WE DO LOVE a good story of famous faces coming together in unexpected ways, and this is a good one from Noel Gallagher.
Speaking to Absolute Radio this morning, Noel shared his sorry tale of supporting U2 on tour – most notably, their show at Croke Park in the summer.
He was staying in the guest house at the bottom of Bono’s garden (nice digs if you can get it) after the post-show party, and awoke the next morning to a phone call from the man himself:
…He says “Oh you’re alive anyway, come on, everybody’s here waiting for you.” And I was kind of going, what for? He said: “For the lunch I’m throwing in your honour, there’s 75 guests that have arrived.”
Eh, sound Bono. You think you’d let him know. But there was also the small detail of Noel being expected to entertain Michael D Higgins for the duration of the lunch:
He said, “Look, the President of Ireland’s just arrived and you’re sitting next to him, so hurry up.” So I had to get showered, get up there, ‘whey, ey’, and all that. The lunch started at three. Do you know what time it finished? Ten past four in the morning.
Jaysus. Was Michael D there until that time? Noel, you’re leaving out important parts of the story.
By the time they all got to Paris for their next gig, Noel was thoroughly worn out from three days of partying and went to his hotel room for a bit of a rest.
As I was sitting down I put on the telly and I’m flicking through, and there’s Bono doing a live press conference with the Prime Minister of France about Africa. And I know what we’ve been up to the previous three days and I’m going, “He’s not real, man.”
“The next night we do the gig in Paris. I’m sweating pure lager, and he gets up and sings like a 24-year-old. And I’m like, ‘I’ve had enough’.”
This rock star life, eh?
