U2

late twentieth century–

Though Ireland had long been famous for its poetry and music, these had nearly always taken traditional forms. With the advent of the rock group U2 - a sly allusion to the famous American high-flying spy plane - the country of W.B. YEATS [8] and JAMES JOYCE [25] produced a new phenomenon, a world-famous rock band. Completely breaking with what had been thought of as traditional Irish music, they achieved world-wide fame, and their style of music and approach to life has proved immensely influential. Their tours, especially of North America, have brought a new meaning to the words Irish Culture.

The band consists of four Dublin musicians: Bono, or Paul Hewson, born 10th May 1960; the Edge, or David Evans, born 8th August 1961, at Barking in Essex; Adam Clayton, born 13th March at Chinnor in Oxfordshire, England; and Larry Mullen, born in Dublin, 1st October 1960. They were the band's vocals, guitar, bass, and drums, respectively.

They met at school on the north side of Dublin, in one of the rapidly expanding suburbs that represented the new Ireland of today, often rough, raw, and Americanised. In 1976 Larry Mullen pinned a note to the notice board of Mount Temple School, a formerly Protestant school that had been turned into a co-educational comprehensive. He was looking for others to form a rock band, and out of the responses chose three. Initially they played versions of the Rolling Stones and Beach Boys as a group called Feedback, then they called themselves Hype. Their final name, U2, came in 1978.

Hewson was supposed to play guitar. 'I was such a lousy guitar player,' he told a local magazine in 1982, 'that one day they broke it to me that maybe I should sign instead. I had tried before but found I had no voice at all. I remember the day I found I could sing. I said: "Oh, that's how you do it."'

For the boys, rock would be 'about sweat, about the real world'. In 1978 they won a competition in Limerick and were taken up by manager Paul McGuinness. A signing with CBS records followed and a song from their first album, Out of Control, in 1979 rose rapidly to number one on the Irish charts. This was followed the next year by another number one, Another Day. Oddly, CBS did not want to take them on in the United Kingdom, so they signed with the more innovative Island Records. The first singles for their new company made little impact, but early in 1980 readers of the Irish music magazine Hot Press voted U2 the number one band in five categories. They had arrived.

The first Island album, Boy, released in October 1980, was produced by Steve Lillywhite. It drew on all of the feeling of adolescence in a new style which listeners found both moving and inspired. But U2 was not studio-bound. They went on tour to support the album, and the effects of Bono's singing and the tight playing of the others showed them to be an outstanding new band.

In November 1980 the band toured the east coast of America - always important these days in building a universal reputation. Their second album, October, released in October 1981, had an impassioned religious feeling powerfully evangelical in its effect. A song inspired by the Polish Solidarity movement, which had begun to crack open the Communist colossus, was called 'New Year's Day'. The critical welcome continued with War (February 1983), on which the song 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' reflected the same theme of religion and politics. Under a Blood Red Sky reached number two on the UK album chart.

The band was now on its way to joining the all-time greats of rock music. Playing with Bob Dylan at Slane Castle, an Irish venue, united the old guard with the young Turks of rock. As Ireland at this time seemed to be bubbling with talent, the band set up its own company to bring some of it on.

The growth of their own talent was seen on Unforgettable Fire (1984) which won a place on the US charts. The ideals of the band were supported by their appearance at Live Aid and at Self-Aid, a similar charity event in Ireland. They were also involved with Amnesty International. In these concerns they carried many of their young followers with them, as posters of U2 and Amnesty International crowded bedroom walls and school dormitories. A world tour brought them further audiences outside of their core areas. The Joshua Tree, released in March 1987, elevated U2 into being one of the most important bands in the world. The album rose to the top of the charts in the United Kingdom and the United States. Two more albums brought the decade to a close.

Inevitably in a competitive world, other bands now began to make their appearance. Though U2 continued to grow and mature, its music had to be seen in this wider musical context. The band commanded immense attention from Irish commentators and writers. Whatever the further development of its music may be, it had an authentic voice that had come out of the contemporary culture of Ireland. Its concerns of spiritual quest, social commitment, and awareness of the real dangers lurking in the modern world were those of its admirers. Where in the past an important Irish poet, at the age of forty-five, might have accumulated a few thousand constant readers, the lyrics of a rock band such as U2 reach countless millions. They moved those millions with the same power which Irish poetry has always had, but in a new context which transcended the narrow borders of national identity and leaked into the realm of universal humanity.

There is little doubt of the stature which the band achieved on the Irish scene. This had great benefit not only for raising the mood of the young population as a whole, but in demonstrating to other ambitious bands that no heights were barred to Irish people of talent. They could challenge the world and triumph. But to triumph with material as deeply felt, and as resonant of centuries of spirituality, was another great achievement. Though now an international supergroup deeply committed to selected causes, for U2 rock is still 'about sweat, about the real world'.