LONDON (Reuters) – The musical partnership between Beatles
duo John Lennon and Paul McCartney almost came to an end before
the legendary band was formed, Britain's Sunday Times newspaper
reported yesterday.
Lennon wanted to throw McCartney out of his original band,
The Quarrymen, formed when they were teenagers, because he thought McCartney was “precocious,” the paper said.
But Lennon's schoolfriend and fellow band member Eric Griffiths persuaded him not to drop McCartney, saying he thought McCartney was very talented and had a lot to contribute.
The revelations appear in “The Quarrymen,” a new book about
the original group written by Beatles biographer Hunter Davies, the paper said.
“I like to think that was my greatest contribution to the
history of the Beatles — not letting John chuck Paul out of the Quarrymen,” Griffiths is quoted as telling Davies.
U2 Elevation Tour Takes Off Soaring
By Angus MacSwan
MIAMI (Reuters) – Rock superstars U2 launched their first
U.S. tour in nearly four years in classic form in Florida on
Saturday night, treating 20,000 devoted, delirious fans to a
crowd-pleasing mix of old and new songs delivered with their
legendary energy free of the extravagances of their most recent
tours.
The Irish rockers hit the stage of the National Car Rental
Center arena at Sunrise, near Miami, with the house lights
still on and launched into a swinging “Elevation” for their new
album “All That You Can't Leave Behind”.
For the next two hours they put on a performance in which
the songs, not the stage props, were the focus. They played six
from the new album but also reached back to the socially-aware
anthems of their 1980s glory days for a raft of songs from
“War”, “The Joshua Tree” and beyond, even bashing out their
first ever single, “I Will Follow”.
The elaborate stage props, production and high-tech music
of their 1990s stadium tours — the Trabants, the giant lemon
and the live link-up with Sarajevo — were also scaled back.
Still, a diamond-shaped catwalk surrounded the stage, along
which the indefatigable Bono strutted, sprinted and exhorted
the crowd.
Inside the circle were a few hundred lucky fans — when the
black-clad singer strode out on the walk-way, it appeared he
was walking along the outstretched arms of the faithful.
MUCH-ANTICIPATED OPENING NIGHT
Fans had come from far and wide for the much-anticipated
opening night of the Elevation Tour 2001, which will take a
band that has sold 100 million albums worldwide since they
started out playing Dublin pubs nearly a quarter-century ago on
an 80-date trek through North America and Europe.
“I just love U2 and it's always been a dream of mine to see
them on an opening night,” said Canadian Justin Luey, who had
come down from St. Catherine's, Ontario for the show. A veteran
U2 follower, he has tickets for 13 of the dates on the tour.
“It's a connection…everything they write makes sense to
me. They care about their audience. They challenge us, ” the
25-year-old Internet designer said before the concert kicked
off. ” I'm not worried at all they'll deliver.”
Fellow Irishman Elvis Costello, in Miami on vacation, was
among the celebratory guests.
The band followed “Elevation” with “Beautiful Day,” a song
which helped them to three Grammys at the music award show last
month. Then it was into their back pages for “New Years Day.”
Guitarist the Edge (Dave Evans), dressed in a Miami
Dolphins T-shirt, jeans and black wool cap, earned cheers for
his falsetto singing on the coda of the Dylanesque “Stuck in
the Middle”. Another song from the new album, “New York”
sounded a lot better live than on CD, with an almost Asian
percussive beat, that mood heightened by four huge silky
screens which unfurled from the gantries and silhouetted the
players.
“Discoteque,” with Bono splicing in a few lines from disco
diva Donna Summer, was one of few songs from their 1990s
output.
ROARS OF APPROVAL
The old songs drew roars of approval. “Sunday Bloody
Sunday”, a plea for peace in Northern Ireland, was just like
old times, Mullen rapping out the martial beat, Bono waving an
Irish tricolor he'd grabbed from an audience member and singing
lines from Bob Marley's “Get Up, Stand Up” midway through the
song. “Bad” was another old favorite and the collector's item
“Sweetest Thing,,” with Bono hammering away at the piano, was a
surprise.
Toward the end of the show two “Joshua Tree” songs, “Where
the Streets Have No Name” and “Bullet the Blue Sky” showed the
band at their most fiery, the latter, a song about the 1980s
war in El Salvador, featuring searing guitar from the Edge. But
the bombast was tempered by some tenderness and the closing
trio of songs “With or Without You,” “One”, and “Walk On”,
dedicated to Burmese pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi,
ended the show on a moving note.
“How was the night for you?”
Bono said by way of farewell to the audience. If one question
raised before the tour was are U2 still on the cutting edge or
merely this year's equivalent of the Fleetwood Mac reunion, the
answer in the end didn't seem to matter.
“It was awesome,” said Pete Van Dyke, a 31-year-old advertising executive from Orlando, Florida and a veteran of 13 U2 shows. “It was back to basics, simply the songs. Bono's voice was great.”
“Those guys wear it all on their sleeves. They leave nothing on the table.”
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