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Formation and breakthrough (1976 – 1980)
The band was formed in Dublin in October 1976. 14-year-old Larry Mullen, Jr. posted a note on his secondary school bulletin board seeking musicians for a new band. The response that followed that note resulted in a 5-piece band, known at the time as feedback, with Mullen on drums, Adam Clayton on bass guitar, Paul Hewson (Bono) on vocals, Dave Evans and his brother Dik on guitar.

Hewson was nicknamed Bono Vox (meaning 'beautiful voice'), after a hearing aid company's advertising sign on the corner of Dame Street and South Great Georges Street in Dublin's city centre. The sign is still in place today. The Edge got his name from Bono who thought it was an accurate description of his head. (Another theory on Edge's nickname is that he is called after a hardware shop in Fairview, Dublin, outside of which he used to catch the bus home.)

After 18 months of rehearsals, Feedback changed their name to The Hype. The band performed with their new name at a talent show in Limerick, Ireland on 17 March 1978. One of the judges for the show happened to be CBS Records' Jackie Hayden; they won the contest, earning a £500 prize. Hayden was impressed enough with the band that he gave them studio time to record their first demo.

The Dublin punk rock guru Steve Averill (better known as Steve Rapid of the Radiators from Space) suggested that "The Hype stinks, at least as a name." Someone offered "What about U@? It's the name of a spyplane and a submarine, and it's got an endearing inclusivity about it."1

Some suggest the meaning of the name "U2" is based on their philosophy. They believe that the audience is part of their music and the concert and that "you too" (U2) are participating in the music. Although, in an interview with Larry King, Bono is quoted as saying "I don't actually like the name U2", "I honestly never thought of it as 'you too'".

Dik Evans announced his departure in March 1978. The Hype performed a farewell show for him at the Community Centre in Howth. Dik walked offstage halfway through the set and later joined the Virgin Prunes, a fellow Dublin band. In May, Paul McGuinness became U2's manager.

Now a four-piece with a local fan base in place, U2 released their first single in September of 1979, U2-3. It topped the Irish charts. In December of that year, U2 travelled to London for its first shows outside of Ireland, but failed to get much attention from the foreign audiences and critics.

U2 made its first appearance on US television on the The Tomorrow Show hosted by Tom Snyder. It aired on June 4, 1981. They performed I Will Follow, and Twilight, along with an interview.

How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and Vertigo (2004 – 2005)
A rough-cut of the band's follow-up album was stolen in Nice, France, in July 2004 [1]. Shortly thereafter, Bono stated that, should the album appear on P2P networks, it would be released immediately via iTunes and be in stores within a month. No such pre-release of the album occurred, however, and the first single from the album, titled "Vertigo", was released for airplay on September 24, 2004. The song received extensive airplay in the first week after its release and debuted at #18 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart at #46 on the Billboard Hot 100, at #1 on the UK Singles Chart, and #5 on the Australian ARIAnet singles chart. The album, titled How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, was released on November 22 in much of the world and November 23 in the United States. The album debuted at #1 in 32 countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the band's native Ireland. It sold 840,000 units in the United States in its first week. This was a record for the band, nearly doubling the first-week sales of All That You Can't Leave Behind in the USA.

U2 promoted How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb heavily. They made appearances on TV shows like CD:UK and The Jonathan Ross Show in Britain and Saturday Night Live in America. In another first, the band allowed the single "Vertigo" to be used in a widely-aired iTunes television commercial; though the band did not receive any royalties for the use of the song, due to the commercial the song was well known even before the release of the album. In a further partnership with Apple Computer, the band licensed a special version of the iPod music player with a U2 design (black faceplate with red click wheel, echoing the color scheme for the new album) and facsimilies of the bandmembers' signatures etched on the back plate. The band made a video for the second North American single, "All Because Of You," while riding on a flatbed truck through the streets of Manhattan on November 22. They then played a free concert at a Brooklyn park, attracting over 3,000 fans who had learned of the show on various U2 fan websites.

In April 2004, Rolling Stone magazine placed U2 in its fifty "greatest rock & roll artists of all time". On March 14, 2005, U2 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility.

In Europe, the next single released from the album - "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" - once again featured a Bono/Pavarotti performance on the B-side. The performance is a Jacknife Lee remix of "Ave Maria" sung by Bono with Luciano Pavarotti.The B-Side of the single also includes a remix of the hit "Vertigo" and a Jacknife Lee remix of "Fast Cars." Fast Cars is an album track available only on the UK and Japan versions and American deluxe editions of Atomic Bomb. The single will be available on 2 CD formats and a DVD single. The DVD carries a video of an exclusive live performance of "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" from the band's Dublin studio, and a Trent Reznor remix of "Vertigo."

The first leg of the Vertigo Tour kicked off in the United States, with the band performing 26 sold-out shows. The first leg started of in March in San Diego, California and finished in May in Boston, Massachusetts. The band performed well-known hits, songs from the current album, and early rarities to adoring fans. The band will return to the United States in the fall and will finish up December 19, in Portland, Oregon. There are currently rumors of a United States stadium tour in the summer of 2006.

U2 have smashed Irish box office records with ticket sales for their 2005 Croke Park, Dublin concerts, after more than 150,000 were sold within 50 minutes. In Belgium and in Austria the tickets were sold within 60 minutes.

U2's third single from the album, "City of Blinding Lights," entered the UK singles chart at #2 on June 12. They performed alongside Coldplay, Paul McCartney, and Pink Floyd, among others, in the Live 8 concert in London on July 2nd, 2005.

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