In the book on post-punk, "Rip It Up and Start Again" by Simon Reynolds, Tony Wilson tells an amusing anecdote about Bono. Supposedly Bono met Tony Wilson after the death Ian Curtis and Bono told Wilson how affected he was Ian's death and how he (Bono) was going to take Ian's place, even though Bono could only be number 2 because Ian would always be number 1.
I found this interesting, Wikipedia tells it like this -
"An oft-repeated anecdote by Tony Wilson is that when U2 visited Factory Records, U2 frontman Bono said when Curtis was alive he was the best frontman in rock and he himself was only number two; Bono pledged to take Curtis's place."
This got me thinking even more.
I think the best way to state my case would be to present some facts in a timeline.
1974 - Bono, at age 14, witnesses his mother's death at her own father's funeral. Bono subsequently finds God.
1979 - Martin Hannett produces the Joy Division album Unknown Pleasures, a huge influence on Bono.
1980 - Martin Hannett produces Love Will Tear Us Apart for Joy Division.
U2 have a meeting with Hannett during the recording session and witness the song being recorded.
Hannett produces the first U2 single 11 O'Clock Tick Tock but declines to produce their first LP.
Ian Curtis committs suicide.
U2 release their debut LP Boy.
The two singles released from the LP are A Day Without Me and I will Follow.
A Day Without Me is about Ian Curtis' suicide.
I Will Follow is about the death of Bono's mother and his Christian faith.
1989 - New Order, containing the surviving members of Joy Division, give an interview to Snub TV.
During the interview Bernard Sumner mocks Bono himself, refering to him as Bongo, and his faith implying Bono has a messianic complex incompatible with his christianity.
[youtube=425,350]0keUSnE0_5A[/youtube]
The interviewer suggests that New Order could be the next U2, Stephen Morris replies that they were the first U2.
In light of the above and repeated viewings of the original video, I would like to retract my original assertion that this performance was an attempt at coolness by association. I now believe it to be something far darker and altogether more terrifying.
The two most pivotal events in Bono's life appear to be the deaths of both his mother and Ian Curtis. His mother's death made him a spiritual person, but where did Curtis' death lead him?
"Bono pledged to take Curtis's place."
I do not believe that this was a metaphor, Bono literally expected and wanted to be the new Joy Division frontman.
Even when New Order formed Bono's hope remained alive. And it stayed alive until that interview in 1989 where the survivng members of joy Division mock him, his faith and by extension his mother's death. Imagine the hurt of the three people you wanted to be with the most treating you in such a sneering derisory fashion. This perceived rejection of Bono's deluded calling slowly ate away at him and eventually drove him completely insane, marked by the transition from the plodding late 80's rock of the Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum U2 the 90's gibbering lunacy of the 90's Achtung Baby and Zooropa.
The dream was dead.......... or was it?
It's late 2005 in Montreal and U2 are joined on stage by support band Arcade Fire for a cover of Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart. To those devoid of taste or a sense of decency this would ostensibly seem to be a loving tribute and a treat for the fans, to the cynics a boorish calculated crowd pleaser but to those of us with keener eyes there was something else at work here.
In order to understand this fully I'm afraid we are going to have to watch this again, but this time watch out for these things -
In the first ten seconds Bono appears to reveal something on a chain beneath his sweater. A crucifix? Or something else?
Bono is on one knee, the clasic pose of genuflection.
Bono chants the lyrics like an incantation and, at times, it becomes a liturgical call and response with the frenzied audience.
At 2.35 he appears to turn to Adam Clayton and say "It's not working".
[youtube=425,350]eGQWnbfFB6o[/youtube]
Bono is in fact performing some sort of grand working ritual.
Firstly a magickal rite to exorcise the influence of those who rejected him, the three surviving members of Joy Division and Martin Hannett's ghost. He achieves this with an alchemical transformation of the clean and clinically crisp original into a sloppy, overblown abomination. A stroke of genius on Bono's behalf in getting Arcade Fire involved.
Secondly, not only does Bono literally want to replace Ian Curtis, he literally, literally wants to actually become Ian Curtis, Freaky Friday style. He is attempting to achieve this through some arcane transmogrification ritual. The incantation, the kneeling, the call and response are all dead giveaways.
Although he ultimately failed I suggest we make it our life's work to keep an eye on this man.
