Adam Clayton - U2

[BassAdder60]

2 minutes ago, bigthumb said:

The Joshua Tree was also my introduction to bass playing as a yoof and thus became a U2 fanatic at the time. I finally got to see them at the old Wembley stadium in '93 which was quite awesome. 

 

I was told by the seller that these Ashdown cabs were made for AC as part of a backline, whether that's true or not I don't know but plugged into that Ampeg head they sounded huge. I played a good few larger gigs at the time with them. Back then I was much younger and fitter! 

Great rig 👍

[Hellzero]

21 hours ago, ambient said:

I remember reading that one of their gigs was detected by seismographic equipment somewhere.

Yep, in Brussels on the 27th of October 1984 when they played at Forest National for the Unforgettable Fire Tour, the nearby seismograph in Uccle recorded the event as a real seismic alert.

 

They were playing really really really loud, way louder than any metal band that has played there before and after,  as even the neighbourhood was a bit afraid of the sound waves shaking everything in their houses.

[Hellzero]

 

Edited November 22, 2021 by Hellzero
No comment

[Linus27]

They did similar on the Joshua Tree tour in the States as well. Adam uses a MOOG Taurus pedal set up that plays really low bass notes to create this. This is still phenomenal to watch 😁

 

 

[Lozz196]

I really should get The Joshua Tree. I saw U2 a few times when I was younger but not since about ‘82. Dunno why, I like them, tho Bonio can stick to singing and leave the preaching imo.

[AndyTravis]

43 minutes ago, Linus27 said:

They did similar on the Joshua Tree tour in the States as well. Adam uses a MOOG Taurus pedal set up that plays really low bass notes to create this. This is still phenomenal to watch 😁

 

 

That’s a wonderful performance of a great song.

 

how come - (noticing quite lovely “hooky” esque playing) that Hooky is is revered and Clayton is somehow reviled on these pages?

 

I’d do that every night of the week and twice on Sunday for a tenth of what Clayton has in the bank.

 

More power to the guy. I admire him hugely.

[Daz39]

I loved his playing on the Pop album. Great noises and lines. 

[BigRedX]

17 hours ago, BassAdder27 said:

 

 😉😂
This is probably true ( to some degree ) but it’s like stating it’s not important to a band sound what gear is used on stage/ or studio at all .., I think you may be on your own with that belief … each to their own hey 😉😂

 

Some gear is important, and other gear less so - especially as the size of venues that you are playing gets bigger. And the venues don't have to be very big before the contribution made by your choice of bass amp and cab(s) to the sound the audience (and the band) hears becomes negligible. I don't play gigs of the size that U2 do, but even so for the vast majority of the gigs I have done over the past 40+ years the bass has been going through the PA, and that's the sound that the audience hears. Only at the smaller venues (<200 capacity) would anyone in the audience have heard the sound from my cabs and then only those at the front who were directly in the "line of fire". For myself, on anything but the smallest of stages the moment I stepped away from being directly in front of my rig, the sound of the bass in the foldback would completely take over. The PA feed was taken post-effects, and would have only included the pre-amp part of my bass rig (and only for those rigs where some of the effects went through the FX loop of the amp). Anything after that in the final chain - power amp and cabs - made zero contribution to the sound that the audience heard.

 

In the studio there would be a mic on one of the speakers in one of my cabs, but there would also be a DI taken from the amp and another direct from the bass guitar, and I had no idea which of these sound sources ended up being the one used by the producer or engineer. It could have been the mic on the cab, but it could just as easily have been the direct sound of the bass going through a couple of plug-ins on the DAW. So long as the bass sounded right in the overall mix, I really didn't mind which was used.

 

This was one of the reasons why a few years ago I sold my big, impressive looking, and expensive bass rigs and replaced them with a multi-effects unit and a powered speaker cab (which only gets used at the smaller gigs where I don't know how good the supplied foldback is going to be). In the studio I now go directly into the desk from the multi-effects.

