Profile: Adam Clayton, bass player

"I always wanted to be a rock star.When I got my first bass guitar at the age of 15, that was it for me. I didn´t have a whole lot else going on in my life." Adam Clayton

Born to Brian and Jo in Oxfordshire, England on 13th March 1960. At the age of 5 the family moved to Yellow Walls Road in Malahide near Dublin, where sister Sarah and brother Sebastian were born. Adam was sent to St. Columba's boarding school due to the nature of his father's job (RAF pilot) which meant that the family could be called away at very short notice. Adam hated it, and left at age 16 having probably been expelled, at which time he began attending Mount Temple Comprehensive which was located nearby in Malahide (Ireland's first non-denominational, co-educational comprehensive school).
Always a rebellious character, Adam had no interest in schoolwork, much to his parents' dismay. He was known for frequently wearing outrageous clothes or sometimes no clothes at all , and knew from an early age that he wanted to be on stage. Before U2 met Paul McGuinness, he took up the role of temporary manager as well as bassist, booking shows and representing the band in early negotiations with CBS Ireland. Bono credited Adam with being the driving force that got the band off the ground in the early days, as his dedication and determination to succeed spurred them all on to make a success of it.

He has had several brushes with the law, most notably for drink-driving and drug offences, and once missed a concert in Sydney in 1993 because of extreme drunkenness. Fortunately this served as a wake-up call and made him realise that he had to take control of himself. He has been back on track ever since then, thanks in part to the steadying influence of Larry, who spent a year in New York with him working on 'Mission Impossible' among other things.

"I am one of those characters that has an addictive personality. And it's an emotional problem as much as it is a physical problem and I had to start dealing with that. And that's the hard road, figuring out the psychology of it. The avoiding substances of any kind is hard but, okay, it's not that hard. It's facing the devil inside you, that's the tricky bit."

Bono describes Adam as the "jazz man" of the band in an interview with 60 minutes (Nov 2005). Bono proceeds to cite the band's hit song, "Bullet the Blue Sky", as a song with a weird sounding bassline. The reason? Adam is playing in a different key from the rest of the band!

Often refered by Bono (I agree!!)as the poshest member of the band, Clayton is well known for his bass playing on songs like "Where the Streets Have No Name", "New Year's Day", and "With or Without You".

Clayton’s role within the band is to provide a grounding on which the rest of the band can expand on – in many ways this could be considered restrictive and U2’s bass maestro doesn’t tend to elaborate in the same way as Flea does with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. What they do achieve however – is an incredible emotional resonance with their songs.
Clayton’s technique varies according to the song that is being performed - On some he’ll goes for simple support of Edge’s arpeggio approach – for example “With or Without You” the song structure is relatively simple and the bass part opts for a repeating root note progression supporting the songs chord structure. The repeating nature of this style is often found with U2 tracks, outwardly simple yet – the way they build in emotional intensity before the fade is difficult to master.

Clayton's stage style was a major, positive surprise during the Vertigo tour (2004-2006). The bassist would walk along the catwalk during at least one song per concert, generally "Where The Streets Have No Name," and his excursions away from the stage would be warmly cheered by the crowd. Female fans also have reported receiving smiles and winks and even talking to the bassist during the show. As noted by many a U2 concert-goer, this is a 180 degree turnabout from the Adam Clayton of the Elevation tour era (2000-2001). Fellow band member and guitar genius The Edge observes: Adam's coming into his own as a performer on this tour," he notes. "It's great to see him out there on the ramps!"

With an audience like U2’s Clayton cannot fail to have influenced a huge number of bassists and while it’s true that there are more innovative or “flashy” players out there – Adam Clayton has shown that bass players succeed where they understand the song well enough to create a mood which can evoke passion and emotion whether the fan is listening to a CD on their own or are part of a 40,000 rock stadium crowd!!!!!!

For some, Adam isn't one of the greatest bassists of our times. However, he is THE greatest bassist for U2!!!!

