European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 13, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                U2 tour starts on political note by Robert Palmer new York times a National tour by the Irish Rock band u2 got Oil to a controversial Start last weak it Arizona state University in temp. The group issued a statement before the show deploring nov. Evan Meacham s recent rescission of a state Holiday on tha Rev or. Martin Luther King or s birthday and announcing thai the band had made a financial contribution to a committee Tor the governor s recall the Rock quartet s Singer and lyricist Paul Hewson who goes by the name Bono Vox added further complications when he partly test Hla voice shortly before he concert i dual have stayed out in the Sun too Long he told the capacity crowd at Arizona state s activity Center. I m glad you re singing with me  the crowd of about 14,300 did sing the choruses to u2 s songs offering the band sufficient encouragement to turn what could have been a disastrous show into an affirmation that he Bond Between u2 and its audience is a special one. I m Hoard people say this but tonight tha fans really were the stars of the Enow said Dave the Edge Evans u2 s guitarist afterwards. The songs that we play often Deal with belief in something whether it s our support for amnesty International or Martin Luther King or just having some spiritual ideals and some dignity. A Hank people relate to that and we gel this feedback from the audience. That s what makes our shows so special. Ii we Aren t feeling that buoyant when we go on Stags we re just taken up by the crowd and carried  u2 is currently on a 13-Clly, 30-concert Spring tour of the United Stales promoting their new album the Joshua tree. The tour winds through Europe this summer demand for tickets has been exceptional. Front Row seals for he show in Temps which Cost $15.50 Al the Box office were reportedly changing hands for $150 or More. Ticket brokers said they had seen nothing like the demand since Bice Springsteen s Las tour shortly after we arrived Evans recalled i was sitting by he Pool at he hotel Reading the paper and i read that the Doobie Brothers who were planning to do a Benefit reunion concert Al Arizona s gala River Indian reservation had moved the event out of stale because of the governor s rescission of the Martin Luther King Holiday. I was just shocked. The band got together and we were All appalled but it was just too Lale to cancel the shows. If we had known about this earlier we would have cancelled. As it was we decided we had to Issue a statement to let the fans and the press know How we left u2 a written and recorded two songs in Praise of King. Pride in the name of love and milk. The show s promoter Barry Fey read u2 s statement to the audience. We were outraged when we arrived in Arizona and discovered the climate created by governor Meacham s rescission of the Tiol Day honouring or. Martin Luther King jr.," the Slatem enl said. Each sentence of the statement was greeted by thunderous cheers and applause. Alter the reaction had begun to die Down Al the end Fey added e thought of his own. Lei s return to the 60s," he said and Lei the music Lead the Way to  the governor s press Secretary Ron Bellus called the entire Issue a Legal technical matter the Holiday had been established through an executive order by Meacham s predecessor Bruce Babbitt without the consent of the legislature. Meacham reviewed the executive order and declared it invalid. "u2 is not familiar with the Laws of the state of Arizona Bellus told the press. They should have lobbied against governor Babbitt for creating an illegal  u2 hit the stage and in the charged atmosphere established an immediate rapport with the audience. Vox normally an emotional open throated Singer was hoarse and missing notes almost from the first but Evans and u2 s bassist Adam Clayton helped him out on the songs choruses while drummer Larry Mullen or Laid Down a brisk Backbeat. On songs like the group s Earty hit / i Folt Wanti Puma in the warns of love the audience s singing seemed As loud As the band s. Charging toward Mega stardom by John Rockwell new York times Ven before u2 had its first album. Boy. In 1981, the band had a Strong cult and critical following in Britain. Through extensive touring u2 has developed a critical and now Papular following in the United Stales As Well. The 1983 album. War marked u2 s emergence into serious Contention for great band status. Now the quartet has released us fifth studio album not counting a couple of partly live 12-Inch mint albums. It s called the Joshua tree and in conjunction Ullh a yearlong world tour it s designed to achieve Mega Lalus Lor this band at last. The group won its fans because at a Lime of Punk anarchy fashion overkill and synth pop triviality this was a band that stuck to Singer Guilar Bass drum basics. And solid basics to Boot Bono Vox was a powerful Singer Dave the Edge Evans played guitar that was both imaginative and soulful and bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen or made Lor a propulsive rhythm Section. In addition Bono s lyrics addressed sensitive and interesting