U2 Inside Out: Early Demo Recordings (Part II)

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2016-08-30)

U2 Inside Out: Early Demo Recordings (Part II)

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2016-08-30)

This is part two of our look at the demo recordings of U2 in 1978 – 1980. In our first piece we looked at three sessions held in Keystone Studios in April and November 1978, and in Eamonn Andrews Studio in February 1979. During those sessions U2 recorded a number of songs which remain unreleased. Starting with the session in August 1979, the recordings in studio were being used to populate singles, many prior to their contract with Island Records. We kick off part two with a look at the sessions which became “Three“ and featured on Just for Kicks.

Fourth Session: August 4-5, 1979, Keystone Studios, Dublin Ireland

  • “Out of Control”
  • “Stories for Boys”
  • “Boy/Girl”
  • “Stories for Boys” (Alternate Version)

This fourth studio session was arranged by CBS Records with producer Chas de Whalley, and was designed to record songs which could be used to populate an EP “Three“ should CBS Records be interested after the hearing the results of the recording session. That single would be released just a month later, on September 26, 1979. U2 by U2, claims that this recording session happened at Keystone Studios, and the mixing of the tracks was done at Windmill Lane. The credits for the single “Three” and de Whalley both mention that the session was both recorded and remixed at Windmill:

Produced by U2 and Chas de Whalley. Remixed by Robbie McGrath. Recorded at Windmill Lane Studio.


Credits for the U2 Three EP

Windmill Lane Studios opened in 1978 by Brian Masterson at 4 Windmill Lane in Dublin, near the Dublin dockyards. This original building held a video production facility (Windmill Lane Pictures) an audio mastering facility (Trend Studios) and the recording studio itself. The studio would later relocate to 20 Ringsend Road in 1990, which is where the studio is located at this time. In 1984 Windmill would purchase Keystone studios, located at St. Stephen’s Green, and set up Windmill Lane Two at that location off of St. Stephen’s Green, that studio was closed in 1990. From 1987 – 1990 Windmill used the Windmill Lane Two location for most things.


YouTube: U2’s Studios at 4 Windmill Lane

Jackie Hayden talked about the session in Windmill Lane with Hot Press magazine:

On the local scene the buzz about U-2 was reaching fever pitch and I knew that some other companies were sniffing around, encouraged no doubt by Paul McGuinness. Eventually it was agreed that CBS would send Chas de Whalley over to Windmill Studios to record some serious demos. I felt we were getting somewhere at last.

When I heard the demos of “Boy Girl”, “Stories For Boys”, and “Out Of Control”, I was astounded.. In fact to this day the opening bars of “Out Of Control” are as spine-tinglingly exciting as they were then. A couple of days later I saw the band play another amazing gig at the Dandelion Market. Something was definitely happening. — Jackie Hayden, Hot Press Magazine.

We know that the band worked on and completed the three songs that would feature on the “Three“ EP, released the following month, but they also recorded some alternate takes of the three songs. At least one of these alternate versions was released, an alternate recording of “Stories for Boys” appeared on the compilation Just for Kicks released in December 1979. The sessions were originally mixed and produced by Chas de Whalley, but not being happy with the songs the tracks were remixed later by Robbie McGrath at Windmill Lane.

This Just For Kicks version was likely part of the same session that resulted in “Three“ as in recent years when revisiting the recordings from that session to release digital versions for The Complete U2 and the Boy remastered album, the version of “Stories for Boys” used was the version from Just for Kicks. Thus it is likely that this version originated in those same sessions, and may be the original de Whalley mix of the track.

As an aside, The Edge had also participated in some recordings sessions with the Dublin group The Teen Commandments in late August 1979, resulting in a song also featured on the Just for Kicks album, and another which featured on the Vinyl Verdict compilation.

