U2 returned to Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin on Friday 25 September to mark 50 years since the band formed, performing a surprise concert for hundreds of current students and staff at the place where their story began.
Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. played a seven-song set in the schoolyard, covering songs from their early career through to their latest single, “Silencio”. They also performed “One” with students from Ireland’s Music Generation programme.
As the band walked onto the stage, Bono pointed towards the school’s science classrooms and told the crowd:
“We’ve escaped from the lab. How’s the experiment working for you?”
The concert came exactly 50 years after Mullen posted a handwritten note on the school noticeboard looking for musicians to form a band.
U2 return to where it all began
The four members of U2 were students at Mount Temple in the mid-1970s. Mullen was 14 when he put up the now-famous message:
“Drummer seeks musicians to form band.”
Auditions followed on 25 September 1976 at Mullen’s family home in Artane, Dublin. Bono, The Edge and Clayton were among the students who answered the call.
The group initially performed as Feedback before becoming The Hype and eventually settling on the name U2. Their debut album, Boy, arrived in 1980, with “I Will Follow” becoming one of the defining songs from their early years.
For the anniversary concert, U2 performed “I Will Follow”, “Vertigo”, “Beautiful Day”, “Out Of Control”, “Silencio”, “One” and “With Or Without You”.
Around 30 students joined the band on strings for “One”, while hundreds more packed the schoolyard. Students held handmade signs including “It’s A Beautiful Day – No School” and “I Love U2”.
Teachers also joined in as the performance unfolded, while fans gathered outside the school gates after news of the surprise show spread.
Bono pays tribute to the school
Returning to the same place where U2 first began making music proved emotional for Bono.
The singer thanked the teachers who helped give the four teenagers space to develop their creativity and described Mount Temple as a place where the band learned how much they still had to discover.
“Part of that started here and the sense was that maybe all we needed was around us, just under our feet – if we could see it in our mates, our wider community that was going to help us get through the next 50 years.”
He added:
“So we want to thank them – and the wider community around this rock ‘n’ roll high school.”
Bono also dedicated the performance to Jack Heaslip, a former school counsellor who later worked as a travelling pastor with U2. Heaslip died from motor neurone disease in 2015.
U2 revisit their early days
The band’s origins were far less polished than the stadium shows that followed.
Mullen has recalled that his father encouraged him to find other musicians after becoming frustrated with his son’s attempts to learn drums alone.
“I’d been playing on my own, in my house, and my dad was pretty frustrated. I wasn’t very good at many things, and playing the drums was included in that. So I think he, out of frustration, said I should try and play with other people.”
Bono joked about what happened next:
“And unfortunately, he got the three of us.”
Bono himself was initially reluctant to attend the audition because he was older than some of the other students involved.
“I wouldn’t be hanging out with second years, and particularly really good-looking ones.”
His friend Reggie Manuel eventually persuaded him to go, giving him a lift on a Yamaha motorbike.
The first rehearsal was hardly a polished beginning. Clayton was still learning the bass, while Bono, who wanted to play guitar, arrived without one.
“I was never any good with gear. Carrying it, unpacking it, that kind of thing.”
There was, however, an early sign that the group might have something special. During the rehearsal, a group of girls gathered outside and tried to climb the garden wall to see the musicians.
Clayton remembered thinking the attention could be a good sign.
“Larry already had a fan club, and we thought, ‘Well, if he’s got a fan club, that looks pretty good to us. Maybe if we hang out with this guy, it might stretch a little further’.”
From Mount Temple to stadiums around the world
U2 went on to become one of the world’s biggest rock bands, selling more than 175 million records and building a catalogue that includes “With Or Without You”, “One”, “Beautiful Day”, “I Will Follow” and “Vertigo”.
The band also repeatedly changed direction, particularly during the 1990s with albums including Achtung Baby, Zooropa and Pop.
Their Zoo TV Tour pushed stadium production into new territory with giant video screens, multimedia elements and satellite broadcasts.
The Edge has said the band’s lack of formal musical training became part of what made their creative process unpredictable.
“We’re in this place where, musically, we never know what’s about to happen. It can fall apart or it can become something extraordinary.”
“And that’s the beauty of U2.”
U2 also perform in central Dublin
The Mount Temple performance was followed by another appearance in central Dublin, where U2 played from a balcony on Grafton Street as crowds gathered below.
The band’s 50th anniversary celebrations arrive as they prepare to release Carnaval De Luz, their 16th studio album and first album of new material in nine years.
The album is due on 13 November 2026 and features “Silencio”, which U2 released on 24 September, as well as “Torn”, a collaboration with Dolly Parton that became her final recorded vocal performance.
