MUZIKMART: About U2
A few things about U2 that you may find interesting:
- It was Larry Mullen Jr. who posted an ad on a bulletin board at school about starting a band.
- Bono responded to Larry's note saying that he could play guitar and sing. He really couldn't do either.
- Bono's real name is Paul Hewson
- The Edge's real name is Dave Evans
- 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.
- 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.
- Before U2, the group had two other names (for a short period):
'Feedback' and 'The Hype'.
- "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.
- 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.
MUZIKMART recommends: The U2 FAQ
Read U2's Biography
Anything else you want to add to this list ?:
Email MUZIKMART at: molmos2@banda.ntu.edu.au