HelloAngel
ONE love, blood, life
By Teresa Rivas
2005.05
Because not every U2 fan has followed the band since vinyl was the format to get music in, Interference.com presents "U2 for Neophytes," a two-part series giving newbies the basics on the band. This installment focuses on U2's early years.
You've just discovered U2, either from the newest album, videos, iPod commercial, Vertigo Tour or countless TV and awards show appearances. So now what?
Maybe you just picked up a copy of the band's first greatest hits collection and were delighted to learn the band that made your favorite anthems from the '80s is also responsible for the soundtrack of your misguided '90s youth, however divergent the two eras seem. Maybe you realized that a large number of synapses in your brain were dedicated to the impulse to dance and sing along with Bono every time you see the iPod commercial. Or maybe you finally gave in to all your fanatical friends' cajoling and decided to listen to "Achtung Baby," just to see what all the fuss is about.
But now, there's no going back. You're hooked and there's nothing you can do about it. You're one of them now, and to quote your new favorite singer/songwriter/poet, you're taking steps that make you feel dizzy and you learn to like the way it feels.
But how do you compete with all your new compatriots? They've got years of a head start, listening to albums, going to concerts, posting online and dressing up as random band members to the bemusement and confusion of their Halloween party guests.
Well, you cheat. Maybe the young, white-flag-waving Bono wouldn't approve of this solution, but surely MacPhisto would. The trick is to learn all the basics that every fan knows so you won't accidentally expose your novice green, expound on some deeper background to contribute meaningfully to conversation and then be able to astound the long-time fans with knowledge of little known trivia.
If you're already a U2 fanatic, you likely already know everything I'm about to say, and much more, but read on for some nostalgic feelings of when you first started amassing your great arsenal of U2 wisdom. Besides, everything you know is wrong.
First, the basics:
Dublin.
4 members.
4 decades.
28 years.
42 singles.
75 awards.
500+ songs.
And counting.
Now for background and trivia. Officially there are 14 U2 albums ("Boy," "October," "War," "Under a Blood Red Sky," "The Unforgettable Fire," "The Joshua Tree," "Rattle and Hum," "Achtung Baby," "Zooropa," "Pop," "The Best of 1980-1990," "All That You Can't Leave Behind," "The Best of 1990-2000" and "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb"), hence Bono's exuberant Spanish chant in the beginning of "Vertigo"—ones, two, three, 14! Album and song titles that are longer than most, like "All That You Can't Leave Behind" or "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me," are routinely abbreviated with the first letter of each word (ATYCLB and HMTMKMKM, respectively), making for interesting acronyms.
Yet this is not as straightforward of a count as it seems. The red-headed stepchildren of U2 discography include the quasi-albums, "Wide Awake in America," "Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1," "Melon" and "Hasta La Vista Baby." The latter two were discs sent to members of U2's now-defunct fan club, Propaganda, and are now out of print. "WAIA" was a mostly-live collection featuring songs from "The Unforgettable Fire" tour, but unlike earlier live collection "Under a Blood Red Sky," isn't counted by the band as a full album. "Passengers" was a creative collaboration with producer Brian Eno featuring Luciano Pavarotti and was more non-traditional than other U2 projects—soundtracks for movies that didn't necessarily exist—and isn't actually credited to U2 but instead to Passengers.
You may have heard of schisms within the fan community between "The Joshua Tree" and the "Achtung Baby" camps. Basically, these people think that their respective album was U2's best and have less respect for the decade defined by "that other album." It's a nasty business, with the "JT" camp claiming that they have been loyal fans from the start as opposed to the parvenus of the '90s, and the "AB" camp pointing out the undeniable fact that for a good portion of the '80s Bono sported a mullet. With the emergence of "ATYCLB" and U2's third decade of chart-topping albums, a new, smaller camp has materialized, with their Zionist view of the '00s. Perhaps the "JT" and "AB" camps will someday be united under their mutual hatred for these new contenders, but overall these divisions are hardly shattering.
U2 is comprised of all its original members who have been together since responding to drummer Larry Mullen Jr.'s school message board posting to form a band in 1976. Bono (Paul Hewson) showed up claiming to be able to sing and play the guitar, two skills he had yet to acquire. Adam Clayton became bassist by default since no other candidates for the instrument arrived. The Edge's (then known as Dave Evans) brother, Dik, was also a part of the band for a while, sharing guitar duties with his younger sibling, though, like the fifth Beatle, left before the band became successful to join his fellow Dubliners' avant-garde rock group The Virgin Prunes and attend university. So the seminal gathering, also including Ivan McCormick (though history has often listed his brother Neil as part of the original lineup) and Larry's friend Peter Martin, played their first songs (Rolling Stones covers) in the Mullen kitchen with the curtains drawn so Larry's female admirers wouldn't be a distraction.
