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you're not going to believe this...
thanks for stopping by. On this page you'll find a ton of pictures from U2's Elevation tour last year. I also have a bunch of links to other U2 sites and a link to my band's website, where you can check out our demo recordings... |
from Boston Globe
Local guitarist fulfills dream By Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff, 6/8/2001
He is hugging the rim of U2's heart-shaped stage, blowing out his vocal cords, trying to get Bono's attention. ''People Get Ready!'' he yells, begging them to play the Curtis Mayfield tune. And suddenly, this: Guitarist The Edge doesn't know the chords. So Bono scans the crowd, finds the fan, and asks if he can play it. A minute later, the guy's on stage, a guitar tech is handing him one of The Edge's Les Pauls, and he is strumming.
C, A-minor, F. In front of 18,000 people. It's every living-room guitarist's dream-come-true, this thing that happened to Glen Goland at the FleetCenter Wednesday night. But let it be known that this was not exactly a random event. Goland - 26-year-old regular guy, Somerville dweller, financial-services worker - had prepared for this moment. Studied U2 history. Requested that song because he knew the band had once brought fans onstage to play it. Practiced, just in case. C, A-minor, F. This is what the gods of rock 'n' roll might consider a cosmic payoff. Because ''fan'' is a little too weak a word to describe what Goland's got with U2. He was a 12-year-old in Westborough when he first heard ''Sunday, Bloody Sunday'' on a school field trip. ''And that,'' he says, ''was it.'' He credits U2 for getting him into a) The Beatles, and b) Amnesty International. When he picked up guitar at UMass-Amherst, U2 songs were the first tunes he plucked. He owns 150 U2 CDs, bootlegs included. He has traveled as far as Dallas for shows. (That one coincided with a well-planned business trip.) He went to last week's show in Hartford, and Tuesday's show in Boston, and he has tickets tonight and tomorrow. ''I've got kind of a problem,'' he says. ''It's not healthy, I know. People do drugs, I just collect U2 stuff.'' Like other monster fans, Goland knows that the Irish band used to pull fans up to play with them. And he knows those days have returned. Goland reads U2 Web sites and message boards, and heard that some guy in Chicago, Jonathan Something, had gotten onstage during this very tour, after holding up a sign that said, ''ME + PIANO = STAY.'' So in the days before U2's FleetCenter run, Goland and Michael Fallon, his childhood friend and fellow ticketholder, sat around talking about how cool it would be to get up onstage like Jonathan, and wondering what they'd play if they could pull it off. Fallon says he suggested ''People Get Ready.'' And Goland got ready. He had taken the week off from work, to maximize his concert-going, and got in line at 10 a.m. so he'd be certain to reach the front row. He had prepared a sign - ''ME + GUITAR = PEOPLE GET READY'' - but because HBO was filming that night, he was told to leave his poster at the door. And at a lull in the show, he started yelling out the name of the song. Yelled long enough and loud enough that Bono finally looked at him and said, ''What did you say?'' He named the song again. Bono and The Edge conferred. Goland was pulled onstage and handed a guitar. Bono asked him if he remembered the words. ''Sorry, dude, that's your job,'' Goland told him. (Repeat: He told Bono, ''Sorry, dude.'') So Bono sang something that approximated Curtis Mayfield's lyrics, and Goland strummed as hard as he could. ''I could barely even hold onto the pick,'' he says. Then Bono gave him a hug, and The Edge put his arm around him, and the crowd screamed, and Goland pumped his fists in the air, and it was over. Goland went home to share the news with his girlfriend and practice some of the songs he's cobbling together with a new band. He's trying to find out who has the best picture of his U2 moment, for posterity. Yesterday, mere hours after something so cataclysmic happened, Goland was calm. Contemplative. As if the whole thing had been preordained. Even Fallon didn't seem all that surprised. ''Do you ever think it's going to happen to you? Probably not,'' Fallon says. ''Do you ever think it's going to happen to somebody? Yeah.'' All you need are three chords, a loud voice, and a little ambition. And a band that's willing to bring you aboard. At one of this weekend's shows, Goland might hold up a sign that says, ''Thank You.''
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