Chas de Whalley spoke at length about these first sessions in Windmill Lane with U2 with Record Collector magazine in an interview published in 2004:

As this was by far the best song they had — and it needed to sound as coherent as possible — so I made them do it again and again until they finally got it right. Poor Larry was almost in tears and, if Bill Graham’s excellent book on these days, Another Time Another Place, is to be believed, Bono was ready to stick one on me too. Only he was too polite. All I remember is him saying incredulously: “But Larry has lessons from one of the best drummers in Dublin! How can he be out of time?”

We mixed the songs the following night, with Paul passing me joints which I gratefully accepted. Whether his plan was to help me pull down great ideas out of the ether or to get me so out of it I’d let him and the rest of the band call the shots, I don’t know. Either way we all agreed that the songs had to be as tough as possible and, in a bid to copy the Ruts’ superbly throaty “Babylon’s Burning,” we slapped vast amounts of flanger all over the Edge’s guitar tracks.

But even as I sat with Bono at the airport the next day, drinking coffee with the master tape on the table between us, I knew that the flanger hadn’t done any good. And that I’d failed them (not to mention my own audition as a producer) by coming up with nothing more than a set of so-so demos. Certainly not the stuff of which big hits were made. At least not by London standards.

And probably not by Paul McGuinness’ standards either, since he had all three songs remixed by the Boomtown Rats’ sound man Robbie McGrath, before CBS Ireland put “U2 3” out four weeks later. Whether it made any difference is questionable, since by then U2 were so hot at home that the first 1,000 copies sold out in a day and the EP shot to No. 1 in the Irish charts. Rough Trade imported a handful into the U.K. and suddenly the British music press began to pick up a pulse.

The three songs were released on 7-Inch, 12-Inch and later in 1985 also on cassette, by CBS in Ireland. They have since been included on The Complete U2, as well as the remastered version of Boy, but the version of “Stories for Boys” on these later digital releases is the one from Just for Kicks and not the one used on the original version of “Three”.


Jackie Hayden holding “U2 Three” on 7-Inch and 12-Inch, Photograph by Eamonn O’Dwyer

On August 21, 1979, U2 would take the three recorded songs to radio programmer Dave Fanning on RTÉ 2FM. His program at the time, “The Rock Show” featured Bono being interviewed, and played all three songs recorded at this session. He then invited fans to vote for their favorite song by sending in a vote to “U2 Competition, PO Box 1056, RTE, Dublin 4”.

During that interview Bono commented on the ability to record an album:

We could do an album tomorrow. We’ve written 25 tracks, we play, I think, 14 of them at the moment. We’ve tracks written that we don’t include in the set, because of the balance we’ve worked out for the set. We’ve tracks written for the second album, which might sound again very pompous. We’ve a lot of material which we’ve grown out of, simpler material as we grew up, a footballer learns new tricks.

The winning track from the competition on Fanning’s program was “Out of Control” which became the A-Side of the single.

Fifth Session: December 16, 1979, CBS Studios, Whitfield Street, London England

  • “Another Day”
  • “Pete the Chop”

The first demo session for CBS, and the high sales of “Three” in Ireland convinced CBS another demo session should be undertaken. Once again they turned to producer Chas de Whalley. This time the session was held in London, and it was U2’s fifth studio session that we are aware of. During this session the band worked on the recording of their second single, “Another Day“. The engineer for this session in London was Walter Samuel, and the track was mixed at CBS Studios in London. The session was held while U2 was doing a short tour of England, and was held after a string of tour dates, and the band were still trying to impress CBS. Chas de Whalley spoke about these sessions to “Record Collector Magazine” in September 2004:

But it wasn’t all over yet. Nobody else was up for the deal Paul wanted, either. So, when U2 came over to play a short tour of London clubs that December, to cash in on rave reviews in Sounds and Record Mirror, we decided to try one more time to record something to impress the CBS hierarchy. The day before they were due to take the ferry home, the four bedraggled U2 boys trooping into CBS Whitfield Street to cut two more tracks.

This time the band had their parts honed and it was Bono who needed to be worked on. His voice was shot after half a dozen gigs in almost as many days and he spent the whole time hitting back the honey and lemon. I remember suggesting some double-tracking and places where he should whisper the lyrics as well as sing them (a tested David Bowie/Tony Visconti trick) in an attempt to put some extra texture into his thin vocals.

