Sunday 22 June 2008

1993 April - Edge's Crashed Car!

Jane and I went over to Dublin once more in April. We met up with our friends Debbi and Jackie in Docker's, they had been in Dublin for the previous week and were going home shortly. They told us that U2 were at The Factory recording. I had no idea where The Factory was but Jane had been there a few years earlier, it isn't that far from Windmill Lane.

We decided to check it out a few days later. We found a few other fans hanging around there including a couple young Irishmen called Declan and Paddy, who were good company and helped pass the time chatting away. U2 were indeed working there on their next album (which was to be Zooropa) and were very busy and we only caught fleeting glimpses of them.

But the most memorable thing that happened at The Factory involved Edge and it wasn't a meeting! We were waiting outside and saw Edge's car come down Barrow Street, he smiled at us and waved and started turning into The Factory's car park - and right into the path of another car! The other car breaked, it's wheels screeched on the tarmac, but he couldn't stop in time and there was the inevitable collision with the sound of breaking glass. All you could hear from Jane and me and the other fans assembled there was a united sharp intake of breath as we heard the crunch - then silence.

Both Edge and the other driver just sat for a few seconds, then Edge got out of his car and went over to the other driver. The other driver was quite upset and distraught at first but Edge was very calm and soon the other man relaxed more, he probably was just shocked. Neither car had been going very fast so no one were physically hurt. Our small group of fans stood watching all this in silence, worried Edge was going to be angry with us because we had been the distraction that caused the crash.

At this point two members of U2's staff came out and dealt with situation and Edge walked away towards the car park. As he passed us he just shrugged and smiled. We were relieved that he wasn't annoyed at us! Good to see he was philosophical about it. Mind you it must be nice to have other people around to sort out situations such as this for you as he has.

So, one of our claims to fame is that while in Dublin we made The Edge crash his car! That's a hard one to beat!

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