Formation and breakthrough (1976 – 1980)
The
band was formed in Dublin
on Saturday, September 25, 1976. Fourteen-year-old Larry Mullen, Jr. posted
a notice on his secondary school bulletin board (Mount Temple
Comprehensive School) seeking musicians for a new
band. The response that followed that note resulted in seven boys attending the initial practice in Larry's kitchen. Known
for about a day as "The Larry Mullen Band," Larry's group featured Mullen on drums, Adam Clayton on bass guitar, Paul Hewson
(Bono) on vocals, Dave Evans (The Edge) on guitar, his brother Dik Evans on guitar, Mullen's friend Ivan McCormick on guitar,
and another school friend Peter Martin. Soon after, the group settled on the name Feedback. Although known as an Irish band,
two members—The Edge and Adam Clayton—are actually British by birth. Both McCormick and Martin were out of the
core group within a few weeks.
Hewson
was nicknamed Bono Vox (allegedly meaning 'good voice' in Latin, though a more accurate translation would in fact be vox bona),
after a hearing aid company's advertising sign on the corner of Dame Street and South Great Georges Street in Dublin's city
centre (a different theory says he was nicknamed after a hearing aid shop by his friend Gavin Friday because he sang so loudly
he seemed to be singing for the deaf). The sign has since been changed to read "Bonavox." The Edge got his name from Bono,
who thought he was always on the edge of things, assessing what was going on it. Bono also thought that it was an accurate
description of his head, as it had a straight edge. There are also other theories on the origins of The Edge's nickname:
1. He is named after a hardware shop in Fairview,
Dublin, outside of which he used to catch the bus home
2. The name is due to the crispness of his playing; the "edges" it has
3. Bono once claimed on Irish radio that the name was derived from the shape
Edge made when playing guitar
After
18 months of rehearsals, Feedback changed their name to The Hype. The band performed with their new name at a talent show
in Limerick, Ireland on 17 March 1978. One of the judges for the show happened to be CBS Records' Jackie Hayden; they
won the contest, earning a £500 prize. Hayden was impressed enough with the band that he gave them studio time to record their
first demo.
The
Dublin punk rock guru Steve Averill (better known as Steve Rapid of the The Radiators
From Space) suggested that "The Hype stinks, at least as a name." Someone offered "What about U2? It's the name of a spyplane
and a submarine, and it's got an endearing inclusivity about it."
Some
suggest the meaning of the name "U2" is based on their philosophy. They believe that the audience is part of their music and
the concert and that "you too" (U2) are participating in the music. However, in an interview with Larry King, Bono is quoted
as saying "I don't actually like the name U2," and "I honestly never thought of it as 'you too'."
Dik
Evans announced his departure in March 1978. Ivan had already been dismissed by Adam Clayton with the excuse that he was too
young to play at the bars in which U2 was booked. The Hype performed a farewell show for Dik at the Community Centre in Howth.
Dik walked offstage halfway through the set and later joined the Virgin Prunes, a fellow Dublin
band. In May, Paul McGuinness became U2's manager.
Now
a four-piece with a local fan base in place, U2 released their first single in September of 1979, U2-3. It topped the Irish
charts. In December of that year, U2 travelled to London for its first shows outside
of Ireland, but failed to get much attention from foreign
audiences and critics.
U2
made their first appearance on US television on The Tomorrow
Show hosted by Tom Snyder. It aired on June 4, 1981. They performed "I
Will Follow" and "Twilight" and engaged in an interview.
Boy and October (1980 – 1981)
Island
Records signed the band in March of 1980. U2 released Boy the following October. It was met with critical praise and is considered
one of the better debuts in rock history. That album's release was followed by U2's first tour beyond Ireland
and the United Kingdom. These live shows helped establish
U2 as one of the most exciting live bands in the UK, as critics noted that Bono was a very "charismatic" and "passionate"
showman. The band's second album, October, was released in 1981. Fans and music critics quickly made note of the band's spiritual
lyrics. Bono, the Edge and Larry were committed Christians and made little effort to hide that fact. The three band members
joined a religious group in Dublin called "Shalom", which led all three to question
the relationship between the Christian faith and the rock and roll lifestyle. After nearly throwing in the towel on U2, they
decided it was possible to reconcile the two by continuing to make music without compromising their personal beliefs. (In
recent years a book of sermons based on U2 songs has been published: "Get Up Off Your Knees" ed. Whiteley & Maynard, ISBN
1561012238)
War (1983)
In
1983, U2 returned with apparently a newfound sense of direction and the release of their third album, War. The album included
the song "Sunday Bloody Sunday" , which dealt with the troubles in Northern Ireland.
