U2 Live & Dangerous - The Joshua Tree Tour

“It was very black and white, very impressionistic...”

I’d actually been stalking U2 for a while before I met them. I had been working with Stiff Little Fingers, but had recently discovered U2 and loved them. I called Paul McGuinness at home to see if they needed someone to take care of lighting and staging and he said they did. I nearly dropped the phone!

I met them at a recording session in Maida Vale and, in a funny way, it just felt like I belonged there. They were about to release the War album and the energy and excitement around them was infectious. I really enjoyed how funny they were. They really are like classmates to this day, with all the in-jokes and references that go with that. And as clichéd as it might sound, it does feel like family. So I had really grown into things by the time The Joshua Tree came around.

I’ve had the privilege of being around several bands at that moment where the rocket takes off – and there’s just nothing like it. They had released the video for ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’, were on the cover of Time magazine. We had been trying to take a punk anti-production aesthetic into arenas, as at that time large productions were considered gauche, but within minutes of the tour starting, we knew that it would have to move from the arenas we had planned-for, into larger stadiums.

Bruce Springsteen was a big inspiration for the band. They saw how, with very little production, you could still reach people in big venues. We also wanted to do something that had a real aesthetic, and a real stance to it. What we did still resonates. It was very black and white, very impressionistic. There were big gestures, but very simple ideas. In many ways the indoor shows were more successful, because we had more time to plan them, but the music was so big that even in a stadium in broad daylight, those songs absolutely reached the back corners.

I was profoundly relieved to see that the show went off without a hitch on the first night, as during the final rehearsal, Bono fell off the stage and hit himself in the mouth with the hand-held lamp! He ended up in hospital. In a way, maybe that helped! We were so relieved that the four members of the band were standing upright on opening night, it might have helped us overcome some of the opening night jitters.

We hadn’t planned for the Rattle And Hum film, which documents the Joshua Tree Tour, at all. We were very lucky to end up in the hands of Phil Joanou who directed the movie. He was very much one of the gang and shared in the band’s excitement. He brought in Jordan Cronenweth, who was the cinematographer on Blade Runner. So Rattle And Hum is where punk met Blade Runner!

With Joshua Tree, we had to start using video screens in the US, because of the size of the stadiums. It was just one screen on the back of the mix position. That was a compromise, as the band were worried at the time that if there were cameras and big screens, people would be watching the screens, and they themselves would be performing for the cameras. What a difference a few years makes! After that tour, I spent three years working with David Bowie and I saw that touring video systems were the future, and that with U2, we hadn’t even scratched the surface of what they could do.

When I got back, we had a summit in the Canary Islands and the band – all dressed in women’s clothing I might add! – played me this amazing music that would become Achtung Baby. They were clearly about to blow up everything that they’d been `before that. I had this idea for making a stage that was actually a video installation, to which Bono added, “No, we should tell the world that U2 is taking a TV station on the road.” That was the final piece that made Zoo TV happen. It was the perfect storm: they had the moment, and they had the music to do it.