From the Sky Down Page #3

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I hear then a word,

I hear then a thought,

and I have to scribble it down.

We always had a mic ready

when Bono came into the room.

He'd hear something and say,

"Oh", and he'd start singing,

and if you didn't catch it,

it was gone.

He didn't repeat things.

Or, if he did,

he didn't repeat them

with that same oddness

that the first moment would have.

What's the chorus chords again?

So, A to...

A... D...

We'd spent the '80s

throwing stones at other people.

Now we've started throwing the stones

at ourself.

Wow!

Is this what you would do?

Yeah.

- Pretty much.

- What's different?

The only difference is we didn't,

we have songs now -

back then

we didn't really have songs.

Well, the mid '80s

we started to tour in America.

It wasn't a thing of having been prepared,

groomed, made ready for it,

it was like suddenly, boom,

you were there.

Being 22 or 23

and you have a bit of success,

it's gonna be tricky for anybody.

If you come from Dublin,

and not only do you come from Dublin,

you're still in Dublin,

it's gonna make you

a little self-conscious.

I met them in '82. I was working for

a magazine in England

called the New Musical Express.

They asked me to go to New Orleans

to shoot U2.

I'd never heard of U2.

There was certainly

a house photographic style,

we used to jokingly refer to it.

Since most of the photographs

during that time were taken by Anton,

there was a certain amount of collusion.

That was the way the band wished

to present themselves.

The work was always serious

and for me that was the same.

My photography,

if you look at my books,

is never about

the lighter moments.

We hated photo shoots.

Make sure you get

some sun on your faces.

If you all come a bit forward...

We started to be those

kind of earnest po-faced men.

I went out one night with Bono

and I said,

"There's a tree here which I really love,

it's called the Joshua Tree

"It would be a brilliant idea

to have that on the front

"and the band would be on the back,

like a continuation. "

He's Dutch

and he can't say 'Joshua'.

He would say 'Yoshua'.

So we really go off on getting him

to say Yoshua Tree Park.

The Joshua Tree sleeve

is my favourite sleeve.

Their faces were sculptured in stone.

We always felt that the photographs

should look like the material.

Anton was not photographing us,

he was photographing our songs,

and the environment of the songs.

So, those pictures of us

as stoic Irishmen,

pilgrims, in the desert -

people would say when they meet you,

you're not the same person.

This is a very dangerous place to be,

when your public image is so different

from your private reality.

And the winner is...

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