We cut two songs but only one ever came out. That was “Another Day,” a typical U2 set-filler of the time, which ended up on the A-side of the next single. The other was “Pete the Chop” and it was by far the most “poppy” thing I’d ever heard them do, but I was sure it would tip the balance in the CBS boardroom. Imagine my disappointment then when Bono called up the day before engineer Walter Samuel and I were to mix the tracks to say that the band hated it and wanted it buried. So we did nothing to it, which is why I don’t have a tape of the song and, when they searched their tape store a few years ago, CBS (now Sony) couldn’t find one either.

Whitfield Street studios (aka CBS Studios) were located at 31-37 Whitfield Street in London England. It was owned by CBS and a number of artists recorded at the studio including The Clash and Iggy Pop. The studio had been established in the 1930s and operated at a number of locations as the CBS Studios. In 1972 they had moved into the Whitfield location and the studios there have operated under the Whitfield name, as well as “The Hit Factory” and later “Sony Music Studios” before once again becoming once again known as Whitfield Street Studios.

The editor of the Record Collector article in 2004 pointed out that “Pete the Chop” did appear on the B-Side of “New Year’s Day“ but it does not. The song on “New Year’s Day“, “Treasure (Whatever Happened to Pete the Chop?)” is not the same recording of the song. “Treasure” came about because they were tired of hearing from Paul McGuinness about what a great song “Pete the Chop” had been, and his constant questions as to what happened to the song. “Treasure” was a newly recorded song in late 1982 specifically for that single. Musically there are similarities to the earlier song, but the lyrics are very different.


YouTube: “Pete the Chop” (Recorded live at National Stadium, Dublin, Ireland, February 1980)

The label on some of the earlier pressings of “Another Day” list “A Break Records Production” under the song title on the label of the vinyl. This is the name of the production company that Paul McGuinness helped to set up to release Spud’s “Kitty” single in 1976 prior to his involvement with U2. That single was released on “Break Records” and was the only single listing Paul McGuinness as manager. That single by Spud was produced by Shaun Davey. Davey’s own single on CBS in 1978, “The Pride of the Herd” would also list “A Break Records Production” in the same location that “Another Day” does. Perhaps some thought was being given to reviving the “Break Records” name, if an international contract was not reached.


Label of “Another Day” with mention of “Break Records”

Sixth Session: February 1980, Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin Ireland

  • “Trevor” (later developed into “Touch”)
  • “The Dream is Over” (started as “The Kings New Clothes”)
  • “Silver Lining” (Rapidly developed into “11 O’Clock Tick Tock”)
  • “A Day Without Me” (Demo Version)
  • “Jack in A Box” (sometimes called incorrectly, “Jack in the Box”)

Note on song names: “The Dream is Over” is introduced by that name live in concert in May 1980 in Tullamore, Ireland. The earlier name “The Kings New Clothes” can be heard for the song at a much earlier concert in Cork when Bono introduces the song. The lyrics have shifted between those two periods.“Silver Lining” is an early name for “11 O’Clock Tick Tock” which had very different lyrics than the final song we are familiar with.

This recording session is new to us. We have not been able to find any listing of it in sessions at the time, but we have found evidence that this did happen.

Both “Trevor” and “The Dream is Over” exist as full length demo recordings. “Trevor” is an early version of “Touch” which would later be recorded with for the B-Side of 11 O’Clock Tick Tock. “The Dream is Over” started out as “The King’s New Clothes” but to our knowledge had never been recorded in that form. A full length demo of “A Day Without Me” does exist as well and has been released as part of bootlegs over the years. The question always was what session were these recorded at?


