KEY POINTS:
With U2 playing two previously postponed sold-out Auckland concerts we thought it was time to look at the group's 30-year history and examine what they mean now
A is for Adam Clayton
The English-born bass player and the band's non-Christian who after their rise to fame made the most of being a rock star whether he was stepping out with supermodel Naomi Campbell, getting arrested for possession of hash, posing nude for the cover artwork of Achtung Baby, or missing a Sydney concert on the 1993 Zoo TV tour after going on a bender. He stopped drinking after that.
B is for Bono
The man born Paul Hewson in Dublin on May 10, 1960, and whose stage name - Bono Vox was inspired by a sign over a Dublin hearing-aid shop but eventually shortened. Husband of Ali, father of Elijah, Eve, John and Jordan. Neck-risking rock frontman turned human placard turned rock's most respected statesman. Bender of ears of the planet's most powerful figures. Good cop to Bob Geldolf's bad cop when confronting world leaders about Africa.
"My gift is that I'm a singer, a songwriter and a performer. I just happened to have learned other skills to protect that gift and those skills seem to suit political activism."
C is for Greg Carroll
The Auckland roadie the band recruited into their crew after first playing here in 1984. He died in Dublin two years later in a motorcycle accident. Bono and drummer Larry Mullen jnr attended his tangi in Wanganui and his death inspired the song One Tree Hill on the Joshua Tree album.
D is for Dublin
The capital of Ireland and city of the band's birth after the four converged on Mount Temple, a multi-denominational co-ed school. The band were granted the freedom of Dublin City in 2000 which, among other privileges, grants them the right to graze sheep on open ground.
E is for Edge
The guitarist born David Evans in London of Welsh parents who shifted the family to Dublin shortly after his birth. The nickname came from the angular shape of his head. God's gift to the beanie and guitar-effects pedal industries. The band's musical conductor. Father of Hollie, Arran, Blue Angel, Sian and Levi from two marriages.
F is for Fly, the
The first single off 1991's Achtung Baby and described by Bono as "the sound of four men chopping down the Joshua Tree"* because of its marked difference to the U2 of the 80s. The song also inspired Bono's the Fly persona on stage complete with leathers and wrap-around shades. Though the lenses lightened up over the years, he was rarely seen again without his sunglasses. See T.
G is for God
A figure who looms large in U2 lore - the band almost split after the first album when the Edge and Bono had difficulty reconciling their faith with their chosen rock'n'roll path - and songs. See God Part II from Rattle and Hum, Yaweh from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, If God Will Send His Angels from Pop and much of their second album October.
H is for hats
At some point in the mid-80s Bono and the Edge discovered headwear of many varieties as they went from the military chic of their early period to American-inspired dustbowl bohemian. Mullen and Clayton, long possessed of more sensible haircuts, wisely resisted the trend.
I is for Island
The record company set up by Chris Blackwell as a reggae label which before its 1989 sale to Polygram was the largest indie label in the world. This was partly thanks to the Irish band they signed in March 1980 releasing their first single 11 O'Clock Tick Tock shortly after and debut album, Boy in October. See also Q.
J is for Joshua Tree
The globally minded 1987 album which after their Live Aid appearance broke them big worldwide with songs like I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For and Where the Streets Have No Name.
K is for Kanye West
Who is opening for U2 in Auckland. The hip-hop king is one of a long line of seemingly incongruous support acts the band has employed since reaching stadium status. On the Lovetown tour in 1989, they brought along blues veteran B.B. King and his band.
L is for Larry Mullen Jnr
The handsome drummer who put up a notice wanting to find other musicians to form a band (See S below). Has been characterised over the years as U2's voice of caution when the band's experimental side threatened to get away on them. The "jnr" was added when his father started getting his tax bills.
