U2 Returns to Mount Temple Comprehensive School for Pop-Up Gig
- Irish rock band U2 returned to Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin to perform a surprise 30-minute gig in the schoolyard where the group formed half a century...
- Vocalist Bono, guitarist The Edge, and bassist Adam Clayton started the group at the Dublin school 50 years ago after a 14-year-old Larry Mullen posted a notice on...
- During the surprise performance, the band opened with I Will Follow, the first track from their 1980 debut record.
Irish rock band U2 returned to Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin to perform a surprise 30-minute gig in the schoolyard where the group formed half a century ago. According to reporting by the Associated Press, the band played a seven-song set for hundreds of students and local workers who watched from nearby buildings.
A Surprise Return to Dublin’s Mount Temple
Vocalist Bono, guitarist The Edge, and bassist Adam Clayton started the group at the Dublin school 50 years ago after a 14-year-old Larry Mullen posted a notice on a message board seeking musicians. Originally known as Feedback, the lineup eventually settled on the name U2 before releasing their debut album, Boy, in 1980.
Opening With a Classic Setlist
During the surprise performance, the band opened with I Will Follow,
the first track from their 1980 debut record. The setlist also featured an encore performance of With or Without You.
The impromptu concert served as part of a promotional campaign for the band’s new album, Carnaval De Luz. The release includes a recorded duet between Bono and Dolly Parton, who died of cancer last month.
Strings, Balconies, and Grafton Street
A film crew captured the event, which also featured 32 students accompanying the band on stringed instruments for a rendition of the hit song One.
Following the schoolyard performance, the group played additional tracks from a balcony for fans gathered on Grafton Street in central Dublin.
Reflections From the Rock ‘n’ Roll High School
Addressing the students watching from classroom windows and the schoolyard, Bono referenced the band’s origins during his stage remarks. We escaped the lab — how’s the experiment going for you?
he asked while pointing toward the science classrooms.
Bono also reflected on the group’s early years at the institution, describing it as the place where they began learning the humblest and hardest lesson
of recognizing how much education they needed.
Part of that started here and the sense was that maybe all we needed was around us, just under our feet — if we could see it in our mates, our wider community that was going to help us get through the next 50 years,
Bono told the audience. So we want to thank them — and the wider community around this rock ‘n’ roll high school.