 

I find the whole idea of big name bassists endorsing amplification completely perplexing, and especially so if they are not actually getting the equipment for free - after all why pay for something you don't need or even use? At the kinds of gigs these people play, the bass will be DI'd and the musicians will all be wearing IEMs. All those big impressive looking rigs are there simply for show. No one will actually be hearing the sound that is coming out of the cabs (if indeed anything is actually coming out of the cabs). In the studio anything produced by the rig will be further modified by the studio outboard gear and "in the box" plug-ins, and even then unless you are doing the engineering yourself you don't know which of the multiple sources are actually being used to produce the bass sound in the context of the final mix.

 

The only bassists whose choice of amplification makes a significant contribution to the sound that both they, the rest of their band, and the audience hears, are pub bands using a vocal-only PA system. Those are completely at the other end of the scale to the big-name bassists being used to "sell" the amplification.

Edited November 23, 2021 by BigRedX

[TrypF]

Although I think U2 have gone seriously off the boil in the 21st century, they were quite something back in the day. A lot of this was down to the rhythm section - the ultimate safe pair of hands for Edge to create his effected soundscapes and Bono to sing, posture, pontificate and so on. I remember watching the Rattle and Hum video til it wore thin and falling in love with AC's battered Precision bass - for what he does, you don't need bells and whistles (and certainly not a Warwick that looks like melted chewing gum). It nearly fell apart on the Zooropa tour when he went on a big drinking sesh and had to drop a show, replaced by his tech. I believe he was read the riot act by the band and told to clean up his act or else and, to his credit, he has stayed off the dizzy water ever since. Like the other posters have said, it's harder than it looks especially in the stadium era when everything from the lights to the video screens are synced to a click track, and the folks who deride his abilities are generally non-bassists.

[Alba]

16 hours ago, Hellzero said:

 

I was there and remember it being very loud with a seat as far back as you could go. Not as loud as when I saw Kiss at Wembley Arena but I was in the front row next to where the pyrotechnics were set off. I thought the end of the world had come early!

[Rich]

17 hours ago, bigthumb said:

I was told by the seller that these Ashdown cabs were made for AC as part of a backline, whether that's true or not I don't know but plugged into that Ampeg head they sounded huge. I played a good few larger gigs at the time with them. Back then I was much younger and fitter! 

I slipped a disc just looking at them. 

Edited November 23, 2021 by Rich

[BigRedX]

And on the subject of U2 as a band, I saw them for the first time in 1980 at The Boat Club in Nottingham, just after the "Boy" album had been released.

 

A friend of mine had seen them a couple of times previously (supporting The Only Ones, IIRC) had been most impressed, and insisted that I come to the gig. Other than having heard the name I knew nothing about the band and I don't think I had even heard any of their songs. I was completely blown away by the sound and the performance, particularly The Edge's guitar playing/sound. TBH I don't recall anything about the bass, which means that it was probably perfectly competent, and anyway, back then I was still mostly playing guitar.

 

I do recall that there wasn't a particularly big audience turn-out, about 50 people there, and because we were also with someone who knew them from when they first start playing in Dublin, I got to meet the band after the gig (not that it counted for much at the time). I went out and bought "Boy" and all the non-album singles I could find the following day.

 

A year later I saw them for the second time Rock City for tour to promote the "October" album. This time they were deadly dull and completely outclassed by the support band The Comsat Angels. It turned that apart form the first two singles I didn't much like the new album either.

 

Since then U2's musical direction and mine have gone our separate ways. Occasionally they will release something that I like, but those songs are few and far between. I think the last thing they did that I liked was the cover of "Pop Music". 

 

[ubit]

On 21/11/2021 at 18:17, owen said:

Someone will be along very soon to tell us that he is not going slappityy-tapitty-300bpmityy-shredityy. But they are probably not in a full time succesful band in the music business who could retire on the proceeds tomorrow. And fund their children for the rest of their lives.

 

 

I always think this when folk slag off players. Im sure they are worried about your opinion as they drive their Lotus into their massive driveway.

[Lozz196]

@BigRedXi remember the Comsat Angels, great band, should have been much bigger. Also think I saw them on that U2 tour as well.

[Leonard Smalls]

58 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

I was completely blown away by the sound and the performance, particularly The Edge's guitar playing/sound. TBH I don't recall anything about the bass, which means that it was probably perfectly competent,

 

Funnily enough, this is my experience of U2 as well - I saw them in 1980 on the Boy tour as well (in Liverpool). Guitar was great, singer charismatic, band sounded fine but rhythm section-wise, nowt to write home about (especially as I'd seen ID and the Blockheads the week before).

