New exhibition features early days of U2

U2 MANAGER Paul McGuinness was guest of honour last week at the launch of a new photography exhibition highlighting the band’s early days.

U2: 1978-81 at the Little Museum of Dublin features 32 rare early photographs of the top Northside band and it’s the first time the collection has been exhibited.

Sponsored by Jägermeister, U2: 1978-81 reveals the early U2 as a tight but restless unit – future icons but also teenagers messing around. The photographs were taken by Dubliner Patrick Brocklebank, who worked as a graphic artist and photographer in the 1970s.

Photos include the band at Trinity College and gigging in the Project and they show the relentless surge of a band on the rise. Pots, guns and paintings are used as props, and Bono proves himself a serial scene-stealer.

“Paul [Bono] couldn’t play guitar and he wasn’t much of a singer, but he had that certain something, the swagger and stage presence that would later make U2 a household name,

? recalled Brocklebank,

Limited edition prints from the exhibition will are on sale at www.littlemuseum.ie and the exhibition will run at the Little Museum of Dublin until September 1. The museum is on the first floor of 15 St Stephen’s Green, near the corner of Dawson Street, close to where the band played at the Dandelion Market back in the

’70s.