Niamh_Saoirse
Rock n' Roll Doggie FOB
Hoover's Online - May 11,2003
Birthday boy Bono didn't need a party
WHEN Paul Hewson was born on May 10, 1960, his working class parents Iris and Bobby had little idea that their son was going to turn out to be one of the biggest rock stars that Ireland ever produced.
Bobby - a post office worker and Iris, a housewife, moved from Stillorgan to 10 Cedar-wood Road in a new estate called Ballymun when Paul was still in nappies.
Elder brother Norman explained: " My mother wanted to live close to her sisters and the new location wasn't a concern to my father, since he was workingin the city centre. "It was a semi- detached, three- bedroom house with a garage. "Paul and I had a a bedroom each. I was older so I got the bigger room. There are seven years between us, so I was still pushing him around in a pram.
"The whole place was one huge playground back then - the whole estate was under construction. We used to build our own houses from bricks lying around the sites."
But the death of Iris in 1973 was to prove a cruel blow to Paul - the Hewsons found it tough living in a house without a female influence.
Norman said: "I was a bully and I used to fight with my brother all the time.
"We went through a particularly difficult time when our mother died.
"There was just Dad and us two boys. I was 21 and Paul was 14 - and trying to maintain standards in the house was hard.
"We used to fight about chores all the time and I gave him a hard time."
But one day there was a turning point in their relationship which taught the young Norman a valuable lesson: "One day when I was picking on him, he threw me over his shoulder and that was the end of it.
"I grew to respect him then!"
Norman also influenced his younger brother's musical tastes: "He listened to my Rory Gallagher and Led Zeppelin albums too, and my record collection definitely influenced him."
But there were no bigger influences than his group of close friends - pals from Ballymun who ended up grouping together to form two successful bands and a kind of outsiders clique called the Lypton Village crew.
As part of the Lypton Village ideal, the pals created new names for each other - Fionan Harvey became Gavin Friday, Dave Evans became The Edge, Derek Rowan became Guggi, and Paul Hewson became Bono Vox, a name stolen form a shop that sold hearing aids in Dublin.
Fresh-faced drummer Larry Mullen had the idea of forming a band and it was his notice on the school message board which attracted the others. While Larry, Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton named their band U2, the others formed The Virgin Prunes and were initially the more successful.
Bono said: "The punk explosion happened in London in '76, we were 16 and I suppose our answer to it was U2 and Gavin Friday's answer was The Virgin Prunes. Though we were very very different.
"I mean, people joked about it - it was like having God and the Devil hanging around with each other, because their music was so full of fire and brimstone and ours was sort of reaching for the sky.
"And I remember that Gavin dressed in a very vivid way and he paid for it around where we grew up and received his fair share of kickings."
But there was no overnight success for anyone growing up in the depressed Dublin of the late 70s and early 80s.
Guggi explained: "U2 had some tough times and the Virgin Prunes had some tough times but their encouragement kept me going and I like think that I did the same for them.
"I've known Bono since I was four or five years old and he wasn't always a multi-millionaire. There was lean times for us all then.
"I can remember, naming no names, that there was a period when certain members of our circle of friends would go into McDonalds and eat the chips off the tables that people had left behind.
"We've always been very supportive of each other and we were all mates before any of us had money."
IN 1979 U2 released their first single on Warner Records - an EP called U2-3 where the A-Side single was a taste of what was to come from the talented lyricist Bono.
He told Hot Press in 1979: "Out of Control is about waking up on your eighteenth birthday and realising that you're 18 years old and that the two most important decisions in your life have nothing to do with you - being born and dying."
The single was lauded in the Irish music Press and led to the band playing a few gigs in London with varying success.
In 1980 the band performed Stories For Boys on The Late Late Show with Bono's unusual vocal style leaving less than an impression on his elder brother.
Norman said: "I remember driving him to U2's very first Late Late Show, with Adam Clayton's mother, and thinking they were appalling.
"At that time they were desperate, but like anybody else they improved with practice."
In March 1980, the first seeds of international success were sown when U2 signed a major record deal with Island Records. The deal was for four album releases all across the world apart from Ireland where Warners still had control of the band.
Boy, U2's debut album, was released in October of the same year and managed a respectable number 52 in the British charts.
It was no surprise. The album centres round the adolescent themes of growing up, love and faith.
Boy was also very autobiograph-ical for Bono in that the lyrics on the album reflected a disturbing teenage struggle to come to terms with loss.
For a relatively unknown Irish band, U2 were doing well - their first gig in America was a resounding success and Boy peaked in the US album charts at number 62.
In the summer of 1981, U2 played Slane Castle as support to Thin Lizzy, beginning the band's relationship with the Co Meath stately home and its owner Lord Henry Mountcharles.
With the industry wheels turning, U2 had their nose to the grindstone and a second album October was released in October 1981.
Bono remembers the time as a tough one: "I was part of it. It's a huge record. I couldn't cope with it.
"I remember the pressures it was made under. I remember writing lyrics on the microphone and at pounds 50 an hour that's quite a pressure."
U2 were still a far cry from being the biggest band in the world and October managed only a top 20 placing in the UK album charts.
