Memories: U2 at McGonagles ,1979

Novelist Peter Mc Cluskey recalls his band supporting U2 in 1979.

This photo really takes me back. It was taken in the dressing room of the Dublin venue McGonagles around Christmas 1979. That's me with the glasses and blue windcheater, with Bono and Ali Hewson behind me. Ali is fluffing up Bono's hair as he's just about to go on stage.

The guy with his head down is Denis Rusk, the lead guitarist in my band The Strougers. I played rhythm guitar.

That year was one of the most exciting times in our lives.

I spent my youth on the Navan Road, hanging out with friends, but I was never any good at basketball or soccer.

Then punk rock came along and anyone could be in a band. Suddenly, all our friends were coming to see us play. By chance, we ended up doing a few gigs with U2 in places such as Howth Community Centre, and the Dandelion Market, as they were just starting out too.

You wouldn't believe how many other Dublin bands hated U2 back then. They hated them because they thought they were loaded rich kids, or seemed arrogant.

Playing with them, I never found U2 like that. I suppose I was one of their first fans.

Bono was always very mannerly if we were chatting to him before a gig. I remember distinctly that if you spoke to Edge, he gave you his complete attention. He wouldn't be messing, or getting distracted; he would listen to every word you said.

Then U2 would plug in and play. I can't possibly explain how good U2 sounded playing to 20 people.

For a start, Larry Mullen had come out of the Artane Boys Band so he was a proper drummer. He could make this unbelievable racket. Edge had this very futuristic-looking Gibson Explorer guitar but he could really play it, and Adam completed the sound.

Towards the end of 1979, we ended up playing McGonagles the same night that U2 were doing the late show.

A friend took this picture on my Olympus camera, which I'd just bought. I remember taking lots of shots that night and Bono getting thrown by the flash constantly going off, but he never complained.

If you're wondering why I'm wearing a blue windcheater if I was a punk back then, all I'll say is it was a wet December night in Dublin and I wasn't going to get drowned coming in from the Navan Road, new wave or no new wave.

Not long after this picture, things changed radically for U2. We stopped playing with them and they moved into a different league, releasing an album and touring America.

A couple of years later, myself and Strougers' bass player Shay Hiney went to see U2 playing a huge gig at the RDS. We bumped into their manager Paul McGuinness and, remembering us, he gave us tickets to the aftershow.

We walked straight into Bono, who was now a big star. I remember Shay telling Bono that his girlfriend was on the way to the party, and that she was a huge U2 fan.

For a laugh, Bono starting asking Shay all these questions about 'Jenny', then disappeared.

We thought that was the last we'd see of him. But, later in the evening, he was back and straight over to Shay and his girlfriend. 'You must be Jenny, Shay's girlfriend,' Bono said, and he started listing off all these things he knew about her.

Jenny couldn't believe it because she was a massive U2 fan and Bono knew everything about her. We laughed and laughed.

People say to me, 'Your band and U2 were playing around Dublin at the same time, yet they became global superstars and you didn't'.

They expect me to be envious, but I'm not all. I was delighted U2 made it, because the night this picture was taken in McGonagles, I had already picked U2 out as a band with a future.

I think I got that one right.

Peter McCluskey's latest book is called 'My Little Lighthouse'.

Interview by Ken Sweeney.

(c) Irish Independent, 2011.

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