’s Personality 1

Running head: EVALUATING BONO’S PERSONALITY

The Fly

Evaluating the Personality of Paul Hewson (a.k.a Bono)

Brian Berry

Box 31

Atlantic Baptist University

PS2033 Dr. Edith Samuel November 24, 2008

Bono’s Personality 2

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and analyse the personality of Paul

Hewson, better known to the world as “Bono” As one reads through this paper he or she will see how the different aspects of Bono’s personality mesh together to make him the person he is. One will also come to understand how aspects of Bono’s personality relate to the ideas of certain personality theorists.

Bono’s Personality 3

The person whose personality will be discussed and analyzed from multiple perspectives is none other than Paul Hewson, better known to the world by his stage name, Bono. He is best known for his participation in the band as their lead vocalist and occasional rhythm guitar player for the entirety of the band’s existence (from 1976 to present day). He is also known as of lately for his humanitarian work with the “One” campaign to try to eliminate poverty in Africa. Bono has been known to be very outspoken on issues that he deems important such as this crisis of poverty in Africa and his dream to see that become an actual non issue by eradicating poverty altogether. (Maddy Fry, Bono Biography http://www.atu2.com/band/bono/ )

Like everyone else in this world the personality of Paul Hewson (Bono) began to form at birth. Paul Hewson was born on May 10, 1960

(www.atu2.com/band/ ) to Irish parents in Ballymun, a suburb of north

Dublin, Ireland. (Fry, Bono Biography http://www.atu2.com/band/bono/ )

He was child number two in that family, (Three Chords and the Truth, Bono’s

Biography, www.threechordsandthetruth.net/u2bios/u2bonobio.htm ) and is an excellent example of how Alfred Adler’s concept of birth order actually works. Adler states that each child that is born into a family is treated and acts differently in specific roles depending on birth order, in Bono’s case, the one who is born second is the one who is extremely ambitious because he or she is making a valiant effort to catch up to and overtake the older sibling’s dominance. (B.R. Hergenhahn, Matthew H. Olson, Ken Cramer (2003) p Bono’s Personality 4

93). This is quite true in the case of Bono where he most definitely rose above his older brother’s dominance of the family as he has accomplished much more on a worldwide scale than his brother has. If his older brother did anything of any significance that is close to the worldwide contribution of

Bono then the world does not hear of it often, if ever. (Three Chords and the Truth, Bono’s Biography, www.threechordsandthetruth.net/u2bios/u2bonobio.htm)

Religion has played a large part in the personality of Paul Hewson

(Bono). Although his worshipping ways may be a deviation from the normal church going Christian, he has indeed been born again. His parents were both believers in Jesus Christ as well. Bono’s father was Catholic and his mother was Protestant. Naturally, they shared their faith with their offspring.

This was an interesting combination of parents for an Irish boy to have at that time in history when the Protestants and Catholics were having a major dispute over which denomination would become dominant in Ireland. Due to this massive nationwide argument Bono became very dissatisfied with the

Church due to the way that it operated, it seemed to him that it operated to take care of its own and did not focus as much on reaching out to those in need. (This would fuel his desire for the “One” campaign later on in life).

Bono continues his Christian faith to this day although it is not the most conventional form in the way that one would go to Church every week since

Bono was not a proponent of organized religion. (Fry, Bono Biography Bono’s Personality 5 http://www.atu2.com/band/bono/) However, Bono’s views on religion do resemble those of Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and also Erik Erikson who says, according to Hergenhahn, Olson and Kramer, that

“Religion is something everyone needs. For centuries humans have used religion as a means to make the events in their lives more understandable and thus less threatening. Without it, the lives of millions of people would be filled with uncertainty...A key function of religion is to provide a shared world image. For only a reasonably coherent world provides the faith that is transmitted from parent to child in a way conductive to hope”

(Hergenhahn, Olson, Kramer (2003) 147)

This faith in Jesus Christ which was passed down successfully to Bono from his parents has helped Bono get through some tough situations at an early age. For example, he had the unfortunate experience of witnessing his mother die while they were at a funeral for another loved one. (Fry, Bono

Biography http://www.atu2.com/band/bono/)

On stage Bono and the rest of U2 are known for their highly energetic concerts and their genuine love for the audience. The high energy is spurred on because of the extraverted onstage personalities of Bono and the rest of

U2. Research shows that extraverts have a greater chance at having a great day at work. Who wouldn’t have a good day at work if he were in a band?!

