Best known for his distinctive style of playing, The Edge has defined U2’s unique sound.
U2 formed in 1976 and by the mid-1980s the band had become a top international act, noted as much for Edge’s unique guitar style as for Bono’s impassioned vocals. Having sold more than 170 million albums worldwide, the band have won more Grammy Awards than any other band. In 2005, the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility.
In a wide-ranging interview, John Kelly discusses creativity and longevity. Crucially for Edge things are now as they were in the beginning, and he explains how the four have managed to maintain such an unusually cohesive unit for over thirty years.
“Maybe it’s because we were friends before we were a band,” he says, “so in a sense the friendships were solid, so when it came to those moments of conflicts or difficulty, we kind of were able to skirt around the big conflicts and diffuse the situation and so we’re operating in pretty much the same way now as we always did.”
With fame comes responsibility, and it’s one that Edge takes seriously. “I think it’s something that you always are aware of and it’s something that I would remind myself of often,” he says. “Here we are and our friends are some of the luckiest people that have every lived and once you bear that in mind, then first of all, I think you’ve a responsibility to enjoy your life, first of all. And then beyond that I think you’ve a responsibility to take advantage of your situation, to make things better and to spread it out a bit.”
“So I would say that’s the spirit in which most of our things are inspired from.”
It always comes back to the music however, and it’s that rich terrain that Edge and John Kelly explore in tonight’s programme. Undeniably an album band, U2 are also the world’s biggest live act, and the experience of playing live to huge audiences, and the adulation, is one that has imprinted itself on the musician’s inner landscape.
The music, it seems, is what keeps him sane.
“The only way that I could deal with it is because of playing those songs; that’s the only excuse I’d ever have for being up there in the first place,” he says. “There’s something about performing our songs in front of a large crowd which works and it’s to do with the fact I think, that a lot of those people at those shows are there to celebrate not just their favourite band, or a favourite band of theirs, but part of their history, their life and the music they’ve grown up with, that has meant a lot to them, so in some ways, as much as we’re getting applauded, I think people are also applauding themselves and their experiences in their life.”