SL

This section is designed to hold answers to some frequent questions about U2. Some questions like 'Which U2 song is the best?' have of course no definite answer, and are left out. Some of these questions have given birth to eternal discussions on Wire, especially the one about 'Pride' (sing or saint?) and the Sunday Bloody Sunday references. The subsections are intended to divide U2's history in different eras.

SL

Larry Mullen, Jr. was born on October 31, 1961 on the southside of Dublin. He was two years behind Bono in high school but both noticed each other. It was Larry who posted an ad on a bulletin board at school about starting a band. Paul Hewson (Bono) was born on the 10th of May, 1960 in Dublin. He was a very outgoing person in high school who responded to Larry's note saying that he could play guitar and sing. He really couldn't do either. Adam Clayton was born in Oxfordshire on March 13, 1960 and moved to Dublin after his father got a job flying for Aer Lingus . Although he was not a very good student, he was always very polite to everyone. He was the only bassist to respond to Larry's note. Dave Evans (the Edge) was born on August 8, 1961 in East London. His family moved to Dublin a year later. He was often known as a loner early in high school. He took piano and guitar lessons and often played with his brother, Dick. Both showed up to "U2's" first little gathering.

P

First meeting at Larry’s house (60 Rosemount Avenue); set up in Mullen’s kitchen, and played Rolling Stones -Brown Sugar and -Satisfaction (UF, p. 61); entire group includes Larry, Dave and Dik Evans, Adam Clayton, Paul Hewson, Peter Martin, and Ivan McCormick .

CB

Larry was born on the *northside of Dublin, Artane. Bono, which is a shortening of Bono Vox, got his name through a group of friends of his who were known as the Village. The name, which means "good voice" in Latin, was the name of a hearing aid shop in Dublin. Edge was named by Bono because Dave was always on the fringe of things.

GB

I heard on a TV show that Bono gave this name to Evans because of the sharp lines in his face. This could also apply to his clear, clinging guitar playing.

CB

The thing in Lypton Village about naming people was that: 1) they thought it strange that you should go by a name given to you by your parents, when that name might not really suit you. 2) the nicknames were often associated with a facial thing and it would then also apply to the person's character. So The Edge had this prominent jaw line & was always on the edge of things: like an observer. Bono's first Village name was: Steinhegvanhuysenolegbangbangbangbang (!) Paul McGuinness became known as 'The Goose'.

M

The reason for the band picking the name U2 is not really known. For one thing, the U2 is a spy plane that was in service during the late '50s and '60s. There was a U2 that was involved in a crash over the old Soviet Union on 4 May 1960 (four days before Bono was born). The name U2 is also a pun, as in you too or you two. The name seemed to be sufficiently vague to work as the name of the band we now know and love.

JC

The U2 model was an American spy plane used after WWII. It is famous for the 'U2 incident'. This plane was used for high altitude reconnaissance before the use of satellites and was not supposed to be detectable by radar. The plane was shot down over Soviet Russia in the late 50's, and the pilot, Francis Gary Powers, captured. When the Soviets announced to Dwight Eisenhower they had shot down a U2 spy plane, his retort was 'What plane?' Yes, a great moment in Presidential history.) The band took their name after this plane.

PG

Before U2, the group had two other names (for a short period): 'Feedback' and 'The Hype'.

GM

1960 was the year. Eisenhower knew about U-2 flights over the USSR, but he wasn't just going to come out and admit it in case the Soviets were bluffing. Adam said he liked names like XTC, they had Steve Averill come up with a bunch of suggestions. They didn't exactly love the name U2, but they couldn't come up with a better name, so they used it. The above reasons why it was the best are pretty accurate.

SL

This is very boring. U2 lack the emotion of big bands like Pink Floyd and the Beatles when it comes to rupture rumors, and gossip. They have always had the same members, and it's not bound to change in the near future. The four guys seem to be good friends. However...

PG

In the first few weeks of their existance, Edge's brother Dick Evans was also in the band.

CB

The band were advised to dump Larry, in the early days.(by a record company)

SL

I saw an interview around the time of the Joshua Tree tour where Bono talks about this. He was a kid who lived across the street in front of Bono's house in Dublin. Quote 'He was a smart guy, know-it-all, he's probably taller than me now'

GE

His name is Peter Rowan.

