Becoming U2: Hot Press announces publication of new book on origins of the band

Hot Press has announced the publication of Becoming U2 by Brian O’Connell.

The book tells the extraordinary story of the night that the four-piece from the North side of Dublin played their first ever official gig as U2, in a band competition – and won! – thereby changing the course not just of Irish music but of popular music across the world.

The competition took place in Limerick, on March 18, 1978 – and U2 took home the first prize of £500, plus the opportunity to test for a recording contract.

"It was a classic sliding doors moment. And yet very little was known – or has been written – about it," Brian O’Connell says.

Until now, that is…

WHO DARES WINS

On Friday 13th January 1978, a short news story appeared on the front page of the Irish newspaper, the Irish Press. It announced a competition, under the immortal headline: £500 Prize for Top Pop Group.

Sixteen months previously a fourteen-year-old by the name of Larry had placed a handwritten ad on the noticeboard at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, on the north side of Dublin, bearing the legend "Drummer seeks musicians to form band." A band now existed, with the self-same Larry bashing the skins. First, they were called Feedback, then The Hype. Larry consulted with the rest of the band members and they decided to enter the Limerick competition.

For what promised to be an adventurous trip, The Hype changed their name and settled on a four-piece line-up. It was the first time that Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen, The Edge and a boy who had changed his name to Bono, would officially play together under the moniker U2. The stars aligned that night for a band who – by their own admission – could barely play.

When the result was announced, and U2 were declared winners of the £500 prize, there were boos as well as cheers from the audience. "What the hell is going on?" one disgruntled muso asked. "They can’t even play their instruments."

"We had no real idea," Larry Mullen would reflect later, "how winning in Limerick would change our lives"…

(Cover shown is not the final cover.)

EXCELLENT DETECTIVE WORK

In a classic piece of detective work, for Becoming U2, the Limerick-based writer Brian O’Connell set about piecing together the story behind what turned out to be a life-changing moment.

How did it happen that a band that seemed utterly unready for the spotlight beat far more professional and musically proficient groups to the big prize?

Brian O’Connell has identified and spoken to the key participants in the band competition that launched U2. Painstakingly, he has tracked down many of the musicians and band members – most of whom couldn’t believe it when U2 snatched the cash from under their noses.

"It took time and a lot of leg-work," Brian says, "but it was worth it to get to meet and talk to so many of the musicians and the organisers – and to hear what they thought of U2 on the night, and what they made of it when the winners were announced."

In Becoming U2, Brian O’Connell also charts what happened to the best of those musicians in the aftermath – and discovers what they are up to almost 50 years later. And he talks to other key members of the Irish punk and new wave movement, to gauge what they thought of the nascent U2, as they took their first baby steps on the road to global domination.

The book is edited by Niall Stokes, who has published a number of best-selling books on the band.

"Immediately I read the first draft," the Hot Press editor says, "I knew that this could be something special. It is often the case that the future hangs on a thread. And this is something that comes through very strongly in Becoming U2. Reading it, you can see and hear and feel what it was like in the Stella Ballroom on that fateful night. But you also get a powerful sense of just how differently things might have turned out."

With remarkable energy and a high level of entertainment, Becoming U2 tells the complete story of the build-up, the battle – and the aftermath – from every angle. It is an absolutely essential read for aficionados of popular culture – and for U2 fans all over the world. And, of course, for Limerick people who will be fascinated by the portrait of the city that U2 – and their fans! – invaded.