(Cheryl Walker, Extraverts Experience More Positive Work-Family Bono’s Personality 6

Connections, (2004) Wake Forest University http://www.wfu.edu/wfunews/2004/013004e.html ) This extreme friendliness with the audience and extreme extroversion on stage has been shown many times throughout their many years on the road entertaining fanatics of their art form. Bono in particular has played and continues to play a large role in extending U2’s love for their audience out toward their fans. There have been countless times during concerts over the years where he would go out into the crowd while performing and pull someone from the audience to dance with the band, get filmed with video cameras (this particular aspect was especially popular during the Zoo TV tour in 1991), get sprayed with beverages if he or she wanted to, or just to be hugged.

Reasons for this extraversion may transcend the need to merely get the crowd going and make sure everyone is having a good time. If Carl Jung and Bono had shared therapy sessions together, Jung may have described him as a sensing extravert. (Hergenhahn, Olson, Kramer (2003) 65) This extraversion could also be used to draw people in who are like minded and feel free to let it all hang out. Another anterior motive for this extraversion on stage and getting the crowd involved so much could be so that Bono could fulfil the need for love and belonging. This need would be on the third in the gradual succession of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

(Hergenhahn, Olson, Kramer 2003 p 409). As a teenager Bono had a close relationship with his mother until a fateful day in 1974 when his mother died Bono’s Personality 7 randomly of a brain haemorrhage while the family was attending the funeral of another loved one. The loss of his mother was a devastating effect on

Bono for years to come. Since he was not overly close with his father due to the reason that they tended to argue about whether it was right for one to follow his dreams or not. Still bearing in mind that Bono was very close with his mother, who for his entire life up to that point had provided Bono with the love and affection required for his belongingness and love needs. Bono’s father also tried to do his part but their relationship became very strained.

This was due to multiple arguments that Bono and his father incurred after the death of his mother over whether or not Bono should follow his dream and become the front man of a band (Fry, Bono Biography http://www.atu2.com/band/bono/). These frequent arguments with his father could have lead to what Adler refers to as an assertiveness drive.

This happens when a certain need is not being met in one’s life. In Bono’s case at that time, that particular need would have been love and belonging

(C. George Boeree, Alfred Adler (1997, 2006) http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/adler.html) Bono realized that he had no more options for having this need for love and belonging met through family, so he (along with the rest of U2) turned to the millions of fans around the world who love and appreciate what he was and is still accomplishing in the world of good music. To that end Bono was able to finally satisfy that need. That need was further satisfied when he was Bono’s Personality 8 married to his high school girl friend, Alison Stewart in 1982. (Three Chords and the Truth, Bono’s Biography, www.threechordsandthetruth.net/u2bios/u2bonobio.htm) Thus Bono was one step closer to the possibility of becoming one of the few people in the world to achieve some form of self actualization.

Paul Hewson’s outspokenness attribute of his personality has been well documented, this had developed since he was an adolescent in school and continues to this day to be a fixture in the personality of Bono. (Fry, Bono

Biography http://www.atu2.com/band/bono/) It has been helpful in some situations and hurtful in others. Supporters of his enjoy the fact that he is able to speak his mind on important issues, both those that are important to the media and those issues that are seriously important but may not be designated so by the media. Take the incredible amount of poverty around the world as an example. Since the media does not do a good job covering this very important issue, Bono has become a sort of mouthpiece for this issue. This goes beyond just touring and performing, he is educating individuals all around the world, teaching them how to be better people.

