Wide Awake In Australia: 12 Aussie U2 Facts For The Hardcore Fan

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Wide Awake In Australia: 12 Aussie U2 Facts For The Hardcore Fan

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U2 at the SCG, November 22, 2019  (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

They might have wrapped up their stellar run of The Joshua Tree shows in Perth this week, but if you’re suffering U2 withdrawals, I Like Your Old Stuff is here to help. As their Australian tour wraps up, we’ve put together a dozen Aussie facts about the band even the biggest U2 nuts might be unaware of.

How many of these did you know?

1.     Blink and you’ll miss her, but none other than Australian actress Nicole Kidman makes an appearance in the original video for U2’s 1995 single “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me”. Playing Dr Chase Meridien opposite Val Kilmer in the hit film Batman Forever, Nicole features in U2’s number one single from the soundtrack. A cast-off from Zooropa sessions, “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me”’s video features Dr Meridien asking the Caped Crusader “What is it about the wrong kind of man?” in the largely animated video. 

An LP version of the Batman Forever soundtrack featuring Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me is now available, here

2.     Not only was “Desire”’s U2’s first number one single in Australia, it was also their first music video to be shot by an Australian. Richard Lowenstein, by then a veteran of half a dozen INXS clips and a couple of Crowded House videos, shot “Desire” in Los Angeles at locations including the Hotel Rosslyn, which inspired Bono’s first screenplay, The Million Dollar Hotel. Which brings us to another Aussie link…

3.     Initially conceived by Bono in 1987, after a long gestation and various actors and directors being linked to the production, the film The Million Dollar Hotel was eventually made in 2000 by German director Wim Wenders (Wings Of Desire, Until The End Of The World). Featuring a soundtrack which included exclusive Bono and U2 performances, the biggest star in the film was none other than Mad Max himself, Australian troublemaker Mel Gibson. Portraying a cranky FBI agent, the film’s prospects weren’t helped by Gibson complaining during pre-release publicity it was as “boring as a dog's arse”. Given his later outbursts to a female police officer in 2006, Bono got off lightly. 

4.     Late designer and performance artist Leigh Bowery, who was born in Sunshine, Victoria, made a vivid posthumous appearance in U2’s 1997/1998 Popmart Tour. Ahead of the band’s encore emergence from their mirrorball lemon, a film of Bowery dancing played on the giant screens while a studio recording of Lemon (Perfecto Mix) played. Best known for his years spent in London working with creatives including Lucien Freud and Boy George, the cross-dressing performance was sure to have perplexed many in the audience. Bowery had died in 1994, three years before the tour kicked off, and is buried in the Macedon Cemetery, Victoria.

5.     Another boundary-pushing, late Melbourne artist who crossed paths with U2 was Troy Davies, whose brief pop career featured a cameo from half of the Irish band. After working with Richard Lowenstein (see above) as a stylist for a number of his music videos, Davies scored his own record deal, performing under the moniker Ecco Homo. His little known 1990 single “New York, New York” features both Bono (on backing vocals and chorus) and The Edge (guitar additions), and forms and interesting bridge between the bluster of 1988’s Rattle & Hum and their heavy duty rebirth on 1991’s Achtung Baby. Bono also appears in the Lowenstein-directed video, however the Ecco Homo venture failed to capture an audience and Davies died in 2007.

6.     When the mind-blowing tech escapades of U2’s Zoo TV tour finally made it down the yellow brick road to Australia in November 1993, the dates were tagged Zoomerang in a nod to Australia’s indigenous culture (the shows over the ditch with our Kiwi brethren were dubbed New Zooland). Sydney’s second show at the Sydney Football Stadium on 27 November 1993 was recorded for international release on VHS and Laserdisc (remember them?). When Bono uses a giant remote control to flick through TV channels on the big screen in the opening minutes of the show, he lands on an episode of Hey Dad!, the underwhelming Aussie sitcom from the late 80s/early 90s. Playing the camp, horned character MacPhisto in the closing sequences of the show, the Zoo TV dates also found Bono phoning Australian celebrities including Adelaide Crows AFL coach Graham Cornes, Dame Edna Everage and Australian cricket captain Allan Border.

