U2 by David Corio

Photographer: David Corio

Location: Cork, Ireland

Edition: 100

Date: 1980

“The photo was taken on the roof of the Country Club Hotel (now Montenotte Hotel) in Cork, Ireland on a cold February morning in 1980. This was my first job ‘abroad’ for the NME and I had never heard of U2. They did not yet have a record deal and this was one of their first interviews with a music paper. I went on tour with them from Cork through some small towns to Dublin. They played youth clubs and at some of the dates they supported a band that played the top 40 hits. You could tell even back then that they had something special about them though even if there were only a few dozen people watching them. This photo was used on the cover of U2 By U2 and also on their Greatest Hits CD/ DVD called U218.”