YouTube: “Trevor” (Demo Version)

“Trevor” in demo form had not yet morphed into “Touch” so the recording must date before the early April 1980 session with Martin Hannett to record “11 O’Clock Tick Tock”. As a song, “Trevor” started to appear in concert in February 1980. It was played as “Trevor” for a few months until April 1980 when it started to be performed with the new lyrics. “Trevor” has sometimes been listed as having been recorded at the earliest demo session in 1978, but those demos were much rougher in sound, and we only have short clips of them, and the audio quality is very different. There’s also the matter of a concert in Tullamore, Ireland, on March 2, 1980 where Bono introduced “Trevor” as “This is a new one, this is called Trevor.” It is very unlikely that it came out of those early sessions and more likely dates to February / March 1980.

Likewise, “The Dream is Over” comes from a similar period. Although set lists of U2 shows are not complete from those days, we can see that this song was not played until the end of 1979, with an appearance in December of that year. Before that time it was performed as “The King’s New Clothes.” And there are records of “The King’s New Clothes” being played until November 1979. The transition between one set of lyrics to the other seems to have taken place at the end of 1979. Although there are reports that “The King’s New Clothes” made a final appearance at the December 23, 1979 at the Dandelion Market in Dublin. “The Dream is Over” is reported as early as December 1, 1979, but the two songs are musically the same, so this is likely when Bono started playing with the lyrics. By the time they played the National Stadium in Dublin in February 1980, it had most certainly become “The Dream is Over.” It was last performed in May 1980, so it is almost certain this song was recorded between December 1979 and May 1980.


YouTube: “The Dream is Over” (Demo Version)

So we have two songs that almost certainly would have been recorded in early 1980. But no recording session that we know of. For years we’ve been unsure when these songs were recorded. The session in 1979 in Eamonn Andrews resulted in a number of demos that leaked, but sound different in quality and are rarely grouped with these other two. The session after that one, the first with de Whalley, produced “Three” and has been well documented. Frank Kearns confirmed that only three tracks were finished at that session. Chas de Whalley himself, spoken to for this article, confirmed that only two songs came out of the next session with the band in London, “A Day Without Me” and “Pete the Chop.” The session in April 1980 with Martin Hannett again only produced two songs, “11 O’Clock Tick Tock” and “Touch”.

Now we can reveal that there was another demo session after the band returned from London in December 1979. Paul McGuinness financed some time for the band to work on some new songs in Windmill Lane Studios in February 1980. Further evidence that there was another demo session comes from The Edge in the book U2 by U2: “We played Martin a demo of 11 O’Clock Tick Tock. He wasn’t impressed with the demo, but he said he liked the song.” So when the band went off to London to meet with Hannett in March 1980, they had a demo version of “11 O’Clock Tick Tock” already recorded, one which has never materialized on bootlegs to our knowledge. But it is further evidence that another demo session took place that hasn’t been documented. And we also know that there’s an early recording of “A Day Without Me” present on some bootlegs, which may have also been worked on during this session. The timing works for the songs “Trevor” and “The Dream is Over”, and we’re sure this is where “11 O’Clock Tick Tock” was initially developed, and likely the earlier recording of “A Day Without Me”.

We’ve chosen to list “11 O’Clock Tick Tock” here as “Silver Lining,” the earlier name under which the song was developed. At the time of these sessions in February 1980, U2 was still performing the song live as “Silver Lining.” This can be heard on bootlegs of the February 26, 1980 show at the Dublin Stadium, as well as the concert on March 2, 1980 in Tullamore in Ireland. If U2 had been in the studio to work on a recording of this song it was surely as “Silver Lining” in February of that year, and this is the song they likely took on tape to play for Martin Hannett. It is likely all four songs were taken to Hannett for him to choose from. No recording has every surfaced of an early demo of “Silver Lining” however, so we cannot say with certainty that it was not a more developed version of the song while the band continued to play the earlier lyrics in concert.


YouTube: “Silver Lining” (Live from National Stadium, February 1980)

Why has this session been all but forgotten? The period of February through April 1980 for U2 had to be an exciting one. The band played their largest show to date at Dublin’s National Stadium, broadcast on radio. They had secured a meeting with Island Records, and had traveled back and forth between Ireland and England a number of times. They also met with producer Martin Hannett in mid-March where he was producing the album Closer for Joy Division at Britannia Row Studios in London. That session was used as a pitch for their songs, and for Hannett to listen to the demos and possibly pick the songs he wished to work on in the next session U2 would participate in.

