This annoys me more than it should, I know. But the level of hagiography, or unchallenged thinking, by the NY Times is just, well, it’s like Neil McCormick, but worse.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/arts/music/u2-preaching-defiance-heads-back-to-paris.html
I think I can feel a bit of sick in my mouth.
If we ever needed a reason to be mightily suspicious of U2, look no further.
http://i.imgur.com/FeI6itE.jpg
I admit, as the chief U2 hater here, it takes very little to spark me into a frenzy of hatred where this shower are concerned. But seriously, this is a new low.
Here is my problem. The Eagles Of Death Metal are a bunch of guys trying to make a living who got caught up in a dreadful event. U2 are tax dodging squillionaires chasing credibility. If you are trying to make a living in the world of art, would you tell U2 to fuck off? Sadly even I wouldn’t do that if my income was that dodgy.
The Eagles Of Death Metal perhaps took this decision too quickly, in the heat of an event. I wish, what had happened, was that they they played the first show in the Bataclan quietly to a full house and fucking Bono had never got near them. EODM could have returned to the venue, did a FUCK YOU ISIS show then marched off to rock heaven. But the buggers need to make a living.
Fuck you Bono you cynical cunt. Just because your last few albums have been even worse than normal doesn’t mean you can exploit a tragedy you dickhead. Fuck you. Really. Fuck you.
But The Joshua Tree really was quite good wasn’t it? No, as you were, you’re dead right. Bunch of self-regarding tossers.
Tomorrow I’ll post from Jake Burns, which was classy, unpreachy – and right.
Oh yeah – and they played their fucking gig.
Yes they did – to very little fanfare (except a small(ish) item on BBC Northern Ireland).
The statement (published in Classic Rock magazine)
Why Stiff Little Fingers’ Paris gig had to go ahead – By Jake Burns
As a teenager in Northern Ireland, Stiff Little Fingers’ Jake Burns grew up surrounded by bombs, bullets and cancelled gigs.
We heard the news about the attacks on the Bataclan after our show in Dublin on the same night. To be honest, it didn’t register on me right away that Paris was only two gigs away on our schedule – we were simply as shocked and appalled as everyone else.
Of course, it began to sink in when we heard the extent of the tragedy and of the French government’s ban on public gatherings. Our attitude from the start was one of wait and see. If we could play, we would. My teenage years in Belfast were spent dealing with civil unrest on a daily basis and that meant that bands I desperately wanted to see wouldn’t come and play there. That deprived me and many others of a normal part of growing up. That word “normal” became key to my thinking regarding our situation and whether or not we played Paris. Ironically, the show after Dublin for us was Belfast. It suddenly seemed very safe compared with other cities.
We played our Edinburgh show after Belfast and went to sleep on the tour bus headed for Dover and still no idea whether we’d be allowed to play on the Tuesday evening. News reached us at the ferry port that the promoter was able to get permission to stage the show. We arrived in Paris around 11pm.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly apprehensive about playing, mainly because there was a sudden media feeding frenzy around us, something we hadn’t had to deal with in a long time. I was very aware of needing to stick to my “normal” mantra. Things had to get back to “normal” as soon as possible – that was why we were playing. I had to be very careful in what I said. The absolute last thing we wanted was for people to think we were doing this for some form of ghoulish publicity. We had to be respectful of the dead and injured and at the same time present a hopeful face for a quick return to “normality”.
In the end, I needn’t have worried. As soon as we went on stage it felt like a “normal” show, apart from the calls from the audience thanking us for being there. We tried to play the same as every other night, although there may have been a bit more emotion in my voice singing the line: ‘Killing isn’t my idea of fun’ [Wasted Life]. I only made mention of the tragedy once, at the end of the night, and even then just to let those in attendance know that the world was with them. I certainly felt we were.
After the show, our merchandise guy handed me a note from a young Lebanese woman who had been in the audience. In it, she thanked us for “our courage and for being there.” We didn’t feel particularly courageous and I certainly felt the same about the audience. It was a night none of us will ever forget.
“… to very little fanfare”
bad choice of words.
I doubt they were looking for kudos or publicity, just doing their job, carrying on as normal. And why wouldn’t they?
I would have made the fanfare statement too, as a contrast:
U2 bail, photo opp, fanfare.
SLF ju7st get on with their thing, no fanfare.
THAT’S the distinction worth emphasizing
To be honest U2 mean a whole lot more publicity wise than SLF, I doubt most people have ever heard of them or if they have thought they broke up 35 years ago. It could be argued that this “very little fanfare” statement gave them some publicity.
The Unforgettable Fire was a good record
I think Bono really, truly believes that he’s on a crusade. Yes, he’s a squillionaire, tax-dodging uber sleb who sucks up to tyrants but he’s on a mish to spread peace, using his rock royalty status.
I think it’s all, in his mind, completely justified: he’s evangelical in every sense.
There are some in this place who when it comes to U2 act with the same hatred as exhibited by religious fundamentalists.
Yes Bono is a prick but why oh why give him time and space on here whenever he puts on his messiahanic hat.
That’s all I’ve better things to do.
It was in my newspaper and pissed me off.
And I referenced, the shitty journalism was part of my ire
I can understand the argument that raising awareness of good causes is important, and that Bono publicises his charitable efforts for that reason. However, buying the Eagles of Death Metal new phones is the sort of thing that’d work better as a quiet gesture. Perhaps to be revealed one day as a heartwarming anecdote in an EODM autobiography.
I think it’s fairly understandable to not only want think and do good things, but be *seen* to be thinking and doing good things, whether it be tweeting a fart joke about Donald Trump or wearing your poppy with pride or inviting the Eagles of Death Metal on stage with you.
