U2 Massive Heeds


Even better than the real thing?!

Who are the U2 Massive Heads?
The clue's in the name, really - they are dancers with massive fibreglass heads modelled on the members of Irish supergroup U2! They were created by the Galway performance arts company Macnas (specifically their commercial event management section, MacTeo - now known as Arcana), and were then recruited by U2 to perform on the European leg of their ZooTV tour during the summer of 1993. They have proved extremely popular ever since, making a further appearance in the video for U2's 'Sweetest Thing' and enjoying a stint as the resident dancers on Channel 4's TFI Friday, among other things.

What makes them so great?
It's hard to articulate - but I guarantee you won't be able to watch a video of them without grinning like a fool! There's just something so funny and heartwarming about them, with their fixed expressions and aura of effortless cool, and they're such talented performers too. They seem to spread glee wherever they go, as you can see from this email I once received from a fellow fan:
"Many years ago I had the pleasure of seeing the Massive Heeds in Dublin. It was quite bizarre, I was going to purchase my first ever motorbike, so was buzzing along the street minding my own business, turned the corner and bumped into a massive Bono head, dressed in black with white gloves. That was quite a shock. Quite literally bumped into him face to face. The great memory is the masses of people who followed them along the street, like rats following pied pipers, as they shook hands and waved to everyone along the street. "
On a personal note, I can honestly say they changed my life. If it wasn't for the Massive Heeds, I would never have become the huge U2 fan I am now!

Heads or Heeds??
Officially they're called the Massive Heads, but it was a long-running joke on TFI Friday that Chris Evans always pronounced it "masseeev heeeeds" (as in the Scottish word 'heid'). As a result, they were forever known as the Massive Heeds on the show's official website, and the name has well and truly stuck!

What was their role on the Zooropa Tour?
The Massive Heeds were a warm-up act, used in 43 gigs to encourage audience participation before the band appeared on stage. In an issue of Uncut Legends magazine, photographer Tom Sheehan explains how the performers were "stored in crates and were wheeled about the place on what seemed like little miniature rail tracks!" Their routine is described on the Arcana website:
Picture the scene. The biggest band on the planet. The Zooropa Tour. Two roadies wheel out a flight case to the end of the catwalk. With stadium spotlights focused on the box and some seriously dramatic music the lid begins to open. A white-gloved hand appears first, followed by the most famous face in the business. Our Massive Head Bono, climbs out of the box to thunderous roars and screams from the crowd. Once out of the box, he turns and bangs on the lid and Massive Head of The Edge emerged. This startling image was almost too much for the fans to handle. Massive Heads Bono and The Edge were then joined by Massive Heads Larry and Adam to complete this brilliant quartet. We didn't think the fans could scream any louder until the real U2 appeared moments later...
They apparently caused huge confusion among the audience, with the media even speculating that it was the real band inside the caricature heads! Once on stage, they would prance around to the Happy Mondays hit 'Step On', urging the crowd to jump and clap along. Each appeared with his own trademark prop - Larry had a giant pair of drumsticks, Edge had a guitar, and just like his U2 counterpart, Massive Heed Adam could often be seen with a large cigarette hanging from his lips! After a couple of minutes the Zoo crew would rush on and hastily manhandle the Heeds back into their boxes, though they'd keep popping up irrepressibly to wave and blow kisses to the fans as they were wheeled away. :)
The tour took the Massive Heeds to 16 countries over four months, with a total audience of 3 million people. Footage of their stage performances can be seen here and here!

What happened after the tour?
Since the original tour with U2, the Massive Heeds have remained busy with performances all over the UK and Ireland, as well as in San Francisco. They featured in the opening sequence of the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest at The Point in Dublin, alongside heads of other famous Irish figures (watch it on YouTube here). This was seen by 300 million viewers around the world, although the Massive Heeds were rather overshadowed by Riverdance making its debut appearance as the interval act! They also featured in the opening for the MTV Europe Music Awards in Paris on 23rd November 1995, which was seen by an estimated worldwide audience of 600 million.

Tell me about the Sweetest Thing video...
Bono wrote this song as an apology to his wife Ali for having to work on her birthday. When the song was remixed and released as a single in 1998, the hilarious promo video saw Bono taking Ali for a carriage ride along a Dublin street, calling upon all manner of visual treats (from elephants to gyrating firemen to a guest appearance by Boyzone) in an attempt to win her forgiveness. Among the Irish street performers are the U2 Massive Heeds, who leap into view alongside the carriage approximately two minutes into the video. Massive Heed Bono blows a kiss towards Ali and the camera, while the others can be seen walking along behind - you can watch the whole thing on YouTube here.

