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MrBrau1

MrBrau1

ONE love, blood, life
Joined
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1: The first time I heard U2: My Uncle's house in NJ. 1983.

MTV played lots of videos at that time. I remember seeing SBS.
I think I was 10 or 11 at the time. Really dug it. At least I think
I did, cause I remember it.

2: Pride(In The Name Of Love): On the school bus. 1984.

Bus 5 had a driver who played I95 on her radio. Pride was played
alot. I remember it very clearly. Pride wasn't the first record I ever
bought, but it was the first 45 I bought. IWF (live) was the B-side.

3: The Joshua Tree: Broadview Jr High School. 1987.

I won "Spanish Student Of The Month", and got a $10 certificate
to "Record Town." Bought JT. And listened to religiously on my
first cassette walkman. To school. In school. Home from school.

Blew my frick'in mind!

4: Achtung Baby: Marist College. 1991.

101.5 WPDH played the whole record 2 weeks before release. We
had the dual cassette deck on the job. There were no mass internet
leaks of records in 1991. This was how stations broke records. Me
and Mac, in his dorm room. Smoking a GIANT spliff. The second
it ended, we hit rewind and listened to the whole thing again.

Blew my frick'in mind!

5: Zooropa: My parents pool deck. 1993.

Scanned through the whole thing. Hated it. Later that day I was
cleaning the pool. Listened to the whole thing all the way through.
Turns out I didn't scan far enough into Zooropa. "And I Have No
Compass" blasted from the boom-box. I remember thinking "yes!"

6: Pop: Virgin Mega Store, Times Square. 1997.

Midnight sale. Long line. They played the record while we waited
for the sale to start. Gone gave me a boner. The store had giant
video screens playing a promo film along with the record. WUDM
was playing and I remember those giant wah guitar bend's Edge
plays at the end of the song.

7: Beautiful Day: Hampton Bays, NY. 2000.

I was helping clean out our communal 20 person summer rental,
when 92.7 WDRE announced they’ed be playing the new U2 song
in 1 hour. I stopped cleaning and got my minidisc boombox ready
to record it.

Got it.

Drove all the way back to the Bronx listening to it 20 or 30 times.
Volume maxed.

Che is a patient girl.

8: ATYCLB: Tarrytown, NY. Bro's Apt. 2000.

My brother and I have been fans forever. One day he got the ATYCLB
leak and gave me an excited ring, and I drove up to his place (fast). I
remember cracking beers and hearing Kite, Walk On, Wild Honey, and
NY for the first time and just grinning. Then doing the whole thing over,
and over.
 
The first U2 song I remember conciously hearing and appreciating was Electrical Storm.

Received a CD player and the Best of 1990-2000 for that Xmas, and liked a lot of it.

Purchased Joshua Tree and played In God's Country several hundred times.

The rest is history.
 
heard sanctus real's cover of beautiful day a couple years ago on christian radio, my friend tells me that its a cover of the U2 song, i'm intrigued

freshman year..03 maybe? i hear SBS in our dressing room, starting my schools musical tradition of SBS in the guys room

last summer...got hooked
 
First time I heard of U2 was in 1998 with the Sweetest Thing video. I didn't start taking active interest in U2 until 2000, though, when Beautiful Day came out. I bought all of their albums between 2000 and 2001. My U2 story is too boring. If it helps any, I cried the first time I heard the piano in New Year's Day.
 
First time I recall hearing or seeing U2 was an "US Festival" show on Showtime in 1983....however I'm positive I'd heard "I Will Follow" or "Gloria" before then.

First time I 'remember' hearing U2 on the radio: November 1983 when the "UABRS" version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" was played.

First time I saw U2 live, in person: March 5, 1985 in Los Angeles.

I'll leave it at that, 'cos I'm too tired to write out all my 'firsts'!
 
Actively listened to U2? Beautiful Day on my radio in 2000. After that they started playing Elevation and I bought ATYCLB.
From there I loved Kite, Stuck, Walk On, and New York. But I lost the CD after moving and thought it lost forever. I forgot U2 existed.
And then that iPod commercial came on with Vertigo and I remembered that U2 didn't die. After that it was a long process of accruing the music.

But I had heard WOWY and ISHFWILF many many many times before and had just never cared about who sung it.
 
