LIKE THEM OR not, it’s hard to deny that when it comes to iconic concert stages U2 seem to know what they’re doing.
The Artane rock behemoths have made it something of a calling card that each of their album tours will have a specific hook to make things memorable for their audience, from Zooropa’s Macphisto and The Fly to Popmart’s lemon, Vertigo’s LED curtains and stage ramps to the huge stage structure of their 360 tour.
And now a northside Dublin councillor wants to immortalise the band’s various concert stages by finding a spot somewhere in the county to display them.
Fianna Fáil councillor Darragh Butler brought the issue up at a recent Fingal county council meeting and the issue is due to be discussed again at today’s meeting.
“In terms of the massive world-wide tourism potential, to ask the Chief Executive to investigate U2′s desire to display the stages from their past tours at a permanent location in Dublin, potentially I would like to suggest, somewhere in north Fingal?” was Butler’s question to the council.
“It’s funny the interest this is getting,” he told TheJournal.ie.
It came from listening to the Tony Fenton interview with Bono where he mentioned that he’d love to put these stages somewhere.
That interview, the veteran DJ’s last recorded, saw Bono mention his enthusiasm for the project.
“What I would actually like to do – the band’s dream is to have a site in Dublin where we could show these stages and people could walk on them and walk around them,” the singer said.
At some point I would love to do that. I think they’re interesting sculpturally, and as objects.
“I was just putting it out as an option for consideration,” says Butler.
We’d have to see if it’s economically viable, but it would be some coup for local tourism if it were to happen, be that in a temporary or more permanent fashion.
The response I got is that the economic development unit of the council will explore the merits of the idea as a potential tourism project. So I guess we’ll see, but I just wanted to put the idea out there.
And where would Butler like the exhibit to happen, given the rather large nature of most of U2′s stage offerings?
“Well I’m based in Swords, so somewhere in the north of the county or Fingal would obviously be what I would prefer,” says Butler.
But there’s a big push for tourism in Dublin at present, and we can see what the payback would be in jobs – so it’s something I’d really love to see happen.
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