Zoo TV was a show that I missed. This was U2's next concert after the earth shattering Joshua Tree exploded into the world. At the Oakland show in November 1987 I promised myself that I would never miss a show. When the opened the tour in Florida they played only two dates in the whole state, Lakeland and Miami. I was living on a barrier Island in NW Florida and couldn't go to them 6 hours away. I was newly divorced and raising two babies while owning and running my own boat maintenance business. On both those dates in Feb/Mar I did play the Achtung Baby CD and drank loads of Jameson's. And I cried. Why couldn't they play in Pensacola. That was only an hour and a half?!
I was in the West of Ireland in the fall of 2005. My friend Steve called me from Dublin to invite me on a unique opportunity. Steve worked for Derek Behan Towing and Garage as a tow truck driver. They had been hired to pick up a crated Trabant from the ZooTV tour at the port and deliver to the newly opened Hard Rock Cafe. This particular car had been sitting in storage in Amsterdam for many years. Hard Rock paid 20,000 British pounds to display it in their Dublin location.
Of course Steve knew that I would want to be a part of the pick up so he told me to hope a train first thing in the morning. After a 5 hour train ride I arrived in Heuston Station where Steve picked me up. He had already picked up the Trabbie, so we headed to the Temple Bar district to the Hard Rock. We got there in the early evening and parked right beside the doors of the front entrance on the little single lane. We were then told to stand by as the Cafe must be closed to customers before we could bring the car inside. So we waited until 10:00 pm.
The Trabbie was in a wooden crate on it's side but the slats were sparse so you could see the pink car. I could see the little paintings and the ZooTV licence plate. This was cool! How lucky was I? The crate had these little wheels on it so you could just roll it along once it was set off the bed of the truck.It's surprising how tiny it is. The motor had been removed so it was super light. It was a nice night with decent weather. The light drizzle had stopped and loads of people were pub crawling. Several folks began to surround the truck and ask questions about the little car. So Steve and I sat on the edge of the bed and chatted with all the tourists about the car and the tour and U2 in general. One guy was so drunk that he started yelling, " Bono, Bono come down from there and have a pint with me!"
The Hard Rock had to hire a contractor to hang the car up on the ceiling just in the entrance. This posed a big problem as there is a stairway going down to the restaurant so there is not floor under the ceiling where they wanted the car. Bob, the contractor explained that he would remove the glass and brass surrounding the stairs and then build a false floor to stand on. Then they would install a pulley into the roof rafters to hoist the car up and into position. Bob had five guys to help him.
I stayed out of the way, wandering about the cafe taking pictures of Bono's blue Bvlgari glasses. I was disappointed they didn't have more Irish born musician items. What about Van Morrison or Bob Geldolf, Sinead O'Connor and Sharon Corr? Maybe it was just too new and they were working on this? I can't stand cookie cutter chain conglomerates with little local flare.
This project went on and on into the night. The pubs closed up for the night and the pedestrians stopped crawling. The lights were turned off up and down Fleet Street. I talked with the guys while they worked and even helped removing the fiberglass panels and brass rails. The manager kept my diet coke class full for me and Steve was outside freight train smoking. The little pink car was held up by all of us until Bob secured it in place. What a perfect home for this world wide traveler. The electrical was plugged in and we all stood back to see if we had lift off ... and on came the headlights! I missed the tour but I had the pleasure to met their baby pink Trabbie!
There are other Trabant's about the world. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has several:
Me at the Hall of Fame in Cleveland, my birthplace, (another story) 2009:
Hard Rock Cafe Berlin has this one:
The pictures I took from this night are in storage at Steve's in Dublin. We will dig them out this summer and post here. I would love your feedback!
Bono designed a T-shirt for the Hard Rock, signature series 25, adding 'Fish can Fly' made by Edun available here:
http://www.hardrock.com/promo/sig25/
