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U2 Vertigo Tour 2005 at Charlotte - Part 1

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Getting Ready to Go to Charlotte

It has been a long time since I have watched the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It stars Jack Nicholson as a convict named McMurphy who feigns mental in order to get out of the standard pen and into what he thinks will be the more comfortable looney bin.

One scene that stuck with me is when McMurphy says he's going to break out by picking up this huge box-shaped concrete sink and tossing it through the window. All the madmen look at McMurphy like he is crazy.

So McMurphy goes over to the sink and tugs at it with everything he's got. He keeps tugging until he can tug no more. The sink did not budge. But he looks at the looneys and says, "At least I tried."

That line has driven me to attempt some crazy things over the years. I figure if you don't try, you don't get. Sometimes I am successful. Sometimes I am not. At least I tried.

8 December 2005 - Pondering a U2 Interview

Saying "Hello" to U2 in Charlotte was not a priority for me. My 1983 experience interviewing them in Chapel Hill had been so cool, part of me just wanted to leave it at that. They were so young and in some ways innocent - in the William Blake sense. They were friendly, approachable, and anxious to connect one-on-one with their fans.

After observing U2 over the past 22 years as they went from Blake's Songs of Innocence to Songs of Experience, I don't see how they could be the same. Surely in order to survive with the level of fame they have achieved, you have to have the ability to build up some sort of mantle around yourself in order to deal with it all. This is one reason I got out of radio - I could not do that. Fame - even though it was mainly on a regional level back then - was difficult for me. I just wanted to play great records for people. I did not want to be a celebrity. So I got out.

I admire the way U2 have stayed together. How it still is just the four of them onstage - Larry, Bono, Edge, Adam - without a bunch of extra filler musicians. Their consistency. I am happy just to listen to their music. There is nothing else I need from them.

For Avalon and Annecy (my daughters - ages 11 and 8 as I write this), however, meeting U2 was something they wanted to do. They have grown up knowing their mother interviewed U2 so they think it is actually within the realm of possibility to hang out with the band.

My kids come first before me. Even though I knew I had about as much of a chance to make this happen as McMurphy had of throwing that concrete sink out the window, I decided I would see what I could do.

First I logged into my All Access account to see what sort of contacts I could find. (All Access is a broadcasting industry Web site.) I was able to look up Paul McGuinness, who set up my original interview with U2, and drop him an e-mail asking if I could do a follow-up to my 1983 interviews. I also sent a fax to U2's management in Dublin and New York. No answer but my heart really wasn't in at the time anyway. Perhaps in the future if the planets are aligned in a certain manner.

12 December 2005 - Six CDs

My next plan was to create a CD-ROM with the interviews, the pictures, and the concert audio I have from the 1983 War Tour show. I would put it in a slipcase along with a note and my mobile phone number and see if I could make my way to the outside of the ellipse and hand it to Bono. Then he could call us after the show and we'd trot on back. Surely by now you are starting to get how crazy I am!

I plopped all my data into a folder on my laptop only to realize the concert audio, which I had as .wav files, made the folder too large to fit on a CD. So I had to convert all 12 songs to .mp3s. The clock was moving so fast I could almost see it twirl.

Since I wasn't sure how I would actually get the CD into U2's hands, I decided to make three copies. But afterwards, I realized I had left off the picture of Todd Rundgren and Bono. I added that picture and burned three more CDs for a total of six.

My original plan had been to make a cool, eye-catching CD label in color that had the picture of Bono on the top of the stage with the white flag. But I was faced with two problems: both color printers were not working properly and I was running out of time. My only choice was to hurry up and put together something in black and white and run it off my laser printer.

By now the kids were home from school, Hubby was home from work, and we needed to get going. So the CD cover ended up being this really cheesy looking collage. With no time to fix it, I had no choice but to go with it. I should have at least put something like NOT FOR SALE on it. It looks like I put this together to sell. But when I get in a hurry, I can do some cruddy work.

After hastily slapping the labels on the six CDs and stuffing a note in the other side of the plastic slipcase of each, I put the six CDs in my pocketbook, along with printouts of our U2.com member info. (U2.com members get first shot at getting in the ellipse.) Then we got in the car and headed for Charlotte.