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Bono & his sunglasses: Stand up for rock stars!
Posted By: Neil McCormick at Jan 22, 2009 at 13:56:31 [General]
"Stand up to rock stars / Napoleon in high heels / Josephine be careful / Of small men with big ideas"
That's a lyric from 'Stand Up Comedy', a ripping rock riff of a song on U2's forthcoming album, 'No Line On The Horizon'. Bono is obviously poking fun at himself and really has no need of me or anyone else to stand up for rock stars. But at the risk of sounding like a stuck record, I'd like to add something to my column today in defence of Bono.
Bono's sunglasses: creating an instantly recogisable brand
I want to raise the matter of the sunglasses. They are a constant reference point for people who seem incensed with the U2 singer's very existence, as if he were the first rock star to hide his eyes behind shades. What is it (they demand to know) with the permanent outsized wraparound sunglasses?
But the sunglasses are brilliant! What a fantastic prop. Its like Groucho Marx's painted on moustache or Charlie Chaplin's bowler hat and cane, simple items that create an instantly recognisable brand.
Its not as if he wears them at home. All he has to do is put on a pair of tinted wraparound specs and he is immediately recognisable as Bono the rock star, and not just some oddly dressed geezer who might be in the entertainment business. It is the rock and roll equivalent of putting on a tie for work.
The sunglasses started out as a joke, a way of creating his character The Fly for 'Achtung Baby' and the Zoo TV tour. The Fly was almost an Anti-Bono, a mischievous, ironic counterpoint to the U2 singer's then image of puffed up holier-than-thou sincerity. There is freedom in putting on a mask of course and The Fly released Bono's inner rock star and now the two have sort of morphed into each other. The sunglasses give him license to play the showbiz game with a twinkle of theatrical merriment.
But there is a perfectly practical reason for the sunglasses too. Bono is prone to allergies, his eyes get bloodshot, not a great look in paparazzi photos. Rather than diets or eye drops, Bono gets to disguise his mortality with a bit of tinted plastic, available in any tatty fashion store for upwards of a couple of quid.
Beneath the sunglasses, and behind the playfulness, something deadly serious lurks. "There isn't a shred of irony on all those records," Bono once admitted to me. "Its literally its just the fancy paper wrapped around, it was just packaging, putting on a show. It was fun. It was vivid. It was colour. But there was no irony there." I wonder if that is what annoys some people so much, not the razzmatazz but the lingering shadow of sincerity, idealism and seriousness of purpose?
The roots of Bono's activism lie in his Christian faith, the sense that he has to give something back in order to justify the privileges of his success. He is frequently accused of asking people to dip into their own pockets when he lives a millionaire lifestyle but, in fact, his principal approach is to lobby for political change rather than call for charity. Behind the spotlights, his personal charitable commitments are significant, and critics might be surprised at the relatively modest scale of his family lifestyle. Indeed, his real engagement with Africa started when Bono and his wife did voluntary work at an Ethiopian orphanage during the 1985 famine, where he witnessed despair and heroism that left an indelible impression upon him. Bono acts because he is compelled to.
Those who deem his African campaigns to be self-serving posturing don't seem to consider the vast commitment of time and effort it demands of him, mastering briefs, lobbying politicians, dreaming up initiatives and following them through with organisations he co-founded, including DATA (Debt Aids Trade Africa) organisation, advocacy group One and the Product (Red) commercial initiative (all of which he co-founded). He is not alone in this work, and never claims to be, but he is a globally recognised figurehead for a movement that has contributed to the cancellation of $70 billion of debt owed by poor African countries (something which has helped put upwards of 20 million more children in Africa in school) and tens of billions of dollars worth of increase in funds to fight AIDS, TV and malaria. The bottom line is that there are people alive and thriving today who might not be otherwise were it not for his intervention.
And that, alone, is reason to carry on annoying people.
Posted By: Neil McCormick at Jan 22, 2009 at 13:56:31 [General]
"Stand up to rock stars / Napoleon in high heels / Josephine be careful / Of small men with big ideas"
That's a lyric from 'Stand Up Comedy', a ripping rock riff of a song on U2's forthcoming album, 'No Line On The Horizon'. Bono is obviously poking fun at himself and really has no need of me or anyone else to stand up for rock stars. But at the risk of sounding like a stuck record, I'd like to add something to my column today in defence of Bono.
Bono's sunglasses: creating an instantly recogisable brand
I want to raise the matter of the sunglasses. They are a constant reference point for people who seem incensed with the U2 singer's very existence, as if he were the first rock star to hide his eyes behind shades. What is it (they demand to know) with the permanent outsized wraparound sunglasses?
But the sunglasses are brilliant! What a fantastic prop. Its like Groucho Marx's painted on moustache or Charlie Chaplin's bowler hat and cane, simple items that create an instantly recognisable brand.
Its not as if he wears them at home. All he has to do is put on a pair of tinted wraparound specs and he is immediately recognisable as Bono the rock star, and not just some oddly dressed geezer who might be in the entertainment business. It is the rock and roll equivalent of putting on a tie for work.
The sunglasses started out as a joke, a way of creating his character The Fly for 'Achtung Baby' and the Zoo TV tour. The Fly was almost an Anti-Bono, a mischievous, ironic counterpoint to the U2 singer's then image of puffed up holier-than-thou sincerity. There is freedom in putting on a mask of course and The Fly released Bono's inner rock star and now the two have sort of morphed into each other. The sunglasses give him license to play the showbiz game with a twinkle of theatrical merriment.
But there is a perfectly practical reason for the sunglasses too. Bono is prone to allergies, his eyes get bloodshot, not a great look in paparazzi photos. Rather than diets or eye drops, Bono gets to disguise his mortality with a bit of tinted plastic, available in any tatty fashion store for upwards of a couple of quid.
Beneath the sunglasses, and behind the playfulness, something deadly serious lurks. "There isn't a shred of irony on all those records," Bono once admitted to me. "Its literally its just the fancy paper wrapped around, it was just packaging, putting on a show. It was fun. It was vivid. It was colour. But there was no irony there." I wonder if that is what annoys some people so much, not the razzmatazz but the lingering shadow of sincerity, idealism and seriousness of purpose?
The roots of Bono's activism lie in his Christian faith, the sense that he has to give something back in order to justify the privileges of his success. He is frequently accused of asking people to dip into their own pockets when he lives a millionaire lifestyle but, in fact, his principal approach is to lobby for political change rather than call for charity. Behind the spotlights, his personal charitable commitments are significant, and critics might be surprised at the relatively modest scale of his family lifestyle. Indeed, his real engagement with Africa started when Bono and his wife did voluntary work at an Ethiopian orphanage during the 1985 famine, where he witnessed despair and heroism that left an indelible impression upon him. Bono acts because he is compelled to.
Those who deem his African campaigns to be self-serving posturing don't seem to consider the vast commitment of time and effort it demands of him, mastering briefs, lobbying politicians, dreaming up initiatives and following them through with organisations he co-founded, including DATA (Debt Aids Trade Africa) organisation, advocacy group One and the Product (Red) commercial initiative (all of which he co-founded). He is not alone in this work, and never claims to be, but he is a globally recognised figurehead for a movement that has contributed to the cancellation of $70 billion of debt owed by poor African countries (something which has helped put upwards of 20 million more children in Africa in school) and tens of billions of dollars worth of increase in funds to fight AIDS, TV and malaria. The bottom line is that there are people alive and thriving today who might not be otherwise were it not for his intervention.
And that, alone, is reason to carry on annoying people.
Neil McCormick 
)