Also he is coming to the self realization that it takes more than a good rock show to completely self actualize yourself and change the world, and since he has the resources and political / celebrity power to do so (Fry, Bono

Biography http://www.atu2.com/band/bono/) Bono’s Personality 9

Aspects of the theories of Erikson, Jung, Adler, and Maslow all relate to how Bono tends to act in a given situation. Jung speaks of the extraversion that Bono possesses a great deal of. Erikson and Adler refer to religious views that are extremely similar to those of Bono. Even the theory of B.F.

Skinner has some similarity to Bono’s personality. Skinner believed that behaviour of a person can be taught, caught, and manipulated toward a certain norm or desired result. Behaviour can be changed by way of reinforcement. Reinforcement is a reward, or lack thereof, for completing a particular behaviour. The participant is only rewarded positively when he completes the desired behaviour. If the behaviour is not completed correctly then the subject will be reinforced negatively, or punished. The idea here is to discourage the improper behaviour until the proper outcome is achieved

However, if the desired behaviour is achieved, then the achiever is rewarded positively, which increases the occurrence of the behaviour. (Hergenhahn,

Olsen, Kramer (2003) 223-225). The same can happen on a nightly basis when Bono and the rest of U2 are on a . If they perform well on a given night, which is usually the outcome, then the crowd will reward them with much applause and appreciation. With this positive result U2 becomes encouraged to keep up with the tour and do more of the same excellent performance the next night. If it was not excellent then the crowd would probably let them know quickly if it were to start losing its excellence, then

Bono and the rest of the band would probably try to figure out what went Bono’s Personality 10 wrong, and then upon solving that problem, they would go into the next show with a greater resolve to avoid the negative issues that caused them the negative reinforcement the night before.

In conclusion, the personality of Paul Hewson (Bono) is multifaceted; it cannot merely be explained by psychoanalytic theory alone. Nor can it be completely explained from the non psychoanalytic side. The personality of

Paul Hewson (Bono) has aspects that come from both sides of the personality spectrum.

Bono’s Personality 11

Bibliography

Boeree, C. George, Alfred Adler (1997, 2006) http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/adler.html

Fry, Maddy, Bono Biography http://www.atu2.com/band/bono/

Hergenhahn B.R., Olson Matthew H., Cramer Ken An Introduction to Theories Of Personality, (2003) Prentice Hall Publishing, Toronto

Three Chords and the Truth, Bono’s Biography, www.threechordsandthetruth.net/u2bios/u2bonobio.htm

Walker Cheryl, Extraverts Experience More Positive Work-Family Connections, (2004) Wake Forest University http://www.wfu.edu/wfunews/2004/013004e.html

Bono’s Personality 12

Alfred Adler postulates a single "drive" or motivating force behind all our behavior and experience. By the time his theory had gelled into its most mature form, he called that motivating force the striving for perfection. It is the desire we all have to fulfill our potentials, to come closer and closer to our ideal. It is, as many of you will already see, very similar to the more popular idea of self-actualization.

"Perfection" and "ideal" are troublesome words, though. On the one hand, they are very positive goals. Shouldn't we all be striving for the ideal? And yet, in psychology, they are often given a rather negative connotation. Perfection and ideals are, practically by definition, things you can't reach. Many people, in fact, live very sad and painful lives trying to be perfect! As you will see, other theorists, like Karen Horney and Carl Rogers, emphasize this problem. Adler talks about it, too. But he sees this negative kind of idealism as a perversion of the more positive understanding. We will return to this .

Striving for perfection was not the first phrase Adler used to refer to his single motivating force. His earliest phrase was the aggression drive, referring to the reaction we have when other drives, such as our need to eat, be sexually satisfied, get things done, or be loved, are frustrated. It might be better called the assertiveness drive, since we tend to think of aggression as physical and negative. But it was Adler's idea of the aggression drive that first caused friction between him and Freud. Freud was afraid that it would detract from the crucial position of the sex drive in psychoanalytic theory. Despite Freud's dislike for the idea, he himself introduced something very similar much later in his life: the death instinct.

