Question for all the older people

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fna692002

The Fly
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Sep 30, 2006
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Throughout my time being a u2 fan (got into them in 01), I have heard how they are the Band of the 80's Coolest of the 90's etc...SO I was just wondering, if anyone can give me a first hand account as to what U2 was like in the 80's and 90's in terms of Radio/video/ tv exposer and popularity. I know how well the singles and albums did, but always nice to hear from U2 fans who lived it:wink:
 
My earliest memory is from Live Aid. I had watched it on MTV, and when this band from Ireland came on, I was blown away by the intensity of the lead singer. He just owned the crowd. It was very exciting.

If you haven't seen the performance, you must!
It's on the Live Aid DVD.
 
after Live Aid they were everywhere
then ZooTV blew the world away

and then it got relatively quiet
 
Ya, and check out the Red Rocks performance! You tube it!
Amazing energy he had back then! It was like nothing else back then, and today for that matter!
Also, they were one of the first bands on MTV back then so they played SBS and NYD over and over, that's how I was hooked!
 
oh my Gawd! I'm an older people!! How did that happen???????????

:ohmy:
 
Prior to 1987 and the release of the Joshua Tree, U2 was still refered to as an "underground band" in the United States, despite having soldout multiple arena shows in the USA in various cities. Part of the reason was the lack of radio airplay the band received in those days, relative to what it received after the release of the Joshua Tree. Coverage on MTV may have been better, but U2 were not a regular feature on their weekly top 20 countdowns. Those who would listen to the national radio top 40 countdown on Sunday's were more likely to say You Who? instead yeah, I know who U2 are. Obviously, modern rock fans, college students and other select groups would naturally talk about the band, but your average person in the general public was unlikelly to know who U2 were.

Then, U2 released the Joshua Tree in March of 1987, and With Or With Out You climbed to the top of radio play list all across the USA. MTV would play the video every hour! Remember, this is back when MTV actually played video's all day long. The same happened with "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". Their tour stops were major events and people would travel from hundreds of miles around to see them in concert. Think of that song that always seems to be on the radio when ever you turn the radio on now, and that was "With Or With Out You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" in 1987.

By the summer of 1988, this mass level of exposure was already starting to create backlash among some people. Rattle Hum later that fall just moved that up, but I remember people telling me that Desire was played at their school dances that fall, and everyone would stop what they were doing and clap when the song was over. Very over the top, reverent for a school dance I would say.

Starting in 1990, people got a breather, but by the end of 1991, the machine started up again for Achtung Baby, and the summer of 1992 felt just like the summer of 1987, except this time, everyone had a lot of U2's albums and had read a book or two about the band. So, similar exposure, but now the fan base was much larger and more fanatical.

Through out that late 80s/early 90s period, it was difficult to find someone who really did not like U2. Sure, people got tired of the exposure occasionally, even die hard U2 fans, but most people only had positive things to say about the band.

There was no internet in those days and tie ins with TV programs was not as common. Most of the exposure was through radio and MTV.
 
Val said:
oh my Gawd! I'm an older people!! How did that happen???????????

:ohmy:
Click to expand...

that is exactly what I was thinking, lol!

My first memory of U2 is seeing the video for New Years Day on MTV. I think that was '82? I've loved them ever since.

I was in jr. high when they had the Time cover in '87 and I remember reading the article in the school library, and 2 boys that were there trying to get me to say "I love u2" so they could laugh (I love you too. har har).

I wore out all my cassettes by listening to them obsessively while walking around the small town where I lived. I had to buy UF 3 times because I kept wearing it out.

Anyway, that doesn't answer your question really, but those are my earliest u2 memories :)
 
In the early 80's as a teenager it seemed as though I was the only person that were into U2. I heard them first on college radio, they were undergound and so far from disco.

Hearing I Will Follow drew me in.

Seeing New Years Day Video made me want more.

Watching Redrocks on TV (still have the original VHS tape)made me love them forever.

Watching Bono perform infront of the Live Aid crowd made me love him!

After that I wasn't alone anymore. :wink: 26 years later I finally met them.
 
UF and Live Aid set them up for a huge explosion. I remember the JT promotional machine was pretty big with lavish store displays and whatnot. It was as if everybody knew that they were going to be massive and JT had the goods.

The JT tour was quite huge, too. It was a different world b/c the music industry wasn't so splintered into tiny fragments, so you could sell millions and millions more and tour the biggest sports domes.

Critics led the charge against R&H, and I think the common perception was that Bono was too earnest for his britches. Ergo, the reinvention of AB and the embrace of ironic cool. That was my sophomore year in college. At that point, my hipper friends had abandoned U2 and I imagine squares considered them to be "weird" or whatever.
 
