1978-07-31

McGonagles, Dublin, Ireland

Set List of Show:

Additional Music

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

Show Details:

U2 play two nights back-to-back at McGonagles with Modern Heirs and Revolver. They had played the venue the previous weekend as well opening for two other bands, and they were on early in the night. Hoping to avoid the same issues of going on before a crowd arrives, Paul McGuinness tries to convince McGonagles that they should go on second, after The Modern Heirs. The Heirs are a new band, including Steve Averill, and U2 feel they should go on first.

In the end McGonagles does not agree to U2 taking anything but the opening slot. In U2 The Early Days: Another Time, Another Place, Bill Graham mentions, “Paul didn’t want U2 to play before the crowd arrived so he fought to switch them above their mentor’s band. A compromise was reached. U2 did play first but their start was delayed. As the headliners, Revolver retained the best timeslot but the Modern Heirs played last, albeit late into the morning when the audience were either addled, apathetic, or absent.”

Very little is known about these shows. The set list is not known.

The incident with the band order was reported on in Heat Fanzine (Issue 2, Volume 2) a few weeks later with the magazine claiming that Paul McGuinness had “messed about” with that gig, and that the Modern Heirs would later put up posters blaming McGuinness for them not showing up for the second show. The story was published with another story where it was claimed that McGuinness had also tried to get U2 the opening gig at a Joe Jackson show by pretending to be an A+M label rep. McGuinness sued Heat over the article, which eventually put the fanzine out of business.

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