MSN Chat
Are you going to make a different set list to places where you hadn't been (South America, South Africa, etc.)? We'd like you to play some oldies too.
"We change songs a lot when we're playing them live- almost every song is rearranged for live because it demands a different approach. Some songs become more changed, other songs, like Staring at the Sun, we stripped back to two acoustic guitars and two voices. I think that pure acoustic arrangements have a place on a record, but I have a feeling that for us, if we were to go into an acoustic arrangement it would be for an entire record."
Are you going to do more acoustic stuff on the album or further on the tour?
"We're interested in it, but it's something we want to explore fully."
What's the next step after Surrealism and Pop Art?
"I think that it's too soon to say where we're going next. It seems that music, like art, is starting to look back on itself. The 90's have turned into a post-modern period for music, and we are determined to keep going forward no matter where that leads us."
Do you find it difficult composing songs on the road? Are you working on any new songs now, like you did on Zooropa?"
"We're working on new songs all the time...any days off, I take up the guitar and use whatever time off I have to work on some songs in hotel rooms."
This PopMart tour seems to have an exuberant, well thought out theme, and yet I think its essence goes above people's heads, so what exactly is PopMart?
"PopMart is just our way of making sense of playing in big open air stadiums. It's a big show and it's really a setting as much as a theme for a concert. It's trying to be humourous about the position we find ourselves in as a big band playing in big stadiums...we don't want to make the mistake of taking our position too seriously. We take the music seriously, but we're able to laugh at the sheer commercial size of what we're undertaking."
How do you feel about fans putting your copyrighted material on their web pages?
"I don't have a problem with music being on the Internet, as long as it's not resold because I don't believe that music on the Internet is bad for music. I think it's ok for music. To me, it's a bit like when cassette tapes were first made available, the record industry thought that blank tapes would destroy the business because people would be at home churning out copies for their friends. It never happened. I think music on the Internet is going to work out as just another place for people to discover new things."
What's the U2- Willie Nelson relationship?
"We recorded a track with Willie Nelson that Bono and I recorded a few years ago, called Slow Dancing. He was in Dublin making a film and he walked into the studio. We just cut the song, it took two hours to record, but at the right time for the right project, it'll come up."
Can we expect you will do again more small stadiums, Edge?
"We're happy playing big venues right now because we've taken on that challenge. I do like playing smaller arenas and maybe for the next tour we'll play smaller venues."
Are we going to hear Van Diemen's Land in Dublin?
"I doubt it. I think that Van Dieman's Land is a tune that I wrote for Bono to sing. I ended up singing it on the album because I was just working it out, really. Although I like the tune, I don't think I'll be singing that one. I always thought Bono could sing it better, but he never got around to it."
You have said in past interviews that you won't play a song like Bad live because you feel it has been played too much over the last fifteen years. The same could be said for Pride, yet you are playing it...why?
"All the songs we're playing in the show are songs that we feel we can make sense of in this tour, in Popmart. I wouldn't rule any old song out. I feel that we can play any of our old songs, but we've chosen the ones we have because they work- they make sense."
Why haven't you played any Zooropa tunes on your tour yet, and do you plan on putting any Zooropa tunes on the tour in the future?
"We might well, we haven't made a decision not to, it's just we found ourselves leaning towards other tunes. We don't think about what album something's come from, we just figure out if it's going to make sense in the context of what we're doing."
Please tell us about the oh so Spinal Tap moment when the Lemon wouldn't open!
"It's just funny for us- we knew that there was a chance that it would happen at some point on the tour. When it finally did, we couldn't stop laughing."
Edge, if you could have personally witnessed one event in history, what would you want to have seen?
"I'm happy living right now and seeing what I'm seeing. I wouldn't have liked to have lived at any other time."
Will there ever be another U2 movie a la Rattle and Hum?
"I don't think we're going to do another movie in a hurry" (laughs).
What's one of your favourite songs to perform live right now?
"Right now, Please, because we're having a lot of fun playing different arrangement ideas."
What do you think of bootlegged concerts?
"I have no problem with bootlegs. I think if people make recordings and give them to their friends- as long as people don't get ripped off."
What happened to your Gibson Explorer?
"It's actually just on a long vacation, but it's still around."
Where do you think you'd be if you weren't in U2?
"Sitting at home" (laughs).
Will there be any more songs off future albums that you will be singing lead vocals on?
"We actually have a very good lead singer, so I don't know if I'll do any more lead vocals, but maybe."
What is your most memorable moment of the tour so far?
"I think opening night, and realising that everything worked and no one had been killed trying to get out of the lemon and that we'd remembered all of the songs and that we hadn't had a big argument...just that it went so well in the end."
Is the chemistry in the band on a personal and professional level still as strong as it was in 1977 or whatever?
"We're still getting on just as well as we always have and everyone does what I say, that's the important thing."
Have your parents ever been to a show?
"They tend to come out a couple of times every tour to have a laugh."
How's it feel to be getting older in a business that's rough even when you're young?
"I still feel like I'm 16- that's not a problem."
Rumour has it that U2 recorded over 30 songs for Pop. However, only one brand new song has emerged- Holy Joe- so far on the B-sides. What about the other songs? Will they ever hit the surface?
"Yeah, they definitely will along the way. We have to finish them first."
How do you manage to keep an exceptional relationship with U2 for over 20 years?
"We met before we were a band, so that helps everything."
What's your least favourite thing about touring?
"Coming home and having to figure out how to live a regualar life again."
Are U2's tours actually going to get any bigger? Or are you going to go back to smaller venues?
"I can't see them getting any bigger...but we haven't decided what we're going to do next time."
What bands have you been listening to lately?
"All kinds of stuff...I love the Verve's new single...Fun Lovin' Criminals, Nina Simone's early recordings."
When you look back on your life with U2, did you ever imagine you'd come this far and stay in the business for so long?
"Always hoped that we'd be making great music for a few years, but I never thought that we'd be still so into it after being together for over a dozen years. We're still aiming to make the perfect record."
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