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  1. This post is in no way meant for me to sound disparaging or superior because “I was there.” I am writing this because 1) I recently posted a “perfect setlist” that included nothing from the past 15 years which made me feel a bit ... ancient and 2) I have noticed that a lot of you (including the “crew”) are in your early twenties or, even still, in your teens and I was wondering what got you “into” U2. For me, it was almost unavoidable since U2 were at their peak during what I deem to be my own formative years for “pop-culture.”

    Let me explain:

    In the spring before I began high school, The Joshua Tree was released and I got a copy on one of those TDK cassettes. Not long afterwards, I listened to my friend’s older sister’s vinyl copy of Under a Blood Red Sky – very cool I thought at the time. Then I played a bit of catch up and bought War and The Unforgettable Fire on cassette. I repeatedly played them on one of those bright yellow Sony walkmans. The first CD I ever bought was The Joshua Tree (replaced my two-year cassette copy) and very quickly completed my U2 catalogue. Fast forward to November 1991 (my final year of high school) and I bought Achtung Baby on CD the day it was released (and got one of those promotional posters to go with it – which I only recently lost!). It took me only a day to love this “new U2” album. I saw a Zoo TV concert the night before I left home for university – where/when Achtung Baby was still being played as much as the day it was released. I got a copy of that “Outside Broadcast” show (the one with all the interviews between the songs) and absolutely loved that – “Bullet The Blue Sky” and “Running to Stand Still” have never been better. On my 20th birthday, Zooropa was released – which I bought that day, of course. It took me a little longer to get into that but “Stay” was an instant classic. I bought that Rolling Stone magazine with Bono on the cover (the one Remy uses as his avatar). I even tried drawing it and still have the drawing. No, I am NOT posting on the “U2 drawings” topic – it’s bad. I bought the Batman Forever soundtrack as soon as it was released. And in my final year of university (teacher’s college), low and behold, Pop was released which, of course, I purchased on that day. I also got some sort of promotional laminate to go with that CD. I’ll add that U2 played Toronto that autumn but I missed the show as I was off to teach overseas. However, this album (along with a few others from 1997 and 1998) act as my personal soundtrack for that journey.

    It almost seems that I had no choice but to love the work of U2 – and I should also add that I am of Irish decent. So after all my spewing I ask, “What is it that got you to like this band so much that you would be a member, or better yet a crew member, of a site like U2start? Another way to put it would be to ask “Why do so many of you like U2 better than I like the Rolling Stones?” I mean, I really like the Rolling Stones (a band whose artistic career U2’s could be compared to) but their best work was done before I was born so I don’t feel a connection to them. U2 has won several awards over the past decade but most would agree their best work was before this time – before many of you would have been aware that U2 even existed.

    I want to close by reiterating that I am no way trying to be rude or insulting to any of you. I am so thrilled that there are so many fans out there as rabid as me.
  2. For me it was back in mid 2001. I would have been 12-13 years old and my Mum offered to take me to Slane to see 'U2'. I'd heard of them but had no interest in music at the time so I tried to be cool and dismissed 'those old farts'. During that summer when nobody was home i'd put on The Joshua Tree and let it run for those first 3 songs and when they were done I would play them over and over again. There's simply no better introduction to a band than hearing those 3 songs.

    My interest grew from there and I matured a little with some more interest in music and decided to follow U2 down the rabbit hole. I let JT run the whole way through then discovered a completely different side to the band with Achtung Baby, got hooked and picked up new U2 albums whenever I could spare the cash. Things then took off for U2 all over again with Vertigo and they were everywhere so I still kinda grew up with them (whilst also despising that era but ah well).

    I then became involved with here, got into the live stuff then eventually burned myself out on U2 late 2008. It was only when I burned out that I started to think of myself as a serious fan. Sure I wasn't listening to them as much or wasting all my money on collectibles but my blind fanboy period was over and I was then able to appreciate all over again what a ridiculously good band these guys were.

