bono adam clayton larry mullen the edge me © 1996-2004 khanada rhodes |
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like his prep school before, adam resented boarding school life and as he began to grow older would rebel more and more against it. one of his main friends at saint columba's was a boy called john lesley, who introduced adam to some of the main album orientated groups of the era. john played guitar and persuaded adam that he would be able to play bass guitar and join the band that he was forming. adam asked his mother to buy him a bass guitar in return for working harder in school. she paid £52 for the guitar in 1975, but after more misdemeanours including breaking a "gating" order not to leave the school premises and smoking, his parents decided to take him out of the school and send him to a local state school - mount temple. adam started at mount temple in september 1976, but even with its relaxed attitude he continued to break the rules and rebel against authority. actions such as drinking coffee in class and streaking down the school's main corridor ultimately led to him being asked to leave in march 1978. although adam did very little work at mount temple, he had come across larry mullen and his note asking for people to join his band. due to the fact that he had a bass guitar and had been in a band already - the max quad band - he got the gig. after leaving mount temple, adam in many ways stepped into the role of manager for the group, badgering anyone with a connection in the music business for advice, including bill graham, steve averill, and phil lynott. once paul mcguinness became the band's manager, adam seemed to move away from the centre of the group, especially when the other three member became committed christians. on the early tours, adam would tend to spend more time off stage with paul mcguinness, rather than with the other three who would be studying their bibles. nevertheless, the fact that he was asked by bono to be his best man at his wedding to alison stewart in 1982 showed that he was still close to the other three. similarly, he took part in the recording session of the band aid single, "do they know it's christmas" with bono. as adam has admitted, his bass playing at first was not that good - he was completely self taught - but with determination to succeed as a musician and from playing a large number of gigs in the first years of the band's existence, his bass playing improved considerably. notable musical contributions by adam to U2 have included "new year's day," "with or without you," and "dirty day." adam has had his fair share of publicity. in august 1989, he was arrested in dublin after being found in possession of a small amount of cannabis. the resulting court case left him with a £25,000 fine - donated to the dublin women's aid refuge centre. then in 1993 when he became engaged to supermodel naomi campbell, it seemed like he was never out of the headlines; more a celebrity than a musician. the messy ending of the engagement as reported in several british sunday newspapers only served to send adam further downwards into alcohol dependency. this came to a head in sydney, australia when, as a result of a massive hangover from an alcoholic binge, he missed playing with the band at their sydney football stadium gig on november 26, 1993. this brought things to a head and from then on he has stayed off the alcohol. in 1994 he settled in new york city (along with larry) and started having bass lessons to increase his understanding of the instrument. in the period between the zoo tv and popmart tours he branched out musically, working with several other artists away from U2, including nanci griffiths (flyer) and little stephen( ("born again savage"). 1995's original soundtracks 1 courtesy of the passengers contained the first recorded vocal by adam on the track "your blue room," even it was spoken! then in 1996 in collaboration with larry he had a top 10 hit in the uk with "theme from mission: impossible." on both pop and all that you can't leave behind, adam has continued to shine musically, on tracks such as "mofo," "please," "beautiful day," and "walk on." in recognition of his sterling bass work with U2, adam won bassist of the year award at the gibson guitar awards ceremony in los angeles in february 2000. adam, or sparky as he is sometimes called, is now more than ever committed to the band that he first pushed and promoted way back in 1978. U2
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