The song starts off by expressing the anger felt in Ireland over Bloody Sunday incident of 1972, but in successive stanzas
moves through different imagery that disown that anger and place the song in a religious context, using imagery from Matthew
10:35 ("mother's children; brothers, sisters torn apart"), and a twist on 1 Corinthians 15:32 ("we eat and drink while tomorrow
they die") before finishing off with a call for Christians to stop fighting each other and "claim the victory Jesus won, on
a Sunday bloody Sunday". The ability to use such a range of images, taking a song initially about sectarian anger, and turn
it into a call for Christians to unite and claim the victory over death and evil that Christ achieved in the resurrection,
showed the depth of the band's songwriting ability. When some Irish-Americans tried to misrepresent the song as a rallying
call for the Provisional IRA Bono responded with what became one of his most recognizable phrases in concerts, notably the
performance on the live EP Under a Blood Red Sky - "this song is not a rebel song. This song is Sunday Bloody Sunday." Furthermore,
as captured in the concert film U2: Rattle and Hum, during the performance of the song on November 9, 1987, the day after
the IRA bombing in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, in which 11 people were killed during a Remembrance Day
service, Bono bluntly denounced the violence in Ireland and the Irish expatriates who supported it. His anger and passion
were palpable as he shouted: "Fuck the 'revolution'!"
The
album's first single, "New Year's Day", was U2's first international hit single, reaching the #10 position on the U.K.
charts and nearly cracking the Top 50 on the U.S. charts.
MTV put the "New Year's Day" video into heavy rotation, which helped introduce U2 to the American audience. For the first
time, the band began performing to sold-out concerts in mainland Europe and the U.S.
The band recorded the Under a Blood Red Sky EP on this tour and a live video was also released.
The Unforgettable Fire and Live Aid (1984 – 1986)
The
band began their fourth studio album with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois producing. The experimental The Unforgettable Fire (named
after a series of paintings made by survivors of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima
and Nagasaki) followed in 1984. The album featured the tribute to civil rights
leader Martin Luther King, Jr., "Pride (In the Name of Love)". "Pride" became the first single from the album, cracking the
U.K. Top 5 and the US Top 50.
The
album represented a turning point in the band's career, as Bono's lyrics became more complex, subtle and experimental, the
Edge's guitar explored new sonic landscapes, and the rhythm section got looser and funkier. However, the material, although
less overtly so, remained political. Songs include "Indian Summer Sky", a social commentary on the prison-like atmosphere
of city living in a world of natural forces, and "MLK", a second song honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.. The album's release
coincided with a photo exhibit at the Chicago Peace Museum featuring images of the aftermath of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki
bombings; Bono would later contribute a poem entitled "Dreams in Box" to the museum's archives.
The
centrepiece of the album is "Bad", a long, experimental song which, while never released as a single, provided the album's
defining moment: a cathartic exploration on the theme of heroin dependency - a problem particularly prevalent in the Dublin
of the mid-1980s. During the tour to support the new album, Bono took to wrapping his microphone cable around his arm in imitation
of a junkie looking for a vein. The tour itself became the first time U2 extensively played in indoor arenas.
Miles
Davis is reputed to have asked the album to be played while on his deathbed.
The
Live Aid concert for Ethiopian famine relief in July 1985 was seen by more than a billion people worldwide. U2 were not expected
to be one of the main draws for the event, but the band provided the show with one of its most memorable moments, a relentless
13-minute version of "Bad" in which Bono left the stage and walked down to the Wembley Stadium crowd to dance with a fan.
The other band members were upset with Bono for spending the time they had planned for playing "Pride (In the Name of Love)",
and Bono was convinced he had squandered a chance for promoting the band to a greater audience. Larry Mullen Jr. Admitted
that the rest of the band had considered leaving the stage as he was preforming. After the concert, the other band members
demanded he left U2, Bono instead took a few weeks off to think about his role in the band, and was welcomed back with open
arms. Somewhat ironically, the Live Aid version of "Bad" has become something of a legend in rock circles, and was an indication
of the personal connection that Bono could make with audiences.
