U2 Go Back to School for a 50th-Anniversary Concert Where It All Began
Fifty years after four Dublin teenagers started making noise together, U2 returned to the place where the whole incredible ride began—and turned their old schoolyard into a rock show.
The band celebrated its golden anniversary by returning to Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin, where drummer Larry Mullen Jr. famously posted a notice seeking musicians in 1976. That little school bulletin eventually brought Mullen together with Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton—and launched one of the biggest bands in rock history.
For their homecoming, U2 entered the playground to the perfectly chosen sound of Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out.” From there, the band launched into “I Will Follow” before tearing through a career-spanning set that included “Vertigo,” “Beautiful Day” and the early favorite “Out of Control.”
The crowd included current Mount Temple students, former teachers and others connected to the band’s earliest days. Bono recognized Mullen as the man responsible for posting the notice that started everything, while also thanking the school and the teachers who helped shape the young musicians.
He couldn’t resist having a little fun with the students, either.
“Thanks for showing up,” Bono joked. “I suppose you’d nowhere else to go.”
The afternoon wasn’t entirely about looking backward. U2 also delivered the first live performance of “Silencio,” a new song from the band’s forthcoming album, Carnaval de Luz. The record arrives November 13 and will be U2’s first album of entirely new material in nine years.
Another emotional highlight came during “One,” when U2 was joined by young harpists, violinists and viola players connected to Music Generation, a music-education program the band has helped support. It was a fitting image: one generation of musicians returning to the place that gave them their start while sharing the moment with the next.
Carnaval de Luz will feature 12 songs and was produced by longtime U2 collaborator Garret “Jacknife” Lee. Bassist Adam Clayton has described the record as the culmination of the work the band has done throughout its 50-year career.
U2 could have celebrated this anniversary inside any stadium on the planet. Instead, they went back to the school where a handwritten notice, a few ambitious teenagers and one first rehearsal started everything.
Fifty years later, the school bell is still ringing and U2 is still answering it.