Always a gentleman, kind with fans and offering an alluring smile, I only know Mr Clayton´s bass gets under your skin!He certainly knows how to get to the audience and makes U2´s sound unique! Thanks , Adam, for years of pleasure listening to your distinctive sound and making the band´s songs memorable to our hearts and souls!

source: http://u2-atomic-adam.tripod.com/ ;http://bass-soup.com; www.atu2.com

Random U2 Quote

"We don't want to get shot down for becoming boring. We'd rather go into retirement finishing on a high note and knowing we've left a special legacy." Larry Mullen Junior, 2002.

How can they ever become boring??? I wonder...

Bono and Ali´s 26th wedding anniversary

They were high school sweethearts at Dublin's Mount Temple Comprehensive School, and were married August 21, 1982, at a ceremony in Raheny, Dublin.

Ali ’s a wife, mother, social crusader, environmental activist, friend of supermodels and fashion plate. She’s the stunning brunette with the million-watt smile charming world leaders, soothing children and outshining the rich and famous, always impeccably dressed and wearing amazing shoes. She’s Alison Hewson, and she’s so much more than simply Bono’s wife.

The pair began dating when Ali was 15 and Bono was 16. “It was November, actually 25 years ago, I joined U2 and I started going out with Ali, so it was a good month,” Bono recalled on “Larry King Live” in 2002. Ali worked in motor insurance and with her father in his electrical business after leaving Mount Temple. On Aug. 21, 1982, Bono and Ali were married.

Bono recalls her in their high school days...

" And I remember this girl who was so beautiful and so completely unaware of it. I mean, she used to wear Wellington boots and gabardine, and there was just no vanity. And I thought that this was just the most attractive person I'd ever seen, a completely unself-conscious beauty." -

Once he forgot her birthday he compensated with the creation of "Sweetest Thing" for her.

"Blue-eyed boy meets a brown-eyed girl Oh oh oh, the sweetest thing You can sew it up but you still see the tear Oh oh oh, the sweetest thing Baby's got blue skies up ahead But in this I'm a rain cloud Ours is a stormy kind of love Oh oh oh, the sweetest thing..."

The video shows a clearly regretful Bono asking for forgiveness with "a little help from his friends"

Ali and Bono Hewson: A Celebration of Love!! Congratulations!!!

The Edge film for Toronto

'It Might Get Loud' will premiere at Canadian film fest.


A documentary featuring Jack White, The Edge and Jimmy Page is set to get its world premiere next month at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival. Directed by David Guggenheim, 'It Might Get Loud' tells the stories of the three guitarists and their journeys as they developed how they played the electric guitar to create their own trademark style.

The movie focuses on a single day when the trio met and discuss with one another the stories of their history, what motivates and inspires them to write and play their instrument.New music from each musician is played throughout the documentary, and feature scenes in London, Nashville and Dublin.Each artist cites his main influences, discussing albums from The Edge's Sex Pistols record to Flat Duo Jets' 'Go-Go Harlem Baby', which was a major influence on Jack White.

According to The Playlist film music blog, Page, White and The Edge were each picked for their contributions to guitar playing in three separate eras — Page in the '70s, The Edge in the '80s and '90s, and White in the early years of the 21st century.

source:http://www.nme.com/news/

New U2 tracks leakage

Bono, U2 rock lord, has been stung by a cheeky holidaymaker who overheard the singer last week. He was playing tracks from the Irish band’s eagerly awaited new release.

The fan couldn’t believe it as he strolled along the beach by Bono’s palatial villa in the South of France when he heard that famous voice thundering out the windows.

And the savvy passerby was sharp enough to record what he heard then race home to stick the clips on YouTube. (SHAME!!!MY opinion!!!)
The band have recently put the finishing touches to their first studio album in four years. (CAN´T WAIT!!!)

Universal Music Group, which owns the band’s Interscope label, have registered the domain name No Line On The Horizon — suggesting that will be the CD title. Four songs have been posted including the title track and Sexy Boots, which will be the first single. The other two leaked tracks are thought to be called Moment Of Surrender and For Your Love.

Super producer and long-time U2 collaborator DANIEL LANOIS, who has produced the album with BRIAN ENO, reckons it’s the best he has ever recorded with the band.
He said: “I think we can safely say it’s one of the great, innovative records from U2. Bono’s in great form, singing fantastic.”

