Wanna hear Colin Farrell sing "I Fought The Law"? Now's your chance. How exciting! And... he's Shane MacGowan. I'm not having it. Colin, you sound like a Kilburn High Road dosser and your attempt to be a rock god has lasted 34 seconds with me, most of which were the (admittedly exhilarating) guitar intro. The law won. This is all very Oirish (the film's set in Dublin), so as well as U2's "Out Of Control" there's The Thrills' "One Horse Town" and something drippy by Clannad.
Rattle & Hum director Phil Joanou escaped the U2 camp to direct this uneven saga of Irish mobsters on the loose in early-'90s New York. Sean Penn makes for a reasonably authentic Oirish lead and Gary Oldman blows the roof off as an unwashed homicidal loon, but this sporadically brilliant flick belongs to Ed Harris. His incandescent performance as malevolent mob boss Frankie Flannery will stick in your head weeks after the credits roll.
No stranger to stage dramatics, Peter Gabriel created one of rock's great spectacles on 1993's "Secret World" tour. Seen by over a million people across five continents, only U2 and the Stones have rivalled it for theatrical excess. Robert LePage's stage designs still astound—and a still youthful-looking Gabriel matches them with his own charismatic presence on songs like "Sledgehammer".
