Presenting MOJO’s finest writing on U2 in a single deluxe volume, MOJO The Collectors’ Series: U2 A Celebration 1976-2024 is on sale now. Order your copy HERE!
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READ MORE: U2’s Best Albums Ranked!
Earlier this year, U2 completed their residency at the Sphere, a new, super-hi-tech venue in Las Vegas, finished just in time to host the group’s spectacular, specially designed stage show. The set list each night was crammed with hits from U2’s near-50-year career – Pride (In The Name Of Love), Where The Streets Have No Name, With Or Without You, One, Beautiful Day, Vertigo – songs that have brought pleasure to millions and underscore the group’s reputation as one of the all-time greats.
To celebrate U2’s seismic impact on music, MOJO has brought together its extensive archive of exclusive interviews and in-depth features on the band in this deluxe, single volume bookazine. Beginning with the story of how Bono, Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr formed U2 as Dublin schoolboys, it goes on to chart their challenging early years trying to gain attention on the mainland and their breakthrough with the electrifying post-punk albums, Boy, October and War.
Success compelled Bono, Edge and Mullen to weigh their religious faith against a life in rock’n’roll – a dilemma they solved, with the support of inveterate rock star Clayton (at times to his peril), by striving to make powerful, anthemic music that would serve as a force for good. Their appearance at Live Aid in 1985 and relentless touring of America around The Joshua Tree album finally brought them international success – but in a move indicative of things to come, they then took a sharp left-turn into art-rock in 1991 with Brian Eno-curated Achtung Baby, whose experimental mindset they’ve embraced ever since.
U2’s subsequent Zoo TV tour revolutionised stadium rock, with its huge video screens and ambitious stage sets, and elevated Bono into a global statesman via his nightly phone calls to the White House and pleas to end the Bosnian War. Through albums such as Pop, All That You Can’t Leave Behind and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, U2 maintained their power and passion into the 21st century, as well as their ability to court controversy, with Songs Of Innocence particularly outraging the group’s naysayers when it was dropped, unannounced, into every Apple user’s iTunes library in 2014. In MOJO’s cover story of the time, Bono comes out fighting…“iTunes was our proudest moment,” he rails.
Illustrated with dozens of rare and iconic photographs, this sumptuous 132-page special tells U2’s complete story and is a must-have for all fans of the group and dedicated music connoisseurs.
