Oh, for the love of
Pete. Or should I say Paul???
Larry said, "AS SOME OF YOU MAY KNOW."
Edge said, "This is for Sian," with no other explanation. That was it.
It was obvious that the band was using this most public of occasions to address we, the fans. Nobody else. If there were "casual fans", or people in the industry sitting there who were keeping track of events from the outside, if they just happened to pick up on what the band was talking about, fine. If not, then not. This is very private, delicate subject matter and they should not have any business discussing it with us, except that it has now interfered with our lives as well, in a much smaller manner. So they decided to take the risk and open themselves up to us. They expected us to know what they were talking about, and if nobody else did, then tough #(&*#. It was obvious that it was very painful for them to have to bring up these events and they probably would not have if the ticketing disaster hadn't happened.
I'm QUITE sure that they would not have done this if they had not taken into consideration first that the next morning, every media outlet in Christendom (and a few in oother countries too)might not be grilling them for an explanation, or printing the rumors as now confirmed fact. Maybe they even took into consideration that stupid things like this would happen, and people who HADN'T DONE THEIR RESEARCH would misinterpret and spread even more dubious misinterpretations.
It was obvious to me (as it should have been for any fan who was anxiously awating tour dates) that after we had just heard Edge confirm Sian's leukemia as real,(confrimation by inference.... he knew that it was an open secret among the fans at this point, so there was no need to elaborate... )Larry coming right out and saying "We nearly weren't able to play tonight and we didn't think we were going to be able to play all year" meant this:
"Folks, you've just heard it right from the horses' mouth. Now you know why we were cancelling all our public appearances before the tour, and why we put any announcement on hold. We were awaiting news from Sian's doctors. If they had given Edge bad news in January, we would have cancelled the tour, period. For all those of you who suspected the rumors were true and we might have cancelled the tour, and even said you'd support us and understand us if we did, you were absolutely right. It really was touch and go a month ago, and the only reason we're standing here at all and we've decided to go ahead with the tour is that we gotten good or/ hopeful news. "
It was a VERY touchy situation and I'm sure we can all relate to this at one point or another in our lives. Have you ever not wanted to talk about something openly with anybody, least of alla thrid party, but the circumstnaces are so serious it's necessary to be as oblique as possible? But you still have to talk. Events warrent it. I am still shocked that he mentioned Sian by name. All Edge would have had to say was, "thank you", and let Larry give some statement like, "Some of you have heard rumors about Edge. Well, the rumors are true," and leave it at that. But no, he was explicit. Was that required? Really?
I was very, very moved. That top photo in the other thread moved me also. It's the most somber image of them I have ever seen, outside of Corbjin's classic JT desert images. The difference, of course, is that then the band were blithe young men playing dressup; they were exploring the intellectual concept of being lost in a spiritual desert. Now, the grimness is real. They wouldnt have to squint to look the persona.
Maybe it was the fact that we haven't seen them all in black since those pics. They looked--and even more, acted--as if they were going to a funeral. I didn't expect any giddy antics a la 2002, not after this most hellish month of their lives. (It has to have been.) Heck, they only smiled when those two girls shouted "We love you Bono!" (WHO were they? PLEBANS maybe?
) But I never expected to see Bono genuinely at a loss for words. Or speaking quietly and calmly. You could tell this wasn't acting., as some kind of planned "look" as a way to mollify angry fans. This was real. Bono may have sung about a "midlife crisis" but even in 2002, just after Bob passed away, he didn't look like this. None of them did. Of course, I thnk they smiled some and I have only watched it once, but I listened to it several times today.
This is the REAL "midlife crisis", and I think this is a real sea change for them, a rite of passage that they didn't want to have to take. I think they're still a bit shell-shocked, and finding their feet. In this way I think the road amy even begin the healing process. I don't know. But when they got done with the speeches last night, I had tears in my eyes, and all I could think of was, "we get to carry each other, carry each other." It's been 25 years of good times with this band, and except for the Rattle and Hum fiasco and the brouhaha over Popmart (which was a purely intellectual excercise) we've never been through a bad time. I mean, where things weren't gojng well with the band. I see last night's speech as a kind of opening up to us, in a way they didnt want to, but felt they had to. I love, admire and respect them even more, if that is possible. Now we are going to get to "carry each other", and in the best possible way. They were willing to take the risk of a media feeding fenzy to do this, and we should respond in kind, with the respect they deserve.
As for Bono having a slipped disc...that rumor is a year old and more..he had a back injury but heck, maybe you could blame Ali for that
They simply chose "Sometimes" because everyone's heard "Vertigo" to death at this point and they may have been the only artist who had the leeway to promote their current single (and next year's possible Record of the Year? Let;s not forget that this a very "Grammy bait" song).Let's not waste the opportunity, etc.
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