Jordan going to Harvard???

[Galeongirl]

Want more?

Bono 10 may 1960
Jordan 10 may 1989
Eve 7 July 1991
Elijah can't remember the date, but it's late august.. 20 or so 1999
John May 21 2001

and Ali is 23 march 1961

 

[blueeyedgirl]

You and Ali didn't have as much of that; you were poor and had to struggle.

Ach, the old "Bono was poor" myth, put about by Bono himself. U2 all come from middle class families, from middle class suburbs. In Adam and Edge's case, posh suburbs. They were hardly the Clash living in tower blocks!!! (Of course, Joe Strummer was middle class, ex-public school)

 

[MooMoo!]

Want more?

Bono 10 may 1960
Jordan 10 may 1989
Eve 7 July 1991
Elijah can't remember the date, but it's late august.. 20 or so 1999
John May 21 2001

and Ali is 23 march 1961

Very springy/summery family? Just as well they have money, or all those birthdays squashed together would be a bastard to pay for.

 

[DreamOutLoud13]

Very springy/summery family? Just as well they have money, or all those birthdays squashed together would be a bastard to pay for.

You should see how the birthdays in my immediate and near-extended family run: March 2nd, March 12, March 13, March 22, April 27, May 13, June 12, August 12, August 13, August 19, September 13, September 16, December 12, December 30. (The bolded ones are my immediate family.) You get sick of birthday cake after a while

 

[MooMoo!]

lol. Thats sucky, most of my family are winter bar my mum, whos in june. October/november are bad months.

 

[Jeannieco]

Ach, the old "Bono was poor" myth, put about by Bono himself. U2 all come from middle class families, from middle class suburbs. In Adam and Edge's case, posh suburbs. They were hardly the Clash living in tower blocks!!! (Of course, Joe Strummer was middle class, ex-public school)

I have never heard Bono say he grew up poor.

I have only heard him say he came from a "working class North side of Dublin" nieghborhood.
I always thought he was middle class not poor, but I guess people could twist that into meaning poor. ??


Yay for the middle class!!

 

[Jeannieco]

lol. Thats sucky, most of my family are winter bar my mum, whos in june. October/november are bad months.

Excuse me? Speak for yourself dude.

I am an October baby and it's my favorite time of year. Early October so it's usually cool, crisp and sunny with tons of color and some summer flowers still in bloom. At least here in Seattle it's that way. Ireland has the same climate at the US Northwest BTW. Beautiful!

 

[Liesje]

Ach, the old "Bono was poor" myth, put about by Bono himself. U2 all come from middle class families, from middle class suburbs. In Adam and Edge's case, posh suburbs. They were hardly the Clash living in tower blocks!!! (Of course, Joe Strummer was middle class, ex-public school)

Yeah, I've seen the pics of Bono's childhood home and he was not poor!!! Unless his pa had some huge debts, I'd call it "quite comfortable" indeed.

 

[indra]

September 13

That's wear paisley and smoke pot day!

(Just trust me on that.)

 

[last unicorn]

Yeah, I've seen the pics of Bono's childhood home and he was not poor!!! Unless his pa had some huge debts, I'd call it "quite comfortable" indeed.

I'm sorry but Bono has NEVER said that he or his family were poor. Why are people starting stuff like that? He has always said he comes from middle-class working family, never anything about being poor. He might have said something like that about his ancestors. Why is this important? Does he have to apologize for not coming out of poverty? There is no law that only children of poor families can grow up to be artists. Bono had other problems to deal with in his youth.

 

[blueeyedgirl]

Read the Flanagan book. (Don't have it here, so can't quote the page). His own Dad gave him a bollocking about "misrepresenting" their class.

Also U2 were formed in the late 70s. Middle class is hardly punk.

 

[blueeyedgirl]

That's wear paisley and smoke pot day!

(Just trust me on that.)

