Chart entered : 8 August 1981
Chart peak : 35
Number of hits : 44
We're entering the modern world here with the arrival of a band who boast the same line up they've always had and are still by and large at the top of their game ( although it looks like their relationship with the singles chart is coming to an end ) . I don't think you can really say that about Rush or Depeche Mode now and I don't regard The Rolling Stones as a genuine band any more.
U2's genesis is pretty well known. In 1976, 14-year old Larry Mullen put a notice up looking for musicians to form a band at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin. Six people responded including David Evans, Adam Clayton and Paul Hewson. Initially accommodating everyone in a seven piece line-up called Feedback, it soon whittled down to 5 the odd one out being David's brother Dik as an extra guitarist. In March 1977 they renamed themselves The Hype. The following year Dik Evans ceremonially left the group at a gig in Howth to go to college; he walked off stage halfway through and the group announced they were now U2.
Shortly afterwards U2 won a talent contest in Limerick organised by CBS Ireland and got to make a studio demo . They also acquired a manager Paul McGuinness at this time. By September 1979 they were ready to release their first record - in Ireland only - an EP imaginatively titled "Three". Two of the tracks were "Out of Control" and "Stories For Boys" which were subsequently included on "Boy" which I reviewed here. The other , "Boy/Girl" is a punky song with awful lyrics partially redeemed by some of Edge's pyrotechnics. The EP made a showing on the Irish chart to give them some encouragement.
In December 1979 they played their first gig in London where they were recording their next single "Another Day" ( again in Ireland only ). An uncomplicated optimistic song , with the guitar work suggesting some acquaintance with The Jam's recent Setting Sons , it does sound rather unfinished with Bono wailing in the absence of any real chorus.
Nevertheless it was enough to clinch a deal with Island Records. The band's choice of producer for their first international single was Martin Hannett and they called on him while he was producing Love Will Tear Us Apart for Joy Division in March 1980, the only encounter between the two bands . "Eleven O Clock Tick Tock " was released five days after Ian Curtis's death in May 1980. It's my favourite of all their singles, a marvellous evocation of the awe of children at primary school, something already lost even to a young band who haven't released an album yet. The balance between the quiet bits with the unknown choirboy trilling "Sad sad song" and Edge running through his latest set of riffs is exactly right. Hannett's influence is most obvious in the fractured drum sound.
The next two singles "A Day Without Me" and "I Will Follow" were both taken from "Boy" which reached 52 and hung around the lower reaches of the album charts despite none of these early singles charting.
To make sure this one did Island initially released it as a double pack with versions of "Eleven O Clock Tick Tock/The Ocean" and "Cry/The Electric Co" recorded at a gig in Boston, Massachusetts in March 1981 on the second disc. "Fire" was the lead single for their difficult second album "October" . It's not an obvious choice with a spiky , not very tuneful chorus punctuated by Edge's guitar suddenly jumping in volume. The lyrics are pretty vague, suggesting only a churning confusion and the whole song seems like a rather blustery re-tread of the better stuff on "Boy" . Still it got them off the mark.
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