U2 Biography

         Lawrence Joseph Mullen Jr. was fourteen in 1976 when he pinned up the notice on Mount Temple's bulletin board. It said, (in these precise words), "I wasted money on a drum kit. Did anyone do the same on guitars?"With that small note, Larry Mullen started what would become one of the most respected, popular, creative, groundbreaking and well-known bands in the history of rock and roll.
          Larry was born on Halloween in Artane, Dublin, Ireland. Larry was a good-looking kid with an air of self-confidence and was very popular at Dublin's first co-ed, nondenominational secondary "comprehensive" school. As a small child, Larry had gone to see a band play with his parents and his older sister. He saw the drummer and told his mother that that was what he wanted to do with his life. His older sister Cecilia bought him is first drum kit for seventeen pounds when he was eleven. He had even gone off to take lessons from legendary Irish drummer Joe Bonnie, but could not stand the man or his teaching method, quit almost immediately and, as a result, taught himself how to play. Soon his father had enrolled him in a marching band, and at one point Larry had even played in the well-known and respected Artane Boys Band, who plays in the St. Patrick's Day Parade every year.
Larry was also forced to quit that when they ordered him to cut his hair not once, but twice. It seemed Larry was quite hardheaded even from the start. At first, no one replied to Larry's notice on the board, assuming it was a school sponsored event, but when Larry approached the new student, named Adam Charles Clayton, about joining the band, word began to get around.
Larry was determined to have Adam in his band, despite Adam being very open about not knowing how to play his bass guitar. Larry felt that with his British accent, (still left over from his first five years of living in England and Kenya, where his father was a pilot), afghan coat, multi-colored beads, tinted shades and blond Afro, Adam was just the coolest looking kid around. Throw in the fact that he used words like "gig", "jam" and "fret action" and Adam, (nearly two years Larry's senior), suitably impressed Mullen.
          Adam, the type of kid who brought a cup of coffee to class and got expelled from a very posh school, (the best in the country, in fact), for streaking, thought it sounded like a very brilliant way to waste his weekends and agreed to be at the first rehearsal. He even asked his soft-spoken, intellectual friend Dave Howell Evans and Dave's equally bright older brother Dik, (whom had actually built their own guitar together), to join him. As word continued to spread about Mullen's idea to start a band, the news finally hit the ears of Paul David Hewson.
          Paul was born in Dublin, Ireland like Larry. Paul, however, was not the normal child. Paul seemed doomed to refuse convention or rules of any kind and would often spend most of his early educational years before Mount Temple skipping school and walking the streets of Dublin. Born with a protestant mother and catholic father, (which is a much scorned pairing, even now, in Ireland), Paul often felt out of place and awkward. Only when he got to Mount Temple did he finally feel at home and became quite popular and well-known, even to the schools teachers. Immediately excited by the post and recalling glances at the younger, well-liked Larry Mullen in the halls, he approached him and was also invited to the rehearsal.
          At the rehearsal in the Mullen kitchen, Larry was struck with a horrible realization. He was the only one who could play. Paul said he could sing and play guitar, but really couldnt do either. As Adam had said, hed hardly ever touched his bass guitar before and sounded horrible, but managed to stay in the band simply because he looked great. Larry was sure Dave and Dik could play, but certainly not on the piece of trash guitar they'd built, which looked outstanding, but certainly didn't sound it and, unlike Adam, could not make the cut on appearance alone. Despite this, they went through the rehearsal and decided to call themselves "Feedback", after the sounds of the screeching from the microphone being hooked up into Adam's amplifier.
          Over the early part of 1976, the members of Feedback worked out their sound and their friendships, forming fast growing connections with each other. During this period, Paul and David got new names. In the Feedback's group of friends it was considered a sort of necessity that you had a nickname. The nicknames were meant to point out a part of one's self that they were self-conscious about. Paul was nicknamed "Bono Vox", (which in screwball Latin means "good voice"), almost to point out that, in fact, he didn't have a good voice at the time. Dave was renamed "The Edge", which is credited to two things: the sharp shape of his chin and his tendency to be on the fringe of things and only partially aware of what's around him. The nicknames stuck and both are still called Bono and The Edge to this day, with most people not knowing their real names.
