Paul McGuinness Chat from MSN on 9.22.97
Transcript by Adam
have you ever been on a U2 album
unhappy experience with the piano when I was about 12 years
old.
was some hand clapping on one track on the War album.
enough to be asked again.
able to spot their potential so early in their career?
Project Arts Centre in Dublin. They wer elooking for a manager
and I was looking for a band to manage and we were introduced
by a Dublin music journalist named Bill Graham, who was
afriend of mine.
he had told them that I should be their manager so I suppose
we owe it all to him.
that I have no technique for that anymore now than I did then.
a technique. I just thought they were very, very good and I
suppose they were doing more or less as they are doing now,
except that then they were doing it quite badly and now
they're doing it rather well.
turning out? And, are you concerned about the gig in Israel?
sold prettyclose to the capacity and we're flying in there
tomorrow omrning. As you know, we're doing a webcast of the
entire concert.
ocncert. I've seen a story today on CNN and European
newspapers are paying a lot of attention to it.
still devastated by the war. On account of that we're charging
a very low ticket price.
Eyuropean city, a center of cultrure.
wanted us to do the whole show. They weren't interested in us
turning up doing a scratch concer or a benefit.
cities, the people of Sarajevo wouldn't be able to afford the
concert. So we've reduced the price to about $12.
turning out? And, are you concerned about the gig in Israel?
(Ed. note: Tonster never said the correct Q. here. Make it up
:P)
in history I suppose I would have to say Brian Epstein. He
really did a brilliant job. He was the first person on mys ide
of the quation who understood how big pop music could be.
Beatles did together.
client. They had so much talent and they really invented the
musical world we all live in now.
show is going on?
manager of U2 and not have the pleasure of seeing the concert.
forward to the show every night and if I possibly can watch it
from start to finish.
tour so far?
short notice as people will probably have heard, we had legal
difficulty playing Dublin.
objected to the shows going ahead. We had acontingency plan to
move those shows to Belfast where the authorities were frankly
much more cooperative than in Dublin.
the people in belfast said why not come here and play as
well./
authorities were incredibly cooperative and we had a spare
date and we were able to fit it in.
hadn't played there since 1987. The exdcitement of playing to
40,000 in Belfast made it the most exciting show to play to
date.
have said some negative things about U2 (i.e. George
Harrison). What are your feelings about their statements?
of touch. If he wanted to come see a U2 show he'd be most
welcome. I'm not sure he's in contact with the modern world at
this stage. Nonetheless he's got a fine bodyof work behind him
even if some of it turned out in court to be borrowed from
other authors.
since he did that interview. I think in recent times George
has been more concerned about his taxes and perhaps his
garden.
not open in Oslo?
it was not me inside. I was standing there as it opened. It
did open about a foot and I could see the 8 feet of my clients
but not the rest of them.
again and it was well and truly jammed. It then made a retreat
to its starting position and they had to climb out the back
and out to the B stage. I really felt for them. It was, of
course, the ultimate Spinal Tap moment.
on the net?
us on producing a site but we felt that in order to do a truly
great site we would have to be with some people from "that
culture" rather than make it up for ourselves.
and said for the first time rather than make money on this,
let's get sponsors and we can alll make a fortune, the
approach from Microsoft was particularly attractive because it
was creatively led.
groundbreaking and state of the art. It was a creative
decision, if you like, and I'm very happy we made the
arrangement.
popmart tour, what would it be?
released the album earlier. I think the timing at the
beginning of the campaign was out of whack and we've been
catching up ever since.
more of less coincided and I regret that because it made the
campaign less organic. The early part of the campaign was a
bit too compressed.
our own delays. But we're adults and we take the
responsnibility.
opinion about the happenings in the karaoke?
misjudgement on our part. That song, the Macarena, is very
much identified with Spanish-speaking Spain. In Barcelona,
they really thought it was utterly gauche and I think we just
didn't do our research properly.
the time we come back there.
for a future U2 album?
way. We're actually meeting him tomorrow in Sarajevo.
with! Steve Lillywhite, Daniel Lanois are all very much
friends of ours and people whose oopinions we take very
seriously.
counterfeits. Counterfeits I take avery dim view of because
they're taking money from my clients' pockets.
honestly. I think everyone knows the difference between an
authorized recording we'd put out.
they've made at our concerts I'm actually very relaxed about
even though the industry is formally opposed to it.
Europe, particularly in Italy -- you can find a whole range of
things that look like official U2 recordings in full color
packaging -- they are extremely poor quality with a very high
price tag and I think there should be more legal protection
against things like that.
dosen't in a setlist?
our rituals is that we have a post-mortem after every single
concert and discuss what worked, what didn't work.
it's Howie B as well. He's much more musical than I am.
self-criticism. Because a day later you can't really remember
much of the show. I will certainly make suggestions about what
should and shouldn't be in the setlist.
Found nor Pride were in the set and I really thought that
would be very bad. I still meet a lot of people who want
Sunday Bloody Sunday and Bad. Who knows, maybe they will turn
up in the set list before the end of the tour.
venues/concerts after Popmart. Any truth to that?
out. I get asked whether we'd like to play clubs and the
answer to that is no. We were pretty crap band in clubs. It
was really only when we got into the bigger places that the
scale seemed right.
people at least. There's an obvious loss of contact and
intimacy even with a show like PopMart with that size -- but
it's still a very big crowd.
