Hey Everyone! See when you all first saw U2........

[mad1]

SERIOUSLY!



Whenever you first saw/laid eyes on all four Bunny-Boys for the very first time......whether it was while they played instruments larger than themselves, or during Josh Tree time when Bono wore that gypsyshsishshish hat, only missing was a caravan and horse, or during Zoo TV, when leather was given a whole new meanin with sweat on it, or during PoP, when Bono decided to show the nation his tonsils, or during Elevation, when Larry gave a whole new meaning to Ladies Bras................when you first saw those guys, without hearing their voices, maybe seein them on T-shirts, or even saw them in a video...........if u saw them WITHOUT KNOWING ANY background on them, knowing where they were from.......etc, did you ever look and tink they were British, or Australian, or German, or American??????? - and not four top totty hot proppy from Eire?

Cause this is the truth, when I first saw U2, it was during JT times, and Im very sure it was a video, for I Still or maybe With Or.......and I truly honestly tauht they were British/ from England..........or rather also Bono looked Australian and American to me....but a whole I tauht they were rebellious 'Sid Vicious' punk-turnin type group.................



Yup!

It was loooooooong time later I discovered they were from Ireland, and when I too realised I lived in Ireland a huge sense of 'pride' swept over me..............I was even like 'YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!'



So, anyone?

[daisybean]

I used to think they were American, cuz I first heard the Joshua Tree and it the theme of the album was so American (to me anyway).

[U2Kitten]

I always knew they were Irish. As soon as I heard of U2, their name has always gone hand in hand with Ireland to me. When Sunday Bloody Sunday came out I knew it was about the strife in Ireland. I knew it from the time I liked them, I guess I read a lot of mags and watched a lot of TV. As I recall there was always quite a lot made of them being Irish back then. They always said it too, and in concerts they would say they were from Dublin. It was announced at Red Rocks and Bono said at Live Aid they were from Dublin. Also I'm the kind of person who is interested in and always wants to know the trivial details some don't care about- hometown, birthday, age, how many brothers and sisters, etc. So if I like somebody I find out. I still have an 80's book on Duran Duran that lists all their favorite colors, foods, shows, etc.

[Bonochick]

First time I remember seeing U2 was when my parents gave me a JT CD on April 1, 1995. I ignored the cover cuz it was blurry and put the CD in my player to see if I'd like it. I loved it, so then I started to read the lyrics in the booklet. Then I got to the "centerfold", and I was like, "Helloooooooooooooooooooooo longer haired man in the white shirt shirt!"

[AM]

I remember seeing the Streets video and having an argument with my brother whether Edge was wearing a hat because he is bold or just because it´s cool.

Now I now it´s actually both, but back then I was ready to kill my brother for saying Edge is getting bold

[HelloAngel]

You know... come to think of it... I don't think I gave it much thought back then. But I suppose I always knew they were Irish.

[elevatedmole]

Funny you say that, Maddie.. I remember very, very distinctly thinking when I watched the Beautiful Day video (it was the first U2 video I saw, really, when I started getting into music but when I was younger I am sure I saw other U2 videos) that they didn't exactly look British, and certainly not American or Australian, but they had a different look to them. I remember thinking,"Jeez, it would just be my luck if the lead singer's name was some lame name like..". I don't remember what name I thought Bono might have -- it started with an A. But I remember really liking Bono from the start Ah, I've rambled.

[BostonAnne]

I just searched for a photo of the first time I saw U2, on TV live from the US Festival 5/30/83. I came up with this very PLEBAish photo...





While the photo is from the same era, I'm not sure it was taken at the US Festival - especially since the thing I most remember is Bono climbing the rigging and waving a white flag!

[JessicaAnn]

When I first "discovered" U2 back in the JT days, I must confess I thought they were American ... until someone told me they were Irish.

[Desire4Bono]

U2 not Irish?? I just knew it all along that they were were Irish. I don't know how it would feel to think U2 were not Irish. U2=Irish. Interesting question Maddie, I never thought in their own country they wouldn't be so bragged on that everyone knew?

[Mirrorball Girl]

Interesting question.

The first time I actually laid eyes on U2 was probably a long time ago. I have older sisters who played music a lot around the house, so it was probably the early 80s.

The first time I remember seeing a video and knowing it was a U2 video, actually associating it with the band, was "Numb."

I knew U2 had a lead singer named Bono ... so naturally, for quite awhile, I thought Edge was Bono.

