in which the guitar goings on under the stage were mentioned. I don't think it's a secret. I think I'm right in saying that he has all the original effects pedals that he used throughout U2's career set up with the original amps so that he can reproduce the sounds on their old records exactly. So there are probably several Edgelings plugging in leads and pressing buttons, but as for actually playing... that I'm not sure about.

And Holy Diver hitmakers Dio used to hide their keyboard player Claude Schnell behind the stage. Some uncharitable souls used to say this was because wor Claude had taken a battering from the ugly stick and would have a negative effect on the sex appeal of the others, but seeing as the rest of the group were no oil paintings either I find this hard to believe.

There's a great bit in the middle of this clip where the Edge is playing with and without his effects and one of his guitar techs, it's hilarious...

But having seen Muse, they clearly have an extra member adding guitar, synths and trumpet. Amazingly, this chap plays all three. The sound produced is colossal, but due to the intricacies inherent in the music, performing with just 3 people wouldn't be feasible. They'd have to miss out sections of songs, and it just wouldn't work.

Most bands do tend to have "touring members", who are session musicians that just play live. It isn't a massive conspiracy.

...indeed: and there's no issue with that, Badge. I'm just intrigued at the idea that bands would seek to CONCEAL extra players. If U2 brought a fifth guy onstage to play additional bits from the records I personally wouldn't see any problem with it - but I suspect somebody in Team U2 might think the brand (4 blokes versus the world, etc) had been diluted if that were the case.

In my teenage Heavy Metal phase (we've all had one), I remember there being a brouhaha about Michael Schenker having to have a guitarist behind the stage backdrop to play his parts. The reason being that the "refreshed" Schenker couldn't play to his old standard.

There would be a computer somewhere backstage playing pre-recorded parts.

Nice to know that some bands can afford to bring extra hidden people and the bus/hotel space that you end up needing for them.

I once worked with a session singer who claimed she was the voice of a famous short australian pop star. She provided one half of the double tracked lead vocal. Pre auto tune, that was one way to get around the problem of less than perfect vocalists.

Also I remember an old trumpeter who claimed he'd seen Dave Clark doing a drum solo in Coventry Theatre, flayling his arms and getting in a sweat, while there was a local old guy, fag in mouth, behind a curtain doing the real thing.

But then, this is showbiz, so who cares.

My brother in law did some guitar tech work for a band supporting U2 and at the gigs he worked at there was a computer running samples for additional guitar parts and keyboard parts. Backing tracks essentially.

1000s of pounds of gear to do something they could have done with a CD player!!!

...behind the scenes guitar player these days. Far simpler and cheaper to have the drummer playing to a click and driving additional samples from a sequencer or have them triggered by the guy doing keys. Particualrly on a big production tour like U2 (or any contemporary stadium pop act) where all the visuals and lights will be coordinated to some form of programmed triggering.

There were always the stories in the old days of Dave Gilmour's guitar roadie bascially "playing " his effects pedal board for him while Mr G took care of the guitar playing. Again, these days, any self respecting stadium guitarist will have all their effects changes driven by midi...

tour time of a docco about the tour and an intervies with one of the extra guitarist from his little ofstage bunker. Plus footage of him playing along with ver U2

There was a feature in one of the music mags (maybe Sound on Sound) a few years back about The Edge's setup for one of their recent tours, and it showed a Mac laptop which was running the additional parts (aka backing tracks) - Larry Mullen was playing to a click to ensure everything (sound, lights, video, whatever) happened at the right time.

If you've seen any live footage of Coldplay recently I'm pretty sure that (for some songs at least) they have backing tracks going on, but what would separate them and U2 from the lip-syncing likes of Britney is we're not talking about the lead vocals here, just some of the additional production fairy dust (keyboard pads, incidental lines)

I think it's fairly commonplace on these big arena tours with big production values for everything to be played to a click track to ensure that the music and effects are kept in sync.

...that this is less common now due to the technology available (and also maybe more bands are more comfortable having their additional guitar/keyboard player onstage eg. Them Crooked Vultures on Johnathon Ross' show the other night with extra guitar player)

However back in the day The Cult definitely used an additional guitar player who stood behind Billy Duffy's massive row of Marshall amps. He chugged out the rythmn parts, leaving Billy to throw HM shapes to his heart's content!

the most famous ugly-bloke-behind-the-curtain of them all? Dumped from the group by Andrew Loog Oldham for being a dog and then re-hired on salary, he played on every Stones album bar one over a nineteen year period. Had he lived he probably would have been the prettiest of them all by now.

but I seem to recall that on a very early Peter Gabriel tour, Robert Fripp played from behind a curtain because his management / record contract prohibited him from playing. I think he also played under a false name on a later tour for the same reason. Bit of a giveaway once he started playing mind you.

I'm sure that when I saw Bowie at the Rainbow (Ziggy tour 1993), the keyboard player was backstage behind a voile (or similar) curtain.

used to have a roadie who played the solo on Chocolate Cake from behind the curtain, but typically, they didn't pretend otherwise - they would try to get him to come onstage but he was, apparently, too shy.