M is for Mullet
The haircut that Bono sported throughout the '80s in many variations. "Forget about a bad-hair day. I was having a bad-hair life. You should never look like you've had your hair ironed. I look at pictures from that period and I am the prince of mullet and the only thing that's keeping that mullet away from pop history is a hat designed for a taller man." See also H.
N is for New Zealand
A place where they've been popular since the release of debut album Boy and which Bono says holds a special place in his heart since he first came here in 1984 and found himself wide awake with jet-leg on the top of One Tree Hill in the middle of the night after meeting some friendly locals in his hotel lobby who gave him an after-dark tiki-tour of Auckland. See also C.
O is for One
The song from Achtung Baby, the 1991 album which might have been an at times noisy, dark and funky reaction to the grandeur of its predecessors but this ballad is possibly their greatest and most misunderstood song.
Bono: "The song is a bit twisted, which is why I could never figure out why people want it at their weddings. I have certainly met 100 people who've had it at their weddings. I tell them, 'Are you mad? It's about splitting up!"'
P is for Pop
The patchy 1997 album embracing all things dancey and electronic and Miami and which spawned the PopMart tour apparently themed on consumerism, though much of U2's fan base simply didn't buy it and it marked an end to the band's dabbles with irony.
Q is for quantity
U2 have sold more than 170 million albums worldwide and won 22 Grammy awards.
R is for Rattle and Hum
The 1988 album and rockumentary created in the wake of the success of The Joshua Tree which had U2 embracing the roots and traditions of American music but largely getting critically savaged for their efforts.
S is for September 25, 1976
The day U2 formed after drummer Mullen put a notice up at Mount Temple school in north Dublin and the members and the fledgling band - which then included Edge's brother Dick Evans - convened in the Mullen family kitchen. Mullen: "There was very little playing, just an awful lot of tuning up. I think we may have attempted to play one song that nobody knew. It was basically a jam that went on all afternoon."
T is for throat problems
Which started affecting Bono's voice in the late '90s and which he feared might be something more serious. It turned out to be a combination of smoking too much and allergies and his full voice returned in time for the recording sessions for 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind.
U is for U2
Early names included the Larry Mullen band, Feedback, the Hype. They first performed under the U2 banner in March 1978. It was one of the names suggested by Steve Averill, a graphic designer with a Dublin punk rock background who designed the band's first posters and badges. Said Edge of the name: "It was the least bad of the bunch. As time went by we started to like it more and more. And it also separated from us from the Whatevers, you know, the Jam, the Clash ... "
Bono: "I hate the name, by the way. Soon after it caught on, I started realising that it too was an awful pun. That hadn't dawned on me either. You Too. Oh no!"
V is for Vertigo
The band took the tour name from the first track on 2004's album How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb and which arrives in Auckland having played three continents and in front of 4 million fans, having been postponed from its March dates due to the ongoing illness of the Edge's daughter Sian.
W is for War
The third album of 1983 which truly set the band on their international way with political anthems such as Sunday Bloody Sunday (written about the 1972 Bloody Sunday tragedy when 28 Irish protesters were killed in Northern Ireland by British soldiers) and New Year's Day (inspired by Poland's Solidarity movement).
X is for xylophone
Yes, as well as the Edge's distinctive ringing one-string-at-a-time guitar figure, I Will Follow, U2's first song on their first album Boy - also the first to make an impact outside Ireland and which has been reintroduced into their live set of late - featured the ringing tones of a xylophone. Though some sources say it was a glockenspiel. While the guitar sound was soon to prove influential, there was no immediate upswing for xylophone/glockenspiel players who wanted to rock.
Y is for you too.
See U above.
Z is for Zooropa and Zoo TV
The former was the experimental 1993 album which contained some leftovers from its superior 1991 predecessor Achtung Baby. Zoo TV was the spectacular 1993 tour (the last time U2 played in Auckland) which followed with its themes of celebrity-age information-overload and dressing up without any of those silly hats.
* Quotes from the book U2 by U2 (Harper Collins).
