This is the story of U2

This is the story of a genuinely enthralling rock and roll adventure - U2
 
"Here's to the future! The only limits are the limits of our imagination. Dream up the kind of world you want to live in, dream out loud, at high volume....."
Half Catholic, half Protestant, they embody the conflict and anguish of a divided Ireland. Troughout the world their unique music is the voice of hope for the disillusioned, the oppressed and the hungry.


On 6 May 1960 the world witnessed the "U2 Incident". An American aircraft carrying electronic surveillance equipment was shot down whilst on a spying mission over the Soviet Union.

On 10 May, four days after the so called "U2 Incident", Bobby and Iris Hewson saw the arrival of their second son, Paul Hewson, in the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin.

Adam Clayton, the son of Brian and Jo Clayton, was born on 13 March 1960 in Chinnor in Oxfordshire. At the age of five the Claytons moved to Dublin.

In Dublin on 31 October 1961 Maureen Mullen gave birth to her second child, a boy, named after his father Larry Mullen.

Dave Evans was born in Barking Maternity Hospital, East London, on 8 August 1961. Garwin Evans and his wife Gwenda, both from Llanelli in Wales, moved to Dublin a year later.

The four lads all went to the same school Mount Temple, and this is where it all started..... In the Autumn 1976 Larry pinned a note on the school notice board announcing that he was putting together a band, wodering if someone would join him. The immediate response to the note was not quite as he had expected. Dave Evans made a polite inquiry as to what it was all about, but there was no rush. Larry decided to push things along a bit by approaching Adam Clayton, the schools "hippy". Larry approached him somewhat reluctantly. "I believe you play bass guitar. I`ve got some drums and I`m forming a group. Would you be interested? Adam thought it sounded great, and they decided to get together. Larry Mullen also approached Dave Evans, who said he was interested and that he would bring his brother Dick.

When the day arrived Paul Hewson, Mount Temples` "brat", Dave and Dick Evans, Adam Clayton and another pupil from Maount Temple, Neil McGormick had showed up in Larry`s back garden.

The first meeting revealed important truths. Larry and Dave could play. Paul and Adam were less accomplished. Dick could play, but his lovely homemade guitar couldn`t quite make it. Neil decided to bail out.

Dave won the competition for the position as the bands lead guitarist. Larry was the drummer, and no one wanted to be the singer. Paul and Adam had other assets to bestow on the group. Dick could stay aboard provided that he got a guitar that worked. They decided to call themselves FEEDBACK as a description of the sound of Dave`s guitar and Larry`s drums.

Feedback hang out with a bunch of other teenagers and they all called themselves The Village. They all made up names for each other. Fionàn Hanvey became "Gavin Friday", Derek Rowen became "Guggi", Trevor Rowen became "Strongman", David Watson became "Day-Vid", Paul Hewson became "Bonovox" or "Bono" for short. Dave Evans became "The Edge" a reference to his guitar playing style.....

FEEDBACK had their first gig at Mount Temple on a talent contest. They had prepared a set consisting of Peter Frampton`s "Show me the way". Although they didn`t get the prize, they were far out the most popular act that night. And most important, the lads had proved to themselves and others that they could really play.

The first band meeting after their debut they changed their name to HYPE. Their secong gig took place at St. Fintan School Hall in Sutton. They had added some Boomtown Rats and Rolling Stones numbers to thier successful Mount Temple set. But they were unhappy with the songs, especially Bono. He wanted to make his own songs

Inspired by the HYPE`s emerging popularity The Village decided to form an altrenative group. Dick Evans who`d dropped out of Hype joined Gavin, Guggi, Reggie, Pod, Day-Vid to form THE VIRGIN PRUNES.

