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  1. I must've been thirteen.
  2. Jan 1983...at the age of 16.....damn....but the Jam were still my favorite band then,until I accepted that they weren't getting back together,and still haven't....

    I'd say by Aug 83, U2 were my favorite band for the rest of the decade,into the early 90s.
  3. I was seven.
  4. Actually when I was 2 years old and my parents turn on some U2 and I loved it!
  5. Right at the moment I first got my internet connection back in 2008, I was 20 I believe. U2 was the first thing I googled actually, because I already had their mp3 catalog then, but knew nothing about them at the time and obviously was very curious
  6. My own U2 discovery story really can't be compressed into a sentence, so it's gonna be a bit of a long one.

    Rewind back to my days in middle school. One morning when I was waiting for my mom, I was watching some TV and all of a sudden these 4 guys in a band playing on an airport runway appear, along with an album called "All That You Can't Leave Behind." I was about 12 / 13 years old then and my first reaction was who the heck were these guys? Then sometime later in the year I start hearing a song called "Beautiful Day" on the radio and was swept away by its musical catchiness and simplicity. Then the song and video of the Tomb Raider version of "Elevation" and other successive singles from ATYCLB instantly got me curiously interested in finding out who these guys were.

    Fast forward to Post-9/11 era. We all know the scope and horror of such an event so I don't need to explain myself much. But what did happen was that music stated to become a source of repair and healing after such a tragic event but none other stood out to me than U2, especially "Walk On" which was played heavily during this moment. Bono's involvement in the multiple artist cover of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" suggested to me that he wasn't no ordinary "frontman" who just sings in a band and that U2 weren't just about music, but were politically active as well, which really astonished me to see their music translate into music of healing.

    Fast forward yet again past my Nirvana-angst high school phase (14 / 15 yrs old) and my cable box was kind enough to show a 24 hour U2 marathon, including a complete showing of U2 Go Home: Live in Slane Castle. Before then I never heard songs like "Until the End of the World", "Out of Control", "Desire", "Bullet The Blue Sky", "One", etc, so this was especially a special moment for me - watching them live for the first time.

    And the entire show jaw dropped and stunned me beyond belief: those who praise U2 for being a spiritually "elevating" live band weren't lying in the slightest and the bands' connection with their audience certainly was an interaction I never saw before in my life. But the real moment that set me for U2 fandom was that indescribable segue between "All I Want Is You" and "Streets" - Bono's ethereal cry to the heavens seemed as if he was not only communicating the loss of his own father but the loss of all human beings, a pleaful cry of mourning and of hopeful triumph, aided by the ecstatic echo delay of The Edge and the pounding rhythm section of Larry and Adam. Adding the crowds ecstatic reaction to them and that's when I knew that I was set for life. Their musical history, their social activism, their life changing catalogue and their levitating live shows made them my all time favorite band... ever. And it's in them and their music that I truly and finally found a "home".
  7. So many Slane stories here - I'm another one. It was the guitar hook on Beautiful Day for me first when I was fifteen, then my mom's Joshua Tree and Rattle & Hum albums, then Slane cemented my obsession. Been a super fan for about thirteen years now.
  8. I became a real fan when I was about 14/15. I was already a fan of the classic U2 tracks and of the modern hits like Beautiful Day, City of Blinding Lights etc, but it was songs like Two Hearts Beat As One, Until The End of The World, Numb, and Staring At The Sun that really pushed me over the edge. Then I found U2start...
  10. Probably told this before on this site but here goes. I was fourteen and heard mysterious ways on an advert for sky movies. Went to school and asked my friend who did that song. He subsequently leant me Achtung Baby and that's where it all started. 3 months later I was at my first U2 show, which was Zootv Leeds 1993. The rest is history as they say
  11. I find it really strange to hear some of the younger crew on here saying they got into U2 around Vertigo era,wow! I always envisage U2 fans around my age (37) and older,in fact growing up through the 90's in my early 20's almost nobody around me listened to them,i was if anything uncool to be listening to this band who were edging towards their 40's and trying to do techno/dance rock with Popmart.
    I was 17 when i became a proper fan,buying first Unforgettable Fire (mainly because of Pride in the name of Love),then AB,2001 was when U2 totally blew me away with Elevation stuff.