who introduced u 2 U2?

[OnFire]

Every time I see the October cover photo I think of Derek. He was just about a dead ringer for Bono in that photo, especially the hair.

We met in the fall of 1981 when we were both freshmen at a fairly large urban university. He was one of those guys that was into all the new obscure groups, Bauhaus, Echo, Joy Division, which was all new to me coming from a semi-rural high school. I was on a pretty tight budget then and had to pass on the one opportunity I had to see U2 do a club show with him.

It was all Derek talked about for weeks, said the singer made unblinking, direct eye contact with every member of the audience for what seemed like twenty minutes. When War came out Derek's attitude was, "well that was fun while it lasted but they're for the masses now." Still, neither of us begrudged them their success. They were a talented band with decent people who deserved their success. Besides, New Years Day blew away everything else on commercial radio stations at that time.

Sadly, Derek never got to hear everything U2 put out. He died of non-hodgkins lymphoma in the spring of 1988. Sorry to end this post on a bummer perhaps some of you have more uplifting stories of the person who introduced you to U2.

 

[Dorian Gray]

My dad, of all people, first introduced me to U2. One of my first musical memories is of him blasting Joshua Tree from our living room stereo. It's weird because he normally listens to classical, and has almost no rock records in his collection. So I'll never forget the surprise of hearing Bullet the Blue Sky pounding from the speakers when I was seven years old.

It's a good memory

 

[isabelle_guns]

The radio did

 

[maro_chik]

My brother had a friend back in the early 90's who was a diehard U2 fan. I had a bit of a crush on him, so I got my hands on a copy of Zooropa. ...Plus I liked everything else that I had heard of U2.

So he introduced me to U2 I guess, but I became the diehard fan that I am today in September of 2001. I was going for my driver's test, and I needed to calm my nerves beforehand, so I popped in The Joshua Tree and fell in love all over again.

 

[beli]

Countdown, Countdown, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, Countdown!!!!

Really bad attempt at theme song to music show I watched religiously in my youth.

Until they cancelled it the week after my 21st birthday.

 

[tiny dancer]

The radio did

Same here also.

 

[najeena]

MTV, back in days when they played videos. It was Gloria, and it blew my mind.

 

[MissZooropa]

The biggest love in my life, kind of. He asked around if someone wanted to go and see this band called U2 live that week, it was 92. I had never heard of them and thought it was too obvious why I went if I said yes so I didn't but I borrowed AB and was just about to turn it off after 20 sec into Zoo Station. I didn't. One year later I DID go with him and two others to Zooropa and after that I was knocked down always and forever and it just gets "worse"...

 

[david]

My aunt in 1989 left her Rattle and Hum cassette tape lying around so I listened to it a lot when I was alone because I was 12 and embarrassed to listen to music in front of my family for some reason.

I kind of forgot about them (U2) after that until 1991 anyway.

 

[PennyPyro]

It was a book by Steve Turner: "Imagine: a vision for Christians in the arts."

 

[anitram]

My cousin. She was 3 years older than me and introduced me to Achtung Baby when it came out. I was 12 going on 13.

 

[bayernfc]

It was my cousin (6/7 yrs older i think) for me too around when POP came out and i guess i was about 15....... I always thought he had the best music collection, so i borrowed a couple of CDs (Joshua Tree & Achtung Baby) and the rest is history..... he (or rather his CDs) is also responsible for my Police and Clash addictions!!

 

[fah]

My brother (3 years younger than me) bought 'Boy' when it was releasedd and played it loudly. Whenever he left the house I would sneak into his room, grab the record and take it to my room and play it loudly.

 

[pepokiss]

It was a mixture of 3 things:

- Batman Forever
- A music videos channel here that kept on showing ONE
- My brother that wanted to see the premiere of "Discotheque" and woke me up at 10 am on a saturday ... I listened very angry

 

[Angela Harlem]

Video Hits did

 

[madonna's child]

mtv

 

[Schmeg]

When I was little, my dad used to work nights, and come home and watch MTV and eat TV dinners in the morning. I'd get up to try to steal the brownie from the TV dinner, and see what he was watching. Thanks to Amtrak, Stouffer's, and MTV, I knew the words to all the hits before I was five years old.

I was more formerly introduced by my college friend Mary, who was almost as obsessed as I am today. Because of her, I realized there were three other guys in the band, One was not on The Joshua Tree, and the band that wrote Where the Streets Have No Name was the same band that wrote Staring at the Sun, and I should have listened to it more rather than laughing at the mockery from the radio dj's and changed the channel.

 

[OnFire]

*sigh*, I knew bringing this up would make me feel old, although it looks like a few of you might be about my age. Still good to know younger folk have good taste in music and so do some of their parents.

 

[geenie]

My parents were playing U2 on the stereo since I was in utero so I guess I have been a U2 fan my whole life. My earliest memory of their music was when I was two years old and my mom and I were vacuuming the carpets while War was blasting in the background. I just love U2 memories!

 

[catatonic bish]

i was 12 years old in 1983...when my grandmother made me a copy of Under A Blood Red Sky from her vinyl pressing.

the rest is history.

 

[Axver]

I grew up with U2. There's no introducting about it; they were always one of those bands that Everyone Knows And Likes. I can't imagine the world even existing without U2.

And yes, I was born two months before the release of The Joshua Tree.

 

[beli]

On Fire, I should have been more specific. Countdown finished in the 80's ie I was watching Gloria, New Years Day etc. ie Im old

 

[u2popmofo]

MTV and the radio.

I remember liking the videos for Numb and Lemon, so I bought Zooropa. I sure wish MTV still played music....

 

[Tomer]

a friend did

thanks for that mate

 

[Sue DeNym]

MTV, back in days when they played videos. It was Gloria, and it blew my mind.

Same here, except it was "New Year's Day" for me. That immediately caught my attention; I could tell these guys were unique, not another assembly line New Wave band. The fact that they're still performing together, 25 years later, proves my intuition was correct.

 

[nick_u2]

My brother introduced me in 1998 to the Sweetest Thing

I always knew who they were but I really like that song. Then in 2000 before Beautiful Day came out, my brother played me Sunday Bloody Sunday and Like a Song and I was hooked

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

The radio introduced me as well, along with my sister-after 9/11, she was listening to a lot of the stuff off of ATYCLB, and so I was hearing that around the house, and liked what I'd heard. So those songs combined with the stuff I heard on the radio caused something to click, and on things went from there.

Oh, yeah, ABC Family also had a hand in introducing me to more of their music when they showed the Elevation Boston concert. .

Angela

 

[The Sage]

I was introduced by the radio, when I was about 10/11 when Staring At The Sun was released...they had very occasionaly played Sunday Bloody Sunday & Where The Streets Have No Name before, which I liked, but SATS was the first U2 song I really loved. The first album I ever bought was U2's Best of 80-90, so U2's been my favourite band really ever since I 'got into' music.

 

[shy]

I was 13-14 in 1983, when I saw to the first time "New Years Day " live Red Rocks video...
Patricia

 

[madamadam]

MuchMusic (canadian music tv) played alot of U2 and sparked my interest, then VH1 had U2 marathon day when ATYCLB came out and I watched from start to finish. Then beautiful day played over and over and i was sick of anything U2. So, as a joke, my bro gave me ATYCLB for my b-day and i ended up loving it. Long story short; Thanks bro.