Bono and Larry Mullen, who came to Berlin with the band to tap into the energy after the fall of the wall but almost split entirely
U2 line up Berlin ‘homecoming’ gig
By Fiach Kelly
Wednesday October 28 2009
IT’S the city where they nearly broke up, only to pull together over what would eventually turn out to be their most famous song — ‘One’.
And now, U2 are set to return to Berlin — where they recorded ‘Achtung Baby’ — to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
They will perform a free concert in the city almost 20 years from the day the wall fell in 1989. The concert will take place against the spectacular backdrop of the Brandenburg Gate and will be a prelude to the “fall of the wall” celebrations.
The November 5 concert is also a part of the MTV Europe Music Awards and will be beamed into the awards broadcast.
“It’ll be an exciting spot to be in, 20 years almost to the day since the wall came down,” said U2 manager Paul McGuinness.
The group famously relocated to Berlin after the wall came down on November 9, 1989 to tap into the energy of the reunified city as they sought to reinvent their sound.
They recorded at the Hansa studios, in the shadow of the wall, in late 1990 and the sessions were the origins of what would later become the ‘Achtung Baby’ album. However, the sessions were initially marred by musical differences between The Edge and Bono, who were sampling with electronic music, and Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, who preferred a sound similar to previous albums such as ‘The Joshua Tree’.
The band almost broke up until The Edge improvised the beginnings of ‘One’ and Bono joined in with vocals, before Adam and Larry joined in for the legendary anthem.
Tickets for the concert, called ‘MTV EMAs present U2 at the Brandenburg Gate’, will be available for free to fans who log on to u2.com or www.mtvema.com from eight o’clock this morning.
- Fiach Kelly
Irish Independent
