Media Coverage Makes Bono and NHL Myth a Fact
What transforms urban myth into news-making reality? West Vancouver got its answer this week when newspapers around the globe printed a picture of rock star Bono with two of the city’s residents.
This urban legend includes a truck, Bono and an NHL millionaire. This past Tuesday, Edmonton Oilers centre Gilbert Brule and his girlfriend Kelsey Nichols were driving their truck on a remote part of Marine Drive in West Vancouver, taking their German shepherd to a park. The couple drove past a hitchhiker standing in the rain. Brule was sure it was Irish rock star Bono.
They turned around and drove back. He yelled out Bono’s name and picked him up. Bono and his assistant asked for a lift to Horseshoe Bay, a few kilometres up the road. They talked hockey, Dublin and about Bono’s love for Vancouver. To thank Brule for the lift, Bono gave the couple tickets and backstage passes to the next day’s U2 concert in Edmonton.
Turns out Brule and his girlfriend had tickets to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final series in Vancouver. Instead, they gave them up and booked a flight to Edmonton. Brule, his mother and his girlfriend all flew to Edmonton the next day and took in the concert at Commonwealth Stadium.
This has all the makings of an urban legend: 24-year-old millionaire pro hockey player and his girlfriend drive along a road, recognize an international rock star hitchhiking in the rain. What is Bono doing without wheels? Where was he staying? What’s in Horseshoe Bay?
The details are irrelevant - and perhaps that’s why it would likely have developed into a folklore legend. It’s the hitchhiking that brought together an NHL millionaire and a famous rock star into the same car.
What makes this story real is the visual evidence. On stage at the Edmonton concert, Bono told his hitchhiking story to the 65,000 fans in attendance, with the end line: “I’m ever so grateful. I’ve decided that I want to be Gilbert Brule.”
After that, the wire services, USA Today and the rest of the world’s media did their job cementing the story into the history books. A photo with Brule, his mother, girlfriend and Bono made its way around the world too. Urban legend no longer.
