U2, in the middle of their Innocence + Experience tour, have set up shop in London for a series of shows at the O2 Arena, and Monday night’s show, the second of the six sold-out shows, brought out human quote generator Noel Gallagher to close the show.
“We’d like to bring out one of my heroes, one of the band’s heroes, to help us with this tune. Will you welcome to the stage, the high flying bird himself, Noel Gallagher.”
The leader of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and former captain of Oasis joined the band for “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” with a snippet of the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love” tacked onto the end for good measure. Gallagher, acoustic guitar in hand, traded verses and harmonized with Bono, who Gallagher lovingly calls Father Bono and has gushingly admitted to a fondness for hanging out with the U2 frontman.
“Of all the people I know, he’s the most fun to hang out with, for sure. He’s a funny f*cker, and he can drink. And he’s got big ideas — for his band and for my music as well, which is astonishing. He’s always giving me titles for songs and albums.”
Of course, Gallagher has thrown shade at U2 in the past (“Play ‘One,’ shut the f*ck up about Africa,”) but has gone out of his way to praise the band in recent interviews after seeing U2 play earlier this year in California, he told Rolling Stone:
“God bless that band because they do take that side of it very seriously. I’ve been privy to discussions about what they were going to do. Part of me thinks, “Oh, thank God I don’t have to worry about that ’cause I really don’t give a f*ck about that side of it.” Get me up there, plug me in. That’s my sh*t. But because they are the biggest band in the world and they care about their shows and all that kind of thing, they have to keep outdoing themselves, and it’s great for us as fans because you’re getting to see something different every night.”
The Innocence + Experience tour sticks around London through Halloween before heading north for Scotland. The band’s show in Paris on Nov. 14 will be filmed and shown on HBO that day.
(Via Rolling Stone)
