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U2 - January 1993
January 1993, several significant events had unfolded - the
shocking death of Paul McGuiness's brother, Ellen Darst resignation
from Principle Management (the team that manages U2) and the victory
of Bill Clinton to become President of USA. But for Paul McGuiness,
the death of his brother could not have come at a worse time; he had
to miss the inauguration with Larry and Adam, and Dart?s farewell.
In the midst of these events, Adam and Larry still managed to perform
with Michael Stipe and Mike Mills of REM at the MTV Inaugural Ball.
Calling themselves "Automatic Baby", they decided to perform an
acoustic version of "One" which they practiced the night before, with
Larry on drums (congas), Michael on Vocals, Adam on Bass and Mike on
guitar. Asked by Bill Graham about the Congas Larry replies - "Make it
simple, don't complicate it. There's a large chance we could come
across badly, whereas if I have the congas there it won't be too loud,
we could get a good mix on the TV". 10000 Maniacs also performed at
the ball.
During the ball, Larry and Adam showed their honesty for their
awkwardness about their support for Bill before he was elected - "I'm
still unsure whether it was the right thing to do....He seems to be an
all right guy. But I'm not living in America. I don't have to live
under his administration's policies. That's why I was worried about
it. We don't live here. Are we endorsing him? ... We weren't
officially endorsing him and yet on the other hand we were saying,
Yeah, he's all right." Such opinions are not surprising, since their
actions could be misinterpreted (i.e.: as supporters for the party, as
opposed to having a good time with Bill) - a valuable lesson from the
"Rattle and Hum" days.
Meanwhile in Thalia Theatre, Hamburg, Germany, Bono and Edge were
voicing their opposition to fascism in Europe. They performed "One"
with the Indian violinist Shankar during this function which was
organized by Venessa Redgrave (actress and activist). Not
surprisingly, this event inspired U2 to make a few adjustments to the
set for Zoo TV and gave them extra drive in turning a proposed EP into
a full brand new album - "Zooropa".
At the end of their Zoo TV European tour, U2 went back to "The
Factory" in Dublin to complete an EP release. But, to the surprise of
the record company, they decided instead for an album due to the
amount of new material they had produced. So the date for July 1993
was set for the new album.
Meanwhile, changes to the tour have already taken place. U2 worked
with EBN (Emergency Broadcast Network) to compose the audio visuals to
put it in line with the album - using the Zoo TV set as the base. In
their next performance, the screen would begin with a 11 year old Nazi
boy playing drums at the 1936 Olympic games before following this up
with other thought provocative images, videos and sounds which clearly
reflecting U2's experiences with the new world after the Zoo TV tour.
In addition, Bono introduced U2 fans to another stranger character
than the Fly, Mr. McPhisto - The new tour began in Rotterdam on May
9th 1993.
"Zooropa" was released in July 1993, again surprising the critics and
those who were familiar with the music of U2. Produced by Brian Eno
and Flood, "Zooropa" proved to be an even darker album, and employed
various audio effects in conveying U2's messages in each song. The
last and the most time-consuming track to be finished was "Lemon"
which was produced and recorded on and off while U2 were on tour.
"Zooropa's" meaning was clearly highlighted in the dark sea of change
that was happening in with the rise of fascism after the collapse of
communism in Europe in the song "Zooropa", the unforgiving world of
drug addiction in "Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car", the
shallowness of the desensitization effects of TV in "Numb" and the
blackness of a father/son relationship in "Dirty Day". In addition, "Zooropa"
also looked at the realities of life, that beneath the glamour there
is always a dark side in humanity through voyeurism from consumers
playing and replaying advertisements of models in "Babyface" to the
manipulation and dynamics in viewing film images of the female form in
"Lemon" (the female being Bono's mother dressed in Lemons according to
Gavin Friday).
U2 began their Zoo TV tour in Australia in the beginning of November
1993, with the tour starting in Sydney and ending in Melbourne. Dubbed
the Zoomerang tour, the tour was plagued with, from U2 and the concert
promoter?s difficulty in meeting an agreement with the huge expense in
setting up the concert to Adam falling ill before the Sydney concert.
In addition, there was the possibility of U2 and promoters not meeting
their profit margin for the whole Australian tour. This led to the
cancellation of a live TV triple cast, funded by MTV, where three
versions of the concert would be shot for three different channels.
Not surprisingly, this angered MTV.
Fortunately, U2 still managed to put on an excellent performance with
Mr. McPhisto adding a bit of humor towards the show. Unlike previous
shows where he tended to contact prominent leaders, this time he
decided on calling a cab company to take him home from the concert.
Not surprisingly, the operator hung up!! It seems that beneath the
humor, U2 has once again renewed the fun and commitment in becoming a
band.
U2's most difficult section of the tour ended in Japan. For U2, this
was the best place to end their last Zoo TV performance.
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