"U"and "V" Bands/Musos I Recall Seeing Somewhere

Getting Close To The End and Not Many In These Letters...14

Paul Busch

Nov 24, 2023

“In the “U” and “V” listings there are very few so they have been consolidated into this short post.

“X” “Y” and “Z” will be the same!

U.P. Wilson-Born in Louisiana and raised in Texas, U.P. was always UP for a boogie and he was a bit of a showman.

U2-Was never a huge U2 fan until I saw them live and saw what they could do in a stadium.

I was working for Air New Zealand and it was November 1993. I got a call from our ticket office in Melbourne from a stressed-out colleague. He said the ticket office was very busy and some tour manager from some band had come in and wanted to change flights and re-book other folks. He said they were coming to Sydney tomorrow and asked if I could look after it.
Sure….I told him to fax the details to me and I would take care of it. Below is a fax machine.

Before he hung up I asked him what was the name of the band.

“Some band called U2, I never heard of them”, he whined.

I hung up the phone and the next day I called up this guy who was looking after their travel and he said why don’t you come over to the Quay Apartments where they were staying in Sydney to work out the details.

I was working on Pitt Street at the time and I strolled over there and we worked out the details.

I had noticed the band was hanging around, no Bono, but Edge, Larry and Adam Clayton were chatting with Paul McGuiness. I was gathering up my stuff to go back to work and they offered me a Heineken.
We sat around chatting about New York and music and things and they offered me another beer but I had to get back to my day job.

I was standing up to leave and they said, “Are you going to the concert?”

“Well, I have not gotten tickets yet but probably will as I live not far from the Sydney Football Stadium”, I replied.

They laughed and asked me which night would I like to go to and of course I said, “BOTH!”

They lined me up with 4 excellent tickets to the shows on the 26th and 27th of November and passes to the after-party at the Stadium on the 27th.

Adam Clayton missed his first gig with U2 on the 26th of November due to an alcoholic blackout. He had been partying a bit hard with Naomi Campbell rumour has it. Their guitar tech filled in for him…..

On the 27th of November, the Zoo TV Concert was broadcast around the world as a pay-per-view event and eventually released as a DVD.

Both nights were excellent and the after-party was great but U2 never showed up while I was there, but we did have a ball.

My nephew, Jeff, was enamored with a very large U2 poster for the tour in Australia. He was just a teen and I was like take it down before somebody else does. He eventually worked up the nerve to remove it and he brought it back to Canberra.

Years later, because I thought it would be a beautiful piece of rock history, I asked him where it was.

“I threw it out”, he said. 3 decades have gone by now and I can’t recall the graphics exactly nor can I find one online. It should have been framed.

Ouch.

U2 was also the last gig I saw with my mate Steve “Tizza” Taylor. He had never seen U2 before and he loved the night. We had us some fun and I recall tears in his eyes as they did a tribute to Michael Hutchence.
It was one of those fabulous evenings all around.

**The Last Time I Saw U2 Doing The Joshua Tree Sydney -November 2019**

U2 perform at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday night. — U2 November 2019

UB40-And they are still on the road…..the road goes on forever. I think they are playing in St. Kilda in January 2024. I will not be there.

Utah Phillips-Old school folk artist and storyteller, they don’t make ‘em like this anymore.

Valerie June

Van Dyke Parks

Vapors-One hit wonders and as I researched this piece I saw that they re-formed in 2016 after 34 years of silence. I am not interested in finding out what they are up to. Saw them at Danceteria in NYC.