Adam had promised the rest of HYPE that he would provide gigs for them but somewhat failed to do so. Although he had the nerve to phone Gerry Cott of the Boomtown Rats and Phil Lynnot of Thin Lizzy asking for advices and such. He really had the nerve.... Adam also talked to Steve Rapid the vocalist with the Radiators. Adam asked him all the ususal questions but seemed particularly concerned about his bans name. Steve agreed, HYPE sounded too blatant, wasn`t subtle. Adam thought they needed a name that would be slightly mysterious, that wouldn`t pin them down to anything or place in particular. Steve thought about it for a few days before coming up with U2. Adam really liked it. There had been an American spy plane called U2, there was a U2 submarine and one of Ever Ready`s biggest selling batteries were also called U2. Nobody knew what it meant, but the name stuck in your brain. There was a pun in there as well; YOU TOO or even YOU TWO.

The others were less than bowled over. Adam didn`t give up and won a compromise. Their next set they played the first half with Dick on additional keyboard as the Hype, and the second set minus Dick as U2.

The first thing Adam did when they arrived at Limerick for the Evening Press-Harper Lager Talent Contest, was to change their name from The Hype as they`d enterede as, to U2. They won the contest, and brought home £500 and the promise of a day in CBS studios to cut a demo disc. After speaking to Bill Graham of Hot Press they set out to find a manager.....Paul McGuinness.

Thursday 25 May 1978, U2 were supporting the Gamblers at the Project. Paul McGuinness came to see them and they had landed their first victory...they had a manager.

In September U2 supported The Stranglers in Top Hat Ballrom, Dun Laoghaire. The month after U2 supported D.C. Nien at the Arcadia, Cork. Paul got Barry Devlin of Horselips to produce U2`s demo, and they went into Keystone Studios in Harcourt Street the 1 November to make their demo. The demo consisted of three songs: "STREET MISSION", "THE FOOL" and "SHADOWS AND TALL TREES". Two weeks later the entusiasm of the demo got a tragic end when Larry`s mum, Maureen Mullen, was killed in a road accident in Raheny.

Paul McGuinness took the demotape with him to London, but no one was very interested. U2 gigs were rare and special, they played the Dark Space Festival at the Project early in February 1979 and got good reviews in Hot Press by Dave Fanning. The record deal still kept waiting. In March Paul were forced to return to CBS Ireland to accept a deal that Adam and Bono earlier had refused. The idea was to produce a three song single, U2 THREE, containing "STORIES FOR BOYS", "OUT OF CONTROL" and "BOY-GIRL". The single were released in 1000 copies and they were quickly sold out. They even got an Irish chart success.

U2 played their last concert before going to London at the Dandelion Green. The set included "OUT OF CONTROL", "SHADOWS AND TALL TREES", "THE FOOL", "CONCENTRATION CAMP" and "IN YOUR HAND". EMI people attended the gig but left halfway out in the set.

In London they were booked at prestigious venues like the Hope and Anchor, the Bridge House in Camden Town and the Moonlight Club. They even opened for Talking Heads on a couple of gigs. The trip did not give them what they were hoping for, a record deal. However, on their way back to Dublin, they were listening to the radio were Fanning were interviewing Jake Burns the leader of Stiff Little Fingers. Burns were saying that there was nothing happening on the music scene. Nothing? Fanning asked. Well, Burns reflected, there is one band that I think could be the greatest band of all time....U2. That certainly was quite a boost for the lads.

The following month, January 1980, U2 won five categories in the Hot Press readers poll. Good news, but still no record deal. U2 booked an Irish tour that would end on the National Boxing Stadium housing over 2000 people. A new single "ANOTHER DAY" would be released to follow the tour. By the time the tour reached Belfast, Paul had managed to get representatives from Blue Mountain Music, an Island Records label, to come and see U2. A week later, Island`s Bill Stewart was due to see them on the Stadium in Dublin. The gig in Belfast didn`t go too well, and yet worse; the tickest for the Stadium were going slowly. Less than 500 tickets....When the night came about 1000 people attended, lots of them friends and families of U2 and the Village. After the show Bill Stewart offered them a deal on the spot, backstage, in the dressing room. They had made it. The deal Bill Stewart offered them was a long term deal involving four albums using the bands original material which Islands would accept unseen! The deal also involved tour money for Uk, Europe and America.

