U2 Biography
The following biography
is from
Wikipedia.org
“The
Free Encyclopedia.”
U2 is an Irish rock band featuring
Bono (Paul David Hewson) on vocals and guitar, The Edge (David Howell Evans) on
guitar and pianos, vocals, and bass, Adam Clayton on bass and guitar, and Larry
Mullen on drums.
U2 has been one of the most popular
rock bands in the world since the 1980s. The band is also very politically
active in human rights causes.
* * * *
History
Formation and breakthrough (1976 – 1980)
The band was formed in Dublin in
October 1976. 14-year-old Larry Mullen, Jr. posted a note on his secondary
school bulletin board seeking musicians for a new band. The response that
followed that note resulted in a 5-piece band, known at the time as feedback,
with Mullen on drums, Adam Clayton on bass guitar, Paul Hewson (Bono) on vocals,
Dave Evans and his brother Dik on guitar.
Hewson was nicknamed Bono Vox
(meaning 'beautiful voice'), after a hearing aid company's advertising sign on
the corner of Dame Street and South Great Georges Street in Dublin's city
centre. The sign is still in place today. The Edge got his name from Bono who
thought it was an accurate description of his head. (Another theory on Edge's
nickname is that he is called after a hardware shop in Fairview, Dublin, outside
of which he used to catch the bus home.)
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 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."1
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. Although, in an interview with Larry King, Bono is quoted as saying "I
don't actually like the name U2", "I honestly never thought of it as 'you too'".
Dik Evans announced his departure
in March 1978. The Hype performed a farewell show for him 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 the
foreign audiences and critics.
U2 made its first appearance on US
television on the The Tomorrow Show hosted by Tom Snyder. It aired on June 4,
1981. They performed I Will Follow, and Twilight, along with an interview.
Boy and October (1980 – 1981)
Island Records signed the band in
March of 1980. U2 released Boy the following October. That album's release was
followed by U2's first tour outside the U.K. The band's second album, October,
was released in 1981. Fans and music critics quickly made note of the band's
spiritual lyrics. Bono, the Edge and Larry were committed Christians and made
little effort to hide that fact. The three band members joined a religious group
in Dublin called "Shalom", which led all three to question the relationship
between the Christian faith and the rock and roll lifestyle. After nearly
throwing in the towel on U2, they decided it was possible to reconcile the two
by continuing to make music without compromising their personal beliefs.
War (1983)
In 1983, U2 returned with
apparently a newfound sense of direction and the release of their third album,
War. The album included the song "Sunday Bloody Sunday", which dealt with the
situation in Northern Ireland. The song starts off by expressing the anger felt
in Ireland over Bloody Sunday incident of 1972, but in successive stanzas moves
through different imagery that disown that anger and place the song in a
religious context, using imagery from Matthew 10:35 ("mother's children;
brothers, sisters torn apart") , and a twist on 2 Corinthians 15:32 ("we eat and
drink while tomorrow they die") before finishing off with a call for Christians
to stop fighting each other and "claim the victory Jesus won, on a sunday bloody
sunday". The ability to use such a range of images, taking a song initially
about sectarian anger, and turn it into a call for Christians to unite and claim
the victory over death and evil that Christ achieved in the ressurrection,
showed the depth of the band's songwriting ability. Though not regarded
musically as one of the best U2 songs (they had yet to hit the musical heights
that became their trademark later), it is generally regarded as one of the most
fascinating examples of their linguistic abilities. When some Irish-Americans
tried to misrepresent the song as a rallying call for the Provisional IRA Bono
responded with what became one of his most recognizable phrases in concerts,
notably the performance on the live EP Under a Blood Red Sky - "this song is not
a rebel song. This song is Sunday Bloody Sunday." Furthermore, in Rattle and
Hum, during the perfomance of the song, Bono bluntly denounced the violence in
Ireland and the Irish expatriates who ignorantly supported and glorified it.
The album's first single, "New
Year's Day", was U2's first international hit single, reaching the #10 position
on the U.K. charts and nearly cracking the Top 50 on the U.S. charts. MTV put
the "New Year's Day" video into heavy rotation, which helped introduce U2 to the
American audience. For the first time, the band began performing to sold-out
concerts in mainland Europe and the U.S. The band recorded the Under a Blood Red
Sky EP on this tour and a live video was also released.
