U2 nemesis courts success with city premiere

AS A teenager, Neil McCormick had ambitions to be a global rock star. So, unfortunately, did his schoolmate Paul Hewson.

Bono, as he became universally known, achieved all the ambitions that McCormick and his brother Ivan had set out for themselves.

As U2 rose to world domination, the McCormicks fell short, first as Yeah Yeah!and then Shook Up!They even got a record deal, but ran out of luck.

Eight years ago Neil McCormick wrote a book about his travails in the music industry, I Was Bono's Doppelganger, and the European premiere of Killing Bono, the movie loosely based on the book, took place at The Savoy on O'Connell Street last night.

“This is a movie that celebrates failure,” said director Nick Hamm who optioned the book after it first came out in 2003.

The title comes from Bono’s contention that he had stolen all McCormick’s luck, and the only way out was to kill the U2 singer.

For once McCormick upstaged his doppelganger, who is in New York trying to fix the gargantuan mess that has become the Spidermanmusical. Ironically, last night was supposed to have been the world premiere of the musical now postponed (again) until June. U2 were given a preview of the film in Australia while they were on tour.

“This is how we always imagined we would come back to Dublin. It took a little bit longer to get here than planned, 28 years,” joked Neil (49), the elder of the brothers by two years.

The pair left Ireland to pursue their musical ambitions in London in 1983. Both are still involved in music: Neil as rock critic with the Daily Telegraph; Ivan as a guitarist in covers band 29 Fingers and also as a writer of movie soundtracks.