Page 105 - Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Coverage Book 2023-24

Irish rockers U2 pictured in 1982 (Image: Getty)

“I don’t know,” Sergeant says, pointing out how the question is impossible to
answer as they were all so discomfited by money and fame.

He adds: “If you want to measure us on the U2 Richter scale, we were
probably at one point fairly level. But U2 toured for 18 months in America in a

converted Greyhound bus, and they just blitzed the place and played
everywhere. The most we did [in America] was six weeks, and we’d had

enough. They worked a lot harder than us and deserved what they got.”

In his memoir, Sergeant remembers how, in September 1980, U2 were

supporting the Bunnymen at the Lyceum in London. During the soundcheck,
the devoutly Christian Bono started talking to Sergeant about Jesus.

“I’m not the type to be preached at,” Sergeant writes of the slightly awkward
encounter. “It is all a bit odd. We have heard about U2’s religious zealotry, and

now here it is in action: young Bono is trying to turn a snotty heathen to the
light. Even when I was in the choir, the vicar never bothered with that idea.”