Didn't these guys used to be on TV?
They certainly were! The U2 Massive Heeds are probably most famous for their residency on TFI Friday in the late '90s. The weekly entertainment show on Channel 4 traditionally had a random musical interlude on either side of the advert breaks, and for one series, this slot was allocated to the Massive Heeds who would perform fantastic dance routines to a variety of classic songs. Host Chris Evans had originally spotted them in the Sweetest Thing video and requested their use for one episode of TFI Friday. They proved so popular that they stayed for the rest of the series!
With their bizarre, inherently comical appearance, the Massive Heeds fit in perfectly on a show that was well known for its offbeat humour and silliness. As well as dancing for the audience during the ad breaks, they were sometimes involved in daft skits, such as Chris arriving at his desk to find Massive Heed Bono asleep in his chair. The U2 regulars were occasionally joined by other Massive Heeds, notably the Gallagher brothers from Oasis, who seemed to resent their popularity! (Chris: "Everybody loves 'em! Well, that is apart from... there's a couple of lads who don't like them. A couple of lads don't like the U2 Massive Heeds. I don't know why, they just never have done - they get in a real grouch about it." Chris opens a door to reveal Liam and Noel sulking on the stairs! Watch the video here.)

The One With The Swimming Pool
The boys were prepared to suffer for their art, too - in one summer edition of TFI Friday, the Massive Heeds had to plunge themselves into a swimming pool full of ice-cold water to do their routine. (TFI insider report: "Well, they might have massive heeds, but as for anything else... well, that's a different story!!") Apparently the tank took 4 hours to fill up from the tap in Hammersmith, and looked like it would take pretty much the same to empty it into the Thames after the show! There was even a new camera angle that week, to provide viewers with an overhead shot of the Massive Heeds in their swimming pool. As always, the show's official website had exclusive behind-the-scenes info and pictures. :) Other memorable routines included a Can-Can (which culminated in them all doing the splits before collapsing in a heap on the floor), an enthusiastic "guitar" performance using tennis racquets, and a truly inspired tribute to Fatboy Slim's 'Praise You' video! A brief clip of the Heeds doing Abba's 'Dancing Queen' can be seen after this interview with Björn Ulvaeus - I love how Massive Heed Adam is wearing the silver GoGo boots. <g>

Does Bono have a hairy chest?
Sometimes! ;) When they started out on TFI Friday, Massive Heed Bono - generally seen wearing a leather jacket with nothing underneath - had chest hair. Then one week, he was suddenly clean-shaven... and then the hairy chest returned. One eagle-eyed viewer wrote into the show to point this out (after which they tightened up their attention to detail, and Bono was never seen with a hairy chest again!). When the real Bono appeared as a guest on 20th November 1998, Chris Evans decided to ask him what was going on - did he shave his chest and then grow it again quickly? Click here to find out what Bono had to say!