They had three months before beginning to record their debut album in Windmill Lane Studio, Dublin. Meanwhile they set out on a tour of Britain to establish a market and to promote their first Island UK single "11 O`CLOCK, TICK-TOCK".

U2 did not live out the concept of drugs, sex and rock `n roll. Bono and Alison, Edge and Aislinn, and Larry and Ann were all still sweethearts. Drugs was not an item of discussion, yet. Adam was the only one that went out for a drink with Paul after gigs. All in all, nothing much had actually happened with them although they had finally landed a record deal. The four lads kept their feet solidly planted on the ground.

Paul started thinking of America and set up a meeting with Frank Barsalona of Premier Talent in August 1980. But while Paul was in America his father died and Paul returned to Ireland without meeting Frank.

Steve Lillywhite had come to Dublin to produce U2`s debut album. He had previously worked with Ultravox, Eddie and the Hot Rods and Siouxsie and the Banshees. U2 recorded "A DAY WITHOUT ME" as a single. The album was called BOY.

The critical reaction to BOY was amazing. BOY were said to be the best debut album of all time. The front cover shows the younger brother of Guggi, Peter Rowen, naked from the chest up. No signs of U2 or the albums name on the front, a huge marketing gamble. Peter had also appeared on the cover of the U2 THREE a year earlier. BOY was due out in the States in the new year, and Paul and Frank Barsalona had arranged a short ten day introductory tour in December and then a majour three month tour in the spring. U2 had not forgotten the sound system worker Joe O`Herlihy, who had worked with them earlier on tours and he was again brought in for the US tour. The only thing that "bothered" Joe was Edge`s guitar playing. Edge was an electronic wizard not a genious player, and Joe had some really hard time working out Edge`s use of echoes. The U2 sound. Finally they were in the States, opening the tour at the Ritz. A concert that went extremely well despite a boring crowd, that Bono really had to work on to get going. But he sure got them on their toes screaming for more. The rest of the ten days went even better.....

In January 1981 U2 topped nine categories in the Hot Press poll. They toured UK most of the first months of 1981 ending with a sell out concert at the Lyceum Ballroom in London in February. Live, U2 were brilliant, the critical relationship between Joe and Edge adding a stunning new sound dimension to Bono`s dramatic stage persona.

In March BOY was released in the States, and U2 started preparing for the US tour in April to support BOY.They began their first major US tour on 3 March 1981, opening at the Bayou Club in Washington DC. The American audience loved them. The tour ended in two sell out gigs at The Palladium in New York and the Fast Lane, Asbury Park, New Jersey.

In May U2 started to work with Steve Lillywhite on their follow up album, the difficult number two album. It was going to be called OCTOBER. In June U2 released the single "FIRE" and they got their first British chart success. In August while they were waiting for the release of OCTOBER , U2 headlined a major Irish concert at Slane Castle alongside Thin Lizzy. "GLORIA" was released as a single, and OCTOBER hit the British charts at number 11.

Now U2 had a trouble. Bono, Edge and Larry went to Paul and infomred him that they had decide not to tour OCTOBER, due to their personal Christian beliefs. They also concidered to quit rock and roll. Luckily, Paul finally convinced them to stay in the business. In November U2 toured the US.

On the 20 and 21 December U2 played at the Lyceum Ballroom in London.

In January 1982 U2 toured Ireland, before starting their second leg of the US tour in February, they also supported J.Geils Band on ten dates, a major success.

In spring 1982 U2 released "A CELEBRATION" as a single. U2 spent summer touring at festivals around Europe, and also supported The Police at Gateshead in England. They were stars in Ireland, big in England and Rolling Stones had written about them as the next Big Thing...................

On the 21 August 1982 Bono and Alison were married at the old Guinness Church of Ireland Church in Raheny. Adam was the best man. After the wedding the lads started working on their next album, WAR. And when they met up with Steve Lillywhite it was the most complete U2 album before recordings started.

