U2 are what we in Ireland like to call a crowd of tossers.
Over here, artists and musicians were, until last year, exempt from any income tax. Despite the fact that Bono and the band were urging us all to make poverty history, had U2 paid income tax at the standard rate for even one year, the money would have been enough to settle the national debt of a small country, to say nothing of the benefit to the national economy.
Now, the Irish government, no longer content with giving the more creative types who got wealthy a free ride, decided to impose a cut-off point of 250,000 euro on their artist/musician taxation policy. That means you could earn around 350,000 dollars a year and not pay tax. U2 earn a lot more, so they bugger off to Amsterdam, where again they can avoid taxation.
And one more reason why I hate U2: As we all know, Bono is fond of his pretension. As you may not know, he has covered the gates to his house with poetry engraved upon copper panels. I was innocently walking home through Dalkey one day, along the public pavement, and out of curiousity stopped to read what was written. Suddenly, a security guard's voice could be heard, shouting at me to move away from the gates or I would be prosecuted. Naturally, I asked what kind of ridiculous prick would scrawl pseudo-intellectual rubbish in a prominent place if they did not want people to read it. Furthermore, I said, the pavement I was standing on was public land, installed and maintained by the taxes that I, unlike Bono, had to pay. Thus I did not move. They mumbled something incomprehensible, then left me alone. I like to think that i won a moral victory that day.
Incidentally, The Edge (what kind of fucking stupid name is that, anyway?) is a fine example of a synth player who accidentally took up the guitar. not content to play the instrument for what it is, he attempts to make it sound like something else. Which is all well and good, except for the fact that he makes it sound like shit. Heavily processed, chiming, spacious shit admittedly, but shit nonetheless.
