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On the Road: Catherine Owens, Tour Visuals Director
The tour may be on hiatus until February but U2.com is continuing to update its "On the Road" series of Vertigo Tour personnel profiles, this time featuring Catherine Owens, tour visuals director and the woman behind the new "Original of the Species" video. U2.com members can access the entire profile here. Snippets are below.
Working With U2
I was playing bass guitar in all-girl band called The Boy Scoutz (we were managed by Steve Averill at the time) and Adam came backstage and introduced himself as a fellow bass player - I think this was at the Project Arts Centre in 1978. And from that moment to this Adam and I hit it off and we’ve been friends ever since.
Later I went to college to study fine art painting in Belfast and they would come visit when playing there. They had a van and would come over to the house and Maggie my roommate would make soup and homemade bread for them. I think most of the band would have gone to art college if they weren't in a band, so we always had this link between art and music.
Years later, when they were rehearsing for The Joshua Tree, they asked me if I could make a series of paintings for their rehearsal rooms to inspire them while they recorded. I made these political paintings - it was the time of Thatcher and Reagan - of apartheid in South Africa. I made one of Winnie Mandela, one of Gorbachev and one of Reagan all interlinked on canvas. Later still, they needed the Trabants painted for the ZOO TV Tour and Willie suggested that as I was a painter I should get involved. I was living in New York at the time, and knew some groovy video makers, so another question came up about whether I could open some doors to people who could provide them with interesting video images for the screens. I told them about a great video maker Mark Pellington who's work I loved. I also showed them the work of EBN who made the George Bush Sr. piece for the We Will Rock You that the band used as show intro, And I introduced them to David Wojnarowicz who provided the buffalo images in One.
Best Thing About Touring
That I get to leave after a week! No, joking, as I never seem to leave. The excitement at rehearsals, the not knowing and the maybes. The after-rehearsal meetings with the band, Gavin and front of house team are a world unto themselves. It may be that all the plans you have been developing get thrown out, or that everything you have been thinking gets completely re-arranged.
Bono in particular can be very clear about what is and isn’t working and often he is right - unfortunately as there is a lot of back-to-the-drawing-board at that stage. But he is also like a running torrent of thought and ideas and at times that needs to be tempered, Larry is very good at this, while Edge is very practical. Bono is interested in the theatre of the performance and Edge in the musicality. Adam watches out for things that have been missed, and has a very calming affect on all. They are a great team at the meetings.
--U2.com
The tour may be on hiatus until February but U2.com is continuing to update its "On the Road" series of Vertigo Tour personnel profiles, this time featuring Catherine Owens, tour visuals director and the woman behind the new "Original of the Species" video. U2.com members can access the entire profile here. Snippets are below.
Working With U2
I was playing bass guitar in all-girl band called The Boy Scoutz (we were managed by Steve Averill at the time) and Adam came backstage and introduced himself as a fellow bass player - I think this was at the Project Arts Centre in 1978. And from that moment to this Adam and I hit it off and we’ve been friends ever since.
Later I went to college to study fine art painting in Belfast and they would come visit when playing there. They had a van and would come over to the house and Maggie my roommate would make soup and homemade bread for them. I think most of the band would have gone to art college if they weren't in a band, so we always had this link between art and music.
Years later, when they were rehearsing for The Joshua Tree, they asked me if I could make a series of paintings for their rehearsal rooms to inspire them while they recorded. I made these political paintings - it was the time of Thatcher and Reagan - of apartheid in South Africa. I made one of Winnie Mandela, one of Gorbachev and one of Reagan all interlinked on canvas. Later still, they needed the Trabants painted for the ZOO TV Tour and Willie suggested that as I was a painter I should get involved. I was living in New York at the time, and knew some groovy video makers, so another question came up about whether I could open some doors to people who could provide them with interesting video images for the screens. I told them about a great video maker Mark Pellington who's work I loved. I also showed them the work of EBN who made the George Bush Sr. piece for the We Will Rock You that the band used as show intro, And I introduced them to David Wojnarowicz who provided the buffalo images in One.
Best Thing About Touring
That I get to leave after a week! No, joking, as I never seem to leave. The excitement at rehearsals, the not knowing and the maybes. The after-rehearsal meetings with the band, Gavin and front of house team are a world unto themselves. It may be that all the plans you have been developing get thrown out, or that everything you have been thinking gets completely re-arranged.
Bono in particular can be very clear about what is and isn’t working and often he is right - unfortunately as there is a lot of back-to-the-drawing-board at that stage. But he is also like a running torrent of thought and ideas and at times that needs to be tempered, Larry is very good at this, while Edge is very practical. Bono is interested in the theatre of the performance and Edge in the musicality. Adam watches out for things that have been missed, and has a very calming affect on all. They are a great team at the meetings.
--U2.com
