How did PLEBAns first meet U2?

[Chrissie Clayton]

So my question is how did u girls get to know this fantastic Irish band?

My story: It was about 2 years ago, I went to one of my uncle's place(ok so he's about 30

) and he was watching MTV and Staring at the sun was on and I asked him who was this band, and he smiled at me and said: 'You've never heard about U2???' I said 'Yeah I have, but I just don't know anything about them.' Then my uncle gave me POP, and Best of and I listened to them, and now I'm a bigger U2 fan than he has ever been. But I know most of the songs, so I mean I've heard them somewhere, but I didn't know those were U2 songs...

Ok so now your stories?

 

[JennyBean]

Well when I was 9, and I saw ISHFWILF on MTV. I was mesmerized and have loved them ever since. I had such a crush on Bono when I was a kid! ISHFWILF is still my fave song because it reminds me of when I first saw them. When I went to Las Vegas in 1998 I walked down Fremont Street thinking U2 stood here. I know, I am such a dork!

 

[Bbug]

i guess since I was little (I'm 19). Um...I remember watching their videos and thinking how weird they were...like Streets, on the roof, etc. And then the appreciation deepened...actually, their last album was my least favourite, but i still love them. (((((U2)))))

 

[littleheartsuitcase]

I liked a few of their songs since I was little, specifically "Mysterious Ways" and "With or Without You", but only recently ('bout less than a year ago) when my mom got me ATYCLB did I fall in love with them and heavily got into their music and learned about the band members.

I'm so happy I did, too.

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-- Sara
the only baggage you can bring is all that you can't leave behind

[This message has been edited by littleheartsuitcase (edited 03-29-2002).]

 

[Jody]

My brother was a fan. One day when I was 7 he brought home JT. I was hooked from that moment on.

 

[dreams out loud]

I was about 4 maybe 5 (I am 24 now) and my mom put on a tape of different music videos to get me out of her hair ( my mom has always said that music brightens the soul) well about half way through the Video NYD came on and I was ... there is no words to describe how I felt, I still get chills when I watch that video. I remember I had I mickey mouse Record player and my mom Gave me her Copy of Boy and I played it non stop.

 

[UV2001]

I went to see a local band called "Opium" a couple of years back because I was mates with one of the lads in the band called John and I liked him at the time and he wanted me to go and see the band. One of the songs they played was With Or Without You. At the time I knew that I'd heard the song loads but didn't know who's song it was. A while later it was on the radio and I asked my dad who it was. He told me it was U2. Then about a week later One came on the radio so knowing I liked the song I asked who's song that was and he said U2 again. I was like but didn't they do WOWY? This went on with a few songs and after a while I realised I liked quite alot of U2 stuff and bought Achtung Baby and I loved the whole album. So I went on buying albums and singles from there.

U2 is the only thing I am grateful to John for

 

[daisybean]

Well, I was about 11 or 12, and it was during the whole JT frenzy. My sister used to love them and make me and my other sister listen to them all the time. We used to pick on her for it, and make silly jokes like 11 year olds will. However, they grew on me, and I became a bigger fan than she was.

------------------

*wink*

Daisy

I'm wide awake.....I'm not sleeping

 

[Autumn454]

I was 10 when I saw the WOWY video on MTV in 1987 and fell madly and eternally in love with JT Bono! I still carry a torch for him.

 

[spinninghead77]

I was 11. My best friends father forced us to turn off Kylie Minogue (when she was a pop star the first time around, with locamotion) so that he could listen to his new cd. I remember hearing a voice say "This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles, we're stealing it back.....When you get to the bottom you go back to the top, of the slide and you stop and you turn and you go for a ride and you get to the bottom and you see me again". My best friend and I started singing U2 songs on long car trips instead of Cyndia Lauper, and her father made me a copy of Rattle n' Hum, and the Joshua Tree. I was a pretty big fan, but still, just kid.

Fast forward to a few years later. I am about 14 years old and just starting to develop sexual feelings towards the opposite sex. I remember being at a friends house and I saw a music video. I had never really watched video's before. What I saw delighted me. It was a man wearing the tightest black leather pants that I had ever seen. I had to know who this man was. I had to know who this band was. They didn't sound like anything that I had ever heard before. So my friend pulled out Actung Baby and after just one listen I was sold. I couldn't belive that it was the same band as R & H, and JT, but I didn't care. I loved them!!

.....Of course all three times that I have seen them has just fueled my passion. I love this band more with every passing day.

I know that people like to diss Rattle n' Hum but it will always hold a special place in my heart, since it was my first U2 experience.

