HEADLINE: U2 Boy Has Finally Found What He Is Looking For; Photographer
Peter Hopes To Be Snapped Up By Rock Mags
BYLINE: Neil Michael
PETER Rowan, the boy who U2 made famous on the cover of an album is seeking
his fortune at the other end of the camera.
But now the "boy" the band plastered over early albums has grown up to map
out a career of his own.
"I'm working as a general commercial photographer at the moment, but I want
to do more Rolling Stone magazine kind of stuff," he said last night.
Peter shot to fame on album covers in 1980 and 1983. Then his brother Guggi
was the lead singer of The Virgin Prunes and a close pal of U2 singer Bono.
Bono suggested the cute, innocent-looking six-year-old child would make a
good picture for an album cover and the rest, as they say, is history.
Peter featured naked from the waist with his arms behind his neck on the
front cover of Boy and was also pictured on the band's first single Three.
When he was nine, he was photographed with the famous American army helmet
for the band's third album War, which is also being used on the front cover
of the band's Greatest Hits album.
"It feels good to see my picture staring out at me from shop windows," said
Peter.
"I never really thought about it that much before, but now it's kind of
hard to escape from it."
And he added: "It's fairly true to say that I am more famous for those U2
pictures than anything I have done since.
"But I hope to change that soon enough. It would be good to work for U2,
but this time at the other side of the lens."
Their new album is expected to be sold out by the end of the week.
"It was better than anything we have had for a U2 album, and certainly
better than when Titanic went on sale," said a Virgin spokesman.
