Fun fact for Tabs: the Julian that Mark goes hunting for mushrooms with in “Two Steps Back” is Cope. Based on a true drug buddy story.

Funniest bit about U2 in Rip It Up: when the band met the manager of Factory records, Tony Wilson, Bono expressed his deep sorrow at Ian’s death, and how Ian had been the voice of his generation and greatest singer, and that he, Bono Vox, could only hope to be #2. “But now that Ian’s gone I promise to do my best to carry on his legacy for him.”

The problem with Simple Minds is that they always sounded like a second rate imitation of some other band. The debut is a slavish Roxy Music homage, the second of Wire/Joy Division, then they tried New Wave Eurodisco, and wound up a poor man’s U2.

That was Theatre of Hate’s only album, so they never built any sort of legacy and remain a footnote. They’re mentioned in the Goth chapter as an example of how some Goths flirted with fascist/Nazi imagery, most infamously Siouxsie & the Banshees. The singer looked very very Aryan, played Ride of the Valkyries before concerts, and naming his next band The Spear of Destiny didn’t help, even if his lyrics were too vaguely political to mean anything.