Bono on U2’s first days, 50 years ago: ‘Edge and Larry could play. Adam and myself were bluffing’

E verybody knows U2 ’s origin story. Or we think we do. In September 1976 a 14-year-old Larry Mullen jnr posted a note on the noticeboard at Mount Temple Comprehensive School looking for people to play music with. “Drummer seeks musicians to form band. Contact Larry Mullen, third year.”

He couldn’t know it then, but his note would turn out to be a seismic moment in Irish and global music culture, a little paper butterfly flapping its wings on the northside of Dublin and causing a musical hurricane across the world.

Fifty years later the band that formed out of the simple plea from a quiet teenager with blond hair down to his shoulders are still together, still making music. They’ll be releasing a new album soon.