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On Friday, January 18, 2008 just prior to their support act, Northern Kentucky's HIGHER GROUND, taking the stage to begin the evening's festivities, Rick Flynn conducted an exclusive two on one interview with VERTIGO USA Singer Alan Lewis (''Bono'') and Guitarist Greg Flamm (''The Edge'') backstage in the dressing room of The Madison Theater. What follows is an exclusive MadisonTheaterFansite.com transcript of the entire interview--exactly as it occurred that night. |
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RICK: Gentlemen, welcome to Greater Cincinnati, it's good to have you here. GREG: Thank-you for having us. It's a great facility. ALAN: Thank you--first time here. RICK: Are you playing a lot of theaters in your tour? GREG: A combination of theaters...we'll even play Irish Pubs...In the summer, we do a lot of festival work and casinos every once in a while. We do it all so--we love the theaters more, though, because it's more of a rock show. We get to put on the typical rock show where, at an Irish Pub, it's like ''By the way, there's a band in the corner there.'' So we really like the theaters a lot. RICK: And you know this theater has a rich history. It was around in the 1940's and it underwent a several million dollar renovation. You'll really like it. It's a popular place. GREG: It's beautiful...everything we've seen so far, I mean, everything we've seen so far--even the room we're sitting in now. It's a top notch dressing room. I mean, we don't see many nice plants, great lighting. It's a top notch dressing room. Last night in Lexington: It was a dingy basement and I won't tell the name of the place, it was cold. We had a space heater that really didn't work. It was just one extreme to the other. But, that's Rock & Roll. RICK: Alan, How did VERTIGO USA get started? ALAN: Well, actually, Greg has been in U2 tribute bands for quite a while now, since 1986, and VERTIGO was basically started in 2005. All of us are huge fans of the band. We very much enjoy making people happy and putting on a show--not just for the music itself but for the entire show and vibe. When you go to a U2 show it's a complete experience and you leave with that complete experience with you. That's what we strive to create and I think we do a great job. RICK: Greg: Was it instant success with VERTIGO USA or is it still building year by year? GREG: It's been great. Alan mentioned I've been doing this since 1986 off and on. I've probably done about 700 shows as a U2 tribute band. So, there's definitely a market for it. U2 has a great fan base. So we kinda fill the need in between (U2) tours and are able to do this on a smaller level. No one's getting rich in the band but we get to play great venues like this and bring the music to people that we'd never meet. We meet a lot of great friends and fans and are able to travel throughout the country. The fans are...well, it's just one of the perks of it all. ALAN: We just played Nashville and we were talking to some of the fans there and they mentioned that U2 hadn't been there since ''The Joshua Tree Tour'' in '87...quite a while...the need was there and we had a lot of people out at that show and a lot of high energy. It was great. RICK: I don't know if either one of you are old enough to remember, but tomorrow night, we bring in ''A Wizard--A True Star.'' ALAN: Wow! A wizard...Ahhh.... { Both Alan and Greg begin to stare and ponder incessantly as to who this person may be. } RICK: He had a group called UTOPIA and another one called NAZZ. GREG: Yeah...Todd Rundgren? RICK: Todd Rundgren will be here tomorrow night. GREG: That's awesome. I'm a big UTOPIA fan and Todd has this big fan base called ''Todd is God'' you know. That's how it is. ( laughs ) RICK: Do you have personal recollections, either one of you, on the humanitarian work that Bono has done? Either one of you want to comment on that? GREG: As you know, they're involved in a whole lot of things. Bono has been up for The Nobel Peace Prize this past year. The biggest thing he's involved in is raising awareness to reduce the debt in Third World countries. These countries will never be able to pay off their debt, so why keep them suppressed...you know, down? So, we support that. We have links on our web site for some of that stuff and we also contribute monetarily, you know, a portion of our shows, not every show but per month. I give a little bit towards the one campaign and through The African Well Fund. We're active and I'm really active in the fan community online. So, doing 700 shows, you can imagine the amount ot people I've gotten to meet and know. We've done work with The American Lung Association and everything from baby car seat awareness to The American Lung Association. So, we're