U2's following in the early years.

[ravenette]

This is a question especially for any fans who were into U2 during their early years -

Were U2 ever considered a "cult" band prior to say, 1985? Before they broke into the "mainstream" so-to-speak - whether it be from the Live Aid performance or the release of The Joshua Tree.

My idea is that they did have a big cult-like following prior to that time. But since I was only a child and did not get to experience it properly back then, I cannot be sure.

I'm interested in people's experience as a U2 fan in the early 80's...how were they perceived prior to '85?

 

[irishdove]

I wasn't, unfortunately, a real fan until 2004, but I definitely knew U2 by 1981. I had a friend on my first job who had gotten into them that year, and he was mad for them! I guess they would've been considered a cult band then, but by the time New Year's Day came out, they hit big and were being played on all the rock stations in my area. I've read in several books that they had a pretty good sized following by the time they came to America, but in my opinion they were getting into mainstream a little before Joshua Tree.

 

[ravenette]

Thanks Irishdove.

I must admit, U2 throughout the 80's really seemed to me, to be an alternative group.

How I wish I got to experience being a fan properly back then!

 

[JCOSTER]

This is a question especially for any fans who were into U2 during their early years -

Were U2 ever considered a "cult" band prior to say, 1985? Before they broke into the "mainstream" so-to-speak - whether it be from the Live Aid performance or the release of The Joshua Tree.

My idea is that they did have a big cult-like following prior to that time. But since I was only a child and did not get to experience it properly back then, I cannot be sure.

I'm interested in people's experience as a U2 fan in the early 80's...how were they perceived prior to '85? [/QUOTE

Here it goes, before 1985 U2 was considered at least in my area alternative/underground before mainstream radio was playing them college radio and punk stations were playing them. I really think at the time that before live aid they had a big following but that performance threw them into the mix of alternative given what they were performing with at the time. By the time Joshua Tree came out it was on mainstream radio so I believe that the
JT catapolted them into mainstream to stay. When I first heard them with New Years Day and saw the video I new I loved them. that was like 81, tried to get to see them at a local club but I was too young then (14). Heard Two Hearts Beat as One and fell in love with them....Saw Redrocks concert on TV and I was hooked I new forever.... saw live aid performance on TV became a fanatic and haven't stopped...and got hooked on Bono. I have seem 3 JT shows, 3 Zoo stations, 2 Popmart, 2 Vertigos all living up to the next one

Hope this helped a little if you need to ask anymore questions you can always PM me!

 

[martha]

I still remember where I was when I heard U2 playing on the mainstream rock statio here in SoCal. We were driving down the 101, and KLOS played them. I don't remember what song it was, but the carload of us flipped out. Before that you could only hear them on KROQ, which was actually a station that mattered back then. We knew then that our beloved U2 had hit the bigtime. (I suspect the song was NYD.)

They didn't get on everyone's radar until War, which was '83, not '81. I remember War being the breakout album. They played the Sports Arena on that tour, a pretty big venue, but I don't remember it being filled. The floor was GA. By the UF tour, they were big time, at least here in SoCal. I knew about them from the first album and singles. I was into new music back then and knew about a lot of not-so-mainstream bands.

 

[u2granny]

^ Yes. They weren't being played on the radio much here until War. There were a lot more people at the UF shows here than were at the War shows.

 

[The OOTS]

^ Martha and U2granny are correct

 

[irishdove]

I was aware that NYD came out in '83. I was saying up until then, I do believe that U2 were considered underground. And it is true for my area also that they weren't played on the radio much until War came out. However, my friend was always singing 'Out of Control' and the other songs from 'Boy' and was really into them.

And how I wish I had been a real fan back then, too - I missed a lot, and in the last year have been catching up

 

[JCOSTER]

I still remember where I was when I heard U2 playing on the mainstream rock statio here in SoCal. We were driving down the 101, and KLOS played them. I don't remember what song it was, but the carload of us flipped out. Before that you could only hear them on KROQ, which was actually a station that mattered back then. We knew then that our beloved U2 had hit the bigtime. (I suspect the song was NYD.)

They didn't get on everyone's radar until War, which was '83, not '81. I remember War being the breakout album. They played the Sports Arena on that tour, a pretty big venue, but I don't remember it being filled. The floor was GA. By the UF tour, they were big time, at least here in SoCal. I knew about them from the first album and singles. I was into new music back then and knew about a lot of not-so-mainstream bands.

Just incase you misunderstood, I didn't say anything about 1981 except this:
When I first heard them with New Years Day and saw the video I new I loved them. that was like 81, tried to get to see them at a local club but I was too young then (14)

And:
they were very huge here in NYC but underground.
I remember also hearing alot from Boy on college radio I Will Follow was one of my favs to dance to!!!

 

[irishdove]

Oh, that was for you, I thought it was addressed to me

 

[RedRocksU2]

In '84, I remember this friend of mine saying..."Hey, there's this band that sounds like a combination of Duran Duran and Simple Minds..."

 

[Celticfc]

In '84, I remember this friend of mine saying..."Hey, there's this band that sounds like a combination of Duran Duran and Simple Minds..."

needs his ears syringed.

 

[MumblingBono]

"we are the world's largest cult band" - Bono

 

[JCOSTER]

Oh, that was for you, I thought it was addressed to me

Maybe it was but I just wanted to clear that up, in 81 they were gaining popularity quickly in NY. I've told this story 100X, in 81 they were playing at a local club, December 13th 1981 I was 14 took a cab 20 minutes from where I lived and waiting in the pouring rain hoping to get a glimpse of one of them or to get in, they never did let me in but I stayed outside the building listening to the thumping and screaming of the fans inside. I was so sad, through the great technology of today, I heard that concert for the first time 26 years later!!!!