The Unforgettable Fire and Live Aid (1984 – 1986)
The band began their fourth studio
album with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois producing. The experimental The
Unforgettable Fire (named after a series of paintings made by survivors of the
atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki) followed in 1984. The album featured the
tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., "Pride (In the Name of Love)". "Pride"
became the first single from the album, cracking the U.K. Top 5 and the U.S Top
50. The album represented a turning point in the band's career, as Bono's lyrics
became more complex, subtle and experimental, the Edge's guitar explored new
sonic landscapes, and the rhythm section got looser and funkier. However, the
material, although less overt, was no less political, with "MLK" also honoring
the civil rights leader, "Indian Summer Sky" a social commentary on the
prison-like atmosphere of city living in a world of natural forces, and the
album title itself inspired by the title of a photo exhibit featuring images of
the aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on display at the Chicago
Peace Museum in the mid-80's (Bono would later contribute a poem entitled
"Dreams in Box" to the museum's archives). A tour to support the new album
followed.
Rolling Stone magazine called U2
the "Band of the 80s", saying that "for a growing number of rock-and-roll fans,
U2 has become the band that matters most, maybe even the only band that
matters."
The Live Aid concert for Ethiopian
famine relief in July 1985 was seen by more than a billion people worldwide. As
Queen was the main artist, U2 was not originally expected to be one of the main
draws for the event, but the band provided the show with one of its most
memorable moments, a relentless 13-minute version of "Bad" in which Bono left
the stage and walked down into the Wembley Stadium crowd to dance with a fan. U2
went on to a headlining spot on 1986's "Conspiracy of Hope" tour for Amnesty
International. This 6-show tour across the U.S. performed to sold-out arenas and
stadiums, and helped Amnesty International triple its membership in the process.
The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum (1987 – 1988)
In 1987, U2 released The Joshua
Tree. The album debuted at #1 in the U.K., and quickly reached #1 in the U.S.
The singles "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking
For" quickly went to #1 in the U.S. U2 was the fourth rock band to be featured
on the cover of Time Magazine (The previous three had been The Beatles, The
Band, and The Who), declaring that U2 was "Rock's Hottest Ticket". The Joshua
Tree tour sold out stadiums around the world.
The band began to film and record
various shows from the tour for the documentary and album Rattle and Hum in 1988
and released on video in 1989. That album became a tribute to American music,
when the band recorded at the legendary Sun Studios in Memphis, performed with
Bob Dylan and B.B. King, and sang about blues great Billie Holiday. The band
also covered The Beatles song Helter Skelter, declaring "This is a song Charles
Manson stole from The Beatles, well we're stealin' it back."
Live footage from Joshua Tree Tour
concerts at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, AZ and McNichols Arena in Denver, CO
featured prominently in the film. The McNichols footage, shot in black and
white, included performances from the back catalog while color material from Sun
Devil mostly comprised (then) current material. Two shows were filmed in Tempe.
To ensure a full stadium, tickets were discounted to $5.00 a piece.
Despite a positive reception from
fans, Rattle and Hum received mixed-to-negative reviews from both film and music
critics,
Achtung Baby, Zoo TV and Zooropa (1991 – 1994)
After taking some time off, the
band met in Berlin in late 1990 to begin work on their next studio album, again
with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois producing. The original sessions did not go
well, but following the inspirational completion of the hit song 'One,' the band
eventually emerged from the studio with renewed energy and a new album under its
belt. In November of 1991, U2 released the heavily experimental and distorted
Achtung Baby. The album was enthusiastically received by fans and critics alike,
with Rolling Stone magazine declaring that U2 had "proven that the same penchant
for epic musical and verbal gestures that leads many artists to self-parody can,
in more inspired hands, fuel the unforgettable fire that defines great rock &
roll."
In early 1992, U2 began its first
American tour in more than four years. The multimedia event known as the "Zoo
TV" tour masterfully confused audiences with hundreds of video screens,
upside-down flying Trabant cars, mock transmission towers, satellite TV links,
subliminal text messages, and over-the-top stage characters such as "The Fly",
"Mirror-ball Man" and "MacPhisto". The tour was among other things U2's attempt
at mocking the excesses of rock and roll, by appearing to embrace greed and
decadence - even at times, away from the stage. Some missed the point of the
tour and thought that U2 had "lost it", and that Bono had become an egomaniac.
Following the same theme, U2 went back into the studio to record their next
release during a break in the "Zoo TV" tour. The album was intended as an
additional EP to Achtung Baby, but soon Zooropa expanded into a full-fledged LP
and released in July of 1993. Zooropa was an even greater departure from the
style of their earlier recordings, incorporating techno style and other
electronic effects.
