when did u2 become a bunch of wankers?

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Amor fati

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when did u2 become a bunch of wankers?
« on: February 07, 2025, 03:24:45 PM »

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Miami

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Re: when did u2 become a bunch of wankers?
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2025, 03:38:14 PM »
I wouldn?t say u2 as a collective. The other three keep a fairly low profile so I can?t see how or when they annoyed anybody.

Bono, on the other hand, started canoodling with the so-called elites at the turn of the century, and he hasn?t looked back since.

I used to think he was one of the most insightful, intelligent, funniest rock stars on the planet in the 90?s.

Now I think he has been corrupted beyond salvation and is simply just a mouth-piece for the WEF and the other greed merchants who control the levers of power.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2025, 04:07:00 PM by Miami »

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Shank

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Re: when did u2 become a bunch of wankers?
« Reply #2 on: February 07, 2025, 03:51:44 PM »
The apple thing is probably the answer for the average person.  For me as a die-hard fan it was before that when Bono felt like he needed to chime in on everything political and went from a philanthropist to a liberal activist.

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Amor fati

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Re: when did u2 become a bunch of wankers?
« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2025, 08:36:58 PM »
Has to be 21st century although im not sure when.  Probably about the time they (Mostly Bono) started palling around with war criminals (they did that a bit in the 90s too though) and actively putting their causes first and the music second.  At least in the 80s and 90s the music never suffered as a result.

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SlyDanner

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Re: when did u2 become a bunch of wankers?
« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2025, 09:07:25 PM »
I voted Rock n Roll stops the traffic

If you watch the YouTube video I posted in another thread (Why do people hate U2?'...) and check out the bit at the very end when Bono is spouting off about Sinn Fein at the very end... my God he was insufferable... and that's when I think it started

I was only 16/17 at the time of that and so I really was in a different state of mind about the band... they were different, they had a conscience, blah blah blah... but really Bono was just a fucking wanker and that to me is the genesis of it...  Going from being a naive but optimistic voice to a heckling, smug a-hole.

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walktothewater

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Re: when did u2 become a bunch of wankers?
« Reply #5 on: February 07, 2025, 09:13:21 PM »
My somewhat facetious answer is that wanker is British slang for someone who masturbates, so given that all of U2 are males, I assume all have at some point indulged in self-love and perhaps still do. I'm told even females sometimes indulge themselves also.

My more serious answer is - hmm, tbh, I was listening to a POP era concert recently, and during Bullet the Blue Sky Bono makes a passing reference to the Iraqis being bombed - so given the timescale I assume it was around the time Mr Clinton ordered a bombing of Iraq targets - due, some claimed, because Mr Clinton wanted to distract attention from his then marital woes. 

My point is, Bono was still prepared to criticise even those politicians that he liked circa late 1990s. 

These days, obviously, he's not prepared to do that - he's Davos man. So I would argue that sometime in either in the late 90s or early 00s Bono became a wanker. Possibly, the 911 attacks were a game changer for him personally - but ATCYLB, released of course almost a year before was a boring, dull-as-dishwater album which caused no offence to anyone, politicians or others, so who knows.
 
 
« Last Edit: February 07, 2025, 09:18:32 PM by walktothewater »
"There's nothing wrong with U2. As far as I'm concerned, I've stolen from Larry Mullen's career for years. Without Larry, I wouldn't be able to stomp and sing, it'd be difficult. I mean I owe debts to the Bhundu Boys, Larry Mullen, Stewart Copeland. They're good players, and they're great songwriters" - Gary "Reni" Wren, drummer, The Stone Roses reunion press conference, 18/10/2011

"I'd just like to put on record that that's bobbins" - Ian Brown, singer, ditto

https://www.lauralynn.ie/

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walktothewater

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Re: when did u2 become a bunch of wankers?
« Reply #6 on: February 07, 2025, 09:14:14 PM »
I wouldn?t say u2 as a collective. The other three keep a fairly low profile so I can?t see how or when they annoyed anybody.

Bono, on the other hand, started canoodling with the so-called elites at the turn of the century, and he hasn?t looked back since.

I used to think he was one of the most insightful, intelligent, funniest rock stars on the planet in the 90?s.

Now I think he has been corrupted beyond salvation and is simply just a mouth-piece for the WEF and the other greed merchants who control the levers of power.

Sadly, must agree with all of this.
"There's nothing wrong with U2. As far as I'm concerned, I've stolen from Larry Mullen's career for years. Without Larry, I wouldn't be able to stomp and sing, it'd be difficult. I mean I owe debts to the Bhundu Boys, Larry Mullen, Stewart Copeland. They're good players, and they're great songwriters" - Gary "Reni" Wren, drummer, The Stone Roses reunion press conference, 18/10/2011

"I'd just like to put on record that that's bobbins" - Ian Brown, singer, ditto

https://www.lauralynn.ie/

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walktothewater

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Re: when did u2 become a bunch of wankers?
« Reply #7 on: February 07, 2025, 09:25:57 PM »
The apple thing is probably the answer for the average person.  For me as a die-hard fan it was before that when Bono felt like he needed to chime in on everything political and went from a philanthropist to a liberal activist.