The names of several other tracks on the album have also been leaked and include Love Is All We Have Left, One Bird, If I Could Live My Life Again and The Cedars of Lebanon.

I wonder if If I Could Live My Life Again is based on the famous poem by the great Argentinian poet Jorge Luis Borges as once I read...

Don´t run to YouTube, the audio has luckily been disabled by the owner!

source:http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/article1560603.ece

HAPPY BIRTHDAY,MASTER!!!!!

Today 8th August 2008 our favourite guitar player Edge(a.k.a. The Edge or David Howell Evans) is 47 years old!!!

The Edge's unmistakable guitar sound -- clean, sharp, incisive, and cutting-Edge -- is part of U2's trademark. The characteristic and mesmerizing sounds and the emotions he expresses through them make him one of the most respected guitarists in rock and roll. He has often been called an "anti-guitar hero" because of his aversion to the indulgent, showy style based on intense soloing of many contemporaries, preferring instead to play in often a technically undemanding and low-key, yet original, way. He is renowned for being a guitarist who is more concerned with sounds, texture and innovation rather than flashy technique.

He's also lent his vocal talents to several U2 songs, first singing lead on "Seconds" from the War album. He later took the lead on songs such as "Van Diemen's Land" and "Numb", and sang a solo version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" during 1997-98's PopMart Tour. He also released a solo album, Captive, the soundtrack to the film of the same name, in 1986.
On the band's 2000 album, All That You Can't Leave Behind, Edge left behind the experimental electro and dance rhythms that he had explored on the previous three albums and returned to the more mainstream rock guitar sound similar to that of the band's earliest recordings. He continued this trend on 2004's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, in keeping with U2's post-1990s ethos of stripping away all artifice from their music.

In 2005 The Edge became involved in public philanthropy. In response to the USA's Hurricane Katrina disaster which devastated New Orleans, Edge co-founded the charity Music Rising in November 2005 along with Bob Ezrin and Henry Juszkiewicz, with the aim of restoring the Gulf Coast's musical culture by replacing instruments that had been lost to the disaster. The organisation's aim was initially to provide replacement instruments solely to those professional musicians who had been affected by the storms. However, they now seek to provide instruments to affected churches and schools as well. This is all part of the charity's aim of "Rebuilding the Gulf Region note by note." Since then, The Edge has also publicly supported the organisations the New York Food Bank and Mencap Northern Ireland.

As a guitarist of astonishing versatility, The Edge continues, at all levels of his playing, to resist the rock n' roll clichés. His unconventional attitude to his craft is perhaps best summed up by his admission that "I suppose ultimately I'm interested in music. I'm a musician. I'm not a gunslinger. That's the difference between what I do and what a lot of guitar heroes do."

Thanks for the music, Edge!!! And above all thanks for the definite and characteristic music seal you´ve imprinted on our fave band!!!

Happy Birthday and for many more!!! Cheers!!!

Bono answers RollingStone on U2´s Boy

Bono was reading David Fricke’s review of the new reissue of RollingStone.com on U2’s Boy(http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/21858807/review/21884609/boy) and was moved to respond ...