 

[spinninghead77]

I was 11. My best friends father forced us to turn off Kylie Minogue (when she was a pop star the first time around, with locamotion) so that he could listen to his new cd. I remember hearing a voice say "This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles, we're stealing it back.....When you get to the bottom you go back to the top, of the slide and you stop and you turn and you go for a ride and you get to the bottom and you see me again". My best friend and I started singing U2 songs on long car trips instead of Cyndia Lauper, and her father made me a copy of Rattle n' Hum, and the Joshua Tree. I was a pretty big fan, but still, just kid.

Fast forward to a few years later. I am about 14 years old and just starting to develop sexual feelings towards the opposite sex. I remember being at a friends house and I saw a music video. I had never really watched video's before. What I saw delighted me. It was a man wearing the tightest black leather pants that I had ever seen. I had to know who this man was. I had to know who this band was. They didn't sound like anything that I had ever heard before. So my friend pulled out Actung Baby and after just one listen I was sold. I couldn't belive that it was the same band as R & H, and JT, but I didn't care. I loved them!!

.....Of course all three times that I have seen them has just fueled my passion. I love this band more with every passing day.

I know that people like to diss Rattle n' Hum but it will always hold a special place in my heart, since it was my first U2 experience.

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***Spinny***
"I don't know about you, but I feel good about the fact that I still haven't found what I'm looking for"-Bono, 1987

"Be uncool, yes be akward!"

 

[*Ally*]

well, i had always known about U2 (i knew all their big hits, at least), but i was never a *huge* fan (i preferred guns n' roses at the time of my "conversion" to U2!!). this is how it happened:

when i was 14, my friends and i bought tickets to the Zoo TV Outside broadcast tour. we liked them and all, but i think we really bought the tickets because it was the "cool" thing to do- we were finally old enough to go to rock concerts on our own.

so i went to zoo tv, and had nosebleed seats. i wasn't expecting that much, but i was BLOWN AWAY by what i saw and heard that night! the very next day, i went out and bought every single U2 album (on cassette- lol!). luckily, a different friend of mine had an extra ticket for the second show the follwing day, so i got to see Zoo TV twice! ever since then, i have *worshipped* U2....

that's my story!!

 

[YellowKite]

I was 13 going on 14 and it was 1982. I heard Gloria and October from somewhere and it just clicked. I went out and got October and Boy on vinyl and proceeded to immerse myself. I had this old fold open record player with really crappy speakers and I just stacked those two albums on and let them play. They became more popular and I was able to go to a concert a few years later and I have been going ever since. I even got the whole extended family involved. My uncle - a priest - went to Eire in the summer of '83 and brought me back a T shirt and local magazine with the boys on the cover. Small beginnings.


------------------
Mone

You ain't nothin without a rhythm section to back you up.

"What Adam does with his willy is his business..." -Bono

 

[elevatedmole]

Well.. let's see.. here's the more compact version.

In 2000 I was allured by MTV and VH1 after being against music for so long. I watched for a few minutes every few days, to see if there was anything I liked. Weeks went by, never saw anything too interesting. Then one day I see this video that is really really gorgeous and a lovely tune and it hooks me right away. I absolutely LOVED the video on sight. I don't even know if I remember to look who it was when I first saw it. A few days later, I check back and MTV2 or VH1 or something like that is playing that gorgeous video again, and I realize.. OMG, this is U2! Where did I hear that name before? Oh, right, didn't my mom love U2 or something? So I watch and see the Beautiful Day video again, over and over for a while and become so totally obsessed with the video.
Then I ask my mom if she likes U2, she says she loves them and she says she went to ZooTV and the Joshua Tree tours. And then weeks pass, keep seeing the video and come to know it by heart. Then I realize.. hey, maybe I should get the album! Duh! So I buy the album for my mom for Christmas, then somehow I lose it.

So I didn't hear it for months. Then my mom says me and my aunt are going to a U2 concert in May, and she asks me to look online to see if there are any other cities they are going to that are close to us. I look and find atu2.com, I'm impressed and I look at the heart setup when it was first announced and I get so excited about it. Then somehow it is May, they have a new single out called Walk On that I love and know by heart. And then we are going to that concert! I go, and since it's 4 hours to that concert (yeah, we were insane even then!) my mom and aunt play the Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, and so on a lot in the car to get me familiar with the music. I fall in love with In God's Country and Bullet the Blue Sky and The Fly and Ultra Violet immediately. (Oh yes, did I mention that when I first heard my mom say "Bullet the Blue Sky" I thought she said "Bowl in the Blue Sky"?

