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In autumn 1976, drummer Larry Mullen
put a note on the notice board at Mount Temple
Comprehensive School in Dublin, looking for people
to join a band. Four friends joined up: Paul Hewson
(aka Bono Vox), Dave Evans (aka The Edge), Dik Evans,
and Adam Clayton. Dik soon left to join the Virgin
Prunes, while the remaining four formed 'Feedback'
before changing to 'The Hype' and then settling on
U2.
The band's first break came in 1978, winning ?00 in
a talent contest on St. Patrick's Day (March 17th)
in Limerick. Bono later recalled that they had
beaten off many technically better bands because of
what he called 'a spark', which had produced a great
atmosphere on stage. One of the judges that week was
Jackie Heyden of CBS Records, who was impressed and
arranged their first demo session. It was not a
great success - the band's inexperience and lack of
studio time combining to hinder their efforts - but
it was a start.
Their reputation for intense and electrifying live
shows meant that U2 soon built up a dedicated
following of fans. One was Bill Graham, a journalist
with the music paper 'Hot Press', who was an early
champion of the band and also introduced them to
their manager, Paul McGuinness. A three-year
contract with CBS Ireland soon followed, and with it
the release of their first record in September 1979
- a three song EP entitled 'U23' comprising Out of
Control, Boy/Girl, and Stories for Boys. A second
single followed, before the band signed a world-wide
contract with Island Records in March 1980.
Having secured the all-important record deal, the
rest of 1980 was spent touring extensively. Despite
this, the band also found time to record their first
LP, 'Boy', which received widespread critical
acclaim on its release in October. A year later came
'October' a much more mellow and spiritual record
that reflected the Christian beliefs of Bono, Edge
and Larry, and built on the success of 'Boy'.
U2 really hit the big time with the 'War' LP,
released in March 1983. Boosted by the success of
the 'New Year's Day' single, the record entered the
UK charts at Number 1, and established the band as a
mainstream act. Further tours followed through the
US and Europe, where the songs for the mini Live LP
'Under A Blood Red Sky' were recorded. This record
marked the end of an era, as it was the last record
before Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois were engaged to
work on future LPs.
The next record to be released, 'The Unforgettable
Fire', marked a distinct change in direction towards
a more complex style, moving away from the 'anthems'
of the War era. Despite a few teething problems
incorporating the newer songs into the band's live
set, the material was well received on the
subsequent European and US tours. The mini LP 'Wide
Awake in America' was comprised of 2 new tracks and
2 live recordings from the European tour. It was at
this time, in April 1985, that 'Rolling Stone'
magazine dubbed U2 "The Band of The Eighties".
That summer U2 played in the Live Aid concert at
Wembley Stadium in London, where they gave a
memorable performance, as the song 'Bad' over-ran to
about 12 minutes! Bono actually considered leaving
the band at that point, as he feared that his antics
during that show (dancing with girls from the
audience while leaving the band to play on
regardless) had ruined the set for the rest of the
band - Pride had to be dropped from the set due to
lack of time. Only when a friend told him that it
was one of the high points of the day did he come
round. The following year U2 played Self Aid, a
benefit for Ireland's unemployed, and joined the
Conspiracy of Hope tour for Amnesty International.
U2's 7th LP was 'The Joshua Tree', another
Eno/Lanois collaboration which was released in March
1987. This was to be their most successful record to
date, becoming the fastest selling record ever in
the UK on its release, and reaching number one in 22
countries. The accompanying sell-out tour included
over 100 shows, and cemented their reputation as
what what 'Time' magazine called "Rock's hottest
ticket". During the tour, director Phil Joanou was
chosen to put together a film which would capture
the live shows, and also depict the band's
perceptions of America. Filmed chiefly in Denver
Colorado and Tempe Arizona, the resulting movie
('Rattle and Hum') and the LP of the same name were
released in October 1988. Taken from this LP, the
single 'Desire' gave U2 their first UK mumber one
single. Other songs on the record, such as 'When
Love Comes to Town' featured blues legend BB King,
and he joined U2 on the Love Town tour which
concentrated on Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
At the end of the 1980s, U2 played a series of 4
concerts at The Point Depot in Dublin, culminating
with a show on New Year's Eve which was broadcast
throughout the world. Bono announced that night that
it was "time to go away and dream it all up again".
This led some to believe that U2 were considering
splitting up, but those fears proved to be unfounded
with the release of 'Achtung Baby' in November 1991.
A much more electronically processed record than
their earlier releases, it marked a new beginning in
U2's career. The subsequent ZooTV tour was a huge
extravaganza which used giant video screens to
create a stunning visual spectacle, and at the end
of each show of the tour Bono attempted to call VIPs
such as Bill Clinton, Pavarotti, or Princess Diana.
On a break from the tour, U2 recorded 'Zoooropa'
which was released in July 1993. Less commercially
successful than previous releases, it was called
U2's most experimental work to date. It was to be 4
years before their next LP was released, although
they continued working on various outside projects,
such as the soundtrack for Batman Forever which
yielded the single 'Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me,
Kill Me. Larry and Adam worked on the 'Mission
Impossible' soundtrack, while Bono and Edge worked
on 'Goldeneye'. U2 also donated songs to good causes
such as the AIDS fundraiser 'Red, Hot and Blue' and
'A Very Special Christmas'.
In March 1997 U2 released 'Pop' which Edge described
as being "about as far away from U2 as it is
possible to be". Yet another massive world tour
followed, which utilised the world's largest video
screen at 150 feet wide and 50 feet tall to show
live pictures of the band performing, along with
computer generated animation sequences. Other props
included a giant rotating lemon shaped mirrorball
(from which the band would emerge for the encores)
and a huge olive on a 100 foot high cocktail stick.
According to recent reports, this was to be the last
tour of such proportions that the band would
undertake. Future shows are more likely to be 'back
to basics' in terms of the sets used etc.
A new LP entitled 'All That You Can't Leave Behind'
was released on the 30th October 2000 (31st in the
US). In a recent interview, manager Paul McGuinness
stated that because of the high price of CDs in the
UK and Ireland and because U2's earliest fans came
from those countries, there would be a bonus track
(The Ground Beneath Her Feet) on the UK release of
the album. A new single taken from the album
(Beautiful Day) was released and went straight into
the British charts at number one, and 'Stuck in a
Moment You Can't Get Out Of' has been released
everywhere except the US, where no singles are due
to be released at all. The new LP reached number one
in the British album charts in its first week of
release, but did not manage this feat in the
America, where sales were not what many had hoped.
In support of All That You Can't Leave Behind, the
Elevation tour started in Florida on March 24th 2001
and the first three legs have so far covered North
America, Europe and back to North America, where the
shows seemed to take on a new meaning in the wake of
September 11th. More dates are expected to be
announced for Europe in the near future, probably
for large outdoor venues. Sadly, Australasia and
South America have so far missed out on the tour for
economic reasons. The weakness of the currencies in
those regions means that a tour would not be
financially viable at the moment. |
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