Biography

Formation and breakthrough (1976 – 1980) The band was formed in Dublin on Saturday, September 25, 1976. Fourteen-year-old Larry Mullen, Jr. posted a notice on his secondary school bulletin board (Mount Temple Comprehensive School) seeking musicians for a new band. The response that followed that note resulted in seven boys attending the initial practice in Larry's kitchen. Known for about a day as "The Larry Mullen Band," Larry's group featured Mullen on drums, Adam Clayton on bass guitar, Paul Hewson (Bono) on vocals, Dave Evans (The Edge) on guitar, his brother Dik Evans on guitar, and Mullen's friend Ivan McCormick on guitar. Soon after, the group settled on the name Feedback. Although known as an Irish band, two members —The Edge and Adam Clayton— are actually British by birth. McCormick was out of the core group within a few weeks.

Hewson was nicknamed Bono Vox (allegedly meaning 'good voice' in Latin, though a more accurate translation would in fact be vox bona), after a hearing aid company's advertising sign on the corner of Dame Street and South Great Georges Street in Dublin's city centre (a different theory says he was nicknamed after a hearing aid shop by his friend Gavin Friday because he sang so loudly he seemed to be singing for the deaf). The sign has since been changed to read "Bonavox." The Edge got his name from Bono, who thought he was always on the edge of things, assessing what was going on. Bono also thought that it was an accurate description of his head, as it had a straight edge. There are also other theories on the origins of The Edge's nickname: 1. He is named after a hardware shop in Fairview, Dublin, outside of which he used to catch the bus home. 2. The name is due to the crispness of his playing, the "edges" it has. 3. Bono once claimed on Irish radio that the name was derived from the shape Edge made when playing guitar. 4. He lived on the 'edge' of their imaginary world called 'Lypton Village'. After 18 months of rehearsals, Feedback changed their name to The Hype. The band performed with their new name at a talent show in Limerick, Ireland on 17 March 1978. One of the judges for the show happened to be CBS Records' Jackie Hayden; they won the contest, earning a £500 prize. Hayden was impressed enough with the band that he gave them studio time to record their first demo.

The Dublin punk rock guru Steve Averill (better known as Steve Rapid of the The Radiators From Space) suggested that "The Hype stinks, at least as a name." Someone offered "What about U2? It's the name of a spyplane and a submarine, and it's got an endearing inclusivity about it." Some suggest the meaning of the name "U2" is based on their philosophy. They believe that the audience is part of their music and the concert and that "you too" (U2) are participating in the music. However, in an interview with Larry King, Bono is quoted as saying "I don't actually like the name U2," and "I honestly never thought of it as 'you too'." Others feel that U2 derived its name from the Irish Unemployment form.

Dik Evans announced his departure in March 1978. Ivan McCormick had already been dismissed by Adam Clayton with the excuse that he was too young to play at the bars in which U2 was booked. The Hype performed a farewell show for Dik at the Community Centre in Howth. Dik walked offstage halfway through the set and later joined the Virgin Prunes, a fellow Dublin band. In May, Paul McGuinness became U2's manager. Now a four-piece with a local fan base in place, U2 released their first single in September of 1979, U2-3. It topped the Irish charts. In December of that year, U2 travelled to London for its first shows outside of Ireland, but failed to get much attention from foreign audiences and critics. U2 made their first appearance on US television on The Tomorrow Show hosted by Tom Snyder. It aired on June 4, 1981. They performed "I Will Follow" and "Twilight" and engaged in an interview. In April 2004, Rolling Stone magazine placed U2 in its 50 "greatest rock & roll artists of all time". On March 14, 2005, U2 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility. They were inducted by their good friend Bruce Springsteen.

The first leg of the Vertigo Tour began in the United States, with the band performing 26 sold-out shows. The first leg started off in March in San Diego, California and finished in May in Boston, Massachusetts. The band performed well-known hits, songs from the current album, and early rarities. The second leg was a European stadium tour, which started on June 10 in Brussels and finished on August 14 in Lisbon. They played in a number of venues including Paris, Amsterdam, London, Dublin, Rome and Oslo. The band then returned to the United States and finished up on December 19 in Portland, Oregon. Their featured stop in Chicago, Illinois was filmed over two nights in May, 2005 for the live DVD U2 - Vertigo 2005 // Live From Chicago. The DVD marks their third live film since their 2001 Elevation Tour. U2 have smashed Irish box office records with ticket sales for their 2005 Croke Park, Dublin concerts, after more than 240,000 tickets were sold in record time. In Belgium, France and Austria the tickets were sold within 60 minutes.

