Is U2 and Vegas a perfect marriage?
As the band announce they will take up residency on the famous strip
WHAT are U2 thinking? That was the principal reaction of most when they heard the news. Eschewing the pomp of their stadium tours, playing to up to 100,000 people a night from stages that got ever more elaborate over the years, the band, like many of their age, are now downsizing. Last week, it was announced they would play a residency at the MSG Sphere, a new concert venue under construction in Las Vegas.
On reflection, it makes a lot of sense, though. With a capacity of 17,500, it will feel a great deal more intimate for fans, with much shorter sightlines than are possible in the likes of Croke Park or Wembley. For U2, there is another, more understandable, reason for their commitment. Touring, for all its glamour, is exhausting, and now that they’ve all turned 60, why travel to the audience when the audience can travel to them?
And, of course, there’s the money. A Vegas residency is a licence to print it, and with the euro/dollar exchange rate now at parity, the potential rewards are enormous. Over the course of two separate stints, Celine Dion’s shows grossed a staggering $780million, of which she personally squirreled away an estimated $200million.
But while U2 prepare to plant the Tricolour on the fabled Strip (or, more accurately, just behind the Venetian Hotel that fronts onto it), they should bear in mind they are not the first Irish act to attempt to conquer Sin City. Other homegrown stars ventured there before them – and with varying degrees of success.
AT the top end was Brendan Bowyer, the former Royal, and Big Eight, showband superstar who became the Irish king of Vegas, numbering Elvis Presley himself among his fans and friends. At the other end was Red Hurley, who ironically turned his back on the Nevada showband to try his luck in the actual Nevada, only to return home soon after. The headline in the Sunday World was one of the most coruscating, and most memorable, of the last few decades, when it proclaimed: Red Fails In The Sun Set.
Bowyer was altogether more successful. In 1971, he and the Big Eight decided to split their year between Ireland and Vegas, working six months at a time in each. Within a short time, they decided to stay permanently, and it was Bowyer’s home until his death two years ago at the age of 81.
It wasn’t all plain sailing. In an interview with the Sunday World last year, his daughter Clodagh recalled the time Brendan became collateral damage in a much more serious situation. ‘My dad had a six-month residency in a Las Vegas hotel owned by the Mafia, who ran Vegas at the time,’ she said. ‘Just as he was due to come back to take up his residency in Vegas after a trip to Ireland, the Mafia guys who hired him were jailed. Dad didn’t have the contract anymore because they were gone.’ He ended up staying in Ireland for two years, working the circuit here and sending money to his family in the United States before he was hired again.
Bowyer’s friendship with Elvis began in 1966, when they were photographed together on the set of the film, Spinout. When Brendan played the Stardust in the late Sixties, Elvis attended the show several times as he readied himself to return to live shows after an eight-year absence from the stage.
In an interview with Hot Press, Bowyer recalled sitting with Elvis and bandmate Tom Dunphy, who in that forthright Irish way asked: ‘We all know, Elvis, you had ambitions to be a movie star, so why did you go on to make all those grade B movies?’ Elvis, it seems, took it in good part.
As Brendan told interviewer Joe Jackson, the superstar even once let the audience know he was there. ‘I was on stage, doing my Elvis medley, and suddenly I noticed the crowd was going even wilder than usual,’ he explained. ‘I thought to myself, this is great, I must be really going down well. What had actually happened was that Elvis had been at the main showroom in the Stardust and, passing by, heard us doing his stuff, so he slipped out on stage and stood right beside the curtain and waved to the audience, giving them the Elvis wiggle!
‘And they went berserk at that! Then he waved at me and ran off! I later heard he said he’d been planning to come see us and would definitely be back the next night, which he was, with his entire entourage, including [his wife] Priscilla.’
Bowyer’s shows became a place of pilgrimage for visiting Irish stars, among them Bob Geldof, Gabriel Byrne, Liam Neeson, Colm Meaney and a certain Bono. ‘I remember Bono talking about Dad on RTÉ television and saying how one of the highlights of an early American tour was meeting Brendan Bowyer,’ another daughter, Aisling, said. ‘U2 shot the video for I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For in downtown Las Vegas and then afterwards went into Dad’s show. I was a huge U2 fan growing up and still am, and Dad got me to meet them backstage many times.’
Naturally, those two Irish showbusiness juggernauts, Riverdance and Lord Of The Dance, also had multiple appearances in Las Vegas; indeed, Michael Flatley danced publicly for the last time in the city on St Patrick’s Day 2016. It also has been a stopping off point for Irish acts touring the world, including The Cranberries, The Script, and Van Morrison, as well as performers such as The Irish Tenors and Celtic Woman, who weave in traditional airs for the Irish-American audience.
MUCH of the criticism of U2’s decision to follow in their footsteps is based on an outmoded impression of what Las Vegas has become. For the most part, the mob has been run out of town. The appeal of gambling has lessened with the opening of casinos all across America, exploiting a loophole that allows them operate on Native American land, even where state law prohibits them. city has reinvented itself as a destination for families, with themed attractions on par with the likes of Orlando and California. And, rather surprisingly, the hip-hop crowd also lionises the poolside cabanas and bars of the swankier hotels. The city is at the heart of the electronic dance music scene in the western United States, given that it is an hour’s flight from Las Vegas, and hugely popular with an affluent young Hollywood crowd who think nothing of dropping several thousand dollars on a weekend away.
In that context, U2’s residency makes perfect sense. Older fans will go to see them, but so too will children raised on their music, and all ages in between.
The €1.8billion Sphere offers a chance to stage shows just as spectacular as any they have mounted in stadiums, with stateof the art sound systems that even pump the music through speakers in the floor.
It is the perfect deal, both commercially and personally. To paraphrase an old saying, it if happens in Vegas, it might as well stay in Vegas.