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.

1991 November - Achtung Baby!

Achtung Baby was a longtime in the making and over the summer and autumn fans got more and more excited about the coming of a new U2 album after three years waiting. I must admit this was the time my fandom became rather over the top, and I had to have everything that came out that had anything to do with U2! I now knew quite a lot of other U2 fans in the UK and well beyond and some of us decided to go to Dublin for the release of the long-awaited Achtung Baby.

In Dublin I met up with Jane, (who I had become very friendly with over the last few months) and her friend Carol who I had not met before, first impressions were not good there was something I didn't like about her, but I was determined to try to over come that and have a great holiday. We did all the usual Dublin things, by now I was becoming very familiar with the city and still loved it as much as ever.

By Sunday 17th November quite a few songs from the new album had been played on the radio and we had listened on our Walkmans. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses which I loved and recognised some of it from the Berlin Bootleg. Until the End of the World was another dark song that initially I didn't take to, it was only when I saw this song performed live that I grew to appreciate it. Then there was One, what can you say, it took my breath away from the first listen, and even then it was clear that song was going to be a U2 classic, I loved it.

The album cover was so different from before, instead of the monochromes we were hit with a kaleidoscope of colour, U2 wearing make up, Adam naked (unless you lived somewhere that censored the image with a X!), snake-charmers, U2 in a garishly painted Trabant - in other words U2 as we'd never seen them before! Gone were the serious, earnest young men and in their place was a new incarnation of U2, and it was quite an assault on the senses, but I liked it!

HMV in Grafton Street was opening at midnight on the day of Achtung Baby's release and we were determined to be near the front of the queue, so we went along there at 1pm! Looking back I'm a bit embarrassed I did that and waited all those hours outside in the middle of November! But I'd say around this time and for maybe the next couple of years, was my most obsessive time as a U2 fan. It was madness time, but we did have great fun!

We weren't actually first in the queue, that place was taken by a bunch of Aussie fans that we knew but had not yet met, they were really nice. The windows of HMV were a riot of colour that advertised the new album, right down to a whole Trabant in one window! It really got us into the U2-vibe.

We caused a bit of a sensation in Grafton Street, and got lots of comments from passers by, but after a while we became immune to it. Unfortunately my first impressions of Carol proved true, she was rude and wound up like a spring, a very angry person who never shut up. She had taken an instant dislike to me and proceeded to completely ignore me in conversations and if she was sharing sweets would pointedly not offer one to me. She only showed herself up with this childish behaviour though and I just bit my tongue, there were lots of nice people around to occupy my time with and I didn't want to get into a row with her.

The afternoon and evening went surprisingly fast, chatting, getting things to eat and drink, going to the toilet, trying to keep warm, aching feet..... It was only from around 9pm that other people joined the queue, we could have saved ourselves a lot of hanging around! TV, radio and press people also arrived around then, I managed to get out of their way most of the time but did end up with a microphone shoved in front of me by some radio guy. I just waffled on about U2 and the forthcoming album (can't remember about what I said) and he seemed happy with that! Our picture was in the paper the next day.

Dave Fanning, who was doing a radio show for 2FM live from HMV that night, arrived and we watched all the action inside the shop. Rumours started flying around that U2 were coming for the release, that they were going to be interviewed by Dave, that they had come in the back of the shop and so on.

At midnight the shop was opened, we were amongst the first 25 people and got a free album and poster, so we were chuffed with that. There were lots of people now and the crowd was getting a bit out of hand, one of the shop windows was cracked by the pushing and the Garda were called. They emptied the shop on safety grounds, so we reluctanly trudged off into the night. It was a bit of an anti-climax, we thought we'd be able to stay in the shop and listen to Dave's show, have a bit of a party, maybe even see U2. Instead, there we were after ten minutes in the shop, back out in the street holding our precious albums heading back to our accommodation in the pouring rain! And no sign of U2.........

1991 October - It's No Secret.....

The release of Achtung Baby was coming closer and I heard that DJ Simon Mayo was playing The Fly, a track from the new album on BBC Radio One at 9am on 9th of October. In those days this was how you first heard anything from a new album, it was always so exciting waiting for it to be played! But this was a workday and I was due in work at 9am, oh, dear me, I had a flat tyre and would be delayed......well, needs must!

