Not much is known about the "U2 boy"—the disheveled kid who stares out at us from the Boy and War album covers. His face is an expression is at times an expression of soft sad innocence, wide eyed inquisition and tearful angelic purity, and at times the lack thereof, with brows lowered and lips slit, a vengeful upset expression. One beckons the onlooker to assist, the other is warning of danger, to stay away. What about that boy?
According to the official U2 website, his name was in fact
Peter Rowan. According to (source "1" in the links) he was the
younger brother of Derek "Guggi" Rowan (a
friend of Bono's) and Trever
"Strongman" Rowan of a group called The Virgin Prunes. According to
all sources he lived across the street from Bono.
Bono knew Peter probably very well through the kid's older brother, because it
was Bono who suggested that the "cute, innocent-looking six-year-old
(1)" would be a good picture for Boy, and the covers of their
various singles at the time: I Will Follow, Three (Stories for Boys,
Boy/Girl, Out of Control). Three years later he was called in again
to be photographed for the band's third album War, and was pictured also
on some of their singles covers as well at that time: New Year's Day, Two
Hearts Beat As One.
Afterwards, according to (1), Peter became the "skateboard champion of
In 1998, the expectation behind U2's first "greatest hits"
compilation caused some interest in Peter Rowan, who was to be pictured on the
cover and on other places in the album. (Including the
picture to the right on page 8 of the compilation booklet.) Here's a
magazine clipping from that time period:
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U2 Boy Has Finally Found What He Is Looking For
From the Daily Mirror, November 3rd, 1998
By Neil Michael
Peter Rowan, the boy who made U2 famous on the cover of an album is seeking
his fortune at the other end of the camera. But now the "boy" the
band plastered over their early albums has grown up to map out a carrer of his own. "I'm working as a photographer
at the moment, but I want to do more Rolling Stone magazine kind of
stuff," he said last night. Peter shot to fame on album covers in 1980
and 1983. Then his brother Guggi was the lead singer
of the Virgin Prines and a close pal of U2 singer
Bono. Bono suggested the cute, innocent-lloking
six-year-old child would make a good picture for an album, and the rest, as
they say, is history.
Peter if featured naked from the waist with his arms behind his neck on the
front cover of Boy and was also pictured on the cover of the band's
first single Three. When hw was nine, he was
photographed with the famous American army helmet for the band's third album War,
which is also used on the front cover of the band's Greatest Hits album.
"It feels good to see my picture staring out at me from shop
windows," said Peter. "I never really thought about it that
much before, but now it's kind of hard to escape from it." And he
added: "It's fairly true to say that I am more famous for those U2
pictures than anything I have done since. But I hope to change that soon enought. It would be good to work for U2, but this time at
the other side of the lens."
Their new album [Best of U2 1980-1990] is expected to be sold out by the
end of the week. "It was better than anything we have had for a U2 album,
and certainly better than when Titanic when on sale," said a Virgin
spokesperson.
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"He Did it for Chocolate" --U2 Look Familar, Peter
More recently (2004), The Sun tracked down Peter Rowan as U2 were releasing
their album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Peter Rowan was 30 at the
time of this article, which makes him around 33 sometime this year (2007).
A very interesting piece of information from this source is that payment for
his photographs, at least for the album Boy, came in the form of chocolate.
Peter said "A box of Mars Bars was part of the fee." (2)
According to some sources (3), there were only two chocolate bars for the Boy
picture. Sweet.