When most people, not us crazy fans, think of U2, they think of Bono. He is considered the face of U2. Various news outlets even refer to U2 as ‘Bono and the Band’ or ‘Bono and the Boys.’ This infuriates me to no end. As Bono himself once said, U2 is like a four-legged table, each equally responsible for holding the table up. If one of the legs break, the table falls. Larry Mullen seems to be the glue that keeps this table together, even though most of the non-U2 world doesn’t even know who he is. Larry is the Yin to Bono’s Yang. Larry is the voice of reason when Bono takes off.
One of the reasons I like Larry so much, in addition to his performance in the “Electrical Storm” video, is for his no-nonsense attitude. Larry does not play. Not that he doesn’t have fun, but he is about the business at hand. When Bono goes off on a tangent talking on stage, it is Larry who brings him back with his drum beats to continue the song. While Bono hugs a fan who jumps on stage uninvited (as he did in Boston on the Elevation Tour), Larry screams for security to immediately remove them (as he did in New Jersey on the 360 Tour). It is almost as if Bono is the fun parent while Larry is the disciplinarian and the one who takes care of things. When the Vertigo Tour ticket fiasco happened in 2005, it was Larry who apologized saying,
“The idea that our long-time U2 fans and scalpers competed for U2 tickets through our own web site is appalling to me. I want to apologise to you who have suffered that. If your U2.com pre-sale experience has left you disappointed, I hope this will go some way towards reassuring you of our total commitment to our audience.”
So when you see Bono out there running around politicing, just know that Larry is behind the scene, and the drums, taking care of business.
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