Beginnings of your U2 Obsession or How I Learned to Love The Band.

[Mount Temple]

Earlier on the tribute band thread here in EYKIW, Gvox and I were sharing stories about people and events that started us on (to quote Larry Mullen Jr) "a musical journey, it's a musical journey" -Rattle And Hum- towards U2 fandom.

If this thread has already been posted many times before then disregard it.

One story I have, is waiting outside the A & B Sound in Vancouver, 1991 to get my hands on what was to be the greatest album I ever heard and ever will hear.

Achtung Baby!

I purchased all 3 formats that night.

#1 Cassette Tape for the car.
#2 CD for my stereo in my room.
#3 Vinyl for the house as we all like the band.

I wore the Tape out! Still have the original vinyl and CD. I addition, picked up the UBER BOX SET and the Two Disc Deluxe Edition in 2011 for the collection and U2 display case I have.

Wow! Obsess much.....that is 5 purchases of the same album.

These are the funny stories I would love to read over a thread like this.

Thanks





So what's the Interference's stories about loving our band.

 

[gvox]

I definitely did wear out my UF and JT cassettes in my walkman, playing them till they snapped. I also learned how to splice them back together using clear tape and trimming off the excess very carefully. Hey, it worked! lol

 

[Mount Temple]

I definitely did wear out my UF and JT cassettes in my walkman, playing them till they snapped. I also learned how to splice them back together using clear tape and trimming off the excess very carefully. Hey, it worked! lol

Perhaps with those kind of skills, you could be a surgeon? I was never able to master that trick or had the patience for it.

I still have many memories blowing the dust off my old Nintendo games before injecting them into the NES system.

 

[chork]

My parents had separated around the time JT came out (eventually got back together).

I was 13, a freshman in high school. Had a theology teacher who was way the hell out there, far too progressive to last long in a traditional Catholic school, but he was a huge influence on me.
He had us bring in "victory music" to listen to during class. I'd had JT on cassette as a birthday present, and this guy praised my selection of "Still Haven't Found...".

Got through that craptacular era of my adolescence with the help of an awesome teacher and an amazing album, and my emotional attachment to the band was born.

 

[gvox]

Perhaps with those kind of skills, you could be a surgeon?

I've often wondered that, but unfortunately I'm not able to stand the sight of horrible injuries too much. I think I could do planned surgery *maybe*..where everything is clinical and precise and the patient is out cold...but operating on injured people, in an emergency setting? I'd probably pass out.

 

[Mount Temple]

My parents had separated around the time JT came out (eventually got back together).

I was 13, a freshman in high school. Had a theology teacher who was way the hell out there, far too progressive to last long in a traditional Catholic school, but he was a huge influence on me.
He had us bring in "victory music" to listen to during class. I'd had JT on cassette as a birthday present, and this guy praised my selection of "Still Haven't Found...".

Got through that craptacular era of my adolescence with the help of an awesome teacher and an amazing album, and my emotional attachment to the band was born.

Cool teacher. He seems like the kind of guy who you can talk to when needed and bounce music ideas off of.

Good Story.

 

[Blue Room]

Liked U2 a lot in 1984, went through 2 UABRS tapes. Became a big fan when I purchased the JT in 87. I wore out 3 cassettes of it and then bought the CD finally in late 88. Went to my first show in Chicago on the JT tour. Had nosebleed rafter seats, but still blew me away. Started collecting audio bootlegs in 1988. Began networking and made all kinds of U2 friends and connections, some are still my friends to this day.

Thats basically how it started for me and it snowballed from there.

 

[corianderstem]

We didn't have MTV at my house, but I remember seeing the videos for New Year's Day and Sunday Bloody Sunday. That was my first exposure to U2. A few years later (I'm pretty sure it was well after the album came out, maybe even after Joshua Tree came out?), a cousin bought me TUF on cassette for Christmas. I loved it.

When Rattle & Hum came out, that was the end of my "Hey, I like this U2 band" stage, and I went full steam ahead into "ZOMG U2 BEST BAND EVER I LUV YOU BONO!"

 

[rennowba]

U2 getting the outstanding contribution award at the brits in febuary 2001 got me obsessed

What a performance they did at the end,until the end of the world still is the single greatest tv performance by anyone in my opinion.

The main topic at school the next day was u2 and bono!

Bono was unreal, bono drives u2,without him it wouldnt be all possible.