:adds date to diary:

 

[last unicorn]

I'm middle class as well, so are most of my friends. A lot of them are artists, musicians, shock horror. I don't know what one thing should have to do with the other. As for U2, compared to how much money they have now I'm sure one could consider them being "poor" when they were young. They had to built their first instruments because they couldn't afford to buy them. Considering how much Bono talks about poverty these days, I'm sure he wouldn't "misinterpret" his own situation as a child. As far as I am concerned, he could have come out of a stinking rich family as well, I couldn't care less. There is more to a person than the material circumstances of their upbringing.

 

[LostAtMoon]

Elijah can't remember the date, but it's late august.. 20 or so 1999

August 18, 1999

 

[Liesje]

I'm sorry but Bono has NEVER said that he or his family were poor. Why are people starting stuff like that? He has always said he comes from middle-class working family, never anything about being poor. He might have said something like that about his ancestors. Why is this important? Does he have to apologize for not coming out of poverty? There is no law that only children of poor families can grow up to be artists. Bono had other problems to deal with in his youth.

Did I say he said he was poor?

I don't really care either way

 

[MooMoo!]

Excuse me? Speak for yourself dude.

I am an October baby and it's my favorite time of year. Early October so it's usually cool, crisp and sunny with tons of color and some summer flowers still in bloom. At least here in Seattle it's that way. Ireland has the same climate at the US Northwest BTW. Beautiful!

No, I mean theyre bad months for having loads of birthdays in my family.

My birthday is in October too, so I cant complain.

 

[bonohero]

I just want to throw my two cents in.

I know that Bono has said that Ali paid for a lot of stuff while they were dating and U2 was just starting to get off of their feet. I know that she paid for a trip for the two of them over to London. It was in a U2 book.

Bono's family was middle-class. They didn't suffer. I just remember Bono saying in Bono in Conversation that he used to eat airline food all the time when his brother, Norman, worked at the airport. Bono's family wasn't poor, but he personally was poor there for a while.

 

[Jeannieco]

I just want to throw my two cents in.

I know that Bono has said that Ali paid for a lot of stuff while they were dating and U2 was just starting to get off of their feet. I know that she paid for a trip for the two of them over to London. It was in a U2 book.

Bono's family was middle-class. They didn't suffer. I just remember Bono saying in Bono in Conversation that he used to eat airline food all the time when his brother, Norman, worked at the airport. Bono's family wasn't poor, but he personally was poor there for a while.

Exactly! And that makes him totally relatable and average in that sense. Most of the world is middle class/working class!

 

[Jeannieco]

No, I mean theyre bad months for having loads of birthdays in my family.

My birthday is in October too, so I cant complain.

Oh, Gotcha! August is like that for me!!
Libra's rock!

 

[blueeyedgirl]

I'm middle class as well, so are most of my friends. A lot of them are artists, musicians, shock horror. I don't know what one thing should have to do with the other. As for U2, compared to how much money they have now I'm sure one could consider them being "poor" when they were young. They had to built their first instruments because they couldn't afford to buy them. Considering how much Bono talks about poverty these days, I'm sure he wouldn't "misinterpret" his own situation as a child. As far as I am concerned, he could have come out of a stinking rich family as well, I couldn't care less. There is more to a person than the material circumstances of their upbringing.

I reiterate, read the Flanagan book. And actually, interviews with Bono in the early 80s. He does go on about coming from the "mean streets of Ballymun". I only repeat what he himself has gone on about, and we all know what a liar Bono is

Geez, I've obviously touched some nerves here

 

[MooMoo!]

Meh, maybe he ment it was a rough area or something.

Either way, I dont see him being poor. I dont see any of them being poor.

 

[biff]

Actually, this whole debate about "poor/not poor" started when an earlier poster commented that Bono and Ali were poor when they first started out. And there seems to be evidence to support that. Ali said in an interview that when they got married they had 70 pounds in the bank (all of which she had saved, LOL), and both the wedding dress and the cake were homemade. As well, their first home was heavily subsidized by the other band members. I think even their honeymoon was free, a gift from Chris Blackwell.
As to the 'growing up poor' bit, I recall Bono saying that he always felt he was somewhere between working class and middle class, the result of growing up in a "nice" area that bordered on an extremely shite area.
But I do think he didn't go out of his way at times to prevent people from thinking that he actually grew up in Ballymun (with all that that implied) as opposed to next to it. A rocker has to have his street cred, I suppose.

