U2 is an Irish rock band formed in 1976 consisting of Bono (lead vocals), The Edge (guitar), Adam Clayton (bass), and Larry Mullen Jr. (drums). Some of their most popular and critically acclaimed albums include The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, and All That You Can't Leave Behind. They are considered one of the most successful rock bands of all time having sold over 150 million records worldwide.

2. Friday Class Presents:

3. U2

4. Bono (Paul David Hewson) The Edge (David Howell Evans) Adam Clayton Larry Mullen , Jr .

5. Adam Clayton Charles Adam Clayton was born on March 13, 1960 in Chinnor, Oxford, England. He is the bass player for the U2.

6. Larry Mullen , Jr . Lawrence Joseph Mullen, Jr. was born on October 31, 1961 in Artane, Dublin, Ireland. He is the drummer for the U2.

7. David Howell Evans was born on August 8, 1961, Barking, East London, England. He has the stage name or nickname The Edge; he is the lead guitarist of the U2. The Edge (David Howell Evans)

8. Paul David Hewson was born on May 10, 1960. He was brought up in Ballymun, Dublin. His nickname is Bono Vox , stage name Bono , and he is the lead singer of the U2. Bono (Paul David Hewson)

9. U2 have been one of the most popular rock/vocal bands in the world since the 1980s. According to the RIAA (The Recording Industry Association of America) , they have sold approximately 50.5 million albums in the U.S., had six #1 albums in the U.S. and they are considered one of the most successful groups of all time. The band is also very politically active in human rights causes, such as the DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade in Africa) spearheaded by Bono, and Make Poverty History campaign.

10. The very early days

11. The band was formed in Dublin on Saturday, September 25, 1976. Fourteen-year-old Larry Mullen, Jr. posted a notice on his secondary school bulletin board (Mount Temple Comprehensive School) seeking musicians for a new band.

12. Later on, the group decided the name Feedback . Although known as an Irish band, two members — The Edge and Adam Clayton — are actually British by birth.

13. Hewson was nicknamed Bono Vox (that means “good voice” in Latin), after a hearing aid company's advertising sign. Nicknames

14. The Edge got his name from Bono, who thought he was always on the edge of things, assessing what was going on. Bono also thought that it was an accurate description of his head, as it had a straight edge.

15. 1980 Boy has a definite theme – a vulnerable, painfully honest examination of adolescence touching on fear over sex, identity confusion, death and uncontrollable mood swings. Boy's release was followed by U2's first tour beyond Ireland and the United Kingdom. These live shows helped establish U2 as one of the most exciting live bands in the UK, as critics noted that Bono was a very "charismatic" and "passionate" showman.

16. 1983 In 1983, U2 returned with apparently a newfound sense of direction and the release of their third album, War. The album included the song "Sunday Bloody Sunday" , which dealt with the troubles in Northern Ireland. His anger and passion were palpable as he shouted: “Fuck the revolution!”. The song starts off by expressing the anger felt in Ireland over Bloody Sunday incident of 1972, but in successive stanzas moves through different imagery that disown that anger and place the song in a religious context, using imagery from Matthew 10:35 ("mother's children; brothers, sisters torn apart"), and a twist on 1 Corinthians 15:32 ("we eat and drink while tomorrow they die") before finishing off with a call for Christians to stop fighting each other and "claim the victory Jesus won, on a Sunday bloody Sunday".

17. 1984 The experimental The Unforgettable Fire (named after a series of paintings made by survivors of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki) followed in 1984. The album featured the tribute to civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., "Pride (In the Name of Love)". "Pride" became the first single from the album, cracking the U.K. Top 5 and the US Top 50.

18. 1987 In 1987, U2 released The Joshua Tree. The album debuted at #1 in the U.K., quickly reached #1 in the U.S., and would go on to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The singles "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" also quickly went to #1 in the U.S., with "Where the Streets Have No Name" being another heavily played track. U2 was the fourth rock band to be featured on the cover of Time magazine (following The Beatles, The Band, and The Who), who declared that U2 was "Rock's Hottest Ticket". The Joshua Tree Tour sold out stadiums around the world, the first time the band had consistently played venues of that size.

19. 1991 In November of 1991, U2 released the heavily experimental and distorted Achtung Baby. What was often said at the time was that Achtung Baby introduced a legion of new U2 fans, people who had heard the group for many years but never really liked them or bought their records before. The group's fanbase was therefore expanded significantly by this release. New fans were perhaps most drawn in by the song "Mysterious Ways".

20. In early 1996, U2 began work on their next record. U2 were once again attempting to change their musical direction, this time the band were experimenting with heavy post production of their music, utilizing tape loops, programming and sampling. This gave the album a techno/disco feel. Pop was released in March of 1997. The album debuted at #1 in 28 countries, and earned U2 mainly positive reviews. 1997

21. 2000 All That You Can't Leave Behind, released in late October of 2000, was received widely as U2's return to grace, and was considered by many to be U2's "third masterpiece", following The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. It debuted at No. 1 in 22 countries and spawned a world-wide hit single, "Beautiful Day", which also earned three Grammy Awards. U2 followed that release with a major tour in the spring of 2001, the Elevation Tour.

22. 2005 No such pre-release of the album occurred, however, and the first single from the album, titled "Vertigo", was released for airplay on September 24, 2004. The song received extensive airplay in the first week after its release and became an international hit. The album, titled How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, was released on November 22 in much of the world. It sold 840,000 units in the United States in its first week. This was a record for the band, nearly doubling the first-week sales of All That You Can't Leave Behind in the US.

23. Enjoy now a video clip from their last album

25. Thank you very much