This week on the pod jD and Matt discuss some U2 trivia before ceding the floor to Thomas and returning guest, Ryan McNeil.

Transcript:

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[0:28 ] Ryan McNeil. And now, curator of the Hall, J.D.

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[0:39 ] Thank you so much, Doug Dines. It is great to be back here in the SNL Hall of Fame at the SNL Hall of Fame podcast. My name is J.D., and I would love to welcome you in, but my goodness, this fall season has made your shoes all mucky-muck. Give them a wipe, won't ya? The SNL Hall of Fame podcast is a weekly affair where each episode we take a deep dive into the career of a former cast member, host, musical guest, or writer, and add them to the ballot for your consideration. Once the nominees have been announced, we turn to you, the listener, to vote for the most deserving and help determine who will be enshrined for perpetuity in the hall. And that's how we play the game. It's just that simple.

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[1:36 ] You listen. You vote. You listen again. You complain. We've got a spot for that now. That's the SNL Hall of Fame water cooler, which is going to appear in your feed every Thursday. Day and it's going to be discussing that week's episode in a little more critical focus and view inside the context of the hall so we hope you'll enjoy that send us an email snl8 the snl hof.

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[2:14 ] At gmail.com, So there's that. This week we have a great show. My friend Ryan McNeil is joining us. He is a multi-time guest on the show. Tends to focus on music and he is doing that once again talking about U2, nominating U2. So that should be interesting to hear. If you enjoy what you hear, please follow him at thematinee.ca. That's his blog, his movie-loving blog, and there is the podcast of the same name. Let's find our friend Matt Ardill and see what he has to say, that son of a gun. Matt!

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[2:59 ] Diddy. You too. What do you got?

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[3:04 ] Yeah, I mean, they're from Ireland. I think that was obvious by like two seconds of listening to them. They formed in 1976. They were formed by Larry Mullen Jr. Posted a note on his school notice board for musicians starting as a seven piece called Feedback. Uh then they started whittling away and became hype and then eventually got down to uh the lineup we know larry mullen jr bono the edge and adam clayton becoming you too now bono's real name is paul david hewson the edge's real name is david howell evans um and they're they how they got got their nicknames or kind of internet edge got his nickname from the shape of his face uh so um it's it's he's edgy um larry and adam also have nicknames which you don't often see uh larry's being yeah jam jar uh that's what they like to call him um and adam was mrs burns um i mean it's It's clear that these are names that that are given in jest because Bono's actual full nickname came from an abbreviation like Bono came from an abbreviation of his full nickname, which is Bono Vox of O'Connell Street.

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[4:30 ] Really? Yeah, I, you know, the Irish, we're a mystery. Um now he's inspired by everything from uh Brian Eno or they are inspired by from everything from Brian Eno to Thin Lizzy to Joy Division and the Beatles um to say their their their inspirations are diverse.

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[4:52 ] Understatement um now they kind of broke big by winning a saint patrick's day talent show in limerick in 1978 they won 500 pounds and studio time which resulted in the demo they gave to cbs records in ireland um their first release was an ep entitled three which was released only in ireland um they are very charitably minded um including amnesty international make poverty history the one campaign live aid live eight data uh music rising and goodness knows how many more charities um they are the fourth band on the cover of time magazine the others being the beatles the band and the who um so they're the only one without company yeah pretty good company and the only one without the in their name so uh that makes them unique but yeah i mean like what what other band like those are three of the best bands of all time so can't complain they're actually one of the few bands though that turned down doing a uh by john peel um get out of here Yeah, John Peele's like, no, no, I don't like them.

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[6:12 ] Oh, they were turned down by Peele. Yeah, Peele's just like, no, I don't want to do it. The UK Tastemaker was one of the few big hits he refused.

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[6:22 ] The others being The Police and Dire Straits. Peele shrugged it off in the not a fan category.