          By autumn of 1976 the band had changed their name from Feedback to "The Hype", (named after the lack of it), and had managed to somehow win a talent show at their school. However, it was to be Edge's brother Dik's last performance with the band. He quit to join another local group formed by friends of The Hype's. From then on, the band would always consist of only Larry, Bono, Adam and The Edge. A short time after Dik quit, on St. Patrick's Day 1977, The Hype entered a local talent contest with CBS Ireland Records, not really expecting to win. Much to their surprise, they did win, earning five hundred pounds and a guaranteed record deal, (the record deal later fell through).
          By 1978, Adam had managed to get expelled from Mount Temple as well, and began to realize that he wanted the band to be what he did for his life and became their full-time manager. On March 21st, his friend in a fellow young punk band told him they wouldn't make it with a name like The Hype. They needed something catchier. He suggested U-2, after the spy plane that had been shot down eight days before Bono was born in 1960. Adam agreed it was a good idea to put the comparison if the band U-2 with saying "you too". He believed it remarked on how determined they were to connect with their audiences. He did, however, drop the hyphen.
          U2 went out on the Ireland bar and pub ring and began to make a name for themselves in the underground music scene. On May 25th, 1978 a twenty-five year old man, who was involved in the movie business, went to see U2 live at the suggestion of a music journalist friend. This man, Paul McGuiness, was very impressed by the energetic, restless and carefree performance U2 put on and immediately agreed to be their manager. Now with a manager, U2 were finally getting acknowledged as an up and coming act, if only in Ireland. The pinnacle of their success so far was when they played to 2,500 people as support for Irish group "The Stranglers". U2 was on their way up. However, the happiness and ease the band held would not last long.
          In November of 1978, Larry's mother Maureen Mullen died in a car accident. Larry, who was extremely close to his mother, seemed to have died with her. He immediately began to pull himself away from family and friends, including U2. Bono, (whose mother had died in 1974 when she had a brain hemorrhage at her father's funeral), instantly knew what was happening and was not at all surprised when Larry broke the news to the band that he was not sure he could go on. Edge and Adam left the meeting at Mullen's house feeling lost and uncertain what they were to do if the band broke up. Edge knew he would be forced to attend a university and Adam had no clue what he'd be able to do without a high school diploma. Bono, on the other hand, left the meeting annoyed and anxious. The next day he came pounding on Larry's door, insisting to be let in. Once inside, he sat Larry down and told him flat out that he was not allowed to quit the band. Bono forbade it. Larry was astonished that Bono would talk so, especially to a hard head, no nonsense kid like himself who wasn't told what to do by anyone, but Bono's approach soon softened and he told Larry that he understood what was happening to him because it had also happened to himself. He assured Larry he would be there for him and if Larry needed anything at all, he should come to Bono and not be ashamed to ask for his help or support. In exchange, Larry agreed to keep the band going. From that day on, the two held a special bond that would keep the band going when it seemed they had reached empty.
          In September of 1979, CBS Ireland Records made good of their word and U2 released their first ever EP, (mini-album), entitled U2:3. The few thousand copies of the EP sold out in Ireland and the band grazed the Irish charts. On December 1st, 1979 U2 kicked off a tour of England, where they were still virtual unknowns. Soon notorious for their energizing club performances, the word of U2 began to spread across England as it had in Ireland a year earlier. U2 played a sold out show at Dubli's National Stadium on February 26th and on March 19th, U2 was finally signed to a three-album deal with Island Records.
October 20th, 1980 marked the day that U2 released their first complete LP, (album), in Ireland and the UK, entitled Boy. Boosted by the help of its single "I Will Follow", it peaked at number 52 on the UK charts, but managed to hit much higher on the Irish charts. Boy was receiving good reviews everywhere, described as an echoic, atmospheric journey into the adolescence of a young teenage boy, working toward manhood. With Larry's thundering drumming, Edge's choppy, calling guitar notes, Adam's fat-bottom bass and Bono's earnest vocals, people were beginning to consider them a musical force to be reckoned with.