Ah, the dumb innerworkings of a U2 newbie..)
Then somehow we are at the concert and I already am completely utterly obsessed even just with the opening of Elevation. I LOVE it. And so on. I just adored that concert. Then when we are leaving I am just going out of my mind, and realizing.. that was the best feeling I've ever had! That was the best thing that had ever happened to me. I remember it like it was yesterday.

Ugh, sorry to make this so long. I then went to 2 more concerts on leg 1 and became totally full-fledged fanatic by June. I have tons of U2 bookmarks, I'm on U2 mailing lists, I tape them when they are on TV, I listen to them night and day, etc. I then go to 5 more concerts on leg 3, and love them to death.
There, finished.

Finally. I get awfully wordy sometimes.

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"You must not look down on someone just 'cos they are 14 years old. When I was that age I listened to the music of John Lennon and it changed my way of seeing things, so I'm just glad that 14 year olds are coming to see U2 rather than group X." - Bono, 1988

[This message has been edited by elevatedmole (edited 03-29-2002).]

 

[OnTheEdge]

Ooo, another fuzzie thread! I heard BD on the radio shortly after it's release, liked it a lot. When they were on SNL Dec 2nd, I taped it. I was blown away. I watched over and over then became convinced I was insane, taped over it, and tried to forget.

But then I got ATYCLB for Christmas. I couldn't stop listening to it that day. Then I started collecting the albums, every couple of weeks I'd think *hey, time for another U2 album* and go to Fred Meyer.

I saw them in April in Tacoma, then became the fan I am now over much lawn mowing in summer to pay for the habit.

------------------
Laura
~~~
Something to do with politics, kids, freshness, and breakthrough.
And love.

(Joan Baez)
~~~

...what's a Bono?

 

[Crzy4Bono]

I was 17 and a senior in high school and heard "Stories for Boys" on a college radio station in Memphis. I loved that song, and then I saw them........ I became a fan then. Then I became a fanatic when I saw U2 perform at Live Aid in 1985 and the rest is history.

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She's gonna dream up a world she wants to live in / She's gonna dream out loud.
Visit my web page at www.u2page.com

 

[mc]

i first fell in love with u2 when i was 11 and heard staring at the sun for the first time. its was during the time when i was fascinated by boybands so i was shocked that a song could mean so much more. i used play it on repeat constantly. but it wasnt till november '00 that i really got into them. my brother (also a huge fan and has been for many years) brought home 'all that u cant..' and played it at full volume for a few weeks. i was dying to listen to it but he never gave me the chance because he constantly was listening to it. so i had to nick it every time he went to the toilet and stuff.
i love hearing stories about how other ppl fell in love with u2.

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----Maria----

what you dont have you dont need it now

 

[Mrs.Clayton]

Originally posted by On The Edge:
Ooo, another fuzzie thread! I heard BD on the radio shortly after it's release, liked it a lot. When they were on SNL Dec 2nd, I taped it. I was blown away. I watched over and over then became convinced I was insane, taped over it, and tried to forget.

You taped over it?!?!?!?! What were you thinking?!?!?! Oh my goodness, please tell me you recorded it again. I taped it twice on the same tape, but I have to put it on my backup tape-just in case.

I got into U2 the same way On The Edge did...Saturday Night Live. Let's just say since then, it's all been downhill(or is that uphill?) from there. I really don't want to bore anyone here with the details. I'm documenting my "fandom" in writing on my computer-kind of like diary style. An entire page descirbes U2 on Saturday Night Live, you can see why I don't even want to get started on this thread.
If anyone wants to read it(help proofread my jumbled mess), email me. I'd love imput from anyone.
On The Edge, I'm still going to email you with questions about the Tacoma show-I haven't forgotten(I just haven't done any of this in awhile).



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mrs_clayton@hotmail.com

 

[spinninghead77]

*Is so jealous of people that remembered hearing songs from Boy, or War when they were new!

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***Spinny***
"I don't know about you, but I feel good about the fact that I still haven't found what I'm looking for"-Bono, 1987

"Be uncool, yes be akward!"

 

[OnTheEdge]

Originally posted by Mrs.Clayton:

You taped over it?!?!?!?! What were you thinking?!?!?! Oh my goodness, please tell me you recorded it again. I taped it twice on the same tape, but I have to put it on my backup tape-just in case.

I felt silly!

But I did re-record it.

lol @ your care

I would love to read your jumbled mess! You made me start thinking about doing the same thing... I kept a diary when I went to Utah for U2, I don't usually keep a diary. It turned out pretty good. *hmmm*
I'll email you too.

------------------
Laura
~~~
Something to do with politics, kids, freshness, and breakthrough.
And love.

(Joan Baez)
~~~

...what's a Bono?

