"I thought it was brilliant," Gavin Friday told Hot Press. "I'd been a little bit worried about the way it might shape up, but it works and it works really well. What's great about it is that it's a film about music. When you think of all the crap we're subjected to on television at the moment, and the awful state that the music industry is in, this is totally refreshing.

"This is what it is really all about – or should be. They're talking about musicianship, about creativity. I think it's a wonderful film."

Edge arrived at the Irish premiere with Bono at his side and introduced the film with a speech that was both gracious and funny. Among the people he thanked were the teachers from Mount Temple who encouraged the band in the early days. The school features in the film, with Edge revisiting the notice board on which the historic note was pinned by Larry Mullen. "If he hadn 't done that, I'd probably have ended up in another band – but it wouldn't have been U2," Edge says in the film. "Would I be doing what I am doing now? I don't know. I'd probably be working in a bank or something."

When the movie was over, he was greeted with a sustained and impressively warm ovation from the audience – a mixture of paying customers and guests.

Afterwards, Bono reflected on some of the film's fascinating contrasts – most striking among which was the extent to which Jack White emphasised the limitations of technology, while Edge was at the forefront of innovation. He also recalled the house in Howth, which features in the movie, where he and Ali lived, and where the band rehearsed for the War album. "It was tiny," he said. "What you see there is all there was to it, apart from a small bedroom where Ali and I slept. Paul (McGuinness) wanted us to rehearse in a proper rehearsal space in town, but we were having none of it."

In addition to a large contingent from Principle management, Dave Fanning and his wife Ursula Courtney, Ned O'Hanlon and Ann Louise Kelly, John Kelly, Gavin Friday, Guggi, designer Michael Mortell, Chantal O'Sullivan, Hot Press' Roisin Dwyer, Mairead Whisker, Valentina Magli and Edge's guitar tech Dallas Schoo, who features strongly in the movie, all attended.

"It really is a fascinating contrast in styles and attitudes," says Hot Press editor Niall Stokes. "At the outset it's clear that Edge and Jack White are coming from almost diametrically opposite perspectives on guitar playing and the use of technology. But in the end, when they get down to playing together, all three players discover a commonality in the shared act of making music. There is something wonderfully affirmative in that.

"The film is also beautifully shot and there is great archive footage and photography, which is used very evocatively. I think it's a movie that will appeal to anyone who loves music – but especially, of course, to people who have had that experience of falling in love with the guitar. It Might Get Loud is a great film about the romance of making music."

It Might Get Loud is playing at the IFC in Temple Bar, Dublin