Originally “Jack in A Box” was not listed with this session, but more recent information from RTE has confirmed “Jack in A Box” was a song worked on later than originally thought. And it’s appearance in live shows matched. The song first made it’s live appearance in February 1980, so it makes sense that this song is one of the handful of songs worked on during this demo session.


YouTube: U2’s “Jack in A Box” Demo Recording (Snippet)

Who will buy me, who will try me
Who will buy me a…
Jack in a box
Jack in a box
Jack in a big box

(“Jack in a Box”, Bono, 1980)

Unlike the leaked songs “The Dream is Over” and “Trevor” a full version of “Jack in A Box” was never leaked, and we only have a few short clips of the studio versions of this song, which probably come from a studio session that U2 did on RTÉ with Dave Fanning in early April 1980. On February 15, 2017 Dan Hegarty of RTÉ posted a picture of Ian Wilson holding an old Reel to Reel tape with the cover open so one could read a number of U2 tracks that had been recorded. Wilson has confirmed that this session was recorded in April 1980.

The songs for this radio session?

  • “A Day Without Me” (03:45)
  • “Jack In A Box” (02:40)
  • “A Day Without Me” (04:00)
  • “Jack In A Box” (02:52)
  • “Jack In A Box” (02:52)
  • “A Day Without Me” (03:28)
  • “A Day Without Me” (03:28)
  • “Shadows in Tall Trees” (03:42)
  • “A Day Without Me” (03:28)
  • “Trevor” (03:28)
  • “Trevor” (03:28)

Ian Wilson was the producer on the Fanning Sessions, a radio program on RTÉ Radio 2 that was launched in the summer of 1979. The program was hosted by Dave Fanning, a long time friend to U2. On the program, a new band was given a chance to record four different songs to be aired on the program, and those would be aired twice on the station, giving the band national exposure. U2 were the first band to record a session, however instead of performing live, they played tracks from their new EP, “Three” and allowed listeners to vote on which song would become the A-Side for the single.

If “Trevor” was still “Trevor” and had not yet changed into “Touch”, it is possible that it developed into that other song in the studio with Martin Hannett, and that this session may have preceeded that Easter Weekend recording session.

Seventh Session: April 5-6, 1980 (“Easter Weekend”), Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin Ireland

  • “11 O’Clock Tick Tock” (developed from “Silver Lining”)
  • “Touch” (developed from “Trevor”)

U2’s first recording session after they had signed with Island Records saw the band once again working in Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin Ireland. The producer for the session was Martin Hannett, and it was mixed by Paul Thomas, assisted by Kevin Moloney. Hannett was a hot producer at the time, having worked with OMD and Joy Division. U2’s initial meeting with Hannett to discuss working together was on the same day that Joy Division was working on their song “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” with Hannett and U2 was there to witness those recording sessions.

The liner notes for Zero discuss Hannett’s work with U2:

A recording session with Irish band U2 proved more successful. Their second single, “11 O’Clock Tick Tock,” was produced by Hannett at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin over Easter, and released by CBS in May 1980. At the time, the young Dublin band were cultivating an interest in darker atmospherics, with Bono citing Unknown Pleasures and Bowie’s Low album as major influences. The group first met Hannett in London during sessions for Closer at Britannia Row, although – as in America – the producer was less comfortable at Windmill Lane, partly due to technical constraints, along with the malign influence of drugs.

This session with Hannett was the only time U2 worked with the producer, and various reasons are given why he didn’t go on to produce the album.

Bono in an interview with RTÉ Radio 2’s Ken Stewart in September 1980 spoke about the decision to move to another producer for their forthcoming album Boy:

It interesting to note the rise of producer names in the last few years. Steve Lillywhite who produced the album, the track you heard earlier on, is another name. There’s many more. For every new era, new people arrive. But I’m not sure I’m pleased a producer’s name becomes more important than the group. That’s one of the reasons we didn’t use Hannett for the album, was because of his work with Joy Division and Magazine. It was hemming us in a wee bit. It would be more “Martin Hannett” in the big letters “produces U2”. As it happens now it would not be that way. But at the time, we were thinking it over, we were making our early break in England, we had to be careful about things like that.

