It is there he meets his girlfriend, Aislinn O’Sullivan. Dave Evans goes on to Mount Temple Comprehensive School. The other children tease him a bit because of his accent which clearly betrays his non-Irish origins. He takes piano and guitar lessons at school. The boy goes on to attend St Andrew’s National School. When Garvin Evans is offered a promotion if he transfers to Dublin, Ireland, the family relocates with him. The family lives in Caldwell Heath until around 1962. Garvin Evans is an engineer working for the Electricity Board. He has an older brother, Richard (‘Dick’) and a younger sister, Gillian. His parents, Garvin and Glenda Evans, come from Llanelli, Wales. The Edge is born David Howell Evans on 8 August 1961 at Barking Maternity Hospital in Essex, England. The lads who respond to the notice will become U2. Then, on a fateful day in 1976, he sees a note pinned to the bulletin board at his high school seeking musicians for a band. At first, Paul Hewson channels his excess energy into becoming a school boy chess champion. “Overcoming my Dad telling me that I could never do anything is what made me the megalomaniac you see today,” Bono later says, half in jest. He will describe Bob Hewson as ‘a working-class Dublin guy who listened to the opera and conducted the stereo with my mother’s knitting needles – he just loved opera.” The bickering between father and son may have been the start of something better. Paul ‘fights constantly’ with his father.

This is ‘a progressive, non-sectarian alternative to the conservative Catholic schools most Irish children attend.’ At Mount Temple, Paul Hewson meets Alison Stewart, his ‘childhood sweetheart’, in 1975. The lad attends Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Clontarf. On 10 September 1974, Paul’s mother, Iris Hewson, dies from a cerebral aneurysm while attending her father’s funeral. I’ve always heard kind of melodies in my head.” Paul Hewson attends Glasnevin National School. “My earliest memory of waking up with a melody in my head was, you know, 8, 9, 10. “I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays…and my father used to wait outside,” Bono reminisces. Norman is raised as an Anglican, but Paul is raised as a Catholic.

The couple already have one son, Norman, who is eight years older than the new arrival. His parents are Brendan Robert ‘Bob’ Hewson and Iris Hewson (nee Rankin). U2’s set is seen as ‘a show stealing performance’ on a day when there was no shortage of big name stars on stage.īono is born Paul David Hewson on at Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, Ireland. “Thank you! God bless you!” he yells before sauntering off, the band still playing. Bono…felt it had been kind of clumsy and that generally the whole thing hadn’t lifted up.” After pausing to dance with the two younger girls handed up earlier, the errant singer clambers back on stage and concludes the song. U2 guitarist The Edge remarks, “We were really depressed. Meantime, the rest of U2 vamps for time, extending the song by five minutes. She hugs him and he slow dances with her. A couple of young girls are handed up to him, but Bono pulls another young woman out of the crowd. More memorable is Bono dropping the microphone at the instrumental break, jumping the barricade, and walking out on the apron of the stage to interact with the crowd. He ends the song quoting Reed’s ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ – after similarly quoting lyrics from ‘Ruby Tuesday’ and ‘Sympathy For The Devil’, songs by British rock titans The Rolling Stones. Firstly, Bono begins singing not the lyrics to ‘Bad’, but to American singer Lou Reed’s ‘Satellite Of Love’ before starting ‘Bad’ a few bars later. The performance is unusual for a few reasons. Like all cities it has its good it has its bad.” The group then launches into their song titled ‘Bad’. Stepping on the stage at Wembley Stadium in London, England, Bono tells the crowd, “We’re an Irish band. He is talking about 13 July 1985 when U2 is one of the acts performing at Live Aid, an all-star extravaganza charity concert to raise funds in order to combat famine in Africa. “That day changed my life,” says Bono, the lead vocalist of Irish rock group U2. “If you twist and turn away / If you tear yourself in two again” – ’Bad’ (U2)

Bullet the blue sky songfacts