After some time off, and a few side
projects (the Batman Forever and Mission: Impossible soundtracks), the band
returned under the radar in 1995 with Brian Eno under the moniker "Passengers",
and released an experimental album called Original Soundtracks No. 1. The album,
including a collaboration with Luciano Pavarotti, "Miss Sarajevo", was not
largely noticed in the industry, and received little attention from the critics
and public alike.
Pop and Popmart (1996 – 1998)
In early 1996, U2 began work on
their next record. The recording of this album was fraught with difficulty. U2
were once again attempting to change their musical direction, this time the band
were experimenting with heavy post production of their music, utilizing tape
loops, programming and sampling. This gave the album a techno/disco feel. Pop
was released in March of 1997. The album debuted at #1 in 28 countries, and
earned U2 mainly positive reviews. Rolling Stone Magazine even went so far a
claiming U2 had "defied the odds and made some of the greatest music of their
lives". However, audiences and fans felt that the music industry had exceeded
the limits of tolerance in promoting Pop, and the album was seen as something of
a disappointment by many.
One of the main problems the band
had when the recording the album was the time constraint placed upon them by the
impending "Popmart World Tour". The band has admitted they were hurried into
completing the album and say that a number of tracks on the album were not
finished as well they would have liked. It is not surprising that all the tracks
from the Pop album to feature on U2's second greatest hits album The Best of
1990-2000, Gone, Discothèque, and Staring At The Sun, were all remixed for
inclusion on that album.
With the "Popmart Tour", U2, once
again continued the "Zoo TV" theme of decadence. The show hit the road in April,
1997, the set included a 100-foot tall golden yellow arch, a large 150 foot long
video screen, and a 35 foot tall mirrorball lemon. It was to be U2s most
colourful show to date. The "Popmart tour" was the second-highest grossing tour
of 1997 (behind the Rolling Stone's Bridges to Babylon Tour) with revenues of
just under $80 million, but it cost more than $100 million to produce.
The band played a brief concert in
Belfast in May of 1998, three days before the public voted in favour of the
Northern Ireland Peace Accord. Also that year, U2 performed on an Irish TV
fundraiser for victims of the Omagh, Northern Ireland bombing which killed 28
and injured hundreds more earlier in the year. In late 1998, U2 released its
first greatest hits compilation, The Best of 1980-1990.
All That You Can't Leave Behind and Elevation (2000 – 2001)
U2 went back into the studio in
early 1999, yet again with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois producing. After the
overwhelming extravagance of the "PopMart" tour, critics and music industry
insiders felt that U2 was trying to return to the days of The Joshua Tree in
order to keep its audience of loyal fans. During these sessions, the band
collaborated with author Salman Rushdie, who wrote the lyrics to a song called
"The Ground Beneath Her Feet", based on his book of the same name. That song,
and others, eventually appeared on the soundtrack to The Million Dollar Hotel, a
movie based on a story written by Bono.
All That You Can't Leave Behind,
released in late October, was received widely as U2's return to grace, and was
considered by many to be U2's "third masterpiece" (after Achtung Baby and The
Joshua Tree, according to Rolling Stone). It debuted at No. 1 in 22 countries
and spawned a world-wide hit single, "Beautiful Day", which also earned three
Grammy Awards. U2 followed that release with a major tour in the spring of 2001.
The Elevation tour saw the band performing in a scaled down setting, on a heart
shaped stage. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 nearly led U2 to
cancel the tour, but they decided to continue, starting the second American leg
of the tour at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, home of the
"Fighting Irish". The tour was the top concert draw in North America, where the
band's 80 shows (out of 113 worldwide) grossed $110 million, the second-highest
total behind The Rolling Stones' "Voodoo Lounge Tour" in 1994. Following such an
accomplished album, and a hugely successful tour, many fans felt that U2 had
been successful in "re-applying for the job of the biggest band in the world",
an application Bono had made a year earlier.
After the Elevation tour ended in
late 2001, the culmination of U2's resurrection came when the band performed a
spectacular three-song set in New Orleans, Louisiana during halftime of Super
Bowl XXXVI. The undisputed highlight of the show was an emotional performance of
"Where the Streets Have No Name" in which the names of the victims of the
September 11, 2001 attacks, projected onto a pair of backdrops, floated up
towards the sky behind the band. At the end of the performance, Bono opened his
jacket to reveal an American flag printed on the lining. That image would appear
on numerous magazine covers and newspapers. A few months later, All That You
Can't Leave Behind picked up four more Grammy Awards.