I sat right in front of the radio to listen to the song and had the tape recorder on to tape it. When it came on I was stunned, what on earth was this? Totally unlike anything U2 had done before, frenetic, menacing, with a dark, edgy (excuse the pun) industrial sound. I was shocked but not horrified, this was U2 taking a big risk with a totally new sound and I admired them for doing that.

I listened to the song again and it was definitely growing on me. The lyrics were amazing and I especially loved,

Its no secret that a conscience can sometimes be a pest
Its no secret ambition bites the nails of success
Every artist is a cannibal every poet is a thief
All kill their inspiration and sing about the grief

The following week the video was shown on Top of the Pops and again it was so different from anything U2 had done before. Bono had turned into The Fly with shades so black you could not see his eyes, he had a haughty, throwaway manner with a hint of menace, yet he was also very sexy. I loved the video and it complemented the song perfectly. I realised then that Achtung Baby was going to be like nothing U2 had done before and that only whetted my appetite for its release all the more.

1991 May - Dalkey Dreaming.....

Another trip to Dublin and this time I'm meeting up with a new friend called Jane and her friend Bee. I had met Jane previously in the UK and we got along really well so I was looking forward to this first holiday with her in Dublin. We met up in the city and went to Dockers for a sandwich and drink, it was nice to see that Dockers was unchanged and that the doorstep sandwiches were as delicious as ever! Jane was chatty and good fun and had lots of U2 stories to share, Bee was very quiet and didn't say very much.

We had heard that U2 were recording (this album was to be Achtung Baby) at a house in Dalkey, a very upmarket village just south of Dublin. So, the next day we got the DART to Dalkey, we easily found the house as the village is not big and because we heard them - and there was no doubt it was U2! They were recording in a beautiful white Victorian mansion that looked out over Dalkey Island and Dublin Bay, a lovely place to inspire the creative juices!

We waited opposite the house, it was quite pleasant waiting as the weather was warm and sunny. After a short while all band came out and walked down the road, we stayed where we were as we felt that it was best to leave coming over to them, then it's on their terms and they haven't been forced into a meeting by being pounced upon. They chose not to come across, though Adam waved and said hello, Bono too acknowledged us. We guessed they were going to the Dalkey Island Hotel (now long gone unfortunately) which was just a short walk away.

Another fan arrived who at first I thought was Sinead O'Connor! She had very, very short hair and big eyes, she wandered past a few times before plucking up courage to speak to us. It turned out that she was an American who had been living in Ireland for a few months, she was a U2 fan and had heard U2 were recording here and decided to come to see what was happening as she was going home for good in a few days. She was called Cameron and was really nice and we all got along with her really well.

We had barely arrived at lunchtime the next day when Bono arrived in a car driven by Ali, he wound down the car window and said,

"Hello, how are you doing?"

We said we were ok, he added with a smile,

"What are you doing?"

"Sunbathing" Bee said.

A bit lame yes, but it was more than the rest of us managed to say!

"I'll be out later", said Bono and then he went through the gates of the house.

We were buzzing now, and only about ten minutes later the gates opened and Bono came out with a mug of very strong coffee in his hand. He looked very different to the last time I had seen him. His hair was much shorter and layered, it was a dark auburn colour that looked better with his pale complexion than the previous black hair.

We all said hello and then went quiet, lost for words . Jane opened the conversation again with,

"You look tired."

Talk of being to the point, but it was true! Bono smiled wearily and looked at her with bleary eyes and said,

"I am, I am, feeling a bit sorry for myself I think."

Then he sat down on the pavement so we did too, I could see why he had such a strong coffee! I think he'd just got out of bed.

Jane asked how the work on the new album was coming along. Bono gave a big sigh and said,

"We've all got our heads up our arses at the moment. There are some very strange men walking around that house at present!"

That really broke the ice and we all laughed, as the years went by I grew to recognise that Bono often uses humour to help fans relax when they meet him, and it certainly works. Despite his tiredness he looked well and relaxed, the new hairstyle took years off him. I noticed once more how blue his eyes are and all the freckles he has, his eyes seem to look right into you, but not in a threatening way. He spoke very softly and as he spoke he looked from one person to the next, never leaving anyone out even if they did not say much - he has excellent social skills!

