30 Years of Rattle and Hum.

[Aaron]

The current staff at U2Songs.com take a look back at the album, and where we all were thirty years ago when it was released:
https://www.u2songs.com/news/glorifying_the_past_the_u2songs_team_talks_rattle_and_hum

What are your memories of buying the album? Did you go to a special store? Pick it up the day it came out? What format did you buy? We'd love to hear your memories of the album if you were around back in 1988!!

[Brad]

My local mall actually had 3 record shops in 1988, which is hard to believe these days. One of them was my favorite, but I can't even remember the name now. I do recall that they had separate "Rock" and "Alternative" sections, and that U2 was filed under "Alternative." Anyway, I'm pretty sure I drove to that record shop after school to pick up R&H, but I can't say for sure if it was the day of release or sometime later that week.

R&H was the first U2 album I bought on CD on (or near) release day. I originally bough Joshua Tree on cassette and upgraded to CD after Christmas 1987, when I received my first CD player.

At 16, one of my favorite moments from the album was, "Am I buggin' you? Don't mean to bug ya..."

[Brodermadsen]

I was early very keen on music - helped on by my 6 year older brother. But my first brief meeting with U2 (with or without you) be told me it was 4 Strange looking guys from Ireland - not Music for me!
A friend recommended Desire and I still remember turning the volume on our radio up when the DJ at the local radiostation introduced it! It was different from anything else I heard and I loved it! There was a lot of talk and hype About the album and the film - the news on Danish TV even had a clip from the premier!
I won tickets to the film at our local radio and saw it with my brother - Got the album for Xmas and the book and like AJ started my own discography. And wantlist! Still have it somewhere. Within a year I had all the albums and a few singles and knew I was going to love this band no matter what! (And spend so much money on so much stuff!)
In a periode of my life where a lot of things was turned upside Down U2’s Music was something to hang on to. And when I heard the new years eve concert from the point in 1989 (complete with exclusiv interview with Joe O’Herlihy) I just hoped to get to see them live!
Rattle and hum was my first U2 album and I’ve always loved it!

[Brad]

Welcome. Great first post!

[Anam]

I'm loving these stories  I got my copy on tape the day it came out in Golden Discs in Cork. At that stage I think Rattle & Hum and The Joshua Tree was the sum total of my collection. I also bought a R&H hat, one of those massive baseball jobs with foam in the back. Horrendous. It would probably would be worth a fortune if it hadn't been binned long since. I still have the tape, worn threadbare. For all the hundreds of promos, and limited editions and ephemera, I have never got more pleasure from any release than listening to those two albums for the first time.

[Aaron]

I still have that cassette I taped off the radio.  I'll have to give it a listen to see what Radio show it actually was. 

My mother hated that Rattle and Hum wall.  Dad would get three papers every day and every day I would cut out the ad for the movie. They started out big.  Quarter of the page, but would slowly shrink in size. At the end it was down to just print but I was still cutting them out.  First thing they did when I went to university was tore the whole lot down. 

"All I Want is You" was my favorite too.  But "Angel of Harlem" was another fave.

When I found out my friend Dyann had won her way into the Apollo Theater show and offered to take me, when I was booking flights I could have easily flown into LaGuardia for about $30 less. But it was JFK all the way. Paid the extra so I could land at JFK listening to Angel of Harlem. What an amazing night that turned out to be. Dyann and I ended up being two of the first people on the floor. I was right in front of Adam Clayton all night and could not have been happier.  I thought I died and went to heaven when they opened up the background and the Sun Ra orchestra was there. "Desire", "When Love Comes to Town" and "Angel of Harlem?" I really really enjoyed that.  But would have loved to hear "All I Want is You" as well.  Waiting patiently for it to be released.  Yes.  There are plans to do something more with it soon I'm told. 

[Aaron]

I was early very keen on music - helped on by my 6 year older brother. But my first brief meeting with U2 (with or without you) be told me it was 4 Strange looking guys from Ireland - not Music for me!
A friend recommended Desire and I still remember turning the volume on our radio up when the DJ at the local radiostation introduced it! It was different from anything else I heard and I loved it! There was a lot of talk and hype About the album and the film - the news on Danish TV even had a clip from the premier!
I won tickets to the film at our local radio and saw it with my brother - Got the album for Xmas and the book and like AJ started my own discography. And wantlist! Still have it somewhere. Within a year I had all the albums and a few singles and knew I was going to love this band no matter what! (And spend so much money on so much stuff!)
In a periode of my life where a lot of things was turned upside Down U2’s Music was something to hang on to. And when I heard the new years eve concert from the point in 1989 (complete with exclusiv interview with Joe O’Herlihy) I just hoped to get to see them live!
Rattle and hum was my first U2 album and I’ve always loved it!

