1991 November - Cold Weather & Warm Meetings

We had a few days left to enjoy Dublin after the release of Achtung Baby. In that time we listened to the album time after time and I loved it! It is still one of my favourite albums, it was risky for U2 to move so far away from their old sound and it paid off with a ground-breaking album.

We did the usual Dublin things and visited our favourite places. One night the difficulties between Carol and me reached a head and I had a row with her and walked off to my accommodation! I'd had enough and was not going to put up with being totally ignored and disrespected by her. She looked shocked when I retaliated - she didn't think I'd do that. I rarely lose my temper, but when I do it's not a pretty sight!

Next day I went to where we'd all agreed to meet up and only Jane arrived. I felt bad for Jane because she was friends with both of us and was in a difficult position. It gave us a chance to discuss the situation and she told me she'd had a big row with Carol after I left, and that she'd had enough of her too, I felt a bit better knowing Jane's position on it all. Apparently Carol had gone off with the Aussies today.

All week we'd kept just missing the band. By being at the wrong place, or leaving early, it was getting a bit frustrating. Jane and I went down to U2's offices at Principle Management on the Liffey Quayside. After quite a short time Bono arrived in his Jaguar, he honked the horn and gave us a big smile. He screeched to a halt just inside the gates and jumped out of the car leaving the engine running and door open, and asked the security man to park the car for him. He then headed towards us,

"I'm sorry, I'm 15 minutes late for an important meeting."

Jane said it was no problem and that we understood, but he kept heading towards us, hair blowing in the wind, his open sheepskin coat flapping around him. He came right up to me and kissed me firmly, but gently on the cheek, I felt my knees buckle . He had lovely aftershave on. He then kissed Jane on the cheek also. She just had to say something about the album, but found it difficult to get the words out. Bono stood waiting patiently, looking at her intently. I was just gobsmacked after my kiss and was probably just standing there with a silly grin on my face .

Eventually Jane blurted out, "It's just ..... wonderful!"

"Really?" said Bono, his face had lit up as if he was really please to hear that, "We weren't sure about it you know."

Jane managed to get more words together and said that it was a great album etc and Bono beamed and said, "Good girl!" enthusiastically slapping her on the shoulder quite hard twice.

Then in a whirl he said, "I'll see you again", waved goodbye and rushed off into the office. He was like a human hurricane!

It was a very short, but sweet meeting. It was nice to see that Bono was so keen to know what we thought about the album, and that our positive response made him so happy.

Jane's favourite band member was Adam and she hadn't met him so far on this visit so a couple of evenings later we went back down to the office with the Aussies and Carol to see if we could meet him. So far I had only met Bono and I was hoping to meet the other band members too.

It was so cold that I was shivering and wondered what the hell I was doing standing on a bitterly cold quayside in Dublin in the evening! But, luckily we didn't have to wait too long before the first memeber of U2 left the office. Edge came out and got into his car but stopped at the gates, there were quite a few fans there so I suppose it was safest for him to stay in the car.

"Are you not cold?" He asked looking right at me seemingly genuinely concerned.

"Yes" I said quite sheepishly with a wry smile. I noticed how gentle his eyes were and he was also a bit shy which was so sweet. He signed album covers and very politely shook hands with everyone, what a gentleman!

Next was Larry, and surprisingly for him, he stopped to sign autographs, but asked for no photos to be taken and everyone heeded his request. He was very pleasant and signed for everyone who wanted an autograph.

Third one out was Adam, he too stopped, stayed in his car but happily signed autographs and posed for photos, like Edge he was very polite and respectful. I'd just got my album cover signed by him when I noticed Bono had come out of the door and was just kind of standing in the dark in the background.

Carol and I went over to him and I asked him to sign the free poster I'd got in HMV. I'd given him a silver pen to sign it with but it wasn't working and Bono kept saying,

"Dear me, dear me" as he valiantly tried to get the pen to work. I told him to press it down gently, he pressed it down hard and a big spurt of silver came out all over the poster and his hand!.

"Oh dear me!!" he exclaimed as he bit his lip. He tried to rescue it by using another pen, but it was still a mess, ahh well, it's unique anyway. By then Carol was asking him twenty questions and the Aussies and some German people had come across also, so I stood back.

Meanwhile Adam, who was giving Bono a lift, was patiently waiting,

"What is that man talking about?" he said to Jane, who had been happily chatting to Adam when everyone descended on Bono. I was really pleased that she got her meeting with him.

Eventually Bono threw himself into Adams car, it was a sporty Aston Martin and so there was not much room, and Adam had to shove Bono and his voluminous coat coat out of the way in order to get at the gear stick. They had all been so kind and friendly with us, I watched Adam's car disappear into the night and thought how lucky we were to be fans of a band who are such nice people.

We walked up the road and saw all of their cars outside Docker's, but we just walked on into the city and left them to enjoy their drinks in peace.