Another word Adler used to refer to basic motivation was compensation, or striving to overcome. Since we all have problems, short-comings, inferiorities of one sort or another, Adler felt, earlier in his writing, that our personalities could be accounted for by the ways in which we do -- or don't -- compensate or overcome those problems. The idea still plays an important role in his theory, as you will see, but he rejected it as a label for the basic motive because it makes it sound as if it is your problems that cause you to be what you are.

One of Adler's earliest phrases was masculine protest. He noted something pretty obvious in his culture (and by no means absent from our own): Boys were held in higher esteem than girls. Boys wanted, often desperately, to be thought of as strong, aggressive, in control -- i.e. "masculine" -- and not weak, passive, or dependent -- i.e. "feminine." The point, of course, was that men are somehow basically better than women. They do, after all, have the power, the education, and apparently the talent and motivation needed to do "great things," and women don't.

You can still hear this in the kinds of comments older people make about little boys and girls: If a baby boy fusses or demands to have his own way (masculine protest!), they will say he's a natural boy; If a little girl is quiet and shy, she is praised for her femininity; If, on the other hand, the boy is quiet and shy, they worry that he might grow up to be a sissy; Or if a girl is assertive and gets her way, they call her a "tomboy" and will try to reassure you that she'll grow out of it!

But Adler did not see men's assertiveness and success in the world as due to some innate superiority. He saw it as a reflection of the fact that boys are encouraged to be assertive in life, and girls are discouraged. Both boys and girls, however, begin life with the capacity for "protest!" Because so many people misunderstood him to mean that men are, innately, more assertive, lead him to limit his use of the phrase.

The last phrase he used, before switching to striving for perfection, was striving for superiority. His use of this phrase reflects one of the philosophical roots of his ideas: Friederich Nietzsche developed a philosophy that considered the will to power the basic motive of human life. Although striving for superiority does refer to the desire to be better, it also contains the idea that we want to be better than others, rather than better in our own right. Adler later tended to use striving for superiority more in reference to unhealthy or neurotic striving.

http://www.wfu.edu/wfunews/2004/013004e.html

Extraverts experience more positive work-family connections

By Cheryl Walker 336.758.5237 January 30, 2004

Extraverts may have when it comes to balancing work and family, according to a new study by two Wake Forest University professors that looks at the role of personality in the work-family experience.

The researchers examined how an individual’s personality traits contribute to conflict, as well as to positive influence between work and family. Bono’s Personality 13

Extraverts—individuals who are outgoing, sociable, and talkative— experience the most positive connections between their work and family roles, says Julie Holliday Wayne, adjunct assistant professor of business at Wake Forest.

For example, more extraverted individuals reported that having a good day on the job makes them better companions when they get home, Wayne says. Extraverts also said that the things they do on the job make them more interesting people at home, she says.

Wayne, who studies workplace issues, teamed up with William Fleeson, an associate professor of psychology at Wake Forest who studies personality, to conduct the study. The study appears in the February issue of the Journal of Vocational Behavior.

The study used a large, diverse national sample. Extraversion was just one of the five key personality factors the researchers considered.

“We know that situational factors, such as hours worked and parental status, influence how much interference people experience between their work and family lives,” Wayne says. “But, in this study, after we eliminated these factors, we found that an individual’s personality contributed to the degree of conflict and facilitation they experienced.”

Conscientiousness, another of the key personality factors, was related to less conflict between work and family, presumably reflecting efficient time use and organizational skills, she says.

“Conscientious individuals—those who are efficient, organized, and thorough— may be better able to successfully complete work tasks in less time so that they are less preoccupied with work while at home and vice versa,” she adds.

Those with the neurotic personality trait—think Woody Allen or Jerry Seinfeld’s characters—experienced the greatest amount of work-family conflict, Fleeson says.

“If something goes wrong, they tend to exaggerate the negative,” he says. “These are the people who regularly experience high levels of anxiety.”

For example, people higher on the neurotic personality factor were more likely to report that stress at work makes them irritable at home. They also report that job worries or problems distract them when they are home and personal or family concerns distract them when they are at work.