Lillywhite had his own take on things, “[U2] had a producer who produced the very first U2 single called ’11 O’Clock Tick Tock,’ which I think is a great song if anyone remembers that,” Lillywhite explained in an interview with KROQ host Kevin and Bean in 2013. “And then, Ian Curtis committed suicide. Martin Hannett, who was the producer, decided not to produce the U2 album.” Paul McGuinness echos this in U2 by U2: “Martin Hannett would have produced the U2 album [Boy] but he was committed to mixing the live sound for Joy Division in America. Then Ian Curtis killed himself and the tour never took place.”

Nick Stewart, the man who signed U2 to Island has his own memories of the incident which align closer to Bono’s own telling, which he shared with Uncut Magazine in 1999: “I think Hannett was for them quite a sophisticated figure. They learned a lot from him – they learned, actually, that they didn’t want to work with someone like Martin, who slightly imposed his own sonic tableau or ideas upon them. So when it came to the album, they said they didn’t want to work with Martin – and Martin by that stage was unwell; he seemed to be suffering from a little overdose of one thing or another. So we looked at various producers and went for Steve Lillywhite.

Regardless of whether the decision was Hannett’s, or U2’s, or a mutual decision of some sort, the band from that point onward would start to work with Steve Lillywhite on preparation for the album Boy. Further releases would be on the Island Records label worldwide, but would remain on CBS Records in Ireland until the end of the contract in 1985.

Appendix A: Full List of Demo Sessions:

Items in yellow below have been officially released, and the link will take to our lyric page for the song in question, with links back to the recordings on which the song has been released.

First Session: April 1978, Keystone Studios, Dublin Ireland (Produced by Jackie Hayden)

  • “Inside Out” (most likely recorded at this session – labeled as “Oh No” on some bootleg recordings)
  • “Night Fright” (most likely likely recorded at this session – sometimes referred to as “Tonight” or “Live My Life Tonight”)
  • “Concentration Cramp” (possibly recorded or worked on, not likely finished)
  • “Hang Up!” (possibly recorded or worked on, not likely finished)

Second Session: November 1978, Keystone Studios, Dublin Ireland (Produced by Barry Devlin)

Third Session: February 1979, Eamon Andrews Studios, Dublin Ireland (No Producer)

  • “Another Time, Another Place”
  • “The Magic Carpet” / “Life on a Distant Planet” (sometimes erroneously called “Judith” / “No Man’s Land” or “Lost on a Distant Planet”)
  • Twilight
  • “Alone in the Light”
  • “False Prophet” (sometimes erroneously called “I Realize”)

Fourth Session: August 4-5, 1979, Keystone Studios, Dublin Ireland (Produced by Chas de Whalley)

Solo Session (The Edge): August 25-27, 1979, Lombard Studios, Dublin Ireland

Fifth Session: December 16, 1979, CBS Studios, Whitfield Street, London England (Produced by Chas de Whalley)

Sixth Session: February 1980, Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin Ireland (No known Producer)

  • “Trevor” (later developed into “Touch”)
  • “The Dream is Over” (started as “The Kings New Clothes”)
  • “Silver Lining” (Rapidly developed into “11 O’Clock Tick Tock”)
  • “A Day Without Me” (Demo Version)
  • “Jack in a Box” (most likely recorded at this session, sometimes called “Jack in The Box”)

Seventh Session: April 5-6, 1980 (“Easter Weekend”), Windmill Lane Studios, Dublin Ireland (Produced by Martin Hannett)

Appendix B: Known Television Sessions and Broadcasts

Television:

  • March 2, 1978: RTÉ Young Lines (U2 appear on the program as The Hype and perform “Street Mission”. The broadcast is later aired again on June 1, 1978, where it is explained by the announcer the band is now U2. Video available at the RTÉ Archive Note on the date: The Edge does mention this in U2 by U2, “We did the audition for the RTE as The Hype, but by the time we did the show we had become U2.” It looks like looking back, The Edge may have made an error, as the band did appear on the show on March 2, 1978 before becoming U2.
  • November 27, 1978: RTÉ Our Times (U2 appear on the program and perform “The Fool”. Video available at YouTube)
  • September 6, 1979: RTÉ Aspects of Rock (U2 appear and perform “Life on a Distant Planet 1979” at the RTÉ Studio in Dublin. Video is available on YouTube.)
  • October 20, 1979: RTÉ, Cork, Cork Opera House (U2 perform for RTÉ and the performance is filmed. U2 perform “Stories for Boys,” “The Speed of Life,” “Cartoon World,” “The King’s New Clothes,” “Inside Out,” “Another Time, Another Place,” “Boy-Girl,” “Out of Control,” and “Glad to See You Go,” the last being a Ramones cover. This date has been incorrectly identified as October 5, 1979 for many years. The show was televised on December 6, 1979.)
  • January 5, 1980: RTÉ Late Late Show (U2 appear on the program and perform “Stories for Boys”. Video available at the RTÉ Archive)

Radio:

  • February 26, 1980: RTÉ, National Stadium, Dublin (U2 perform at National Stadium, and it is broadcast on RTÉ Radio. They peform “Silver Lining,” “The Speed of Life,” “Life On a Distant Planet,” “Stories for Boys,” “Trevor,” “Another Time, Another Place,” “Another Day,” “Pete the Chop,” “The Dream is Over,” “Cartoon World,” “Jack in A Box,” “Shadows and Tall Trees,” “A Day Without Me,” “Twilight,” “Boy-Girl,” “Out of Control,” and “The Electric Co.” Bootlegs of the show do not include “The Electric Co.” but it is is mentioned in a Hot Press review.)

Appendix C: Songs Not Known to Have Been Recorded

  • “What’s Going On” (Played in October ’77 and February ’78)
  • “The TV Song” (Played Live March ’78)
  • Cartoon World“ (Played between Feb ’79 and May ’80): Song was never recorded as a demo to our knowledge, but a live version taken from the February 1980 show at the National Stadium in Dublin was included on the remastered edition of Boy.
  • “In Your Hand” (Played between May ’79 and Dec ’79)
  • Speed of Life“ (Played between Jun ’79 and May ’80): Song was developed further during the sessions with Steve Lillywhite to record Boy. An instrumental version was included on the remastered edition of Boy.
  • “The King’s New Clothes” (Played between Sep ’79 and Nov ’79): Song developed into “The Dream is Over” and was recorded in that format.
  • “Sad” (No known dates for being played live, but the song was developed by U2 and the Virgin Prunes, and does appear on some written set lists from the earliest days)

From here the band started working with Steve Lillywhite, and Paul Thomas on mixing the tracks. Lillywhite worked on recordings of “Things to Make and Do“, and “Speed of Life“, as well as the other tracks that would become Boy. He also worked on a song titled “Saturday Night“ which would eventually become the song “Fire”, and of which a small piece was included on early copies of Boy.

Appendix D: Select Live Performances 1978 – 1980:

The above chart is based on work by Mark Peterborough, tracking the U2IE tour. The data used comes from u2gigs.com, atu2.com and Pimm Jal De La Parra’s book U2 Live: A Concert Documentary. This is not a complete list, many setlists are not fully known and we’ve eliminated a number of shows where only one or two songs are known. But we have kept those smaller sets where a song was first or last played.

Special Thanks

Special thanks to Ken Kiernan, Paul Mcilwain, Frank Kearns, Valerie Hayde, Chas de Whalley, Mark Peterborough, and Eamonn Creevy for their assistance with parts of this article. If you got this far and haven’t read our first piece please take a look. A big thank you to Marik for revisiting our notes on this era.

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