The big video shoot/ whose foot is on edge's face/ more tall tales of the emerald isle/ post-chernobyl marriage shock/ hemingway's advice to rock stars/ a toast to reg, the star of the show

when adam and Larry arrive for the "Numb" shoot at the film studio in Spandau—a big warehouse, really—Edge has already been working for five hours. He is sitting on a stool in a black sleeveless T-shirt with three sexy women on the floor around him like the cover of Electric Ladyland.

"Tough work, Edge?" Larry asks,

A claustrophobic little corral has been set up around Edge in the middle of the huge factory room, with screens all around and hot klieg lights overhead. A posse of young German models—boys and girls— stands around the periphery looking sunken-cheeked and existentially bored. Their job is to mill in the background, out of focus, imbuing the scene with a vague air of nihilistic ennui. Seems like typecasting to me. These kids look like they were yanked from an undergraduate Sartre seminar.

Director Godley is in the middle of coaching a little girl, about five, on how to beat on Edge's chest. "Harder! Hit harder!" he tells her.

Larry steps forward: "I'll do it!"

"Get in line," comes Maurice's voice from behind the cameraman.

The tape operator rolls "Numb" and Edge starts mouthing the words, reading them off a big board right under the camera. He recited them out of a notebook when he made the record and he's never had to memorize the litany. His unblinking intensity as he tries not to screw up the lyrics helps with the illusion that he is staring into a TV screen, oblivious to all the stimuli around him.

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On cue, Maurice leans in and blows smoke in Edge's face. Then Andrea Groves, one of the singers from Stereo MC's, reaches up from the floor behind him and massages his shoulder. Two German models dressed as bimbos lean in and stick their tongues in his ears. A spoon of ice cream is stuck in his mouth. The little girl beats on his chest. Maurice come up behind him, loops a length of string over his head, and starts tying up his face. Edge cracks up laughing and everything stops.

There is an instrumental break in the middle of the song and they've decided it's a good idea to have Edge drop out of the picture during it. This decision is less aesthetic than practical; it means Godley can film two two-minute sequences rather than one four-minute shot. Given the amount of time they have to complete this clip—one day—and the number of different actions that have to be coordinated (twenty-four) and the chance of Edge blowing a lip-synch in the steady stream of lyrics, that is a great blessing. But how to get Edge out of the shot?

The director has an inspiration. He asks an assistant to throw a bunch of couch cushions on the floor behind Edge. Then he tells Larry to come over, put his hand on Edge's face, and push him straight over backward, stool and all. Larry says, great! Edge says, "Should we try it first with somebody expendable?"

They give it a shot. Larry comes up fiercely, grabs a handful of Edge's face, and sends him reeling over backward, both feet straight up in the air like a cartoon. Everybody laughs and claps. But looking at it played back on the video screen the director reluctantly concludes that it's too funny—the pratfall kills the numbed-out mood.

Godley suggests that maybe it should be Bono who comes up and binds Edge with the string.

"Bono?" Edge says with mock alarm. "Bono is going to tie ropes around my neck? Wait a minute . . ."

Maurice says the twine is just for rehearsal, in the actual shoot it'll be barbed wire.

Dennis Sheehan is off in the corner shouting into a walkie-talkie that Morleigh, the belly dancer, was told she was on hold for this shoot today and now no one can find her. I keep it to myself that I saw Morleigh leaving the hotel five hours ago. She said that she'd been vaguely told that she might be needed for the video today, but she sat in her room all morning and heard nothing, so she was going to go out and

[256]

see Berlin. Unlike practically everyone else on the tour, Morleigh does not wait on the whims of the kings. She has her own dance company;

she is a pro. If there's a call she'll be there on time and ready to work, but if no one remembers to call her she will go about her business. Luckily there will be no need to make Maurice put on breastplates and substitute for her. With his usual magical gift for finding women, Bono strolls in a minute later with Morleigh in tow. He was staring out the car window on the way through Berlin, saw her walking down a side street, and called to her to jump in and go see what was going on at the "Numb" set. Dennis Sheehan seems equally relieved that she's here and exasperated at the haphazard method of her deliverance.

The two tough-looking tongue models, their big bosoms squeezed into black bustiers, are practicing snipping the shoulder straps of Edge's sleeveless T-shirt with scissors. Each time they do, an assistant runs out and tapes the shirt back together. Adam takes over the job of blowing smoke in Edge's face. As the backward pratfall is out, Larry tries shoving Edge sideways out of the frame. That works.

The whole ballet is coming together now. The funniest thing is watching the dozen different people with walk-on roles huddle, squat, and lean to stay out of the shot when they're not doing their bits. They all have to be within arm's length of Edge so they can pop into the frame and lick, slap, spoon, or shove, and it takes a lot of deft stepping to keep them from colliding with each other as they go in and out. One assistant's job is to wiggle a strip of black cardboard in front of the klieg light shining down on Edge's forehead, to create the effect of TV screen light rippling across his face.

Finally they film the entire first sequence. It starts with a faucet dripping in time to the mechanical beat of "Numb." As the guitar comes in the camera pans down to the drops hitting the head of the passive Edge. He stares into the camera dully and intones, "Don't move, don't talk out of time, don't think, don't worry, everything's just fine . . ." while off camera a grip swings the pipe and faucet away and hauls it out of the shot. Adam leans in and blows smoke in Edge's face. Andrea's hands crawl over his shoulders and massage him. Fingers push in Edge's cheeks. The two models drag their tongues across his cheeks ("More tongue!" cries the director. "Now bite his ear! Harder! Lick his face!"), a spoonful of ice cream is stuck in his mouth, the little girl beats on his chest, the two models slice his shirt, Adam wraps the clothesline

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around his face, Larry sticks his face in from the right and sings, "I feel numb," Bono sticks his face in from the left and sings his Fat Lady parts, Larry pushes Edge over sideways as Bono steps back, out of the way.

After a few passes, the director announces that the first half of the clip is done. A supper break is called, and while chowing down, the band and Godley try to finalize what the second sequence will be. The director reads off the list of options: "Do you want Morleigh's legs around your neck or her foot in your face?"

Bono, Adam, and Larry say together, "The foot in the face!"

Edge: "I prefer the legs around the neck."

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