First time I remember hearing about U2 was from my best friend's older brother who went to UC Santa Barbara. I'd visit my friend in SF and when Ronnie would come home he'd share all this what we thought was cool party underground somewhat punk music. We were too young to see U2 when they played some small clubs in SF but I remember all the big deal about the free show at Justin Herman Plaza in 87 when Bono spray painted Rock and Roll Stop the Traffic on the fountain structure. I remember my uncle in Colorado talking about having gone to Red Rocks to see this incredible band perform in 83. My boyfriend who turned husband late 1980's hated U2 and when our son was born I pretty much took a U2 leave of absence missing several tours but I'd smile every time I recognized U2 on the radio, when I had a chance to listen to MY music. I got a cd player for Christmas in 1990 and bought all the U2 cds I could find listening voraciously. Then when my ex and I separated in 93 and divorced in 96, I met a cool guy who was a U2 freak and I have very fond memories of being reunited with U2 while with him. I wasn't able to see an LA Pop show with him because my son was sick. Then I couldn't afford as a very broke single mom seeing the boys during Elevation so when my time finally arrived during Vertigo, I was braced to make up for lost time and I've seen 6 shows this tour. My first U2 show was the opener in San Diego right up the street from where I live. I was at both SD shows, the memories are right up there at the top of my list of best times EVER. I feel like I've grown up and am growing old or rather maturing with U2. It's wild and wonderful all at the same time.
 
I can remember being 8 years old and watching the video for Numb when it was first released. I looooved that video, it was just so weird. So my first active memories of U2 were ZooTV era. I also remember watching the video for Lemon, and I remember that I didn't like it as much as Numb.
I also remember watching the video for One (the Buffalo version), and that may've actually been before Numb and Lemon, but I never realized that that was U2 until years and years later when I started getting into them, and found out about that video (because I remembered the imagery, but nothing about the actual song).
My older brother was into U2 during the Zoo era, and I can remember that he had Zooropa, but I don't remember ever paying any real attention to it.
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me came out a couple of years later, and I really liked it, as did my brother. But somehow U2 managed to escape my radar completely for the next nine years. I remember nothing of Pop or ATYCLB.
It wasn't until the Vertigo iPod commercial began airing in 2004 that I went "Oh yea, U2, I remember them", and so I started paying closer attention. And everything just exploded from there.
As a final note, I'll never forget that it was at approximately 11:58 PM (CST) on November 20th, 2004 that I fell madly in love with the band, and especially Bono (it was the infamous I Will Follow SNL lapdance that did me in).
 
My first real memory of U2 was the New Years Day video, must have been '83 (8 years old), although I remember seeing Gloria as well, I just don't have as much of a recall as to when. I remember liking them, but I liked all kinds of crap back then, Freeze Frame by J. Geils was my favorite album. Haha.

After that, I remember hearing Pride one the radio and MTV etc.

It didn't really break open until With or Without You in early 1987.
Then, my brother got the Joshua Tree and I fell in love with it.
Then Rattle and Hum, same process, both albums ended up mine (they were actually cassettes).

Desire, The Fly, Numb, Discotheque
heard them all on the radio right when they hit.
Beautiful Day, Vertigo on the internet

Actually Beautiful Day was on Interference's front page, I think this was around the time the forum just got going. The 30 second clip, I listened to at work. It was the last 30 seconds of the song, sounded great. Real excited at the time.

My two favorite "first times" were Numb and Discotheque.
I'm sitting in the parking lot of a grocery store and my buddy says "I heard a new U2 song today", I reply "bullshit" and I kid you not it was on the radio at that very moment. Numb.
Discotheque was on the way to work the graveyard shift.
That was a blast hearing that, way way excited after that one.

Passengers was a complete "take it home from the store and put it in and see what happens". I remember hearing Slug and thinking this was going to be the greatest thing ever. Of course, I like it still, but I think I overestimated it a bit. I did the same thing on hearing Pop for the first time, I told my brother that it was the album that put U2 on par with the Beatles. In some ways I still beleive that, but that's another discussion.....
 
MrBrau1 said:

4: Achtung Baby: Marist College. 1991.

101.5 WPDH played the whole record 2 weeks before release. We
had the dual cassette deck on the job. There were no mass internet
leaks of records in 1991. This was how stations broke records.
Click to expand...

