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THE ESSENTIALS
U2 formed in 1978 after Larry Mullen pinned a 'musicians wanted' ad to the notice board at Dublin's Temple Mount School. Adam Clayton had discovered rock'n'roll as a thirteen year old, buying his first acoustic guitar and then talking his parents into buying him a bass guitar. 'It just sounded good to me. Deep and fat and satisfying.'
From the beginning, U2 were marked out bytheir passion. "A band before we could play" was how Bono put it in early interviews. Edge remembers reading UK music papers NME and Sounds every week and then hearing about this 'wild kid called Paul Hewson.'

The four teenagers, who initially called themselves 'Feedback', rehearsed in Larry's Dublin kitchen, Bono on vocals, The Edge on guitar, Adam Clayton and Larry making up the rhythmsection of bass and drums. Inspired by punk, but insulated from the standoffish cool by the Irish Sea, Feedback had become 'The Hype' and then 'U2' and were soon building a local reputation based on the passion of their performances.
'I suppose a watershed moment would have been seeing The Jam on Top of the Pops, 'remembers `Edge. 'And realizing that actually not knowing how to play was not aproblem... music was more about energy and trying to say something and not necessarily about great musicianship.'
After a brief period being managed by Adam, they had met up with Paul McGuinness but an early Irish release in 1979, the 'U23' EP on CBS, proved a one-off. They would wait until the following year to sign a long-term deal with Chris Blackwell's Island Records. 'I was amazed at the quality andtalent and ambition of these four musicians and yet we couldn't get a record deal.'recalls McGuinness. 'Everyone in the world passed on U2 before we finally found a home at Island Records.'
U2's first single, 11 O'Clock Tick-Tock, was released in May 1980. Boy, their debut album, was released five months later - promoted by another single, I Will Follow , October, a year later and by May 1983,they had their first UK number 1 album with War, culmination of a trio of albums produced by Steve Lillywhite.

War featured hit singles New Year's Day (the video shot in the snow in sub-zero Sweden) and Two Hearts Beat As One while the live album Under A Blood Red Sky released that November, cracked the US Billboard Top 30. It was also the end of a chapter for the band and the beginning of aquarter century of studio collaboration with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. The Unforgettable Fire, recorded in a the ballroom of Ireland's Slane Castle, spawned one of U2's most iconic tracks in Pride (In The Name of Love) ... as well as a whole lot more experimentation. 'In America there was such a backlash when we put out The Unforgettable Fire,' remembers Bono. 'People thought we were the futureof rock'n'roll and they went, 'What are you doin' with this doggone hippie Eno album?' 'We owe Eno and Lanois so much for seeing through to the heart of U2.'
Three years before the band had played support to Thin Lizzy at the annual Slane outdoor show. Seventeen years later, now established as the pre-eminent live act in rock'n'roll, they would return to play two sell-out shows themselves, laterreleased on a live DVD, U2 Go Home'.
Back in the 1980's, the nine-month tour following the release of 'The Unforgettable Fire' took in 54 US dates and led to the band's unforgettable appearance at Live Aid in July 1985. 'In the middle of Bad he went on a wander trying to pick out some girls to dance with,' remembers Larry. 'It felt like he was gone for ever. We were quite jittery as it was andwhen Bono went missing, a certain panic ensued.'
They didn't realize it at the time but it was a set that would alert a whole new audience to their music but it was another two years before the band released, The Joshua Tree in 1987, the original working title of which was 'The Two Americas'. If the constant touring had seen the US hypnotise U2, America was about to return the compliment - the...