RA

Peter was a one of Bono's friends younger brother. The cover was changed in the States because of " a vague worry at the label that there might be a homosexual impression left from the boy's waist-up nakedness." (Ellen Darst)

CB

Peter Rowan is the brother of Derek "Guggi" Rowan, and Strongman - both of which were in the Virgin Prunes. Peter later became skate-board champion of Ireland, works in a skate-board shop and has also had various acting parts, notably in 'The Commitments" and "The Snapper".

SL

That's probably because you have the US release of the album, which has been censored /edited to avoid child abuse implications.

MM

I believe that the change of the cover of boy was not the band's choice. In a biography of the band there is a detailed description of how CBS (I think) record executives decided that the picture of the boy on the front would be bad marketing, they were afraid it would have homosexual overtones. I'm not making this up, hard to believe ain’t it. Anyway, for more info I believe the correct source in Hot Presses biography, forgot the title.

GE

It was Warner's in the USA that changed the cover of Boy for fear of paedophilia claims.

JV

It sounds like German - what is it and why is it there?" No one seems to know the answer to that last one, though plenty of people would like to find out.

AL

My boss, who is (Northern) Irish, told me it's Gaelic for *The Black Cat. Sort of makes sense if you listen to the words, I think.

CB

Gavin Friday was born Fionan Hanvey, October 8, 1959, a few blocks down the road from Bono. They met and became friends in their teens and to date Bono describes Gavin as his 'friend for life, drinking buddy on weekdays and some sort of a musical diviner'. Gavin formed the Virgin Prunes, taking a left turn where U2 went to the right, fueled by such diverse influences as the Dada movement, Salvador Dali, Bowie, T-Rex, The Sex Pistols and.... ABBA, as well as a smouldering Celtic strain. Spontaneity was important to the band's performances and when that spontaneity was all but dead around 1986, Friday decided to call it a day. After a brief painting stint, he returned in with his solo debut 'Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves' (Island 1989) on which he exorcised all the ghosts that had lain dormant since the Prunes demise. The record was a dark, moody, introspective affair, dealing with such primary topics as love, sex and death. Determined not to be categorized Friday revamped his 'cabaret singer from hell' act into 'mad eclectic popstar' for his second album 'Adam 'n' Eve', showing a lighter side of himself, but not wandering too far from his familiar themes. On the ZOO TV and Zooropa tours, Friday's possible influence on U2 became more apparent to the media, the NME going as far as naming him Bono's 'confidante and advisor'. Many believed his presence was strongly felt in Bono's new stage character 'MacPhisto', but Friday claims he only 'put the horns on him'. In 1993, Friday, his pianist Maurice Roycroft and Bono collaborated on the 'In the Name of the Father' soundtrack, with Bono admitting it was Gavin who did 'most of the work.' Late 1995 will see Friday, who says he 'never could rock and never wanted to roll' return to the stage with his third record on Island: Shag Tobacco.

MJS

If you want to know more about Gavin Friday check out the following web site:
Gavin Friday's Wonderful Wicked World
and Caroline Von B's book on Gavin Friday, "The and the Dark."
A sound sample of the single "In the Name of the Father" is available at the U2 site and on Compuserve.

GD

The castle on The Unforgettable Fire is NOT Slane Castle. The album was partly recorded at Slane Castle, but the castle on the cover is called Moydrum and is in county West Meath.

CB

The castle on the cover of The Unforgettable Fire is Castle Moydrum, which is near Athlone. It's about a half an hour walk from town. However, the castle on the backsleeve of the album is yet another castle. This is called Carrickgogunnel, in County Tipperary. (confirmed by Cecelia Coffey - Principle Management Dublin).

H

Following a fire, Slane Castle is currently undergoing very slow repairs but it has been host to some gigs since the fire. There are some musically unconnected details including a B&W JPG at: http://http2.sils.umich.edu/Art_History/ARCH/details/UM0208.html

JC

"The Unforgettable Fire" is the name of a collection of drawings and pictures made by the survivors of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb blast at the end of World War II. Although simplistic in depiction, they are considered national treasures by the Japanese. An exhibit toured through the United States in early 1984, and U2 saw the exhibit in Chicago. Touched by the exhibit, it inspired the song and album title, as well as some of the painting used as stage backdrops on the'Fire' tour.

