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).]