U2 to release atomic bomb
Sunday July 18 2004
Good Friday it was: everybody who had worked on the album was invited as a thank you from the lads. On the Saturday morning, Bono et al jetted out to the South of France for holiday and to shoot a video and do some promo for the new record - rumoured to be called How to Defuse an Atomic Bomb. On Wednesday in Nice, U2 were like the aforesaid atomic bomb going off when the rough tapes of the album were stolen. Who are you gonna call? Bono could have called his old mate, former president Bill Clinton. But as Shane MacGowan found out, he was indisposed.
Shane had to step into the breach last Monday on BBC Radio 4's prestigious Today programme when Bill, so to speak, pulled out.
"I love Bill," Shane told me. "I respect him. Anyone who doesn't commit f***ing genocide in Iraq and has respect for human life I like."
Shane had had a busy week. Kate Moss, David Soul and Johnny Knoxville of Jackass turned up for the launch of his record The Road to Paradise in Boogaloo in Highgate on Thursday.
Finally, John Reynolds is holding Ireland's first "boutique music festival", called the Electric Picnic in Stradbally Hall in Laois on September 4. "Ireland will never see anything like it," said a well-placed source. "It's going to be truly electric . . . " I had to cut her off.
