15 Years Ago In TIME

By Harriet Barovick, Elizabeth L. Bland, Roy B. White, Rebecca Winters

Bono and the rest of U2 have been big rock stars for decades, but when they first appeared on TIME's cover, many Americans were hearing about them, and their origins, for the first time. Here's how the band got together:

It was Larry Mullen who set the dream in motion. He posted a note on the bulletin board of Mount Temple, a public high school in Dublin, asking if there was anyone interested in forming a rock band. That was in 1976, and he was 14. Mullen had been playing drums since the age of nine...His parents finally gave him part of a set--made by a toy manufacturer and retailing for $15--at which young Larry happily flailed away until his father suggested he try to get a group together. The Saturday after the school notice went up, six or seven Mount Temple students appeared in the Mullen kitchen. "Some people could play," Mullen remembers. "The Edge could play. Adam [Clayton] just looked great. Big bushy hair, long caftan coat, bass guitar and amp. He talked like he could play, used all the right words, like 'gig.' Then Bono arrived, and he meant to play the guitar, but he couldn't play very well, so he started to sing. He couldn't do that either. But he was such a charismatic character that he was in the band anyway, as soon as he arrived. I was in charge for the first five minutes, but as soon as Bono got there, I was out of a job."

--TIME, April 27,1987