MacPhisto in profile

Getting to knowww you...
If there's one thing Mr MacPhisto loves, it's meeting people. He knows a lot of people... in fact he knows you probably even better than you know yourself. But how much do you know about him?


MacPhisto

  • Name:
    Mr MacPhisto. This is the official spelling that was used on posters and in books, and MacPhisto spells it this way during a number of phone calls, with the exception of one Glasgow concert where he inexplicably spells it "MACFISTO".
    Willie Williams' tour diary reveals that he was originally just called "Mr Gold" in reference to his eye-catching suit and shoes.
    The name MacPhisto is a humorous Celticised version of "Mephisto", short for Mephistopheles - the name of the devil to whom Faust sold his soul. (Mephistopheles is Greek for "he who shuns the light".)
    Some analysts have also suggested a possible link to McDonald's, representing "part of the throw-away society".

  • Star Sign:
    First took shape on 7th May 1993, which arguably makes him a Taurus. Given the horns, it rather suits him...

  • Eyes:
    Piercing blue.

  • Hair:
    Jet-black and slicked back, long enough to be worn in a short ponytail.

  • Height:
    Regularly claims to have been 5' 8'' before he bought his platform shoes. "Now look at me - I'm gigantic!"

  • Nationality:
    English; he speaks with a very upper class accent and claims to be related to the Queen (in fact he used to babysit her).
    He does, however, appear to be of Irish descent, as the name might suggest. He tells Akebono that "I have some Irish in me", and is obviously proud of his heritage as he mentions it frequently.

  • Occupation:
    "The last pop star" - determined to keep rock 'n' roll exciting for the young people.
    He's a man of many talents, though, also referring to himself as "a fellow thespian" in his phone call to Ian Lang. He has a fondness for Shakespeare, if that speech is anything to go by.
    Plus of course, he is the Devil, if that counts as an occupation!  He leaves the audience in no doubt as to his identity, with statements such as "God and the Devil have all the best phone numbers" and "They call it the Devil's music - it is my music". In Rome he tells the crowd that "I come disguised as many things, and I'm particularly fond of show business".

  • Location:
    Well, he's everywhere...
    But if you're looking for a more specific answer, he appears to have several homes around the world (as any self-respecting rock star would). When phoning home from Verona, he says he lives in Dublin, Ireland "in a house called Telefís Éireann" (which funnily enough was the name of Ireland's first TV station). At the Basel concert, he states that he lives in Las Vegas - aka 'Sin City' - which is not surprising as he's known to be a regular performer on The Strip.
    And then there's the Stuttgart show, where he remarks "It's so hot in Germany - just like home". It's left to the audience to decide just what place he's referring to with that... ;)

  • Dress Style:
    Striking gold lamé suit, normally worn over a bright red ruffled shirt (sometimes swapped for a translucent lilac or blueish one). Glittery gold platform boots.
    Maintains a ghostly complexion and contrasts this with blood-red lipstick, dark eyeshadow and bold, finely upswept eyebrows.

  • Piercings:
    Wears a small silver hoop in each ear.

  • Concert Appearances:
    Official debut was 9th May 1993 in Rotterdam, Holland.
    Appeared in every subsequent show until the end of the ZooTV tour on 10th December 1993 in Tokyo, Japan.
    The concert in Sydney, Australia on 27th November was chosen to be released as the official tour video, and features MacPhisto delivering a speech to the world and attempting to call a taxi. It is now available on DVD with a bonus disc, including the documentary 'A Fistful Of ZooTV' which has clips of several other MacPhisto phone calls. These clips are from Bologna, Italy on 18th July ("Hello, I'd like to leave a message for Alessandra Mussolini... I was a close friend of her grandfather's, and I just want to tell her she's doing a wonderful job filling the old man's shoes"); Rotterdam, Holland on 10th May ("Hello? Somebody pick up the phone!" and "Hello, good evening, do you speak English?"); Munich, Germany on 4th June ("I'd like to speak to Helmut Kohl, please"); Rotterdam, Holland on 11th May ("I wish to speak to Queen Beatrix"); and Bologna, Italy on 17th July ("Could I speak to the maestro, Pavarotti, please?" "I ammm Mr Pavarotti! Who is speaking?")
    The bonus DVD accompanying the limited edition of the Best Of 1990-2000 album features a montage of '90s footage entitled The History Mix (which can also be seen on YouTube). This incorporates several brief appearances from MacPhisto, including an audio clip from his speech in Madrid, Spain on 22nd May.

