bono adam clayton larry mullen the edge me © 1996-2004 khanada rhodes |
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at mount temple he took an interest in the guitar and piano, following in his father's footsteps. after his mother had bought him an old acoustic guitar at a jumble sale for £1 he soon began playing the instrument regularly. after some prompting by mount temple's music teacher albert bradshaw, dave went along with his brother dick to the audition at larry mullen's house, not having seen the note from larry. here, after a run through of old led zeppelin and deep purple standards, he showed the others present that he could really play. accepted as a member of the group that came to be called feedback, dave began to hang around with the other members both in and out of school. he was accepted into the lypton village group and christened edge by bono, partly because he was on the edge of things assessing what was going on and partly because of the shape of his head, which had a straight edge. the edge continued his studies at mount temple at the same time as pursuing his musical interests in the hype (as feedback was now called). when the time came for the edge to leave school, he told his parents that he would take a year off from his studies, to see what would happen with the band. during this period in the late 1970s, the hype and then U2 (from march 1978 onwards) began to develop their sound. although they started off influenced by the bigger groups of the early 1970s, the punk and new wave movements began to shape the music of U2. also, some of the american punk/new wave acts like the ramones and television began to influence the band and the edge in particular. his style of playing developed further when he was able to buy a gibson explorer guitar - which he still uses today. coupled with this, was the purchase of a memory man echo unit that was also instrumental in the development of the U2 sound. as U2 started to grow musically in this period, so did their interest in things spiritual. the edge was one of the three members of the band who joined the shalom charismatic christian group in dublin. this led to a great deal of soul searching - was it right to be a christian and in a rock and roll band? this all came to head in 1982. shortly after bono had returned from his honeymoon, the edge told him that he was going to take two weeks leave from U2 in order to sort out whether he wanted to stay in the band or not. after a few days, he made up his mind after listening to bono's advice to follow his heart; he would stay committed to U2. in 1983, the edge married aislinn o'sullivan, whom he had met at an early U2 concert. they had three daughters: holly (1985), arun (1986), and blue angel (1989), but in 1990 they separated, during the recording of achtung baby. in 1996 they were finally divorced. in 1992 edge first met morleigh steinberg, the belly dancer and choreographer from the zoo tv tour. they started going out in 1993 and have stayed a couple ever since. they have two children, a daughter named sian and a son called levi. the edge's contribution to the music of U2 over the years is immeasurable. from the opening notes of "i will follow" on the boy album to the graceful chords of "beautiful day" on all that you can't leave behind, his trademark is there. he tends to avoid the long, drawn out solo - the exception being the early composition "street mission." instead he prefers precise, short, memorable riffs, examples being "rejoice" from october, "bad" from the unforgettable fire, and "spanish eyes," an outtake from the joshua tree sessions. at times his aggression and frustration can be seen in the chords he uses: "sunday bloody sunday," "pride," and "bullet the blue sky" are prime examples. yet at other times he can be gentle and melancholic as on "one" and "please." in 1996 he was deservedly the first recipient of the rory gallagher rock musician award. his ability as a keyboard player is often under-estimated, but this often adds a different quality to the "U2 sound." the tracks "october" and "new year's day" come to mind here. also his vocal contribution to U2 is often overlooked. songs like "van diemen's land" and "numb" show his range. his solo rendition of "sunday bloody sunday" on the latter stages of the popmart tour was one of the show's highlights. finally, his role as "musical director" of the band has led him to being given credit for his production skills. on zooropa, he was so involved with the album, that he was credited as producer alongside flood and brian eno. the edge was the first member of U2 to take a musical sidestep. this was in 1983 when he was asked by former pil bassist jah wobble to play on his album, snake charmer. in 1986 he wrote most of the soundtrack music for the film captive, which featured a young sinead o'connor singing on one of the tracks. this was followed in 1990 with a score (alongside bono) for the royal shakespeare company production of a clockwork orange 2004 and the song "goldeneye" for the 1995 james bond film of the same name. it is perhaps fitting that in early 2001 he was included in a tv programme titled the top ten guitar heroes on channel 4 in britain. he was placed 7th on the list just behind the likes of jimi hendrix, eric clapton, and hank marvin, but ahead of greats like carlos santana and ritchie blackmore. the edge celebrated his 40th birthday during the european leg of the elevation tour, at the palau sant jordi in barcelona concert on august 8, 2001. a birthday cake was brought out to him during "mysterious ways." he is reported to have flown out to ibiza to party the night away straight after the show. U2
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