JV

The album title also refers to the "unforgettable fire" for equality and peace which burned inside people like Martin Luther King, Jr. The songs themselves speak to this, juxtaposing images of nuclear devastation and human triumph in and between the various tracks on the album.

JV

The Wire answer is basically that he either screwed up or exercised poetic license to make it fit better.

GM

Bono says he screwed up. He sometimes sings 'Early evening, April 4' The song's origins came during the War Tour in a soundcheck in Hawaii. The original lyrics were anti-Reagan with 'What more in the name of love' also being a featured lyric according to The Edge. The song evolved into one about martyrs and those who create them.

P

This in no way is an effort to justify what is a glaring historical inaccuracy in the song, but .... When Bono heard the news as a 7-year-old in Dublin, it WAS early morning. BUT ... it was early in the morning on April 5th when he would have heard the news.

SL

I'll fill this up when I have some more time...

GM

It sold the most units. 14 million worldwide I think.

P

It topped the charts in 22 different countries!!!

SW

Back during the time of the whole Ethiopia starvation crisis, Bono and his wife Ali did a 6 week deal over there as volunteer relief workers or something of the such. The tent cities that were set up for the people were just lined up in rows, and that was how these people lived, hence there were streets without names. 'high on a desert plain' would be referring to Ethiopia, as well as the mentions of being 'blown by the wind' and 'trampled in dust', as it was a drought and I'd imagine, awfully dusty. Also, I would assume that 'and when I go there, I go there with you...' would be referring to Ali. IMO, the beginning lines are written in frustration at the misery and hopelessness of the situation and his inability to make very much of a difference.

PH

A New Zealander (Greg Carroll) who worked for the band was killed in a motorcycle accident in Dublin while doing something for Bono. I think the funeral was held in the Maori cemetery at the top of One Tree Hill in Auckland--hence the name of the song. FYI, One Tree Hill is called that because although there are plenty of trees on the lower slopes of the hill, the upper slopes are completely bare apart from a tall, old tree on its own at the top.

JM

The funeral was conducted at Waitangi, which is the place where New Zealand's "founding documents" were signed, by most of the Maori chiefs. (nowhere near One Tree Hill) The "One Tree" on the hill is alive and well after being attacked by a Maori activist with a chain-saw, and so was in danger for quite a while. The tree is a pine (not native), and the hill is a site of an old Pa (Maori fortress), and he felt that the tree was an insult to sacred Maori ground, and should be replaced with a native tree.

SL

Victor Jara was a Chilean folk singer/songwriter who was very famous at the beginning of the 70s in Chile. His songs were full of social criticism and called for uprising. He was respected among the intellectual leaders of the socialist Chilean government. Alas, Augusto Pinochet overthrew the government in a military coup. Part of the associated repression included torturing Victor Jara to death, cutting both his hands and making him sing and play the guitar afterwards. Thus, "Jara sang, his song a weapon in the hands of love, his blood still cries from the ground".

SL

I have chosen to quote here a 'neutral' answer. This is sampled from the music /alternative-faq /part1 file, available from and mantained by Joshua Buergel - allroy@cmu.edu - jbbb@andrew.cmu.edu. If you'd like to get the mentioned lyrics, check out question #1

MJS

Since this incident has faded somewhat, I've shortened this answer a bit. The full version is still available at the address above.

A: The Negativland _U2_ single put out in late '91 by SST Records and featured two tracks, both of which made fun of U2's "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". Shortly after its release, an enormous legal document arrived at SST from Island Records/ Warner-Chappel Publishing, the gist of which was that SST was getting its butt sued for putting the thing out. Among the charges being leveled were that the packaging was deceptive (this was reportedly the biggest problem that Island had with the record), that the use of various unauthorized samples on the single were copyright infringement (Negativland maintained that as a piece of satire the samples should have been allowed) and lots of other charges. Incidentally, the "deceptive" packaging as that the single had "U2" in huge letters on the front with "Negativland" in really small letters across the bottom. Island apparently felt that such packaging was intended to deceive the consumer into believing it was a U2 release. Anyway, SST and Negativland got squashed. They settled out of court. Total damages: $90,000. SST tried to get Negativland to pay the entire bill while N'land offered to pay half. No agreement was reached and N'land left SST records, whose owner (Greg Ginn, ex-Black Flag guitarist) threatened lawsuits. Shortly thereafter Negativland put out a CD and magazine combo entitled "The Letter U and the Numeral 2" which documents the whole fiasco, including press releases, legal documents, articles and everything else possibly concerned with the whole situation.

