This is a complete list of known U2 concerts that took place in Ireland in 1978. I have spent many hours trawling the Irish Newspaper Archive, The Dublin Library and talking to those that were there, too make this the most complete document of U2’s early career. This site would not be possible without them, the Dublin Library & the Irish Newspaper Archive.
19/12/1978 McGonagle’s, Dublin, Ireland (Hot Press Christmas Party)
Attendance; unknown
Support; for Fit Kilkenny & The Remoulds
Admission; unknown
Set; Stories For Boys, Speed Of Life, Cartoon World, The Kings New Clothes, Inside Out, Another Time Another Place, Boy – Girl, Out Of Control, Glad To See You Go
The Kings New Clothes is an unrecorded song that by 1980 had morphed into The Dream Is Over. This later version of the song can be found on 1980 Demo recordings.
Speed Of Life is an early U2 song from 1980 originally for the Boy album, but got cut.. An instrumental version was finally released in 2008 on the Boy (Deluxe Remaster) bonus disc.
Cartoon World is an early U2 song from 1979. A Live version was finally released in 2008 on the Boy (Deluxe Remaster) bonus disc.
Concentration Cramp is one of the earliest known U2 songs, dating from ’78/’79. The only known recording is from the Dandelion Market show that Pete McCluskey of The Strougers recorded on 11/08/1979.
Inside Out is one of U2’s earliest known recordings dating back to 1978 & the Keystone Studio Dublin.
The Remoulds were really stoked to be hired to play that night. Doing our sound check in the afternoon we met U2 for the first time. They had just won the ‘Evening Herald’ talent competition! It’s a laugh now to think that we were pretty impressed with them and how original they sounded. We spent quite a bit of extra time helping with their mix and set up (letting them use all 4 microphones!) for which Bono was very grateful George Sutton of Fit Killkenny.
Later that evening, we were upstairs in the dressing room when we heard an almighty racket coming from downstairs! We rushed down to see what was going on and to my horror Steve Jones was cranking up my guitar at full blast. The reputation of the Sex Pistols as bad boys was legendary in those days and I was just waiting for him to sling the guitar into the middle of next week! Luckily Steve Jones turned out to be a much more ‘normal bloke’ than his reputation and all was well in the end!
Bren Farren of Fit Killkenny I remember that night very well. It’s not often that a band like U2 played “support” to us, Fit Kilkenny & the Remoulds. That is my drum kit that Larry Mullen is playing.
Jam Session
Dave Sweeney “It was Paul Boyle (Vipers) who took the stage with Steve Jones (Sex Pistols), Larry Mullen and I. What happened was that myself and Boyle were talking to Cook and Jones who we had met in London on our tour with the Boomtown Rats. We were impatient for the live music to begin downstairs – the ‘official’ band for the party being Fit Kilkenny and the Remoulds – so in true punk style we decided to take things into our own hands. We went below and without asking permission plugged in, Larry joining us just as we started. With Steve Jones on guitar & vocals, Boyle on guitar and myself on bass we crashed into ‘Pretty Vacant.’ We followed with “Route 66″ but at that stage we had gathered an audience from upstairs, one of whom decided to pull the plug on the supergroup mid-song. Back to the cheap wine we went…”
