My Interview with U2 - A Diary Author Matt McGee
Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Matt McGee, founder and webmaster of award-winning U2 fansite @U2.com, about his upcoming book U2 - A Diary.




U2 has been around for a long time now--almost three decades!--and there have been thousands of books, newspaper and magazine articles, and interviews published about the 40-somethings and their rock band. How is your book different?

m2: It's different because it tells the history of the band in a timeline/ diary format. But that's just a formatting issue. What I set out to do was use the timeline structure to draw conclusions and inferences between one event and another. When you have everything laid out in chronological order, you can draw conclusions that say what happened on such-and-such date wouldn't have been possible if not for this other event that happened three years earlier. You can make connections and show the band's development over time, why they made certain decisions and did certain things. That, I think, is what makes
U2-A Diary different from other U2 history/biography books.

Plus, I'm one of you. I came at this book as a fan, and had the viewpoint that maybe some events and stories have never been emphasized enough for their importance in the U2 story. So that should make it different, too.


With 14 studio albums, some 11 world tours, and countless live appearances, how did you filter all of that history into just one book?

[Laughs] there was almost no filtering at all -- if U2 did something, or if one of the band members did something, I put it in the book. I really tried to avoid being judgmental in the sense of "This isn't important enough to be in the book." Sometimes even the littlest things become important later. Here's an example: In late 1986, U2 went to see a BB King concert in Dublin and they visited with him in King's dressing room after the show. On its own, that sounds like a pretty unimportant event with no bearing on U2's career. Except we know that Bono would later write a song for King and take him on tour in 1989-1990. So that little event was pretty darn important, and needs to be in a book like this.

You mention all the tours and live appearances, so I should add that every concert U2 has ever done is in the book. But, since U2 Live - A Concert Documentary already does a phenomenal job going into the setlists and stories of what happened at each show, I leave out most of those details in U2 - A Diary.


What was the hardest part of writing this comprehensive, day-to-day look at U2?

I think stopping was the hardest part. There are still several questions that I have about certain dates and events -- things that I couldn't put in the book because I didn't have answers, or didn't have enough information to really trust putting it in the book. And so it was kinda hard to say, I'm done. Stop. Send in the manuscript. I could probably research the book for 10 more years and not feel finished.


Just on a side note, has the band given its blessings for the book? Have its members contributed to your project?

Early on, we got in touch with Principle Management to let them know that the book was in development. And then we contacted them again near the end for assistance in locating and securing photographs. They were quite helpful with that, putting us in touch with photographers we couldn't locate otherwise. But I didn't ask for any interviews with the band or anything like that. They were busy enough in 2006-07 with their own projects [grins].


Finally, to wrap up, what is your favourite feature of the book? What story are you most fond of?

I think I'm most proud of the story surrounding their involvement with the Christian movement/Shalom in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I really spent a lot of time digging into that, and had tremendous help from a few friends who were able to locate magazine articles and interviews from that time period that have never been in wide circulation.
I know there's been a lot of different versions of what happened, and when things happened, but I'm optimistic that the version in U2-A DIARY is as accurate and fair as possible.


Thanks again to Matt for taking the time to answer my questions. U2 - A Diary hits shelves October 13; but, in the meantime, you can visit Amazon.com: U2 - A Diary and Amazon.co.uk: U2 - A Diary to place your orders online.

You can also check out U2Diary.com for more information on U2 - A Diary and contact Matt here.

Also, you can check out the cover art for the book here.


Edit: If you like this interview, please vote for it at U2Diary.com. My name is Ernesto and the option to vote for me is toward the bottom. Thanks!!!

x-posted to http://community.livejournal.com/u2/