U2

It was in the fall of 1976 that the 4 U2 Irish met at Mount Temple High School (Dublin), drummer Larry Mullen Jr filed an announcement to which, among other things, those who would become the permanent members of U2: Paul Hewson (chant), Dave Evans (guitar) and Adam Clayton (bass). Paul adopted Bono for stage name, and nicknamed Dave "The Edge" because he "always stays on the sidelines, as an observer...". The band recorded a few demos, and finally released in March 1980 their first album, Boy , which was only a local success, in tribute to their debut, the band will regularly play each tour the song I will follow , one of their first hits. A year later in October released the second album (somewhat loose), October . The single Gloria ensures success in the charts.
It will be necessary to wait until 1983 for the consecration of the band: the famous album War with at the head of the album 2 must-see hymns, Sunday Bloody Sunday and New Year! The album is experiencing an unexpected success, probably due to the great controversy around Sunday Bloody Sunday, misinterpreted as a revengeful song of the Catholics of the South, while the band still stands on the side of peace between Catholics and Protestants.At the end of the year, a live album, Under a Blood Red Sky, is published, and bears witness to War's extraordinary power in live. In 1984 appeared the album The Unforgettable Fire , with a master piece Pride , a song dedicated to the memory of Martin Luther King and which is more than ever part of the group's pacifist ideals. In 1985, U2 participated in Live Aid, a charity concert for hunger in Africa. The Joshua Tree was released in March 1987. The album became almost immediately #1 of all charts, beating even the record sales speed in Britain. In the United States, there is a million albums sold in less than 3 weeks. This unanimous success made Joshua Tree the album of world consecration for the band, and for many, the best of all. October 1988, release of the mid-live album Mid-studio Rattle and Hum , blocked by the critic (considered too pretentious) but praised by the audience who regains both conquering and admiring spirit of the band (miscellaneous tributes to Elvis Presley , collaboration with BB King ...).
After a long period of rest and questioning for the group, which failed to separate...Happily, in 1991, U2 decided to change its sound, and looped in a few months the other centerpiece of their work, Achtung Baby, with more electro and pop influences. The single One was a great success. Exit the tours with simplistic décor, the emphasis is now on the show, the band embarks on a self-caricature with the world tour ZooTV, which will last a year and a half, between the two parts of this tour releases the small album Zooropa, Ovni electro-rock rather reserved for fans, with the exception of the superb song Stay (faraway, so close) to the clip signed by Wim Wenders. The band emerged exhausted from this period, after some participations and singles from there, in 1996, the band returned to the studios to prepare the next album, Pop, which was released in March 1997. The result is another huge world tour, almost as crazy as the previous one, the PopMart Tour which will finish in 1998 in Japan. The tour saves the album, which is one of the least loved fans and critics, notably the moving concert given in Chile, despite the draconian security measures, or Bono will stage the mothers of families torn apart by the fighting, to sing with him the chorus of Mothers of the Disappeared.
Then the band decided, in 2000, with the album All That You Can The bet is quite successful, All that... is a smooth album, unlike the single Elevation , in B.O. of the film Tomb Raider, and the Elevation Tour is based on simplicity, with a Bono more serious than ever. In 2004, it appeared How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, both more energetic (Vertigo , real live jewel) and sadder (Sometimes you may make it on your own , song written by Bono in memory of his father who died in 2001) than the previous one. The Vertigo Tour starts in early 2005 with the United States, plus Europe in summer. U2 then waits 5 years to return to the bins with No Line On The Horizon, with a tour of two that will see the band perform on the BBC roof. The inspiration is not necessarily at the rendezvous on this new album, however, the Irish play only (relatively) few pieces of it. In 2014, Songs of Innocence , the band's 13th studio album, was released on the Innocence and Experience tour. Songs of Experience was released in November 2017.