1978-11-22

St. Anthony's Hall, Dublin, Ireland

Set List of Show:

Songs Involving U2

• "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"
• "My Way"

Additional Music

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by Bono / Edge:

Description:

Bono and The Edge both make appearances with others at the Dublin Punk Festival.

Show Details:

Advertised as Dublin’s “Punk Festival”, this performance took place at St. Anthony’s Hall in Dublin. U2 were on the bill originally, but when they tried to get top billing the organizers decided to not mess with the other bands and dropped U2 from the line up. U2 members did appear at the show however, with both Bono and The Edge said to have performed. About 600 people are said to have attended, and admission was £0.80.

The Festival was organized by George Purdy, brother of Doug Purdy of the newly formed Skank Mooks, which also featured Tommy “Bottle of Milk” McCann as vocalist, a nickname given to him by Lypton Village. New Versions also featured a U2 connection, the vocalist was Regine Moylett who would go on to act as publicist for U2. The show is a bit of a crazy one with even a fire in the audience as someone set computer paper on fire, fire extinquishers were used, not to put out the water but to have a water fight. Dick Purdy of Skank Mooks remembers, “very little. We were there. We played. Chaos. A great vibe.” (via Hope Collective Ireland) In The Irish Times Guggi of The Virgin Prunes remembers the show at St. Anthony’s Hall as the band’s second show, “Our first ever gig was supporting U2 in The Project Arts Centre. Our second gig was in Saint Anthony’s Hall and soon after that we played in McGonagles and 400 people were turned away at the door.”

The Edge played on guitar during The Virgin Prunes set as an extra musician on stage during “Satisfaction”, and Bono is said to have made an appearance with The Virgin Prunes as well. Bono also performed with The Citizens that night, doing backing vocals on a cover of “My Way”. Bono’s vocals were done from off stage, behind a curtain. Bottles were thrown at The Virgin Prunes during their set, it is not known if The Edge was on stage with them at that time or not.

Strange Movements were also supposed to play, but when it was time for them to take the stage, the lead singer came out and said “they wouldn’t let us play” creating much of the havoc of the evening. They had been due to play between the Virgin Prunes and Berlin, but like U2 had tried to have their time slot moved without any luck. New Versions had the super late night end slot of the show.

George Purdy, organizer of the festival told Hope Collective Ireland, “The Saint Anthony’s hall gig in 1978 is probably the best remembered. The thinking behind it was all of the venues bands were using at the time were licenced and it was obvious to me from the numbers of people being turned away at doors and hanging out in record shops that there was a large number of kids not getting to see the bands. I mooted the idea of holding a ‘festival’ style line up of bands in a larger hall around the top bands in Dublin at the time. The idea was to pre-sell tickets, have a decent sound system and lighting rig and standing room only in the theatre. I got commitments from U2, Virgin Prunes, Berlin, New Versions, Strange Movements, Skank Mooks and The Citizens. Pretty much the coolest dudes around the scene at the time.”

About the incident with U2 being dropped from the line up, Purdy shares, “U2 were rather insistent on ‘headlining’ the event and some bitchy arguing between some of the bands started to emerge in the weeks approaching the gig. As I felt this was ‘against the spirit’ of the event I removed U2 from the line up; Bono and Edge later made cameo appearances during Virgin Prunes set.”

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