Where are they now?
Alas, all good things must come to an end, and the Massive Heeds were dropped at the end of the fourth series in July 1999 (performing their final dance to 'A Glass Of Champagne' by Sailor). When the show returned in the autumn, they had been replaced by a troupe of leather-clad dancing females, who failed to capture the fun spirit of their predecessors. Despite an impassioned online campaign to bring back the much-loved viewers' favourites (leading to a poll on the TFI website in which "there is a loud cry for the return of the Massive Heads with 83 per cent of the thousands of voters saying Yes!"), the fans' pleas were ignored - and the viewing figures promptly plummeted. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. The show's format was largely unchanged, but it had undoubtedly lost some of its original warmth. Shortly after the fifth series ended, TFI Friday was axed, having been described by the Independent Television Commission as "no longer the attraction it once was". Even Chris Evans bailed out at this point, leaving a succession of guest presenters to host the final few shows at the end of the year. To the people at Ginger Online who told me I needed my head checking when I claimed that TFI just wasn't the same without the Massive Heeds... hate to say I told you so!
This was far from the end for those loveable lads, though. The Massive Heeds went to Dublin Castle for the Heineken Green Energy festival weekend at the start of May 1999, before embarking on a massive tour of British universities, colleges and nightclubs - even performing on the main stage of a few major music festivals that summer. One such event was the Fleadh Festival in London's Finsbury Park on 10th July, where the U2 boys were set to appear with some of their other massive headed friends including Ronan Keating. (As the NME put it: "Joining all the bands on the bill will be the Massive Heads, the fibre-glass headed living puppets as seen on U2's Zooropa tour, Robbie Williams' recent jaunt and every week without becoming tedious on TFI Friday. ") They were also scheduled to appear at the T In The Park festival. The Massive Heeds were among the performers at a 'Picnic in the Park' in Edinburgh's West Princes Street Gardens on 1st July 1999, entertaining 1,500 school children who had taken part in a parade to mark the opening of the new Scottish Parliament. Other events on their calendar included Microsoft's Tech·Ed Europe '99 conference in Amsterdam, where they performed during the main party in the keynote hall on 9th July.
At the start of 2000, the U2 and Robbie Williams Heeds partied in the New Year in Aberdeen, dancing to Bee Gees songs among other things. They were spotted again on 7th May 2000 at the Beltane celebrations (a Celtic fire festival) in Stirling. Sheffield nightclub The Rebublic also featured 'The Massive Head Stage Show' every Friday as part of their Bubblegum night, where '80s and early '90s classic hits were played - Heeds appearing here included U2, Madonna, Boy George, George Michael, Tina Turner and Prince. (Always a big draw, the Massive Heeds had previously performed on the opening night of York's largest nightclub Ikon and Diva on 4th February 1999, where management failed to predict the demand and many people were refused entry after queuing in the cold for two hours!)
I lost track of the Heeds' whereabouts during my years at university, but they returned to my attention in November 2004 when they showed up at HMV on Dublin's Grafton Street, for the launch of U2's new album 'How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb'. They made a similar appearance two years later for the release of compilation album 'U218', posing for photographs with fans who visited the store.
On 14th September 2007, as part of the Dublin Culture Night, the U2 Massive Heeds "made a trip down O'Connell Street to wave to the locals and have their photos taken" - see clips and pictures on YouTube here! The U2 and Boyzone Heeds were expected to undertake another walkabout at the following year's event on 19th September 2008: "Bono and Ronan together at last! You won’t be able to miss Arcana’s larger than life characters as they embark on their Culture Night tour of Dublin’s streets, stopping en route to make guest appearances in venues such as The Hugh Lane Gallery. Keep your eyes peeled in the GPO, you could find you are in line behind a massive version of The Edge... "
Many thanks to Anna Black for sending me this photo of the Massive Heeds at London's ExCeL Centre on 13th November 2007 - apparently they were doing some promo stuff for the Irish Tourist Board at the World Travel Market! Anna is on a quest to photograph 2190 people holding her signed photo of 'Allo 'Allo actor Arthur Bostrom, and the U2 Heeds were reportedly very eager to participate. :D
The U2 Massive Heeds were part of Tourism Ireland's promotion activities during the 10th Volvo Ocean Race (a round-the-world yacht race held every three years). The race started in the Spanish port of Alicante on Saturday 11th October 2008. The day before, Bono's brother Norman Hewson - an avid sailor - made a surprise visit to the Race Village, having travelled from Dublin to support the Irish team Green Dragon. Reports describe how Norman "bumped into his larger than life brother face to face in the Ireland pavilion "! The Massive Heeds and other Arcana performers also followed the race to Cape Town, South Africa (November 2008), Qingdao, China (February 2009), Boston, USA (May 2009) and Galway, Ireland (June 2009). You can watch a video of the Heeds miming to U2's 'Walk On' during the Cape Town stopover.
If you can offer any detailed information about where the Massive Heeds have appeared over the last few years - especially if you have photos! - then please contact me so I can update the website. Full credit will of course be given!

What do the band think of their Massive Heeds?
Bono was asked about them during a 'U2 Maximum Music Weekend' on my local radio station, 2CR FM, in November 2000. Listeners in Dorset and Hampshire had been invited to submit questions for the U2 frontman, and one person wanted to know where the idea for the Massive Heads came from. Bono explained: "We had them out on the road on ZooTV, and they're made by a kind of performance and theatre company called Macnas which are based in the west of Ireland, a very brilliant dance and performance group." I've yet to hear any specific comments from the band members about their fibreglass likenesses - do let me know if you've seen any quotes on the subject!

Were U2 the first ever Massive Heads?
No - they'd actually been around long before U2's world tour. The original Massive Heads featured in one of Macnas' first projects, at the 1987 Connacht Gaelic football final in Castlebar, where lookalikes of the famous Galway three-in-a-row team from the '60s staged a chaotic 10-minute 'Big Game' just before the real match. One website remarks: "It was probably too sacrilegious for some of the dyed-in-the-wool GAA diehards, but for most of the huge crowd that day, it was novel, hilarious and memorable. Macnas were up and flying."