It's strange how different die-hard fans can look at the same events in different ways.

I would have thought that if anything his journey was more from singer who did some liberal activism in the 1980s and 1990s, these days more of the Davos philanthropist type who does a bit of singing on the side. 
"There's nothing wrong with U2. As far as I'm concerned, I've stolen from Larry Mullen's career for years. Without Larry, I wouldn't be able to stomp and sing, it'd be difficult. I mean I owe debts to the Bhundu Boys, Larry Mullen, Stewart Copeland. They're good players, and they're great songwriters" - Gary "Reni" Wren, drummer, The Stone Roses reunion press conference, 18/10/2011

"I'd just like to put on record that that's bobbins" - Ian Brown, singer, ditto

https://www.lauralynn.ie/

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walktothewater

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Re: when did u2 become a bunch of wankers?
« Reply #8 on: February 07, 2025, 09:33:38 PM »
"Rock and Roll stops the traffic"

I can remember the controversy over that and my dad being quite annoyed at the time, along the lines of "how dare this idiot show the Irish up on the world stage" etc.

In his later life, he mellowed and was learning to play the guitar and enjoyed Bono meeting the Pope etc.

People change, I guess.
"There's nothing wrong with U2. As far as I'm concerned, I've stolen from Larry Mullen's career for years. Without Larry, I wouldn't be able to stomp and sing, it'd be difficult. I mean I owe debts to the Bhundu Boys, Larry Mullen, Stewart Copeland. They're good players, and they're great songwriters" - Gary "Reni" Wren, drummer, The Stone Roses reunion press conference, 18/10/2011

"I'd just like to put on record that that's bobbins" - Ian Brown, singer, ditto

https://www.lauralynn.ie/

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MPare1966

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Re: when did u2 become a bunch of wankers?
« Reply #9 on: February 07, 2025, 09:44:51 PM »
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Tumbling Dice

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Re: when did u2 become a bunch of wankers?
« Reply #10 on: February 07, 2025, 10:10:21 PM »
On a human level, the four guys are decent blokes.  It's when you get onto the political and business/tax front that eyebrows are raised, not to mention many of their creative decisions over the past 25 years.
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Soloyan

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Re: when did u2 become a bunch of wankers?
« Reply #11 on: February 08, 2025, 05:21:25 AM »
I could use many names to qualify U2 members. Wankers is not one of them.

No way they could lower themselves to the gutter level of the Gallagher brothers.
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Larry's Lovebucket

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Re: when did u2 become a bunch of wankers?
« Reply #12 on: February 08, 2025, 09:37:04 AM »
I think ?wankers? is too strong a term. Bono, obviously, is the one who gets the most flak, and for good reason. I don?t believe him to be a ?wanker? though. Off the scale egotistical? Sure. Misguided? Sure. Greedy? Sure. But I think his heart is probably in the right place. His public image, however, is not.

As for the band losing their way? well that rooftop stunt was just embarrassing. But the real rot started setting in from 2000 onwards and they?ve become progressively more awful. The apple thing being, by some margin, the worst offender. I think most people here feel that way.
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Tumbling Dice

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Re: when did u2 become a bunch of wankers?
« Reply #13 on: February 08, 2025, 10:07:50 AM »
I think ?wankers? is too strong a term. Bono, obviously, is the one who gets the most flak, and for good reason. I don?t believe him to be a ?wanker? though. Off the scale egotistical? Sure. Misguided? Sure. Greedy? Sure. But I think his heart is probably in the right place. His public image, however, is not.

As for the band losing their way? well that rooftop stunt was just embarrassing. But the real rot started setting in from 2000 onwards and they?ve become progressively more awful. The apple thing being, by some margin, the worst offender. I think most people here feel that way.

So many questions.
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Larry's Lovebucket

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Re: when did u2 become a bunch of wankers?
« Reply #14 on: February 08, 2025, 10:25:16 AM »
I think ?wankers? is too strong a term. Bono, obviously, is the one who gets the most flak, and for good reason. I don?t believe him to be a ?wanker? though. Off the scale egotistical? Sure. Misguided? Sure. Greedy? Sure. But I think his heart is probably in the right place. His public image, however, is not.

As for the band losing their way? well that rooftop stunt was just embarrassing. But the real rot started setting in from 2000 onwards and they?ve become progressively more awful. The apple thing being, by some margin, the worst offender. I think most people here feel that way.

So many questions.

Well, you can blame the ?moderators? for that. At this rate, the footer will need changing at least once more, before the issue is resolved.
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