‘It’s a new world. It’s a little fascistic. And it needs a different response’: U2 on 50 years together – and their undimmed faith in humanity
The Guardian · Alexis Petridis ·
After some so-so albums, can U2’s new one, Carnaval de Luz, restore them to glory? They discuss male egos, working with Dolly Parton, and explain why, despite Trump, they still believe in democracy – at least in their band
La Petite Maison, in Nice, has a certain reputation as a five-star celebrity haunt. Beyoncé eats here. So do Elton John, Tom Cruise, Harry Styles and Leonardo DiCaprio, their meals presided over by the restaurant’s founder, Nicole, variously described in print as “eccentric”, “unique” and “truculent” (she’s standing by the entrance when I arrive, and suffice to say, doesn’t look like someone you’d much enjoy being on the wrong side of).
It’s enough of a celebrity haunt that the arrival of U2 – still incontrovertibly one of the biggest bands in the world 40 years after they could first reasonably have called themselves such – causes barely a murmur of interest among their fellow lunchtime diners. Then again, Bono is a regular. He was eating on the outdoor terrace the night of Nice’s terrorist attack, on Bastille Day in 2016, in which 86 people were killed. “I climbed through that window and hid under there,” he nods, pointing to a table at the rear of the restaurant. “Nicole,” he adds, “didn’t hide.”
It’s a very plush spot for a rehearsal lunch break, which is what my meeting with U2 amounts to. All the band’s members own houses nearby and the interview has been squeezed in among preparations for a secret gig at London’s Tate Modern, including songs they recorded in collaboration with Brian Eno – “to celebrate the great man and our collaborative history”, as the Edge puts it. The show, on Tuesday night, was the latest event in what is proving a packed year. There were the EPs Days of Ash and Easter Lily, the latter filled with songs of a spiritual bent, the former with righteous anger and invective variously inspired by the war in Ukraine, the genocide in Palestine – Bono recently caused uproar in Israel by comparing comments made by the country’s national security minister to Heinrich Himmler – and the Trump administration. (It arrived a month after ICE’s shooting of Renee Good, the subject of its opening track, American Obituary.)
Read the full story at The Guardian · All coverage of this story