    So yea I grew up with them in my youth but that only spurred me into looking into their past (where the honey pot was).
  3. i am 41 and like you u2's albums followed my life. i first got into the unforgettable fire when i was 15 years old. the joshua tree was also released when i was at high school, my first ever gig was cardiff arms park in 1987 and i became addicted to live music. i agree that the younger members of the site have missed u2 at their peak 87-92 imo. it just shows the quality of the band we all love, their music and their live performances to still be able to recruit young fans.
  4. Originally posted by germcevoy:For me it was back in mid 2001. I would have been 12-13 years old and my Mum offered to take me to Slane to see 'U2'. I'd heard of them but had no interest in music at the time so I tried to be cool and dismissed 'those old farts'. During that summer when nobody was home i'd put on The Joshua Tree and let it run for those first 3 songs and when they were done I would play them over and over again. There's simply no better introduction to a band than hearing those 3 songs.

    My interest grew from there and I matured a little with some more interest in music and decided to follow U2 down the rabbit hole. I let JT run the whole way through then discovered a completely different side to the band with Achtung Baby, got hooked and picked up new U2 albums whenever I could spare the cash. Things then took off for U2 all over again with Vertigo and they were everywhere so I still kinda grew up with them (whilst also despising that era but ah well).

    I then became involved with here, got into the live stuff then eventually burned myself out on U2 late 2008. It was only when I burned out that I started to think of myself as a serious fan. Sure I wasn't listening to them as much or wasting all my money on collectibles but my blind fanboy period was over and I was then able to appreciate all over again what a ridiculously good band these guys were.

    So yea I grew up with them in my youth but that only spurred me into looking into their past (where the honey pot was).


    WOW! You attended THAT Slane show! Awesome!
  5. No he didn't. His Mum did, lol...

    I'm crew and similar in age to you I think. But it was the WGRYWH single that got me into them. Got AB, listened to Dublin Zoo live on the radio, here we are.
  6. this is a difficult post for me cos i'm not actually sure many of the reasons i liked U2 actually exist anymore... anyway here goes

    i first got into U2 in 1987 at the age of 6 when my dad first played the joshua tree and then made me a tape for my walkman with JT on one side and UF on the other which i listened to death for a couple of years but by the start of the 90's music in general didn't seem to interest me much.. so come 1995 (and i can VIVIDLY remember this like it was yesterday) i was watching the chart show (anyone remeber that show? ) and HMTMKMKM suddenly came on. now in my mind U2 was still the band that you see on rattle and hum so to hear them play something that sounded NOTHING like U2 blew my mind and 100% captured my imagination. and so i went straight to my local record shop and bought the most recent album with the most interesting cover (zooropa) and had my mind blown even further. so by 1996 i had bought pretty much everything U2 i could possibly find (and afford) i had signed up to propaganda magazine and i was the most obsessed, massive U2 fan it was possible to be - all i needed now was to hear what they came up with next and actually get to see them live. and i was not fu*king disappointed.... i remember waiting with baited breath for the first radio play of discotheque which i thought was totally amazing... i remember buying pop the day it came out and when i heard those first 3 songs - disco, do you feel loved and the mind blowing mofo, i knew that U2 were the best band in the universe. but that was all just the build up to the greatest day of my life that will NEVER be equalled by anything...

    when i got my popmart Leeds tickets through propaganda magazine and the months became weeks and then days, the excitement that had built that i now felt as i qued up outside roundhay park was unbearable and when that opening bass synth of mofo kicked in i felt something i've never felt before or since - an excitement that nearly made me pass out...!


    and then........ U2 lost their bottle and balls.... when ATYCLB came out it seemed at the time like the logical step was to make a 'back to basics' album but i soon realised that something was wrong... to me for the five years i was a superfan, and throughout the 90's the whole concept of U2 was that they never compromised, they never seemed bothered about bowing to commercial pressure, they always looked forward and always seemed to push boundaries and explore new musical territories with each album and THAT my friends was the reason i loved U2... now they appear to have abandoned all those traits and from hearing the new songs that have been previewed on tour there is no sign of that changing anytime soon...

    if i'm totally honest - if i was just getting into music 10 years ago i don't think i would've become a U2 fan... i will always like U2 not because i think they are great but because they remind me of when they Used to be great....