          On December 6th, 1980 U2 played their first-ever American performance and completely won over the jaded Manhattan audience. U2 was in high spirits at the very beginning of their American tour and won over city after city, doing interviews on college radio stations during the morning, traveling during the day and performing late into the night. Despite the grueling schedule, when Boy was released in America on March 3rd, it peaked at a paltry number 105 on the charts. Sometime after the release of Boy, Larry, Bono and Edge began to attend a charismatic Christian group called Shalome. At Shalome, they sang gospel songs and talked about the bible. Larry, Bono and Edge soon began to devote much of their time to the group. Adam, however, wasnt interested. A rift soon began to form between the believers and Adam and their manager Paul. Adam felt like he was being left out and Paul didn't like how the Shalome was affecting the band. Soon the Shalome was pestering Larry, Bono and Edge about being in a rock group. They felt it was contradictory and that if they wanted to become real born-again Christians, they would break up U2. At one point, it seemed very possible that it would happen and the band would fade into history before they had even really started. Larry was the first to decide that he didn't want to leave U2 and Bono followed, both quitting the Shalome. Only Edge was left, and he asked the other four if he could have sometime to himself to think. Bono took him out for a walk and Edge expected him to side with the band, but Bono told him to follow his heart. Edge decided to stick with U2.
          On August 21st, 1982, Bono married his high school sweetheart, Ali Stewart. He asked Adam to be his best man. It was a gesture to show that Adam was still one of the group. It worked. In middle 1981, U2 went back into the studio. A strict deadline for the new album was put on their heads and recording was difficult. During the Boy tour of America, a satchel with all of Bono's new lyrics was stolen. When they went into the studio, Bono was forced to improvise and their new religious situation was apparent on the album, entitled October, which was released on October 12th, 1981. It went straight to number 11 on the UK charts. In March of 1981, U2 started an arena tour opening for two hit wonders "The J. Geils Band". Their videos began to take heavy rotation on the new music channel MTV. The song Gloria became their first big single in the UK.
          After a long exhausting tour, on August 8th, 1982, U2 went back into the studio. It would be their final time with producer Steve Lillywhite and they realized with the new album they needed a change from the atmospheric styles of the past. They decided they wanted something loud, abrasive and straightforward.
          The War LP was released on February 28th, 1983. It immediately shot to number 1 in the UK and a surprising 12 in American charts. Based around aggressive, military-like drums and loud, chiming guitar wails, U2 touched on a nerve with songs such as "New Year's Day", (written about the struggle of Poland at the time), and "Sunday Bloody Sunday", (written about the continuing troubles of Northern Ireland). U2 were suddenly very political and had something to say about the situation of the world. War focused on a stronger, more grown-up U2. "New Year's Day" became U2s first top ten hit, going to number 9 in the UK and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" became an anthem that U2 would come to be associated with the rest of their career.
A tour to support War began two days before the LP was released and U2 began to get labeled as the best live act around. Bono began a ritual at the shows of taking a white flag, "drained of all its color", out onto the stage and climbing the scaffoldings or balconies. Bono was attempting to connect with the crowds like he had when U2 had been in small clubs. Not only did Bono's performances get crazier, but also did the crowds themselves. At one show, Bono climbed a balcony and was mobbed. In order to get away from the mayhem, he jumped twenty feet to the audience below. By the time he reached the stage again, his clothes had been ripped to shreds and his flagpole had been split in half. It seemed everything about U2 was changing, including the fans.
          On June 5th, 1983 U2 played the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver, Colorado. They had a television crew ready to tape the show to be shown later on MTV, Pay-Per-View and a British music TV show called "The Tube". However, the morning before the concert, it began to pour and thunder and the show was soon in question. Despite the horrible weather, the 9,000 fans set to attend soon filled in the amphitheatre and U2 played a riveting show. The gig would go down in music history when the video became available on VHS and a live EP, entitled Under A Blood Red Sky and using several tracks taken from the concert, would go on to become the best selling live concert album in the history of the UK charts.