themes in a Way that was if not truly poetic Al least evocative and challenging. Those themes started out with self exam Nalion what it meant to grow up. 9ut soon it emerged that three of the four Clayton was the exception were committed can lians even in perhaps out of personal conviction perhaps out of expediency Given the charged situation in Northern Ireland they adhered to no particular Christian denomination. In War they and Dretel the political tensions in Northern Ireland they re from Dublin and Bono has a Catholic lather and a proles and Mother with real intensity especially in the Anthem sunday bloody sunday this sort of sentiment which the band was Wise enough to broaden to include condemnations of Ait sorts of haired and Slife. Appealed to the kind of idealistic Young person who also admired Bruce Springsteen s social consciousness. And like Springsteen u2 gives a Superb live show easily evoking the sound of its studio records but surpassing those records Ullh rhapsodic extensions of us songs featuring Bono s impassioned athletic leap legs about the stage and guitar playing by the Edge thai rarely oversteps the Bounds of expression into empty virtuosity for the past two studio albums however u2 has chosen to work with Brian Eno the cult hero English synthesizer wizard Avant Gar dist video artist producer and reluctant Rock Star. In the unforgettable fire of 1984, his led loan artistically interesting if commercially questionable Retreat from the politicized anthems of War. The new direction was toward More elusive fragmentary songs potent and unusual instrumental lectures loads of Busy detail and washes of synthesizer sound. The partnership has continued with the Joshua tree. But interestingly three of the 11 songs have been mixed by Sieve Lui White the Veteran Rock producer who did u2 s first three albums. The band explains that Eno had other commitments and himself recommended Lilly while. But the Choice also serves to push this new album slightly Back in the commercial direction of War. But not Loo Lar this is still audibly an Eno album. Which one hastens to add is hardly an bad artistically speaking. Eno is no Mere producer in the sense of a glorified recording Engineer helping e band capture its live sound accurately in the studio. He influences the creation of the songs helps shape the arrangements and participates actively in the playing along with the More mundane tasks of getting it All to sound right on records. The title of one Joshiua tree is not the Only biblical image on this album but this is not by any Means a hectoring Christian album. Song subjects Range from commentary on America s wealth and hypocrisy to heroin addiction romantic despair the loss of a Friend political and economic oppression and totalitarian brutality. Musically the band stretches its Range Here in two ways. One is the inclusion of musical idioms never so overtly explored before on a u2 record especially the gospel chorus of one tree Hill and the country blues guitar and Harmonica of punning la stand so and trip through your wires. But the most striking effects come when the Edge s fixation on obsessive repetitive guitar textures is Allied with Eno s eerie synthesizer coloration. Oddly next to this focused instrumental concentration Bono s singing seems to have grown More theatrical. H is work is marred throughout by sobbing affectation that approaches the cliched bleating rhetoric All too familiar from american corporate Rock bands. One Hopes this in t a calculated ploy along with All the songs that refer to the United Stales to sell records in this country. But cynical or sincere it s a mistake. Then i also a curious loss of individuality to his singing. In concert and in the earlier albums he projects very much with his own voice. Here through unconscious or conscious emulation or through Eno s influence he sounds Al times like David Bowie Al limes like Lou Reed at times like Peter Gabriel and at times even like Springsteen. What he does t sound like often enough is himself. If Bono s vocals represent a miscalculation so one imagines does the pervasively depressed tone of this album As a whole. Once upon a time Rock n Roll was cheerful music meant to galvanize teen agers into dancing or worse. The Joshua tree puts u2 squarely into the Camp of what one critic last week called mope  Eno was a precursor of this sort of thing in the 70s, with his first band Roxy music and for All the real Appeal of his work on a song by song basis he helps push the Joshua tree rather too far in that direction. This is not to discount u2 s aspirations id Rock greatness nor to deny any possibility of commercial Success for this new album nor certainly to doubt that u2 won t perform terrific live concerts during its 1987 tour. Quite the reverse actually. We know this is a wonderful live band and the haunting songs on the Joshua tree should be Ideal Lor the toughening and expansion that concert arrangements can bring to studio material. One also does t doubt that Eno has helped these Young players grow in musicianship and self awareness. But for their next album they d be belter off without him. Monday april 13,1987 the stars and stripes Page 17