War, Boy, and "Best of.." cover

[suzannern2321]

I hope this is the right area to ask this question... Was always wondering who the boy was who is on the covers of these albums. Does he have any relation to Larry Mullen Jr.? Totally curious!

 

[Carek1230]

No relation to Lars Mullen....he is Peter Rowan, younger brother of Bono's good friend from the Lypton Village gang, Guggi (Derek Rowan)

 

[trevgreg]

any pics of the boy today?

 

[suzannern2321]

who's the Lypton Village Gang?

 

[Utoo]

Here's a site that as a newer pic plus some info on him. There are probably better sites, but this is the first one that came up & I'm lazy.

http://www.angelfire.com/80s/u2war/

Apparently, Peter went on to become the skate board champion of Ireland! Who knew?!

 

[TheQuiet1]

^On that site it has a cover for U2 best of B-sides 1980-1990. So can you still get that album, just the B-sides alone? Because I've got the Best of 1980-1990 alone, without the B-sides.

 

[tuwie]

thanks for the site! that's real interesting

 

[typhoon]

^On that site it has a cover for U2 best of B-sides 1980-1990. So can you still get that album, just the B-sides alone? Because I've got the Best of 1980-1990 alone, without the B-sides.

I think you'll still have to find the limited edition Best Of and buy it again. It's worth it, though (not like the nineties' Best Of, which wasn't worth buying once...).

The picture on the site has the back cover photograph of the limited edition; maybe it was used for a promo too?

 

[blueeyedgirl]

I still find it funny that when Boy was first released in the US, they had to replace the cover because they thought the boy was too "gay".

 

[tuwie]

^^ WOW! hahah i didnt know that! that's pretty funny. along the same lines as censoring Adam's nude picture with a leaf on Achtung baby. >.<

 

[Joshua_Tree_Hugger]

I still find it funny that when Boy was first released in the US, they had to replace the cover because they thought the boy was too "gay".

That's not why they changed it in the U.S. They changed it because the record company felt that it would associate the band with paedophilia.

 

[gareth brown]

Haha! Who the hell told you it was because they thought it'd be GAY?!

 

[david]

I still find it funny that when Boy was first released in the US, they had to replace the cover because they thought the boy was too "gay".

uhhhhh.

 

[Sue DeNym]

who's the Lypton Village Gang?

When Bono was a kid, his group of friends called themselves Lypton Village and gave each other strange nicknames. That's where Bono and The Edge got their names from.

They weren't a gang like the Crips or Bloods; more like a bunch of artistic and theatrical kids who hung out together and occasionally did odd but generally harmless things. You can find their story in nearly any book about U2.

 

[Queen Bee]

Here's a recent picture of him.

 

[Zoots]

That's not why they changed it in the U.S. They changed it because the record company felt that it would associate the band with paedophilia.

Really? Is that why they changed it? I've always wondered why a nice picture of a boy got changed to a crappy distorted image of the band.

 

[Joshua_Tree_Hugger]

Yeah that's why they changed it. And I agree, the photo they replaced it with is terrible, it's all stretched to the side... as if the guy doing it literally had no clue how to enlarge photos.

 

[typhoon]

I'm probably in the minority here, and that's okay, but: the original Boy cover creeps me the hell out and I'm glad I have the modified version.

 

[Joshua_Tree_Hugger]

Ughhh... the modified version is cruel! The pictures are all stretched out, and it's one of the ugliest covers I've ever seen.

I like the Boy cover, it's calm and peaceful and simple. And not everyone is so obsessed with paedophilia that we need necessarily see it as anything else. Also, it fits in with the BOY title - and the imagery of the band as being young, inexperienced, just starting out.