U2

In 1975, four teenagers from Mount Temple School in Dublin gathered in a crowded kitchen to discuss forming a band. More than thirty years later, Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr are still together, bound by intense loyalty, passionate idealism, and a relentless belief in the power of rock and roll to change the world. In an epic journey that has taken the band from the clubs of Dublin to the stadiums of the world, U2 has sold more than 130 million albums, revolutionized live performance, spearheaded political campaigns, and made music that defines the age in which we live. Told with wit, insight, and astonishing candor by the band members themselves and manager Paul McGuinness, with pictures from their own archives, U2 by U2 allows unprecedented access into the inner life of the greatest rock band of our times.

Collects more than seventy U2 articles, interviews, and reviews spanning 1978-2002, arranged by theme including the early days, stardom, experiment and backlash, touring, albums, video and film, politics, spirituality, and business matters, and includes comments from old friends and from peers such as Billy Corgan, Moby, and Salman Rushdie.

This new and updated edition of U2 A Diary brings U2s story up to date with information about the band’s ground-breaking film, U2 3D, recording sessions for No Line on the Horizon and the story of how the album was leaked online twice before its official release, the U2 360 world tour and Bono’s back injury that forced an entire leg to be postponed and the band’s struggles to decide how to follow No Line on the Horizon and the 360 Tour with new material. Here is the complete history of U2 told exactly as it happened in day-by-day diary format. As well as following the mid-1970's birth of the band to the present day in journal form, U2: A Diary also includes new revelations and fresh insights into key moments of U2's development. Through interviews and extensive research, author Matt McGee sheds light on stories. Fully illustrated with pictures spanning the bands career, this is a fanatically detailed account of a legendary group's life!

U2’s significant career far exceeds that of most average successful rock bands, with a prolific output of thirteen well-received studio albums and a sometimes relentless touring schedule. The band is famous for uniquely drawing together music, art, faith, and activism, all within a lucrative career that has given each of these elements an unusual degree of social and cultural resonance. Broad-minded musically and intellectually, U2’soutput is thematically rich, addressing a slew of topics, from questions of faith to anxieties about commercialism to outright political statements. With one of the largest fan bases in the history of rock music, U2 and their work require contextualization and exploration. In U2: Rock ’n’ Roll to Change the World, Timothy D. Neufeld takes up this challenge. Neufeld explores U2’s move from the youthful idealism of a band barely able to play instruments through its many phases of artistic expression and cultural engagement to its employment of faith and activism as a foundation for its success. This book outlines how U2 reshaped the very musical and even political culture that had originally shaped it, demonstrating through close readings of its musical work the dynamic interplay of artistic expression and social engagement.

This is the story of the phenomenally popular, critically acclaimed Irish band from its Dublin beginnings to the present. U2: A Musical Biography tells the story of the phenomenally popular Irish rock band whose passionate songs and performances have taken them from their Dublin upbringing to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame—all with the band's original foursome of Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen, and Adam Clayton intact. U2 follows the band from the early talent show victory that got them their first recording contract to their 1987 worldwide breakout with The Joshua Tree and the string of critically acclaimed albums and sold-out stadium and arena tours that followed. As the story of U2 unfolds, readers will get a sense of the strong interpersonal bonds and deep-rooted Christian faith that have kept the band together for over three decades. The book also highlights the group's ongoing commitment to supporting a variety of human rights causes worldwide.

Exploring U2: Is This Rock 'n' Roll? features new writing in the growing field of U2 studies. In keeping with U2's own efforts to remove barriers that have long prevented dialogue for understanding and improving the human experience, this collection of essays covers such disciplines as literature, music, philosophy, and theology.

U2 has sold more than 170 million records; won twenty-two Grammy Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, and two Golden Globes; and recorded fourteen studio albums. U2's members are some of the most influential and highly recognized philanthropists in the world. Since the band's modest start in a strife-torn Ireland in 1976, the ragtag group from Dublin has used success as a platform to raise sociopolitical awareness, explore spirituality, and launch highly successful charities. Featuring striking photographs, fascinating direct quotations, and informative sidebars, this captivating, lively text will reveal to readers how four musicians of dubious musical ability became one of the biggest bands in the world.