WAR was released in march 1983. A stunning piece of work, dealing with the religious problems bothering the lads. WAR was not a concept album, more a concept title......... talking `bout the war in Ireland, love and hate and social problems all over the world. "NEW YEARS DAY", "SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY", "SECONDS", "SURRENDER", "THE REFUGEE", "TWO HEARTS BEAT AS ONE", "DROWNING MAN", "LIKE A SONG", "RED LIGHT", "40".........the songs and lyrics really says it all!

U2 set out on their WAR tour in spring 1983. They played a 27 date, sold out tout of Britain before arriving in the US to begin a three month crusade in April. They were no longer a baby band admired for good intentions and hard work. The all over view in rock and roll was that Paul McGuinness`s band stood a real chance of becoming the next big thing. U2 proved themselves hungrier than ever before.

Four days after U2 had co-headlined at the US festival in San Bernadino alongside The Clash and David Bowie, they arrived at Red Rocks outside Denver, Colorado. The concert was shot as a video, and the music recorded for a live album called LIVE UNDER A BLOOD RED SKY. Steve Lillywhite was brought in to produce the album, and Gavin Taylor to direct the video.

U2 returned to Dublin to headline "A day at the Races", at Phoenix Park, also featuring Simple Minds, The Eurythmics and Big Country. 25 000 people sure got what they had come for.

The Edge and Aislinn O`Sullivan got married on 12 July.

The video was OK. Thesound of the music less than good. U2 had recorded the Red Rocks set under a concert in Boston and a concert in West Germany. When the album was released it only contained two original songs from Red Rocks, "GLORIA" and "PARTY GIRL". UNDER A BLOOD RED SKY hit the UK charts at number 2.

U2 persuaded Brian Eno, ex Roxy Music, to produce their next album. Brian Eno arrived Dublin with Daniel Lanois a Canadian sound engineer. They started working on the album in the early months of 1984.

In March 1984, Rolling Stone writers chose U2 as Band of the Year for 1983. The award came handy to Paul who was re-negotiating U2`s original deal with Island Records.The stunning new four album deal would give them $2 million an album, double their royalties, each album would be promoted by three videos at a cost of $75 000 each, Island would be bound to accept the albums unseen. U2 also got their publishing rights back.

The title of the new album, THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE, was inspired by an exhibition the band attended in Boston, showing a series of painting and drwaing describing the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

In the autumn of 1984, "PRIDE (IN THE NAME OF LOVE)" was released as a single and reached number 3 in the UK charts. In the US it failed to reach the top ten. When the album was released it went straight to number 1 in the UK charts, but failed to dominate the mainstream charts of the US. The title track "THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE" was released as a single the following spring, reaching number 8 in the UK charts.

U2 embarked on a worl tour which began in Australia and New Zealand in the autumn of 1984. The tour was a musical disaster. The orchestral feel of the music didn`t work live. After six weeks down under U2 returned to Dublin to seek out their problems with the new songs. Some dates in Europe had to be cancelled while they solved their tour problems.

Following a tour of Britain and Europe and two months after completing a short series of concerts in major US cities, U2 left for a four month trip to the States in February 1985. Their set was now a tour de force, containing the best songs from their four albums. At the same time they released a four track EP, WIDE AWAKE IN AMERICA, containing live versions of "BAD" and "A SORT OF HOMECOMING", and two new songs; "LOVE COMES THUMBLING" and "THREE SUNRISES".

The March 1985 edition of Rolling Stones featured U2 on the cover under the headline "Our Choice: Band of the 80`s". Still THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE failed to reach the number 1 spot on the US charts. On the first of April U2 played a sell out concert at the Madison Square Garden. The concert reviews made them front page heroes back in Ireland.

U2 returned from the US tour and played another sell ot concert at the Milton Keynes Bowl south in England. A week later they returned to Ireland as national heroes to play at Croke Park in Ireland on the 29 June for 55 000 people.