U2
went on to a headlining spot on 1986's Conspiracy of Hope Tour for Amnesty International. This 6-show tour across the U.S.
performed to sold-out arenas and stadiums, and helped Amnesty International triple its membership in the process.
Rolling
Stone magazine called U2 the "Band of the 80s", saying that "for a growing number of rock-and-roll fans, U2 has become the
band that matters most, maybe even the only band that matters."
The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum (1987 – 1989)
In
1987, U2 released The Joshua Tree. The album debuted at #1 in the U.K., quickly reached #1 in the U.S., and would go on to
win the Grammy Award for Album on the Year. The singles "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking
For" also quickly went to #1 in the U.S., with "Where the Streets Have No Name" being another heavily played track. U2 was
the fourth rock band to be featured on the cover of Time magazine (following The Beatles, The Band, and The Who), who declared
that U2 was "Rock's Hottest Ticket". The Joshua Tree Tour sold out stadiums around the world, the first time the band had
consistently played venues of that size . Bono and U2 were still able to seize the moment. At Wembley Stadium in London,
in 1987, U2 sang a haunting version of The Beatles' "Help!" - dedicating it to those in the audience who were dreading another
five years of the recently re-elected Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.
The
band began to film and record various shows from the tour for the documentary and album Rattle and Hum in 1988 and released
on video in 1989. That album became a tribute to American music, when the band recorded at the legendary Sun Studios in Memphis,
performed with Bob Dylan and B.B. King, and sang about blues great Billie Holiday. The band also covered The Beatles' "Helter
Skelter", declaring "This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles; we're stealin' it back."
Live
footage from Joshua Tree Tour concerts at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona
and McNichols Arena in Denver, Colorado featured prominently
in the film. The McNichols footage, shot in black and white, included performances from the back catalog while color material
from Sun Devil mostly comprised (then) current material. Two shows were filmed in Tempe.
To ensure a full stadium, tickets were discounted to $5.00 a piece.
Despite
a positive reception from fans, Rattle and Hum received mixed-to-negative reviews from both film and music critics. U2 went
on the Lovetown Tour (with special guest B.B. King), which visited Australia,
New Zealand, and Japan,
but avoided the US and most of Europe.
Perhaps feeling that U2 was somewhat stagnating, Bono announced during a December
30, 1989 concert in Dublin that it was time "to go away and dream it
all up again."
Achtung Baby, Zoo TV and Zooropa (1991 – 1994)
After
taking some time off, the band met in East Berlin in autumn of 1990 to begin work on their next studio
album, again with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois producing. The original sessions did not go well, but following the inspirational
completion of the hit song 'One,' the band eventually emerged from the studio with renewed energy and a new album under its
belt. In November of 1991, U2 released the heavily experimental and distorted Achtung Baby. The album was enthusiastically
received by fans and critics alike, with Rolling Stone magazine declaring that U2 had "proven that the same penchant for epic
musical and verbal gestures that leads many artists to self-parody can, in more inspired hands, fuel the unforgettable fire
that defines great rock & roll." What was often said at the time was that Achtung Baby introduced a legion of new U2 fans,
people who had heard the group for many years but never really liked them or bought their records before. The group's fanbase
was therefore expanded significantly by this release. New fans were perhaps most drawn in by the song "Mysterious
Ways".
In
early 1992, U2 began its first American tour in more than four years. The multimedia event known as the Zoo TV Tour masterfully
confused audiences with hundreds of video screens, upside-down flying Trabant cars, mock transmission towers, satellite TV
links, subliminal text messages, and over-the-top stage characters such as "The Fly", "Mirror-ball Man" and "Mister MacPhisto".
The tour was, among other things, U2's attempt at mocking the excesses of rock and roll by appearing to embrace greed and
decadence - at times, even away from the stage. Some missed the point of the tour and thought that U2 had "lost it," and that
Bono had become an egomaniac. European leg link-ups to war-torn Sarajevo caused
further controversy. Following the same theme, U2 went back into the studio to record their next release during a break in
the Zoo TV Tour. The album was intended as an additional EP to Achtung Baby, but soon Zooropa expanded into a full-fledged
LP and was released in July of 1993. Zooropa was an even greater departure from the style of their earlier recordings, incorporating
techno style and other electronic effects. The Zooropa album was, like Achtung Baby before it, popular among people who had
never been fans of U2 before, further expanding the fanbase and hugely increasing the band's ability to remain popular into
the 1990s and beyond. In particular, the tracks Zooropa, Stay (Faraway, So Close!) and, maybe most of all, The Wanderer, a
duet with Johnny Cash, proved influential in winning the admiration of new fans.