 

[Jam Jar]

'twas 1993. i was 7 and i saw the numb video! (fell in lurve with edge >cough< >cough< anyways- i didn't really know who they were! i kept hearing HMTMKMKM and seeing the vid- but the name didn't stick in my head- then, finally i got the best of album- and listened to it nonstop-bought all the albums, have quite a few singles, rare shtuff, books, etc- but i just LOVE the music and who they are and how real they are- not fake like most of the "music" today and now i am a certified U2 nut

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Be uncool, yes be awkward
"I look cool, i am cool"- Lardence
9:55: With a bit of a wink in his eye, Edge apologizes for last year's rambling Grammy
speech, then begins to natter on again. You go, Dave! ~ from Rolling Stone mag, at the Grammy's

i talk too much, so talk with me! AIM: BoNovoX2U2
or talk to me through evil MSN : u2jamjar@hotmail.com

 

[Kristie]

Okay, now that I'm sneaking up on 600 posts, I have a confession. I've been trying to hide this, but...
I've only been a fan for six months. *hides*
This is why I missed Elevation in my town (and everywhere else!), cos they showed up there like two weeks before I discovered them. But it started long before that, oh yes... (I tell this story a lot)
*wavy screen and dreamy music*
I 'member being a young'un, roundabouts 1990 (I was seven!) and seeing the Streets video (not knowing it was U2) and developing a serious crush on that long-haired singer fellow. The leg had cast its spell on me even then! Not to mention it's a damn cool video (still my favorite!).
THEEEN a few years later I saw the Mysterious Ways video... ooooh yeah.. and again developing a crush on that long-haired singer fellow, not knowing it was the same fellow. Yum! Of course, I never let on that I liked either video.. for some reason I thought I'd get in trouble for them being too sexual. I blame that on Bono.
AFTER THAT, in late September, I was looking for a CD to buy and Beautiful Day came on the radio, and the DJ guy is like "that's Beautiful Day from U2!" So I says to myself, "I think I might like a U2 cd..." eventually I was at Wal-Mart and I said so to my brother, and he insisted on picking one out cos I didn't know which one to get. He picked the Best Of... which I then listened to for two weeks SOLID until I got JT. I was like, "HEY it's the song with the LEG! Hey, I know this song! Hey, this is a good song!!!" I kept finding U2 songs that I always liked but never knew who did them (see most of AB).
And, as you know, Adam eventually tempted me from the Bonoside.
/rant

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~ALOTWU!~
"It never ceases to amaze me. Here, we have a man who claims professes to enjoy flower arranging, has no qualms over donning a skirt at any given time and, now we learn, prefers to use the ladies' restroom. And yet somehow he manages to embody all that is masculine and sexy. I don't know how he does it. " ~Gina, on Adam
Gina: WOOHOO!

 

[Discoteque]

"met" them way back in about 1983 when they burst onto the Milwaukee airwaves...MET them (mostly Edge!) last November in Vegas, LA and Dallas. THRILLING beyond words...and I was SO tired, I really could hardly talk!

 

[sparkys girl]

Gloria first introduced to this band

and the gorgeous man in the poofy blond hair sometime in 1983. i was only 11 yrs old, i loved the music and i thought adam was 'cute' and different. kinda dangerous looking (gotta love the bad boys)!

many years later, not alot has changed! U2 rOcKs!!!

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*+*MaRiA*+*
she is the dreamer, she's imagination...

[This message has been edited by sparkys girl (edited 03-29-2002).]

 

[hotpepper]

My U2 story is pretty simple. It was during the War era. My sister was 11, I was 21. I was home on a visit from college and by baby sister was listening the New Year's Day. I've been hooked every since (and so has she). I became a MAJOR fan after seeing them two nights in row in Phoenix in 1987.

 

[hippy]

Okay, so this is the story...

I had a really hard senior year of high school (2000) and I was almost at my wits end...as in, I was about to give up on life. And one particularly bad morning I just happened to turn on the tv (something I almost never did) and I just happened to be sitting in front of the tv when this incredible song and video came on...and I sat there and bawled. I couldn't go to school that day...I just stayed glued to the television trying to see that video again and wondering where I could get that song.

And in the process of watching tv they gave all the album info. I marked the release date on my calendar and vowed to buy it as soon as it came out. And I did...and it was the best purchase and the best thing that happened to me that year. I listened to ATYCLB non-stop for the next three months.

When they announced the tour dates I knew I wanted to go, but alas, I was too late to get tickets. So I waited and struggled through one of the hardest years of my life...I was accepted to college in Miami, but wasn't too happy with life in general...