 

[Bono's shades]

I had no idea who they were until 1984 when some guy who did music reviews for our high school paper in Iowa wrote something about them. I suppose it must have been a review of The Unforgettable Fire. Anyway, he was raving about the band and was saying it was a shame they weren't as popular as some of the far less deserving bands that were getting played every 10 minutes on the radio back then.

I sure wish I'd saved a copy of that paper.

(Edited to add it might have been 1983 and a review of War. My memory's not what it used to be).

 

[yolland]

My idea is that they did have a big cult-like following prior to that time. But since I was only a child and did not get to experience it properly back then, I cannot be sure.

I've been a fan from the beginning (largely due to my oldest brother's influence, as I was only 9 or 10 myself at the time), and I guess that sums up their pre-JT following well enough. However, I've also always found this notion of "big cult-like following," which a lot of people use, to be kind of self-contradictory: it really pushes the concept of "cult" beyond useful limits, I think, to apply it to a group that was regularly filling up arenas by the mid-80s. (As the jaded 90s wisecrack goes, "Alternative to what?") And it's not like U2's sound, non-mainstream though it was, was ever cutting-edge avant-garde: from the beginning they had obvious affinities to commercially successful, though non-Top-40, bands like Television and The Clash. When I told other kids my age that I liked U2, I generally got a thumbs-up and an "Oh yeah, U2, I don't really know their stuff, but I really like that one song I heard on MTV..." Now, that was not the sort of reaction I usually got when mentioning some of the more genuinely weirdo, experimental-sounding artists I also liked! So yeah, U2 certainly weren't considered mainstream, but they were never considered way out there either.

 

[ravenette]

I guess this leads me to ask...what's everyone's definition of the term "cult band" then?

 

[Maquaman]

Definately were in the early days and probably still are now. I'd define cult band as being non mainstream.

 

[indra]

I first heard them in 1983 and since I didn't have access to alt stations, they had to be pretty mainstream (after all I live in godforsaken Ohio ).

As for cult, I found this definition from someone at Wikipedia and it works as well as any definition I have ever found of for cult band (or movie etc.).

A "cult classic" is a band/film/book that has a small number of devoted fans whose love of the material in question is hugely disproportionate to its general public acceptance. If something has a small and devoted group of fans who just can't understand why the public at large has never heard of this thing they love (or think it is rubbish) then it is a cult-classic.

Wikipedia link here

So I wouldn't consider U2 to have been cult band for the past 22 or 23 years at least.

 

[Maquaman]

Agree that they certainly don't fit the definition of being a band with a small number of devoted fans but I think other parts of that definition do apply. Despite being "Rocks hottest ticket" and lots of other things I don't think being an out and out fan of U2 has ever really been cool - certainly not through the 80's and probably a fair chunk of the 90's which I think is totally disproportionate to their level of success. Maybe this has changed somewhat with many of the newer/younger fans not being saddled with a lot of the old "baggage". Perhaps time has mellowed some of the older "general public" views as well.

 

[indra]

Agree that they certainly don't fit the definition of being a band with a small number of devoted fans but I think other parts of that definition do apply. Despite being "Rocks hottest ticket" and lots of other things I don't think being an out and out fan of U2 has ever really been cool - certainly not through the 80's and probably a fair chunk of the 90's which I think is totally disproportionate to their level of success. Maybe this has changed somewhat with many of the newer/younger fans not being saddled with a lot of the old "baggage". Perhaps time has mellowed some of the older "general public" views as well.

I don't really think of mainstream bands as ever really fitting the "cool" label anyway though. Just by being mainstream they are not "elite" enough to be "cool." Any band your (anyone's) mum knows isn't "cool." So they might very well be un-cool, but that doesn't make them a cult band.

To me Radiohead is one of the biggest bands to fit the definition of a cult band, and even they may well be past that now. They got a big write up in Time magazine when HTTT came out...how cult band is that? But they are still much closer to cult than U2.

 

[Maquaman]

sorry bad choice of words with "cool". Being mainstream obviously implies some sense of general acceptance and being fashionable. My point was I don't think U2 has ever really gained that despite their enormous success and obvious popularity, hence the comment re them not being "mainstream" IMO.

Realistically that probably doesn't make them a cult band either but their are certain parallels throughout their career I think.

Bit hard to pigeon hole them as anything really!

 

[Carek1230]

I think U2 in the earliest of their days were more of a "cult" or club band.....playing to small clubs sort of underground, punk...then they broke out with NYs Day and college radio picked up and that's the group that first caught on to them unless you were into new or alternative/punk type music. I remember them playing at Justin Hermann Plaza in SF, the free concert where Bono spray painted the infamous ROCK & ROLL STOP THE TRAFFIC on the fountain's structure where they performed. THAT is when I really got hooked on this new phenomenon. At the time I was so rebellious and free spirited and I liked that energy I felt from U2's music and especially their performances. Unfortunately when I married in 1976 my S.O. loathed the music of U2 so I wasn't so manic about following them until my divorce in 1997 during the Pop era. Too poor to see them live during their Elevation tour, I didn't get to see them until Vertigo and I can't get enough. So I've got some singles and War and the earlier stuff from when my fandom began way back when AND I managed to make up for lost time the past couple years.