cstar said:
Hmm... I don't know, I thought he was pretty serious! Hence the audience's reaction. I myself had the same reaction, like, "I can't believe he just said that!"
It's a classic example of Bono winding people up. He knew what kind of reaction he'd get. He does this for several reasons:
1) To psyche the band up kind of like the way team sports people do the boasting and bragging to amp up their own team spirit.
2) To get a rise out of people and get them talking. It doesn't matter so much what people say in response to these things but more that it causes people to argue and debate U2 which of course keeps people thinking about them.
3) To generate press coverage. When Bono made the statement at the Grammy's about reapplying for the best band in the world job, the press that was generated by that one little provacative comment was enourmous. Any press you don't have to pay for and especially press that sparks debate is gold in promoting an album and tour. Bono is a master when it comes to the provacative sound byte. And he does it without trashing other people or being a complete ass. Well into the Elevation tour there was an interview with someone (cant' remember who) that started off the interview very beligerently with a question about what was the deal with this best band in the world comment. The interviewers entire attitude was confrontational and Bono started to lean in towards the guy as he answered but suddenly relaxed back in his seat with a really big smirk on his face and said, "Well, it sure got you going, didn't it?". The interviewer was speechless for a second then laughed and relaxed and the rest of the interview was very pleasant. In a total of about 30 seconds Bono completely changed this guys entire attitude and approach. He knows when to use the bombs and when to dismantle them.
4) He also learns a lot by observing the reactions to these little bombs and can adjust future shit stirers accordingly. I think there was an element of testing the waters here to see just where people rank them with respect to the Beatles.
It is really interesting to see the difference in how Bono handles interviews during promotional runs as opposed to inbetween times when they are not pushing anything. There are very definite differences in how he communicates when he is "selling" as opposed to when he is just talking. I think a communications major could do a doctoral thesis on Bono's methods of communication.
Dana