Bono

At the Armadillo in Glasgow this evening to see Stories of Surrender, in which U2 frontman Bono promoted his recently published memoir Surrender - 40 Songs, One Story.
Billed as ‘an evening of words, music and some mischief’ it was an interesting and effective look back at key moments in his life through the prism of some U2 songs, and also very much framed around the loss of his mother in his teenage years and his subsequent relationship with his father.
Fascinating to hear him speak of the aftermath of the Live Aid concert prompting him and his wife to spend some time in Ethiopia and how that galvanised his subsequent well-documented activism around poverty, debt-relief and AIDS. To paraphrase some of what he said – Fame is a currency, you (fans) gave that to us and as a band frontman I used that front to speak with politicians and government representatives who held the levers to make change. He also said that of all the many government finance ministers he’s dealt with that no one was more committed to tackling child poverty than Gordon Brown.
 
Photo is of the Armadillo just before the event.
This was the first event I’ve attended where there was not just a ‘no phones’ policy but where the phones were locked away to create a truly phone-free environment. Very effective system.