. Apple is unique in big tech in trying to get artists paid. That they would agree to pay Universal for SONGS of INNOCENCE, and then gift it to all the people who still believe music is worth paying for, both makes sense and is a beautiful thing.
I IS FOR INVISIBLE (Released 2 February 2014. (RED) Superbowl commercial).
I IS FOR IRISH PRIDE
I broke my hand, my shoulder, my elbow and my face but the real injury this year was to my Irish pride as it was discovered that under my tracksuit I was wearing yellow and black Lycra cycling shorts. Yes, LYCRA. This is not very rock 'n' roll.
Recovery has been more difficult than I thought... As I write this, it is not clear that I will ever play guitar again. The band have reminded me that neither they nor Western civilization are depending on this.
I personally would very much miss fingering the frets of my green Irish falcon or my (RED) Gretsch. Just for the pleasure, aside from writing tunes. But then does the Edge, or Jimmy Page, or any guitarist you know have a titanium elbow, as I do now? I'm all elbows, I am.
My deepest Irish pride is seeing the smarts and resolve of the Irish people as our country emerges from the mess of last five years... I said as much in March at a speech in Dublin in front of a load of European leaders: "I want to give an enormous gigantic big up to the Irish people who, a) were screwed; and b) fought back with dignity. Irish people don't bruise easily, but we don't like the feeling of being bullied. But when the public sector had to pay for the arrogance of private sector stupidity, we got both bullied and bruised. And that was not fair... we're coming through, and I'd love to say it was the Troika; but I think, frankly, it was despite the Troika. The way we see it, the Irish people bailed the Irish government out".
J IS FOR JESUS
At this time of year some people are reminded of the poetic as well as the historic truth that is the birth of Jesus. The Christmas story has a crazy good plot with an even crazier premise - the idea goes, if there is a force of love and logic behind the universe, then how amazing would it be if that incomprehensible power chose to express itself as a child born in shit and straw poverty.
Who could conceive of such a story? If you believe it was the protagonist, as I do, then we should try to be really respectful of people who think the whole thing is a bit nutty or worse... Religious people are the best and worst of us...handle us with scepticism...
Strangely, maybe, some of the most rational thinkers see some kind of cosmic sense in all this... Francis Collins, who led the human genome project, is an obvious one… the language of science and faith are not necessarily at odds....
Earlier this year the Hewsons got to see the view that John had as he wrote the Book of Revelation in a cave on the Greek island of Patmos. I can't make head nor tail of that book but I love the idea that he was taken by a vision... a poetic rhapsody of man describing what looks like a nuclear firestorm ending the world.
William Blake was similarly seized by visions which he tried to write or draw. We stole the title "Songs of Innocence/Songs of Experience" from Blake. You can't approach the subject of God without metaphor... literalism like legalism is an attempt to shrink God to recreate him in our own image.
Almost as glorious as that cave is the Matisse Chapel in Vence, France, which we visited this year with a friend on her birthday. The birthday girl couldn't get over the fact that Matisse designed not only the stained glass but the priests' vestments which can only be described as, eh, 70s Funkadelic. The chapel opened in 1951.
But back to the Christmas story that still brings me to my knees—which is a good place for me lest I harm myself or others. Christmas is not a time for me to overthink about this child, so vulnerable, who would grow so strong... to teach us all how vulnerability is the route to strength and, by example, show us how to love and serve.
To me this is not a fairy tale but a challenge. I preach what I need to hear...
J IS FOR JIMMY FALLON
He is the second coming of the late show. But the reasons are very 21st century - a horizontal rather than vertical relationship with his audience. He is not just a friend of the famous he is everybody's friend. The pain of my bike accident didn't compare with the disappointment of cancelling a week hanging out on his show. He made it worse by being a better Bono than I could ever be.
K IS FOR KANYE
Kanye is a real innovator... an artist who like a lot of the artists I respect is interested in everything and wants to include that everything in his art. Words, fashion, design, religion, racism, stardom…He blew U2's mind when he showed up on stage with (RED) in Times Square this world AIDS Day, fighting for an end to the disease.
Yeezus walks, Yeezus talks. Yeezus walks the talk.
L IS FOR LARRY MULLEN
The cover of the U2 album is, I think, our best.
There was a moment when we did the Graham Norton show—a moment that, to keep the pace up, got left out of the final edit, but that really knocked us all out. When Graham asked Larry why he and his son would agree to appear on the album cover (the Mullen Juniors are very protective of their privacy), Larry talked about how he and his son have at times had a stormy relationship—and that beautiful photograph by Glen Luchford meant so much to the two of them in their new closeness. "I'm not sure who is holding onto who," Larry said. "Check my son's hand... He's a tough kid but not so tough that he can't hold onto his father as his father holds onto him".
M IS FOR MANDELA
It's one year on, but I and more importantly the world miss him. "Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings."
M IS FOR MALALA
Such noblesse. "They only shot a body but they can't shoot my dreams".
N IS FOR NOEL GALLAGHER
I've heard his new album, this is one of the truly great British songsters. But of course like a lot of them he's Irish. Ha.
