Interview: Ade Aslam of U2UK

2:10pm Friday 10th October 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

FOR the last seven years, U2UK have been capturing the spirit of arguably the world’s biggest band with their own tribute show.

And for the four members — bassist Ade Aslam, singer Tommy Higginson, guitarist Simon Pellechia and Nathan Griffiths on drums — it’s been a labour of love.

“We are all huge fans of U2,” said Ade. “Unlike some tribute bands we’ve seen, in which some members are just paid musicians, we are all passionate about U2’s music.

“We’d all been playing in original bands but got to that stage when we realised that we weren’t going to make it,” said Ade.

“After a four-year break I saw an ad from a singer who was starting up a U2 tribute and thought ‘why not?’ It’s just taken off from there.”

Since then, the band have travelled all over Europe.

”We’ve played some pretty big shows,” said Ade.

“We performed in front of 8,500 people in Holland, which was a great experience.”

U2UK prde themselves on both looking and sounding like the Irish supergroup.

“When people come to see us for the first time I think they are surprised at the show we put on,” said Ade.

“We have a big video screen at the back of the stage and try to capture the essence of a real U2 show.”

With a band that has had so many distinct looks over a career spanning 30 years, U2 present many challenges for a tribute act.

“We try to cover their whole career,” said Ade.

“We start off with songs from Vertigo, which is the most recent album, but then we’ll go right back through the band’s history.

“We try to be as authentic as possible and we’re always discussing what to include and what to leave out of a show.

"There are songs that we’ll drop after a time and introduce new ones, just as the band would do.”

As far as the band are aware, Bono, the Edge and co have not seen them perform live but they do know they are aware of them.

“We have some dedicated fans who follow us around to gigs,” said Ade.

“They met bassist Adam Clayton and gave him a copy of our CD.”

l U2UK play Burnley Mechanics Saturday, October 11 and Blackburn Thwaites Empire Theatre on Friday, November 14. Details from the box office on 01282 664400.