[MissVelvetDress_75]

the first time i ever saw them was on MTV when I was little girl. It was the video for Gloria.

[wertsie]

*shrug* Gosh, I can't even REMEMBER the first time I saw them...I know it had to have been during the JT days. It's weird, but I feel like they've always been part of my life in some respect.

[annalivia]

The first time I saw them was in the Pride video on MTV. I thought "Wow, this video looks different" and then "The music sounds interesting". I didn't think about where they were from. I was just interested because everything seemed so "different" and "special" to me.

It didn't take me long to find out that they were Irish which explained everything to me. I was like "O yeah, of course I HAVE TO like them, they're Irish..." because at that time I listened to a lot of Irish stuff (Lizzy, Rats, Gallagher...)

anna

[Bono's shades]

I first saw U2 in the "With or Without You" video. I remember watching that for the first time just a few weeks after I heard the song on the radio for the first time (it was the first song of theirs I ever heard - the radio stations where I'm from didn't play any of their songs until JT came out, and I had never seen any of their pre-JT videos because my parents didn't get cable TV until late in my senior year in high school - they probably thought MTV would corrupt me, LOL!)

I'm pretty sure I knew they were Irish by the time I saw the WOWY video. I think the DJ at the radio station mentioned it, or I heard it somewhere else. I seem to remember people making quite a big deal out of the fact they are from Ireland, probably because there haven't been many rock bands from there.

[Hewson]

Originally posted by MissVelvetDress_75
the first time i ever saw them was on MTV when I was little girl. It was the video for Gloria.

Me too...except for the little girl part.
I had seen pictures of them before that, but that was the first video I saw of them. But I knew they were Irish before seeing it.

[verte76]

Conspiracy of Hope tour, 1986. They were playing with Sting, Peter Gabriel, and some others. It was absurdly easy to get a ticket to the show in Atlanta. We went to the Omni on a bus (it's a three-hour drive between Birmingham, Alabama, where I'm from, and Atlanta). It was amazing even though they didn't play a long set due to the other performers in the line-up. I've been a fan since 1983, then I made it to that show, then my first "proper" U2 concert was the JT tour, December 1987. It was amazing. It was cold as heck, but I was sweating like heck when I got out of the show. My mother had gone to Atlanta with me but saw a movie while I saw the show. She was shocked at how sweaty I was. I said "no one sits down at a U2 concert" and it's true! "Elevation" was the best tour of theirs, IMHO. The JT shows were great, ZooTV was great, I missed PopMart due to a family deal and then Elevation topped them all. It was absolutely transcendent.

[u2elevatejo]

Well, thinking about it, my first U2 experience was being totally mesmerised by the cover artwork of Actung Baby that my parents had just bought. I didn't hear or see the band properly until I watched the repeat of Live Aid - I think my Dad had told me they were Irish when I was looking at the album cover so I knew already.



Jo

[Danospano]

First time: ummm....I'd say shamelessly, the "Numb" video on MTV. That's right, I'm 22 and first time I even noticed them was when I was 13 or 14. I thought Edge was the the lead singer, I thought the song was crap, and I thought the video was boring. I thought they were American, but I didn't know otherwise.

The first time I heard a U2 song and thought, "These guys are amazing!" was when I heard "With or Without You" on a "Billboard Hits of 1987" cd in 1995. Bono's voice was like nothing....i mean NOTHING I'd ever heard before. One of the reasons for my love of his voice was because it didn't try to be something it wasn't. It was low and masculine...something that I hated about my own singing voice. I grew up thinking that successful male vocalists had to have a high singing voice. Bono was like Neil Diamond. A real manly voice. Of course, the more I learned about U2, the more I learned that Bono's voice was far more than a smooth, low hum, and an occasional falsetto at the climax.

[verte76]

The first U2 song I ever heard on the radio was "I Will Follow" in late 1981. You're not going to believe this. It had such an exotic sound to me--I'm from a very conservative part of the U.S. and we were getting mostly trashy pablum on the stupid radio stations. I actually thought they were from Eastern Europe somewhere, like Romania or the Ukraine, but no, that was impossible because those countries were dictatorships and the Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. Rock 'n roll was illegal in those places in those days. Then I read in the press that they were from Ireland and that settled the question. I knew they weren't American, Canadian, British or Australian. They just didn't sound like it. Don't ask me why I thought all of this stuff...egads, I can't believe that was 20 years ago!
Now I'll smile for Candid Camera. [