How many other Massive Heeds are there?
Following the success of the U2 heads in 1993, everyone who's anyone has had their own Massive Heed made up. Fellow Irish celebrities such as Sinéad O'Connor and Bob Geldof appeared in 1994, when Dublin hosted the Eurovision Song Contest, and the following year they were joined by Mick Jagger, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Elvis Presley among others. Described as "the music industry's answer to Madame Tussaud's", the so-called Massive Head Hall of Fame now includes familiar faces such as Madonna, Oasis, Robbie Williams, Tom Jones, Boyzone and Steps. Several of these artists have followed U2's lead in taking their Massive Heeds on the road with them. Robbie Williams, presented with his Heed backstage at his sell-out Wembley concert in March 1999, immediately incorporated it into his UK tour. Boyzone's Massive Heeds - described as "completely priceless!" by a grinning Keith Duffy when he first saw them - also joined the group on tour, dancing with the crowd to 'YMCA' at a Dublin concert in May 1999. Massive Heeds of the pop group Steps made their debut appearance at the Disney Channel Kids' Awards in London's Docklands Arena on 18th September 1999, performing the 'Tragedy' dance routine; the Heeds would go on to feature in their 2001 concerts, dancing to the song '5, 6, 7, 8'. Meanwhile TFI Friday host Chris Evans, having promoted the Massive Heeds on national television week after week, was also rewarded with a Heed of his very own!
The appeal of these crazy caricatures shows no sign of diminishing. An article in the Sunday Mirror described them as being "in constant demand at television shows, parties and events all across the world", while Arcana state on their website: "We have devised floor shows that incorporate the Massive Heads, these shows have been the most popular of all our performances."

What do you need in order to be made into a Massive Heed?
According to MacTeo manager John Crumlish, "Huge success, and that's about it. Sometimes people approach us about doing it, or else we pick somebody that we think is going to make it." Arcana's website declares that "The Massive Heads have become an iconic symbol of Celebrity Status"; indeed, the Sunday Mirror went so far as to say "These days, you're a nobody unless a Macnas 'Massive Head' has been modelled on you"!

How are the Massive Heeds created?
Creating the Heeds is a team effort, involving sculpting in clay, casting, fibreglassing and painting. John Crumlish explains, "Different people do different ones. Our pop ones are done by the same guy because he likes pop music. Elvis was done by an Elvis fan. There is one sculptor, and then there are different people to cast and different people involved in fibreglassing."

Can the guys in the heeds see where they're going?
According to a source from Macnas, "They can see - just about. There are are slits cut into the heads which vary from head to head."

Been there, done that...
DJ Marc Allan reveals on his MySpace page that he once toured the UK's nightclubs as one of the dancers with the Massive Heeds, while actor Gary Milner was one of the Heeds who regularly appeared on TFI Friday. If you know anyone else who's performed as a Massive Heed, or have even done it yourself, please send me an email - I'd love to hear about your experiences.

Could I have my own Massive Head made up?
Certainly! Arcana are happy to create custom designs: "We can manufacture a Massive Head of any character you want, living or dead, male or female, pop star, sports star, politican - you name it, we can make it. All we need from you is the commission, and your input as to the particular "look" you want from your Massive Head. Whether you want a Head for promotional appearances, for a stage performance (such as the Massive Head of the Giant which we made for the "Jack and the Beanstalk" pantomine), for an Ad campaign, or indeed for any reason you want, just let us know, and we will produce the Head for you. "

How can I book the Massive Heads for an event?
There's a booking form on Arcana's website - just use the drop-down menu.
The Ireland Inspires website, commissioned by Fáilte Ireland to promote business related tourism, includes a section on holding a corporate meeting at one of Ireland's Conference Hotels. Their suggested entertainment for the champagne reception? The Massive Heeds of course, not just dancing but actually "performing" U2 songs: "We propose having the full U2 Massive Heads band. Each member of the band will be equipped with their instrument, Larry on full drum kit, Adam on bass guitar, The Edge on lead guitar and of course BONO on lead vocal. We also supply a full PA system that we play well-known U2 songs preferably from their live albums. The four caricature U2 heads mime along to these tracks as if playing live. " Now this I would love to see. :)

Any more pictures of them?
Absolutely. Check out my picture galleries of the U2 Massive Heeds and some of their friends!

Send in your contributions!
Have you seen a show featuring the Massive Heeds, or heard some news about what they're up to? Got any photographs that are missing from my gallery? Want to share your memories of their appearances on the Zooropa Tour or TFI Friday? I'd be delighted to hear from you! Click here to email me with anything Heeds-related (please make sure you include a meaningful subject line, to ensure it's not accidentally deleted as spam).
In particular, if you have any old videotapes of the Massive Heeds performing on TFI Friday which you could transfer onto your computer, it would be brilliant to see some clips on YouTube. I hardly recorded any shows myself as I figured I'd never feel the need to watch them again... how wrong I was!!