It was bono that got me intrested in u2. He connected to me through my tv screen.

Bono is the most important person in u2, the way he can connect live is pure magic. Nobody will ever convince me otherwise.

This the one

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fktil1dQlYc

 

[Mount Temple]

Liked U2 a lot in 1984, went through 2 UABRS tapes. Became a big fan when I purchased the JT in 87. I wore out 3 cassettes of it and then bought the CD finally in late 88. Went to my first show in Chicago on the JT tour. Had nosebleed rafter seats, but still blew me away. Started collecting audio bootlegs in 1988. Began networking and made all kinds of U2 friends and connections, some are still my friends to this day. Thats basically how it started for me and it snowballed from there.

Because of U2, you now have important friends in your life. See...that is the power of music !

 

[Mount Temple]

We didn't have MTV at my house, but I remember seeing the videos for New Year's Day and Sunday Bloody Sunday. That was my first exposure to U2. A few years later (I'm pretty sure it was well after the album came out, maybe even after Joshua Tree came out?), a cousin bought me TUF on cassette for Christmas. I loved it. When Rattle & Hum came out, that was the end of my "Hey, I like this U2 band" stage, and I went full steam ahead into "ZOMG U2 BEST BAND EVER I LUV YOU BONO!"

I know the feeling! Great Story and Thanks.

 

[U2NativeSon]

Liked U2 a lot in 1984, went through 2 UABRS tapes. Became a big fan when I purchased the JT in 87. I wore out 3 cassettes of it and then bought the CD finally in late 88. Went to my first show in Chicago on the JT tour. Had nosebleed rafter seats, but still blew me away. Started collecting audio bootlegs in 1988. Began networking and made all kinds of U2 friends and connections, some are still my friends to this day.

Thats basically how it started for me and it snowballed from there.

Started for me around late 1982, but pretty much exactly the same. JT tour was my first show in D.C. and just kept collecting and listening.

Good story, I had gotten a new Walkman for XMAS '83, loved that thing, went to the beach when school got out, summer '84, took a few cassettes with me, War was one of them, on my way down I put it on, it got stuck in the Walkman, I never got it out, listened to War for an entire summer literally 15 times a day for like 75 days. Walkman had auto reverse, cassette had album on both sides... just kept playing and playing and playing

Fan for life... 30+ years and counting

 

[jeevey]

My parents had separated around the time JT came out (eventually got back together).

I was 13, a freshman in high school. Had a theology teacher who was way the hell out there, far too progressive to last long in a traditional Catholic school, but he was a huge influence on me.
He had us bring in "victory music" to listen to during class. I'd had JT on cassette as a birthday present, and this guy praised my selection of "Still Haven't Found...".

Got through that craptacular era of my adolescence with the help of an awesome teacher and an amazing album, and my emotional attachment to the band was born.

Funny, I also began listening to U2 at that age, also as my parents were splitting up- although mine stayed split. I remember thinking that I didn't like U2, then liking them a little-- but then once my mother brought home R&H on vhs the uncertainty was way over. I had been into boy bands and U2 were my first "man band". I remember being confused by the theatrics of Achtung Baby but being willing to go along for the ride because it was just so entrancing. Even though it was a big time for bands and there were man bands all over U2 had a certain visceral something that nobody else had.

 

[Vlaco]

I recieved Best Of 1980-1990 back in 1999 or 2000 (I was 15 back then). I did know some song titles, such as With Or Without You, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For and Sunday Bloody Sunday, but I didn't know how the songs actually sounded. The whole album blew me away and my curiosity and appreciation started. Then I began to discover there back catalogue and All That You Can't Leave Behind came out around that time. I saw Red Rocks on television and it struck me how powerful this band was. I went on the train and never stopped.....
The eighties are my favourite U2 decade, closely followed by the nineties. I have to admit that I'm disappointed by their post millenium output. I've seen them in 2005 and 2009 and while those shows were great, I have a gut feeling the magic has gone...

 

[chork]

Funny, I also began listening to U2 at that age, also as my parents were splitting up- although mine stayed split. I remember thinking that I didn't like U2, then liking them a little-- but then once my mother brought home R&H on vhs the uncertainty was way over. I had been into boy bands and U2 were my first "man band". I remember being confused by the theatrics of Achtung Baby but being willing to go along for the ride because it was just so entrancing. Even though it was a big time for bands and there were man bands all over U2 had a certain visceral something that nobody else had.