    but i still have the memories and i still know that somewhere they still have it in them to make interesting music again - i just cant see it happening i'm afraid....
  7. It was in October 2000 when I first liked U2. I became a fan at a very young age, so of course, I had no real interest in music. I never really had an artist that I actually liked, I just liked that one song off an artist. So the Beautiful Day single was coming out and it was constantly on the radio. I never really paid attention to it the first couple of times it was on the radio until it started to grow on me. My brother loved it at the time, so he bought All That You Can't Leave Behind. I used to have this Grundig CD/Cassette player (which played some of the finest CDs I own to date) and my brother put the disc in. I never really liked alot of songs on it at first listen. I liked Beautiful Day, Elevation and The Ground Beneath Her Feet. I also didn't mind Walk On. So they were the only 4 songs I would listen to on that album. Then my parents notice me and my brother's constant playing of U2. My dad gave us The Joshua Tree on cassette. Fell in love with most songs. Didn't like Exit or Red Hill Mining Town back then too, now I really like them. My mum started buying us U2 CDs (Best of 1980-1990, Boy) and I started to love them even more. She even bought us the Elevation Boston DVD with it's magnificent version of The Fly which I just spent all day watching, that one song. We went to Ireland 3 years in a row for holiday. That's where we bought Achtung Baby, Zooropa, The Unforgettable Fire, Pop and Rattle and Hum.

    In about late 2003, I started losing complete interest in U2, and started liking Red Hot Chili Peppers and Guns N' Roses. It wasn't until HTDAAB came out that my interest grew for U2 again. Loved the album at the time, find it mediocre now. I could have went to see U2 at Croke Park on 2005-06-25 but I was too young and wasn't allowed. I was very sad about this, but instead my brother and dad went to see them and said it was amazing. After this, I got bored of U2 again and started discovering new music.

    I bought No Line on the Horizon on release date, after not listening to U2 that much between 2005 and then. I listened to it for about 2 weeks then I stopped completely. My brother bought tickets for 360 and said he would only let me go with him if I was a 'last resort'. So, 1st of June 2009, day before I leave to go to London with the school, my mum calls me into the kitchen and asks "Do you want to see U2 in Dublin?". Instead yes! Ever since then, I've been hooked. Joined here a couple of months after the concert and it's this website that keeps my 'hardcore fan' status alive. Long live U2start

    P.S. sorry if this was a bit overdone and a bit of a life story essay!
  8. I'm not a crew member or anything, but I fall under the "teens and twenties" members you described (i'll be 20 in June).

    I got into U2 about 5 years ago, when I was in my first year of high school. I had started listening to bands like Pink Floyd, ACDC, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, etc. I started listening to a classic rock station to listen to all of those bands on the radio, whether it was a social thing or an actual music preference thing at the time, I'm not sure. What i mean is, It's perfectly possible that I claimed to be huge fans of all of those old bands just to be different than fellow school mates. I don't think that was the case, but who knows, I was about 13-14 at the time.

    Anyway, as I began listening to the classic rock station, there was a summer when a whole lot of these classic rock bands were playing Ottawa (where I live) and one of them happened to be U2. I didn't really pay any attention to that at the time, I knew a few songs (beautiful day, Vertigo annoyed the hell out of me at the time) but not very many. As the concert loomed on the horizon, the radio station started advertising ticket contests (because it was sold out). As this was happening, they started playing a lot more U2. However, I had no idea that it was U2 at the time, or that htey had any kind of history dating back to the 80's. I only knew them as the Beautiful Day band. The two songs I remember making a big impirint in my head were Sunday Bloody Sunday and New Years Day. I just couldn't get enough of that piano in New Years Day, and the drums, guitar and vocals in Sunday Bloody Sunday. I couldn't get enough of the songs period. I started asking my parents "who does that song?" and they kind of shrugged it off "I dunno". In actuality I'm sure they did know, they just didn't think it was a big deal to spend a day thinking about it.

    Once I found out it was U2, I started listening for them on the radio more, but that was about it. Then at the end of that year in grade 9, in drama class our final project (or exam) was to do a freeze frame skit to any song. A girl in my group (that I actually ended up dating for some time) suggested U2. And I said "oh yeah like SBS or NYD?" and she said "No, how about I still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For?" and I didn't even knowthe song, never heard of it. I said "Yeah love that tune" trying to look cool in front of the chick that had great music taste, and I offered to go out and buy The Joshua Tree (she told me the name of the album) so we could get the song. I went and bought the Best Of 80's-90's (couldn't find JT) and that was it for me. I listened to that album front to back probably 300 times for a while. I fell in love with Streets, Bad, Unforgettable Fire, With or Without You, Angel of Harlem, Desire, I Will Follow, you name it. It helped that she was a fan of U2, so she started recommending songs for me to listen to.