7.     As well as the Zoo TV tour being captured for posterity Down Under, the local run also marked an infamous moment – and important turning point – in the band’s 17-year history. The Zoo TV tour was notorious for its parties including supermodels, Axl Rose and Salman Rushdie, but some partied a little too hard. After a big night out, U2 bass player Adam Clayton was so under the weather he was unable to play at the Sydney Football Stadium for the band’s first show on 26 November 1993. With camera crews using the show as a dry run for the following night’s recording (see above), which was also going out live as a US pay-per-view, cancelling the show was an impossibility. Fraught band meetings in the afternoon initially raised the possibility of The Edge performing bass and his guitar tech Dallas Schoo playing lead, however the decision was instead made for Clayton’s bass tech Stuart Morgan to fill his boss’ shoes. Bono called Morgan “a very brave man” during the show, which remains the only full set U2 have ever performed without all four founding members. It was a massive wake-up call for Clayton, who has been sober ever since. Bono recently made note of the infamous date at the band’s Sydney show on Saturday 23 November 2019: “Adam used up one of his nine lives here in Sydney, but found a better life because of it”.

8.     If you’ve ever seen one of U2’s mesmerising stage shows, chances are an Australian by the name of Michael Tait was responsible for either overseeing the lighting or set fabrication. With 50 years in the industry working for everyone from Yes to Adele, the former Melbourne resident now runs TAIT Towers, the stage-building company that ensures the world’s biggest artists keep revolutionising the live experience. Tait has been involved with creating U2 lighting and staging since 1984’s The Unforgettable Fire, consistently make the ideas of U2’s long-time show director Willie Williams a reality. For recent The Joshua Tree anniversary run of shows, Tait custom-built a 7.6k resolution 60-metre screen, the largest and highest resolution screen in music history. Not bad for an Aussie backpacker who stumbled into the touring life in 1969…

9.     U2’s second imperial phase might have been kick-started by recording the initial stages of 1991’s Achtung Baby in Berlin, but did you know the album’s earliest lyrics were actually hashed out in Sydney? In Bill Flanagan’s insightful U2 At The End Of The World biography, which captures the Musician magazine editor hitching a ride with the band as their Zoo TV tour unfolds/unravels, Bono admits that some Australian voyeurism was thrown into Achtung Baby’s lyrical melting pot. “I started writing the songs that became Achtung Baby in that building over there,” Bono told Flanagan while gesturing towards another high-rise Sydney hotel. Watching a woman in another apartment complex go about her day, Bono began creating a whole back-story for the subject of his visual stalking. “I started watching her through a telescope,” he added with a laugh. “We excuse a lot in the name of reconnaissance!”

10.  While they’ve chosen international guests for their last three tours (Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Jay-Z and Kanye West), there was a time when U2 not only invited Aussie bands on tour with them, but also spent some memorable nights hanging out with them. Australians who have held the support slots on local tour legs include Matt Finish (1984’s Under Australian Skies tour), Weddings Parties Anything (1989’s Lovetown tour), Kim Salmon & The Surrealists (the Zoomerang dates of the Zoo TV tour) and Sidewinder (1998’s Popmart tour). Weddings Parties Anything have since recalled after-hours sessions playing pool with U2 and David Bowie (who was recording a Tin Machine album in Sydney at the time, which you can read more about here), as well as forming a super-group with various crew and U2 members for the end-of-tour party.

11.  On a break from their Elevation tour when the horrendous September 11 terrorist acts occurred, U2 reconvened on a London soundstage a week after the 2001 attacks to perform as part of the America: A Tribute To Heroes benefit event. Joined by Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart on guitar and The Edge’s wife Morleigh Steinberg on backing vocals, a well-known Aussie also made a surprising appearance with the band. None other than Natalie Imbruglia sang on the track “Walk On”, which was transformed from a song dedicated to Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi to a soliloquy of hope in the face of great pain. It’s arguably a superior version to the 2000 studio recording on All That You Can’t Leave Behind. Of course, Natalie Imbruglia isn’t the only former-Neighbours-star-turned-chart-topping-pop-singer Bono has performed with: during her Homecoming tour in Sydney in 2006, Kylie brought the lead singer out to awkwardly take Robbie Williams’ spot on the duet “Kids”.

12.  Speaking of Kylie, a list of Australian U2 links would be incomplete without mention of the late Aussie icon Michael Hutchence. With the INXS frontman and Bono having spent large amounts of time together discussing philosophy, literature and music at their holiday homes in the south of France, his 1997 death at the Sydney’s Ritz-Carlton shook U2. Not only did Bono send a large Claddagh wreath of white flowers to the singer’s Australian funeral, he dedicated the song “Gone” to ‘Hutch’ during the recording of U2’s Popmart – Live In Mexico City release the week after Hutchence’s passing. Subsequent tributes from his Irish friend include Bono’s posthumous appearance on the solo Hutchence single “Slide Away” and the 2000 U2 song “Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of”, which was reprised during the band’s recent Sydney shows to mark the 22nd anniversary of Hutchence’s passing.

Got any more amazing Aussie U2 facts about Bono holidaying in Glenelg, The Edge’s family living in Australia or Bono’s live-in chef being a New South Wales woman named Noni? Let us know on our Facebook page

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