MJS

Finally, I think it's worthwhile to let U2 have their say in this. The Edge was interviewed by Mondo 2000 magazine in 1992. Two members of Negativeland took part in the interview, although this was not revealed to the Edge until halfway through the interview. The entire text of this interview is available What follows is a very brief excerpt of U2's perception of the incident.

EDGE: Yeah, well from what I can remember, I can't remember the exact sequence of events, but as it was presented to us, you know, "Here's the record, here's the album sleeve, Island are already on the case here, and they've objected because they feel it's, because of the artwork, this is at a time when a lot of people are expecting a new U2 record," and they felt that, from their own point of view, in a pure business sense, nothing about art, I just think they felt there was a chance that people would pick up the record in a record shop and think, "Oh, this is the new U2 album."

MP

In the song Angel of Harlem, there's a line, "On the BLS I heard the sound, of an angel . . ." Could you tell me what "BLS" is??? I thought it was somehow associated with airplanes, or those ever-annoying PA systems in airports, but I can't seem to figure this one out. Any info about it???

MPZ

As a lifelong New Yorker, I can tell you that BLS in the line "On BLS I heard the sound (of an Angel)" refers the New York City radio station WBLS-FM, which has been playing Rhythm & Blues/Soul music for 20 years.

AK

I know all about the Joshua Trio as it was some mates of mine that put the whole thing together. I did the graphics for the one and only single release (only in the UK and Ireland). Basically the Joshua Trio sprung from the overblown state of U2 circa Joshua Tree/Rattle and Hum. We were in art college in Dublin and three friends had established a punk/country band called the Dodge City Slickers. The Slickers were very theatrical and were a great laugh while they lasted. Just prior to the Joshua Tree tour in the States we were involved in doing some 'club design' stuff in the Factory for a birthday party for Adam Clayton. There was a little stage set up where pretty much everybody was gigging on by nights end. There was the strange combo of U2, Cactus World News, The Dodge City Slickers, and Hank Halfhead and his Rambling Turkeys all doing covers.


Anyway when the Slickers broke up Paul the singer had this idea of a jazz combo which only did U2 covers. It was a tongue in cheek idea which then developed into a greater concept: 'To bring the music of U2 to a wider audience' Bono at this point was acting very egotistical and moralistic so the idea of Bono as a religious guru with a message to spread became part of the Trio's concept. The band wore either angels wings and 'jesus style' towels around their waist or (in Pauls' case) a toga and a medallion with Bonos' face on it. The jazz (and trio) idea gradually turned into a wider musical thing, with jazz, country, metal, loungebar and just plain stupid interpretations of U2 stuff. Also songs about U2 ('the edge has got his hat on', 'nothing compares to U2') 'Nothing compares' was sung by 'guest star' Sinead (Paul in a bathing cap). The movie was a proposal called (if memory serves) 'The last temptation of Bono' (or something). It involved a cast of Irish music types and would have been very funny. It was offered (ironically) as a serious venture and was taken as such by a variety of media types. Arthur, who was in the early version of the Trio is a very talented comedy writer for TV who is flavour of the month in the UK at the moment. The Trio became very popular in Ireland for a period and took to bringing donkeys into venues for gigs and such like. They had some interesting forays into England where they had a strange small cult following. For some reason Japanese girls seemed to love them (?)


A single/ep was released through Son (part of the U2 stable) which got good airplay in the UK but never sold very well (you could never find the thing!). It was a country version of 'The Fly' with a couple of live numbers.With the Zoo TV tour the joke didn't make as much sense (although there were gigs in Dublin with televisions, washing machines and bicycles on stage) and the band lost interest. There you go. A potted history of the Joshusa Trio

MJS

The movie was to be called "The Last Temptation of Chris DeBurgh," the Joshua Trio dropped hints about the plot in an interview with Hot Press that can be found in Three Chords and The Truth.

