U2 – With Or Without You
U2
No one will deny that U2 has established itself as one of the supreme bands in rock history. What’s more, for two decades of the group’s existence, no musician left U2, and no new one joined.
According to the tradition of the 80s, young Irishmen became a band before they could play. U2, strongly influenced by punk ideology, opposed the empty visions of dark new wave groups by going out to the audience with youthful energy. Their first release – “U23” – from 1979, which was released only in Ireland, was supported by a self-organized route. Despite the lack of a proposal for a large record contract, after several concerts in London, the tour ended with an event for two thousand fans in Dublin.
The first three albums – “Boy” (1980), “October” (1981) and “War” (1983) – defined the style of the group. They were soon recognized as the most politically engaged band since The Clash. At a concert in Belfast, before the first performance of “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, Bono announced: “If you don’t like it, let us know …”
In an exclusive performance at the iconic Abbey Road Studios in London, Adam, Bono, Edge and Larry play one the classic With Or Without You accompanied by an orchestra for U2 At The BBC – a special programme for BBC One.
U2 is primarily the vocal talent and personality of the frontman Bono (at school he was called Bono Vox, from the Latin “bona vox” – “good voice”) and the characteristic sound of The Edge’s guitar. The musician plays sparingly. He is rarely tempted by long solos. He mainly uses higher notes, building minichords on them and using various techniques of extending reverberations, such as echo and reverb.
The history of U2 has been going on for almost 40 years. The composition has remained the same since 1978. Which does not mean that the members of the quartet do not participate in solo projects. Bono sang on the famous Band Aid charity record, “Do They Know it’s Christmas?/Feed the World”, and co-wrote the theme song for the film “Golden Eye”, sung by Tina Turner, with Edge. He even has duets with Luciano Pavarotti and… Frank Sinatra.
