The only time U2 ever had a fight onstage: “It all boiled over”
New York is a city of many faces. In the day, lovers stroll around Central Park and window-shop down Fifth Avenue, dreaming of a life they seem close to touching. By night, the biggest acts in the world descend upon the city, searching for that same something, charged with a healthy dose of alcohol and, in many cases, drugs.
In New York, everyone is competing for something: to be the loudest musician, the best artist, the coolest at the bar, the comfiest on the subway. The modern age might have brought plenty more dazzling screens to the metropolis, but things beneath the surface have largely stayed the same since post-war prosperity. At least, this is exactly what U2 found when they kicked off their very first American tour in 1980.
They launched the tour in New York on December 6th, 1980, at The Ritz Club, soaking in all the riotous, pugnacious energy of an eclectic sea of people all searching for something, soundtracked to racing rock and roll. After a week had passed, the heat had only increased. In their 2006 biography, the band were honest about things reaching a fever-pitch. “Every night had to be the best night. We were the furthest you could find from chilled-out,” they shared, “It was very combative, sometimes with the audience, and sometimes between us.”
On December 14th, things finally came to a head. Only two hours out of New York, in Connecticut, the band let loose and ended up in fisty-cuffs on stage. Chaotic, provocative, and entirely unplanned, the friends plunged into violence because of an old drum kit. The Edge delivered a clean blow to a raging Bono, right there in front of all to see.
Speaking to Jonathan Ross in 2009, the band reminisced about the incident. “It was one of those early gigs where you really feel your life depends on it being a great gig,” The Edge recalled. “And halfway through the show, Larry’s drum kit started falling apart and he’s literally got a set of spanners out trying to fix them.”
Despite his best efforts, he’d already pissed off a supercharged Bono, who saw red. “Bono didn’t see what was going on, all he knew was that Larry had stopped playing, and he just lost his head… It all boiled over,” The Edge admitted.
Bono jumped in, adding, “The Edge just caught me with one,” Bono said, gesturing the impact of a punch to the side of his face. “He hit me very, very hard.”
In their book, U2 by U2, they offered up even more insight into the once-in-a-lifetime event. “I’d counted in a song, and Larry hadn’t come in,” Bono explained. “I counted it in again, and he still didn’t come in. `I looked around; to my psychopathic eyes he looked like he was hiding behind the drum kit. So I picked up the kit to show the audience the drummer hiding behind, and chucked it into the crowd.”
Mullen also recalled that the raging Bono looked as if he “wanted to kill” he musician, while Bono sheepishly admitted, ”It was actually a full-on rumble, with all members of the band whacking at me, and me whacking at them.It was pure pantomime, Laurel and Hardy. But Edge packs a punch. There’s a lesson here: never pick a fight with a man who earns his living from hand-to-eye coordination.”
U2 fans might have had to pay upwards of $100 to catch them at their Las Vegas residency across 2023 and 2024, but that fateful night in 1980, their one-time-only show was priceless.
