WAR TOUR
1982-1983
Released to mixed reviews on February 28, 1983, War became U2’s big breakthrough album in the UK. Produced by Steve Lillywhite, it is now identified primarily as the Dublin outfit’s first overtly political record, largely because of anthemic songs such as ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ and the opening single, ‘New Year’s Day’ (released strategically on January 1, 1983). The album topped the UK charts – finally knocking Michael Jackson’s Thriller off the No 1 slot – and reached No. 12 in the US. This was a band clearly in the ascendant. The 110-date War Tour (which saw U2 upgrade from clubs and venues to arenas, and also playing Japan for the first time) was preceded by what might be called the Pre-War Tour. That kicked off with a gig in Glasgow on December 1, 1982, and U2 played a further 19 European shows in the three months leading up to the album release.

These early shows generally featured only three songs from the album – ‘New Year’s Day’, ‘Surrender’ and ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’. In what was a very brave move indeed, in a time of serious political turmoil across the border, the latter was first played in Northern Ireland on December 20, in Belfast’s Maysfield Leisure Centre. Bono told the crowd, “We’re going to do a song for you now. If you don’t like it, we’ll never play it again. It’s called ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’.”

Thankfully, the audience reception was hugely positive, but thereafter the singer would clarify the song’s purpose: “This song is not a rebel song, this song is ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday!’” The War Tour was also the first one on which the lighting and stage design was done by Willie Williams, who has worked on every subsequent tour, including the current Joshua Tree 30th anniversary trek. It had a minimalist stage design with a red carpet-covered riser, on which the drums and keyboards stood, and three large white flags at the back of the stage. Very much the energetic rock-warrior, Bono soon took to climbing up the rigging and waving these flags around during ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’, while encouraging the audience to chant, “No more! No war!” His OTT onstage antics didn’t always sit well with his band-mates, who were genuinely afraid that he might come to grief.

Years later, Adam Clayton observed, “If you had to reduce U2 down to the waving of the white flag, which is a moment from the War Tour, that would be the worst thing. At the time, I think it was in the spirit of the performance. But we weren’t very ironic people back then. We were pretty serious people, and we didn’t see that we could have been a little more subtle about things like that. But hey, as mistakes go, that’s probably not a bad one.”

SONG OF THE TOUR: ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’

UNFORGETTABLE FIRE TOUR

1984-1985

Following the gritty, hard-hitting sound of War, U2 wanted to move in a different musical direction for their fourth album. To that end, they drafted in experimental producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, and recorded in the luxurious and decidedly non-studio-like environment of Slane Castle, in Co. Meath where they all lived while working on The Unforgettable Fire. The resulting record – released on October 1, 1984 – was an atmospheric and arty affair, seen very much as a “European album”, in the context of the cross-continental tension in the band’s music.

Until then, U2 had been reluctant to use the technology in a live setting, preferring the feral, punk rock-influenced heat of live playing. Challenged by the sonic complexity of the new songs, however, the band had to use programmed sequencers to translate the atmospheric texture of the new studio-recorded tracks to live performance. Prior to the album’s release, they embarked on their first tour of Australia and New Zealand, playing their debut show on August 29, 1984, at the Town Hall Auditorium in Christchurch. They played a total of 112 gigs over the next ten months, which saw them totally match-fit for what is now regarded as a defining moment in their career: their show-stealing Live Aid performance at London’s Wembley Stadium on July 13, 1985.

There were 72,000 in the stadium on the day for the Bob Geldof-inspired show, but their set was watched on TV by hundreds of millions worldwide. After being introduced onstage by Jack Nicholson as “a group that’s never had any problem saying how they feel,” U2 kicked off what was supposed to be a three-song set with a rousing ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’. Their second song was ‘Bad’.

“We’re an Irish band,” Bono explained. “We come from Dublin City, Ireland. Like all cities, it has its good and it has its bad. This is a song called ‘Bad’.” Midway through the song, the singer clambered down off the stage and embraced a girl in the audience, pulling her over the barriers and dancing with her. A seriously frustrated-looking Edge, Larry and Adam had no choice but to extend the song: they knew that Bono was playing with fire. ‘Bad’ went on for a whopping 12 minutes forcing them to scupper their intended third number, ‘Pride (In The Name Of Love)’. The other band members were reportedly furious with Bono after the show, but in fact those 12 minutes proved to be crucial to the global making of the band.

All five of their albums (including the mini-live album Under A Blood Red Sky) immediately re-entered the UK charts the week after Live Aid. The influential US rock mag Rolling Stone dubbed them the “Band of the 80’s”, saying that “for a growing number of rock ‘n’ roll fans, U2 have become the band that matters most, maybe even the only band that matters.” It was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of endorsement.

