U2 are undoubtedly one of the greatest bands in the world, consisting of  four members: Bono (Paul Hewson), The Edge (Dave Evans), Larry Mullen Jr., and Adam Clayton.  They come from the city of Dublin, Ireland, on the eastern coast of that beautiful country.  But who exactly are they?

In 1976 a note went up on a bulletin board at Mount Temple Secondary School.  That note was a request from Larry Mullen Jr. asking if anyone else had wasted money on some instruments and wanted to start a band.  He had  several people show up in his kitchen, all but 4 of whom dropped out quickly afterward.  Only he, The Edge and his brother Dick, Bono, and Adam remained.   The band started out with the name "The Larry Mullen Band" which, as Bono says, lasted about an afternoon.  Then they settled on  Feedback, which fit the sound that came out of the amps at the beginning.   Soon after, they changed their name to The Hype.  None of the members of the band, with the exception of Larry, knew how to actually play, but that didn't matter to them.  Whenever that was mentioned, their comment was always, "Neither can the Sex Pistols."

In 1978, they entered the Harp Lager Talent Contest in Limerick.  The prize was £500 and a recording contract for a demo.  They entered as The Hype and still consisted of 5 members as The Edge's brother Dik still belonged to the band at that point. When they arrived at the show, Dik decided to quit and the remaining boys came up with a new name, which they would forever after be known as. They decided to call themselves U2.  Bono's voice was shot and it wasn't the best performance they had ever done, but U2 won the contest despite all of  that.

Using that studio time, they recorded their first   demo and later received a small Irish only recording contract with CBS Records, through whom U23 was recorded and released in Ireland in 1979. U23's content consisted of Boy/Girl, Stories for Boys, and Out of Control. There were only 1000 of the original U23 EP's created. These were hand numbered and are considered a sort of holy grail for collectors.

U2 finally did get a recording contract in 1980 and proceeded to go into the studio to record their first album, Boy.  They have since recorded a total of 12 albums in their career and are working on the 13th as we speak.

It wasn't until their 5th album, the Joshua Tree, in   1987, that the band became a household name.  In spite of that, they had developed a strong following of fans all over Europe and the US and were consistantly selling out venues.

U2 have proven themselves over and over again to be worthy of the title of "The Greatest Band in the World".  They were very recently inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame by Bruce Springsteen in March of 2005.

U2 are currently embarked on their wildly successful sold out world tour in support of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.

To be continued......

[U2 Quick-Facts]

[Bono's Bio]	[Larry's Bio]
[Adam's Bio]	[Edge's Bio]