U2 has blown fans away at their Las Vegas Sphere shows so far, proving why they are one of the most beloved rock bands of all time. But they weren’t always the Grammy-award-winning music giants we know them as today.
Hollywood actors were among the famous folks who arrived at the Las Vegas Sphere to see the Irish rockers. Videos were posted online of the insane graphics attendees enjoyed while U2 performed some of their greatest hits in a setlist mostly made up of their seminal 1991 album Achtung Baby.
But how did the band become so big that they were chosen as the first musical artist to perform at the groundbreaking Las Vegas venue? It has been a long road for U2, one that has consisted of small gigs in tiny venues to winning a whopping 22 Grammy Awards to performing at The Sphere.
Read more: The Edge hints U2 will return to Las Vegas Sphere next year after 25-show residency
Read more: Review: ‘U2’s opening show in Las Vegas Sphere was an immersive high-tech assault on the senses’
It was Larry Mullen Jr, who was missing from the Vegas shows, who formed the band at just 14 years of age in 1976. He placed a post on the notice board at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in North Dublin, looking for musicians to join a band.
Drummer Mullen was joined by Paul Hewson, who we now know as the band’s frontman Bono, and David Evans, who we now know as The Edge, as well as The Edge’s older brother Dik Evans on guitar, Adam Clayton on Bass, and Ivan McCormick.
How did they become a four-piece?
A friend of Mullen and McCormick, Peter Martin, lent his guitar amplifier to the band for their first practice. After McCormick was dropped from the group, the remaining five members went by the name Feedback.
Feedback’s rehearsals took place in the music room at their school. In the early days, the group mostly performed covers of songs from artists such as the Jam, the Clash, Buzzcocks, and Sex Pistols.
Their first gig happened in April 1997, playing to an audience at St Fintan’s High School, which is also located in North Dublin. The band soon changed their name to The Hype and soon after, Dik Evans became the odd man out as he was older and in college.
The band, now consisting of Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and founder Larry Mullen Jr changed their name to U2 in March 1978. Punk rock musician with the Radiators from Space and a family friend of Clayton’s suggested six names for the band.
It is understood that the group landed on U2 for two reasons. Firstly, it has an open-ended meaning, and secondly, it is the name they disliked the least.
