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U2 - Wedding crashers?
It was in the Fall of 1987. I had recently traveled to Central America and was interested in issues related to the region. My brother had a professor at his college who was doing a talk about his work in El Salvador...I happened to be in the area, so I attended. I struck up a conversation with the Prof. after the event...one thing led to another...I handed him a cassette recording of my band for reasons I don’t even remember.
Months later I got a call from this Professor, Dr. David Batstone. He said he was getting married and 
wondered if he could hire my band for the wedding...would we be willing to travel to the bay area?, etc. Then he told me that some members of U2 might be in attendance... Whoa! Then he asked me if I would sing a Bruce Cockburn song, “Lover’s in a Dangerous Time” solo in the wedding. How could I refuse?
What was the U2 connection? Turned out that this guy gave Bono and the Edge a tour of El Salvador through his organization (Central American Mission Partners)...this tour resulted in much of the material on the Joshua Tree, e.g. “Bullet the Blue Sky.” They became good friends. David Batstone was given mention in the liner notes of several U2 albums.
The wedding was in the summer of 1988. As the ceremony began, still no Bono or Edge. Not until I was about to stand up and sing did they show up (along with Maria McKee). Shaky knees? O yea. It was an amazing feeling to look out and see Bono and the Edge in the audience as I was singing.
After the service, I got up my nerve to go talk to the Edge (Bono was surrounded by too many people, Edge was on his own). I handed the same cassette of my band to Edge that I had handed to Dr. Batstone. Edge said “Nice song, mate.” I was stoked!
Bono and Edge, along with Maria McKee, left before the reception, so they missed our band (and the cover of “With or Without You” that we had been requested to prepare...which was just as well!). But I got to sit down to lunch with members of Deacon Blue, who also sang in the wedding.
The kicker: Later that year, the movie and CD “Rattle & Hum” were released. One of the CDs songs, “God, Part 2,” included an excerpt (“...you’ve got to kick at the darkness ‘til it bleeds daylight...”) from the rather obscure song that I had sung at the wedding. It was rightly credited to Bruce Cockburn. Coincidence? Also, the tape that I handed to the Edge included a song that I wrote called “All I Want Is You.” One of the singles from the CD shared that same title. Not that original, and aside from the title words the songs are totally different, but maybe...
Anyway, it’s not quite like sharing a stadium stage with Sting, but it was good enough for this small town kid!
Thanks,
Morgan Daniel.
thank you Morgan. You just never know what inspires who, right? Everyone check out this figted musicians website. http://www.morgandaniel.com.