I heard Zooropa a week or two before it came out on our local radio station, I had to work the next day early but I stayed up until about 2am listening to it after they debuted it at midnight. Lights off, headphones on. Lemon........GOD DAMN, that was THE moment, come to think of it, that made me a complete U2 die hard. I even paid fucking $15 for Wide Awake in America for two songs i had already heard, but I had become compelled to own ALL of their stuff. I was oblivious to bootlegs, of course.

I remember actually being totally blown away by it, totally.
I still get chills sometimes listening to it. That intro to Zooropa is some of the best music U2 has ever put on tape....and then the finish.

Top it off with some Johnny Cash, long before it became fashionable to like him.
 
I first heart U2 with New Year's Day (wish I had seen the video, though, and I certainly was older than 8). I lost my mind when that song came out, but a friend on my job lost his mind worse! I think I sang that song for a whole year.
 
The first time I ever heard U2 was 1981, I was 14, I heard New Years Day on college radio. I thought this was awsome.....Then I saw the video with the snow and the horses and I went :crazy:
I heard Two Hearts Beat as One loved to dance to that one! Then the one thing that sent me into my 26 year tizzie was the Redrocks concert I saw on TV! I new as long as they were still making music I would follow them anywhere! Its been a love affair longer than my husbands!!!!
 
I was watching VH-1's 100 greatest albums and Joshua Tree was number 1. after the show finished I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For came on.

From that moment I found the band that I will love forever :rockon:
 
First time I ever heard them or saw them was Live Aid.

First time I saw them and fell head over heels: With or Without You video. I saw Larry and was hooked. :lol:

First time I pestered a parent to take me to the store to get a U2 album: May, 1992, for Achtung Baby. I spent the entire night listening to it over and over again on my little walkman. :love:

First time I saw them live: 9/9/92

First time I saw them up close and personal: 10/15/01
 
My earliest memory of U2 was watching MTV - Gloria was the first, followed by SBS and Pride.

The first time I became a fanatic - I was hanging out with an older kid down the street, and he had just gotten a CD player. The first CD he bought was The Joshua Tree, which had just come out. I heard the first three songs and remember thinking - this is one of the best albums I've ever heard. I went and bought the cassette right away. That Christmas, I was given my own CD player, and proceeded to replace my tape.

The first show I saw was 8/23/92. ZooTV Outside Broadcast. :love:
 
My Beginings -

went to a friend's house and heard Pride back around 1985 or 86. LOVED IT. I remember running home and just singing the chorus in my head over and over.

About a month or two later I went to another friend's house up the block and his older brothers were watching UABRS video and I was hooked.
 
I'm a younger U2 fan so the first song I remember hearing by them was "Beautiful Day." But I also remember hearing "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "Pride (In The Name Of Love)" when I was younger.

And then, I fell in love...:cute:
 
<-another new fan

The first time i heard U2, knew it was U2 and liked it was in 2002. I was 14, my Uncle had ATYCLB on in the next room and after the first 4 tracks i asked him who the band was and if it was a greatest hits. i'd heard all 4 songs on the radio at some point without knowing it was U2.
i also remember commenting that "the Edge" was a really weird name to call yourself :shifty:

atyclb was also the first album i bought, later that year.

first U2 concert, april 2005 in denver.
 
Darren Hayes from Savage Garden was listing his top ten favourite videos on VH1, must have been 'round 2001, 2002?
He had One on his list, and I remember being disappointed 'cause it was pretty much the only one on the list I liked. :lol:
Some time later, One was played at a media covered funeral here in Swe, and I recognized it enough to know it was U2.

So then they showed Elevation/Boston on TV, and I was hooked when Bono pulled the girl up on stage. I've been obsessed ever since.
 
JCOSTER said:
The first time I ever heard U2 was 1981, I was 14, I heard New Years Day on college radio. I thought this was awsome.....Then I saw the video with the snow and the horses and I went :crazy:
I heard Two Hearts Beat as One loved to dance to that one! Then the one thing that sent me into my 26 year tizzie was the Redrocks concert I saw on TV! I new as long as they were still making music I would follow them anywhere! Its been a love affair longer than my husbands!!!!
Click to expand...


You sure about the year on that? I thought War was released in 1983?

I remember hearing Until the End of the World sometime in my early teens and I was hooked. My brother was a huge fan though, and when I was 5 or so, I'm told I use to try to play his copy of the Joshua Tree. :lol:
 
1987...that's when the magic started. I was driving back home from a long trip with my family, when my mom stuck the JT cassette in. Something clicked when Streets came on. The music seemed euphoric and "important."
 