Two weeks after Croke Park U2 went to Wembley to play at the Live Aid, the Bob Geldof and Midge Ure project for starving Africans. U2 delivered one of their best gigs ever, capturing the whole worlds attention Bono danced with a girl in the grave at Wembley to the tunes of "BAD". An era of U2 rock and roll hysteria had just begun.

The Edge wrote, performed and co-produced the film score to the motion picture "CAPTIVE". The main song from this film "HEROINE" also includes Larry on drums, and got Sinèad O`Connor her break through as she sings on this song.

U2 went back to work on Monday 11 November 1985, starting to work on their next album. The album was originally due to be released one year later, but the process was to end in March 1987.

A couple of months after Live Aid, Bono met with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in a New York recording studio. The two Stones members were jamming away on some Stone songs and asked Bono if he could play one of his songs.... Bono desperately wanted the rest of U2 to be there, he had no song of his own. That night he wrote "SILVER AND GOLD", wich later appeared on the Sun City: Artists against Apartheid, and on the bw side of the single "WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAME".

In May U2 headlined the Festival of Hope in Dublin alongside Bob Geldof and his band The Boomtown Rats, Chris de Burgh, Van Morrison and Paul Brady. 30 000 people rose to greet them as they opened their set with Eddie Cochran`s "C`MON EVERYBODY".

U2 had comitted themselves and their organisation to the "Conspiracy of Hope Tour", the tour celebrating the 25 anniversary of Amnesty International, from August 1985. Starting in San Francisco on 3 june 1986 the tour supported by U2 and their crew, U2 joined forces with Sting, Peter Gabriel, Joan Baez, Bryan Adams, The Neville Brothers, Jackson Browne and Lou Reed. The tour went on a six city, 15 days sweep through the US earning Amnesty International $4 million and triple the memebership in the US. U2`s Conspiracy set included three of their own songs, "SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY", "BAD" and "PRIDE", and Dylan`s "MAGGIE`S FARM", Beatles` "HELP" and Cochran`s "C`MON EVERYBODY". The Conspiracy of Hope tour ended at Giants Stadium, New Jersey before a crowd of 55 000 people in New York!

In March 1987 U2 released THE JOSHUA TREE. Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois had finally made it with U2 in studio. Steve Lillywhite were brought in to mix "WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAME", "BULLET THE BLUE SKY" and "WITH OR WITHOUT YOU". The album went straight to the top of the charts in UK, the US and everywhere else. The first single from the record "WITH OR WITHOUT YOU" gave U2 their first number 1 hit in the States. The second single "I STILL HAVEN`T FOUND WHAT I`M LOOKING FOR" also reached the number 1 spot. In April U2 reached the front page of TIME magazine as the third rock band ever, only the Beatles and the Who had done that before. "THE JOSHUA TREE" clearly showed the maternity U2 had reached in their music and their lives. As "THE JOSHUA TREE" went bawling out to the far corners of the world, U2 had finally proved, mostly to themselves, that they could do it! "WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAME" and "RED HILL MINING TOWN" was also released as singles. U2 had made more than 30 new songs during their time in studio. In fact U2 actually intended to release "THE JOSHUA TREE" as a double album containing more than 20 songs, some of the songs are found as the b-sides of the singles.

During their following tour U2 wrote and recorded some new songs which they later released as a double album RATTLE AND HUM, containing some of the live versions from the "JOSHUA TREE" tour, "I STILL HAVEN`T FOUND WHAT I`M LOOKING FOR", "BULLET THE BLUE SKY", SILVER AND GOLD" and "PRIDE". "RATTLE AND HUM" also contains some cover versions of Dylan and Beatles, "HELTER SKELTER" and "ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER". During the "JOSHUA TREE" tour U2 had a film team following them recording on and off stage. The movie also called "RATTLE AND HUM" was released right about the same time as the album. The new songs "DESIRE", "ALL I WANT IS YOU", "ANGEL OF HARLEM" and "WHEN LOVE COMES TO TOWN" featuring BB King and his blues band, were released as singles. U2 toured the world again; first the "RATTLE AND HUM" tour, then the "WHEN LOVE COMES TO TOWN" tour.

