THE Corner Hotel has a reputation built on a solid foundation of music, beer and sticky carpet.
An odd-shaped room for musical performances, The Corner, as it is affectionately yet unimaginatively known, stands on the corner of Swan, Stewart and Botherambo streets, Richmond, Melbourne.
It’s hosted performances by some big names – Mick Jagger, David Gilmour, Crowded House, Midnight Oil, Blink 182, The Living End, Joe Strummer, The White Stripes.
I could go on.
So I will.
Men at Work, Rollins Band, Queens of the Stone Age, John Butler Trio, Jet, Airbourne, The Saints, Marky Ramone, The Lemonheads. You get the idea.
You can add U2 to that list, albeit not for performing, but recording a film clip.
EXTRAS: Check out my U2 Australia Facebook and Twitter pages for more items of interest.
The band were in Melbourne on the 2006 Vertigo Tour at the time and, having finished their two shows at the then Telstra Dome (now Etihad Stadium), they ventured down to The Corner Hotel on Monday, November 20, to film some crowd shots for the Window in the Skies clip.
Understandably, the news spread quickly and soon enough a throng of fans had turned up. What they didn’t know was that Bono, The Edge, Larry and Adam would actually be standing with them as cameras filmed the footage which made up just a few seconds in the final clip.
You can see all four band members fleetingly as the crowd around them raise their arms while pretending to watch a performance on stage. The majority of the film clip splices together a number of different music stars from Frank Sinatra to Elvis to Jimi Hendrix seemingly singing or playing along to Window in the Skies.
Shona Macquarie, of Richmond, and Damien Koentiz, of Flemington, were plucked off the street to be part of the shoot. They told the Herald Sun that security told the extras to keep their distance from the band members, but true to form they were only too happy to mingle.
“All the band members were dotted amongst the crowd … Larry had a swig from my bottle of water,” Mr Koenitz said. “We got told to be respectful because they would be standing in such close proximity, but when they came out they were very friendly.”
Bono reportedly shouted beers after the shoot, chatting with fans before he left in a silver BMW four-wheel drive.
Here’s the finished product. Great song, by the way. Doesn’t get much kudos.
If you were at the shoot, leave a message below.
U2 AUSTRALIA 
Was at the shoot. A heap of sitting around waiting for something to happen. All there at 8am to start, and they had us run through the small lanes in Richmond for about 30 mins (3min45 into the video). Then a whole heap of sitting around upstairs in the corner beer garden. At about 4pm they moved us all down to the band room. Gave us a quick talking to and then the band came in – we thought they’d be on the stage but they dotted the four of them through the crowd. We did a few shows of our arms in the air and that was that. Bono thanked everyone and said the bar was on him and they headed off. Word have obviously got out by now, plenty of fans had gathered outside and the band obliged with photos and autographs. From memory Larry was the last to leave… but don’t quote me on that. Good to be a part of but not a particularly riveting day!
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