          In July, Edge married his fianc�e Aislinn O'Sullivan in Ireland. In December of 1983 U2 won the voters choice for best band of the year award in the "Rolling Stone" reader's poll. On May 7th, 1984 U2 went to Slane Castle in Ireland to begin recording a new album. Going into the album, U2 knew they needed another change as expectations began to fly around about U2 becoming the next "The Who". U2 refused to be pinned down to any one type of music or be compared to anyone else and immediately recruited new producers for the next album. They hired Brian Eno, a well-known producer and musician, to produce them next. Brian brought with him Canadian producer Daniel Lanois. The chemistry was immediate and U2 finished the album on August 1st of the same year. The album would delve into the artsy, foggy world of America, despite coming off as a very
European sounding album. Through moody instrumentals like "The 4th of July" to straightforward rock songs like "Pride (In The Name Of Love)", which became their first top forty single in America, U2 were becoming adults and spreading their creative wings.
          U2's fourth LP, The Unforgettable Fire, was named after an art exhibit they had seen in Chicago based on bombings of World War II in Japan and contained two songs, "Pride (In The Name Of Love)" and "MLK", which were based on the story of Martin Luther King Jr., another exhibit they had seen in Chicago and was released on October 1st, 1984. It went to number 1 in the UK and, just like War, number 12 in America. On December 1st, a sold out tour of America began and in February of 1985, sales of The Unforgettable Fire passed the million mark.
          On April 1st, 1985, U2 grazed the cover of "Rolling Stone" magazine, the title next to them declaring them "The Band Of The 80's". In May of 1985, U2 released another live EP called Wide Awake In America.
          On July 13th, 1985 U2 went out on the Wembely Stadium stage in England for the legendary Live Aid concert in front of the world and stole the show. During a performance of their surprise live hit "Bad", (a song written about the temptations and consequences of drug abuse), Bono showed great emotion toward the cause of the concert and the crowd of 50,000-something people by leaping off the stage, into the audience and ceremoniously embracing two young girls. The moment would come to inspire an artist to sculpt an award-winning sculpture entitled "The Leap" and several weeks later "Rolling Stone" readers bestowed the "Best Live Aid Performance" award on U2. Sales of their albums suddenly skyrocketed and U2's new up-coming album became the concern of every music fan.
          U2 began working on their new album in late 1985 and on June 4th, 1986 U2 headlined The Conspiracy Of Hope Tour, a string of concerts helping to aid Amnesty International. Other musicians on the tour included Peter Gabriel, The Neville Brothers, Sting and The Police, Joan Baez, Bryan Adams, Lou Reed
and Jackson Brown.
          In August 1986, U2 went back into the studio with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois to continue work on their new LP. In autumn of 1986, Bono and his wife Ali, inspired by Live Aid, went to Ethiopia and then to El Salvador and Nicaragua to volunteer aid. In El Salvador they witness the bombing of a city. What they saw there heavily influenced what went on the new album.
The Joshua Tree, U2's fourth LP, went platinum in the UK in 24 hours. In the hours before it went on sale at midnight on March 9th, 1987, lines went up and down streets at music stores in Europe and America. The Joshua Tree topped the charts in 19 countries, including the UK, Ireland and America and became the first LP to ever sell a million copies on CD alone. The first two singles off of it, "With Or Without You" and "I Still Havent Found What I'm Looking For went straight to the number one spot on the American singles chart. It's third single, "Where The Streets Have No Name", went to number 13.
          The Joshua Tree, with its cover showing the band standing in Death Valley, California, was as much a metaphor of America as The Unforgettable Fire was, however, it not only showed that the band had discovered the good side of America, but the bad. And America loved it. With folk, rock, country, blues and gospel harmonies intermingling in such beautiful songs on love and lust like "With Or Without You", joyous and celebratory songs about faith, hope and religion like "I Still Havent Found What I'm Looking For" and "Where The Streets Have No Name", angry, passionate songs of the band's disillusionment with America like the fiery "Bullet The Blue Sky" and jumpy "In Gods Country" and the dark oppression of insanity in "Exit", U2 managed to appeal to every genre of music and became an instant phenomenon. The Joshua Tree would go on to sell a whopping 17 million copies and firmly hold the grip as the fastest selling album ever in the UK.