I rented R&H so many times that I broke the tape. This may have been a result of watching "Bad" on slo-mo many, many, many times...

AB was a massive awakening for me. I was halfway through my junior year in high school and was as stoic, serious and reserved as they come. I modeled my teenage self after my impressions of Bono, what I thought a good, righteous person was supposed to be. And the day the video for "The Fly" debuted, my little mind was truly blown. All of a sudden, these boys were dangerously sexy. Yet they still supported all of the ideals and causes I'd come to believe in through them. But now they were doing it in skin tight PVC trousers and oh my god look at that ass! Went through a period of complete confusion and guilt, but decided to jump on board at Zoo Station and spank my ass and call me Sally if I haven't profoundly enjoyed every second of it since!

 

[brooklynmike]

I'd borrowed the Achtung tape from someone when it came out and it was great. It was pretty much all I new of U2 back then except for With or Without You. Then Zooropa came out and I loved it too. I was a huge Guns N Roses fan back in 1994 or so when the ZooTV Sydney VHS tape came out. I went to Blockbuster video looking for Guns N Roses Live in Tokyo one day, but it was out. So I looked at the Live Concert section and stumbled on the Sydney tape. I didn't realize U2 was such a huge deal live back then as I didn't have MTV. Looked at the back for the setlist, and saw the stuff I knew from Achtung and Zooropa, so I rented it. On the way home I was psyched to see how they'd do Lemon and those other songs live. My first viewing of that concert and I was hooked for life. In one shot they'd booted Guns N Roses to second place in my mind, after being obsessed with GNR since 91 or so.

To this day, the performances of UTEOTW and Streets are the greatest for me. I'd never heard Angel of Harlem before and it and took the 3rd favorite slot. I've watched that show so many times I could recite the whole thing.

 

[cobl04]

I was 10 when Atty Club came out. I remember liking Beautiful Day, Elevation (the Tomb Raider Mix, I was very disappointed in the album version when I finally heard it) and Stuck. But my fandom began at 14, when Vertigo came out. I loved it, begged and received Hut Dab for Christmas, and by the time I got to track five, City of Blinding Lights, I had fallen in love. Soon after I bought Atty Club, then I joined this forum as COBL_04, bought all the other albums and made threads after listening to them once each, which is how I originally "made my name" here, so to speak.

 

[Mount Temple]

Started for me around late 1982, but pretty much exactly the same. JT tour was my first show in D.C. and just kept collecting and listening. Good story, I had gotten a new Walkman for XMAS '83, loved that thing, went to the beach when school got out, summer '84, took a few cassettes with me, War was one of them, on my way down I put it on, it got stuck in the Walkman, I never got it out, listened to War for an entire summer literally 15 times a day for like 75 days. Walkman had auto reverse, cassette had album on both sides... just kept playing and playing and playing Fan for life... 30+ years and counting

Cool story about the Walkman. I used my paper route money to buy a yellow Sony sports Walkman . That was the bomb back then. My first real cassette ever bought was. "UF" then a few years later when CD 'a debuted and my Dad dropped the serious bucks for a player, I picked up JT first day on my first of many CD's to come.

In

 

[Mount Temple]

I'd borrowed the Achtung tape from someone when it came out and it was great. It was pretty much all I new of U2 back then except for With or Without You. Then Zooropa came out and I loved it too. I was a huge Guns N Roses fan back in 1994 or so when the ZooTV Sydney VHS tape came out. I went to Blockbuster video looking for Guns N Roses Live in Tokyo one day, but it was out. So I looked at the Live Concert section and stumbled on the Sydney tape. I didn't realize U2 was such a huge deal live back then as I didn't have MTV. Looked at the back for the setlist, and saw the stuff I knew from Achtung and Zooropa, so I rented it. On the way home I was psyched to see how they'd do Lemon and those other songs live. My first viewing of that concert and I was hooked for life. In one shot they'd booted Guns N Roses to second place in my mind, after being obsessed with GNR since 91 or so. To this day, the performances of UTEOTW and Streets are the greatest for me. I'd never heard Angel of Harlem before and it and took the 3rd favorite slot. I've watched that show so many times I could recite the whole thing.