People exhibiting two other key personality factors, agreeableness and openness, tend to experience slightly more positive influence from work to family.

“Individuals who reported that work positively influenced their family lives were more satisfied with their jobs and put more effort into their jobs,” Wayne says. “That relates to organizations’ bottom lines.”

The study’s findings suggest the need for organizations to help employees achieve work-family balance, and that to do so, they should consider the individual’s personality traits as well as factors of the work situation. For example, Fleeson suggests that Employee Assistance Programs and other programs could be developed to help neurotic individuals understand their tendency to view experiences negatively and to coach them on how to view work-family conflict as less threatening.

In addition to shedding light on the importance of personality factors, this is one of a few published studies that shows that work and family roles can benefit each other, Wayne says.

www.threechordsandthetruth.net/u2bios/u2bonobio.htm

Bono was born Paul David Hewson in Ballymun, on May 10th 1960, a second son to Bobby and Iris, and a younger brother to Norman. The family lived at number 10 Cedarwood Road in Ballymun which is in North Dublin. With a Protestant mother and Catholic father, Bono grew up with a strong religious faith but avoided becoming attached to one particular denomination. His mother died in 1974 (within days of the death of her own father) when Bono was just 14 years old, an event that was to have a strong influence on his later songwriting. Losing his mother at such a young age was something that he had in common with Larry, which led to a particularly close bond between the two, especially in the early days of the band.

He joined a group of kids who called themselves Lypton Village, and it was there that he acquired the name Bono Vox. The members of the group would give each other names that they felt reflected who they were better than their given names. The origin of Bono's name has been variously attributed to a dog food, a brand of hearing aid, and the Latin phrase for 'good voice'. The hearing-aid explanation seems to be the most widely accepted. There was a shop in the O'Connell Street area of Dublin which sold 'Bonavox' hearing aids, and this seems to have been adapted to Bono Vox. Bono’s Personality 14

In the early days of the band, Bono was the dominant force, playing guitar, singing, and writing the songs. As Edge became a better guitarist however, Bono was restricted to vocals only. Even then, there was a time when the others considered removing him from the band altogether, as it was felt that his voice wasn't up to scratch. Fortunately for all concerned, he remained.

Bono has always had a great stage presence. Even at school, where he was the first person to embrace punk, he had a flare for grabbing people's attention. From the beginning, he was a natural at working an audience and getting the best from them by interacting with them. This has been a constant feature of U2's live shows right up to the present day, perhaps most notably during the ZooTV tour, when he took on the guise of characters such as 'The Fly' and Mr. Macphisto.

Bono was recently awarded the 1999 MTV Free Your Mind award for his charitable work, particularly with the Jubilee 2000 campaign. He has also been heavily involved with NetAid and Warchild, to whom the profits of the 'Miss ' single go. These are the latest in a series of worthy causes that have been championed by Bono. U2 have always been serious about their politics, Bono especially. There has been disagreement at times within the band about Bono's use of the stage to preach politics to the audience at a live show. Edge in particular is uncomfortable with the idea of lecturing fans, taking the view that there is a time and a place for political debate, but onstage during a show is not it.

In June 2001 however, Bono literally did deliver a lecture when he gave the Class Day Address at Harvard. Bono already had connections with the prestigious university through Professor Jeffrey Sachs, the chief economist for the Jubilee 2000 campaign. The Elevation tour happened to be in Boston during Harvard graduation week so Sachs arranged for Bono to be invited to speak at Class Day. I was fortunate enough to attend the speech in person thanks to my good friends Perry and Win. You can see photos of the occasion here and here.

Since the end of the Elevation tour in December 2001, Bono has continued to be actively involved in campaigning for debt relief in Africa. He visited Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Ethiopia with US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill in May 2002 and has continued to work with DATA (Debt, AIDS and Trade in Africa) with the support of several world leaders and financial backing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

He married Alison Stewart in 1982, and they have 4 children, daughters Jordan (born May 1989) and Memphis Eve (born July 1991) and son Elijah Patricius Q (born August 1999) and John Abraham (born May 2001). The latest one was famously described by Bono as "looking like a thug" when he was born. On 21st August 2001 Bono lost his father after a long battle against cancer. The last few concerts on the European leg of the Elevation tour were very emotional for Bono as he paid tribute to his father at each one.