On the 1 january 1990 U2 entered Point Theatre, Dublin, at midnight, celebrating the new decade with their fans. The concert was broadcasted on radio worldwide.

U2 took some time of as they had been on the road for quite some time!

The Edge and Aisling split up.......

In the autumn of 1990 U2 were back in studio working on new songs. The demo tape of the new album was stolen just when they felt that they had the songs they wanted. Instead of recording the same songs over again, they decided to write new songs. The forthcoming album was delayed.... The stolen tapes ended up as a tripple bootleg cd set called SALOME - THE AXTUNG BEIBI OUTTAKES 

In winter 1991 the world got a taste of the new U2 sound as the single "THE FLY" was released. The album ACHTUNG BABY followed. U2 released "ONE", "EVEN BETTER THAN THE REAL THING", "WHO`S GONNA RIDE YOUR WILD HORSES" and "MYSTERIOUS WAYS" as singles. The rest ought to be history.

U2 had done it again.

The ZOO TV tour saw its very start. For more than two years U2 toured the world with their massive show. During this tour they wrote and recorded a new album, ZOOROPA. "LEMON", "NUMB" and "STAY (FARAWAY SO CLOSE)" was released as singles.

In April 1994 Larry and Adam recorded four tracks with Nancy Griffith for her FLYER album.

Bono co-wrote and perfomed the title track to the film "IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER" and two other songs with Gavin Friday, his old compadre from the Village.

June 1. 1995, "HOLD ME, THRILL ME, KISS ME, KILL ME" from the "Batman Forever" film score is released.

In autumn 1995 U2 recorded and released an album under the alias PASSENGERS. The album is called ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACKS 1. Other musicians appearing on this album as fellow Passengeres are Brian Eno, Holi, Howie B, Luciano Pavarotti, Craig Armstrong, Paul Barrett, Des Broadberry, David Herbert and Holger Zschenderlein. MISS SARAJEVO was released as a single.

Inspired by the success with the Batman song Bono and The Edge wrote the song "GOLDENEYE" for the james Bond soundtrack. Tina Turner performs the song!

In spring 1996 Adam and Larry recorded an instrumental title track for the Tom Cruise film "MISSION IMPOSSIBLE".

9 January 1997, the single "DISCOTHEQUE" was played on Dave Fanning's show on 2FM a national radiostation in Ireland. MTV showed the video following the single during the same day! The single was released in four different versions, containing different mixes and b-sides! The "other" song on the single was called "HOLY JOE". The album POP was released on 3 March 1997.

The following songs are included on the "POP" album; "DISCOTHEQUE", "DO YOU FEEL LOVED", "MOFO", "IF GOD WILL SEND HIS ANGELS", "STARING AT THE SUN", "LAST NIGHT ON EARTH", "GONE", "MIAMI", "THE PLAYBOY MANSION", "IF YOU WEAR THAT VELVET DRESS", "PLEASE" and "WAKE UP DEAD MAN."


 

U2 are currently finishing off the last preparations for the PopMart Tour 97. The tour will kick off in Las Vegas on the 21 April. According to The Edge the band will most likely play 8 songs from the POP album at their concerts, along with all the "oldies".

The latest release from POP is the single STARING AT THE SUN, with the following video. It was released on April the 14th in three different versions. The official version contains STARING AT THE SUN, NORTH AND SOUTH OF THE RIVER (written by Bono, the Edge and Christy Moore) and YOUR BLUE ROOM (a Passengers song), the second version contains STARING AT THE SUN and NORTH AND SOUTH BY THE RIVER. The third version, a mix collection, contains three versions of STARING AT THE SUN and NORTH AND SOUTH BY THE RIVER.



 

 
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