"I Will Follow" (Studio Video) [03:36]

Links to Video

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Video Information

This video is considered U2’s first promotional video, and was filmed in 1980 for promotion of the song “I Will Follow”. The audio track used for the video is the same as the one found on the album Boy. The video for “I Will Follow” is filmed against a white background, with the “Boy” album cover imposed over the white areas in the video. The “Boy” is a special effect added in post production, and can be seen throughout the whole video at the same size. The video starts out with the band playing and Bono playing air drums while sitting down. The entire video is a live performance of the song by U2. The video was initially filmed for promotion and was not aired on MTV in the US market as a video. “Gloria” was the first video to get play in the US markets.

The Best of 1980 – 1990 Video lists this as having been filmed in London England with no credit for the director, however other information lists this as having been filmed in Dublin with Meiert Avis. The credits on the video list just “Island Records, 1980” where other videos clearly list a director.

Meiert Avis related the story of how U2 found him to work on their very first video: “I helped Brian Masterson build the music studio that U2 recorded in. When they weren’t recording, they’d come upstairs to my edit bay. It would be three in the morning, I’d be up there playing with images. When it came time to do a video, the only person they knew who knew anything about video was me, so then I got to shoot it. We got money to shoot their first videos. That’s how that all began.”

The video has only been commercially released on “The Best of 1980 – 1990” video release, which was only issued as a VHS in most regions, although was released digitally on Laser Disc and VCD in some limited regions.

As part of a refresh of the U2 YouTube channel, a 1080p version of the video was uploaded to YouTube on November 27, 2020. That video is cropped in slightly closer than older versions of the video.

Additional Screen Captures

Video Credits

Directed by Meiert Avis.