U2 Elevation Tour - Beautiful days

from JAM! Showbiz The Edge and U2 come to town revitalized, and as vital as ever By JANE STEVENSON -- Toronto Sun In one short paragraph, U2 guitarist The Edge might have summed up the reason for the veteran Irish rockers' enduring popularity after more than two decades of making music together. The 39-year-old musician said the Dublin-based foursome have not changed how they approach making records since they made their exciting 1980 debut with the album Boy.

They arrive in town this week for two sold-out shows at the Air Canada Centre on Thursday and Friday nights. The Friday performance is to be followed by a late-night appearance at MuchMusic. In some key ways, The Edge says the band's approach is exactly the same. He was calling from New York City last October, on the day of the band's latest release, All That You Can't Leave Behind. "(There's always) this kind of mythical record that you always try to make when you're in the studio," he says. "I think that we're probably trying to make the same album since Boy, whatever that perfect record is, that crystal. And so we're still in some ways on the same path. We're still trying to make that big music and write the greatest lyric that's ever been written, have the greatest chorus that's ever been written. "We clicked into something with that Boy album," he says, "where we really started to see the studio setting as a kind of creative tool, and not just a place to come and document the music. But in the process of doing that, (we want) to unlock the music and find ways of developing it. Every time we go in, we really thrive on that sense of discovery and, 'Wow, where can this go?' " In the case of All That You Can't Leave Behind, it meant a back-to-basics approach that has led to a major comeback for U2 in the past year. The band has won three Grammys, including best song and record of the year for the deserving first single, Beautiful Day; two BRIT awards, including one for outstanding contribution to British music; seen sales of their new album approach 400,000 copies in Canada and 8.5 million worldwide; and launched a well-received, stripped-down arena tour that sees them performing inside a heart-shaped catwalk. For a band that took some major critical and commercial hits the previous decade for progressively heavier experimentation on their last three albums -- 1991's Achtung Baby, 1993's Zooropa and 1997's Pop -- the recent successes have to be encouraging. The Edge says the sound of All That You Can't Leave Behind -- which was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, the two men responsible for some of U2's most successful albums in the '80s -- was never intended to be a reaction to the not-always-favourable reception during the '90s. Instead, the guitarist says it was their producers on Pop who pointed out to them what it was that made U2 unique as a band in the first place. "Every time we played together, Howie B, our mate and producer, and Flood, who's produced the record as well, would really freak out and go, 'Wow, that's an amazing thing you're doing there.' "And I can remember one incident with Howie B when he came out on the road for a while to help us translate the album to a live setting, 'cause we were a bit behind. We actually rented a room in Washington in our hotel and we just set up the band in this small reception suite and (were) playing away. He was just floored by the sound of the band just playing, no other elements. We started to think, 'Well, you know that's something that we have to include in this next record.' " All That You Can't Leave Behind has been seen as one of the last great hopes for rock 'n' roll at a time when pop, R&B, rap and metal rule the airwaves and charts. The Edge said consumers can't be blamed for turning away from the genre, since there has been a dearth of great rock records in recent years. "I don't think there's any problem with pop," he said. "It's more that rock 'n' roll has maybe lost its ambition to communicate, its ambition to be on the radio. It's too content to be in its own little ghetto. I suppose also there's this kind of bogus notion that being successful means that your music is not for real, that it's somehow compromised by success. We've never subscribed to that idea. "The first time around, when we first formed, that idea was prevalent and we rejected it at the time. It seems to have come around again, and I just have no time for it." As a young guitar player in the '70s, The Edge said he was influenced by the likes of Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd from Television -- "particularly the first record, Marquee Moon" -- as well as by Robert Fripp, David Bowie's guitarist Carlos Alomar (co-author of Fame) and Magazine's John McGeogh. Among today's young guitarists, The Edge named only Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien as those he likes. "I tend to like more melodic playing. You know, there's not a lot of that going on now," he said. Not that he has given up on the genre in the slightest. "Rock and roll, I suppose, has always had somewhat more significance than pop, only because it's got a political aspiration as well as a musical aspiration. It's always had something else going on." Pop music, he says, has tended to create a scene where music is more a commodity than something culturally significant. "The political aspect of music gives it its staying power, its resonance," he says. U2 is certainly still resonating 23 years after the musicians came together as Dublin high schoolers. They've since sold 100 million albums worldwide. "A lot of groups break up after a while because of the personalities involved," The Edge says. "We're lucky probably because we started out as friends. We dealt with a lot of those issues early on and we don't have those kinds of problems. We might not agree on every issue, but we're able to work it out and we're still here. We're lucky." They have also stayed together even though most of the band's four members have become husbands and fathers. During the making of All That You Can't Leave Behind, both The Edge and Bono welcomed additions to their growing broods. "I think you just make it work," says the guitarist, who has five children, aged one to 16. "At this point I've had a few kids -- you just find a way of making it work. I guess everyone's situation is different, but I find that whilst it might be hard at times, it really helps to have a home life and something else going on that's not just music. "So, far from finding it a kind of difficulty, I think it really helps keep you rooted, keep you grounded, and I think in the end, it keeps the music real." When The Edge speaks of his children, specifically four daughters (Hollie, 16; Arran, 15; Blue, 11; Sian, 3) and one son (Levi, 1), it becomes clear just how much he appreciates their opinions. "It's a wild combination, but what's great is they all get on really well," he says. "My youngest two are with my new girlfriend, my eldest three are with my ex-wife. (They're all) very interested in music, but not so much into playing. "It's getting to be really fun, though, to play them what we're working on and get their read on it. They're all very perceptive. Sian, at three years old, spotted (the current single) Elevation. She knows all the lyrics to Elevation. It's a good tune and I think it's got a vitality and an energy, which is pretty universal." Kind of like U2 themselves.