          On March 27th, 1987 U2 played on top of a liquor store in downtown L.A. to film the video for the single "Where The Streets Have No Name", mimicking "The Beatles" and drawing a crowd of over 10,000 to the L.A. streets. The video became an instant success on MTV. On April 2nd, U2 began their sold out tour for The Joshua Tree in Tempe, Arizona. Despite Bono having voice troubles, the show received outstanding reviews. On April 27th, U2 became the last of only three bands to ever make the cover of "Time" magazine. Before them only The Beatles and The Who, whom they had been compared to in the War days, had also made the cover. Underneath a sprawling picture of them read "U2: Rock's Hottest Ticket".
          During The Joshua Tree tour, U2 began to film their concerts to use in a rock documentary. It was meant to be a simple, fun project, but soon got out of hand. Before U2 knew it, a movie documentary was being filmed, they were recording a new album/soundtrack for the movie and an accompanying book to the movie and album was being written. On November 11th, 1987, in order to get more footage for the movie, U2 played a free concert in San Francisco that they jokingly dubbed the "Save The Yuppies Concert". During "Pride (In The Name Of Love)", Bono leapt off the stage into the 20,000 people, climbed onto the near by Vaillancourt Fountain and spray-painted "Rock N' Roll Stops The Traffic". This outraged mayor Diane Feinstein, who underestimated U2's popularity and pressed charges on Bono. Bono was forced to appear in San Francisco Municipal Court. A week later all charges were dropped. Feinstein, some believe as a result, lost the next election.
          March 2nd, 1988 brought U2 two Grammys for "Best Vocal of the Year" for "I Still Haven't Found..." and "Album of the Year" for The Joshua Tree. On October 10th, U2 released the movie soundtrack they'd been working on, called Rattle And Hum, consisting of live tracks and new tracks recorded with artists such as Bob Dylan and BB King. The critics, who call it egotistical, blasted the LP, but it shot to number one in the UK, Ireland, America and several other countries anyway. Strong blues and country influences were readily heard on the album. The song "Desir", a Bo Diddley type tune, became U2's first number 1 single in the UK. It reached number 3 in America.
          The world premier of U2's music documentary, also named Rattle And Hum, took place at the Savoy Theater on Dublin's O'Connell Street on October 12th, 1988. More than 5,000 fans showed up for the band's four-song set before the movie. However, despite extraordinary beginning attendance, moviegoers did not see it much after the first three weeks and it dropped out of cinemas quickly. The movie got horrible treatment by critics, much as the LP did.
On September 21st, 1989 U2 began what they called The Love Town Tour of Australia and Europe with BB King as their opening support act. The tour went on to great success. However, by that time the band was having problems that no outsider saw. One night after a gig, Larry pulled Bono aside and told him he was sick and tired of being a human jukebox, turning out everyone's favorite U2 hits. He felt that the gigs had become real work, like a job, and that it was no longer fun. Bono agreed. When the tour ended on New Years Eve, 1989, it was broadcast on radio all over Europe. At the end of the show Bono stated: "This is just the end of something for U2. It's not big deal... we just have to go away and... and dream it all up again." People speculated that the band of the 80's was breaking up. And in a way, it was.
          The 90's would bring a new U2. As the 90's began, U2 was at a dead-end. Rattle And Hum, though commercially successful, had felt like a flop to the band and the musical terrain they had covered on the LP had run out and led them to nowhere. With the 90's, came a change in everything. The Berlin Wall was coming down, and everything U2 had seemed to know as fact, including the band, was slipping. Bono thought it'd be a great idea to tap into the reunification of Germany and U2 flew into Berlin on the last plane before East Germany faded into history. The idea Bono had had been an idealistic one at that, but in result, not well thought out. U2 ended up staying in a trashy hotel in what was formerly East Berlin and though the Hansa Studios had a great track record as far as creating music in it was concerned, in reality, it was falling apart and barely kept from being condemned. Add in the fact that U2 only managed to get Daniel Lanois for most of the recording, without Brian Eno, and they had a very messy situation on their hands.
