The Week Trending: U2 At 50, Oz Visa Crackdown, & Pints In Stands
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What is the significance of U2’s 50‑year anniversary and their surprise gigs?
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Now it's time for the week trending. We're joined today by Fionnuala Jones and Owen Tomas McDermott. But... Before we talk to them, this is the 50th birthday today for U2. I think we all know about that by now. At one stage, they were known as The Hype. They do hype and marketing better than any band, probably, in the last 50 years. Before we talk to Fionnuala and Owen, here is a little bit of the new single, Silencio.
There's a quiet where a baby doesn't cry. There's a hush where a mother might sigh. A merry mama angel offer her a choice. My son is listening if you got no voice. An uneasy feeling, I just heard a gunshot. There are things you can get used to or not. A thief at large in a carnival of souls. In the silence, the devil rock and rolls. So let's see you. I miss you the most. I miss you the most.
A little bit there of U2's Silencio. So, Fanola Jones, they do marketing exceptionally well, don't they? There's hardly anyone who doesn't know it's the 50th birthday of U2 today.
I mean, popping up at the old school, you know, 50 years to the day when Larry Mellon Jr. put the note on the notice board to say that he wanted to start a band and by God, did he. Yeah, I mean, Hype Machine in full swing. They're very prolific this year. I think people, again, if you're not really on the U2 train, two EPs earlier this year as well, Days of Ash and Easter Lily, which were met a lot more warmly, I would say, than some of their more recent, more contemporary
stuff. There isn't that much recent contemporary stuff. I think it was the first new musical in about nine years, wasn't
it? Yeah. Yeah, but I think there had been, you know, ongoing conversations around as the world has changed and society has changed and politics is politicking, questioning their kind of silence on bigger issues. I thought it was interesting that they... decided to address some of that on the two EPs, as I mentioned. And then this album that they're talking about now that's on route seems to be a lot lighter, is how they're describing it. I think a lot more fun, Carnival de Luz. So it's interesting that they're taking that tack after kind of finding their political voice again.
Owen, I wonder what all the students out in Mount Temple actually made of this day. Now they'd be quite happy to be left out of classes, I presume, and have a bit of fun in the schoolyard. But I wonder how many of them, OK, are you two fans in that generation or would be persuaded to do so that they come from their school
originally? I'd say they've had it drummed into them from the first day in first year that they are so lucky. Is that a Larry Mullen pun? To say they've had it
drummed into them, right?
perhaps that they should be proud that you two have been to their school. And they are North Dublin lads, by and large, from not a million miles away from where I grew up. And I think for the most part that you two have shown themselves to be fantastic ambassadors for Ireland over the last decade. five decades. That yes, of course, they have been criticised in more recent times for not being particularly vocal or vocal at all in relation to Gaza. But when you do look at their humanitarian stance and their arguments for human rights over those years, I'd have to say that they have made a significant, tangible humanitarian legacy. Coupled with that, there have been a really Global cultural impact for a group of lads who started in the school just off Griffith Avenue on the Malahide Road.
I think it is phenomenal. And the longevity and loyalty that they have shown to one another, I think, is admirable. So Bono can be a bit of a pox, but overall, we should be pretty proud of them.
OK, they're also doing a sort of a press event at present, which I was invited to, but obviously couldn't be at because of the fact that we're on air here for the last word. But there's this talk, isn't there, as well, of maybe a gig tonight, that free gig that people can go to, Fionnuala?
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