U2 was formed in 1978 by drummer Larry Mullen when he and Adam Clayton (bass), The Edge (guitar) and Bono (vocals) were still students at Dublin’s Mount Temple School.

The teenage U2 made a local name for themselves in their native Dublin and released a three track EP on CBS called U23 in 1979. In January 1980 a readers’ poll in the Irish rock magazine Hot Press gave U2 the top spot in five categories. In April, they signed to Island Records and in May released their first single, 11 O’clock Tick Tock.

U2’s first three albums were produced by Steve Lillywhite and won them devoted audiences throughout Europe and America. Those recordings were BOY (October 1980), which contained the single I Will Follow; OCTOBER (October 1981), which included Gloria; and WAR (March 1983) which contained New Year’s Day, Two Hearts Beat As One and Sunday Bloody Sunday and gave the band their first Number 1 album in the U.K.

In November of 1983 U2 released UNDER A BLOOD RED SKY, a live recording of their concert at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheater. Produced by Jimmy Iovine, it was a breakthrough record for U2 in the U.S. and also went to November 1 in the U.K. The Rolling Stone writers’ poll named U2 1983’s Band Of The Year.

In May of 1984 U2 began working with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois at Slane Castle outside Dublin. The resulting album, THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE was released in October 1984. Pride (In The Name Of Love) became U2’s biggest hit yet. The album entered the British charts at Number 1. U2 toured into 1985, selling out shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden, U.K’s Milton Keynes Bowl and Dublin’s Croke Park. Then in July 1985 U2 performed at Live Aid.

In the summer of 1986, U2 headlined Amnesty International’s Conspiracy of Hope Tour of the U.S., which also featured Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, Bryan Adams, The Neville Brothers, Joan Baez and Sting. The final concert in New Jersey’s Giant Stadium was televised by MTV and included additional guests Joni Mitchell, Muhammad Ali, Miles Davis and the final performance of the Police.

In March 1987 U2 released THE JOSHUA TREE, which entered the UK charts at Number 1 on St. Patrick’s Day, to widespread critical acclaim. In the U.S., U2 made the cover of Time magazine touted as Rock’s Hottest Ticket and THE JOSHUA TREE hit Number 1, as did the single I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. During that week the band was performing in Las Vegas and attended a Frank Sinatra concert at which he welcomed then to the show with a spotlight and the comment “Well, they don’t spend their money on clothes.” It was the beginning of a warm friendship. Another Eno/Lanois production, THE JOSHUA TREE, also included singles With or Without You and Where The Street Have No Name.

U2 toured for eight months, playing over 100 shows. THE JOSHUA TREE sold more than 15 million copies worldwide and reached Number 1 in 22 countries. It won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and Best Rock Performance. At the presentation ceremony, Adam Clayton went to the men’s room and found himself locked out of the hall when U2’s name was called. Also in 1987 U2 picked up the Best International Group Award at the U.K’s British Phonographic Industry Awards.

In October 1988 U2 released RATTLE AND HUM, a double album of live tracks, studio sessions and new material (Angel of Harlem, Desire, When Love Comes to Town, All I Want is You). RATTLE AND HUM, produced by Jimmy Iovine, went to Number 1 in several countries including the U.S., Britain and Australia and gave U2 their first U.K. Number 1 single with Desire. The album accompanied the theatrical release of the film “U2: Rattle and Hum”, directed by Phil Joanou, which chronicled the band’s 1987 tour. At the 1989 Grammy Awards, U2 won for Best Rock Performance and Best Video.

In Summer 1989, accompanied by BB King, U2 took off on their Lovetown Tour of Australia, New Zealand and Japan, climaxing with two night at the Tokyo Dome. The band returned to Ireland to wrap up the decade with four concerts in Dublin in the week between Christmas and New Year. At U2’s final show in the ‘80s, on New Year’s Eve, which was broadcast throughout Europe and the USSR by the BBC and RTE with an estimated audience of over 500 million, Bono announced that the band planned to “go away and dream it all up again…”

In the autumn of 1990, U2 began work on their album ACHTUNG BABY at the Hansa Studio in Berlin (formerly Hansa By The Wall). Produced Again by Daniel Lanois with Brian Eno, ACHTUNG BABY (released November 1991) included The Fly, One, Even Better Than The Real Thing, Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses and Mysterious Ways. ACHTUNG BABY, widely acknowledged as a renaissance, has sold over 10 million copies world wide.

1992’s Zoo TV Tour was probably the most ambitious series of rock concert’s ever staged. Playing first in arenas in America and Europe and then in outdoor stadiums, the tour put U2 in front of more than five million people.

During their tour, U2’s schedule coincided with that of American presidential candidate Bill Clinton, who later invited them to his inauguration in Washington. Adam and Larry accepted and performed One at MTV’s inaugural Ball with Michael Stipe and Mike Mills of REM in the spontaneous supergroup Automatic Baby. In March, U2 topped 17 categories in Rolling Stone magazine’s readers’ and critics’ polls and Q magazine voted the band Best Act in The World Today and Best Songwriters.

On their spring break, U2 recorded ZOOROPA which captured the chaoes and overload of their lives in the middle of a world tour. Produced by the Edge, Brian Eno and U2’s longtime engineer Flood, ZOOROPA includes the singles Numb, Lemon and Stay (Faraway So Close). U2 finished mixing the album during the tour and it was released in July 1993.

For the finale of each show during the Zooropa tour, Bono showed up on stage in a gold suit, white face and devil’s horns. Calling himself Mister Macphisto, the Last Rock Star, he made live phone calls from the stage every night. In Italy, he told Mussolini’s niece, Allessandra, that she was “doing a great job filling the old man’s boots” and sang “I Just Called to Say I Love You” to Pavarotti. When calling England’s infamous football manager, Graham Taylor, from Wembley Stadium in July, Macphisto lead the audience in a rousing rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.

In 1993 Q magazine named U2 Best Act in the World Today and Zooropa bagged the best Production Award for the third time in four years and U2 won their fourth Brit Award, as Best Live Act.

In 1995 U2 released an album of remixes called MELON exclusively to members of their fan club. The album was given away free with copies of the club magazine Propaganda. U2 provided the song - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me - for the soundtrack of the movie Batman Forever. The band then joined forces with Pavorotti, Howie B, Brian Eno and Holi to record the avant-garde ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACKS VOLUME 1 under the alias Passengers. Bono and Edge then provided Tina Turner with the theme to the James Bond film Goldeneye and the following year Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen had a hit of their own with Theme From Mission: Impossible.

Recent Grammys include awards for Best Rock Group Performance (ACTUNG BABY), Best Alternative Album (ZOOROPA) and Best Music Video, Long Form, (Zoo TV Live from Sydney). They have also won five MTV awards. U2’s worldwide record sales are now in excess of 70 million. In 1994 U2 were given the Martin Luther King Freedom Award in the U.S. In 1992 they played a benefit concert for Greenpeace in Manchester and took part in a Greenpeace protest against the Sellafield nuclear plant on the Cumbrian coast.

U2 has recorded with Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Johnny Cash and BB King. The band have for ten years enjoyed a friendship with Frank Sinatra, with whom Bono recorded the duet “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” in 1993 and to whom Bono presented a Lifetime Achievement Grammy with an emotional speech in 1994.

No one has ever left U2; no additional member has ever been added. The band remain in Dublin, Ireland where they grew up and met.