But 1983 would change everything for Paul Hewson - the success and security in a family setting that he craved was just around the corner.
Birthday boy Bono didn't need a party
WHEN Paul Hewson was born on May 10, 1960, his working class parents Iris and Bobby had little idea that their son was going to turn out to be one of the biggest rock stars that Ireland ever produced.
Bobby - a post office worker and Iris, a housewife, moved from Stillorgan to 10 Cedar-wood Road in a new estate called Ballymun when Paul was still in nappies.
Elder brother Norman explained: " My mother wanted to live close to her sisters and the new location wasn't a concern to my father, since he was workingin the city centre. "It was a semi- detached, three- bedroom house with a garage. "Paul and I had a a bedroom each. I was older so I got the bigger room. There are seven years between us, so I was still pushing him around in a pram.
"The whole place was one huge playground back then - the whole estate was under construction. We used to build our own houses from bricks lying around the sites."
But the death of Iris in 1973 was to prove a cruel blow to Paul - the Hewsons found it tough living in a house without a female influence.
Norman said: "I was a bully and I used to fight with my brother all the time.
"We went through a particularly difficult time when our mother died.
"There was just Dad and us two boys. I was 21 and Paul was 14 - and trying to maintain standards in the house was hard.
"We used to fight about chores all the time and I gave him a hard time."
But one day there was a turning point in their relationship which taught the young Norman a valuable lesson: "One day when I was picking on him, he threw me over his shoulder and that was the end of it.
"I grew to respect him then!"
Norman also influenced his younger brother's musical tastes: "He listened to my Rory Gallagher and Led Zeppelin albums too, and my record collection definitely influenced him."
But there were no bigger influences than his group of close friends - pals from Ballymun who ended up grouping together to form two successful bands and a kind of outsiders clique called the Lypton Village crew.
As part of the Lypton Village ideal, the pals created new names for each other - Fionan Harvey became Gavin Friday, Dave Evans became The Edge, Derek Rowan became Guggi, and Paul Hewson became Bono Vox, a name stolen form a shop that sold hearing aids in Dublin.
Fresh-faced drummer Larry Mullen had the idea of forming a band and it was his notice on the school message board which attracted the others. While Larry, Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton named their band U2, the others formed The Virgin Prunes and were initially the more successful.
Bono said: "The punk explosion happened in London in '76, we were 16 and I suppose our answer to it was U2 and Gavin Friday's answer was The Virgin Prunes. Though we were very very different.
"I mean, people joked about it - it was like having God and the Devil hanging around with each other, because their music was so full of fire and brimstone and ours was sort of reaching for the sky.
"And I remember that Gavin dressed in a very vivid way and he paid for it around where we grew up and received his fair share of kickings."
But there was no overnight success for anyone growing up in the depressed Dublin of the late 70s and early 80s.
Guggi explained: "U2 had some tough times and the Virgin Prunes had some tough times but their encouragement kept me going and I like think that I did the same for them.
"I've known Bono since I was four or five years old and he wasn't always a multi-millionaire. There was lean times for us all then.
"I can remember, naming no names, that there was a period when certain members of our circle of friends would go into McDonalds and eat the chips off the tables that people had left behind.
"We've always been very supportive of each other and we were all mates before any of us had money."
IN 1979 U2 released their first single on Warner Records - an EP called U2-3 where the A-Side single was a taste of what was to come from the talented lyricist Bono.
He told Hot Press in 1979: "Out of Control is about waking up on your eighteenth birthday and realising that you're 18 years old and that the two most important decisions in your life have nothing to do with you - being born and dying."
The single was lauded in the Irish music Press and led to the band playing a few gigs in London with varying success.
In 1980 the band performed Stories For Boys on The Late Late Show with Bono's unusual vocal style leaving less than an impression on his elder brother.
Norman said: "I remember driving him to U2's very first Late Late Show, with Adam Clayton's mother, and thinking they were appalling.
"At that time they were desperate, but like anybody else they improved with practice."
In March 1980, the first seeds of international success were sown when U2 signed a major record deal with Island Records. The deal was for four album releases all across the world apart from Ireland where Warners still had control of the band.
Boy, U2's debut album, was released in October of the same year and managed a respectable number 52 in the British charts.
It was no surprise. The album centres round the adolescent themes of growing up, love and faith.
Boy was also very autobiograph-ical for Bono in that the lyrics on the album reflected a disturbing teenage struggle to come to terms with loss.
For a relatively unknown Irish band, U2 were doing well - their first gig in America was a resounding success and Boy peaked in the US album charts at number 62.
In the summer of 1981, U2 played Slane Castle as support to Thin Lizzy, beginning the band's relationship with the Co Meath stately home and its owner Lord Henry Mountcharles.
With the industry wheels turning, U2 had their nose to the grindstone and a second album October was released in October 1981.
Bono remembers the time as a tough one: "I was part of it. It's a huge record. I couldn't cope with it.
"I remember the pressures it was made under. I remember writing lyrics on the microphone and at pounds 50 an hour that's quite a pressure."
U2 were still a far cry from being the biggest band in the world and October managed only a top 20 placing in the UK album charts.
But 1983 would change everything for Paul Hewson - the success and security in a family setting that he craved was just around the corner.
