"Red Hill Mining Town" [05:43]

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Video Information

This video was filmed, but never released in the 1980s. The video was finally pulled out of the vault and released in 2007, as part of the 20th anniversary release of “The Joshua Tree”.

The video features U2 in a ‘mine’. The video opens with images from historical footage of miners going to work, and working in a mine. 0:48 in the song starts, and U2 are seen “sweaty” down in a mine with a canary. The footage was shot in London in February, so it wasn’t a real mine, but a sound stage done to look like a mine. Larry is banging away to the beat in the background, while Bono sings at the camera, and hangs off some well placed chains. Adam and Edge look on in the distance. Later in the video we switch back to more historical footage from various mines, and some shots of a birds being released by Adam. Edge continues to look on from a distance. The video ends with the Edge finally releasing a bird, and more sweaty Bono, while birds flap around in the screen.

The video was buried for years. Although some still photos from the shoot did make it out, and fans knew that it existed through mention of the video in an issue of Rolling Stone. The magazine had conducted an interview with The Edge the night the video had been filmed. The video made it’s first appearance on YouTube through unknown means on November 14, 2007, a few days before the release of the full “The Joshua Tree” box.

Ned O’Hanlon discussed the video with fans long before the video was released in 2007, “It just didn’t work out. I wasn’t involved in that video at all. I’m not trying to wash my hands of it, it was actually before my time. I wasn’t really working with the band at that point in any kind of ongoing basis. Neil Jordan directed it, who was, even then, a pretty serious movie director. I think he shot it in movie terms. I think he fell foul of trying to tell a story that he normally has two hours to tell in three-and-a-half minutes, and it just didn’t work out. (Pauses) It doesn’t have many redeeming features.”

Additional Screen Captures

Video Credits

Directed by Neil Jordan