The Times - UK (2022-01-19)

the times | Wednesday January 19 2022 2GM 3

News

Bono has never quite found what he
was looking for. The U2 frontman has
revealed he dislikes the band’s name,
his own voice and most of the songs he
has sung.
The Irish-born singer said in a pod-
cast interview that he found most of
U2’s songs cringeworthy and switched
the radio off when they were played
because he did not like the sound of his
own voice. He claimed that he had only
“recently” learnt how to sing.
U2 are one of the most popular bands
in the world, having chalked up nine
UK No 1 albums since breaking
through in the late 1970s. The 2009-
2011 world tour in support of their al-
bum No Line on the Horizon is said to be
the highest-grossing rock tour of all
time, although by some measures Ed
Sheeran earned more with his 2017-
outing. They are also one of few groups
to have kept their original line-up for
more than four decades: the Edge as
lead guitarist, Adam Clayton on bass
and Larry Mullen Jr on drums.
Bono told the Awards Chatter pod-
cast that while the other members had
learnt to love the band’s name, he had
still not warmed to it.
“I still don’t. I really don’t. But I was
late into some kind of dyslexia. I didn’t
realise that the Beatles was a bad pun
either,” he said. “In our head it was like
the spy plane; U-boat — it was futuris-
tic. As it turned out to imply this kind of
acquiescence, no, I don’t like that name.
“Paul McGuinness, our first manag-
er, did say, ‘Look, it’s a great name. It’s
going to look good on a T-shirt: a letter
and a number.’ ”
Bono, a 61-year-old Dubliner whose
real name is Paul Hewson, added that
there were few of his vocal performan-
ces that he could bear to hear.
“The one that I can listen to the most
is Miss Sarajevo with Luciano Pavarotti.
Genuinely, most of the other ones make
me cringe a little bit. Although Vertigo
probably is the one I’m proudest of. It’s
the way it connects with the crowd.”
He added: “I’ve been in the car when
one of our songs has come on the radio
and I’ve been the colour of, as we say in
Dublin, scarlet. I’m just so embar-
rassed.”
While “the band sound incredible”,

he said, his “Irish macho” voice was

“strained” and did not in fact sound

very macho.

Bono’s view of his own voice, he

added, was not an isolated opinion. The

late British singer Robert Palmer,

known for Addicted to Love among

other songs, had told Clayton in the

1980s: “‘God, would you ever tell your

singer to just take down the keys a little

bit? He’d do himself a favour, and he’d

do us all a favour who have to listen to

him.’

“But I was thinking out of my body. I

wasn’t thinking about singing. I didn’t

really think about changing keys. Did

we ever change a key?”

The singer added: “I do think U

pushes out the boat on embarrassment

quite a lot, and maybe that’s the place to

be as an artist, you know: right at the

edge of your level of embarrassment.

“And the lyrics as well — I feel that on

Boy and other albums it was sketched

out [as] very unique and original

material, but I don’t think I filled in the

details, and I look back and I go, ‘God!’ ”

The singer said that his late career

satisfaction with his voice came about

from listening to the original stars of

American punk rock.

“The big discovery for me was listen-

ing to the Ramones and hearing the

beautiful kind of sound of Joey Ramone

and realising I didn’t have to be that

rock’n’roll singer.

“I only became a singer, like, recently.

Maybe it hasn’t happened yet for some

people’s ears, and I understand that.”

There is money to be made in Las Vegas
casinos, Adele has been told, but she
must remember to pack a humidifier.
Before the start of her 12-week run at
Caesars Palace Hotel, which is expect-
ed to earn her about £30 million, the
singer has been warned of the costs of
singing in the desert.
Joe Elliott, who had two residencies
in Las Vegas with his band Def Leppard,
said that the bone-dry air of Nevada
called for extreme measures. “That is a
killer for singers,” he said. “I had to fill
my bath with boiling water every night
and put kettles and humidifiers all over
the place so you wake up drowned.”
The advantages of the location,
Elliott said, were that the stresses of
touring were removed and Beverly
Hills was only an hour away. It is not
known whether Adele will be staying in

long sympathetic to the British

Museum’s argument that the treasures

should stay in London, represented a

shift in opinion when it wrote that there

was a “compelling” case to be made for

their return. The change has encour-

aged national euphoria in Greece and

the news site Iefimerida said it was “the

stiffest blow yet to London’s position on

the issue”.

