An Unforgettable Night with U2
In 1987, the popular rock band U2 went on a world tour following its successful Joshua Tree album. The band was scheduled to perform at the Oakland Coliseum on November 14-15. On November 11, they played a free noontime concert at Justin Herman Plaza to the 20,000 people that gathered. The spontaneous concert was announced only two hours before it began. In the middle of the last song, lead singer Bono spray-painted "Rock N Roll Stops The Traffic" on the Vaillancourt Fountain. He was criticized for the action by Mayor Diane Feinstein, who was on an anti-grafitti crusade, and issued a citation. The fountain artist, Armand Vaillancourt, did not mind and even supported Bono, but the city made the him pay for the removal of the graffiti.
1987 was the year I started creating posters with co-directors Rene Castro and Jos Sances at Mission Grafica, which was housed in the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. I happened to be there when Bono and Edge dropped by after the graffiti incident. They were not the first rock stars to drop by; Rene Castro, Jos Sances, and Mike Rios had designed work for Carlos Santana as well. Bono asked Rene to do a simple design that could be spray-painted quickly on a canvas scrim while they sang at the Oakland Coliseum the next day. Rene scrambled to find volunteers for this assignment. I asked to be part of it, even though I had never spray-painted before. I didn’t want to miss out on this once in a lifetime opportunity to be on stage with the band. I was a big fan of U2 and loved all the songs on the Joshua Tree album.
We got there early at Bill Graham’s request. He was jittery and gruff, as producers tend to be in a tense situation when so many people and variables are involved. That evening I, along with Rene and Jos and a bunch of graffiti artists from the Mission, spray-painted the stage backdrop while U2 played in front of 60,000 people. Rene designed the two huge facing doves on the stage length canvas that was to be raised slowly while we worked. The distance between the doves was so wide Jos had to run back and forth to tell each side of painters what the other side was doing. He had to make sure we were completing our section on time.
The spray cans had to be shaken up by volunteers below us who passed them to the artists on stage. I worked on one side with other graffiti artists, our backs to the audience. We feverishly sprayed before the scrim was raised beyond our reach; then started on the next section. The light was dim and it was chilly on a November evening. I couldn’t even see if I had the nozzle pointed away from my face. As a silkscreen artist who carefully planned out each poster, I didn’t have a clue what to paint, but the graffiti guys were happily doing their thing. Having never spray- painted before, I was extremely dizzy from the fumes, and the songs seemed to go on forever. Backstage, Bill Graham looked on nervously. Finally, the singing ended and the painting was finished, ready or not. We left the stage with the band. The crowd’s thunderous applause told me the piece was well received, even though I never got to see it. (After the concert, Bono had it wrapped and sent to Diane Feinstein’s office as a gift. It was probably thrown away. I can’t find any documentation of it.)
But we were not through after the backdrop painting. We stayed backstage. For the second set, we each grabbed a makeshift wooden cross bearing the name of a person who has been killed in El Salvador. At the appropriate moment, we carried our crosses above our heads while Bono sang “Bullet the Blue Sky,” a song about the impact of U.S. foreign policy in Central America. This time I faced the audience and felt what it was like to connect with huge crowds of people in a meaningful way. We held the crosses high. Everyone roared and raised their Bic lighters in solidarity. Bono sang his heart out. The whole coliseum was lit. It was an evening I’ll never forget. This is one of the many reasons why I cherish these community art centers. Magic happens there. If you seize the opportunity, you will have adventures you never dreamed of.