He asked where we were all from, and homed in on Cameron when she said Arizona - I suppose it is more exciting than Cumbria and Yorkshire! Bono said that he'd been back to Arizona a few times since the '87 shows, just touring around staying in cheap, small places,

"You get allergic to fancy hotel lobbies when you've been in as many as me," he said with a laugh.

He noticed the books some of us were reading,

"Jane Eyre is a long way from Arizona," he said to Cameron and to Jane that he hadn't read the Maeve Binchy book she was reading yet. Trust him to notice our reading matter!

Cameron told him she had been studying psychology at Trinity and Bono pretended to be shocked and wary, and said something about being analysed

"You have to watch how you fold your arms in front of them!" he said, I didn't dare tell him I was a Staff Nurse in psychiatry! He seemed much brighter now, think the coffee must have woken him up.

He chatted on, quite happy just to sit there with us, sipping his coffee every now and then. He seemed to have all the time in the world for us I couldn't believe our luck. Then, out of the blue, he asked,

"Have you seen anything of our bootleg?"

He was referring to the now-named Berlin tapes. These were illicit cassette tapes taken from the sessions the band had at Hansa Studios in Berlin a few months previously. Somehow they had been leaked and were hot stuff on the bootleg scene. He had addressed the question to Jane who said she's heard about it etc. We didn't tell him we all had copies of the tapes, in fact I had one in my bag at the time! We all felt very guilty because he was clearly upset about it.

"I don't mind ordinary bootlegs," he said, "once the album has come out I don't mind if people tape it. But this is as if someone has stolen your diary and read it out loud, you know what I mean?"

With this he looked at us all and inwardly we squirmed with guilt. I managed to say in reply,

"Yes we do."

To which he nodded and sighed deeply. To change the subject we then asked if he would sign as few things for us, he said he would. I gave him the well-known "Blue Bono" postcard to sign, he wrote on it Bono get a haircut. I commented,

"I see you have had a haircut"

"Yeah," he replied, "I got so sick of it the other week, I wanted to shave it all off."

I said that I was glad he didn't go that far and he laughed. I then asked him to sign my fanzine, Eirinn. He asked what it was and I told him it was a fanzine that I edited. He then asked if this copy was for him, I said that I'd like that one signed, but that I had more copies in my bag and he could have one.

He then signed Cameron's journal, he just wrote and wrote, in all he filled two pages, writing about psychology, Arizona, Zen and more with a humourous twist. It was really nice watching him as he wrote, he kept stopping to think what he could write next and would give a little smile and chuckle when he thought of something. Cameron has something very special there.

I then gave him his copy of my fanzine, he immediately looked at it and asked,

"Is it about Irish music in general?"

"Yes," I replied, "Irish music, U2 and Ireland itself."

"Great," Bono replied, "Do you put addresses of places where people can stay?"

I said I didn't and he suggested it would be a good idea then people could easily find good places to stay when they visit. It was a good idea and I was chuffed that he was interested enough to make the suggestion. He continued leafing through the 'zine and stopped at a page with photos of him from April the previous year,

"Who's this drunken reprobate?" he said laughing as he looked at photos of himself.

"They were taken outside Docker's," I said.

"Ahh, the bad old days!" he exclaimed, still smiling.

Jane and Bee got what they wanted signed too. As Bono was showing no signs of leaving we also asked if we could have our photos taken with him and readily agreed. He got up off the pavement, he had leaves on his bottom but we resisted the temptation to rub them off! . When it was my turn I stood beside him and he wrapped his arm around me and pulled me in close to him, I almost melted!! I noticed that he wasn't that much taller than me, the best things come in small packages! The photo turned out really well and, even after all the years, when I look at it the warm memories of that special day come flooding back.

After the photos he said he'd have to go, he had been with us for at least twenty minutes, we had been so lucky to have him to ourselves for so long. Just as he was leaving a group of school children came along, and he stopped and chatted and signed things for them for a few minutes, he is so patient and friendly.

We were high as kites afterwards, we left and went into the city and got drunk in Dockers, a great way to end a brilliant day!