The British Museum has shown no

change of heart. It argues that millions

of visitors from around the world are

able to view the marbles in London free

of charge.

Successive British governments have

opposed calls for the treasures to be re-

turned but pressure has mounted in

recent years. Polls in the UK have found

strong support for sending them back.

Vegas is a gamble for Adele’s vocals

Las Vegas or Los Angeles with Angelo,

her nine-year-old son.

Elliott told Adele: “Enjoy the fact that

you will be travelling very little, but for

God’s sake get a humidifier in your

room.”

The climate in Las Vegas, offi-

cially the driest city in the

United States, has played

havoc with the vocal cords

of singers including Bono

and Jon Bon Jovi. The

“gravel voice” condition is

informally known as “Vegas

throat”.

According to reports two

years ago, Adele had been

reluctant to commit herself to

a Vegas residency because of

fears about the impact on her

larynx. In 2017 she cancelled Wembley

stadium concerts after damaging her

voice. Six years earlier she suffered a

haemorrhage to her vocal cords that

led to surgery.

Humidifiers are advised by

experts, along with drinking

plenty of water. Some per-

formers are said to use oregano

oil and gargle hot salt water.

Whereas a residency in

Vegas was once seen as con-

firmation of a star’s decline,

Céline Dion’s first stint in

2003, while she rode high on

the success of the Titanic film

score, is thought to have

changed perceptions.

In recent years Britney

Spears and Lady Gaga have

had residencies there.

Why the stars head for

Sin City, Times

David Sanderson

Adele has been warned

about “Vegas throat”

Greek rapture at marbles

support from The Times

Anthee Carassava Athens

A leading article by The Times support-

ing the return of the Elgin Marbles has

boosted Greece’s campaign to recover

them, officials in Athens claim.

“The sculptures are the most impor-

tant link between the modern Greeks

and their ancestors,” Tasos Chatzivasil-

eiou, a senior adviser to Kyriakos

Mitsotakis, the Greek prime minister,

said yesterday. “There is no doubt that

The Times article has proven the val-

idity of our cause.”

Other senior aides to the Greek

leader also billed The Times’s leading

article on January 11 as “pivotal”. One

added: “There is no doubt that the cam-

paign has captured new fervour.”

Greek officials say that The Times,

Bono in full voice on stage and, above,

with the rest of U2. The singer says he

does not like to listen to most of the

band’s songs — apart from Miss

Sarajevo, featuring Luciano Pavarotti

Bono: U2 songs make me cringe

The singer dislikes his

band’s music so much

that he turns off the

radio. Ross Kaniuk and

David Sanderson report

tageandabove

JEFF KRAVITZ/GETTY; KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY

Music to everyone else’s ears

Creep was the song

that put

Radiohead on

the road to

critical and

commercial

success, but they

grew to hate it.

Thom Yorke, right,

the band’s singer, often

dismissed requests from

audiences to play the song

and once snapped:

“F*** off — we’re

tired of it.”

Stairway to

Heaven by Led

Zeppelin is

popular with DJs,

who have eight

minutes to slip out for a

cigarette break while it is

playing, but the band’s

singer, Robert Plant, is not

keen on what he has called

the “damn wedding song”.

He even once pledged

money to an American

radio station if it agreed not

to play it ever again.

Kurt Cobain became the

voice of disaffected western

youth with Nirvana’s 1991

single Smells Like Teen

Spirit. Within a few months

grunge was the biggest

thing in music, fashion and

beyond, but its popularity

ruined the song for the

frontman: he later said he

could “barely get through”

it on stage. “I literally want

to throw my guitar down

and walk away,” added

Cobain, who killed himself

in 1994.

ng

,

often

tsfrom

and o

“F**

tir

St

H

Ze

ppop

wwwwho h

mmmminutes t

cigarettebrea