U2

In 2002, all four band members appeared on postage stamps in Ireland.

U2 was listed at #22 in Forbes magazine's Celebrity 100 of 2007.

U2's song "God Part II", from the album Rattle and Hum, is a sort of 'sequel' to "God" by John Lennon. Both songs have a similar structure.

Some of the recognitions given to Bono for his humanitarian work: An Honorary Knighthood from the Queen of England (March 2007) Time Magazine's Person of the Year (which he shared with Bill & Melinda Gates in 2005) France's Legion D'Honneur, presented by President Jacques Chirac (2003)

In the 2007 NHL All Star Game every time the Western Conference team scored a goal the song Elevation played.

According to a survey in London, England, their song, "With or Without You", is the seventh most requested song at funerals in the United Kingdom.

The album, Original Soundtracks 1, also known as "The Passengers Album", has often been the topic of controversy amongst U2 fans and is usually not included with discography. However, one of the tracks, Miss Sarajevo, is included on The Best of 1990-2000 album.

"One" was once voted the 5th most popular song of all time, in a poll conducted by Sony. It is also in #36 in Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Songs of All Time".

U2 play the following instruments: The Edge - Guitar Bono - Vocals and Guitar Larry Mullen - Drums Adam Clayton - Bass.

Many of the songs performed in Rattle and Hum are altered from their original release, most notably With Or Without You, which contains a whole new verse to end the song, Exit, which includes the chorus from Van Morrison's Gloria, and Bad, which adds verses from the Rolling Stones' Ruby Tuesday and Sympathy For The Devil.

Discography: Boy (1980) October (1981) War (1983) Under a Blood Red Sky (1983) The Unforgettable Fire (1984) Wide Awake in America (1985) The Joshua Tree (1987) Rattle and Hum (1988) Achtung Baby (1991) Zooropa (1993) Melon (1995) Passengers Soundtrack (1995) Pop (1997) The Best of 1980-1990 (1998) All That You Can Leave Behind (2000) 7 (2002) The Best of 1990-2000 (2002) How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004) U218 Singles (2006)

Studio Albums. 1980 - Boy (3 million) 1981 - October (3 million) 1983 - War (8 million) 1984 - The Unforgettable Fire (8 million) 1987 - The Joshua Tree (25 million) 1988 - Rattle and Hum (14 million) 1991 - Achtung Baby (17 million) 1993 - Zooropa (8 million) 1997 - Pop (7 million) 2000 - All That You Can't Leave Behind (12 million) 2004 - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (10 million) Total: 113 million

Bono's favorite color is Amber.

Bono is fluent in English, Italian and Spanish, and also knows some Gaelic.

Bono is the only person, who has been nominated for an Oscar, Grammy, Golden Globe, and a Nobel Prize.

La Ley's video Bienvenido al Anochecer was watch by Bono himself.

U2 Singles: U2-3 - Another Day - 11 O'Clock Tick Tock - A Day Without Me - I Will Follow - Fire/R.O.K. - Gloria - A Celebration - New Year's Day - Sunday Bloody Sunday - Two Hearts Beat as One - 40 - Pride (In the Name of Love) - The Unforgettable Fire - With or Without You - I Still Haven't Find What I'm Looking For - Where the Streets Have No Name - In God's Country - One Tree Hill - Desire - Angel of Harlem - When Love Comes to Town - All I Want Is You - Island Treasures - The Fly - Mysterious Ways - One - Even Better Than the Real Thing - Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses? - Lemon - Stay - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss me, Kill Me - Miss Sarajevo - Discoteque - Starin at the Sun - Last Night on Earth - Please - If God Will Send His Angels - Mofo - Sweetest Thing - Beautiful Day - Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of - Walk On - Elevation - Electrical Storm - Vertigo - All Because of You - Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own - City of Blinding Lights - Original of the Species.

According to Bono there are 24 songs that came out of the How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb album sessions, of which the band took 11 for their subsequent record.

Some charity organizations supported by U2 include: Amnesty International, Greenpeace, African Well Fund, Support for Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi, DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa), Chernobyl Children's Project, Jubilee Debt Campaign, The ONE Campaign, Live 8, Make Poverty History.

The Edge also supports Music Rising, an organization set up to help replace musical instruments of those people affected by the New Orleans hurricane disaster.

U2 are almost as well known for its humanitarian work as it is for its music. Bono is perhaps the best-known advocate for finding a cure for AIDS and helping the impoverished in Africa.

Released in March of 1997, the album, Pop debuted at #1 in 28 countries, and earned U2 mainly positive reviews. Rolling Stone even went so far as claiming U2 had "defied the odds and made some of the greatest music of their lives."

Following the many of the themes from Achtung Baby album and Zoo TV tour, U2 went back into the studio to record their next release during a break in the Zoo TV Tour.