SONG OF THE TOUR: ‘Bad’

A CONSPIRACY OF HOPE

1986

In 1986, U2 took time out from recording the album they would ultimately title The Joshua Tree to participate in A Conspiracy Of Hope, a short tour of six benefit concerts in the US, in support of Amnesty International. The purpose of the tour, which was run by legendary rock promoter Bill Graham, was to raise awareness of Amnesty’s work on its 25th anniversary, rather than to raise money. The shows were headlined by U2, Sting and Bryan Adams, and also featured Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, Joan Baez and The Neville Brothers (the last three dates featured a reunion of The Police).

Kicking off in the Cow Palace in Daly City, California, on June 4, 1986, the tour saw six concerts played over 11 days in California, Colorado, Atlanta, Illinois and New Jersey. All of the participating acts generally arranged their sets around themes of politics, freedom and courage. Multiple performers joined U2 for their cover of Little Steven’s ‘Sun City’, and Bono sometimes joined The Police onstage for ‘Invisible Sun’. A Conspiracy of Hope was a huge success, nearly tripling Amnesty’s USA’s membership in a matter of weeks, and raising $3million for the organisation’s coffers (an amount equal to their entire annual budget). While their politics was increasingly focused and their involvement with Amnesty was genuinely important to the band, the tour also gave U2 the chance to cement their post-Live Aid status as a major stadium act. There was no turning back now…

SONG OF THE TOUR: ‘Pride (In The Name Of Love)’

THE JOSHUA TREE TOUR
1987
1987 was the year that U2 donned stetsons and cowboy boots – and more or less took over the world. They were already considered a major international act by the time they released their fifth studio album on March 9, but it really was the one that, as Rolling Stone put it, transformed them “from heroes to superstars.” Six weeks after The Joshua Tree came out, they made the cover of Time magazine, described as “Rock’s Hottest Ticket.” Inspired by its powerful visual iconography, brilliantly captured by new co-conspirator photographer Anton Corbijn, Island Records spent a then-record $100,000 on in-store displays advertising the album.

The very first new release to be made available on compact disc, vinyl record and cassette tape on the same date, The Joshua Tree became the fastest-selling album in British history, selling over 300,000 copies in a mere two days. It went to No.1 with a bullet in Ireland, England, America and more than 20 other countries. The lead singles ‘With Or Without You’ and ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’ topped the US charts (incidentally, they remain U2’s only US No.1 singles). A winner of two Grammys the following year, it went on to sell over 25 million copies and remains one of the world’s best-selling albums of all time. Needless to say, the 111-date Joshua Tree Tour was a massive, rollercoaster success, selling out stadiums all over the globe and grossing a record-breaking $33 million. Now fully seasoned rock stars, who had come on enormously as musicians, the four Dubliners were totally comfortable making the transition from arenas to stadiums, where they now regularly played to audiences of up to 70,000.

The opening night was April 2, 1987, in Tempe, Arizona, and the tour came full circle over eight months later, ending in the same city on December 20 with B.B. King playing support on the final two shows. U2 played three Irish dates on the tour – Dublin’s Croke Park on June 27 and 28, and Cork’s Pairc Ui Chaoimh on August 8. The late Hot Press writer Bill Graham attended all three shows. The baby band he had discovered had all grown up… and Bill liked what they had become.

“It may also be the U2 I prefer, a U2 of greater levity and healing,” Bill mused. “Maybe, for their own self-protection that’s the band they must be here, if they’re not to be impaled by impossibly conflicting demands, if they’re to effectively manage those politics of ecstasy that can sometimes border on rock ‘n’ roll chaos… Perhaps that is inevitable in a group undergoing its most fundamental change, at the exact point it hits the celebrity stratosphere. And how can U2 hope to replay the spontaneous combustion of that white hot inner-city Sean MacDermott Street free gig of aeons past, in front of 60,000 people, with a guest-list that includes a coalition of Garret Fitzgerald, Eamonn McCann, Frank Feely and the Waterford Hell’s Angels?”

The most controversial moment of the Joshua Tree Tour came as a result of a horrific event in Ireland. The cowardly Enniskillen bombing – not the first of its kind – happened on November 8, 1987, which resulted in the deaths of 12 people. When U2 took the stage in Denver that night, Bono was clearly fuming with rage at the IRA.

“I’ve had enough of Irish-Americans who haven’t been back to their country in 20 or 30 years, come up to me and talk about the resistance, the revolution back home. And the glory of the revolution. And the glory of dying for the revolution. Fuck the revolution! Where’s the glory in bombing a Remembrance Day parade of old-age pensioners, their medals taken out and polished up for the day?”

That tirade earned him numerous death threats, which inevitably had to be taken extremely seriously at the time. But by the end of the tour, U2 were routinely discussed as The Biggest Band in the World. And they also had a cunning plan…

SONG OF THE TOUR: ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’