I will also say that the older fans were pretty wary of the huge exposure of JT. My friends and I considered them "our" band in a way that only high schoolers can. So, we were sensitive to any whiff of "sell-out." I recall listening to JT with a couple friends and being pretty unsure about it, especially when the harmonica comes in in "Running to Stand Still." It took me a couple listens to realize what a masterpiece it was, but I probably resented having to share them with everybody else at that point. Kids are funny.
 
Jeannieco said:
Time flies doesn't it? Gawd I am old, but still younger than all of U2! :wink:
Click to expand...

That's a good way to look at it! I'm younger than all of u2, too, although I did marry a man who is exactly the same age as Bono, almost to the day. It makes it easy for me to keep track of how old the boys are, lol.
 
The Joshua Tree album and tour it was basically U2 hysteria. They literally were THE band that year period. They were all over the media with documentaries, interviews, news reports, etc. I remember they did a segment on Entertainment Tonight after they did the Daltons thing in LA. The anchor said after the segment. "Wow, it really has been their year." I was lucky to get tickets to the one show I attended on that tour as they soldout almost instantly. I was still in the nosebleeds but I was just happy to be in the building.

Achtung Baby there was alot of hype. Although they sort of competed with Michael Jackson's Dangerous album at the time which was released the week after AB. So it took away some of the album hype. They were still on the cover of a ton of magazines before the release and there were numerous articles about the upcoming album. But when Zoo TV hit is was hysteria all over again. In N. America it had been 5 years since they had played. I remember when they made the announcement on MTV and rolled the opening dates my reaction was. CRAP one night at the Palace!! Tickets are going to be impossible! They made an announcement on the radio one morning that they were handing out wristbands at all Ticketmaster outlets just so you could get in line to get tickets. I left work and rushed down there. There were already about 25 people in line to get just a wristband. Fortunately my Propaganda order form arrived shortly after (ended up with 4th row through Prop). It was at this point I decided I needed to go to more than 1 show (as I had friends with forms also, so we pooled resources). I went with a friend who wasnt a Prop member to help them try to get tickets. They soldout in 7 minutes. There were alot of unhappy people.
 
The first thing I remember was War hitting big on the radio, and Red Rocks being all over TV. Then UF came out and it was popular on the radio and MTV. Though I've heard the media say it was JT that broke them big, from what I saw, they were already big at the time of Live Aid.

Then with JT they became SUPER big! I remember them being all over the place, TV and radio, and extremely dominant on MTV. For those of you who don't remember, MTV used to be GOOD, mostly videos, and devoted to talking about MUSIC instead of stupid jokes and reality shows. They had lots of specials on U2, and the videos were all in heavy rotation. That, IMO, was the mountaintop, the pinnacle of their career. I also, contrary to popular beilef, never heard negativity over Rattle and Hum. The movie didn't do well, but no rock movies do, they are all too limited appeal to a certain type of music fan. From what I saw, their run on MTV went right through R&H and Lovetown.

Then there was the 'dream it all up again.' I was hoping they wouldn't break up. Then there were rumors Adam was leaving the band.

When AB came out, I don't remember the fans being as shocked as some will say in retrospect (save that for later) It was different, and some people were saying they had 'gone gay' because of the drag pics, but overall the songs were very well liked. ZOOTV was huge, AB popular, the Fly was cool, MacPhisto weird, but he eventually became cool too. The songs and images were all over the place. They were still huge.

Okay, then "Lemon" came out. From what I saw, THIS, not AB, is what made older fans start going "WTF?" Numb too. Stay redeemed them, but Zooropa was not as well liked as AB by most at the time.

Now Pop. I know this isn't going to be popular around here, but this is where they really lost the old fans (at least the ones I know) People started laughing at them, the stupid costumes, the stage set, it was like, WTF they freaked out? Oh sure, we 'got' it, irony, selling themselves as a product, making fun of materialism, Warhol and all that, the bottom line was :shh: it wasn't that good compared to their previous stuff. Sure, there was a rush when it first came out, but after the Kmart stunt and the Las Vegas debacle, a lot of older fans didn't want to play along and drifted away. I realize there are a lot of people here who became fans at Pop, but I will always hold that they lost more fans than they gained during that period. Me, I just about lost interest in the band I had been obsessed with for years. Never even noticed Sweetest Thing. They were off my radar.

Then they came back! And wow, they were themselves again! No more dumb costumes and blinding dayglo. Goodbye, sister disco! Rock and roll lives again! The first time I heard BD I thought THAT is U2? Wow! They're good again! And the Elevation tour, awesome! The heart, soft and cuddly, the band being in touch with the fans, and embracing and loving their past instead of running from it. The band had reached legendary status, for all time.

Vertigo was an extension of that. I don't personally believe they will ever be as good as they were in the 80's and in AB, but they have nothing left to prove. We get it, they're great, legends forever. What a long strange trip it's been.
 
Jeannieco said:


1960 was a good year huh? :)

I'm a 64 baby, the year the Beatles came to America! :reject:
Click to expand...

That reject should not be there :angry: 1964 and The Beatles :love: (high5 to '64 babies!)