Commercially and critically, the album "Achtung Baby" was one of the band's most successful albums, and is often cited as one of rock's greatest

In November of 1991, U2 released the often experimental and distorted Achtung Baby in which the band had used influences from dance music.

The band began work on Achtung Baby in East Berlin with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois producing.

U2 was the fourth rock band to be featured on the cover of Time magazine (following The Beatles, The Band, and The Who), who declared that U2 was "Rock's Hottest Ticket".

The singles "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" also quickly went to #1 in the U.S.

In March 1987, U2 released The Joshua Tree. The album debuted at #1 in the UK, quickly reached #1 in the U.S., and would go on to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, and second Grammy for the video "Where the Streets Have No Name".

In 1985, Rolling Stone magazine called U2 the "Band of the 80's," saying that "for a growing number of rock-and-roll fans, U2 have become the band that matters most, maybe even the only band that matters."

U2 participated in the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium for Ethiopian famine relief in July 1985, which was seen by more than a billion people worldwide.

The album, The Unforgettable Fire, was named after a series of paintings made by survivors of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The band released their fourth album, The Unforgettable Fire, in 1984 with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois receiving producing credits.

The band has won 22 Grammy awards, the most for recording artists.

The band has sold approximately 50.5 million albums in the U.S., according to the RIAA, and upwards of 170 million worldwide.

While the Bible has remained a major source of inspiration for Bono's lyric writing, October is U2's only overtly religious album and is generally held to be among their least.

Bono, The Edge, and Larry had joined a religious group in Dublin called "Shalom," which led all three to question the relationship between the Christian faith and the rock and roll lifestyle.

The album, October contained spiritual lyrics with Bono, The Edge and Larry being committed Christians and made little effort to hide that fact.

The album, Boy, gave the band their first hit single, "I Will Follow," which remains a fan favorite to this day.

The release of the album Boy is considered by many one of the best debuts in rock history.

U2 released its first international single "11 O'Clock Tick Tock" in May 1980 and released its first album, Boy the following October.

U2 made their first appearance on US television on Tomorrow hosted by Tom Snyder. It aired on June 4, 1981, and the band performed "I Will Follow" and "Twilight", followed by an interview.

In February 1980, their second single "Another Day" was released on the CBS label but again only for the Irish market.

In December 1979, U2 performed in London, their first shows outside Ireland, but failed to get much attention from audiences or critics.

U2 released their first single (in Ireland only) in September of 1979, entitled U2-3.

Dik Evans announced his departure in March 1978.

Many people think that U2 derived its name from the Irish Unemployment form.

Since U2's album, The Joshua Tree U2 has been considered one of the best rock bands in the world.

Many musicians have been influenced by the work of U2. There are several cover versions of U2 songs by bands such as Pet Shop Boys, Pearl Jam and The Chimes, and musicians such as Cassandra Wilson, Joe Cocker and Johnny Cash. U2 have enjoyed reciprocal influential relationships with artists including R.E.M., Bruce Springsteen and Anton Corbijn, as well as exerting influences on others.

"All Along the Watchtower" was recorded in Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco in front of what many consider to be the ugliest sculpture in the city. Bono's spraypainted words required a formal apology from the band and were removed within days.

The Mexican movie Siete Dias was the movie that inspired U2 to return to Mexico.

U2 were in Berlin for three months and they delivered two songs, "Mysterious Ways" and "One".

The Edge is an admirer of the writer, Samuel Beckett.

The 1987 single release, Where the Streets Have No Name, is a different mix than that appearing on The Joshua Tree. It features additional backing vocals not heard on the album release.

In November 1978, Larry's mother, Maureen Mullen, was killed in a car crash.

In November 1993, Bono recorded the vocal for his duet with Frank Sinatra, I've Got You Under My Skin in a Dublin studio.

Bono made his first live solo appearance on April 30, 1989, at a fundraising event in the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, singing his own musical adaptations of two poems by William Butler Yeats.

Birthdays and Birth Places: Adam Clayton - Chinnor, Oxfordshire on March 13, 1960 Paul Hewson (Bono) - Rotunda Hospital, Dublin on May 10, 1960 Dave Evans (The Edge) - Barking Maternity Hospital, east London, on August 8, 1961 Larry Mullen Jr. - Artane, Dublin on October 31, 1961.

As of 2000, all the band members except The Edge owned property in New York.

In 1996, The Edge and Brian Eno played on a little known album, Undark 3396. The Edge contributed chase guitar.

The largest audience at a U2 show was in September 1997 on their PopMart tour. There were 150,000 at the show in Italy.

U2 named their latest album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb because Bono envisioned the bomb as his father and the songs as efforts by him to deal with his father's death.

U2 appeared on the Simpsons. It was on the 200th episode called Trash of the Titans which aired in April of 1998. In the episode the PopMart tour visited Springfield.

The album Pop is named so because for U2 it was a tribute to popular music, art and culture.