For me, it was Beautiful Day playing in the background to a highlight reel of the Uconn women's undefeated season in 2002. i listened to BD almost every day for a year. loved it

then it was i still haven't found what i'm looking for and walk on everyday for half a year.

then i downloaded the super bowl halftime show and music has changed my life ever since.
 
Driving with a newly received driver's permit on a rainy night with my mom in the passenger seat, and listening to The Unforgettable Fire album for my first time (pretty recent, maybe last year? ).

Since then it's been a habit to listen to that album whenever it's nighttime and/or raining. I was so absorbed into 'A Sort Of Homecoming' that I remember almost getting in an accident on the highway.. :reject:
 
The first U2 song I ever heard: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, in 1990 on the radio. My family was moving, and I heard it while we were driving to our new house. It blew my mind then, and it still does. I knew of U2 at that point, but wasn't really familiar with their music.

I didn't become a hardcore fan until 1998, but I have appreciated their music since the early 90's.

First time seeing them live was in 2001, and that was obviously an incredible experience.
 
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The first song I "liked" was The Sweetest Thing back when it came out... 1998? So my parents bought the Best of 80-90 and I used to play it over and over again, but I never listened to any of the other songs. I was at an age where all rock and roll kind of sounded the same to me (loud and overwhelming). I think I was 11 or something. I'd obviously had exposure to all of their songs (ISHFWILF, WOWY, etc.) but I never really got hooked onto them. Bought ATYCLB in 2000 and kind of listened to it a little, I thought it was okay. I was a member of this internet forum for a computer game, and there was this group of kids who were *obsessed* with U2... they were always talking about forty-foot lemons and sexy Larry and giraffes... so I downloaded some U2 songs (...totally legally) and one of them was SBS. I listened to it and was absolutely blown away. I was at that rebel stage, so it totally clicked with me and ever since then I've been hooked.

I downloaded all the albums one by one and listened to them that way, so I can't really say I had a "first" album that I went out and bought... but I asked for JT that year for Christmas and would listen to it every night before I went to sleep.

First concert was May 26th, 2005. What a night, I remember hearing Gloria, The Ocean (!!), UTEOTW, The Fly, Out of Control, WOWY, and Bad to close (but I don't have any memories of Bad :sad: I didn't fully appreciate it, it was my only Bad out of 7 shows)... :drool: I went to my next one two days later, which was even more incredible.
 
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GibsonGirl said:
I cried the first time I heard the piano in New Year's Day.
Click to expand...

I did too, for more reasons than one - and I heard it the first time on New Years Day '82 or 83, can't remember really. My son was almost 2 years old. I had just received some devastaing news and this song started me down the road of healing and acceptance.
At the time I didn't even know what it was about.
It just meant the world to me. and still does..:heart:
 
Oh, gee. I'm a new fan. I'm only fifteen, so that's not exactly my fault. My parents don't like U2, so it's not like I could grow up on them. I think the first song I liked was The Sweetest Thing. . . I loved that back when I was eleven or so and was addicted to boy bands, because it kind of had a boy band feel to it with the backing vocals and all. I liked Vertigo when it was new. . . Then I found out how butchered the Spanish really was, and I kinda ditched it.

About a month later, in December of '04. . I had to go to the dentist's office. My mom told me that they had CDs and a CD player you can listen to while they clean your teeth. I was like "Ew but I won't like their music" beause I was all Duran Duran, Bangles, and Go-Go's-y. But she said they had a CD of U2. . . So I listened to that when I went. It was the best of 1980 - 1990. I was sitting there and about half the songs I responded to with a, "Hey! I LOVE THIS SONG!" in my head, while the others I thought "This is a good song, though I've never heard it."

Shortly after, I got addicted to With Or Without You because it was played a lot on the radio station I listened to. . . And then I bought The Joshua Tree a year ago.

During October and November I went from loving U2 to OBSESSION. U2 became my life. I had to get more CDs. So I bought War, Achtung Baby, and All That You Can't Leave Behind. I was given The Best of 1980 - 1990 for my birthday in December. I was given Boy and HTDAAB for Christmas from family. I bought all of the studio-recorded albums the next day at Best Buy and then wasted my money on The Complete U2 for some "unreleased and rare" tracks.

My story is quite pathetic and quick moving, but whatever.
 
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