That video was pivotal concert release for a lot of people I think and it still thrills me whenever I watch it. Hands down my fave U2 period (1991-1993) as they were experimenting and artistically firing on all cylinders.

 

[Mount Temple]

I was 10 when Atty Club came out. I remember liking Beautiful Day, Elevation (the Tomb Raider Mix, I was very disappointed in the album version when I finally heard it) and Stuck. But my fandom began at 14, when Vertigo came out. I loved it, begged and received Hut Dab for Christmas, and by the time I got to track five, City of Blinding Lights, I had fallen in love. Soon after I bought Atty Club, then I joined this forum as COBL_04, bought all the other albums and made threads after listening to them once each, which is how I originally "made my name" here, so to speak.

You were a young pup back when ATTCLB came out. I didn't think many 10 year olds listened to "classic rock" in 2000 especially with all the hip- hop and boy band invasion going on then!

Glad you choose U2 and not Limp Bizkit! They never got the nookie or the cookie as far as I'm concerned.

 

[rennowba]

You were a young pup back when ATTCLB came out. I didn't think many 10 year olds listened to "classic rock" in 2000 especially with all the hip- hop and boy band invasion going on then!

Glad you choose U2 and not Limp Bizkit! They never got the nookie or the cookie as far as I'm concerned.

I choose both at the time u2 and limp bizkit were the first two bands i got into to limp bizkit was just a fad though and i soon grew out of them.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

My first u2 album was a cassette recording of Achtung Baby, which I ripped from my friend who got the CD for a penny from Columbia House. I was 12ish.

The first album I actually purchased myself was Pop. That was around the start of my obsessive phase.

 

[corianderstem]

I'm pretty sure my cassette copy of Joshua Tree came from Columbia House, too.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

How did they ever stay in business?

 

[brooklynmike]

The first album I actually purchased myself was Pop. That was around the start of my obsessive phase.

POP was my first new album release since becoming obsessed with the Sydney video. I remember hearing stories about previous U2 releases where there would be huge lines at record stores. So of course, I cut school the day POP is released and went to The Wiz in Brooklyn, first thing in the morning and expecting a line. No fanfare, no lines. Just a little cardboard kiosk with POP cd's. I bought one, ran to my car, popped it in the CD player and was promptly disappointed that it sounded nothing like what I was used to.

 

[super fly guy]

I remember hearing hmtmkmkm on the radio when I was about 11 or 12,I thought it was a cool song but didn't go beyond that. I really got into them when atyclb was released, me and my bro thought the video for elevation was really cool!

Then I bought the best of 1980-1990 and that was it,fell right into the deep end and haven't came out since. Only seen them 3 times though, twice in glasgow and once in chicago.

Even got a U2 tattoo now!

 

[Mount Temple]

POP was my first new album release since becoming obsessed with the Sydney video. I remember hearing stories about previous U2 releases where there would be huge lines at record stores. So of course, I cut school the day POP is released and went to The Wiz in Brooklyn, first thing in the morning and expecting a line. No fanfare, no lines. Just a little cardboard kiosk with POP cd's. I bought one, ran to my car, popped it in the CD player and was promptly disappointed that it sounded nothing like what I was used to.

Vancouver had a crazy midnight release party and DJ spinning U2 techno remixes for a couple of hours before being able to buy. I was really excited to go home and spin POP. I was not disappointed at all as it seemed a obvious step forward after Zooropa, even using Last Night On Earth from the Zooropa sessions. Great record and the last time U2 ever really went out on a limb instead of playing it safe.

Aaah yeah, great times in 1997.

 

[david]

I became a die hard fan during the Achtung Baby years. I slowly started buying their old albums and became fixated on U2s past and what I missed out on. My high school had Eaman Dunphy's Unforgettable Fire book and I checked it out and never returned it. I still have it.

 

[brooklynmike]

I must add that Bill Flanagan's book, U2 at the End of the World, was a powerful force in solidifying my obsession with U2. The book gave a 3 dimensional personal view of the band.

 

[jeevey]

I must add that Bill Flanagan's book, U2 at the End of the World, was a powerful force in solidifying my obsession with U2. The book gave a 3 dimensional personal view of the band.

What a super book, and not just for U2 fans. He's genuinely funny and enertaining. That had a big hand in my second wave fandom and full on obsession. That and the Slane Castle show, the UTEOTW performance specifically. One song is pretty much all it took for me to drink the Kool Aid.