Bono and Edge came into the studio raving about techno music groups and dance beats. Adam was unsure that what they were talking about was actually what was happening or cool in music and Larry simply had no clue at all what they were talking about. Songs that Bono and Edge had worked on and felt were songs that could go all the way, confused, shocked and scared Larry and Adam. No one really seemed to know what direction U2 should turn in and a split automatically formed in the band. Bono and Edge wanted to push the band into the musical ethers of dance and electronica music, while Adam and Larry dug their heels, insisting they keep to what they know: punk, pop and rock and roll. The studio sessions soon became ugly, especially when Daniel began to side with Larry and Adam. It came to a point where a day did not go by without the four arguing bitterly and threatening to kill each other. Edge's marriage to Aislinn had just recently broken up and when he began to speak of breaking up the band as well, the other three knew things were getting serious for Edge to talk of giving up the only thing he had left. Larry said that if it came down to the band or the friendships, U2 would have to go. It was the first time since U2 had started in 1976 that when they played together, nothing would happen. The four men were beginning to become desperate when salvation came in the form of a song called "One".
          One day, Larry walked into the control room and stopped right in his tracks as a guitar riff swelled up at him from the recording room. Larry heard Edge fiddling with the guitar bit and knew it was U2's escape from their tough spot. Larry called Bono and Adam in and they all began to play the song together. Bono started to improvise lyrics over it to match the tribulations U2 had been going through: "We're one, but we're not the same. We get to carry each other, carry each other. One." Now that U2 realized they could still make music together, they were ready to go home. Back in Dublin, U2 sat down and had a very serious discussion about what they expected from each other. Larry insisted they put down their arms and repair their wounded friendships. They listened to the Berlin tapes over again and realized that they weren't as bad off as they thought they had been. They went into Dublin's Windmill Studios were they had been working since they started with Boy and finished the album. U2 was ready to be out the spotlight again.
          Achtung Baby, (named after a funny catch phrase from a Mel Brooks movie, which means "Attention Baby"), was released on November 12th, 1991 to critical acclaim. The album accompanied a totally new sound for U2, a complete 180 from what people were used to hearing from them. Instead of up-beat pop, Achtung Baby was ironic, humorous, dark, spacey and moody. Suddenly U2 music was something you could dance to and people loved it. Achtung Baby would go on to become U2's second best grossing album after The Joshua Tree. The first single off it "The Fly", shot straight to number 1 in the UK singles charts. The songs "Mysterious Ways" and "One" went on to become top ten hits in America and the proceeds from the "One" single went to AIDS research.
          Now that U2 were back, swinging and once again the biggest band in the world, they needed to tour for the new album. However, they knew they couldn't play like they had used to. The music was no longer simple or bubbly, but complicated and ironic and smart and they wanted their tour to reflect that. Out of that idea came ZooTV.
          ZooTV began simply enough. Bono was watching CNN as America bombed the Middle East and caught himself saying as the bombs dropped, "Wow, that was a BIG one!" and flipping from MTV to a movie to cartoons to CNN again. When he and Edge saw an interview with one of the pilots who dropped a missile and the pilot said that it seemed "so real", Bono and Edge realized how the soldiers that had grown up playing with video games, pretending they were real, were now doing the real thing and pretending it was a video game. The media had desensitized everything so badly that you couldn't tell a war from a TV show. U2 decided that they wanted to point that out and make a statement about it at their concerts. They wanted to show "media overload" at its height. ZooTV, named after the first song off Achtung Baby called "Zoo Station", had 4 mega video screens, 4 Philips Vidiwalls, 36 video monitors, 18 projectors, 12 laser disk players, 1 satellite dish, 1 channel changer, 1 video confessional, 1 belly dancer, 4 beach balls, 7 miles of cable, a 248 feet wide; 80 feet deep stage with a 150 feet long ramp leading to a b-stage, 11 Trabant cars, (used as spotlights and mirror balls), 176 speaker cabinets and a sound system that used over a million watts of power a night and weighed over 30 tons for their new tour. The video screens and monitors flashed brilliantly edited footage of the Gulf War, TV commercials, sports events, music videos and ironic sayings such as: "Evolution is over, "Guilt is not of God", "Taste is the enemy of art", "Contradiction is balance", "Religion is a club", "Silence = Death", "Everything you know is wrong", "I'd like to teach the world to sing", "A liar won't believe anyone else", "BE", "Death is a career move", "Be gentle with me", "Enjoy the surface", "BELIEVE", "Ambition bites the nails of success", "Beware the bull", "This is not a rehearsal", "It's entertainment" and "Watch more TV". The tongue in cheek concerts not only showed the four members of U2 as intelligent, humorous young men with something to say, but also updated their souring image. U2 was suddenly the coolest, most avant-garde thing around and the members of U2 only pushed the myth of themselves on.
