Music Folks

U2: Fifty Years From a Dublin School Notice Board to Carnaval De Luz

October 14, 2026 · by Music Folks

U2 are one of the few bands to have stayed together, with the same four members, for half a century. Formed by teenagers at a Dublin school in 1976, they grew from earnest post-punk hopefuls into one of the biggest rock bands in the world, reinvented themselves in the 1990s, and set touring records in the 2000s. In 2026, their 50th anniversary year, they are back with their first album of new songs in nine years.

Quick Facts

Formed: 1976, Dublin, Ireland
Members: Bono (vocals), the Edge (guitar, keyboards), Adam Clayton (bass), Larry Mullen Jr. (drums)
Genre: Rock, post-punk, alternative rock
Key albums: War (1983), The Joshua Tree (1987), Achtung Baby (1991), All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000)
Key songs: “With or Without You,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”
Awards: 22 Grammy Awards; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2005)
Sales: An estimated 170 million records worldwide

A Notice on a School Board

The band started with a notice. Larry Mullen Jr., then 14 and a pupil at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin, put up a note looking for musicians, and the first rehearsal took place in his kitchen on September 25, 1976. The early lineup included Dik Evans alongside the four future members, and the group went through the names Feedback and The Hype before Dik Evans bowed out at a farewell show in March 1978. That same month they became U2, a name suggested by designer Steve Averill, and won a talent contest in Limerick.

Paul McGuinness became their manager in 1978, beginning a partnership that lasted decades, and in March 1980 the band signed a four-album deal with Island Records. Boy (1980) and October (1981) introduced the band, and War (1983) widened their audience.

Live Aid and The Joshua Tree

After The Unforgettable Fire (1984), in July 1985 the band played Live Aid at Wembley Stadium. Then came The Joshua Tree in March 1987. It produced their only two US No. 1 singles, “With or Without You” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” won the Grammy for Album of the Year and has sold around 25 million copies.

Rattle and Hum (1988) followed, and by the end of the decade the band was ready for a change.

Reinvention in the 1990s

Achtung Baby (1991) was the turning point. It launched a full reinvention of the band’s sound and image, carried onto the road by the Zoo TV tour, and Zooropa (1993) pushed further in the same direction. Pop (1997) and the extravagant PopMart tour, which grossed $173.6 million, took that approach as far as it would go.

Back to Basics and Breaking Records

All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000) and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004) carried the band into the new century. In 2005 Bruce Springsteen inducted them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The 360° Tour of 2009 to 2011, supporting No Line on the Horizon, became the highest-grossing tour up to that point, earning $736 million from 7.3 million tickets. Not every move landed: in September 2014 the band released Songs of Innocence free to every iTunes customer, and the automatic download drew widespread criticism. Songs of Experience followed in 2017, and Songs of Surrender (2023) offered new recordings of songs from across their career.

Sphere and a 50th Anniversary

In September 2023 U2 opened Sphere, the new Las Vegas venue, with a residency built around Achtung Baby. It ran for 40 shows, ending in March 2024. Larry Mullen Jr. sat out to recover from back surgery, and Dutch drummer Bram van den Berg took his place.

New music returned in 2026. The EP Days of Ash arrived in February and Easter Lily in April, both separate in mood from the album that followed. In July the band shared “Street of Dreams,” its video filmed in Mexico City with all four members, followed by “Silencio.” In September they announced Carnaval De Luz, their 16th studio album, produced by Jacknife Lee and due on November 13, 2026, via Interscope. Its closing track, “Torn,” features Dolly Parton in what NME reported was her final recorded vocal. To mark 50 years, the band also played the Dublin school where it all began.

Where They Are Now

As of October 2026, U2 are preparing to release Carnaval De Luz. Reports say they are rehearsing for a stadium tour, their first world tour since 2019, though no dates had been announced, and Mullen is expected to return behind the kit. Fifty years after a note on a school board, the original four are still together, still taking risks and still filling the biggest rooms in the world.

Sources

Tagged: 1980s, Irish, Rock