But there is a special dispensation for the quartet who have just entranced the 20000-seater Fleet Center
But there is a special dispensation for the quartet who have just entranced the 20,000-seater Fleet Center. And there at the back, dwarfing them all, is a 60-seater Airbus 320 emblazoned with the violet and orange insignia of the Vertigo tour and the logo of the city’s four adopted sons.It was from Boston, famously, that the 9/11 terrorists departed – on flights originally heading for Los Angeles – so security is now unimaginably tight. They’ve always looked after us.”
Dave Evans has lived like this for nearly 30 years, a cycle of songwriting, recording and performance that started when he was 17 He’s known no other life. And for the past 20 years he’s operated at this kind of level, travelling with a team of three technicians and 60 crew in order to replicate as faithfully as possible the music he creates in the studio.He was born in Essex to Welsh parents, moved to north Dublin at the age of one – “massive identity crisis!” – and is now 44 with three daughters by his childhood sweetheart, and another daughter and a son by his second wife, the band’s former choreographer. He’s helped sustain a formula that sells both records and tickets in every last reach of the world market. He’s the unsung hero who orchestrates the sound of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll success story of our time, a band for which his old schoolfriend is largely the public face.”Bono is still hungry and that’s the reason the band’s lasted so long,” The Edge’s brother Dik Evans told me.
“Bono does his bit – and that’s critical – but none of them do as much as my brother. Edge is basically the engine room, working every day in the studio to make the records happen. And they wouldn’t happen without him.”The convoy grinds to a halt in that remote outpost of Logan airport reserved only for the owners of private aircraft Small and shiny Lear jets are parked on the tarmac New and sparkling Gulfstreams stand beside them. “To some extent, you gauge the degree of affection within a city by the quality of the back-up you get,” he adds, professionally. “And we’ve had an amazing connection with Boston over the years.
He shrugs self-consciously in a manner that suggests the whole thing’s preposterous but, at their level, it’s the only practical way they can operate. Is that a good runner as runners go?
“That’s a fantastic runner,” The Edge confirms “I’d give it.. ooh, nine point two. Better than Barcelona where they drive at a speed that’s actually life-threatening. And better than Italy where the cops bang on your roof with batons.”The Edge wipes the condensation from the window and peers into the blur of blinking lights. With the roar of applause still filling the night air, the motorcade moves out.
There’s a howl of sirens, a metal gate springs open and eight black vehicles leap down a concrete ramp and onto the expressway. We barge through stop signs with our motorcycle escort, waved on by police with scarlet light-sabres. We speed over bridges and plunge through tunnels, the neon glow a smear on the windscreen, the sound amplified by the rain It’s completely absurd and really rather thrilling U2 are “doing a runner”. Boston’s basketball arena to the airport in just over six minutes. “I’ve been doing the MC-ing thing at raves and on the radio and people criticise me by saying I’m an MC, I’m not an artist I want to show I can make songs. I’ve worked with producers who have challenged me to write something more detailed, less straightforward.”On Home Sweet Home, Kano has progressed beyond the standard 16-bar rhymes. But, while the rapper is keen to move on from his underground roots, he still needs greater understanding – from the industry at large, and from the authorities..