And Finally Artist News Beef Of The Week

CMU Beef Of The Week #133: Neil Young v Bono

By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 26 October 2012

We’ve been a little spoiled for possible beefs this week. There was Jake Bugg’s hilarious claim that his music is better than “that ‘X-Factor shit”; a man suing Justin Bieber over bizarre allegations the pop teen stole his credit card to pay for penis enlargement surgery; HMV’s attempt to eradicate from its stores anyone who might look like they work in a record shop; Noel Gallagher’s loaded compliment to Beady Eye; and Lee Ryan’s epic departure from Twitter. In the end though, one tweet from Neil Young amused us enough to rise to the top of the list.

Three little words was all it took: “Who is Bono?”

See, when he’s not banging on about his studio quality digital audio company Pono and its ridiculous triangular music players, he’s quite funny. It seems a shame to give this any context, but I guess we should.

Taking part in a Twitter Q&A with fans Young was asked which new bands he rates, to which he responded that he likes Foster The People. Puzzled by this, another fan asked: “What do you like about Foster The People? Bono said he likes them, too… it is surprising two super stars like them”.

It’s not that surprising that two famous people, out of all the famous people in the world, might both like a popular band, but whatever. This drew Young’s succinct response, which failed to answer the question at all. Let’s look at it again: “Who is Bono?”

It’s the brevity I enjoy. Actually, brevity was a feature of the whole Q&A, which made it hard to tell if Young was really that into it. Many of his answers came back simply “yes”, “no” or “maybe”, though a deadpan humour did emerge when asked if he would forgive someone for passing out at one of his concerts (“First you must forgive yourself”), how someone should prepare for their first Crazy Horse show (“Bring oats”), what he’s currently reading (“It wasn’t that good… so I stopped reading it”), and the meaning of the title of his new album ‘Psychedelic Pill’ (“It is a pill that induces psychedelia”).

He also found time to call a fan a “sad bastard” and closed the Q&A by asking himself a question (which he failed to answer properly). Maybe the fact that the aforementioned Pono player is a shape that’s impossible to put in your pocket is just some deadpan gag we’ve all failed to get. It’s seems like the most likely explanation. Rumours that Pono is named after the noise people make when they laugh while thinking about Bono are as yet unconfirmed.