  • Video Appearances:
    Stars in the promo video for Lemon, alongside U2 bandmates and fellow alter-ego The Fly.
    Also appears with The Fly, U2 and Batman in the animated video for Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me.
    Both the Lemon and HMTMKMKM videos are available on the Best Of 1990-2000 DVD, with directors' commentaries.
    MacPhisto can be seen briefly in the video for Bono's duet with Frank Sinatra, I've Got You Under My Skin.

  • Catchphrases:
    • "Do you know who I am? Because I know who you are..."
    • "Look what you've done to me... you've made me very famous, and I thank you."
    • "I know you like your pop stars to be exciting, so I bought these..."
    • "Round about this time, I often make a telephone call. Sometimes to the President of the United States. But not tonight..."
    • "When you're famous, everybody gives you their telephone number."
    • "Off with the horns, on with the show!"

  • Ailments:
    • Mentions during one phone call that he's "a little hard of hearing".
    • Began walking with a cane in Rome after developing a limp.
    • Often complains of being "very tired" - and at his age, who can blame him?

  • Vices:
    • Can be seen smoking in several photographs.
    • Often sings the praises of Martini, "the most beautiful drink in the world".
    • Has lived the rock 'n' roll lifestyle for many years. Addressed listeners in 2004 with: "Decadence? Oh, no - you wouldn't know the meaning of the word. I, on the other hand, know rather a lot about this subject..."

  • Likes:
    • Show business ("It's in my blood"). Rock 'n' roll was all his idea, and he often speaks of how much he loves it.
    • Making telephone calls to his many famous friends!
    • People with old-fashioned values... fascist politicians and the like. He's very nostalgic for "the good old days" of the Raj, the Empire, the Third Reich.
    • A great fan of the Eurovision Song Contest. He sings a bit of several previous entries (by Teach-In, Dana and Cliff Richard) during the tour, and says he was an inspiration to them all: "I taught them everything they knew, I showed them what to do, I taught them who to be." Mischievously describes Cliff Richard as "a very exciting pop star".
    • Being treated kindly and courteously. Use all your well-learned politesse, and you'll get on just fine.
    • An appreciative audience - he loves you all. (But he loves himself as well.)
    • Enjoyed boating with friends on a lake in Switzerland ("It was lovely").
    • Organised religion. "They're doing my job for me, aren't they? Putting the children off God."
    • People who are "flashy... from good stock". Expressed admiration for the way the Mafia dress: "They're so beautiful, the suits they wear, and the shoes."
    • Shopping in Cardiff.
    • Cucumber sandwiches. Especially the ones they make at Lambeth Palace.
    • Described both Princess Diana and Madonna as "gorgeous".
    • May be a fan of '50s singer Mario Lanza, whose picture can be seen in his backstage dressing room. In an article by Angela Pancella on @U2.com, Lanza is described as "a naturally gifted tenor whose tragic real life could inspire a musical retelling -- opera's answer to Elvis".

  • Dislikes:
    • Change. "I like things to stay exactly the way they are."
    • People disrespecting him. Or taking the mickey out of him... he cannot endure to be mocked.
    • Feeling lonely and homesick. He tells the crowd in Adelaide that he's "finding it very difficult at the moment to meet people... especially young ladies, they're all frightened of me".
    • Can become impatient when his phone calls aren't swiftly answered. It brings out his sarcastic side: "We've got all night, haven't we?!"
    • Whales: "They're unemployed, they don't pay taxes, and they take up a lot of room". He also says he has "absolutely no time" for people who do like whales or dolphins.
    • Being given a bad reputation: "All the wars, all the famine, all the trouble in the world, I get blamed for it. Even the Evening Herald slags me off."
    • Claims that he doesn't enjoy giving speeches. Though you'd never know it!


