That must have been so amazing to go from that Joshua Tree/R&H transition to Achtung Baby.
I became a fan in 1992 so Achtung was my first impression of them.
just wanted to add in since i was around and a fan since 80-81.
I remember them saying they were going away to rethink their music after JT/R&H.
I first saw/heard a glimpse of them live (Ads & Edge rehearsing NYD) in 83,but full shows from 84 onward.
Unlike with a band like The Who (l was introed to Happy Jack by a suburban cousin in '67) werein friends of mine were friends with even more super-fans as in terms of those uys meeting the band and their crew early on in their USA tours and we getting rumours from them. I being a 14 yr teen "girl" my parents weren't letting me run around the city (NYC) at night- which was a disadvatage to the guys who were allowed to- I was in my mid-late 20's for U2.
But none of my friends and I had any other friernds who'd caught them ever earler so we were "on our own".
Plus back in the mid-70's I had pretty much given up steady reading of Rolling Stone Magazine to be a big fan of New York Rocker; one of the 2 independent NYC-based magazines covering the original CBGB's scene, punk, new wave, eventually over the yearsas these bands influence spread- other independent, DIY bands starting around the USA, and really good new big labal bands music.
NYR introduced me to U2 just before they toured the USAfor thefirst time. But i missed them because didn't see any ads in The Village Voice (newspaper), and was still persuing the onriginal CBGB's and other club bands up their various ladders of fame (or bust-up
).
Radio wasn't yet covering U2 in the way they would later.
And, of course, No Internet!
In that 5 yr gap I also became invovled in media-SF Fandom (as wll continuing to read it), and NYR busted up in 82
so i was mentally elsewhere.
But U2 had become so big that when they were returning it was heralded in a big market like NYC radio! Unfortunately it was yr 2+ of the big recession (lasting longer in our city) so i really didn't have the $ for getting various rock magazines etc then for U2 articles.
Still I fell in love with AB. I had no distress on them changing theirsound so drastically! All my friends loved it, too,
so we had no "JT-blues" amongst our group of R&R live show-going friends (luckily). Also luckly a generous friend lent me the $ for 1 ZOO TV show in the old Giants Stadium- which was amazing even if were 3/4 way back and 10 rows from the very top!
yikes