"Entering the blogosphere, a review of BOY from the singer who was one at the time of recording… We the members of said post punk combo are very complimented by DAVID FRICKES 4.5 star review of our debut, an album we always believed in. I remember now a generous JON PARELES review from the VILLAGE VOICE in 1980, a line something along the lines of “this is peter pan, I hope they break up before they grow up”. Anyway, as my band mates and I attempt to finish our most complete and radical album yet, here’s my why and what i think is right and wrong about BOY having listened to it for the first time in over twenty years if you start from the pseudo british accent and the little reported fact that the singer sounds like a girl, things don’t look too promising …the annoying gene is present in self consciousness and self immolation… you do want to give the singer a slap for lots of reasons but let’s start with the pretentiousness….the singer has obviously been listening to SIOUXIE AND THE BANSHEES, JOY DIVISION and a few others whose combined archness and artfulness was just too much for the freckled face teenager from northside of DUBLIN…. neither fully protestant or catholic, IRELAND had left the boy with a face like a baked bean and in search of a nonregional identity…a theme that continues to the present.
As for the non lyrics that Wunderkind STEVE LILYWHITE had begged him to no avail to write… well….the excuse is that in the manner of another POP idol, IGGY, they were for the most written live on the microphone ..this was noble in its search for authenticity but a very flawed idea that almost gauges the eyes out of the albums open face but alas, the strengths way out weigh the weaknesses…maybe because it was an album about vulnerability.. BOY eschews the usual subject matter of rock and roll’s hurry to deface its own innocence through knowingness, sex, drugs etc in favour of a refusal to grow up …think GUNTER GRASS’s Tin Drum VOLKER SCHLONDORFs film of the novel released the same year as BOY…
if ninetynine percent of rock and roll is about sex this one percenter is about virginity and not wanting to lose it…maleneÿss is more elusive here and I can see now why the album had such a connection in the gay community with songs like TWILIGHT and STORIES FOR BOYS.
Then there is the galling religious audacity of writing a song about agape love at eighteen years old….that alone deserves some gold stars as well as the custard pies.. I WILL FOLLOW is still a rush and a marker for innovation (the percussion in the drop was a bicycle spinning, wheels upside down and played like a harp with a kitchen fork…)
ADAM CLAYTONs bass is a revelation to me on this listen, and up there with JOHN ENTWISLE and PETER HOOK in its inventiveness… LARRY MULLEN too is jumping through hoops to create a circus of tom tom parts and spectral spectre like snaring…. giddying up and clearing the fence every time…. I agree with DAVID FRICKE that they are not yet a rhythm section in the traditional sense but maybe something more interesting … the ‘weight’ of U2….Steve LILYWHITES production deserves a lot of credit here for its sonic prowess, big music in little hands..
But the star of the show is THE EDGE some guitar credit must be shared with the groups that helped shape us,people like PINK FLOYD, PIL and TELEVISION… guitar players like STUART ADAMSON VINNIE REILLY etc but there is something happening here that is truly special…EDGEs genuine genius developing on the blank and bleachedphotographic paper…. avoiding all the obvious blues scales that blind every other guitar player that ever heard LED ZEPPELIN …THE EDGE finds some new colours for the spectrum of rock. Colours he now owns … owning a colour, wow .. imagine owning the colour yellow like VAN GOGH… EDGE owns, well im not exactly sure what colours they are… indigo or violet or crimson?… but you sense an emotional colour temperature that is unique to him… its his palette we’re painting from. he’s following the jazzmen’s maxim to “own your own tone and you will become contagious ” and as a result you can hear him show up in lots of rooms hes not in, isn’t that right…?
Surely this is the most influential guitarist since the great composers JIMMY PAGE, PETE TOWNSEND,NEIL YOUNG but remember he doesn’t have the history of the blues to plumb, these are unchartered waters…was to the English psychedelic revival we were also inspired by and plundering .. THE TEARDROP EXPLODES and ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN…they were better than us no doubt about it…with ECHOs CROCODILES a better debut on pretty muchevery level… that and their next album HEAVEN UP HERE having the same effect on their moment as RADIOHEADS BENDS AND OK COMPUTER. It was all there… songwriting, playing and standing in front of the mirror type coolness but of course the pursuit of coolness is rarely the same thing as the pursuit of art. This was obvious to a lot of our contempories too BUT maybe not enough..im not not talking about Teardrops or the Bunnyrabbits or Wah Heat! but for many of our peers, the most important bit was lifestyle and the fashion piece which we clearly were not very good at. And it is very very important…An almost essential companion to greatness… From ELVIS to THE BEATLES THE WHO to THE STONES THE CLASH to PRINCE, STYLE has been part of rocks revolution and evolution…. our only addition is comedic failure to fit into the grey or vivid clothes of rebellion and the crime of thinking no veneer was the utterly radical way to look and sound…and then there’s the other thing, the lifestyle….of course the life of the artist is always more compelling than being an artist. To live in the garret with a knife in your hand and a bleeding ear is more romantic than the fragility that leaves open the wound … Bohemia is more attractive than suburbia but maybe you don’t live there, maybe you live on a street which is like any other street where the opera that goes on behind parted curtains is more than enough…..It was briefly for U2.
you can have everything the songs, the production, the face, the attitude but still not have “IT”…U2 had nothing really, nothing but ‘IT’… For us music was a sacrament …an even more demanding and sometimes more demeaning thing than music as ART, we wanted to make a music to take you in and out of your body, out of your comfort zone, out of your self, as well as your bedroom, a music that finds you looking under your bed for God to protect your innocence…
…i’m proud of this little Polaroid of a life I cant fully recall. As well as the ability to make embarrassing mistakes, the demands of a great debut might be fresh ideas, fresh paint and sometimes for its canvas, a fresh face.
I miss my boyhood

Bono, 3rd august ..."