Repertoire

  • Desire

    Desire MacPhisto's opening song for the encore of every show on the Zooropa (European) leg of the tour. Taken from the Rattle & Hum album and performed by the Mirrorball Man on previous legs, Desire traditionally had a rather American feel to it, making it a curious choice for Mr MacPhisto. For most of the song he speaks, rather than sings, the lyrics - it's particularly amusing to hear him declare "Pretty soon, y'all, everybody's got one!" in his refined English accent.
    During this song MacPhisto strides confidently around the stage, with what Dianne Ebertt Beeaff describes in A Grand Madness as "a hip-swinging wide-legged swagger". He moves provocatively, moans with pleasure, blows kisses, flamenco dances, strikes poses and even drapes himself flirtatiously over his bass player as he sings "I'm burning, baby, yeah..." In the second half of the tour he regularly announces his arrival with "Honey, I'm home!" He also gives a literal representation to some of the lyrics, miming the "shotgun" and waving Zoo ECUs in the air when he gets to the line "For love or money!"
    MacPhisto displays his musical talents by playing the harmonica at the end. He usually closes the song with a series of cries such as "What a night! What a show! What a city!" followed by "Zooropa! Zooropa! Myyy Zooropa..." (grandly rolling his R's for effect).
    There are occasional variations in the lyrics, such as "And the flames getting higher!" sung with devilish delight. The instrumental bridge and outro are also frequently used to add in snippets of other songs:

    • You Make Me Feel So Young (Frank Sinatra). A rather appropriate track for this ageing rock star, included in a total of 15 performances and also sung briefly during one of his phone calls.
    • Sympathy For The Devil (The Rolling Stones). "Please allow me to introduce myself... hello," MacPhisto sings mischievously at the second Bologna show. It appears again in Oslo ("You know me, don't you?") and Stockholm.
    • Satisfaction (The Rolling Stones). "I can't get no..." Appears briefly in Strasbourg and Rome, and in Budapest where he recites most of the first verse.
    • Solid Gold Easy Action (T. Rex). Enthusiastically sung during the outro in Naples, Leeds and the final London show, despite MacPhisto seeming unsure of the correct lyrics. "I don't get no easy action / All I got is satisfaction, babyyy!"
    • Singin' In The Rain. Makes an appearance in Munich, Lausanne and the last night at Wembley. Perhaps in homage to Alex from A Clockwork Orange, MacPhisto sings it with ballsy attitude in an almost Cockney accent, whilst skipping around the stage with an umbrella. (Beeaff mentions this in her concert diary: "He'd lean back and kick out his legs as he went.")
    • Light My Fire (The Doors). "Come on baby light my fire," MacPhisto implores on the second night in Verona.
    • Love Me Do (The Beatles). Sung over the outro in Copenhagen; "You know I love you," MacPhisto suavely assures the crowd.
    • The first live utterances of "She wore lemonnn!" also appeared during the bridge of Desire, at the concert in Naples.

    Other notable versions of Desire include:

    • Great performances in Rotterdam on 10th and 11th May, where MacPhisto shouts the lyrics with gusto and declares "I'm really burning tonight!" He is particularly talkative in the latter show, also adding "How about a big handclap for good old me, then?" and "Maybe I could tempt you with a little filthy lucre!" The line "For love or money" is unusually followed by a list of examples - "A dime, a yen, a pfennig or a pound!" - and there's further entertainment during the outro when MacPhisto proclaims "I'll huff... and I'll puff... and I'll blow your house down!"
    • At the second Rome show, the bridge is drawn out for over a minute and a half as MacPhisto spots a lifesize inflatable sex doll in the crowd and announces "She looks like my kind of girl!", encouraging it towards him with "Come on now child..." The doll is passed forward and onto the stage, where MacPhisto spends about half a minute dancing with it, until it deflates and flops limply over his arm. "It happens to all my girlfriends!" he complains, before telling the doll "Do sit down..." and draping it onto the stage with its legs hanging over the edge.
    • The first Bologna show is also rather amusing, as MacPhisto suddenly exclaims "A balloon! Oh, lovely!" halfway through Desire. "See it to me, blow him in! Bring thus here!" he urges, but it never reaches the stage - please let me know if you were at the show and can explain what this was all about. :)
    • At the first of the London shows, MacPhisto murmurs "Hey there pretty" and pauses to caress someone's cheek as he crosses the front of the stage.


  • Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car

    Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car Opened the encores on the final leg of the tour in Australia, New Zealand and Japan. On the ZooTV Live From Sydney video, MacPhisto begins the song in his opulent dressing room backstage, watched by the audience on the big screens. He finishes applying his make-up, sings (admiringly) to his reflection and puts on his gold jacket, aided by wardrobe assistants Nassim Khalifa and Helen Campbell. Waving to no-one in particular on the way, he bursts onstage in a frenzy of wild dancing, in time for the "head full of traffic" verse.
    MacPhisto injects rather more emotion into the song than there had been on the Zooropa album version. As it has been speculated that "Daddy" in the song could refer to the Devil, it seems well suited to him. Bono is quoted as saying in a September 1993 interview, "There's certainly an evil feel to things like 'Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car'. That song could be about dependency or something more sinister. It's an electronic blues, my Robert Johnson thing. Flogging the soul to Satan."
    Amusingly, "A-HA, SHA-LA" appears in huge letters on the screens every time the line is sung.


  • Ultra Violet (Light My Way)

    Ultra Violet (Light My Way) This Achtung Baby track came after MacPhisto's telephone calls at each of the European shows; in fact he often sang the opening lines down the phone. After the fun and mischief of Desire, this song was the start of a much more emotional set, sung with passion and desperation. Dianne Ebertt Beeaff observes that "In Ultra Violet, Mac seems to quite suddenly realize where he is and what he's become and he tries to recover". He stumbles and throws himself violently around the stage like a man possessed (quite literally!)
    The chorus provides an opportunity for MacPhisto to use his striking falsetto.
    At the Oslo concert, the song was seemingly used to take a swipe at Norway's pro-whaling policy, as an extension of MacPhisto's phone call: "Will you bury our treasure where it can't be found? / Deep under the ocean... makes a wonderful sound / There is a silence that comes to a house where no-one can sleep / We won't ask you to make promises we know you won't keep."
    In the final verse, MacPhisto often changes the lyrics to: "I was all fucked up; you were an opera in my bed. Now your love is like a lightbulb - it just goes over my head." In Oslo he replaced this verse entirely with "Time's giving out / I'll soon be outta here / I won't be back for many years".
    Having staggered onto the walkway, MacPhisto ends the song with a moving Sinatra-esque "Liiiight myyyy wa-aayyyy", before dramatically slumping over like a marionette whose strings have been cut.


  • Lemon

    Lemon Replaced Ultra Violet as MacPhisto's second song on the final leg of the tour. He can be seen dancing and twirling to the music, leaping around the stage and staring deeply into the camera. This track from Zooropa is very much associated with MacPhisto as he also starred in the promo video for the single.
    Lemon is sung almost entirely in falsetto, also known as "the fat lady voice". Bono explained to Carter Alan [source]: "Well, the 'fat lady' sang on 'The Fly'. That was a gospel thing, it was kind of kitsch, you know, big fat mama. We just thought on this record we'd give her a song!  I love to sing like that."
    As with Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car, this song was especially brought to life on the tour. During the chorus, MacPhisto sings a stirring counter-melody of "Midniiight... midniiight... midniiight is where the day begins".
    Lemon segues beautifully into With Or Without You, its familiar bassline starting up as MacPhisto sings the final "Midnight..."


  • With Or Without You

    This Joshua Tree classic about impossible relationships sees a fragile MacPhisto sing the lyrics in a faltering manner, gazing sadly into the camera and hugging himself for comfort. He sings "With or without you, my love" in a departure from the album version. "And you give yourself away" is sometimes altered to "And you give your soul away" (described in A Grand Madness as being sung "with a shiver in his voice").
    Many performances include the popular "Shine Like Stars" coda, with varied lyrics such as "We'll shine like stars in the silver light / We'll shine like stars, it'll be alright" or "We'll shine like stars and light up the night". At the final show in Tokyo, he includes a snippet of Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division, repeating "Love, love will tear us apart again" several times at the end of the song.
    With Or Without You The performance on the ZooTV Live From Sydney video, featuring a radically different structure, is arguably the most heart-wrenching version of the song ever. MacPhisto rips open his shirt as he sings "And you give yourself away", before closing his eyes and turning painfully away from the camera at the line "My hands are tied, my body bruised". At the point where the quiet outro begins on the album, the band slowly build the music to a crescendo as MacPhisto repeats "And you give... and you give... and you give... and you give" in an increasingly desperate voice. Throwing himself into the song as if he's being torn apart, it reaches its climax with one final "I can't live, I can't live, with or without you / With or... without you".


