Local rock band Ash do not normally lock onto the political radar, but leafing through the latest edition of music magazine NME I was intrigued to read about Tim Wheeler’s proudest achievement.

 

The Downpatrick singer recalled the band’s 1998 gig in the Waterfront Hall with U2, to back a yes vote in the Referendum, and spoke of the event as a pivotal moment which “swung” the vote in the face of “a big No campaign”.

 

Now to be fair, I remember the show, for an audience of teenagers and students who either couldn’t vote or wouldn’t care to vote.

 

We had Bono in his egotistical element, mixing politics, pop and pompousness and re-inflating his sense of self-importance.

 

John Hume, meanwhile, was busy connecting with the kids – delving deep into his repertoire of embarrassing but obligatory thumbs-up.

 

And David Trimble was rocking uneasily back on his heels and grinning like the playground outsider, who had just been invited to the cool-kids’ party, as Bono raised his arm aloft for a typical iconic Bono moment.

 

As Tim Wheeler – who was there somewhere  – remembers too, the event made the headlines and was “on the bongs on News At Ten” – making it an image of the times we were living through.

 

But his recollection of this being the point where the Yes cavalry came over the hill and rescued the peace from “a No campaign that seemed like it might wreck everything”, seems a bit revisionist to say the least.

 

The idea that some middle ground unionist in North Antrim, sipping his hot milk and leafing through the Belfast Agreement, would be swayed by Bono and Ash’s ringing endorsement of the deal, is a stretch of the imagination too far.

 

In fact, more likely they would be itching to say “no, no and no again”.

 

If there is one lesson to be learned from Tim’s memories, it is that the old adage that “pop and politics don’t mix” still holds, because when the two collide the truth gets lost in the middle.