Just...Wow!!!

source: http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/08/04/exclusive-bono-remembers-u2s-boy/

Bono´s Ten Commandments

In 2002 Q magazine talked to Bono who offered his advice to succesive generations of rock rookies (or not!)...

1. Thou Shalt Not Let Fame Go To Thy Head.

"Fame is an obscenity. It's been my experience that the people who give out the most about fame are the people who think the most about it, the people who believe in it. It's absurd, and I know when I look in the mirror how mad that is. It's like being rich. It's like being beautiful. Have some fun with it but don't take it seriously."

2. Thou Shalt Respect Thy Limitations.

"I always have crises with songs, where I'm saying to myself, If only you were a different person, you could write this song better, you could make this work. But it's the things you can't do that make you great. In order to put your shoulder to one door, other doors have to be locked to you. So anyway, I've got this concept album about a whale."

3. Thou Shalt Beware Of Television

"Television demystifies what you do. People can turn the volume up or down, they can turn down the contrast. They have you, whereas in concert you have them ­ and it's hard to give up that kind of control. Bruce Springsteen said he never really liked TV, and I know what he means. U2 were the group who, when we first appeared on Top Of The Pops our song went down the charts the next week."

4. Thou Shalt Only Move House On The Live Album .

"You wonder what happened to these great prolific imaginations that lifted you out of your everyday life when you were a kid. They made three great albums and then what the fuck happened? And you discover that they moved house. The suddenly have these walls and they want to hang art on the walls. So they become art experts, and they suddenly become quite discerning when it comes to the Chinese rug. How distracting is all that? I told The Black Crowes that and they thought I was taking the piss. So no Chinese rugs or brass taps when we're making a U2 album."

5. Thou Shalt Not Stop Touring

"If you stop touring, you stop meeting your audience, you start mistrusting them and they you. You could still put out a great record and people might buy it but it's not the thing, the wave that carries you like we're used to. We always add a week to the end of the tour where we stay in a hotel. It was my wife Ali's idea ­ Take a week, love, because I don't want the children to see you like this. And I know the aftermath is where people come apart. I know Keith Richards started doing drugs not on tour but when he came off tour, cos there was such a big hole in his life."

6. Thou Shalt Not Have An Entourage.

"Death to whinging rock stars, their miserable entourages and their 10 bodyguards. I never needed a security guy. I had one on the road once because there was some death threats at the time and he was taking his job seriously, but I used to sneak away from him, get offside. I'm a grown man. Besides, you go out onto the streets of Chicago with two giants and people are gonna start paying attention. I avoid that stuff and as a result I have much more fun than your regular rock star."

7. Thou Shalt Realise When You're Becoming A Prick.

"If you're going out for dinner four times a week and you look round the table and everybody's on your payroll, then you've probably become a prick."

8. Thou Shalt Fear Money

"Bands splitting up over the track sequencing on your record is fine, but over royalties ­ no. Over the sequencing is fine, because that's your passion for the thing that you're making and the fact is that a band will never break up over passion. But a band will break up over greed."

9. Thou Shalt Not Get Cocky

"The way that the rot sneaks under your door is by telling you that the reason that you've had all this good fortune is because you are somehow special, rather than to make you aware you have a gift. There's a huge difference in knowing that you've been born lucky, like being born into an aristocracy or born with the DNA that gives you long legs and a beautiful mouth. If you're able to sing, or able to describe things through your voice, yes, you work at it and yes, the worker is worthy of his wages, but not this much."

10. Thou Shalt Not Approach Me For Advice

"Don't look to me, Look to Michael Stipe, Or Bob Geldof."

source: http://q4music.com/2002