Like the rest of the band Bono still lives in Dublin, in the exclusive suburb of Killiney

http://www.atu2.com/band/bono/

Paul David "Bono" Hewson Born: May 10, 1960 Instrument: Vocals, guitar

LIFE

As the lead singer of U2, one of the most popular and influential rock bands of the last 30 years, Bono is a figure adored and admired both within and outside of the music industry. As a rock star, his music with U2 has earned him legions of devoted fans across the world, whilst as a humanitarian and crusader for the world's poor, co-founder of organisations such as DATA and the ONE Campaign, he has gained deep respect from politicians and global statesmen as well as music fans. His rare ability to effectively straddle the spheres of both entertainment and politics remains rivaled by few in the realm of popular culture, and his determination to change the world for the better continues to inspire millions on both sides of the political divide.

It's perhaps unsurprising that Bono's unusual adult existence was preceded by a less-than-ordinary upbringing. Born in the north Dublin suburb of Ballymun, Paul Hewson was the second child of Catholic father Brendan Robert Hewson (always called Bobby), and Protestant mother Iris Elizabeth Rankin – a highly unusual arrangement in then deeply sectarian Ireland. As a child Paul Hewson was a precocious, outspoken and thoughtful boy whose early experiences did much to shape his later life as one of the most important figures in Irish history.

As a child, his education started at The Inkwell, a small Protestant Church of Ireland junior school, before eventually continuing on to St. Patrick's Cathedral Choir School. But his time there was unsuccessful; as Bono put it, "I spent a year at St. Patrick's, not being happy, and basically they asked me to leave." This was largely a result of the young Paul throwing dog feces at his Spanish teacher, which subsequently led to his enrollment in 1972 at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, a controversial establishment that was Ireland's first co-educational, non- denominational high school. Paul settled in very quickly and soon became well-adjusted and happy in his new environment.

But at the age of 14, he suffered a tragic and devastating loss when his mother died of a brain hemorrhage whilst attending the funeral of her own father. Bono’s Personality 15

From this point onwards, Paul's home life became considerably traumatic. Despite his father's attempts to hold the family together, Bono claims that he and Bob Hewson "didn't get on very well." As a result, father and son never enjoyed a particularly close relationship. In fact, Bono would later claim that the inarticulate Bob Hewson's unspoken message to his children was "to dream is to be disappointed." The singer has often cited this as a key reason for his forming such big ambitions and becoming even more determined to follow his dreams.

It was not long after his mother's death that Paul also got his new name. Originally 'Steinhegvanhuysenolegbangbangbang,' it evolved to 'Bonavox of O'Connell Street' after a hearing aid store in the centre of Dublin, before eventually being shortened to 'Bonavox,' 'Bono Vox' – cockeyed Latin for 'good voice' – and finally 'Bono.' Credit for this goes to his mate Guggi (real name Derek Rowan), a childhood friend, who along with Bono was a member of the group Lypton Village. This was a gang of disaffected-but-creative youths that included (real name Fionan Hanvey), the man who would eventually go on to form the avant-garde rock band the . Bono has often cited Lypton Village as a key source of inspiration and support both before and during his time with U2.

At Mount Temple, Bono describes himself as being "a bit wide-awake, a bit bright, a bit experimental." Although he was far from exceptional as a student, he had a flair for history and art, and became a keen and expert chess player. However, he was perhaps the most adept at navigating the field of romance, entertaining many girlfriends. In 1976, he started dating Alison Stewart (b. March 23, 1961), commonly known as Ali, with the two eventually marrying on August 21, 1982. They went on to have four children: Jordan (b. May 10, 1989), Memphis Eve (b. July 7, 1991), Elijah Bob Patricius Guggi Q (b. August 17, 1999), and John Abraham (b. May 20, 2001). To this day, the family continues to make their home in Dublin.

