Exactly 50 years after they formed, U2 returned to Dublin to play a gig at the school where they met.
”We‘ve escaped from the lab,” declared Bono, as they quartet took to a stage in the playground. “How’s the experiment working for you?”
The pupils of Mount Temple Comprehensive may not have been born when U2 were the world’s biggest band, but they gave them a hero’s welcome, waving signs that said, “I love U2“, “It’s a beautiful day – no school”, and, “Bono, my mum says hi!”
The group treated them to a career-spanning set that included hits like I Will Follow, Vertigo and With Or Without You, as well as their latest single, Silencio.
As they played, teachers pulled down pupils who’d climbed on their classmates’ shoulders, before getting swept up in the moment and dancing along themselves.
As he looked out from the same stage where U2 made their debut in 1976, Bono became emotional.
“Thanks for, er… Yeah… I didn’t… Wow,” said the frontman, temporarily lost for words.
Rich Fury
Rich FuryThe U2 story began in those same halls and corridors five decades ago, when 14-year-old Larry Mullen Jr pinned a handwritten note to the school noticeboard.
“Drummer seeks musicians to form band.”
Auditions were held a couple of days later, on 25 September, 1976, in Larry’s parents’ kitchen.
Among the hopeful “misfits”, as their school-friend Frank Kearns called them, were Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton – who arrived wearing a full-length Afghan coat.
Initially called Feedback, and then The Hype, they conquered the world as U2, transforming themselves from a scrappy punk outfit into stadium-conquering rock titans, whose big ideas and big anthems attracted millions of admirers, and almost as many detractors.
Speaking to BBC News, Mullen confessed the infamous wanted advert had been his father’s idea all along.