The Joshua Tree at 30: a personal reflection

It was a roasting hot day in Glasgow in July 1987 when Ails and I first saw U2 play live. We were 17 and had been going out for around 6 weeks. Ails had loved U2 since she was 12 or 13. I was a more recent convert and had been introduced to them via videos of Under a blood red sky and Live Aid a year or so before.

I’ll never forget it. It was a crazy and life changing experience. We were there with our friends Gordon, Andrew and Alan. Listening to Lone Justice in the car on the way there. The Scottish Exhibition and Conference centre had 2 standing sections (that’s GA for our North American buddies). You got in the front one near the stage if you’d paid £10 and you were behind a barrier looking jealously on at the few thousand folk in front of you if you paid £9. Deathtrap stuff. The barrier was a goner before the night was over.

The lights went down.  The organ starts, the hi-hat pierces through and the Edge starts Where the streets have no name.Bono appears wearing the cowboy hat. ‘How’re you doing Glasgow?’ Now we were all young then and this was the first time we’d heard it live. The crowd went berserk. Ails had a pretty big guy behind her and the crush was intense. So what happened. She, Ails that is, fainted during the first song because of the crush. I panicked but thanks to the stewards she was pulled over and with me following. Into the £10 zone. Result.

She quickly recovered thankfully and I will follow became Still haven’t found. That’s from memory that is. In Bad that night Bono referenced Candle in the wind and sang about the band getting stopped at Glasgow customs while businessmen with suits and briefcases under their arms were waved through.

And we went home and promised to start a band. And we wanted to buy cowboy boots.

And we did. Not the boots though – they came later…We’ve never really stopped trying since: trying to create through our own music the feeling we felt that night. And to be very specific indeed the feeling which is created at the end of With or without you and when Larry’s bass drum starts in Bad. And that is pretty much why almost all of our songs have driving bass and drums in them. And I should stop starting sentences with and.

It’s now 30 years later and U2 are touring the album again in celebration. We’re all older, I don’t feel much wiser but it seems like a good time to reflect on why the album and the 30 year journey it kickstarted matter. Because you can divide history into pre and post JT you know 🙂

I’m sure part of it is nostalgia for youth and the feeling that it was all in front of us, all out there to play for. But I think it’s also recognition of a deep stirring of the emotions, the soul even, that the album created. I’ll never forget listening to it on a cassette borrowed from a friend before I even knew the song titles or words. Streets at track one was the most emotional piece of music I’d ever heard. It probably still is. And that first side. The first three songs are the best first three songs on an album ever. I defy anyone to beat the combination of Streets, I still haven’t found what I’m looking for and With or without you. It can’t be done. Some of the songs kind of whispered their way into your heart and introduced you to America, the good and then the bad; while others just roared like when Bullet the blue sky came at you through the hi-fi speakers. And then you were back in Dublin with Running to stand still. On the northside in a time of trouble.

But this isn’t an album review. Because to us, like The Unforgettable Fire before it, The Joshua Tree became more than just an album. It was the original big music that made you want to reach out, look up and do great things with your life. It was as simple and complicated as that. It was so personal and inspiring. It also made you feel as though you knew the band. That must be crazy for them. To be plunged into a life where all these strangers want to reach out to you and know you, thank you. Because of their private thoughts on a huge PA system [as Bono put it once]. How you cope with that I don’t know but they have – with grace and dignity and compassion for a whole lifetime.

And so we watched their journey – following all the releases and tours from then on. Although others joined them later as influences, like Maria McKee, Springsteen and The Waterboys, theirs was and is the primary influence on us, over everything we did as musicians and as people really. We had our own fascination with America because they introduced us and we took up vocational careers at least partly because of them and their focus on making a difference in the world any way you can.

And now we can hear their music in our memories as we think back on the triumphs and tragedies of our lives.

We were truly grateful to play a little part in the fan-led celebrations of their 40th anniversary in Dublin last year and will see a few of the shows celebrating The Joshua Tree. Here’s what we are sure we will see and experience:

• a band who totally care about their audience and creating a spirit of change through their music;
• absolutely no phoning it in;
• an emotional and spiritual experience;
• the best ensemble playing in the world;
• a band believing its best days are still ahead even as they celebrate the album most others think is and will always be their best work;
• a U2 community of fans which is pretty much the least cynical group of people we have ever met;
• the greatest show on earth.

We’d love to meet U2 in person and say hello and thanks. Every fan would. Chances are that won’t happen. But we can say it through the songs we write and the way we keep playing and trying to emulate that sunny day in Glasgow in 1987. And we can say it here. Thanks again guys for a lifetime of great music and inspiration. Here’s to the future. The only limits are the limits of your imagination.

Love from us.

December