On Friday 13th January 1978, a short news story appeared on the front page of
the Irish newspaper, the Irish Press. It announced a competition, under the
immortal headline: £500 Prize for Top Pop Group.

Sixteen months previously a fourteen year-old by the name of Larry had placed
a handwritten ad on the noticeboard at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, on
the north side of Dublin, bearing the legend “Drummer seeks musicians to form
band.” Progress in the interim had been slow, but a band now existed, with the
selfsame Larry bashing the skins.

First, they were called Feedback, then The Hype. Larry consulted with the rest of the band members and they decided to enter the Limerick competition. For what
promised to be an adventurous trip, the outfit known as The Hype changed their
name and settled on a four-piece line-up.
For this, it turned out, was the first time that Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen, The
Edge and a boy who had changed his name to Bono, would play their first
‘official' gig together under the moniker U2.

The stars aligned that night for a band who – by their own admission – could
barely play. When the result was announced, and U2 were declared
winners of the £500 prize there were boos as well as cheers from the
audience. “What the hell is going on?”, one disgruntled muso asked. “They
can't even play their instruments.”

“We had no real idea,” Larry Mullen would reflect later, “how winning in
Limerick would change our lives”…