U2 are an Irish group consisting of Bono (Paul David Hewson), The Edge
(David Howell Evans), Adam Charles Clayton and Lawrence Joseph Mullen Jr. U2's musical style has evolved throughout their career, yet has maintained an anthemic quality built on Bono's expressive vocals and the Edge's chiming, effects-based guitar sounds. Their lyrics, often embellished with spiritual imagery, focus on personal and sociopolitical themes. Popular for their live performances, the group have staged several ambitious and elaborate tours over their career.
In the 1990s, they are arguably best known for the UK #1s "The Fly" and "Discotheque". In 1991, U2 released the album "Achtung Baby" with the leading single, "The Fly" debuted at #1 as it ended Bryan Adams' 16 week reign of "Everything I do." "The Fly" didn't fear as well in the States (only reached #61) but the follow-ups "Mysterious ways" and "One" reached the top 10 in the US. A remix of "Even better than the real thing" reached the UK Top 10. Ironically, the album "Achtung baby" reached in #1 in the US (with no singles reaching the US Top 5) whilst in the UK, it only peaked at #2.
THeir next album "Zooropa" was based on their experiences from the Zoo TV tour and featured the song "Stay (Faraway So Close)". They also had a hit "Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me" from the movie Batman Forever.
Clayton and Mullen also worked together on producing the "Mission Impossible" theme tune for the first movie of the Tom Cruise-led franchise, which reached #7 in the UK chart in 1996.
Date UK Song Nov 1991 1 The Fly Dec 1991 13 Mysterious Ways Mar 1992 7 One Jun 1992 12 Even Better Than The Real Thing Jul 1992 8 Even Better Than The Real Thing (remix) Dec 1992 14 Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses Dec 1993 4 Stay (Faraway So Close) Jun 1995 2 Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me Feb 1997 1 Discotheque Apr 1997 3 Staring At The Sun Aug 1997 10 Last Night On Earth Oct 1997 7 Please Dec 1997 12 If God Will Send His Angels Oct 1998 3 Sweetest Thing
What happened next?
U2 have continued to have hits, record albums and go on tours over the years. Into the 2000s, they had UK #1 hits with "Beautiful Day" (2000), "Take Me to the Clouds Above" (with LMC in 2004), Vertigo (2004) and "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" (2005).
There was the infamous photobombing incident at the Oscars when Benedict Cumberbatch jumped in on them in 2014.
U2's Joshua Tree anniversary concert tour visited Oceania and Asia in 2019, marking the band's first performances in Australia and New Zealand since the 360 Tour in 2010, and their first ever performances in South Korea, Singapore, India, and the Philippines. The band released a new single, "Ahimsa", with Indian musician A.R. Rahman to promote their December concert in India.
No comments:
Post a Comment