U2 played their old high school on Friday
All the members of U2 were students at Mount Temple Comprehensive High School in North Dublin. It was on a hallway bulletin board that 14-year-old Larry Mullen Jr. posted a notice saying that he was looking for people to form a band. All interested parties should come to his parents’ house on September 25, 1976. Seven people did. Four of them are still in U2.
U2 has never been a band for celebrating decade milestones in any big way. But for their 50th, that seems to be a different story. And it should. How many bands have lasted 50 years with the same line-up?
To commemorate things, U2 reconvened at Mount Temple to play a show on the very same stage they used 50 years ago when they played songs like Peter Frampton’s “Show Me the Way” for a school talent show.
Here’s what it looked like in 1976.
And here’s what it looked like on Friday, September 25, 2026. Note that they replicated the above picture, which involved The Edge and Adam switching what has become their side of the stages. (The Edge is always to Bono’s right; Adam plays on his left.) About a thousand people were there.
The set list included Out Of Control, I Will Follow, Vertigo, Beautiful Day, One and With Or Without You. They also played Silencio, the new single, live for the first time. Here’s a sample via BONO-TV.
They gave an interview about that gig.
Later in the day, they moved to a balcony on Grafton Street. Note that they went back to their old stage positions.
