U2. Used to be a big fan.
Interesting in the 80s - although so sincere, they seemed they were trying so hard to be believed.
Unforgettable Fire and Joshua Tree - great albums. War is pretty good too.
Van Diemen's Land, in my opinion, is a horrible, nauseating dirge on a very confused album. Still, some high points. The Gretsch White falcon on which he plays on the Rattle and Hum film being one. Also, Bono's speech the revolution during Sunday Bloody Sunday after the Enniskillen bombing is brave, honest and earns him lots of admirers in my neck of the woods.
90s - Achtung Baby - U2 learn how to have a sense of humour and to have fun with it. The show's great. The humour's dark.
Then Something Happens - U2 disappear up their own backsides, probably mostly due to Bono's ego inflating to bursting point (Larry should have hit him harder), and disastrous forays into a more electro-pop avenue. He tries to 'save the world' - we hate him for it. There is a corporate side to U2 that people just don't seem to like that is distinctly...un-Irish. Also Bono returning from USA with American accents very reminiscent of Schteve McLaren's dutch eschcapades.
On the plus side, U2 were huge, did a lot of good for Ireland, showed Irish people they could be big and renowned, and won't be in the top bracket with The Beatles, Stones, Elvis, surely certainly will be competing at the top of the Championship with Pink Floyd, The Who, maybe Radiohead, above Oasis and whatever you think, because it's all a matter of opinion innit.
However, there was a band called An Emotional Fish. U2 didn't do them exactly any favours thanks to some rather murky moves with the BBC, and it's a shame, because they could have had better careers than they have.
What did Whipping Boy sing about them, "They built portholes so Bono could look across the bay and sing about mountains, maybe".
Shame rock music in that form is pretty much dead now.