  • Love Is Blindness

    Slow, dark and hauntingly beautiful on the Achtung Baby album, this song is equally powerful live, with MacPhisto at the point of his deepest despair. He remains on the B-stage and looks alternately pensive, bitter and forlorn as he sings. It is frequently mentioned as a highlight in Dianne Ebertt Beeaff's concert summaries: "Love Is Blindness was particularly stunning. Bono doubled over a time or two in pain, his voice broken but beautiful, his eyes covered." In some shows he can be seen flicking a lighter in time to the music; Beeaff describes how "he desperately tried to rekindle a flame that had gone out. He mimes this very well, striking the flint unsuccessfully again and again". Bill Flanagan observes in U2 At The End Of The World that "by the time he performs 'Love Is Blindness' from the lip of the B-stage with the white makeup running down his face, the line between MacPhisto and Bono has become blurred".
    In some performances, the line "A little death, without mourning" is translated to "A petit mort, without mourning", adding to the ambiguity over the song's meaning (it could be about terrorism or simply the breakdown of a relationship). The "petit mort" is a French term for an orgasm.
    Love Is Blindness While The Edge plays his devastating guitar solo, MacPhisto invites a girl from the audience onstage to slow-dance with him. He closes his eyes, sometimes brushes the sweat from his face with her hand, and clings to her in the darkness (echoing the lyrics "Love is blindness, I don't want to see, won't you wrap the night around me?"). Beeaff describes him dancing with a young woman who towered above him: "He put his head on her shoulder, wrapped his arms around her, and he was a little boy again in desperate need of a mother's comfort and protection, the sole person who could give him back his innocence." MacPhisto's eyes and voice are filled with an aching sadness as he sings the chorus once more to close the song.
    An unusual version was performed at the Oslo concert, with the first few verses half-spoken rather than sung, and parts of All Along The Watchtower inserted to the tune of Love Is Blindness: "There must be some way out of here / Said the joker to the thief / There's too much confusion here / I can't get no relief / Businessmen they drink my wine / Ploughmen dig my earth / None of them along the line / Know what any of it is worth / What price... blindness."


  • Can't Help Falling In Love

    This Elvis cover, usually included as the final song of the night, is the climax of the emotional rollercoaster set in motion by With Or Without You and Love Is Blindness. MacPhisto performs it almost on his own, accompanied only by The Edge's gentle guitar, and by this point he seems exhausted - but manages to deliver his finest performance of them all.
    Bono explained to B.P. Fallon why he was drawn to Can't Help Falling In Love:

    "I've always loved that song. And I wanted to give it a different interpretation to Elvis's which I always felt was down on one knee, like... 'Take my hand, take my whole life too', so... I always felt he was at the altar. Whereas I was interested in the second verse, which was 'Shall I stay, would it be a sin?' - which doesn't sound like somebody who's getting married! And so I thought, this is interesting, this is-- I'll play the 'Catholic guilt' version. So that was my spin on the song. Erm, though the angels do arrive at the end to, er, rescue the day... I hope."

    For this song, all of MacPhisto's humour and theatrical gestures have long since vanished, leaving him at his most vulnerable and emotionally bare. The lyric "But I can't help falling in love with you" seems to be directed at his audience, whom he had earlier thanked for making him famous - acknowledging that his desire for stardom is irresistible, despite what it has turned him into. The sense of inevitability is heartbreaking.
    Can't Help Falling In Love The song's defining moment comes after the bridge, when MacPhisto breaks into the most stunning, spine-tingling falsetto to sing "Take my hand, take my whole life too / 'Cos I can't help falling in love with you". It's truly breathtaking to hear him reach higher and higher notes that seem like they will surely be outside of his range. B.P. Fallon's book U2 Faraway So Close includes a section about the recording of this song:

    You like the first bit where it's almost spoken, as if he's sitting beside someone and he's confiding quietly into their ear, then loping into the melody and you suggest that he just let his voice go, let it just fly like a Phoenix Icarus soaring towards the sun but keeping his wings intact. Something like that. [...]
    Next thing, Bono's singing, bloody hell, and at the end of the song his voice is high and pure and beautiful, resigned sadness floating towards uncertain paradise. Beautiful. Elvis is still in the building.