          At concerts, Bono would become a character called "The Fly". The Fly was a megalomaniac rock star, who would preen for the photographers, grind against cameras and just generally act full of himself. Bono felt that if the media already conceived him an egomaniac, he might as well have fun playing the part. He would come out on stage wearing Jim Morrison's shiny leather pants, Elvis's leather jacket and Lou Reed's dark shades; bubble glasses that made Bono look very much the Fly. ZooTV went on to become the third largest grossing concert in music history. Demand was 10 to 1, meaning for every 10 people that wanted to go in the world; there was 1 ZooTV ticket. The tour started on February 29th, 1991 in Lakeland, Florida and would go through America until December.
          At the end of the America leg of the tour, U2 realized they had a three-month break before they went over seas to perform in Europe. Because Edge's marriage had failed, he didn't have much of a home to go to and his natural workaholic spirit stuck U2 back into the studio during their little holiday. The other three members were exhausted from touring for more than a whole year, but agreed to go in the studio for Edge's sake. No one really knew what the studio session would bring about, but it ended up being U2's next album, entitled Zooropa, which was released on July 5th, 1993. Zooropa was U2's most "out there" LP ever. Consisting of odd dance beats and high-pitched singing, Zooropa was weird, but managed to top the charts in several countries, including the standard UK, Ireland and America string.
          The first single off Zooropa was "Numb" a song surprisingly sung in monotone by Edge, with Larry on shrill backing vocals. Once again, U2 refused to follow the rules and the song "Lemon" went on to be U'2s first and last number 1 on the dance singles charts. Zooropa went on to win the Grammy for "Best Alternative Album of the Year" in March of 1994. In 1995, U2 won another Grammy for "Best Music Video: Long Version" for their concert video filmed in Australia called "ZooTV: Live From Sydney".
On December 10th, 1993 U2 finished the ZooTV Tour in Tokyo, Japan. Over the next two years U2 would release minimal work. On June 1st, 1995 they released a single called "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" for the Batman Forever Soundtrack. The single became another huge success, going to number 2 in the UK, number 16 in America and number 1 in Ireland, Japan and Australia.
          In 1995, U2 went into the studio with Brian Eno, but everyone was clear that it was not a project featuring U2. U2, Brian Eno and several others went into the studio under the name "The Passengers", so U2 fans would not think it was a new U2 album. The recording was extremely experimental and all tracks were meant to be in movie soundtracks of some kind. Later, Larry would admit to despising the LP, which was named Original Soundtracks 1. It was released on November 6th, 1995 to mixed results. In January of 1996, U2 went back into the studio to work on a new album. Neither Brian Eno nor Daniel Lanois were there for the recording. Instead, their engineer nicknamed Flood, played as the engineer and producer along with a man named Howie B.
On May 1st, Larry and Adam released a reworking of Lalo Schiffrin's classic Mission Impossible Theme" to be the theme of the new Tom Cruise flick. The single went into the top ten charts of several countries, America and the UK among them. Work continued on the new album.
          By the end of 1996, it was obvious U2 were having problems with the new album. The release date for the album had to be pushed back three times and U2 were forced to use what was meant to be valuable rehearsal time for what was to be a concert tour larger than ZooTV on reworking and finishing off the album. U2 had a multi-million dollar tour that they wanted to bring around the world, to third world countries, keeping ticket prices low for their fans and do it all in one and a half years. The math didn't add up, but U2 pushed ahead anyway. They completed the last vocal on the night the album was mastered.
On February 11th 1997, the first single "Discotheque" off the new album entitled Pop, was released and went to number one on the singles charts in over 13 countries. The next day, U2 announced the release of the new album and tour, to be called PopMart, at a Kmart in Greenwich Village, New York.
