No record label still in business today would have let them release a third album after the battles around the second one. The traditional path to success in the music industry pretty much no longer exists, and if it did, a band like U2 never would have gotten the creative control they asked for - and received. Yes, they own houses in the south of France and show up in the occasional gossip column and Bono jets off to Davos every year, but they are still very much a band, and there’s something remarkable in the fact that they continue to remain a going concern.
U2 are, at this point, the only rock band of their stature that still has the original lineup: No one’s overdosed, no one’s been fired, no one’s left the group in pursuit of a solo career. put up a notice at Mount Temple Comprehensive School: “Drummer seeks musicians to form band.” This is how the members of U2 met, a moment specifically commemorated in Bono’s new memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story (out November 1).
In 1976, a student named Larry Mullen Jr.