642-641. eleven o’clock tick tock + the ocean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCk9hf-usQ0

“Two in a row from way the hell back in the U2 story (and as eventually found on the R.O.K. 12″), way before all the fame and riches and boredom. My boredom, that is. I blame Joshua Tree. Though I guess it wasn’t the songs so much as the environment. U2 just weren’t as good anymore in those huge stadiums. Give me the Commodore Ballroom any day, 1981, three dollar ticket, maybe a thousand curious punks and new wavers. I’m pretty sure they did Eleven O’Clock Tick Tock as the encore that night, and the whole show actually began with The Ocean. But either way, the place went mad. Or as a friend said at the time, it’s like they weren’t playing songs, they were playing us, the audience. The songs were what we sounded like. He’d dropped acid.” (Philip Random)

U2-1981

742. celebration

In which that band from Ireland (still not quite a household name), make it very clear what they believe in: the atomic bomb, the powers that be and the halls of Christ’s Church.  All worth celebrating apparently.

u2-1982

966. warrior

By 1989, Public Image Ltd weren’t exactly redefining the zeitgeist anymore. In fact, it’s arguable they weren’t really a band anymore – just John Lydon‘s personal project. Which, in the case of Warrior, seemed to be about proving that he could rock at least as big as U2 (or whoever) and succeeding, with the best version a remix that’s now almost impossible to find, probably because of the sample of Old Lodge Skins himself laying down his humble but fierce warrior prayer.

1023. the American

The Simple Minds (from before they decided the world needed yet another U2 and thus became officially uncool), 1981 being the year that they released two solid albums in Britain (jammed into one for North American consumers), then hit the road with one of the hottest live shows on earth. It would never really get any better, except for maybe that one night in Dortmund, 1984.

1025. another time another place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1ggYTZaJVw

In which we are reminded that way back when (1980-81 to be specific) U2 were still pretty much complete unknowns. But one listen to something like Another Time Another Place and you knew that wasn’t going to last. Because this outfit was like Joy Division with the doom removed, rhythm like runaway horses, guitar like great sheets of illuminating light, big voice, epiphanies by the minute.