          The tour PopMart would consist of a giant lemon that U2 would come out of during the encore and a 200-foot tall Vidiwall screen plus a gigantic olive skewered on a stick. The whole concert concept was to have U2 poke fun of themselves and make fun of selling out. Most people didn't get the joke. When Pop was released on March 3rd, it debuted at number 1 in 21 countries. The album was heavily dance-oriented and even though the LP did well at first, for the first time ever, it seemed U2 had gone too far out into the ether. With the release of Pop, U2 fans began to drop like flies and a U2 backlash, worse than anything that happened with Rattle And Hum, began. Despite having some great work, the first single "Discotheque" blinded people and most didn't like what they heard. On April 25th, the PopMart Tour kicked off in Las Vegas, Nevada and was broadcast live on ABC. But it was obvious that U2 hadn't had enough time to rehearse and the first concert did not go well. When Bono and Edge's guitars died during their big single "Staring At Sun", U2 all but gave up the rest of the show. "U2 PopMart: Live In Las Vegas" was the lowest rated music program in ABC history. Reviews of Pop were lukewarm. Some declared it their best album ever and others claimed it their worst. Sales of Pop quickly dropped and ticket sales to their concerts did the same. The PopMart tour ended in early 1998. U2 disappeared for most of the rest of the year.
          On October 19th, 1998, U2 released their first work of the year, a remake of a The Joshua Tree b-side, which never made the album, called "Sweetest Thing". The song was meant as a late birthday gift to Bono's wife after he forgot and the single announced the soon to be released, long over due The Best Of: 1980-1990. The collection consisted of U2's hits from the 80's and a week after it's release on November 2nd; it became the biggest selling greatest hits collection by any band ever and remained in the top forty of the charts for an astonishing year and a half, grazing the top spot for a month. Seeing themselves once again well received by the public as the "Sweetest Thing" single climbed charts in several countries, U2 went back in the studio in January of 1999. Going into the album, they promised each other that if this album was not great, they would call U2 quits. They spent all of 1999 and most of 2000 working on the new album. Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois were back on the U2 train.The sound for the new album drew greatly from one event. Trying to work in some extra rehearsal time, U2 had borrowed a local band's equipment, (their equipment was already on the way to the next gig), which consisted of simply a guitar, bass, drum kit, amp and microphone, much like the equipment U2 had when they first started. While trying to play their complicated dance-type music off Pop with such simple instruments, their producer for Pop, Howie B, watched on quizzically. Howie B asked them what on earth that sound they were making was. As Adam, Larry and Edge snickered, Bono told him "it's called a rock group". Howie B, not getting the joke, said, "Wow, you should do an album that sounds like that. It sounds great." Suddenly U2 stopped laughing and looked at each other. What an idea! U2 brought that idea into the studio with them and kept to a bare bones sound through out the whole album. Bringing in sounds of soul, rhythm and blues and Motown into the music, U2 finished the album in mid-2000. They decided to name the LP something very un-U2. They named it All That You Can't Leave Behind, because, to U2, the album was all that they couldn't leave behind.
          All That You Can't Leave Behind was released on Halloween Day, 2000. It debuted at number 1 in 29 countries. The single "Beautiful Day", hit number 1 in 11 countries and its follow-up "Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of" hit number 1 in several more countries. Both went to number one in the UK, though neither were released as singles in America for some reason. "Rolling Stone" magazine called it their third masterpiece after The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby, gave it four stars and put U2 on the cover, bestowing the "Band of the Year" honors on them.
          On February 23rd, 2001, the Grammys were held in New York. U2, music veterans compared to most the nominees there, was nominated for three awards for "Beautiful Day", despite the album itself being released too late in the year to qualify for the 2000 awards. Much to the surprise of everyone, (considering U2 were not expected to win over the flavor of the month acts), U2 swept all three awards for "Best Performance by a Rock Duo or Group", "Song of the Year" and "Record of the Year" and had a riveting performance of "Beautiful Day".
          U2 announced their Elevation tour for the new album in month of January 2000. Tickets to the shows went on sale several weeks later and shows to the tour sold out immediately.
          As a new century began, U2 had been together for over 25 years without a change in line-up. Larry, Bono, Adam and The Edge had been through dizzying highs and terrible lows, but through it all they had remained a group because they remained friends and carried each other. Now everyone waits with held breath to see what masterpiece U2 will yield next. "You know that song "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"? Well, for years people have been asking me if I'd found what I was looking for... well, I have! I've finally found my niche. And I love it." - Larry Mullen Jr.