I also find it a bit distasteful that in the wake of any major tragedy comes this screeching, judgemental analysis of the way *other people* are reacting to the tragedy. So this person expressed their support / grief / empathy in a different way to you? Maybe even in a way you find clumsy. So fucking what?
I don’t think people should be above criticism just because they’re charitable. That’s how Jimmy Savile got away with it.
Uh? The charge is that Bono’s good work is done purely to feed the ego of Bono. It’s that point I was addressing.
Well said Poppy.
I suspect Bono’s so used to people screaming hatred at everything he does that he genuinely doesn’t care whether they think he’s credible or cunty. He just does what he think is right.
It’s also possible that U2’s tax efficiency enables them to redistribute wealth in a more efficient and targeted way than governments can. But we’d only know that for sure if they talked about it, which would just fuel the hatred against them.
Hey, you know all them Middle Eastern birds you see wailing and tearing their hair out when their kids have been killed in air strikes?
They’re laying it on thick, don’t you think? I mean, wouldn’t it be more tasteful if they did their grieving quietly, away from the cameras? What’s it all about anyway, all those public displays, making it all about them? Maybe they’ve got something to hide, like Jimmy Savile?
I don’t have a particularly strong view on the subject of this thread, and I agree with the general thrust of what you’re saying further up, but there’s no comparison between what you’re describing here and Bono, is there?
If one of Bono’s kids was killed he’d be entitled to behave any way he liked. By the same token, if Bono wasn’t continually marketing himself and his band, and giving the appearance (to some) of using good causes to do so, there wouldn’t be half the anger being expressed herein.
Take your Middle Eastern bird and have her wail and tear out her hair on behalf of other people’s kids, who she’s never actually met. Then have her do so repeatedly, and always in view of the cameras. Then have her attempt to sell you T-shirts while doing so. Yeah, I reckon people probably would get quite hacked off with her.
Which isn’t to say you don’t make an excellent point about Grief Judging (as I’m calling it). A few years ago I overheard two colleagues discussing a newspaper article about the funeral of a young kid who’d been killed by an urban fox that had got in through his bedroom window. The gist of the conversation was that the Mum looked like she probably had something to hide because otherwise why would you wear sunglasses to a funeral. There’s loads of this sort of stuff about, and it’s ugly.
Lovely post. Mine was less elegant, comprised of ugly broad strokes. Nevertheless, I’m genuinely aghast at how quickly the conversation can move from ‘how awful this thing is’ to ‘how awful is the reaction of X’.
Sadly, we now live in an era of 24/7 judgement.
I blame social media: everyone is encouraged to have a strong view on everything, all the time.
Woah there. That’s a bit of a straw man (or straw bird). Bono isn’t grieving. He may be sad about the loss of life in Paris, but as far as I’m aware he hasn’t suffered a personal loss. I would agree with you that judging bereaved parents about their reaction to their loss is pretty tasteless and inhumane. The McCanns are a prime example, as is Mitch Winehouse, who got a terrible kicking on here recently.
Yes, it was a straw man, I admit that. And your Savile comparison?
By the way, I find it a bit odd that I’ve been positioned as the chief Bono-basher. My post was mainly supportive of him. I just thought it was a bit gauche to publicise the fact he’d bought new phones for the EODM.
He’s damned if he do, damned if he don’t innee?
Their Paris gigs were cancelled due to their enormous size and the crowds it would attract which in the stat of emergency that was declared in Paris would be extremely inadvisable when further attacks were deemed likely. We saw how the merest feeling in the air of danger would lead to people running for their lives, imagine that on a 70,000 people scale. It doesn’t even compare to SLF more selective appearance in terms of the danger and opportunity it posed.
Similarly the EofDM appearance at the U2 show t’other night was denied by the band when someone leaked it for a myriad of reasons but mostly because they knew the pressure on the band members must be unimaginable and they might not be able to go through with it. Patti Smith turned up the night before as well for a ‘People Have The Power’. It’s only because we live in a world with mobile cameras that there is footage from these gigs beamed around the world. Don’t buy the basking in reflected tragedy bit at all
I’m no Bono apologist and find the shrill hatred towards him extremely amusing as well as understandable but think that judging how others should feel and react to terrible events like Paris is just sad.
Of course Bono isn’t grieving but can he help put on a show of solidarity and defiance? Isn’t unity and keep buggering on a good thing when the forces of division and hate whether it be ISIS or extreme right/left wing political groups are capitalising on these tragic events
Fair point 😉 The Savile comment was a bit cheeky.
I admit it. I don’t like U2, and I think Bono is a preachy wank.
But I do think his/their approach can legitimately be questioned. That photo opp struck me as gauche at best, and quite possibly vain or worse. It was also unnecessary, and struck entirely the wrong note: look, here’s us grieving.
You know what? You want to grieve? Go do it in private rather than making a spectacle of it. Doing nice things for other bands? Great. Why do you need the publicity for it? Why the need for the hack piece from the NY Times?
I’m not attacking anyone for grieving, or grief shaming. I AM attacking people for making such a fucking spectacle of it.
Quite.
When I got burgled, one of my neighbours came round and gave me her old telly, which was a lovely gesture and much appreciated. She didn’t then knock on all the other doors saying “I just gave my old telly free of charge to No. 12. it’s the least I could do.”
I can’t see much wrong with what Bono said in the interview. I agree with most of it. The new album is pretty good, too.
Spot on Sith, I have no doubt that Bonio feels just as angry and remorseful as most of us, but don’t pimp yourself in front of the cameras, don’t tell the world you splashed out pocket money on mobile phones – just do it and stfu.