U2's latest foray into politix, taking on US gunownership, is the latest of a long line of hoary shticks that Bono and Co. have perpetrated on the public- remember their big religious fervor of the 80s when they told everybody they were sitting in their motel rooms reading Bibles. Later turned out they were only kidding ("It was all about irony" explained Bono...)

This following U2 gimmick (OK...hoax) I witnessed personally, and I originally posted on the XTC list on www.chalkhills.org:

"Biggest Concert (and gullible record-buying youth in general) Ripoff: U2,
Basel,  Switzerland and Mannheim, W. Germany, 1987, two weeks later.

Here's the shtick: at one point during a song, a fan jumps up on stage and tries to
genuflect to Bono and sing along with him. A security guard rushes up, grabs
the interloper, and tries to drag him off the stage, and it looks like the
guard wants to beat the fan, until Bono remonstrates and says, "No, let him
up with us- he'll be up here for all of you in the crowd- let him sing and
dance with us!" The fan looks as if he has just been "saved", and he and
Bono embrace, and the crowd goes wild. I thought, "well, that's nice- Bono
is trying to fight against the venue and its guards and strike a blow for
youth freedom here" or some such blather I used to believe in in my ivory
tower days at university...

Two weeks later..... same concert, different place (I was given a ticket
because a friend had got called up to military service in the W. German Army
and couldn't go)... same song, same place in the concert... same guy, same
security guard!!!! Same quasi-religious salvation scene..... What the
F***????? I related this story to my friends who were all ardent believers
in U2, and none of them believed it- anybody else catch this phenomenon?

Beware rock stars- any rock stars- as devotional figures, folks- you get
what you pay for... :^)"

You can imagine the responses I got off-list about this post- a couple were like: "Yeah- I fell for that U2 crap too- but then I woke up- and grew up."

95th Foot


 "Demagogue: one who preaches doctrines he knows
  to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots."
                   --H.L. Mencken

[pissed]

[url]http://www.sfgate.com/news/pictures/2001/06/18/bonoph10.jpg[/url]
[img]http://www.sfgate.com/news/pictures/2001/06/18/bonoph10.jpg[/img]

ouch...must have tripped on his ego.

You have an evil mind....And I can't [i]wait[/i] to see the results!
[sniper]

hurry-up! i can't wait!!!   [bounce]

You should doctor the photo to make Bono look like he's going down on Charlton Heston.

I have Photoshop ... I could do the deed to that photo!

raven, I disagree about heston.  Don't need to put him in a more negative light.  

Now, putting Bill Clinton in there might be funny.  Maybe even Charles Schumer....together with Bill....