OMG! Mona! You didn't know about my coffee date with the Fly????!!!!!! I almost never mention it because I thought everyone knew and I don't want people to get annoyed with me!
Holy cow. OK, well I don't have to be asked twice to tell THIS story.
Here is a tale to tide you over until the next Pleba story which will either be posted tonight or tomorrow night, but definitely before the weekend.....(and it's a Bono story too!)
......Flashback to 1992..............
It was the day after the indoor Zoo TV show. I had phoned in ?sick? from work, because a friend and I had booked a room in U2?s hotel, and we wanted to see if we could catch a glimpse of them. Steve was at home with a cold, and very annoyed that I would leave him to go chasing after a band (this was before I had completely converted him!) but there was just no way I was staying at home if there was one iota of a chance of meeting U2. Steve would just have to stay home with his box of kleenex and survive!
At 9:30 my friend and I sat in the lobby of the hotel nervously drinking coffee and talking very loudly at times. (We were very nervous!) We noticed another girl about our age sitting across from us who looked like a typical U2 fan. After about 20 minutes
of our incessant chatter she said "Are you waiting for U2 ?" She was too. She was a clone of me! She had loved the Beatles all her life and fallen for the Edge. Very odd.
Anyway, we waited with her, and 2 more people (a total of 5 of us), drinking coffee steadily from 9:30 until 1:30. That?s a lot of coffee I gotta tell ya. Not only that, but we were afraid to go to the washroom in case everything happened while we were away. I will never be able to describe how nervous I was at around noon after all that waiting and knowing that at any time they could come out! I felt so sick, I felt like their was a cauldron of boiling oil in my stomach. I never wish to feel that sick again.
One of these fans was telling us about a girl had her back signed, but didn't know a thing about them. She had asked all kinds of pathetic questions like "What's Larry's last name? I want to kiss him!" and "Where are U2 from?" She had even gone so far as to knock on U2's hotel door and when Bono came out she said "Oh, Bono will you please come down!" he said "I'm on the phone right now but I'll be down soon." Imagine! She could have potentially blown it for everyone else by bothering them like that! This girl was really sleazy and refused to leave, so this fan (who had actually gone up the elevator with Bono the night before) had security kick her out.
Anyway, I digress. A little while later I had finally calmed down a bit. I'm quite amazed that there were no other U2 fans or press or anything like that. At the table next to us were the roadies, the tour manager and (so I was told) Edge's bodyguard. We tried to keep our U2 talk to a minimum. We didn't want to spoil our chances. Chances for what, we weren't sure. We toyed with the idea that we'd sing something like '40' when they came down but soon abandoned that plan.
I was sitting around absent mindedly staring into the lobby at about 1:30 (4 hours later!) when suddenly like a ghost, out of the elevator and across the lobby walked Bono! The eyeballs nearly popped out of my head. He had on black leather pants, a black t-shirt with a necklace, a black cotton jacket with the sleeves slightly rolled up and those typical sunglasses although they weren't quite Fly glasses, they were narrower, and dark, but we could see through them. He then walked over to the table next to us and got some coffee and began to read the review in the paper! I figured this would be the last I'd ever see of him so I decided to stare my eyes out at him to remember this forever. At first I was standing and Edge's bodyguard motioned for me to hurry up and sit down. This made me very nervous. Then of all things the tour manager, Dennis Sheehan walked right over to me and said "You know, you really shouldn't stare like that, it's very rude. The band will not mingle if you stare!" His tone softened somewhat when he saw how much he was scaring the living daylights out of me. The last thing I ever wanted to do was get us all in trouble with the U2 entourage!
What do they expect though? Who wouldn't stare if Bono actually was a few feet away? If you have loved U2 for years and there he was? Well, I never expected any mingling in the first place! I thought I'd be lucky just to see them leave! I thought I was lucky just to be in the same room as him! Anyway, I turned a deep shade of crimson and sat back down. I was on a small couch with my friend and the chair next to me was empty. Guess what happened next. Bono stood up and walked right over to us!!!! He said "Hi." like it was the most casual thing in the whole world! We said hi back and asked him if he was tired. He said he was extremely tired and he felt after a tour as if his whole body was broken.
Then he walked right over to the chair beside me and plopped down. He was so close I could see all the detailing on his earring and pinky ring! I must say he smells fabulous. Just a hint of very nice cologne. His hair was glossy and black. His voice was husky and he had that extremely thick Irish accent. He sounded just like he does on TV. He stayed with us for half an hour and had another coffee with us! He takes cream, no sugar, in case you're interested. The funny thing is, he didn?t have a spoon, so he poured in the cream and kind of swished it around. I thought of offering him my spoon, but I had licked it already!
We talked about all sorts of things. There were so many things I wanted to say to him but I was speechless with amazement. There was one point where we were quoting him and I was the only one who could remember the quote. There I sat giving him this quote of his as he turned around and looked at me! I remember this out of body type experience, watching Bono watching me talking him. It was SO surreal. When he looks at you he really looks at you and listens and it seems like no one else exists but you and him. His eyes are incredibly blue. He didn't take the glasses off but when he threw his head back laughing you could really see it.
Some of the topics we discussed included: Rattle and Hum and Phil Joanou, politics and the photography of Anton Corbijn. They were talking about how Anton photographs the music.
We also talked about music today (well, circa 92 of course) and U2 fans. Bono gave us a lecture on ?not being elitist with Rock'n Roll?, his father, BB King and his old high school friends. He would say stuff like "B.B. King is the same age as me Da but he's a lot cooler!" and "That boy on the cover of War and Boy was in this movie the Commitments. Have you seen it? Well he's got a lot deeper a voice and a longer face!" He'd laugh away and was completely charming.
Anyway,...I had brought this book called 'Another Time, Another Place' about U2 when they were only in their teens. It has some hilarious pictures. I thought this would be the best book to bring to get an autograph. Was I right! Bono went through the book and made all this commentary about all the pictures! He was also imitating the voice of the author of the book and laughing away. It was great! In one picture he is fooling around with the Edge and he has his leg up and this flirty expression on his face. He writes "What a tart! Bono." Then on the front he wrote "Bono '92 Jessica" and a heart.
Like an idiot I didn't bring my camera but my friend had hers. When we asked if we could have a picture with him he said sure and patted his lap. I actually sat in Bono's lap. I even had to kind of climb over him, so I could sit at the right angle!! I put my head on his and felt his silky hair on my cheek. Very forward of me to put my head on his but how many opportunities like this does one get?! He had one arm around me and the other hand was wrapped around my wrist. He had a small smile on his face. I was very red. The photo came out quite darkly but you can see it. Why did the flash have to fail then!! I just couldn't believe I was sitting or lounging all over the man who sings 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' And 'With or Without You' and 'I Will Follow' and all these songs that have meant so much to all the millions of U2 fans like us. It was the most exciting, overwhelming thing that's ever happened to me.
After that my friend had to check out and we didn't want to overstay our welcome. It was terrible having to thank Bono and leave while he was still sitting in the lounge! I'll tell you, I was worried I'd be disillusioned or something meeting Bono but quite the contrary. He was so sweet and charming and caring! When we told him how hard it was to get tickets (this was when they sold a max of 2 tix, so the scalper prices went through the roof!) so he called the tour manager over to listen to our problems and try to find a solution! He said "We wanted a better solution to keep our fans out of the lineups in the cold!" (looks like we?re back in line in the cold! But at least we?re so much closer...)
Anyway, that day will live on in my life as one of the top 3 most exciting things ever to hapen to me.What an undisillusioning day! It was like winning the lottery.... Anyway, there?s my story.