Next time ('83) I saw them The Edge was still good, rhythm section competent but nowt compared to Bauhaus, Simple Minds or Kid Creole who'd played at Leeds Uni not long before. However, Bono had discovered Messiah Mode; he clambered onto a scaffold and held forth for ages in quite an annoying way. Since then I haven't really bothered with 'em.

[Geek99]

3 hours ago, TrypF said:

Although I think U2 have gone seriously off the boil in the 21st century, they were quite something back in the day. A lot of this was down to the rhythm section - the ultimate safe pair of hands for Edge to create his effected soundscapes and Bono to sing, posture, pontificate and so on. I remember watching the Rattle and Hum video til it wore thin and falling in love with AC's battered Precision bass 

The extended version is much better.
 

His battered precision was my model for my own relic P - I find him quite inspirational still as I once did think “I can do that” 

do agree they’ve run a bit dry recently 

 

[paul_5]

Yeah, I've poked fun at AC's abilities, but the fact remains that he's made more money playing fewer notes than any other bassist you'd care to mention. 

 

Working by the formula Cost per note = Massive wealth / note then he's probably the most expensive bassist on the planet per note.

 

 

[dmccombe7]

If it works .......leave it well alone.

Dave

[ubit]

I don't get the hatred of Clayton. Same as the hatred for  Mike Kroeger out of Nickelback. They play just what the songs need. Maybe they are told to just play what's needed.

If you look at Cliff Williams from AC/DC, he is told to keep it simple. Same with the drumming. No fills or rolls. Just simple. Let Angus take the spotlight. None of these guys care as they are pocketing a  fortune and the fans are happy.

[dmccombe7]

1 hour ago, ubit said:

I don't get the hatred of Clayton. Same as the hatred for  Mike Kroeger out of Nickelback. They play just what the songs need. Maybe they are told to just play what's needed.

If you look at Cliff Williams from AC/DC, he is told to keep it simple. Same with the drumming. No fills or rolls. Just simple. Let Angus take the spotlight. None of these guys care as they are pocketing a  fortune and the fans are happy.

Yep i quite like Nickelback too. Dont see the issue if a band does what it does well.

Dave

[Leonard Smalls]

1 hour ago, ubit said:

I don't get the hatred of Clayton.

 

To be fair, I've not seen much hatred of him here... Some folks aren't fans, and say so, others are, and they also say so.

Though it appears that the fans tend more toward the  "oooh Adam you're so tight and rich and I want to have your babies" than the not-fans tend toward Hatey McClaytonHateFace...

It seems that some minor criticism, or not really liking The Clayton is interpreted as full-blown hatred!

 

[dmccombe7]

I'm not really a U2 or AC fan but i just think what U2 does seems to work for them as a successful band.

Altho this thread has been quite amicable I have seen other threads on BC or maybe it was TB where there was genuine dislike for what he does in U2. Not specifically Adam himself but more his playing and sadly people tend to link the playing to the person.

 

Over the years i have to admit that i really enjoyed the bands i've been in where i was playing the simple rock basslines cause i could focus more on just enjoying myself than trying to think about each and every note that comes next. Sometimes its just nice to play some straight 8ths.

 

Dave

 

Edited November 23, 2021 by dmccombe7

[ubit]

38 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

To be fair, I've not seen much hatred of him here.

 

 

Not on this particular thread but there have been other mentions of Adam Clayton where he got some terrible stick from some. Same with Mike Kroeger.

[ubit]

50 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Yep i quite like Nickelback too. Dont see the issue if a band does what it does well.

Dave

 

 

I created a thread ages ago asking why so many didn't like Nickelback. Some said because they are shyte and various other insults. I like them and saw them live a few years ago. They were great and had a superb sound. They are one of the most successful rock bands ever so I guess they don't mind too much.

[Lozz196]

Yeah I’ve got a couple of their albums and think they’re a good band, the hate thing may well come from how popular How You Remind Me was, it was everywhere when it came out.