It started for me in 1980 with their first hit "I Will Follow" from the album "Boy". At that time I was very into disco and had to get used to U2's Irish rock sound. That adjustment was quick and U2 has been on my list of favourite bands for years. I first saw them perform in the 1990s and the last time was in 2017 during the "Joshua Tree Tour".
U2
U2 consists of Bono (Paul David Hewson), vocals and guitar, The Edge (David Howell Evans) on guitar, piano, bass and sometimes vocals, Adam Clayton on bass and sometimes guitar, and Larry Mullen Jr. on drums. This lineup has remained unchanged from the start, which is exceptional in pop history. Even the band's entourage has largely stayed the same over the years.
U2 began on 25 September 1976 at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin under the name Feedback. Larry Mullen Jr. had put up a note in the school canteen inviting people to join the band. Bono responded, saying he could play guitar and sing, which he later admitted in an interview he could not do. The Edge also responded. Adam Clayton was reportedly asked to join because "he looked so cool, if he joined the band we'd surely become popular". The band initially had five members; besides the eventual U2 lineup, there was Dik Evans (The Edge's brother) on guitar. In early 1978 the band changed its name to The Hype. Around that time Dik Evans left the band. Almost simultaneously, on the advice of Irish singer and advertising man Steve Averill, the band changed its name to U2 (the name of the American spy plane shot down over Russia in 1960, with Gary Powers on board). On 14 October 1980 the band played in the Netherlands for the first time, at the KRO studios in Hilversum. The next day they played at the Melkweg in Amsterdam, then on the 16th at Vera in Groningen. The first tour in the Netherlands ended on 17 October at Gigant in Apeldoorn. The following day U2 played in a small venue in Ukkel for about seventy spectators, each paying 220 Belgian francs.
Sunday Morning Classic: The Joshua Tree
On 26 April 2020, the album "The Joshua Tree" was on our turntable during the "Sunday Morning Classics".
9 March 1987, ‘The Joshua Tree’ by U2 would break all sales records within hours from midnight and be the most played record that night. It proved to be an important album for the band in many ways. At that time it meant ‘all or nothing’ for the young Irish quartet as it was decided during the recording process to radically change direction. The band, by now quite fascinated by American musical tradition, tried, encouraged by producer Daniel Lanois, to give gospel a contemporary character.
For U2 standards, it was a rather unusual style that many fans initially did not like. The result was I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, in which The Edge’s abstract guitar sounds and the help of The New Voices Of Freedom bring the tradition into the present day. The strange guitar sounds of The Edge are also the basis of the success of the single With Or Without You. The guitarist later admitted that the guitar riff was one of his favourite contributions to this album. It was also his simplest. Brian Eno came up with the idea to record in a house rather than a studio. “Not to be distracted by all sorts of technical gimmicks,” was the reasoning.
American literature and poetry have a great influence on Bono’s lyrics. The desert in the southwest is not only an important metaphor but also the setting for the film aspects in the music. Contact with photographer Anton Corbijn was established and he took the band to ‘the tree’ that would be so defining for this album. Two months after the release of ‘The Joshua Tree’, U2 was number one in the album sales charts and graced the cover of Time Magazine.
Source: Wikipedia and Jan Liebregts Photo: Paul Jones and album Joshua Tree
www.u2.com
