Killing Bono (39 page)
Authors: Neil McCormick
Instead, they cast young Irish actor Marty McCann. He was spooky. I was on the set for a scene at the launch party of
The Joshua Tree
when Marty appeared, in character, and I just caught him out of the corner of my eye and turned, thinking, for a split second, “It's Bono. What's he doing here?” Marty has a way of jutting his chin and pumping up his chest, the walk of a boxer getting ready for the big fight, that spins me back twenty years through time. Then he'll drop the whole thing, and chatter away in a merry Northern Ireland accent.
While they were shooting, I called Bono and told him the actor playing him was more like him than he was himself.
“Just as long as he's tall,” said Bono. And then added, after a moment's thought, “And modest.”
Tall and modest. Well, perhaps not the characteristics most people would associate with Bono.
So, in an effort to bring this enterprise to some conclusion (this being not so much a third act as a fifth), the book you have just read has become a film. If you've seen it, you will know it doesn't stick too closely to the original. Film has its own language, and the screenwriters went to some lengths to create visual metaphors for what was, essentially, an internal, psychological journey. And they gave me that third act, which is a lot more dramatic than anything I managed to come up with for myself. I think of it as a kind of riff on the themes of my book, my life in a parallel universe, where I still don't get to be a rock star, but I do get the best lines.
Ivan, on the other hand, tells everyone that it's exactly the way it was. He was the real star in the family. And I ruined his life.
People tell me the film is very funny and I am prepared to believe them. I can only watch it through my fingers, squirming with humiliation.
As a child, of course, I firmly believed that one day someone would make a film of my life. It just never occurred to me it would be a comedy.
Still, like I said at the start of this book, what seems a whole lifetime ago â¦
⦠I always knew I would be famous.
The ever-changing image of a wannabe rock star.
Neil McCormick from 1963 to 2003:
clean-cut kid to hairy rocker and back again.
M
ount Temple class of '78. Bono is front row, third from left, with his arm resting on Ali. There is something already so assertive about his pose. Dave Evans (the Edge) is fourth row from the back, bang in the middle of the photo, with a big mop of hair, a tie and a badge, which no doubt bore the legend U2. Neil is second row, sixth from right, also wearing a badge, which no doubt bore the legend Frankie Corpse and the Undertakers. Adam had already been expelled by the time this picture was taken.
T
he second gig, in the Mount Temple school car park, 1978. The Undertakers on top, left to right, Neil, Keith, Ivan, Frank. U2, looking a good deal more professional below: Adam, Bono and Edge (with Larry obscured by kit).
T
he Modulators live at Howth Community Centre, 1978. From left, John McGlue, Eric Dennehy, Neil and Ivan. One of the many drummers who only lasted a single performance, Eric was given the punk name Hopeless Eric, which proved sadly prophetic when he fled at the end of the show, quaking from nerves, and was never heard from again.
N
eil trying not to set light to Bono during a photo shoot for a
Hot Press
poster campaign.
(photo credit: Colm Henry)
Y
eah! Yeah! attempt to fulfill the author's Beatles fantasies. The only trouble was the McCormick brothers both wanted to be Ringo. Left to right: Leo, Deco, Neil and Ivan.
H
ot Press
Awards, 1981. Bono contemplating the notorious Elvis Award (designed by Neil) that fell apart the moment he accepted it.
(photo credit: Colm Henry)
“The women in my personal passport booth⦔
1.
Neil and Barbara McCarney, the first love of his life, 1980. The bowler hat became useful during Busking sessions.”
2.
Neil and Joan Cody, the second love of his life, 1986, approaching heartbreak point.
3.
Neil and Gloria Elseâ¦true love at last! 1989, worth the wait.
The official new-look Yeah! Yeah!, 1983. It was a very colorful period in pop music. It was pictures like this that seemed to get the rather camp Billy Gaff excited about themâ¦. until he discovered they were brothers.