Bono continued his campaigns for
debt and HIV/AIDS relief throughout the summer of 2002. In late 2002, U2
released part two of its greatest hits collection, The Best of 1990-2000. Dance
artists LMC sampled "With or Without You" for their track "Take Me To The Clouds
Above" which also features lyrics from "How Will I Know" by Whitney Houston. All
four members of U2 had to clear the track, which was released under the title of
LMC vs U2. Adam Clayton said of the track: "It's a good beat and you can dance
to it. I especially like the bassline." The track went to the top of the UK
singles charts in February 2004 and also went top 5 in Ireland and top ten in
Australia.
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and Vertigo (2004 – 2005)
A rough-cut of the band's follow-up
album was stolen in Nice, France, in July 2004 [1]. Shortly thereafter, Bono
stated that, should the album appear on P2P networks, it would be released
immediately via iTunes and be in stores within a month. No such pre-release of
the album occurred, however, and the first single from the album, titled
"Vertigo", was released for airplay on September 24, 2004. The song received
extensive airplay in the first week after its release and debuted at #18 on
Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart at #46 on the Billboard Hot 100, at #1 on
the UK Singles Chart, and #5 on the Australian ARIAnet singles chart. The album,
titled How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, was released on November 22 in much of
the world and November 23 in the United States. The album debuted at #1 in 32
countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the
band's native Ireland. It sold 840,000 units in the United States in its first
week. This was a record for the band, nearly doubling the first-week sales of
All That You Can't Leave Behind in the USA.
U2 promoted How to Dismantle an
Atomic Bomb heavily. They made appearances on TV shows like CD:UK and The
Jonathan Ross Show in Britain and Saturday Night Live in America. In another
first, the band allowed the single "Vertigo" to be used in a widely-aired iTunes
television commercial; though the band did not receive any royalties for the use
of the song, due to the commercial the song was well known even before the
release of the album. In a further partnership with Apple Computer, the band
licensed a special version of the iPod music player with a U2 design (black
faceplate with red click wheel, echoing the color scheme for the new album) and
facsimilies of the bandmembers' signatures etched on the back plate. The band
made a video for the second North American single, "All Because Of You," while
riding on a flatbed truck through the streets of Manhattan on November 22. They
then played a free concert at a Brooklyn park, attracting over 3,000 fans who
had learned of the show on various U2 fan websites.
In April 2004, Rolling Stone
magazine placed U2 in its fifty "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.
In Europe, the next single released
from the album - "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" - once again featured
a Bono/Pavarotti performance on the B-side. The performance is a Jacknife Lee
remix of "Ave Maria" sung by Bono with Luciano Pavarotti.The B-Side of the
single also includes a remix of the hit "Vertigo" and a Jacknife Lee remix of
"Fast Cars." Fast Cars is an album track available only on the UK and Japan
versions and American deluxe editions of Atomic Bomb. The single will be
available on 2 CD formats and a DVD single. The DVD carries a video of an
exclusive live performance of "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" from the
band's Dublin studio, and a Trent Reznor remix of "Vertigo."
The first leg of the Vertigo Tour
kicked off in the United States, with the band performing 26 sold-out shows. The
first leg started of 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 to adoring fans. The band will return to the
United States in the fall and will finish up December 19, in Portland, Oregon.
There are currently rumors of a United States stadium tour in the summer of
2006.
U2 have smashed Irish box office
records with ticket sales for their 2005 Croke Park, Dublin concerts, after more
than 150,000 were sold within 50 minutes. In Belgium and in Austria the tickets
were sold within 60 minutes.
U2's 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.
Other projects
Beside their band-project, U2 and
its members also worked with other musicians, such as the Irish band Clannad
with which Bono recorded the song "In A Lifetime." Together with The Edge, Bono
wrote the song "GoldenEye" for the James Bond movie of the same name, which was
performed by Tina Turner. They 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 remix of the title track of the movie Mission:
Impossible in 1996.
While working under the pseudonym
"Passengers," U2 gave producer Brian Eno quite a bit more 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. Two of the tracks, Miss Sarajevo and Your Blue Room, even made it
to their best of album for 1990-2000.
U2 also worked together with other
artists, like 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 bands Zoo TV Tour in
the early 1990's.
Also many other musicians were
influenced by the work of U2 - there are several cover versions of U2 songs by
bands like Pet Shop Boys and The Chimes and musicians like Mica Paris and Johnny
Cash. U2 also had a big influence on artists of various kinds like the Austrian
painter Kave Atefie who dedicated successfully two 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 he 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.
* * * *
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