U2 celebrates 50 years with concert at school where it all started

DUBLIN- U2 marked 50 years as a band on Friday by returning to the school where they started playing together as teenagers and delighted current students with a concert featuring hits such as 'With Or Without You', 'One' and 'Beautiful Day'.

The 22-time Grammy-Award-winning band formed in September 1976 after Larry Mullen Jr. pinned a handwritten note reading "Drummer Seeks Musicians To Form Band" on the notice board at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in north Dublin.

Mullen, Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton on Friday sought to replicate one of their early shows when they played on the roof of the school's boiler room in 1978, the start of a journey that would carve their place in rock history.

Hundreds of students, some holding hand-drawn posters saying "It's A Beautiful Day No School", finished class early and packed the school yard, where they screamed throughout the 35-minute set alongside their similarly enthusiastic teachers.

"Is that the science lab?" said Bono, dressed all in black, as he arrived on stage and pointed to a building in the distance where some teachers watched out of windows and recorded the scene on their phones.

Fans also gathered to listen outside the school gates after word of the secret show spread.

After arriving on stage as Alice Cooper's 'School's Out' blared from the speakers, the band launched into a seven-song set that spanned 'I Will Follow' and 'Out Of Control' from their 1980 debut 'Boy' to 'Vertigo', a UK No. 1 single 24 years later.

Around 30 students from a local music education programme joined on violins, viola and harps for the rendition of 'One'.

U2, whose most renowned albums include 'The Joshua Tree' and 'Achtung Baby', announced this week the release of their 16th album 'Carnaval De Luz' on November 13.

The album, their first in nine years, will feature a duet between Bono and the late Dolly Parton in what the band said was the country singer's last vocal performance. Friday's set also included a live airing of new single 'Silencio'.

Bono thanked the teachers from the "rock 'n' roll high school", some of whom were in the crowd, who helped shape their creativity.

"This island is full of song and music and mischief and we're so proud to be Irish," he said.

Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Bill Berkrot/Reuters