    Bono describes this extraordinary moment of the song as "the little boy inside the corrupt man breaking through for a moment"; it's a small fragment of MacPhisto's spirit that remains untarnished by the excesses of fame and fortune. As he slowly backs along the walkway toward the main stage, he allows the audience to complete each of the song's final lines. Dianne Ebertt Beeaff observes that "when thousands of voices respond to his "I can't help" with "falling in love with you" his character's face lights up, relieved to find that he's still "liked" for who he really is - whatever that may be". At last MacPhisto turns and disappears into the darkness, at which point Elvis Presley's original version of the song often plays over the loudspeakers - "drowning out the last rock star with the first", as Bill Flanagan puts it.


  • Are You Lonesome Tonight

    Another Elvis cover, this song was performed for the only time in Rotterdam, Holland on 10th May 1993, in place of Can't Help Falling In Love. MacPhisto sang his own version of the lyrics:

    "Are you lonesome tonight?
    Are you feeling alright?
    It is sad now you've all got to go?

    Will your heart feel the same?
    Will you come back again?    "

    [Audience: "YES!"]

    "Then my dears, I'm not lonesome tonight."


  • Other Songs

    • Help! (The Beatles). Sung into the answering machine after MacPhisto's failed attempt to call the United Nations at the Dublin show on 28th August 1993. The audience are allowed to sing the last line.
    • Show Me The Way To Go Home. MacPhisto sings this at the Sydney show on 27th November, after the woman from the taxi company hangs up on him.
    • Ding-A-Dong (Teach-In). Dutch Eurovision winner from 1975, performed in Rotterdam on 9th May.
    • All Kinds Of Everything (Dana). Irish Eurovision winner from 1970, performed in Cork on 24th August. Again the audience get to sing the last few words.
    • Congratulations (Cliff Richard). Eurovision runner-up from 1968, sung in Adelaide on 16th November to congratulate Graham Cornes on the news of his wife's pregnancy.
    • You'll Never Walk Alone (Gerry And The Pacemakers). Popular football anthem sung by MacPhisto and the crowd into Graham Taylor's answerphone, at the Wembley Stadium concert on 21st August.
    • Happy Birthday. Sung down the phone to Clannad during the Verona show on 2nd July, as the band celebrate their 20th anniversary.
    • God Save Our Dame. Specially adapted version of UK national anthem 'God Save The Queen', sung to Dame Edna Everage at the Melbourne and Sydney shows on 13th and 26th November.
    • Money Money Money (Abba). MacPhisto sings most of the chorus in the group's home city of Stockholm, Sweden on 31st July.
    • My Kind Of Town (Frank Sinatra). This appeared at both Scottish shows on 7th and 8th August, with the lyrics changed to reference Glasgow instead of Chicago.
    • New York, New York (Frank Sinatra). Another song snippeted at the first Glasgow show, in a segue from My Kind Of Town. "I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps" becomes "a city that doesn't give me the creeps".
    • Those Were The Days (Mary Hopkin). Sung briefly at the London show on 11th August as MacPhisto reminisces about the Raj and the British Empire.
    • Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head (B.J. Thomas). Makes a short appearance at the Paris show on 26th June.
    • Green, Green Grass Of Home (Tom Jones). MacPhisto greets the crowd in Cardiff on 18th August with a brief snippet of the Welsh crooner's biggest hit.
    • Spanish Eyes (Al Martino). MacPhisto can be heard singing "Spanish Eyes are waiting for me..." whilst on hold during his phone call in Madrid on 22nd May.
    • Neighbours theme. MacPhisto sings the theme song from the popular Australian soap during the Auckland show on 4th December, having phoned one of the houses overlooking the stadium where the owner was charging admission for people to come and watch.
    • The Right One (Martini song). An old advertising jingle that MacPhisto can often be heard singing to the audience as he begins his nightly speech.
    • Moon River (from Breakfast At Tiffany's). Appears to be one of MacPhisto's favourite songs, crooned at a number of shows before starting his speech.
    • I Just Called To Say I Love You (Stevie Wonder). Became a regular feature of MacPhisto's phone calls halfway through the tour, serenading his famous friends either directly or via their answerphones.
    • Hanging On The Telephone (Blondie). Often sung by MacPhisto as he waits for his phone calls to be answered.
    • Getting To Know You (from The King And I). Another of MacPhisto's favourite mid-phone call snippets, which also pops up during Desire at a couple of shows.

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