Actually, they knew her years before that, that's her in the WOWOY vid, don't forget...
I thought of a story last night that you all may or may not get a kick out of -- a friend of a friend, who vaguely knew there was a band named U2 and THAT WAS IT, worked at Pearl Paint, it's a big discount art store on Canal St. in NY. One day in Feb. '97, this fellow employee comes up to her stricken and says, it's...THE EDGE! She replies, Of what? See? No clue. But she sees everyone in the store getting all wound up, and then this guy and woman appear. He is very down to earth, polite, unassuming, gee, she thinks, this is what everyone is getting hysterical about, no bigshot airs about this guy. But then, she said, that woman! Her words here, put away the tar and feathers: "she was a real snotty,smug, stuck-up bitch." Said her head kept moving back and forth like she was watching a tennis game with that smarmy, "look who I'M with" look on it. I don't think any of us have gotten past junior high without seeing that look from someone! But the kicker is that, in NYC, in FEB., in the middle of the day, she was wearing A BLACK BUSTIER!! The salesclerk in the ROCK STAR CHICK section of Skanks-R-Us must have told her it was de rigeur!