U2 New Zooland

Rog (throwing back to interview): Good morning, you’re with Nick and Rog, it’s 8:14, "The Morning Rumble” on The Rock, and Vertigo – U2. Our special guest this morning, from the edge (sic), the man himself – from U2, I should say! The man himself, The Edge!

Nick: Edge, the name of the new album, ‘How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb’ – how did that come about?

Edge: Umm, that’s a very good question, cos it is quite a mouthful, and when Bono first had the idea to call the album ‘How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb’, it was way, way back before we’d written half the songs, and... it was the one we said, “Alright! Yeah, well that’s... that’s very likely, that is!” (Laughter) Everyone said, “We might as well forget that right now!” But it was the title that just wouldn’t go away, y’know, it was like... we had various alternatives, y’know... [‘Songs of Innocence of Experience’?] was one we had at one point, and... Y’know, they were either just way too kind of, y’know, heavy and portentous, or far too kind of throw-away and glib, and... ‘How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb’, it was just one that... it was, no matter who you said it to, at one point, everyone just went, “What?!” It made everybody stop in their tracks and ask, like, “What is that all about?!”

And in the end, y’know, the record we got, I have to say, was a little bit different to the record that we started out making... which is always the case. Y'know, you start off with certain ideas and certain aims, and on this record, I think we all thought it was going to be a little bit more overtly political. But, as the songs started to come into focus, as a collection, we realised that, in fact, it was much more personal than political. And so the title started to take on this slightly different meaning, when referring to the songs. And, so, at this point, although there is an obvious political aspect to it, y’know, we-- It’s undeniably a very nervous moment in time, and people are really wondering where things are going and how we can possibly get ourselves out of this mess that we seem to be in.

But on another level, it quite reflects, y’know, the stuff that Bono’s been going through on a personal level over the last few years with the loss of his father, y’know, asking the big questions, and... Y’know, I mean, the record, I think is as personal as it is probably because of the fact that it’s a nervous moment in time, and that, when things are really kind of--... when you feel threatened, the thing that you do instinctively, is you draw closer to the ones that mean a lot to you. So, the record is kind of a combination of the politics of the globe, and the sort of politics of your own private life, and it’s all kind of in there... uh... all mixed up as [??]. Ya know, in the one song, you’ll have a line about something very far-reaching, and it’s next to a line that’s about something deeply personal – but that’s... that’s U2.

(Ad break)

Rog: Speaking of the new album, Edge, we did hear that is went missing... an early disc went missing in the South of France. The band were on a photo shoot, and it disappeared. Umm, did that happen, and did you find it again?

Edge: It did happen. Yeah, a lot of people have accused us of coming up with this... some kind of publicity stunt, and, y’know, I’d love to say that we were that smart! (Laughter) But, unfortunately, umm-- (Laughter) Ya know, we weren’t... y’know, it actually did happen. Umm, it was fairly early on... we’d just finished the record, we were doing a photo session, and we had the first, like, the first version of the album that had just come from the master, which I’d received that morning by courier, and we were listening to it in a little portable CD player. And, uh, we left the studio for literally twenty minutes to do a shot just outside of the studio, and came back in and it was gone! And, our first thoughts were, “Oh my God! It’s--”, you know, “it’s-- we’ve been-- it’s a sting... it’s a set-up... people knew we were here... it’s all very, y’know, sinister, and... this’ll be on the Internet within a matter of hours – or worse, it’ll be... being pressed up in, y’know, somewhere in Eastern Europe, and there’ll be literally millions on the streets by morning!”

But, I think now, in retrospect... it never did show up anywhere, so, I think it probably was somebody just seeing it there... just got tempted and took it as a souvenir, and, in many ways, that was kinda what we were already hoping would be the case, but we couldn’t assume it because there was so much at stake, so we had to kinda push the panic-button. And, wow! – Did it go off?! It was absolutely unbelievable.

We were in the South of France at the time, and, literally, all of us were hauled into the central police station... interrogated for, y’know, a couple of hours as individuals... ya know, like, taken off, and interrogated, and... like, all our people had the same... And [the] next thing, they were, like, sending in these... the kind of experts working for all these special divisions funded by the recording industry that look into piracy – and people, y’know, who I never knew existed were suddenly arriving... (Laughter) y’know, thousands of them! (Edge laughing)... to interrogate the band and to let us know that, y’know, they were on top of it, and Interpol were involved... [it] was quite an eye-opener, really. I guess I should’ve known that this is a, y’know-- it’s big business, and piracy’s a serious problem, but I’ve never come across all of this before. Anyway, we were very lucky that nothing happened and it was all just a loss of a CD.

[Numb]
(News and sport)
[Elevation – Live from Slane Castle]

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