So, ageing president-botherer and shades-wearer Bono has gone and hurt his back, forcing the rescheduling of a huge swathe of U2 tour dates whilst he undergoes rehabilitation. It sounds like it was a pretty harrowing injury, from all accounts: the doctor who treated him is quoted as saying that the injury was a herniated disc, which caused a partial paralysis of the lower leg. Other details which came out suggest that there was some kind of fall during rehearsal, and that he was immediately rushed to hospital.
Now, you might be expecting a bit of a dig at wrinkled rock stars and bad backs, but as it happens I’m in slightly charitable mood. I’m also recovering from a very minor back injury myself (an unfortunate accident involving my fiance and a trampoline, which sounds fantastically salacious when I type it down, so it’s staying unexplained!) so I can quite imagine the pain poor old Bono’s in.
Still, it does serve as one of those strange reminders of mortality, and the passing of time. When someone you remember as the rock and roll firebrands of your youth is sidelined with an injury like this, it does make you think about how time claims us all.
Bono, in his younger days, was a classic rock and roll show-off, running about the place, diving into the audience and generally doing whatever he could to grab everyone’s attention.
Here’s U2 live in 1983: check how Bono climbs up onto the camera boom. Whether or not you like U2 or see them as blustering rock dinosaurs, you have to admit that seeing someone do something like this would be a pretty cool thing to see a singer do at a gig:
You see, live music’s about seeing something unusual, some crazy unexpected event that isn’t in the script. The best frontmen are always doing things that mean you can’t tear your eyes away. Maybe in future, this might just mean that Bono won’t be quite so keen to do something like that. That’d be perhaps the moment in a rock star’s life where they maybe accept that they’re growing old.
In some ways, I’d like to see that- ‘Get On Your Boots’ was just embarrassing, like seeing your dad dance at a wedding. Whilst I do think rock stars have the right to grow old disgracefully, there is something to be said for self-knowledge. If this marked the moment that Bono stopped trying to be a rock and roll wild child and matured into something different, well, that might be very interesting.
Get well soon, Bono. And don’t be afraid to act your age.