Channel 4 showed a Kylie special last night and I was just watching the Bono thing again (God that man is so funny! Loved his impression of Robbie, although everyone does Robbie with a Manchester accent when we all know he is from my neck of the woods!).....and in the middle of it Kylie says something very poignant, and I am sure that it is the same for U2 and us. She was asked what it was like doing a show and she said:
"For me it's much more than doing a show and having an audience. It's pretty much safe to say that 99% of the audience know me or have had some experience that involves me that I don't even know about. This is my cosmic thing so it's a little hard to explain. It's a collision of energy between the audience and myself and every night it's different."
It rings so true for us, being the U2 audience, and it is very canny of her to say that people have experiences involving her that she doesn't even know about. Many of us feel that we know Bono (or the others) very well, and some of that is him and the fact that we have been in his company a few times, but a lot of it is in our own minds. By that I mean, U2 and their music is significant in our lives for a whole number of reasons, and it plays as our soundtrack as we go through life. We associate certain events with the band, and they are comfortable friends for many reasons.
Their music can give us so much: a definite peace in troubled times; a window on the world and its troubles that we might not have noticed were it not for them; a group of friends that we cherish and may never have met otherwise. Little wonder then that they are so significant to us, and often it is hard to separate the fantasy from the truth, and it is bound to get confused. But in a good way - for the most part, because there are the obsessive fans of course.
Bono has often said that he understands how we love the music but not him necessarily. Maybe that is modesty on his part. Because millions of us can't be wrong! Maybe we just recognise and appreciate the heart and soul that produces the music that makes us think. It makes it hard NOT to want to know the person responsible for such beauty and passion.
Just me musing today. Who would have thought that Kylie would make me do that?!
