On the Road With U2

my first U2 poster

I have been an avid U2 fan for 24 years. Some say obsessed, but I like to say passionate. I have seen U2 59 times in concert and met each member at least once. I have every album, most of the singles and videos and many bootlegs. My favorite U2 songs are I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, Luminous Times, Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, Gone, and Heartland. My favorite U2 albums are The Joshua Tree, Rattle and Hum, Achtung Baby, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, and Pop. My favorite U2 videos are I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, Electrical Storm, Numb, Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses and Walk On (international version).

I discovered U2 in March 1987 with the release of The Joshua Tree. I heard With or Without You and liked it and realized U2 was the same group that sang that song Pride I had heard. It was my freshman year of high school, and I noticed a picture of U2 that a classmate had. Larry stood out right away as the attractive one and someone whose pictures would soon decorate my locker. I immediately bought The Joshua Tree. That summer, I remember walking along the beach in Ocean City, Maryland with my big boom box blaring I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. Other favorites of mine off The Joshua Tree were and still are Red Hill Mining Town, Running to Stand Still, In God’s Country, Trip Through Your Wires and b-sides Luminous Times and Walk to the Water.

By the time Rattle and Hum came out, I had all of U2’s albums and recorded all of their appearances on television. I loved Rattle and Hum almost as much as The Joshua Tree. To me it was just an extension of it, sort of a Joshua Tree part 2. My favorites off of Rattle and Hum were and still are Heartland, Love Rescue Me, Angel of Harlem, and b-sides Hallelujah Here She Comes and A Room at the Heartbreak Hotel. But more than a great album, Rattle and Hum was also a movie about U2’s travels across America on their Joshua Tree tour.

On November 4, 1988, exactly one month after my 16th birthday, I piled a bunch of my friends into my GMC Jimmy and went to the movie theatre to see the premiere of Rattle and Hum. People were dancing in the aisles. It was almost like being at a concert, not that I would know. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to go to concerts in high school, so I missed The Joshua Tree tour. I had to wait a five long years to see U2 in concert.