The name Achtung Baby was chosen so that their new album could not be taken seriously because on their last album Rattle and Hum, they were critically attacked. Achtung means attention is German: Attention, Baby is the literal translation.

U2 appeared on the cover of Time Magazine with the headline of Rock's Hottest Ticket in April of 1987.

The Joshua Tree is the biggest U2 album ever. In the US it was number one for nine weeks. In the UK it became the fastest selling album in history and went platinum in only 28 hours. It was on the charts for a staggering 129 weeks.

There are differing versions as to why Dave Evans is called the Edge. One is that Bono named him because he was always on the fringe, or "edge" of things. The second is that as a teenager, The Edge had sharp lines and angles on his face.

Bono is a shortened version of Bono Vox. This nickname was given to Bono by a group of friends. It means "good voice" in Latin and was taken from the name of a hearing aid shop in Dublin.

Larry actually started U2. He posted an ad on a bulletin board at his high school in Dublin looking for musicians to start a band. Bono soon responded to the ad telling him that he could sing and play the guitar. Adam responded next, and wound up being the only bassist to get back to him. The Edge, along with his brother, responded and went to Larry's house to jam... and the rest is simply history.

Bono has been married to his highschool sweetheart since 1982.

Bono has four kids (two girls and two boys); The Edge has four daughters and a son; and Larry has two boys and a girl.

In August 1989, Adam got arrested and charged with possession of marijauna; he was given a $25,000 fine.

Bono was an excellent chess player as a kid.

On March 27, 1992 Bono took his clothes off in the middle of a crowded restaurant in London. He was drinking heavily, but according to his publicist, he was actually being interviewed by a journalist who was so bland and unimaginative that Bono thought it would be a good idea to take his clothes off.

Bono actually wears his fashionable shades because he has an allergy to salicyclates.

Brit Awards: 1983: Best Live Act 1988: Best International Group 1989: Best International Group 1990: Best International Group 1992: Best International Group 1998: Best International Group 2001: Best International Group - Outstanding Contribution to Music

Grammy Awards: 1988: Album of the Year - The Joshua Tree; Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group - "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." 1989: Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group - "Desire"; Best Video Performance, Short Form - "Where the Streets Have No Name." 1992: Best Rock Group Performance - Achtung Baby. 1994: Best Alternative Album – Zooropa,. 1995: Best Music Video, Long Form - "Zoo TV Live From Sydney." 2000: Nominated in Best Music Video, Long Form - "PopMart Live from Mexico City." 2001: "Beautiful Day" wins in three categories: Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. 2002: Record of the Year (Walk On), Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal ("Stuck In a Moment"), Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (Elevation), and Best Rock Album (All That You Can't Leave Behind). 2005: Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal, Best Rock Song (songwriters award), Best Short Form Music Video (all for "Vertigo"). 2006: Album of the Year - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, Song of the Year ("Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own"), Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With vocal ("Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own"), Best Rock Song ("City of Blinding Lights").

As of 2006, in an upcoming event, Bono will be editing a British magazine in order to get his message about poverty across in another way.

U2's first ever release came in 1975 with the release of their first single, I Will Follow.

U2, but Bono especially, are very good friends and colleagues with the one and only sir Bob Geldof, who has played major parts in political fighting.

U2 and its members are very good friends with the members of Coldplay, who also play a large part in making poverty history.

Bono sung in the 1985 Band Aid, but wasn't allowed to send his voice over through tape to be allowed in the 2005 Band aid 20. He had to fly over and perform for his position.

U2 have performed in Live Aid and Live Eight.

U2 is known as a supergroup and is considered to be one of the best, most successful bands ever.

Bono did an interview with Andrew Denton, on Enough Rope, in Australia. This interview gave a real insight into his political career.

U2 have made a movie-documentary called U2: Rattle and Hum. Displaying tours of the album The Joshua Tree. An extraordinary movie, with never before seen music and footage.

U2 but especially Bono and The Edge, are huge horse racing fans and punters.

Bono is an extremist for ridding the wold of poverty. he even meets the big politicians and sits down at a lot of big meetings.

The last leg and last 10 shows of the Vertigo Tour have all been postponed due to Edge's sick daughter.

At the 2006 Grammy's, The Edge dedicated one of their awards to his sick daughter.

They performed their songs One and Vertigo at the 48th Grammy Awards.

In 2006, at the 48th Grammy Awards, they won in every catagory that they were nominated in. This includes Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal, Best Rock Song, and Best Rock Album.

Bono and his wife Ali Hewson owns a clothing named EDUN (spelled Nude backwards) together.

U2 was originally called Feedback. They changed their name to The Hype and finally settled on U2.

The video for The Sweetest Thing was voted the 33rd greatest music video of all time in a Channel 4 (UK) poll.

The Edge performs The Batman Theme Song.

They performed The Hands That Built America at the 75th Annual Academy Awards in 2003.