O IS FOR ONE
ONE ends 2014 with over 6 million members, 2.4 million of them on the continent of Africa. Our African members say that by 2030 they'll be giving us aid, and the job of us white messiahs is to put ourselves out of business. I look forward to that day.
Some highlights... The World Bank says that after the Drop the Debt mob...52 million more children are in school...The Global Fund says that 13 million people with HIV are now on life-saving medication.
It's bizarre, but there is a new African proverb: "Pray that we do not discover oil". I want you to know that ONE fights corruption too. There's less noise about that side of what we do, it doesn't lend itself to photo-ops or 140 characters. Along with the Publish What You Pay coalition, ONE have helped pass laws in Europe and America which force mining/extractive companies to declare what monies they are paying, to whom. You'd think this would be simple, obvious. Not if you are the American Petroleum Institute, they took legal action to grind the US law to a halt... for the moment.
We couldn't do what we do without the Gates Foundation. Outside of my parents, Ali, and the band, I don't think anyone has given me more support in my life than Bill and Melinda Gates. The man who changed the world with his software, is, with his missus, changing the world again with their foundation... which was doubled in size by another family, the Buffetts ...who through their own fortunes had even before that been changing the fortunes of so many others.
O IS FOR OSCARS
We came. We lost. We had one hell of a night out. We got to meet one of our all time idols though. Well sort of...
P IS FOR PAUL
U2 is like the mafia. You can never really get out. Don McGuinness may be in the back garden petting his cat but he still whispers in our ears. His voice carries, as does that of the irreplaceable Keryn Kaplan. Paul McGuinness is always going to be the fifth member of U2, our Confessor. Maybe it's more like the priesthood than the mafia. This year, we took on a sixth member, Guy Oseary. Guy "so serious" as my kids call him. He's not, but I like that in a manager.
Q IS FOR QUINCY JONES
Standing in a garden in France looking out over the sea... my mate Simon says "Ah, it's great to be alive"... Q looks puzzled. "Great to be alive??? It's crucial, man!!"
R IS FOR (RED)
These Percocets (painkillers) are pretty perky until they are not... you are in a kind of fluffy land floating till you wake the next morning with a bump ...but the evening of World AIDS Day, December the first, before that bump I had a vision ...television. I was watching the giant TV screens of Times Square turn crimson... the ultra vivid advertising morphed from advertising products to advertising Hope... And Gratitude .... Mothers and their kids, nurses and farmers from Accra, Colombo, Phnom Penh holding up signs saying... Thank you New York... Thank you Boise... Thank you Chicago... For those AIDS drugs that mean we are alive... About 8 million people are on anti retroviral drugs paid for by the USA Thank You America.
Then through the red neon I saw Edge, Adam, Larry play the opening of Where The Streets Have No Name ... but I wasn't there ... Somebody much more New York than me was beginning to sing ... somebody who had been down many more streets ...most of them with names or numbers and particular letters... Either the Governor of E street, Bruce Springsteen, was actually performing with U2 or I'd overshot the runway on the opiates....
It's said that Frank Sinatra owned four American cities. New York, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles all felt like hometown crowds to him. Bruce Springsteen has the whole country to call his hometown. He stepped in for the (RED) Times Square show so America could be thanked... he was a real improvement on the original running order.
Earlier I had hallucinated Chris Martin kicking off a beautiful night with Beautiful Day. I imagined I heard him sing With or Without You, but knew that song would be too painful for him to sing this year.... these analgesics can mess with you ... But it was actually real... A pregnant Carrie Underwood is singing to stop the HIV virus being passed from other mothers to their children ..."You're just a fool, just a fool to believe you can change the world" she sings.. knowing that only fools don't try.
The concert wrapped up another bright (RED) year. Some numbers... $10 million from Bank of America to kick off January... in December, news that Apple hit the $100 million mark, taking (RED) to over $300million for the Global Fund. (RED) Belvedere flowed. (RED) Cokes hit the shelves.
But it's not all about the money - the neon and fizz is just as important. What's on the minds of the people is also on the minds of the politicians, who can really put an end to this awfulness if they want to. The best news of all in 2014 was that we have reached a tipping point in the pandemic. For the first time the number of people starting on medication outstripped those contracting the virus.
S IS FOR SONGS OF INNOCENCE
So proud of these songs... we really went there. I took the advice of my old friend and producer Jimmy Iovine who told me the person you have to be to write this album is a long way from where you live. He wasn't talking about a nice house in Dublin or Nice... he was pushing me/us to drop a deep well and ask hard questions about why you are where you are ...I didn't realize it at the time, but he was pushing me back to the place I used to live, the place I didn't grow up... 10 Cedarwood Road.
The only criticism that stung is that the album should have had more of the energy of the musicians and those who inspired it... a bit more anarchy, a bit more punk. We didn't want a pastiche of the era so we put all those 70's and early eighties influence in the juicer and a blend emerged... more like an Irish whiskey than a single malt.
