October
(1981)

A brooding Bono didn’t go down well with the critics as U2’s second offering received mixed reviews. Fears of the music industry being against the band’s religious beliefs and the lose briefcase full of lyrics nearly stopped the band’s progression in its track. Thank God it didn’t.

“U2 could have gone two ways after Boy. They could have broken out and gone bigger - but in fact what they did was they shrunk a little bit. They were a little bit scared of the world, I think.

“Yes, there were Bibles dotted around the room during the recording. There was a fair amount of that. But I was so busy trying to pull teeth - trying to make an album - that it sort of washed over me.

“It was completely chaotic and mad in the studio and, obviously, Bono's lyrics being lost contributed to the atmosphere. I'm not sure whether any of those words would have been used on the album - only he knows that - but certainly it would have been a starting point.”