involved in that but there's also a fine line involved in that. You can't give away every show that you do. So you have to kind of pick and choose what you want to do and what you can afford to do on a reasonable level. RICK: Alan, what city is your group out of? Or, what country? ALAN: Is Vertigo? RICK: Yes. ALAN: Chicago. RICK: And you'e been on the road now since 2005? ALAN: Yeah. Pretty much. We played around various parts of Illinois and more recently we've been traveling quite a bit across the country. We've also done quite a bit of traveling overseas, as well. We actually did the support for U2's tour company, VIP Events, for pre and post show celebrations that they have and that the fans come out to. Those are tons of fun. We've played Monterey, Mexico. We've played Mexico City, Hawaii, Cayman Islands, and all over the U.S.--Charlotte, Buffalo, and all the way to Texas is the farthest west we've been to. GREG: We're booked to get into Vegas and yeah...we've been to Puerto Rico...we go all over--wherever it's reasonable to make it happen. |
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RICK: We want to get everybody that looks at our Madison Theater Fansite (www.MadisonTheaterFansite.com) to come to your site. Does anybody want to tell me about your web site? GREG: It's www.vertigou2band.com and we're also on MySpace at: www.MySpace.com/vertigou2tribute and we're also on YouTube so we're all over the net. If someone just Googles ''Vertigo USA U2 Tribute'' they'll come up with twenty pages of us. RICK: And, when they get there, what are they going to see? GREG: There will be photos, video, especially our tour dates, ticket information, everything like that, a little bit of history of the band... ALAN: We also have a great guest book too. RICK: So everyone can sign the guest book? ALAN: Yes. Absolutely! GREG: And read what other people have said about our shows. RICK: So, as people leave the theater this evening, after seeing your show, what would you like your audience to feel? What would you like the people to take away with them? ALAN: Probably that we're the greatest band on the earth! GREG: { laughing } ALAN: No, I think you know, for me, I want people to go home feeling good--feeling completely like they've just stepped into an altered reality. You know what I mean? That's really the main thing--to get that sense of energy that U2 drives into people when they leave that show and they're not ready to go home yet. They wanna just, get out there, and enjoy themselves. I think that's the main thing. GREG: I'd like to comment that we surprise, I think, 90% of our audience. They come in thinking the ''cheesy Elvis impersonator'' you know, just cheesy type cover band. If you've ever seen the movie Rock Star. with Donnie Wahlberg, there's a difference between a cover band and a tribute band. We're definitely in the tribute band rhelm and do a real good job with it. We try really hard anyway. A lot of people are just surprised. They come in thinking: ''Well, OK, it's gonna be all right. You know, it's a night out, we're gonna get drunk.'' Then when they leave, it's like: ''Holy Cow! I can't beieve what I just saw!'' That's the thing. I think that's part of our success is that they're just...we over achieve...I think where we just...expectations are low, or what have you, then people see us. RICK: For years, both on the radio and also in the night clubs, I played a record called: ''Pride (In the Name Of Love).'' Can we expect to hear that tonight? GREG: Of course. We'll do...We're very big on doing all the hits. I mean, there's some other U2 bands out there that, they'll do whatever they want, and we just want to give the fans what they want--what you would expect to see in a U2 show. We do all the hits from One to Pride to With or Without You--all the big hits--and then we do bring out a little bit of the obscure things. So, there's a little bit of surprise for people. ALAN: There's songs that we're playing that U2 hasn't, themselves, played for quite some time, which is great, for a lot of people who like to hear that stuff. RICK: And there are a bloomin' million Beatles tribute bands out there. ALAN: Absolutely. GREG: They've inspired us. I like what they do with the costime changes and putting on a show. That's the big thing with us. We try to be a show and not just four guys on stage playing. So, The Beatles tribute bands, watching them, has lent a lot of ideas to us, with our show. RICK: Thank-you very much. It's been a great interview. Welcome to Cincinnati. We're glad you're here. In closing, does anybody want to add anything? GREG: If they can look us up on the web, that would be great or, if we see you on the road, ''Happy Trails!'' RICK: Thanks for coming to The Madison Theater--both of you. ALAN: Thank-you. |
