Unfortunately Flaunt It got crucifying reviews in England. I can’t say it didn’t hurt. In the moment you have no choice but to try to rise above it and not care but we couldn't understand why it was getting slated. It was a great record and nothing else around at that time came close to it’s sound. We would go on to sell almost a million copies worldwide and I still believe it stands.
Years later, backstage after a B.A.D gig, I met Bono again for the first time in years. The first time we had met he had been so young and had just started a band. I had been at a Lou Reed gig at Hammersmith Odeon. I was standing there with Billy Idol when this bunch of four young kids came up to us and said how much they loved Dancing with Myself. They were sweet Irish boys and they told us they had this little group called U2. I guess it was that echoey guitar part that made the impression!
We'd met again when BAD toured France supporting the now massive U2 and I was there returning Mick’s sound mixing favour for Sputnik by doing the same for BAD. And that night backstage at the BAD party, Bono said to me how great he thought Sputnik were and how they had loved all the television imagery and satellite stuff at our Albert Hall gig, how visionary it had been and how we had done it all before them and the Zooropa tour. He was really generous with his enthusiasm and it was cool to hear Bono and his publicist B.P.Fallon championing Sputnik.
Meanwhile what did the reviews of the Albert Hall revolutionary super gig say at the time? Despite the huge production, the packed audience and the success on the night, they British press hardly mentioned it. They had laid off, just like I’d asked them to but not quite in the way I had intended, this time they were killing me with silence.
