Category: Music

A few months ago, I mentioned my fondness for the droning/robotic music of the late 70s/early 80s. One of my favourite albums from that period is Gary Numan’s “Replicas.” The pre-“Cars” Numan always had a good mix of guitars to go along with the synths. “Replicas” really holds together well as a complete album, mainly due to the consistent imagery of a future filled with aliens and robots. It’s also an album with a lot of gay imagery, although I didn’t know that when I was 15. Any album which uses the word “boy” and “boys” that much in the lyrics should have tipped me off. Numan uses the alien/robot imagery as a good metaphor for difference in general, and his homosexuality in particular, feeling like an outsider, and responding by turning off emotions. It’s a powerful statement to an adolescent, who’s feeling awkward and powerless, to imagine himself as a machine. My friend Brent actually tells me he used to wonder quite seriously if he were a robot. I can’t wait to see A.I. with him.

By popular demand, more U2 photos by my pal Brad Saunders. Email him to obtain superfly prints.

• Bono
• Bono again
• Edge

Here’s one of my friend Brad’s pics from our encounter with U2 last weekend. I’ve got a couple more if anyone would like to see them. Brad is just an amazing photographer. I hope to feature some of his work in a new section I’m working on.

U2 played two shows in Toronto on Thursday and Friday night. After meeting my birthday friend Brad (see below) and his wife Rebecca on Friday for dinner, he informed Brooke and I that U2 were coming by Muchmusic for an interview thing after their show, and that they were going to go (Brad’s a pretty huge U2 fan). So, we waited two and a half hours in the rain outside with hordes of screaming fans. And we saw them. At one point, they came out to the open window area where we were standing and we were about 6 feet away. That was pretty cool. But there were times when I wanted to punch some of the bozos in the crowd. I mean, some of them really need to get a life.

This was as close as I got during REM’s free concert last Thursday in Toronto. Good thing the screen was there. They played about 75 minutes, and really seemed to enjoy playing for the 20,000 or so of us who had turned up.