Bono is a shortened version of "Bono Vox," Latin for "good hearing" or "good voice," named after a Dublin hearing aid store. He was christen by his friends in Lypton Village, a group of teenagers who had formed their own utopian society and felt people should be named to reflect their character, and included Guggi (born Derek Rowan) and Gavin Friday (born Fionan Hanvey), lifelong friends of Bono's who founded The Virgin Prunes. None of the other members of the U2 were part of the Village, though because of his nickname (given in honor of either the young guitarist's facial features, penchant for hanging on the outskirts of a crowd or fondness for walking along the edges of walls and the like) Edge was probably closest to also being in that group. After teetering between the names Feedback and The Hype, the band finally settled on U2, a name suggested by graphic designer Steve Averill, mostly for its ambiguous nature.
Within four years of its founding, U2 got a proper manager, Paul McGuinness, and a contract with Island Records in large part thanks to winning ₤500 and a chance to record a demo at the Harp Lager/Evening Press Talent Contest held in Limerick on March 17, 1978. However, England proved a harder sell and before they could sign on Island's dotted line in 1980, U2 had to endure playing to single digit crowds billed as "The U2s" and "V2."
In October 1980, "Boy," produced by Steve Lillywhite, was released and broke into the top 100 of the US charts. It was youthful exuberance and the fruition of four years of playing together. The boy on the cover (Peter Rowan, Guggi's younger brother) was removed from some American issues because record companies were wary of pedophilia implications because he is not wearing a shirt. Rowan would later appear on the covers of U2's third album, "War," and the first greatest hits release.
Despite the success of "Boy," "October" which came the following year, almost never was after three women from Portland, Oregon, worked their way backstage after a concert and absconded with the band's yearlong labor on their second album. The band had always asked for Bono's missing lyrics whenever playing in Oregon, and, two decades after the disappearance, these pleas were answered by a woman who found them in her home and alerted the band, returning the lyrics to Bono when he was in Portland for the World Affairs Council of Oregon's speaker series in 2004.
Though you know by now that U2 rose from early setbacks (including a chilly popular and critical response to "October") to become one of rock's biggest bands, along the way the band had more than its fair share of success, controversy and disappointments, all of which will be discussed in our next installment.
Information for this article was taken from @U2, Interference.com, U2.com, U2FAQ.com, "Bono: His Life, Music and Passions," "Into the Heart: The Stories Behind Every U2 Song," "U2: At the End of the World," "U2: The Ultimate Encyclopedia," NME, The Oregonian and Rolling Stone.
2005.05
Because not every U2 fan has followed the band since vinyl was the format to get music in, Interference.com presents "U2 for Neophytes," a two-part series giving newbies the basics on the band. This installment focuses on U2's early years.
You've just discovered U2, either from the newest album, videos, iPod commercial, Vertigo Tour or countless TV and awards show appearances. So now what?
Maybe you just picked up a copy of the band's first greatest hits collection and were delighted to learn the band that made your favorite anthems from the '80s is also responsible for the soundtrack of your misguided '90s youth, however divergent the two eras seem. Maybe you realized that a large number of synapses in your brain were dedicated to the impulse to dance and sing along with Bono every time you see the iPod commercial. Or maybe you finally gave in to all your fanatical friends' cajoling and decided to listen to "Achtung Baby," just to see what all the fuss is about.
But now, there's no going back. You're hooked and there's nothing you can do about it. You're one of them now, and to quote your new favorite singer/songwriter/poet, you're taking steps that make you feel dizzy and you learn to like the way it feels.
But how do you compete with all your new compatriots? They've got years of a head start, listening to albums, going to concerts, posting online and dressing up as random band members to the bemusement and confusion of their Halloween party guests.
Well, you cheat. Maybe the young, white-flag-waving Bono wouldn't approve of this solution, but surely MacPhisto would. The trick is to learn all the basics that every fan knows so you won't accidentally expose your novice green, expound on some deeper background to contribute meaningfully to conversation and then be able to astound the long-time fans with knowledge of little known trivia.
If you're already a U2 fanatic, you likely already know everything I'm about to say, and much more, but read on for some nostalgic feelings of when you first started amassing your great arsenal of U2 wisdom. Besides, everything you know is wrong.
First, the basics:
Dublin.
4 members.
4 decades.
28 years.
42 singles.
75 awards.
500+ songs.
And counting.
Now for background and trivia. Officially there are 14 U2 albums ("Boy," "October," "War," "Under a Blood Red Sky," "The Unforgettable Fire," "The Joshua Tree," "Rattle and Hum," "Achtung Baby," "Zooropa," "Pop," "The Best of 1980-1990," "All That You Can't Leave Behind," "The Best of 1990-2000" and "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb"), hence Bono's exuberant Spanish chant in the beginning of "Vertigo"—ones, two, three, 14! Album and song titles that are longer than most, like "All That You Can't Leave Behind" or "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me," are routinely abbreviated with the first letter of each word (ATYCLB and HMTMKMKM, respectively), making for interesting acronyms.
