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Catch Great Moments in Vinyl when we play U2 at The Lyric Theater in Blue Island on Friday, August 22nd, and we’ll take you behind the songs and tell you the stories that shaped their remarkable career. It began when four guys in high school started a band, never mind that they couldn’t really play their instruments. "In the early days our ambition was just to end the song together!" - Adam Clayton So instead of covering the hits of the day, they made up songs of their own that they actually could play. “1978 was a really exciting time for U2. We discovered F# minor. So we [now] had a fourth chord.” - Bono Their first two albums got them noticed. Their third and fourth albums got them on the radio. "I do think that rock music, when its engines are roaring, makes you want to run down the road, sell your house, call your mother and change the world." - Bono But it was The Joshua Tree that made them superstars. That album is not only their best selling (with 25 million copies worldwide), it’s also one of the biggest albums ever, right up there with Bridge Over Troubled Water and Nevermind. "A word I've always liked more than happiness…is joy. Happiness is a mood that comes and goes, whereas joy is just there." - Bono With fame came the backlash. And as U2 returned to the studio, Bono reckoned they needed to get rid of the baggage they’d taken on. The result was Achtung Baby, which Bono described as "the sound of four men chopping down The Joshua Tree." “I was not going for purity. I was trying to [screw] up the sound as much as possible, go for something that was definitely tampered with, that had a character that was not just the regular guitar sound." - The Edge Their reinvention didn’t stop there. They experimented with electronics and loops. They explored new territory. But not all of their fans were eager to follow. "U2 were in that position where we were really big, and no matter what we did, it was wrong." - Larry Mullen But they found their way back when they made peace with their past on the aptly titled album All That You Can’t Leave Behind. "I don't like music unless it has a healing effect. I want people to leave our concerts feeling positive, a little more free. Things might look very gloomy, but there is always hope." - Bono