'Back to the pure essence'

6 Dec 2006
Bono is on the cover of the new Q Magazine, along with Noel Gallagher, and the band talk about working with Rick Rubin, in an interview at the Q Awards.

Here's a couple of choice quotes to whet your appetites:

Edge on working with Rick Rubin: 'Rick's whole thing is to strip things back to the pure essence. That's his version of innovation and that's what he's trying to encourage us to do. Over the years we never thought that we were that interesting, so we were always trying to find other things to do with our sound or our personality. Put it through the mincer in a way. It's an interesting process to turn it completely around.'

Larry on a photo in the 'U2 by U2' book in which he is, allegedly, wearing a 'midriff-bearing T-shirt and bell-bottom flares: 'What's been in fashion for the last 10 years? I figured out - back then - that in about 25 years that stuff would come back into fashion. I was right. If you watch most of the young rockers at today's event a lot of them will be wearing the very same bell-bottoms that I was wearing. I had a vision of the future.'

Q Awards photo gallery here.

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