Ed O'Brien

Ed O'Brien talks to FM Reactor 105.7 in Mexico City, for a special on the band's third visit to the country, broadcast on 17 April 2012. He answers in English, with Spanish narration over the top.

He is warm about coming back. The band first played Mexico in 1994, and their last visit had been part of a South American run, which taught them something practical: Mexico is closer to North America, so it belongs on a North American tour rather than being reached by way of Brazil and Argentina. He remembers the party after the second show fondly.

The start of a tour, he says, is a dislocation more than a matter of nerves. At home he is a husband and a father, and two days later he is on a stage in front of 50,000 people, and it takes time to move between the two. Mexican audiences shouting encouragement take some getting used to.

He will not walk round a city frightened of it, security warnings or not. He was warned off Rio too, and says that anyone who accepts the fear cannot experience the place or its people at all.