    I eventually started buying their albums, beginning with JT and War, and like Gerard said, I eventually discovered (I think it was thanks to the same radio station..) that htey had a whole other side to them. I heard Real Thing and Mysterious Ways and went "What? that can't be U2...". I bought Achtung Baby and just fell in love with the fact that this band was so versatile and different. Their music suddenly had some kind of hold over me, it gave me feelings that I couldn't even describe, and it gave me feelings that no other music gave me before. I suddenly fell in love with music itself, I picked up the guitar because of The Edge (still play to this day, in a band now) and I'm taking Music in university probably because of U2.

    Who knows if it was the connection with the girl I dated that gave me those feelings, who knows if it was just the greatness of U2's music, but I just couldn't get enough of listening to them. I'm not dating her anymore, but I still love U2 just as much as I did back then, so must be their music!

    Honestly though, I think discovering things such as the Joshua Tree era (and the Rattle and Hum film - hence my username ) and Achtung Baby were such high points in my life, because they gave me a whole new outlook on life. Suddenly I found music that could describe any feelings I had, and that could get me through anything. There's just something about hte music that htis band produces that has an effect on me, and many others (as seen around here) that can't even be described.

    That's my story! Believe me, I wish I was born in the 60's so I could have experienced the career of U2 the way long-time fans have. I wish I could've been there on the release of The Fly to go "what the hell?". Would've been great.

    Don't know what I'd be doing today or who I'd be listening to if I never found U2.
  9. Got into them when I heard New Year's Day on the radio back in1983, it was their new single. I was 17 back then, I'm 44 now.

    The rest is history
  10. This is by far the most intersting topic of the week, month, year and probably in the whole existance of this website. Everyone should post here, leave your hearts and minds open and explain why you are U2 fans. Why are we?

    I have my reasons but I also have a big need of some sleep, so see you all tomorrow
  11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgjdC0bZNgc

    I don't like them. I love them. That ^^^ is why I love them. Thinking that I was there just under 2 years ago, seeing them live for the first time ever, and they gave me memories like that, memories that will never leave me

    It's the fact that their music is just generally so full of joy and hope, and it's music that I can always come back to. U2 are my default - I might go off for weeks or months trying out new stuff, but I can always return to it and feel like I never missed a beat.

    I first got into them listening to The Unforgettable Fire and later on, the 1990-2000 Best Of when I was about 10 or so? Never turned back. Still laugh at myself to this day, when I got hold of the 1980-90 Best Of whilst on holiday in Orkney a good few years ago, and I first heard WOWY and ISHFWILF, and thought 'man, these are tunes, they definitely should be hits' before I then twigged that I was essentially listening to a greatest hits album...

    If I get lucky, I might be going to see the boys at Glastonbury in the summer. A big load of ifs doing the round, but ifs I'm gonna work on.
  12. I am also from the older generation and started to enjoy the band in my teens, around the UF and JT albums.
    As a teenager I would tape the radio ,as a lot of us did. For some reason a radio station in Melbourne played recording of a u2 gig on air. I believe it was "The last Night at the Ritz" form the War tour. That tape was played over and over again. I would also borrow the cassettes of UF and War from the local library. Then somebody leant me a cassette of TJT. Wow...Loved it.
    My obsession grew form there, buying Rattle and Hum on CD, going to the movies and seeing Rattle and Hum...Amazing....U2 played 7 nights in Melbourne on the Lovetown tour. I was lucky enough to be at 2 of them...That was such an amazing experience...Set changed each night and we got to hear tracks from RH.....Hawkmoon....wow..
    I reached my 20s and my musical taste broadened and so did u2.....Hearing "The Fly" on the radio for the first time was so exilerating....To this day I can't get enough of Achtung Baby.....Zoomerang was incredible...Saw the show 3 times in Australia. And once more we were lucky enough down here to hear live cuts of the Zooropa tracks. Lemon live was pretty cool.....
    I also think the last great u2 album was POP...On most days it is my favourite album.....The run of tracks on the second half are incredible....Playboy Mansion is underrated in my opinion...And Miami....great creepy song....
    I don't want to talk about the ATYCLB period.......I may fall asleep....
    I certainly think NLOTH is getting back to being interesting..........Looking forward to seeing if they take a creative leap.....or limp....


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