PC

The song was actually slated to be the second single off of the album. The video was shot in Bodie, California (a ghost town) and directed by Neil Jordan. But while W/or W/Out You was doing its tour of duty, the band was rehearsing for the tour and they discovered that Red Hill was too high for Bono to sing every night and would not be in the setlist for the tour. And as logic says: What's the good of touring if you can't use it to promote your latest record/single ?

P

The original copy of the video remains in storage at Principle Management's offices in Dublin. Rumors have circulated that MTV showed this video once on-air, and that they also have a copy of it in their "library." These rumors are just that, and they are false.

MJS

This question truly is frequently asked. I think it's the woman.

DC

I believe it is the midget who is in love with her. Earlier in the video he threw himself off the high trapeze swing, and when we see him at the funeral, it is really his ghost, and only his friend the strong man even senses that he is there. Then he throws in the ring, to be buried along with himself.

P

When Edge was asked about this in Hot Press, he never REALLY confirmed the idea. This is his response: Edge on double-album idea: "For instance, we disagreed vehemently about what songs should go on the album. If Bono had his way, 'The Joshua Tree' would have been more American and bluesy, and I was trying to pull it back." That compromise led to the later flood of new B-side tracks. Bono argued that "the album is almost incomplete. 'With or Without You' doesn't really make sense without 'Walk to the Water' or 'Luminous Times'. And 'Trip Through Your Wires' doesn't make that much sense without 'Sweetest Thing.'" (HP, 12/87)

MJS

I read somewhere that Hawkmoon 269 was taken from a road sign the band saw from their tour bus. It means, literally the town of Hawkmoon is 269 miles from this point. The name intrigued Bono and eventually he used it as the title for the song we know and love.

M

Bono has played three different characters on stage. They are The Fly, the Mirrorball Man, and Mr. MacPhisto. The Fly is supposed to represent the typical "rock star" with his black, shiny leather clothes and his bug-eyed glasses. His excess and posing for the cameras is to make fun ofthe way rock has become impersonal and fake. The next character is the Mirrorball Man, who is a Television Evangelist. He wears shiny, sparkling clothes that look like, what else, a disco ball. The last character, who was seen in the Sydney concert, is Mr. MacPhisto, an aging thespian/rock star. Both the Mirrorball Man and Mr. MacPhisto are representations of, if not the devil, then very evil characters. The Mirrorball Man was only seen in the US and MacPhisto was created for the rest of the world. This was done because it was felt that European and worldwide audiences would not be able to relate to the evangelist character.

CB

Mario Lanza. (this is a confirmed answer).

I second that. Mario Lanza was an American opera-style singer in the 1950. He had no formal training but sang in a light operatic style in several MGM musicals. He was touted as "the American Caruso." In fact, Mario was a truck driver from Philadelphia and could handle neither the stress of fame nor MGM's insistence that he sing like Caruso but weigh only slightly more than his leading ladies. He died of a heartattack in his '30's. Bono said in an interview with Spin magazine that Mario Lanza's singing impressed him as a child.

SL

In January 1993, when the USA were celebrating the inauguration of Bill Clinton's office, there were several 'Rock&Roll Inaugural Balls'. On the 20th, REM's Michael Stipe and Michael Mills joined U2's Larry and Adam in a performance of "One". This is recorded and some bootlegs actually include this rather unique reunion. The union of these artists was immediately labeled 'Automatic Baby' (as in 'Automatic for the People' and 'Achtung Baby', their latest albums), and the outcome was so good that the idea of an Automatic Baby album project was mentioned for some time, but has now faded.

AC

A movie producer and writer. He seems to be well respected by a lot of people - but most notably, not by Hollywood and all of that b.s. This means he might be good. The soundtracks to his last 2 movies, "Until the End of the World" and "Far Away, So Close" have had lots of major international musicians on them. Obviously, this includes U2 !