Despite his initial ambition to be an actor, it was arguably Bono's tendency to be, in his own words, "promiscuous with my ambitions, flirting with all kinds of things" which led him to respond to a notice posted on the Mount Temple bulletin board appealing for musicians. Those interested were told to assemble at 60 Rosemount Avenue, Artane, the house of 14-year-old drummer Larry Mullen Jnr.

As well as Bono, the other boys who made it to that first session were 15-year-old guitarist David Evans (later nicknamed The Edge), 16-year-old , who couldn't actually play bass guitar but certainly knew how to talk as though he did, Larry's friend Peter Martin, Ivan McCormick, and David Evans' brother Dick. Ivan and Peter were, to quote Adam, "weeded out" early on, whilst Dick eventually left the band to study engineering at Trinity College Dublin. The four remaining boys were initially named Feedback (supposedly after the ear-splitting wailing that always seemed to emanate from the guitar amps), before becoming the Hype, and then eventually U2.

Shortly after the band's formation, Bono, Edge and Larry became involved in the Dublin-based Christian group Shalom. From an early age, the controversy caused by the marriage between his Protestant mother and Catholic father had made Bono extremely suspicious of organised religion, with him later describing it as having "cut my people in two." Therefore, the non-denominational nature of the Shalom group provided Bono and the two other believing members of U2 with solace, harmony and strength.

However, Bono, Edge and Larry's involvement with Shalom later caused friction within U2, as the non-believing Adam felt that the latter three's more devout friends were trying to make them prioritise their faith over the band. The three believers did eventually leave Shalom, as they felt that the group was trying to force upon them the false assertion that a commitment to rock n' roll and a commitment to God were mutually excludable principles. Since then, Bono's Christian faith has played a big role in his life, but in a way that has largely been free from the influence of the mainstream church.

PERFORMER

Right from the beginning of his time with U2, Bono cultivated a reputation for being able to connect physically and emotionally with fans to an astonishing degree during the band's performances. He honed his technique initially during U2's earliest gigs in small pubs and clubs across America and Europe, where as he put it, he would "walk out on tables, kissing people's girlfriends and drinking their wine." Later on, in the 1983 , the singer would regularly climb the stage tresses in order to prevent the crowds' attention from wandering.

However, perhaps the most well-known example of Bono's on-stage theatrics was during in 1985, when mid-way through "Bad" he leapt off the stage and over a security barricade to the floor of the stadium, pulling a girl from the crowd to dance with her. Since then, he has brought girls (and occasionally boys) up on stage to be sprayed with champagne and filmed with handicams (Zoo TV), danced with (PopMart), to play songs (Elevation) and even just to be hugged (Vertigo). Over the years, these exploits have sealed Bono's reputation as one of the all-time great performers, as well as U2's reputation as a band with a heartfelt and profound love for its audience.

But his on-stage antics were not always received positively. At the end of the '80s, Bono had become something akin to a Messiah figure, with his often politically-charged, on-stage sermonizing causing U2 to suffer a considerable amount of ridicule from detractors, who accused them of earnestness, pomposity and egotism. Their decision to relocate to Berlin in order to re-tool their sound and image produced some startling changes in Bono's public persona.

The first of these, appearing on the Zoo TV tour in 1992, was The Fly, a character described by Bono as a man making "a phone call from hell, but liking it there." Others emerged, including the infamous MacPhisto. The latter was an incarnation meant for the European crowds during the 1993 Zooropa tour, apparently intended as a depiction of the Devil as a tired, old pop star who's been reduced to playing the Las Vegas circuit.

These fun and frivolous experiments with various alter-egos did not last the decade, though. On the 2001 and 2005 Elevation and Vertigo tours, Bono became a more low-key version of his late-'80s onstage self, seeking to educate audiences politically and spiritually as well as to entertain. Bono’s Personality 16

ACTIVIST

Bono has long been involved in a variety of causes outside of U2. His work as an activist, due largely to his Christian beliefs, began in earnest when, inspired by Live Aid, he traveled to Ethiopia to work in a feeding camp with his wife Ali and the charity World Vision. Bono also went to Central America in 1985 to see the damage wrought by US-backed operations in Nicaragua and El Salvador, after which he and U2 toured as part of the benefit tour, .

