djdaffy1227
10-24-04, 09:59 AM
from www.eonline.com
Bono Finds What He Was Looking For
by Josh Grossberg
Oct 22, 2004, 10:30 AM PT
It was an October surprise for U2.
Lead singer Bono confirmed Wednesday that a long-lost briefcase full of notes and lyrics gone missing after an Oregon concert nearly 25 years ago has been returned.
Bono said that two fans had returned the case, stolen following a Portland gig in 1981. He made the annoucement at a speaking engagement before the World Affairs Council of Oregon and hailed their return as "an act of grace," per a report in the Oregonian.
Calls to Universal Music Group, U2's record company, were not immediately returned Friday.
The briefcase contained a black binder, photos, documents and a blue spiral notebook featuring lyrics and song title ideas intended for U2's sophomore album, October. The case was swiped--presumably by a bunch of groupies who had been flirting with the band--following a concert on March 22, 1981.
The theft "devastated" the crooner, according to Eamon Dunphy's U2 biography, Unforgettable Fire.
"It wasn't the money, the passport, the personal knick-knacks. It was the words he had written. And the breach of trust."
Bono never forgot the stolen briefcase. When U2 came back to Portland for a show two years later, Bono asked the crowd if anyone had seen his stuff. And in 2001, he mentioned it again during a show at the Rose Garden arena.
Talk about all that you can't leave behind.
Bono in turn was forced to rewrite all the lyrics. U2 always called the October sessions their worst recording experience; the album didn't spawn any huge hits and is generally considered one of the band's weakest efforts.
The notes were returned by Cindy Harris, 44, who said she found the tattered brown briefcase in an attic in a rental house in Tacoma, Washington, back in 1983. She had always known that the case had once belonged to Bono and the boys, but she hadn't realized it had been stolen until recently. In fact, her husband wound up using the briefcase for work, and she stuck the contents in a plastic bag for safekeeping.
"I had started a family, and I thought it would be impossible to ever get a hold of them and let them know that I have these items," Harris told the Oregonian.
According to the newspaper account, last October Harris mentioned she had found some U2 memorabilia in an email to her friend Danielle Rheaume of Vancouver.
Rheaume, a U2 fanatic, thought her pal might have stumbled upon the missing lyrics, which had attained legendary status among band fans. Once Harris showed Rheaume the goods--including a 70-page notebook containing a work visa bearing Bono's given name, Paul Hewson, as well as notes for future hits like "Sunday Bloody Sunday"--Rheaume lauched a one-woman crusade to have them returned.
After locking the items away in a safe, Rheaume spent the better part of a year contacting the jet-setting group's management firm trying to set up a meeting.
Finally, her chance came when Bono--who's been lobbying industrial nations to forgive Third World debt and fight the AIDS pandemic ravaging Africa--committed to giving a lecture at the World Affairs Council in Oregon.
With the blessing of the rock star's reps, Rheaume and Harris met Bono in the lobby of Portland's Benson Hotel on Wednesday and reunited him with his stuff. Bono gave the fans some primo seats for his speech, during which he thanked them.
But just because the long-MIA October lyrics turned up, doesn't mean the band has found everything it's been looking for.
Last summer, U2 guitarist the Edge revealed that someone had swiped a CD of unfinished tracks for band's new album, How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, from a mixing studio in Nice, France.
Band members were worried the tunes might pop up on the Web, forcing them to move up album's release date and causing havoc with their promotional schedule.
So far, the songs have yet to make an appearance. Maybe in 20-some years?
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, U2's 11th studio record, hits stores on Nov. 23. It will also be available in a special-edition black iPod as part of a promotional deal the band has struck with Apple and its iTunes Music Store.
Bono Finds What He Was Looking For
by Josh Grossberg
Oct 22, 2004, 10:30 AM PT
It was an October surprise for U2.
Lead singer Bono confirmed Wednesday that a long-lost briefcase full of notes and lyrics gone missing after an Oregon concert nearly 25 years ago has been returned.
Bono said that two fans had returned the case, stolen following a Portland gig in 1981. He made the annoucement at a speaking engagement before the World Affairs Council of Oregon and hailed their return as "an act of grace," per a report in the Oregonian.
Calls to Universal Music Group, U2's record company, were not immediately returned Friday.
The briefcase contained a black binder, photos, documents and a blue spiral notebook featuring lyrics and song title ideas intended for U2's sophomore album, October. The case was swiped--presumably by a bunch of groupies who had been flirting with the band--following a concert on March 22, 1981.
The theft "devastated" the crooner, according to Eamon Dunphy's U2 biography, Unforgettable Fire.
"It wasn't the money, the passport, the personal knick-knacks. It was the words he had written. And the breach of trust."
Bono never forgot the stolen briefcase. When U2 came back to Portland for a show two years later, Bono asked the crowd if anyone had seen his stuff. And in 2001, he mentioned it again during a show at the Rose Garden arena.
Talk about all that you can't leave behind.
Bono in turn was forced to rewrite all the lyrics. U2 always called the October sessions their worst recording experience; the album didn't spawn any huge hits and is generally considered one of the band's weakest efforts.
The notes were returned by Cindy Harris, 44, who said she found the tattered brown briefcase in an attic in a rental house in Tacoma, Washington, back in 1983. She had always known that the case had once belonged to Bono and the boys, but she hadn't realized it had been stolen until recently. In fact, her husband wound up using the briefcase for work, and she stuck the contents in a plastic bag for safekeeping.
"I had started a family, and I thought it would be impossible to ever get a hold of them and let them know that I have these items," Harris told the Oregonian.
According to the newspaper account, last October Harris mentioned she had found some U2 memorabilia in an email to her friend Danielle Rheaume of Vancouver.
Rheaume, a U2 fanatic, thought her pal might have stumbled upon the missing lyrics, which had attained legendary status among band fans. Once Harris showed Rheaume the goods--including a 70-page notebook containing a work visa bearing Bono's given name, Paul Hewson, as well as notes for future hits like "Sunday Bloody Sunday"--Rheaume lauched a one-woman crusade to have them returned.
After locking the items away in a safe, Rheaume spent the better part of a year contacting the jet-setting group's management firm trying to set up a meeting.
Finally, her chance came when Bono--who's been lobbying industrial nations to forgive Third World debt and fight the AIDS pandemic ravaging Africa--committed to giving a lecture at the World Affairs Council in Oregon.
With the blessing of the rock star's reps, Rheaume and Harris met Bono in the lobby of Portland's Benson Hotel on Wednesday and reunited him with his stuff. Bono gave the fans some primo seats for his speech, during which he thanked them.
But just because the long-MIA October lyrics turned up, doesn't mean the band has found everything it's been looking for.
Last summer, U2 guitarist the Edge revealed that someone had swiped a CD of unfinished tracks for band's new album, How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, from a mixing studio in Nice, France.
Band members were worried the tunes might pop up on the Web, forcing them to move up album's release date and causing havoc with their promotional schedule.
So far, the songs have yet to make an appearance. Maybe in 20-some years?
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, U2's 11th studio record, hits stores on Nov. 23. It will also be available in a special-edition black iPod as part of a promotional deal the band has struck with Apple and its iTunes Music Store.