I was amazed that people were still singing along.
things about having developed the expertise of playing very
large shows is that you want to extend it and see how far the
art form of the stadium rock spectacular can be taken.
take it on. The only other people in modern times who do
anything on this scale are the Rolling Stones.
it's becoming hip again to be big. I think that may lead other
rock and roll artists into performing on a large scale rather
than doing that veryboring thing of putting a stage up at the
end of a stadium.
like U2 together for 20 years?
getting the right people together in the first place.
them could play very well. The peole were more important than
the instruments. Over the 20 years we've been toegher we've
learned how to be together and how to keep out of each other's
way at times.
business relationship.
twice. But I don't think anyone would want to hear my harmony.
far? macphisto, the fly...etc...
different directions -- I don't know if you know the character
of Archie Rice in John Osborne's The Entertainer -- I think
MacPhisto derived a lot from him.
him.
an autograph and/or a picture?
the band are and I do sometimes feel they're only asking me
because they can't get an autograph from the band.
autograph.
when U2 are recording?
is definitely not a spectator's sport. I'm filled with
admiration but certainly no wish to be there!
required to spend months in a studio producing a great album.
For a non-participant it's a bit like watching paint dry.
and what do you do in your precious spare time?
tours, so I see them every couple of weeks. My son is 11, my
daughter is 12. I'm delighted that they think U2 are pretty
cool.
they're listening to and try to educate me what's cool.
from home.
job?
because they still are getting better. They're doing their
best work now. I'm sure the work they do after this will be
even better.
creative spark. I'm sure if that ever happens with U2, they'll
hang up their instruments and stop. The fact that it hasn't
happened is exciting.
never into Led Zeppelin until Adam turned me on in the early
80s. I also listened to opera, classical music. I have an
involvement in an ethnic label from Ireland called Celtic
Heartbeat.
I have very broad tastes. I'm always a little disappointed
when people express their interest in a single genre.
they don't care to address the great variety of people's
taste.
starting managing Sinead O'Connor. And we manage another
artist called Lazlo Bane. He's just made his first record.
involved in Celtic Heartbeat which is a business of mine.
which is a joint venture with PolyGram.
on who we like and who's available. We rarely choose those
bands on the basis of selling tickets.
to attract them with the opening act.
if they're unknown to them. We've had some good bands on this
tour -- Rage Against The Machine, Oasis, Fun Lovin' Criminals.
country -- in Italy we had a band called Casino Royale. In
France and Spain we had a band called Placebo. In Ireland we
had Ash. In Wembley we had Audioweb and Long Pings. We had a
band called Skunk Anansie.
have learned if youcome early the opening act will be worth
seeing.
after the tour is over - can we bid on the inflatable olive or
slices of the lemon?
get in touch with us! Adam has said it's the transport of the
future.
The other bits -- who knows. I'm not sure anyone will have
much use for the arch. I don't know. Maybe we could have an
auction.
open in Seattle?
answer is no. But if they want to, that would be fine. They
know how to get in touch.
music industry today? Bono believes music is too boring. Do
you share this thought?
music around. I think what I was referring to before, the lack
of interest by the industry and the diversity of people.
acts, or baby acts, as we call them. I'm delighted by the
phenomenon of Oasis in that candidly admit they want to be a
big band.
decidedly unhip to be in a big band which is ridiculous.
People join bands in order to get onstage and sell lots of
records. That's the rock and roll instinct. I believe that's
why people join bands.
of joy being a rock and roll band on a roll.
yourself sitting on your hands during Rattle & Hum?
involved in that! I never sat on my hands. I thought it was a
good film but a band campaign. I've said before that we
underestimated the impact of a full-blown 1400 screen movie
release.
way from record marketing in that you get hit over the head
with it all at once. It's an inappropriate way of marketing
formusic and I think our audience were turned off by that.
Underlying it was a very good film and a very good record.
of all time. It had a huge Friday night, Saturday it
tailedoff, and no one turned up on Sunday. Gave Paramount a
bit of a shock, but exciting to U2 fans.
some time. There's an enormous quantity of records made -- B
sides that have never been compiled properly, remixes . . .
boxed set signals the end of somebody's career and we're
certainly not at the end or anything like it of U2's career.
people, ticket scalping, people taking advantage of our
audience, those sort of things.
It's not so much that we're control freaks, we just want to
ensure if you buy something U2, it should be worth the money.
taste in music? bands like the spice girls are topping the
charts while bands like u2 are not doing as well?
tradition of pop-of-the-moment and I think they do what they
do rather amusingly.
pretty.
fans? How do we differ from other fans? Are they positive or
negative differences?
and the people who go online are slightly more studious.
party atmosphere generating. I don't think the people who tune
into the PopMart site on MSN are different from U2's other
fans.
shows?
VMA's had a verysignificant rating. It's a way of reaching the
audience. Showing people who might not otherwise see U2
perform live how good they are.
years FOR THIS !!!!!!!!!!
South American tour. We're very excited about going to South
America and indeed we're overdue.
Aires and Santiago will be absolutely wild.
Spain and Portugal and no doubt about it, the further south
you go, the more exciting it is.
various tasks and responsibilities in a typical day of
touring?
the record company in all the countries in the world where we
sell records.
with the production -- our command structure is quite military
adn the people who run the stage show are briefed to put up
the show physically in an identical way in each city.
environment. Watching out for trouble. I'm basically in charge
of worrying.
locked up in a vault? A lot of fans would love to see it.
that song was a hit and went straight into making a video
before the song was played on the radio.
most popular track in 1987 so clearly it wasn't the hit single
we imagined it to be.
Jordan without checking to see whether the audience liked the
song.
and embarassing. That's the reason it's been deep sixed.
the crowd during Pop Muzik?
Oscar de la Hoya -- we wanted to copy an authentic boxer's
robe and I think he suggested the traditional Las Vegas
boxer's entry.
ideas have many claimants. Success has many parents and
failure is an orphan.
cameos from you :)?
in the Simpsons episode. I do not have a role myself.
site at [email protected].
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