In the 1990s, he campaigned with Greenpeace against the nuclear power plant Sellafield in the north of England, and drew attention to the conflict raging in Bosnia by collaborating with the US journalist Bill Carter during the Zoo TV tour to create the award-winning documentary, .

Since the millennium, he has rallied numerous actors, artists and campaigners to the cause of ending Third World debt in his role as spokesman for the Jubilee 2000 project, as well as trying to end AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa by co-founding the lobbying organisation DATA (Debt, Aid, Trade, Africa) in 2002, the ONE Campaign to Make Poverty History (USA) in 2004, and the Make Poverty History movement (UK) in 2005. The latter two are coalitions of NGOs, faith groups and individuals working to end extreme poverty. Bono was equally key in performing in and helping to organise (along with friend ) the concerts in 2005, a series of events across the globe designed to pressure world leaders to increase aid, cancel Third World debt and improve the terms of trade with the world's poorest countries.

Also in 2005, Bono and Ali, along with fashion designer Rogan Gregory, created the socially conscious clothing line EDUN. This range of clothes for men and women seeks to promote fair trade and sustainable growth by basing their means of production in poor communities, without the use of sweatshop-like conditions, encouraging them to use their skills in an environmentally friendly way to create garments that can be sold at a fair price.

In 2006, Bobby Shriver and Bono co-founded the Product (RED) campaign. This initiative seeks to persuade large companies with global brands to sell specific lines of products from which a portion of the profits will be donated to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and malaria.

As well as illustrating Bono's staggering amount of energy and commitment, these initiatives have earned Bono numerous honours and awards. He was presented with the Free Your Mind Award at the MTV Europe Awards in Dublin, in acknowledgement of his work on behalf of the Jubilee 2000 project; he received a knighthood in Britain, the Légion d'honneur in France, and at least two nominations on separate occasions for the Nobel Peace Prize. He has also had various degrees bestowed on him from some of the world's top universities, and has sat as the editor for the publications Vanity Fair (USA) and the Independent newspaper (UK).

EXTRA-CURRICULAR

Beyond politics, Bono's activities outside of U2 have included dabbling in the film industry. In 1999 he composed and performed the music for the Wim Wenders film The Million Dollar Hotel, which he co-wrote with screenwriter Nicholas Klein. Bono also made a brief appearance in the movie, his second film role after having previously appeared as himself in Entropy, an indie flick made by Rattle and Hum director Phil Joanou. He also appeared in Julie Taymor's 2007 film Across the Universe, playing Dr. Robert, a psychedelic guru from the Beatles song of the same name. In addition, he starred alongside his band mates in U2 3D, a movie of the band's Vertigo tour concerts in South America filmed in a ground-breaking 3D format, and Daniel Lanois's musical exploration Here Is What Is.

On top of this, Bono has dipped his toe into the literary world, writing the intros for American economist Jeffrey Sachs's 2005 book The End of Poverty, Irish Christian author Adam Harbinson's 2002 critique of the established church They've Hijacked God, and an edition of the Psalms for the 1998 Pocket Canons series. He has also had a book published, 2007's On the Move, in which he lays out his vision, in a single speech, for the changes that could be brought about in the Third World by minor increases in aid provision on the part of the West.

Yet despite all his influence among the wealthy and famous, Bono's greatest impact arguably lies with the millions of ordinary individuals whose lives he has touched and transformed, many of whom have been inspired by him to try and make the world a better place. His capacity for action, his unwavering belief in the potential for individuals to change the world, and his extraordinary powers of persuasion when faced with those hostile to his cause remain unrivalled both within and outside of the music industry. His life has been, and still is, a remarkable example of the triumph of optimism in the face of cynicism and indifference, not to mention how to resist the rock n' roll cliches.