By the way, WELCOME! About time you found your way in here.

[miryclay]

Hi everyone,

My thirteenth birthday was the day after R&H was released on film so it is safe to say marketers are right when they try to get to young impressionable minds for a lifelong commitment.

No one in my Elementary school like U2 so I went to see the movie with, MY MOM!. I bought the cassette at the movie theater and still have it to this day. I still hadn't seen the band at this point so seeing the movie in Black and White was really special. It was a huge leap up from Red Rocks.

It really opened up many things about the US that I hadn't known about or was unaware of. It is essentially an American movie and I think possibly a remaster or whatever could actually enhance the themes of 'two Americas'. I still really like LRM and AIWIY and have since learned to play most of the album on guitar.

I eventually got to Sun Studios and eventually got the AIWIY cassette single which was at least 25 years after release. I still like the album but see how it hasn't dated as well as it could have.

miryclay

[Brodermadsen]

I was early very keen on music - helped on by my 6 year older brother. But my first brief meeting with U2 (with or without you) be told me it was 4 Strange looking guys from Ireland - not Music for me!
A friend recommended Desire and I still remember turning the volume on our radio up when the DJ at the local radiostation introduced it! It was different from anything else I heard and I loved it! There was a lot of talk and hype About the album and the film - the news on Danish TV even had a clip from the premier!
I won tickets to the film at our local radio and saw it with my brother - Got the album for Xmas and the book and like AJ started my own discography. And wantlist! Still have it somewhere. Within a year I had all the albums and a few singles and knew I was going to love this band no matter what! (And spend so much money on so much stuff!)
In a periode of my life where a lot of things was turned upside Down U2’s Music was something to hang on to. And when I heard the new years eve concert from the point in 1989 (complete with exclusiv interview with Joe O’Herlihy) I just hoped to get to see them live!
Rattle and hum was my first U2 album and I’ve always loved it!

By the way, WELCOME! About time you found your way in here.

Thanks - I’m a bloody slow starter

[Aaron]

If anyone is interested U2Songs is doing some live coverage from the #RattleAndHum30 showing of the film today in Dublin. We're also going to be co-hosting a live viewing party as the film is shown in Dublin with the mods from U2.Com - you can follow us at @U2Songs, @U2ComZooMods and @U2Community for more updates on twitter. There's also a live thread over at ZooTopia: http://zootopia.u2.com/forums/topic/40211-rattle-hum-screening-dublin-live-thread/ - we'll try to get something written up for the site later tonight if you are unable to take a peek as it unwinds...

[Aaron]

If anyone is interested U2Songs is doing some live coverage from the #RattleAndHum30 showing of the film today in Dublin. We're also going to be co-hosting a live viewing party as the film is shown in Dublin with the mods from U2.Com - you can follow us at @U2Songs, @U2ComZooMods and @U2Community for more updates on twitter. There's also a live thread over at ZooTopia: http://zootopia.u2.com/forums/topic/40211-rattle-hum-screening-dublin-live-thread/ - we'll try to get something written up for the site later tonight if you are unable to take a peek as it unwinds...

https://www.u2songs.com/news/rattle_and_hum_30th_anniversary_showing

Was a lovely day for those who got to go, with a surprise appearance by Adam and The Edge. Even though I couldn't be there, very glad to have been a part of the day.

[Anam]

Looks like it was a great event Aaron. I'm looking on jealously from Spain and would have had the DVD on if we were at home. Delighted the two boys showed up.

[osullic]

Rattle and Hum was the first album I got. I mean, any album, not just U2. I got it on cassette from my parents for my 10th birthday in 1989. I still have that cassette. The Joshua Tree was my introduction to U2, and I just loved Where The Streets Have No Name. I have a memory of playing it for a neighbour, who wondered if there was any singing on this album, considering the length of the intro to WTSHNN

Also, before getting Rattle and Hum, another memory of a school friend of mine describing the album cover to me - Bono shining a spotlight on The Edge - I was imagining Bono up in the rafters!