I worked in a record store in L.A. in the early 80s, and bringing in all the new imports/music from England was one of our specialties. Not to mention KROQ playing the band's music. We did sell our fair share of the early stuff when it came out, and 7" Singles (45s) were still the cool thing to buy, so we'd do well with those, not to mention the U2 4-paks and such. May have been different in other parts of the country, but in L.A., I think they were pretty popular early on, at least in the young music-buying group. And seeing them play the Sports Arena on the 'War' tour :drool: . I remember Bono taking the white flag that was on a pole and climbing up to the second level/loge with it. Crazy!!!
 
i think i was 7 when i heard NYD. edge's keyboard part just grabbed me and i new that was what great music was. Pride came out a few years later and i swear bono's voice soared to the moon. '87 and WOWY just made me wonder is this a dude singing this sweetly?
from the summer 0f '89 till the release off Achtung Baby i dedicated myself to becoming a hardcore U2 fan. listening, watching and reading everything i could get my hands on.
when the Baby hit the scene, i was in xtasy. watched the premiere of the Fly video and was so fucking blow away. when i went to ZOO TV, jezzy crezzy, i was in heaven. i wished the friggin show would never end. couldn't wait for the next chapter.
went to POPMART, took a friend i had introduced to U2, it was my birthday present to her. she was blown away.
i've spent the years since listening but only enjoying some of the "new" U2. i sometimes long for the U2 that wasn't afraid to be U2, but hey you can't always have it your way.
 
I'm wicked old, screw it :)

Definitely understand the "U2 was 'our' band" sentiment. I got into U2 after seeing the SBS Red Rocks vid on MTV, also my brother had seen them open for J.Geils Band so I'd heard of them. Not sure about the rest of the country but up here in CT the rock stations (WHCN, WCCC) played U2 pretty often; the pop stations certainly did not. I wouldn't have called them an "underground" band though, no more than any of the alternative bands were...R.E.M. got less airplay here, never mind bands like the Cure (we didn't have an alternative station, maybe that's why...did for a bit, but no more, CT radio sucks).

Then JT hit and everybody started to get into U2, or at least knew who they were. It was really annoying...you'd be talking about U2 and mention New Year's Day, or Sunday Bloody Sunday, and get asked, in all seriousness, "Are those on side 2?" Yes, believe it or not, people didn't know they had albums out before the Joshua Tree. Ah good times.

Then came R&H, and a lot of people didn't like it much, and people started ripping U2 a bit (who do they think they are yada yada yada). And it was almost nice, because they were kinda "my" band again...I liked that. Then AB came out and people REALLY trashed it, and I officially had my band back, and do to this day.

(Well except for the people who chose "One" for their prom or wedding song...I never got that, do people even listen to lyrics anymore?)
 
Lila64 said:


That reject should not be there :angry: 1964 and The Beatles :love: (high5 to '64 babies!)

I worked in a record store in L.A. in the early 80s, and bringing in all the new imports/music from England was one of our specialties. Not to mention KROQ playing the band's music. We did sell our fair share of the early stuff when it came out, and 7" Singles (45s) were still the cool thing to buy, so we'd do well with those, not to mention the U2 4-paks and such. May have been different in other parts of the country, but in L.A., I think they were pretty popular early on, at least in the young music-buying group. And seeing them play the Sports Arena on the 'War' tour :drool: . I remember Bono taking the white flag that was on a pole and climbing up to the second level/loge with it. Crazy!!!
Click to expand...

That's so cool! I attribute my early tastes in music to my older brothers blasting U2 on the stereo, and ofcourse the whole MTV thing. I guess I am a late comer to the U2 party compared to you!
I didn't move to the US until 1983, so that's that's my excuse!
( I grew up in the Panama Canal Zone US Territory at the time)
And ya.... high five back at , 1964 rocks!
:rockon:
 
I'm 36, so I guess I'm one of the older folks. I wasn't into U2 in the eighties. I liked the radio songs well enough but I wasn't passionate about them. To me, they were another one of those new wave bands and then got into the glam and hype of Achtung and Pop. I didn't get into them until I saw the Elevation Tour concert on Much More Music. When Bono sang WOWY to that girl at the tip of the heart, I was sold!
 
Last edited:
I was a casual fan in the 80's.

The 90's hooked me. (Yes, including Zooropa, Passengers and Pop)

The last 2 albums are good but if they do a third one in that same vein I'll be casual fan again.
 
These are the times when I envy everyone who has been a fan for ages. I have purchased all the albums in about two and half years, as opposed to the 30 years for most others. I would have loved to see U2 when they were at the absolute pinnacle of their careers, in both music and media.
 
wow thanks everyone for sharing these memories. I hope no one is offended by the "older people" thread name, I envy every one of you, for being able to experience the worlds greatest band from the start. U2's popularity has only gotton bigger and it's nice to see the world still gives them exposer. :wink:
 
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