Yet this is not as straightforward of a count as it seems. The red-headed stepchildren of U2 discography include the quasi-albums, "Wide Awake in America," "Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1," "Melon" and "Hasta La Vista Baby." The latter two were discs sent to members of U2's now-defunct fan club, Propaganda, and are now out of print. "WAIA" was a mostly-live collection featuring songs from "The Unforgettable Fire" tour, but unlike earlier live collection "Under a Blood Red Sky," isn't counted by the band as a full album. "Passengers" was a creative collaboration with producer Brian Eno featuring Luciano Pavarotti and was more non-traditional than other U2 projects—soundtracks for movies that didn't necessarily exist—and isn't actually credited to U2 but instead to Passengers.
You may have heard of schisms within the fan community between "The Joshua Tree" and the "Achtung Baby" camps. Basically, these people think that their respective album was U2's best and have less respect for the decade defined by "that other album." It's a nasty business, with the "JT" camp claiming that they have been loyal fans from the start as opposed to the parvenus of the '90s, and the "AB" camp pointing out the undeniable fact that for a good portion of the '80s Bono sported a mullet. With the emergence of "ATYCLB" and U2's third decade of chart-topping albums, a new, smaller camp has materialized, with their Zionist view of the '00s. Perhaps the "JT" and "AB" camps will someday be united under their mutual hatred for these new contenders, but overall these divisions are hardly shattering.
U2 is comprised of all its original members who have been together since responding to drummer Larry Mullen Jr.'s school message board posting to form a band in 1976. Bono (Paul Hewson) showed up claiming to be able to sing and play the guitar, two skills he had yet to acquire. Adam Clayton became bassist by default since no other candidates for the instrument arrived. The Edge's (then known as Dave Evans) brother, Dik, was also a part of the band for a while, sharing guitar duties with his younger sibling, though, like the fifth Beatle, left before the band became successful to join his fellow Dubliners' avant-garde rock group The Virgin Prunes and attend university. So the seminal gathering, also including Ivan McCormick (though history has often listed his brother Neil as part of the original lineup) and Larry's friend Peter Martin, played their first songs (Rolling Stones covers) in the Mullen kitchen with the curtains drawn so Larry's female admirers wouldn't be a distraction.
Bono is a shortened version of "Bono Vox," Latin for "good hearing" or "good voice," named after a Dublin hearing aid store. He was christen by his friends in Lypton Village, a group of teenagers who had formed their own utopian society and felt people should be named to reflect their character, and included Guggi (born Derek Rowan) and Gavin Friday (born Fionan Hanvey), lifelong friends of Bono's who founded The Virgin Prunes. None of the other members of the U2 were part of the Village, though because of his nickname (given in honor of either the young guitarist's facial features, penchant for hanging on the outskirts of a crowd or fondness for walking along the edges of walls and the like) Edge was probably closest to also being in that group. After teetering between the names Feedback and The Hype, the band finally settled on U2, a name suggested by graphic designer Steve Averill, mostly for its ambiguous nature.
Within four years of its founding, U2 got a proper manager, Paul McGuinness, and a contract with Island Records in large part thanks to winning ₤500 and a chance to record a demo at the Harp Lager/Evening Press Talent Contest held in Limerick on March 17, 1978. However, England proved a harder sell and before they could sign on Island's dotted line in 1980, U2 had to endure playing to single digit crowds billed as "The U2s" and "V2."
In October 1980, "Boy," produced by Steve Lillywhite, was released and broke into the top 100 of the US charts. It was youthful exuberance and the fruition of four years of playing together. The boy on the cover (Peter Rowan, Guggi's younger brother) was removed from some American issues because record companies were wary of pedophilia implications because he is not wearing a shirt. Rowan would later appear on the covers of U2's third album, "War," and the first greatest hits release.
Despite the success of "Boy," "October" which came the following year, almost never was after three women from Portland, Oregon, worked their way backstage after a concert and absconded with the band's yearlong labor on their second album. The band had always asked for Bono's missing lyrics whenever playing in Oregon, and, two decades after the disappearance, these pleas were answered by a woman who found them in her home and alerted the band, returning the lyrics to Bono when he was in Portland for the World Affairs Council of Oregon's speaker series in 2004.
Though you know by now that U2 rose from early setbacks (including a chilly popular and critical response to "October") to become one of rock's biggest bands, along the way the band had more than its fair share of success, controversy and disappointments, all of which will be discussed in our next installment.
Information for this article was taken from @U2, Interference.com, U2.com, U2FAQ.com, "Bono: His Life, Music and Passions," "Into the Heart: The Stories Behind Every U2 Song," "U2: At the End of the World," "U2: The Ultimate Encyclopedia," NME, The Oregonian and Rolling Stone.