The third single from the album, "City of Blinding Lights", entered the UK singles chart at #2 on June 12. They performed alongside Coldplay, Paul McCartney, and Pink Floyd, among others, in the Live 8 concert in London on July 2nd, 2005. The Vertigo Tour European leg climaxed at the Estádio José Alvalade XXI in Lisbon on August 15 after the band received the country's most prestigious honour, the Order of Liberty from Portugal's President Jorge Sampaio regarding the band's hugely influential work for action in Africa and across the world concerning extreme poverty. Commenting on the award, which had never previously been awarded to a foreign music group, Bono said, "It is of course for the four of us a great, great honour... ... if we really believed that an African life was equal to a European life we would not stand by with watering cans while an entire continent was bursting into flames."

Before presenting the award, the President said: "Over the last 25 years you have shown that it is possible to combine the pleasure of artistic creation with civic and humanitarian intervention to help build a better world." Action against poverty has been a major feature point of the Vertigo 05 shows, as Bono has used the song "One" as an opportunity to plead with fans in attendance to join the ONE Campaign in the fight against poverty. On November 9, U2 announced that the Vertigo tour will continue into 2006, and the band will appear in Mexico, South America, New Zealand, Australia and Japan. The leg will finish in Hawaii on April 8. Shows in Sydney, Australia at the Telstra Stadium sold out in just an hour and over the course of that day, the Melbourne and New Zealand shows also sold out.

On December 8, U2 was awarded with 5 Grammy nominations, including 'Album of the Year', and 'Song of the Year' for "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own." On December 20, Mary J. Blige released her ninth studio album "The Breakthrough". U2 was featured on the album as part of Blige's remake of U2's "One". On December 18, 2005, Time magazine awarded its prestigious "Person of the Year" honor to Bono as well as philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates.

Next album recordings (2006 – 2007)

Current event marker This article or section contains information about scheduled or expected future album(s). It is likely to contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the album release approaches and more information becomes available. Album

In mid-2005, a source (Anti-Music) reported that U2 have plans for a new album and are keen to record more. According to Bono there are 24 songs that came out of sessions, of which the band took 11 for their subsequent record. The Vertigo tour kicked off in San Diego on 28 March and is expected to go well into 2006, so there aren't current plans to go into the studio to record. Most likely a new record will surface in 2007, but 2006 cannot be ruled out entirely. In the January 2006 edition of Q magazine, Bono said that the band were working on a new album for 2006. In 1993, during a break in the massive Zoo TV Tour, U2 recorded what was to be Zooropa. The album was released only a year and half after their groundbreaking album Achtung Baby. There have also been talks of U2 re-recording their 1997 album, Pop for a tenth anniversary. Considering recent comments from the members of the band, this now seems more likely than them rushing to get the remains of the How to Dismantle... sessions finished. Bono has said that the biggest mistake the band has ever made was letting their manager book the PopMart tour, as it meant they had to rush to finish the Pop album. Thus, they consider Pop at least a partial artistic failure, despite over 7 million in sales. Since this article has been written, U2 has extended the Vertigo tour to take up a great deal of 2006. The Edge has also admitted that he writes songs after every show, but only 1 in 10 of these songs on the road will go anywhere, and has expressed longing to get back into a recording studio.

Other projects

U2 has worked with other collaborators; the individual members have also worked in smaller groups together and with outsiders. Bono recorded the song "In a Lifetime" with the Irish band Clannad. Together with The Edge, Bono wrote the song "GoldenEye" for the James Bond movie of the same name, which was performed by Tina Turner. The pair also wrote the song "She's A Mystery To Me" for Roy Orbison, which was released on his album Mystery Girl, while Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. did a rework of the title track of the movie Mission: Impossible in 1996.

While working under the pseudonym "Passengers," U2 gave producer Brian Eno creative control and cranked out the album Original Soundtracks No. 1. The work is a compilation of film music for nonexistent movies, and a bit of a step back from the usual style of the band, thus the pseudonym "Passengers". Two of the tracks, "Miss Sarajevo" (which got world airplay after its live duet between Bono and Pavarotti was included in the album Pavarotti And Friends) and "Your Blue Room" (a fan favorite, including a vocal track by the band's bassist, Adam Clayton), even made it to their best-of album for 1990-2000. U2 also worked together with other artists, including the U.S. author William S. Burroughs, who had a guest appearance in their video of "Last Night on Earth" shortly before he died. His poem "A Thanksgiving Prayer" was used as video footage during the band's Zoo TV Tour.

Many musicians have been influenced by the work of U2. There are several cover versions of U2 songs by Pet Shop Boys, Pearl Jam, Aslan, and The Chimes and musicians such as Cassandra Wilson, Mica Paris and Johnny Cash. U2 has enjoyed reciprocal influential relationships with artists including REM and Anton Corbijn, as well as exerting influences on others, including the Austrian painter Kave Atefie who dedicated two successful art series ("Like a promise in the year of election" and "Outside it's America") to the work of the Irish band. Since 1982, Anton Corbijn has been photographing U2. He "invented" U2’s public image and is still shaping it. Since their first encounter in February 1982 in New Orleans to their April 2004 Lisbon shooting for "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb", their longstanding friendship, mutual inspiration, and shared experience of rock history is part of the history of photography

Content Courtesy of Wikipedia