Sunday, September 02, 2007


U2: Untitled Instrumental [1978?]
U2: The Fool [1978]
U2: Be There [1982]
U2: Alone in the Light [1979]

A while ago I posted U2's first single and its accompanying b-sides, and promised I would post more early U2. Against my (usually not so) good judgment I am going to post a few more early and rare U2 tracks. Last time this killed our bandwidth for the month. Hopefully this time it will go unnoticed as a holiday weekend post.

Can anyone help me out with dates or other information? My U2 knowledge is extremely limited.

Alone in the Light is a 1979 demo recorded at the Windmill Land Studio in Dublin.

Read the comments for more information on individual tracks.

Buy early U2 here.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the comment (and the U2). Art Decade was the inspiration for my own blog.

Mike said...

That's really nice to hear. Best of luck to you, and thanks for the link! I'll be checking out your blog regularly. Who painted the painting on the 9/1 post?

Anonymous said...

Sorry about that bandwidth thingy.

Anonymous said...

This is the info I have for 'The Fool' that's on the 'Contract Demos' bootleg: November 1, 1978. Dublin, Ireland. Keystone Studios. Don't know if it's the same version.

Anonymous said...

According to U2Wanderer.org, 'Be There' is a 1982 outtake from the sessions for the War album.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting - these are great!

The version of "Alone in the Night" here seems to be the same recording as that on Contract Demos boot, but without the fade on the ending.

The version of "The Fool" seems to be the same as on Contract Demos.

As others have noted, "Be There" seems to be a War-era outtake.

Any idea where the untitled instrumental is from?

Anything you can share about your source?

Anonymous said...

"Alone in the Night" should be "Alone in the Light" - typo.

Also, "Be There" can be found on the bootleg "Four Wild Irish Roses" where it is listed as a "1982 Studio Outtake"

Still looking for the "untitled instrumental"

Mike said...

Thanks for the input on this... will update the post in a bit. Night should have been Light, like it is labeled on the song itself. Night was just a typo. Mea cupla.

Anonymous said...

Well, like all good people I've always hated U2, with the partial exception of "Boy," which might have been a pretty good song if the vocals had been handled by, oh, I don't know, Johnny Rotten. But that all actually sounds pretty cool to me, except "Be There."

Anonymous said...

I meant "I will follow," not "Boy," which is the name of a whole album, apparently.

Anonymous said...

"All In The Night" is in fact the 7th track included in the bootleg compilation called "Children Of The Revolution (The Early Demos)" under the name "All In The Light". It was recorded Dec. '78 at Eamon Andrew Studios, Dublin. This one sounds a bit different, because it was ripped from a different source.

Anonymous said...

"Alone in the Light" is a 1978 demo

"Be There" is suspected of being recorded in NY sometime in 1982 but honestly, no-one really knows (other than the band!)

The Unknown Instrumental Demo does not have a name but was recorded at Slane Castle in 1984.