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U2 1983 War Tour at Chapel Hill, NC - The Interviews

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How These 1983 U2 Interviews Came About

U2 kicked off the US leg of their 1983 War Tour April 23 at Keenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. If I remember correctly, U2 were originally scheduled to open their 1983 American tour headlining at a 2500-seat venue in Norfolk, VA, April 24. When the opportunity opened to play a charity event in the neighboring state the day before, it made sense to join the lineup. I am fuzzy on the details of all this but that is buzz I remember surrounding U2's North Carolina gig in 1983.

This benefit show was called the Concert for Children with Todd Rundgren as the headliner. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were added to the bill along with The Producers.

Throughout the 1970s Todd had been at the top of my list of favorite musicians. By 1983, however, I was immersed in the music of newer artists and had not followed Todd's music for the past few years. Yet I had never seen him perform live, and I really liked his latest album, The Ever Popular Tortured Artists Effect. So when I heard Todd would be playing in North Carolina, I decided I should probably make the hour-long drive to see him perform.

When the news was announced that U2 would be playing at the Todd Rundgren gig in Chapel Hill, that sealed it for me. I had been an avid U2 fan since the day their album Boy arrived at the college station where I worked in 1980. Now it was three years later and I was working for a commercial rock station where I had been hosting a weekly new music show called "New Generation".

I had been hosting the "New Generation" show for a little more than a year. The program gave me the opportunity to interview bands at their gigs so they could help generate interest in their music. I had a good rapport with lots of record companies because of this so I decided to proceed with getting an interview with U2 at the Chapel Hill show.

It might have been Mark Diller, my rep with Atlantic Records, who had Paul McGuinness call me to set up the interview. I believe U2's label, Island Records, was distributed by Atlantic at the time.

Paul was very nice and said he was arrange for comp tickets, backstage passes, and access to interview Bono before their performance at Chapel Hill.

1983 Interview with Bono at Chapel Hill

My friends Julie and Ricky went with me to the show. Fortunately, Julie brought her camera. We met the band as they arrived outside the Kenan Stadium field house, which served as the "backstage area." We introduced ourselves and I gave Bono the WZKL t-shirt he is holding in this picture. We agreed to meet up inside for the interview shortly.

Once inside, I set up my cassette machine at the end of a long table, then Bono walked over and sat down for his interview. He seemed calm and relaxed considering this was to be the very first show of a big U.S. tour.

When I finished my interview with Bono, Edge was standing there and he and Bono and I started joking around. I remember Bono saying "This is why we call him The Edge" and pulling Edge's hair back to show the flat sides of Edge's head. I decided at this point to see if Edge would do a station ID and he seemed quite happy to do it.

On-The-Fly Interview with The Edge at Chapel Hill

McGuinness had told me that I would only be interviewing Bono, so I didn't have any questions prepared for Edge but after he did the ID I decided to run with it. I love Edge's enthusiasm here. He was so excited about the tour. He also had some very interesting commentary about music in general. The part where he talks about how Springsteen gives it his all and how when John Lennon sang "Help" it sounded like he really meant it.

Adam Cuts a Station ID, Larry Preps for Show

Adam Clayton was sitting in a nearby chair. I thought it would be fun to interview him as well but time was running out so we just chit-chatted for a bit.

Before he headed off to play, Adam did a quick station ID for me. Really nice guy. You can't hear it too well but I love the part where he says, "I'll see you after the show, DD." Boy, I wish he would say that to me now!

I didn't have much of a chance to talk to Larry Mullen, Jr. other than a quick hello. He stayed in the background, focusing on getting ready for the show. I don't blame him. After all, it was the first show of the tour.

About This Audio

There is a bunch of extraneous and useless ambience between questions in the audio here. I have passed on the edited clips that used to be here to U2Source.com, a comprehensive audio library of U2 interviews. The edited clips are to the point and focus on what Bono, The Edge, and Adam have to say.
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• 1983 Bono Interview and WKZL Station ID
  (8:49)
• 1983 The Edge WKZL Station ID and Interview
  (7:33)
• 1983 Adam Clayton WZKL Station ID
  (1:00)