Fast forward: Miami, December 02, 2001
Life changed again and I won't go into it here...but here I am in the throes of an obsession I don't mind having

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Mirror mirror hanging in the sky, won't you look down to what's happening here below? I stand here singing to the flowers. So very few people really know. I dare a man to say I'm too young, for I'm going to try for the sun.

It's back. The fight. So is anyone giving way? It's just like in the beginning. The tears. Their eyes. Why isn't anyone giving way? It's just like in the beginning?

And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

 

[Lise]

Let?s see, it all started when I was five and my father used to play WOWY a lot. I grew to love that song. Then my sister liked Mysterious Ways and I also grew to love that song. Keep in mind I really wasn?t into music and didn?t even know U2 sang those songs, I mainly liked to read. Then I got into music and I heard Discotheque on the radio and I found out U2 sang that song and brought the album POP. This was my 1st U2 album and even though it was criticized here in the states I really loved and still love that album. It?s one of my favorites and really special to me.
Then I sort of drifted away from music and then it all changed at the 2001 Grammy?s. I was rooting for a group * coughnsynccough * (I was at the teenybopper phase so don?t ask me why I loved their songs although they are catchy). Then I saw U2 perform Beautiful Day. Their performance just blew me away. Then they won all the Grammy?s they were nominated in and I just had to buy ATYCLB. I then started to buy all of their albums and that?s when I realized that I actually grew up listening to U2 and I just wasn?t paying attention to them, something I really regret.
Ever since that day I became a really big U2 fan and I was finally able to see my first and only U2 concert here in NYC on Oct. 25. I?ll never forget that day and till this day I kick myself for not appreciating U2 and being a fan of theirs since a long time. So the U2 fans out there who have been fans of theirs for a long time are really lucky.
Sorry about my post being so long.


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~*~Keep your head up cause a new day's gonna come...Midnight--Oh...she can't sleep she's afraid to dream...My Spanish Rose~*~

[This message has been edited by Lise (edited 03-30-2002).]

 

[madonna's child]

I became intrested in them with the new album. I liked Beautiful Day, so I downloaded that mp3 and maybe like 8 others. But I wasn't in love with them. I kept debating on buying ATYCLB (I can't tell you how many times I analyzed the back cover in the store. What is a Wild Honey? Would I like a song called Grace?) But I kept putting off buying it. I even was happy when the won Record of the Year (beating Madonna) but I didn't make the jump to buy the album.

Then in May they came to my hometown for a one night show. I wanted to go, but waited too long and tickets sold out. You know how when you can't have something, it's the only thing you want? Well, all I suddenly wanted to do was see U2. All evening when they were on stage, I sat at home kicking myself and thinking "damn, Bono's on stage right now." (I did not yet know the other members's names.)

So, about a week after the concert I didn't go to, I started surfing the internet for U2 stuff. I read a bio, learned who the drummer guitarist and bassist were, found some cute pictures. And THEN I found Interference. I joined, and the rest is history.

Interference made me a fan. When I joined this forum, less then a year ago, I didn't even own an album. Now I have them all. I'm officially addicted.

------------------
Who's gonna ride your wild horses?

Won't you kiss me on that MIDNIGHT STREET, sweep me OFF MY FEET, singing 'ain't this life SO SWEET?' -David Gray

Love,
Emily

Visit my webpage for U2 wallpapers:
www.geocities.com/springtime5348/index.html

 

[JennyBean]

Guys thanks for sharing your stories. You are making me get all teary-eyed here. I am getting all sentimental for when I first discovered them. I have major PLEBA fuzzies right now!

 

[WildHonee]

PLEBA played a big part in this

I'd always KNOWN about U2, like I listened to all kinds of music with my older brothers when I was really young. The only songs I really liked were Angel of Harlem and Sweetest Thing.

THEN all the hype about them COMING BACK ~ I somehow got swept into all that, with the release of Beautiful Day and ATYCLB. BD was the first vid I think I saw when Iwas actually like "This is U2. This is GOOD."

And then I kept my brother's AB CD hostage for MONTHS....heheh and just borrowed all his U2 stuff and got familiar with it all.

Then I stumbled onto PLEBA one day. *HALLELUJAH CHORUS* And that incresaes your fanness SO MUCH. I mean....I finally learned who the other guys in the band were.

Also. Heehee *crush on Bono* always helps.

------------------
~*Mona*~

LOVE me, give me SOUL
"I?m old enough to feel the way I do and I know that you are true" ~Pete Yorn

"Rock n Roll never tasted so good" ~Bono
Get on the Boos
"For the good of the nation, you must defile Bono!" ? Echo