Easter Rising

Almost a quarter of a century ago – April 11th 1977 (Easter Monday) to be precise – at approximately 8.30pm, the fledgling U2 (then trading as Feedback) took to the stage at St. Fintan’s High School, Sutton, on the north side of Dublin. They were third on the bill at a “rock concert”, organised by myself and a couple of schoolmates. The headliners on the night were a popular but long-forgotten Dublin pub rock band, The Arthur Phybbes Band with support from Howth hard rock act, Rat Salad.

It was U2’s first “real” performance before a paying crowd. Over the years, accounts of their debut have appeared in various biographies — some of which had them headlining, others which had them tagged (wrongly) as The Hype. The truth was that they were added to the bill at the last minute. Prior to the gig we had sold an impressive 400 tickets at 50p each but we needed a couple of hundred more punters to cover our costs. A schoolmate (Art O’Leary), who had defected to Mount Temple from St. Fintans a year earlier, mentioned this band, Feedback, who were interested in playing the gig. What’s more, he said, they had a following and would guarantee to bring a hundred fans along with them.

Not wanting to take any chances I requested to meet up with the band before consenting to their appearance. I can clearly remember the sight of an afro-headed, Afghan-coated Adam Clayton striding across the schoolyard on the Thursday before the gig. He presented me with a foolscap set-list that included a bewildering array of styles and genres. It included versions of The Eagles’ ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’, The Moody Blues’ ‘Nights in White Satin and Peter Frampton’s ‘Show Me The Way’ — songs united only by their collective popularity at the (legendary) Grove Saturday night disco at nearby St. Paul’s School in Killester. The only vaguely hopeful number on the list was Bowie’s, ‘Suffragette City’. I agreed to have them on the bill – but with no guarantee of payment.

On the day, Feedback were the first band to arrive, along with about a dozen hangers on (all wanting to get in for free!). The late arrival of the Arthur Phybbes band and their PA ensured only a cursory sound-check for the support acts.

As show-timed drew closer, a nervous Larry Mullen approached me and suggested that it might be better if Feedback went on second rather than opening the proceedings. They

would, he reasoned, provide a contrast between the two heavier acts. (U2 as easy listening

anyone?) Rat Salad, however would have none of it and insisted that Feedback open the show. In the event they went on in almost total darkness and played a shambolic 40 minute set before a couple of hundred followers who gathered around the stage.

Jack Dublin, then bass player with Rat Salad and later to join In Tua Nua (the first act to appear on U2’s Mother label), remembers the event. “There was a bit of a row between ourselves and Feedback over Johnny B. Goode,” he recalls. “We had planned to do it in our set but we heard them rehearsing it during sound-check and we had discussions about who would do it. We felt a bit sorry for them and promised we wouldn’t do it. But we did it anyway!”

To say that Feedback were unrecognisable from the U2 of today would be an understatement of monumental proportions. The truth is, they were unrecognisable from The Hype of a few months later. To put it another way if The Hype were the Silver Beatles then Feedback were the Quarrymen. In that respect it seems pointless to make any meaningful comparisons with the band we’ve come to know and love.

For one they had two female backing singers in their ranks. One was Stella McCormick a sister of former hotpress journalist Neil McCormick and a school friend of U2. The other, Orla Dunne, also a school friend, played the flute!

“We were all good friends,” Dunne remembers, astonished to be reminded of her part in the event twenty-four years later. “Before Feedback we had been part of a singing group in school – The Temple Singers. We had a wonderful music teacher, Albert Bradshaw in Mount Temple and he imbued us with real enthusiasm for singing. We were singing incredibly sophisticated stuff, a lot of romantic, renaissance music. We performed in big houses around the country. I’ve always felt that it would’ve influenced Paul’s [Bono] operatic style which he developed later on with U2.”

She recalls the Fintan’s gig as a big step for Feedback who’d performed only a couple of times in Mount Temple, before a captive audience.

“It was definitely the first proper gig we’d done and we were all pretty nervous,” she recalls. “We practised in Adam’s house out in Malahide the week before the gig. But it was all rather dull as far as I was concerned. I’d been classically trained and I thought I’d go deaf with all the noise from the guitars and amplifiers! The only other thing I remember is breaking up with my boyfriend that night after our performance. I think he got jealous when he saw me on stage.”

Shortly after their inauspicious debut Feedback became The Hype and dispensed with backing singers for good. However, a few years later Dunne was offered another opportunity to perform with her old schoolmates. “In the early ’80s I met Adam in Grafton Street. I hardly recognised him with his peroxide hair! He asked me would I play something with the band on their record but I turned down the opportunity.”

In the event the St. Fintan’s gig was a resounding success. All the bands were paid and we made a small profit, which we’d planned to put towards staging more concerts. But by then Punk had reared its ugly head. A tragic death had taken place at a punk gig in UCD and rock concerts were banned in St Fintans’ school hall. But not before we staged our own “Punk” gig with headliners Bile, Puke and Mucus!

Where are they now!