October

I was 16 in '81 and every summer my mother took us back to Dublin from the UK to see her parents. During this time I spent a week at a summer school in Rockwell. On the coach there I heard someone play a track which captivated me. I found out later it was 'I Will Follow' from a band I had not heard of called U2! Later that summer my parents took us down to Rosslare for a week by the sea in a Mobile home - I went to a record store in town and saw an advert for the Slane Castle gig headlined by Thin Lizzy with next on the bill - U2! The shop was selling tickets including coach transport from Rosslare in 2 days time! Amazingly my parents let me go so I headed to Slane. I sat on the hill (too scared to go in the crowd as never been to a concert before!) I watched all the bands but was excited to see U2 - they were amazing and I was hooked from that moment. Later that year back in the UK I went up to London to see them at the Lyceum Theatre - wow! - the energy was unbelievable. I was squashed in to a packed crowd and when they came on and Bono shouted 2-3-4 at the beginning of Gloria my feet left the floor and I was carried up all over the hall! I will never forget it and then went on to see them on every tour after that!