In January 1993, several significant events had unfolded - the shock death of Paul McGuiness's brother, Ellen Darst resignation from Principle Management (the team that manage U2) and the victory of Bill Clinton to become President of USA. But for Paul McGuiness, the death of his brother came at a worst time, he had to miss the inauguration with Larry and Adam, and Darst's farewell.

  In the midst of these events, Adam and Larry still managed to perform with Michael Stipe and Mike Mills of REM at the MTV Inaugural Ball. Calling themselves "Automatic Baby", they decided to perform an acoustic version of "One" which they practiced the night before, with Larry on drums (congas), Michael on Vocals, Adam on Bass and Mike on guitar. Asked by Bill Graham about the Congas Larry replies - "Make it simple, don't complicate it. There's a large chance we could come across badly, whereas  if I have the congas there it won't be too loud, we could get a good mix on the TV". 10000 Maniacs also performed at the ball.

  During the ball, Larry and Adam showed their honesty for their awkwardness about their support for Bill before he was elected - "I'm still unsure whether it was the right thing to do....He seems to be an all right guy. But I'm not living in America. I don't have to live under his administration's policies. That's why I was worried about it. We don't live here. Are we endorsing him? ... We weren't officially endorsing him and yet on the other hand we were saying, Yeah, he's all right." Such opinions are not surprising, since their actions could be misinterpreted (ie: as supporters for the party, as opposed to having a good time with Bill) - a valuable lesson from the "Rattle and Hum" days.

  Meanwhile in Thalia Theatre, Hamburg, Germany, Bono and Edge were voicing their opposition to fascism in Europe. They performed "One" with the Indian violinist Shankar during this function which was organised by Venessa Redgrave (actess and activist). Not surprisingly, this event inspired U2 to make a few adjustments to the set for Zoo TV and gave them extra drive in turning a proposed EP into a full brand new album - "Zooropa".

  At the end of their Zoo TV european tour, U2 went back to "The Factory" in Dublin to complete an EP release. But, to the surprise of the record company, they decided instead for a album due to the amount of new material they had produced. So the date for July 1993 was set for the new album.

  Meanwhile, changes to the tour have already taken place. U2 worked with EBN (Emergency Broadcast Network) to compose the audio visuals to put it in line with the album - using the Zoo TV set as the base. In their next performance, the screen would begin with a 11 year old Nazi boy playing drums at the 1936 Olympic games before following this up with other thought provocative images, videos and sounds which clearly reflecting U2's experiences with the new world after the Zoo TV tour. In addition, Bono introduced U2 fans to another stranger character than the Fly, Mr McPhisto - The new tour began in Rotterdam on May 9th 1993.

  "Zooropa" was released in July 1993, again surprising the critics and those who were familiar with the music of U2. Produced by Brian Eno and Flood, "Zooropa" proved to be an even more darker album, and employed various audio effects in conveying U2's messages in each song. The last and the most time-consuming track to be finished was "Lemon" which was produced and recorded on and off while U2 were on tour.

  "Zooropa's" meaning was clearly highlighted in the dark sea of change that was happening in with the rise of facism after the collapse of communism in Europe in the song "Zooropa", the unforgiving world of drug addiction in "Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car", the shallowness of the disensitisation effects of TV in "Numb" and the blackness of a father/son relationship in "Dirty Day". In addition, "Zooropa" also looked at the realities of life, that beneath the glamour there is always a dark side in humanity through voyeurism from consumers playing and replaying advertisements of models in "Babyface" to the manipulation and dynamics in viewing film images of the female form in "Lemon" (the female being Bono's mother dressed in Lemons according to Gavin Friday).

  U2 begin their Zoo TV tour in Australia in the beginning of November 1993, with the tour starting in Sydney and and ending in Melbourne. Dubbed the Zoomerang tour, the tour was plagued with, from U2 and the concert promoters difficulty in meeting an agreement with the huge expense in setting up the concert to Adam falling ill before the Sydney concert. In addition, there was the possibility of U2 and promoeters not meeting their profit margin for the whole Australian tour . This led to the cancellation of a live TV triplecast, funded by MTV, where three versions of the concert would be shot for three different channels. Not surprisingly, this angered MTV.

  Fortunately, U2 still managed to put on a excellent performance with Mr McPhisto adding a bit of humor towards the show. Unlike previous shows where he tended to contact prominent leaders, this time he decided on calling a cab company to take him home from the concert. Not surprisingly, the operator hung up!! It seems that beneath the humour, U2 has once again renewed the fun and commitment in becoming a band.

  U2's most difficult section of the tour ended in Japan. For U2, this was the best place to end their last Zoo TV performance.