Question re Eamon Dunphy's book 'The Unforgettable Fire'

[financeguy]

There was a biography of U2 published initially around 1987 and written by Eamon Dunphy, and in some editions there were essays by other journalists included.

My question is, does anyone remember what Eamonn McCann said in his essay?

 

[biff]

He wrote two essays, actually. One was entitled "Self-Aid Makes it Worse" and the other was "U2 Pressgangbang". They total about a dozen pages. I haven't read them in years, and won't have time to revisit them until Thursday (massive work deadline). If no one else has answered by then, I'll get back to you.

 

[financeguy]

Ok thanks. His name came up in another thread.

 

[SethVincent]

FinanceGuy

Nothing to add really to what has already been said only that this brought back memories b/c this was the very book that got me hooked on U2 in 1987

I was in the Navy soon after H.S. & a female friend who loved U2 gave me this book you speak of

I have them ever since

 

[A stor]

I also have this book. First "band book." I ever read.

 

[65980]

I haven't looked at these in about 15 years, but according to memory...

"Self-Aid Makes it Worse", is, as the title suggests, a criticism of the whole Self-Aid thing in 1986. There are interesting quotes by the U2 guys about it. Would be interesting to go back and read this again now that Ireland is the European economic tiger...

"U2 Pressgangbang" was all about how "big" U2 are now (being 1987). Quite a good article.

Actually, all 4 of those essays were rather good. Were they all from Hot Press?

I thought Dunphy's book was actually pretty good. It was full of holes, minor errors, and some false information (for example, he has Bono coming to school in 1976 as a full-dressed punk rocker... before anybody in Ireland had heard of punk), but I thought it captured the spirit of the young U2 fairly well. It was an enjoyable read. I think Edge's criticism of it was that he had "oversimplified" everything, but that was back when U2 took themselves just a wee bit too seriously...

 

[An Cat Gav]

I haven't looked at these in about 15 years, but according to memory...

"Self-Aid Makes it Worse", is, as the title suggests, a criticism of the whole Self-Aid thing in 1986. There are interesting quotes by the U2 guys about it. Would be interesting to go back and read this again now that Ireland is the European economic tiger...

"U2 Pressgangbang" was all about how "big" U2 are now (being 1987). Quite a good article.

Actually, all 4 of those essays were rather good. Were they all from Hot Press?

I thought Dunphy's book was actually pretty good. It was full of holes, minor errors, and some false information (for example, he has Bono coming to school in 1976 as a full-dressed punk rocker... before anybody in Ireland had heard of punk), but I thought it captured the spirit of the young U2 fairly well. It was an enjoyable read. I think Edge's criticism of it was that he had "oversimplified" everything, but that was back when U2 took themselves just a wee bit too seriously...

I agree, they were good articles. The Unforgettable Fire, the book he wrote, was excellent, the band and Neil McCormick were very unfair in their criticism of it. He's not so hot on football though...

 

[The Sad Punk]

I have the edition with the essays tagged on at the end. 65980 basically summed them up... after skimming through them again, they both read well.

The book itself is one of my favourites as far as U2-related publications go, it may have a few inaccuracies, but whatever - it's interesting.