 

[MooMoo!]

I guess £70 in those days was a fair amount though.

Wouldnt it be Punts anyway? I have no idea what the conversion rate would have been either way...er...yeah.

 

[biff]

Yes, it would have been punts, of course, but I didn't want to confuse the punters, LOL!

I don't think it would have been worth more than a few hundred in today's money. I recall that the way the story was told it was clearly not very much money for a couple to be starting out on.

 

[blueeyedgirl]

A rocker has to have his street cred, I suppose.

Like John Mellor becoming Joe Strummer and living in squats and tower blocks. Like John Lennon suddenly having a Scouser accent. Like Mick Jagger suddenly having a working class accent. Middle class is so uncool...

 

[biff]

Well indeed. I guess that's why so many of them admired Elvis.

 

[Carek1230]

I think it's fab that Bono and his daughters are found out and about standing up for the same charitable affairs or speaking out in support of other causes. I should hope the motorway initiative is NOT passed as the Hill of Tara is still such a sacred place and so beautiful. It's visited by more and more tourists now than ever before, but a motorway would certainly ruin the ambience. I was there in October.

Not sure if Jordan would already be enrolled in college here in the states or not. I am sure Bono and Ali's kids are all worldly and intelligent just like their parents are and they are all lucky to have the opportunity to continue their educations at the best of colleges. Trinity College is an excellent institution and it's possible Jordan could be taking classes there before starting at Harvard. Who knows.....I just wish her well.

As for those crazy family birthdays, I used to have (before divorce) Jan 2, Jan 13, Jan 15, Apr 12, Apr 23, Apr 29, May 3, May 10, May 12, May 13 and two on Aug 13, 2 anniversaries on Aug 14 and another birthday on Aug 15.

My aunt's family has birthdays Jan 2, Jan 15, Jul 15, Aug 15, Nov 15

 

[greety]

Actually, this whole debate about "poor/not poor" started when an earlier poster commented that Bono and Ali were poor when they first started out. And there seems to be evidence to support that. Ali said in an interview that when they got married they had 70 pounds in the bank (all of which she had saved, LOL), and both the wedding dress and the cake were homemade. As well, their first home was heavily subsidized by the other band members. I think even their honeymoon was free, a gift from Chris Blackwell.
As to the 'growing up poor' bit, I recall Bono saying that he always felt he was somewhere between working class and middle class, the result of growing up in a "nice" area that bordered on an extremely shite area.
But I do think he didn't go out of his way at times to prevent people from thinking that he actually grew up in Ballymun (with all that that implied) as opposed to next to it. A rocker has to have his street cred, I suppose.

and lets not forget Bono always stated that in the early days, none of them had any money (they took the bus fare money from the manager's change jar) and Bono always lived off others like Ali and Guggi (he's mentioned that a few times, don't ask me where )

 

[last unicorn]

Bono wasn't poor, nor was he rich, the whole debate is ridiculous. We knew he grew up in a violent area, he has spoken about that a lot. Even if you are not "poor" and have to go bed hungry, this isn't exactly a great surrounding for a child or teenager.

As for money, I have the impression he didn't care about that a lot. Some stories say that Ali payed for a lot of stuff when they started dating, others say that he was carless with the money he had, gave it away to his friends and never asked for it to be given back.

We weren't there, we don't know what things he experienced, I think the whole debate is ridiculous, and saying his a liar is even more.

 

[U2girl]

thanks, biff

I have never heard Bono say he grew up poor.

I have only heard him say he came from a "working class North side of Dublin" nieghborhood.
I always thought he was middle class not poor, but I guess people could twist that into meaning poor. ??

Exactly. Though "middle class" may have been considered "poor" compared with what they have earned along the way. Didn't all of them collect money for touring in the early days, and that trip to London before they got the contract ?
I know I read that the first time they had considerable spare cash earned from albums and touring was after JT.

I'm waiting for the "rich guy's kid goes to a posh school" backlash.