Story of the Song: ‘The Fly’ by U2

From The Independent archive: Robert Webb on U2’s Dublin pub song ‘The Fly’

Throwing shade: Bono went for the wraparound look to create his insectoid alter-ego (Getty)

During their time in Berlin, working on the 1991 album Achtung Baby, Bono took to wrapping a pair of fly-shades around his eyes. Behind the sunglasses, Bono assumed an alter-ego, whom he figured could answer the charges of megalomania he was getting from the press. “I thought – well, let’s give them a megalomaniac!” he said.

Bono created “The Fly”, part-savant, part-pub bore leaning over to impart drunken wisdom: “They say the sun is sometimes eclipsed by a moon”; “Ambition bites the nails of success”; “Every poet is a thief”.

“I became interested in these one-line aphorisms,” Bono said. “So I got this character who could say them all.”