After
some time off - and a few side projects (the Batman Forever and Mission: Impossible
soundtracks) - the band returned under the radar in 1995 with Brian Eno under the moniker "Passengers", and released an experimental
album called Original Soundtracks No. 1. The album, including a collaboration with Luciano Pavarotti, "Miss Sarajevo", was
not largely noticed in the industry, and received little attention from the critics and public alike.
Pop and Popmart (1996 – 1998)
In
early 1996, U2 began work on their next record. The recording of this album was fraught with difficulty. U2 were once again
attempting to change their musical direction, this time the band were experimenting with heavy post production of their music,
utilizing tape loops, programming and sampling. This gave the album a techno/disco feel. Pop was released in March of 1997.
The album debuted at #1 in 28 countries, and earned U2 mainly positive reviews. Rolling Stone even went so far as claiming
U2 had "defied the odds and made some of the greatest music of their lives." However, audiences and fans felt that the music
industry had exceeded the limits of tolerance in promoting Pop, and the album was seen as something of a disappointment by
many.
One
of the main problems the band had when the recording the album was the time constraint placed upon them by their impending
tour. The band has admitted they were hurried into completing the album and say that a number of tracks on the album were
not finished as well they would have liked. It is not surprising that the tracks from Pop picked for U2's second greatest
hits album – "Gone", "Discothèque", and "Staring at the Sun" – were all remixed for inclusion on that album.
With
the Popmart Tour, U2, once again continued the Zoo TV theme of decadence. The show hit the road in April, 1997; the set included
a 100-foot tall golden yellow arch, a large 150 foot long video screen, and a 35 foot tall mirrorball lemon. It was to be
U2's most colorful show to date. One of the stops was in Sarajevo, where they
were the first major group to perform after the war there. The Popmart Tour was the second-highest grossing tour of 1997 (behind
the Rolling Stones' Bridges to Babylon Tour) with revenues of just under $80 million, but it cost more than $100 million to
produce.
The
Popmart Tour and Zoo TV Tour was intended to send a sarcastic message to all those accusing U2 of commercialism. The shows
were also intended to be shining a mirror back onto the world, taking all the subtle advertising and messages we are exposed
to every day and blowing them up so they were visible to the world, best shown in the famous picture of Bono (dressed as The
Fly) with the message "WATCH MORE TV" written next to it.
The
band played a brief concert in Belfast in May of 1998, three days before the public
voted in favour of the Northern Ireland Peace Accord. Also that year, U2 performed on an Irish TV fundraiser for victims of
the Omagh, Northern Ireland bombing which killed 28 and injured
hundreds more earlier in the year. In late 1998, U2 released its first greatest hits compilation, The Best of 1980-1990.
All That You Can't Leave Behind and Elevation (2000 – 2001)
U2
went back into the studio in early 1999, yet again with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois producing. After the overwhelming extravagance
of the Popmart Tour, critics and music industry insiders felt that U2 was trying to return to the days of The Joshua Tree
in order to keep its audience of loyal fans. During these sessions, the band collaborated with author Salman Rushdie, who
wrote the lyrics to a song called "The Ground Beneath Her Feet", based on his book of the same name. That song, and others,
eventually appeared on the soundtrack to The Million Dollar Hotel, a movie based on a story written by Bono.
All
That You Can't Leave Behind, released in late October, was received widely as U2's return to grace, and was considered by
many to be U2's "third masterpiece" (after Achtung Baby and The Joshua Tree, according to Rolling Stone). It debuted at No.
1 in 22 countries and spawned a world-wide hit single, "Beautiful Day", which also earned three Grammy Awards. U2 followed
that release with a major tour in the spring of 2001.
The
subsequent Elevation Tour saw the band performing in a scaled-down setting, on a heart-shaped stage and ramp. The terrorist
attacks of September 11, 2001 nearly led U2 to cancel the balance of the
tour, but they decided to continue, starting the second American leg of the tour at the University of Notre Dame in South
Bend, Indiana, home of the "Fighting Irish". The tour was the top concert draw
in North America, where the band's 80 shows (out of 113 worldwide) grossed $110 million, the second-highest total behind The
Rolling Stones' Voodoo Lounge Tour in 1994. Following such an accomplished album, and a hugely successful tour, many fans
felt that U2 had been successful in "re-applying for the job of the biggest band in the world," an application Bono had made
a year earlier.
