Bono and The Edge, lead vocalist and lead guitarist of Irish Rock legacies U2, shared a recent cover performance of Led Zeppelins’ epic tale of a song, Stairway to Heaven. Paying homage to their dedicated road crew amidst the challenging coronavirus pandemic, the duo posted the video to YouTube on Sunday 26th July.
Delivering a stripped-down, acoustic version of the classic, U2 performed the cover as part of a Livestream for #SongsFromAnEmptyRoom. A fundraising initiative with Irish artists to support live music workers negatively affected by Covid-19, #SongsFromAnEmptyRoom stems from the #WeAreTheSupportActs campaign.
Divided evenly between two important organisations, donations from the campaign will go to the Association of Irish Stage Technicians (AIST), which oversees production staff and music crew across the Republic of Ireland, and Minding Creative Minds, a charity focused on the mental health and wellbeing of Irish musicians in the industry. Other Irish artists included in the Livestream event were Eve Belle, Gavin James and Fia Moon.
The video featured Bono and The Edge (real names Paul David Hewson and David Evans) performing together, the raw strength of Bono’s vocals pairing perfectly with The Edge tender plucking the iconic intro to Stairway to Heaven. Obtaining over 79,000 views, the acoustic reworking was met with an excited reception from fans.
Bono opened the clip talking about deciding to tackle the challenging cover. The dynamic duo said “There’s one annoying aspect of an Irish crew that has to be said…Wherever you go in the world, whatever venue you’re playing – whether it’s the Olympia or 3 Arena or Madison Square Garden – you walk into the venue and it’s a big moment and you’ll hear a song that we said ‘We’ll never, ever play this’… and it was ‘Stairway to Heaven’”
During the performance, which shortened the original to 2.5 minutes, the Vertigo hitmakers expanded on the sweet reasoning behind choosing Stairway to Heaven as the homage to their road crew. In fact, the historic record is a favourite for the crew to during soundcheck. Bono joked that “These professionals believe they play this better than the band” adding playfully, “And you know, it might be true!”
Posting a short clip to their official Instagram page, U2 shared their fantastic cover to a whopping 2.3 million followers. Standing with #SongsFromAnEmptyRoom, U2 captioned the popular post: “The band donated over 200,000 Euros to help crews in Ireland!”, a great show of support from the Irish band.
Formed in Dublin in 1976, the latest record from U2 is the 2018 released Songs of Experience. Coined from William Blake, the album title was taken from Blake’s poetry and illustration collection of the same name. However, earlier this month U2 bass guitarist Adam Clayton confirmed in an interview with Rolling Stone that a new album is on the horizon. Whilst withholding most details, Clayton teased that “It’s very, very fresh. We’ve cut everything quite quickly. We’re coming to things in a shorthand way. We want to be quick, down and dirty with the next one.”