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[6:32 ] Basically, just didn't like them. So they are a bit polarizing. I have an ex-wife who hated U2. So, yeah. They're the only Irish band to win a Grammy for Album of the Year. They hold the record for the most Grammys won by one band at 22. They went on to do a 40-night residency at the Las Vegas Globe, filling the 160-square-foot venue. I have to correct you. Sorry. The Sphere. Sphere? The Sphere. Okay. Yes. The Sphere. The Sphere. Okay, let's go back. No, no. they didn't just leave it let's just leave that yeah okay um they they sold 281 000 tickets uh making 109.8 million dollars get out of here yeah uh they they don't need any money they're doing fine um now apple they aren't without controversy aside from my ex-wife um apple Apple pushed their album, Songs of Innocence, with no way to remove it, which pissed people off so much. Apple had to develop a special program to remove the album after it was pushed to devices without permission.

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[7:59 ] But in 2005, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and have also received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2022. 22 she was very well decorated yeah so they are a band with uh the credits to to get in pretty much anywhere they want so will they get one more accolade this season in the much maligned musical guest category matt uh i don't know i don't know they are certainly friends of the show and uh they they pack a ton of credibility as far as having a worldwide band in 8h you know pretty neat kind of thing um what do you say we head downstairs, can't wait let's give it all right thomas take it away.

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[9:25 ] Yes, JD and Matt, thank you so, so much. Today's an exciting day here on the SNL Hall of Fame. I'm going to be talking about a band that I absolutely love. Arguably, at their peak, the biggest band in the world. I'm not even sure how arguable that is. I think they were the biggest band in the world. And joining me to talk all things U2 and SNL, back for what I like to call another edition of Ryan's Music Corner here on the SNL Hall of Fame. That's kind of what I've pigeonholed him as, but like awesome musical guests. So without further ado, I want to welcome Ryan McNeil to the podcast. Ryan, what's up, my man? You know what? I just keep on trying to get one of these bands into the hall. I also just selfishly love coming by to just talk about my favorite bands. Come on back next time, kids, while I talk about Jack White.

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[10:23 ] We're just going through the list. You know, I'm basically getting to talk about all of my favorite acts. And I'm sure there are legions of people who have met me over the course of my life who cannot believe that you gents have given me a soapbox to talk about you two. There are whole swaths of people that are saying, in the long list of bad ideas, this is a very bad idea. Oh boy, here we go. oh, yeah, that's how I can get with a lot of my favorite bands as well. You just pull the cord and then watch us go.

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[10:55 ] It's shutting me up. That's the hard part. Yeah. Our Dave Grohl episode was a little like that, which was one of my favorite episodes that I've done. This is now the fifth season that I've been doing these conversations. And our Dave Grohl episode was still one of my favorite episodes. So I think we can handle this one. Nice. Can't wait. Yeah, me too. Before we get to that, though, you have a podcast that I love, a movie podcast, The Matinee Cast. So, man, what's been happening over on your pod? We just wrapped up a season. My seasons end in August because September for film is a little weird. So I usually just take the month to kind of reset. And I send a postcard from TIFF, which happens in Toronto the week after Labor Day. So there would have been a TIFF postcard that went out about what we saw, what the week was like, what the festival was like. And then we get ready in October for a whole new season. and I've lost count of how many seasons. I guess this would be, oh shit, this would be our 15th season actually. No kidding. Yeah. That's impressive. I'm a senior citizen when it comes to podcasting.

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[12:02 ] I was telling Darren Patterson was on with me recently for Garrett Morrison. He does the SNL Nerds podcast and he was saying they're on their 300th episode. I'm like, you realize that most podcasts go to like four or five episodes and then quit? Yeah. So this is like, that's really impressive, man. If you hit double digits, you're doing muscle. So I, the, one of the things that keeps me going is I only do them every other week. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's true. That's only spread. Yeah. Spreading that out. Uh, so will you be covering the Saturday night movie in October?

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[12:32 ] Good question. Uh, in the past, yes, yes, I would have been, but Tiff for me, uh, around 2016, I changed my approach actually to the, to the Toronto international film festival. And that was the first year where I was really limited to what I could see. I had a very shortened window that year, so I needed to pare things down. And I started that year only going to se