After
the Elevation Tour ended in late 2001, the culmination of U2's resurrection came when the band performed a well-received three-song
set in New Orleans, Louisiana during halftime of Super
Bowl XXXVI. The highlight was an emotional performance of "Where the Streets Have No Name" in which the names of the victims
of the September 11, 2001 attacks were projected onto a pair of backdrops, scrolling up towards the sky; at the end of the
song the backdrops were released, descending to the ground in a gentle revisiting of the Twin Towers' fall. Bono then opened
his jacket, which he had worn throughout the Elevation Tour, to reveal the American flag printed on the lining, an image that
was widely reproduced in the media. U2 was praised for their performance because they actually performed their music live
as opposed to lip-synching like previous artists had done for Super Bowl halftime shows. A few months later, All That You
Can't Leave Behind picked up four more Grammy Awards.
Bono
continued his campaigns for debt and HIV/AIDS relief throughout the summer of 2002. In late 2002, U2 released part two of
its greatest hits collection, The Best of 1990-2000. Dance artists LMC sampled "With or Without You" for their track "Take
Me To The Clouds Above" which also features lyrics from "How Will I Know" by Whitney Houston. All four members of U2 had to
clear the track, which was released under the title of LMC vs U2. Adam Clayton said of the track: "It's a good beat and you
can dance to it. I especially like the bassline." The track went to the top of the UK
singles charts in February 2004 and also went top 5 in Ireland
and top ten in Australia.
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and "Vertigo" (2004 – )
A
rough-cut of the band's follow-up album was stolen in Nice, France,
in July 2004. Shortly thereafter, Bono stated that, should the album appear on P2P networks, it would be released immediately
via iTunes and be in stores within a month. No such pre-release of the album occurred, however, and the first single from
the album, titled "Vertigo", was released for airplay on September 24, 2004.
The song received extensive airplay in the first week after its release and became an international hit. The album, titled
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, was released on November 22 in much of the world and November 23 in the United
States. The album debuted at #1 in 32 countries, including the United
States, Canada, the United
Kingdom and the band's native Ireland.
It sold 840,000 units in the United States in its first week.
This was a record for the band, nearly doubling the first-week sales of All That You Can't Leave Behind in the US.
U2
promoted How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb heavily. They made appearances on TV shows like CD:UK
and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in Britain and Saturday
Night Live in America. The band also made a video for the
second North American single, "All Because Of You", while riding on a flatbed truck through the streets of Manhattan
on November 22. They then played a free concert at a Brooklyn park, attracting
over 3,000 fans who had learned of the show on various U2 fan websites.
In
another first, the band entered an extensive cross-promotion campaign with Apple Computer: the band allowed the single "Vertigo"
to be used in a widely aired television commercial for the iPod music player -- though the band did not receive any royalties
for the use of the song, due to the commercial the song was well known even before the release of the album. This move shocked
some fans who remember U2's previous staunch refusal to get involved in any product promotion. The band also licensed a special
version of the iPod with a U2 design (black faceplate with red click wheel, echoing the color scheme for the new album) and
facsimilies of the bandmembers' signatures etched on the back plate. The partnership also led Apple's iTunes Music Store to
feature a collection known as The Complete U2. The digital box set features each U2 album in its entirety, as well as every
single and B-side ever released, rare live sets, and previously unreleased songs from recording sessions of All That You Can't
Leave Behind and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Owners of the U2 Edition iPod were able to purchase this collection at a
discount.
In
Europe, the next single released from the album - "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" - once
again featured a Bono/Pavarotti performance on the B-side. The performance is a Jacknife Lee remix of "Ave Maria" sung by
Bono with Luciano Pavarotti.The B-Side of the single also includes a remix of the hit "Vertigo" and a Jacknife Lee remix of
"Fast Cars." Fast Cars is an album track available only on the UK
and Japan versions and American deluxe editions of Atomic
Bomb. The single will be available on two CD formats and a DVD single. The DVD carries a video of an exclusive live performance
of "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" from the band's Dublin studio, and
a Trent Reznor remix of "Vertigo."
