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| From | Greg Cagle <gregc@gregcagle.com> |
| Subject | Re: Bono continues to prove U2 are boneheads... |
| Date | Fri, 22 Oct 2004 14:36:40 -0700 |
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This is old news around here (Portland). Whenever U2 comes
to town this is discussed and Bono mentions it from onstage
now and again. I was at the concert where the
briefcase was ripped off; supposedly what happened were some
groupie-types got themselves backstage and made off with the
goods. I've appended an article from today's Oregonian that
has more detail.
- Greg
Jaimie Vernon wrote:
> Is it just me or do these guys seem to have no sense of propriety
> where their copyrights are concerned? They've lost master tapes for
> one album and the final mixes to another and now this is revealed:
>
> Friday, October 22, 2004 CANOE - Jam! Showbiz
>
> Bono finds his missing 'October' lyrics
<snip>
--------------------------------------------------------
Oregonian article follows:
> A lyrical quest for Bono ends where it began Portland is at center
> stage as fans set out to right a wrong after discovering long lost U2
> material
>
> Friday, October 22, 2004 DYLAN RIVERA
>
> Danielle Rheaume was trading e-mails with work mate Cindy Harris
> about their favorite band, when Harris made a startling claim.
>
> I've got some of U2's things, Harris wrote her last October. I'll
> tell you about it sometime.
>
> "No, tell me about it now -- I have to see it!" Rheaume said she
> wrote back.
>
> Rheaume suspected the items Harris possessed might include legendary
> lyrics thought to have been stolen in Portland in the early 1980s.
> The loss had forced U2 to hastily rewrite its second album,
> "October."
>
> The next day at work in Olympia, Rheaume knew she was right.
>
> Harris produced a zippered, clear plastic bag -- the kind bed
> comforters come in. The bag held a black binder, a blue hand-sized
> spiral notebook, photos and documents. A work visa bore lead singer
> Bono's given name, Paul Hewson. The notebook contained scrawled ideas
> for song titles, including future hits such as "Sunday Bloody
> Sunday."
>
> From that moment, the then-26-year-old Rheaume, a Bono fan since age
> 8, resolved what to do with the collection: "I began my quest to get
> it back to him."
>
> For years, Rheaume said, she had a feeling she would meet Bono one
> day. The papers were certainly her chance, because he had sought them
> so long.
>
> But first, she faced a puzzle: how to return belongings to an
> international celebrity who pays a staff to help fend off strangers?
>
> U2's early loss
>
> Several books about U2 mention a Portland concert on March 22, 1981,
> after which Bono's briefcase disappeared. The band, then a niche
> college-radio upstart, was touring to support "Boy," its first album.
> It played to a handful of people at the Foghorn Tavern in the Gateway
> area. Three women later joined the band backstage.
>
> They must be groupies, the band figured, according to "Into the
> Heart," a book of stories about U2 songs. The women flirted and
> eventually departed. Later, the band suspected they were thieves:
> Bono's briefcase was gone.
>
> "Bono was devastated," Eamon Dunphy wrote in "Unforgettable Fire," a
> U2 biography. "It wasn't the money, the passport, the personal
> knick-knacks. It was the words he had written. And the breach of
> trust."
>
> The loss, several books say, also left the singer scrambling to
> re-create months of work.
>
> Bono ended up re-writing songs in the studio. Band members said the
> session was their worst studio experience. The effort also generated
> U2's least popular release.
>
> Two years later, when the band performed at Portland's Paramount
> Theater, now the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Bono asked if anyone
> had seen the briefcase. He repeated the question at the Rose Garden
> arena in 2001.
>
> Belongings recovered
>
> After Harris moved into a rental house in Tacoma in 1983, she said,
> her husband found a beat-up brown briefcase sitting alone in the
> attic.
>
> Harris quickly concluded the briefcase belonged to U2, but she did
> not hear about the reported theft for several years, she said. Her
> husband wound up using the briefcase. Harris put its contents into
> the plastic bag, hoping to preserve them but unsure what to do.
>
> "I had started a family, and I thought it would be impossible to ever
> get ahold of them and let them know that I have these items,"
> recalled Harris, 44.
>
> But when Rheaume came along, awed by the collection, Harris felt her
> friend could return it .
>
> Rheaume carefully organized the items, placed them in a safe and set
> about contacting the band.
>
> She e-mailed a London friend who worked for a fan Web site
> (www.U2log.com). The friend got Rheaume in touch with a woman at U2's
> management firm. For months, Rheaume said, she pleaded for a chance
> to deliver the collection.
>
> The management firm suggested U2 might fly Harris and Rheaume to
> Ireland. But that didn't work out.
>
> An East Coast band appearance? Not that one, either.
>
> Rheaume grew frustrated.
>
> Then, last summer, she suggested a meeting to coincide with Bono's
> lecture Wednesday for the World Affairs Council of Oregon. The
> management firm agreed.
>
> Rheaume said she was anxious for the delivery to happen this time.
> But she said a Bono aide reassured her: Don't worry, it will happen .
>
>
> Sure enough, Rheaume and Harris met Bono at the Benson Hotel lobby
> Wednesday afternoon. Rheaume finally had her moment. One by one, she
> showed Bono the photos, lyrics and letters.
>
> She also found out why it took so long to reach the rock star: He had
> told his staff the women were taking good care of his long-lost
> belongings.
>
> That night, as Rheaume and Harris sat in the ninth-row Rose Garden
> seats Bono had given them, he announced the lyrics' return and
> thanked the women.
>
> "I," Rheaume said, "was on the edge of my seat."
>
> PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A long-lost briefcase full of notes and lyrics
> that were intended for the 1981 U2 album October has been returned,
> 23 years after it was stolen at a Portland concert.
>
> U2 frontman Bono made the announcement Wednesday during an appearance
> before the World Affairs Council of Oregon, saying the returned
> notes were "an act of grace."
>
> Bono had to rewrite the October lyrics in the studio, and band
> members called it their worst recording experience. Though the record
> was generally well-received, it didn't earn the praise of the band's
> debut album, Boy, or third album, War.
>
> The briefcase was returned by Cindy Harris, 44, who said she found it
> in the attic of a rental home in Tacoma, Wash., in 1981. She said she
> did not know the notes had been stolen until many years later, and
> then she had no idea how to reach the band.
>
> Her friend Danielle Rheaume spent much of the past year contacting
> U2's management.
>
> According to Into the Heart, a book of stories about U2 songs, the
> briefcase was stolen by some women who joined the band backstage at a
> now-defunct Portland nightclub.
>
> The band returned to Portland a few years after the theft and Bono
> asked the audience if anyone knew about the briefcase. He repeated
> the question when the band played at the Rose Garden arena in 2001.
> (More on U2)
>
> Jaimie Vernon, Bullseye
>
>
>
>
--
Greg Cagle
gregc at gregcagle dot com
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