U2 Toast Long-Serving Manager's 60th Birthday on Stage (Video Inside)
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Saturday, 18 June 2011 |
Written by Elliott Batte
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Irish rock veterans U2 paid tribute to their long-serving manager Paul McGuiness on stage yesterday, after 35 successful years at the top.
Performing at the Angels Stadium, in Anaheim, California, the band was nearing the end of their humongous two year tour which commenced in June 2009. With the ‘U2 360° Tour’ now named as the highest-grossing concert tour of all time, the band decided to toast their manager’s birthday by bringing him on stage.
Celebrating his 60th birthday, McGuiness looked on at the massive crowd alongside the band while the stadium audience all joined in to sing happy birthday to the elated fellow, as frontman Bono said to the crowd: “For the first time ever on a U2 stage, Paul McGuiness!”
In a heart-warming speech, Bono explained how he had been backstage at every U2 gig without ever appearing on stage, and admitted “Without this man, things might have turned out a little differently.”
Then, vocalist Bono went on to explain how different ‘a little differently’ could be, by revealing what all the members of the band would be in their days if it wasn’t for McGuiness keeping the band together.
To the delight of fans, Bono stated that bassist Adam Clayton would be a handbag designer, drummer Larry Mullen Jr. would be a Dublin Highway Patrolman, the Edge a city planner (after his bid to build mansions in Malibu was turned down) and Bono himself, of course, a theatre critic, following his and the Edge’s Spiderman musical, which received mixed reviews.
A video of the toast can be seen below.
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