SR

Wim Wenders is a German movie director. He started working with U2 for his movie called "Until The End Of The World" whose soundtrack includes the U2-song of the same name. I think Wim and the boys became friends and their meet is probably due to the fact that the band stayed in Berlin during the recording of Achtung Baby. However the next WW movie, called "Faraway, So Close" also includes the U2 song of the same name.

SL

Wim also directed the video for "Stay", and the images of Bono climbing up some statue are an allusion to the movie "Faraway, So Close" which is a follow-up to "Wings of Desire"

MPZ

Wim Wenders will be directing "The Million Dollar Hotel", which Bono wrote the screenplay for.

JC

The movie 'Barfly' with Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway is based on the life of Charles Bukowski. I've only watched a half hour of it. It depicts the lives of two alcholics, Rourke playing the Bukowski role. Despite his alcoholism, Bukowski was somewhat of an 'urban poet' and some of his work was published. For more answers, see the movie.

RA

Charles Bukowski was an internationally famous contemporary poet and prose stylist. He was born in Andernach, Germany, and came to the US at the age of 13. He has published 45 volumes, both novels and poetry. Unfortunately, Mr. Bukowski passed away a couple months ago at the age of 74. He wrote with a very raw and honest style. A good sampling of Bukowski's work can be found in _Septuagenarian Stew: Stories and Poems_ or _Love is a Dog From Hell_, both published by Black Sparrow Press.

IM

In case you don't know this yourself, Bono based a lot of stuff from Zooropa on this person's work. William Gibson wrote a book called Neuromancer which is about cyberspace and virtual environments. (This might explain the Virtuality helmet that appears on the inlay card of the Zooropa CD.)

K

A friend of mine who's just graduated film school got really psyched after seeing "Lemon." There's this very important early film that recorded horses, people etc. walking and running (the film maker was trying to prove something about the physics of galloping etc.) Anyway, in this film underneath the sequence is the captions "horse running", "man walking" etc. The caption in "Lemon" are very similar to the font type used in the original film. There were other similarities, but since I've only seen both works once (the historic piece in some history of communication/film class), I can't remember what else led my friend to believe U2 must have seen this earlier film (it was like one of the first uses of the moving camera or something...) Anybody else familiar with this?

JK

Now that ya mention it, yeah! Umm, the horses one was the first experiment using motion photography, I believe it was like 6 frames a second for a few seconds? Anyway, yeah...also they had markers in the background to help measure/show the movement, maybe this could be related to the grid in Lemon?

pat38@aol.com

Yes, that is correct, the photographer is Edward Muybridge who did hundreds of motion studies during the late 1800's. This started as a bet between two rich guys and Muybridge was hired to settle the bet with his invention of a series of many still cameras set up with wire triggers rigged to expose film as a horse ran past. The resulting set of time-lapse prints formed the first 'photo flip book'. He proved that a horse indeed has all four legs in the air at a point during a run. If you look up these photos at your local library you will see where the styling for parts of the Lemon video came from. In fact, since U2 has decided to depart from stark visuals their work has become an art student's smorgsaboard, a dizzying assemblage of related and disparate elements which could keep an art historian busy for years.

MJS

It is a German phrase meaning roughly "lead by/through technology." A more elegant translation is "A step ahead through technology." It was an advertising slogan used by a German car company, Volkswagen or Audi, just like many of the other phrases in the song.

In 1995 U2 and Brian Eno collaborated to produce an album of "soundtracks," songs and instrumentals for motion pictures. A few of the movies described in the linear notes actually exist. The rest likely are the result of large quantities of demon alcohol.

[Under construction]

Sometimes even your faithful FAQ maintainer gets annoyed and wonders if perhaps U2 wants to follow in the footsteps of Boston and design to produce one album per decade. As everyone who has accessed the U2 studio cam knows, the boys are hard at work in the studio, (well, they're in the studio, at least). A tantalizing snippet of two tracks from the new album were recently circulated on the web, "Discotheque" and "Wake Up, Dead Man." "Discotheque" is rumored to be the first single, slated for release in January 1997. The album itself is rumored to be scheduled for release in March 1997. Seasoned U2 fans know not to hold their breath. Just put those wav files on endless loop and remember that "Expect Nothing But the Best" is the motto for the new album.