U2 Debut? March 4th 1978

The first appearance of ‘U2’ ...?
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This shot was taken by Richard Evans at the Presbyterian Church hall in Sutton on March 4th 1978. There were four bands on the line-up that night.
U2, still known as ‘The Hype’, opened the show as a five piece with Dik Evans on guitar.
Next up was the Virgin Prunes, followed by the Modern Heirs, with whom I played synth, alongside Peter Hamilton(who later formed Peridots) and the late, great Billy Morley on guitar. Finally, ‘The Hype’ returned as a four piece, realistically marking their first appearance under the name, ‘U2’, before it became more ‘official’ after the Limerick battle of the bands that same month. Dik had elected to leave U2 and play with the Virgin Prunes. Three of the bands were making their debuts at this gig and Adam Clayton played with all four bands on the night!
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This picture was from the encore, where I think we performed ‘Television Screen’ together. Our Modern Heirs set included The In Crowd’ and ‘Who Do You Love’, which we still play in our Trouble Pilgrims live set. .
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Pictured left to right, Adam, Edge, Me, Billy.
Edge may have been experimenting with blusher that night too ..