"We march backwards into the future" said Marshal McLuhan, or maybe it was Michael J. Fox. Either way a highlight for U2 in 2014 was SOI being named album of the year by Rolling Stone.
S IS FOR THE SDG's
You may not have heard of them yet, but if you haven't by the end of 2015, we've all failed... you may be forgiven for thinking an "SDG" is a new kind of sexually transmitted disease, but the Sustainable Development Goals are actually the next phase of old goals agreed in 2000... the Millennium Development Goals aka the MDGs... yes, they sound like an illegal substance, but despite the wonky name, the really great news this year was that we are on track to meet the main promise -- which was to halve poverty by 2015.
It's possible, if the world makes these SDG's a priority, then by 2030 we will no longer be faced with images of malnourished children with distended bellies or watch a disease like Ebola, essentially a condition of extreme poverty, cause such heartache and fear. The SDG's will also wrestle the climate crisis, because by the way, it is one. Ask anyone from Bangladesh for starters.
(check out ONE’s film on ebola)
T IS FOR THE UNHOLY TRINITY
This year the media was full of stories about ISIS and other groups like Boko Haram, who kidnapped 140 school girls in northern Nigeria... A couple of years ago it was Mali and Somalia all over the news as well Afghanistan. There's a thread of continuity here, and it's runs along the border of this map:
The region known as the Sahel goes from west to east Africa and beyond if you look—all the way to Afghanistan, where, though it's not known as the Sahel, it is roughly the same terrain. Here we see what I have been calling the unholy trinity of the three extremes... extreme climate, extreme poverty and extreme ideology. In this gigantic region, which sends out so many shockwaves, the way the world deals with these three extremes will determine the pace of human progress for everyone on this planet.
U IS FOR U2 LIVE .... We don't finish our songs, we just put them out. U2 is a live band. Live is where we live or die. The songs continue to grow night after night. We have some extraordinary ideas up our sleeve for this tour I've just got to be rebuilt by 14th May.
V IS FOR VISION OVER VISIBILITY
This is my mantra.... but V IS ALSO FOR VIABILITY
We all now understand the Internet is giving us access to information that is mostly flattening an uneven playing field. This is all good except when some technologists think that creative content is only valuable in its ability to show off their wares - hard or soft.
Some say musicians should be pleased with new ways to promote live concerts but I remind people that Cole Porter didn't play live shows. Songwriters are getting a poor deal right now. The reason I respect for-fee services like Spotify is that they are slowly turning people who are used to getting their music for-FREE, into paying ten dollars a month for a subscription model.
These payments don't add up to replacement for income from physical or digital sales at the moment - but I think they can if everyone sits down – record companies, artists and digital services - to figure out a fairer way of doing business.
I'm proud of Universal group, not least because Lucian Grainge took at big risk with our Apple release, but David Joseph, CEO of the UK, encouraged by his boss, is beta-testing a fresh approach to transparency ... a Universal artist will be able to find out weekly, maybe even daily, on their cell phones, how many plays they've had and where in the world they've had them; also they can be direct-credited the payment. U2 can survive without these changes but we can't live with ourselves if other artists cannot.
W IS FOR WEDDINGS
Marriage is a grand madness. It's like jumping off a very tall building and discovering you can fly. I was at some special weddings this year that reminded me and my missus why we jumped.
W IS FOR WEBSUMMIT
The F.ounders and Websummit in Dublin masterminded by Paddy Cosgrave, a network in himself, were fun this past November, if nearly too well attended. It's basically a load of nerds surfing their jet lag, drinking pints, and coming up with their best ideas. A great ad for Ireland, a great way to get tech companies to set up shop here.
The really extraordinary thing is the leader of our country, the Taoiseach – or, as he is known during the week of websummit, the "Tech – shock" – seems genuine when he promises that he and the government will be a phone call away from trying to solve any problems along the way to setting up your business here, meaning it's not just our lower corporate tax rate that's attractive, our people are great problem solvers. I found myself being more outspoken in 2014 in my support of Ireland's right to set its own corporate tax rate... and the right of Irish companies to take advantage of the same...then Brendan O'Connor from the Irish Indo got me on it: "We can understand why people, at first glance, get upset with U2 if they mistakenly think we don't pay tax. We do. Millions of euro in Ireland. But isn't it absurd if Ireland as a country can have a culture of tax competitiveness but Irish companies cannot? This doesn't make sense, what also doesn't make sense are abuses such as the so-called 'Double Irish', which is being phased out and rightly so."
X IS FOR X-RAY
Here's my titanium elbow for a laugh.
Y IS FOR WHY
Peaches Geldof. Robin Williams. Philip Seymour Hoffman. RIP.
Z IS FOR ZERO GENERATION
Some people call them the millennials. I call them Generation Z... because they can take us into the zero-tolerance zone for a lot of the awfulness in the world right now... As they age, I don't know if they'll be playing our music, but if we are still around, I hope to be deafened by the joyful noise of a world unrecognizably better because of the innovations in science, medicine, and equality they bring about. The biggest breakthroughs are always in the way we see the world. We could do with some fresh eyes. On U2 too.
Fuente: U2.com