In
April 2004, Rolling Stone magazine placed U2 in its 50 "greatest rock & roll artists of all time". On March 14, 2005, U2 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility.
The
first leg of the Vertigo Tour began in the United States,
with the band performing 26 sold-out shows. The first leg started off in March in San Diego,
California and finished in May in Boston, Massachusetts.
The band performed well-known hits, songs from the current album, and early rarities. The second leg was a European stadium
tour, which started on June 10 in Brussels and finished on August 14 in Lisbon.
The band then returned to the United States and will finish
up on December 19 in Portland, Oregon. Their featured stop
in Chicago, Illinois was filmed over two nights in May, 2005 for the live DVD U2 - Vertigo 2005 - Live From Chicago. The DVD
marks their third live film since their 2001 Elevation Tour. There are currently rumors of a United
States stadium/European arena tour mid-2006.
On
November 9, u2.com announced that the Vertigo tour will continue into 2006, and the band will appear in Mexico,
South America, New Zealand, Australia
and Japan.
U2
have smashed Irish box office records with ticket sales for their 2005 Croke Park,
Dublin concerts, after more than 240,000 tickets were sold in record time. In
Belgium, France
and Austria the tickets were sold within 60 minutes.
The
third single from the album, "City of Blinding Lights", entered the UK
singles chart at #2 on June 12. They performed alongside Coldplay, Paul McCartney, and Pink Floyd, among others, in the Live
8 concert in London on July 2nd, 2005.
The
Vertigo Tour European leg climaxed at the Estádio José Alvalade XXI in Lisbon
on August 15 after the band received the country's most prestigious honour, the Order of Liberty from Portugal's
President Jorge Sampaio regarding the band's hugely influential work for action in Africa and across
the world concerning extreme poverty. Commenting on the award, which had never previously been awarded to a foreign music
group, Bono said, "It is of course for the four of us a great, great honour... ... if we really believed that an African life
was equal to a European life we would not stand by with watering cans while an entire continent was bursting into flames."
Before
presenting the award, the President said: "Over the last 25 years you have shown that it is possible to combine the pleasure
of artistic creation with civic and humanitarian intervention to help build a better world."
Action
against poverty has been a major feature point of the Vertigo 05 shows, as Bono has used the song "One" as an opportunity
to plead with fans in attendance to join the ONE Campaign in the fight against poverty.
On
Monday December 5th 2005 U2's Vertigo tour show in Sydney,
Australia at the Telstra Stadium sold out in just an hour and during
the course of that day the Melbourne and New Zealand
shows were also sold out. A second Sydney show was announced and went on sale
on the 12th, also selling out in under an hour.
December
the 8th saw U2 pick up 5 Grammy nominations, including 'Album of the Year' for Bomb, and 'Song of the Year' for Sometimes
You Can't Make It On Your Own. On December 20, Mary J. Blige released her ninth studio album "The Breakthrough". U2 was featured
on the album as part of Blige's remake of U2's "One".
On
December 18, 2005, Time magazine awarded its prestigious "Person of the
Year" honour to Bono as well as philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates.
Next album recordings (2006 – 2007)
In
mid-2005, a source (Anti-Music) reported that U2 have plans for a new album and are keen to record more. According to Bono
there are 24 songs that came out of sessions, of which the band took 11 for their subsequent record. The Vertigo tour kicked
off in San Diego on 28 March and is expected to go well into 2006, so there aren't
current plans to go into the studio to record. Most likely a new record will surface in 2007, but 2006 cannot be ruled out
entirely. In the January 2006 edition of Q magazine, Bono said that the band were working on a new album for 2006. In 1993,
during a break in the massive Zoo TV Tour, U2 recorded what was to be Zooropa. The album was released only a year and half
after their groundbreaking album Achtung Baby. There have also been talks of U2 re-recording their 1997 album, Pop for a tenth
anniversary. Considering recent comments from the members of the band, this now seems more likely than them rushing to get
the remains of the How to Dismantle... sessions finished. Bono has said that the biggest mistake the band has ever made was
letting their manager book the PopMart tour, as it meant they had to rush to finish the Pop album. Thus, they consider Pop
at least a partial artistic failure, despite over 7 million in sales.
U2
has extended the Vertigo tour to take up a great deal of 2006. The Edge has also admitted that he writes songs after every
show, but only 1 in 10 of these songs on the road will go anywhere, and has expressed longing to get back into a recording
studio...