Larry Mullen, Jr.
Background information
Birth name	Lawrence Joseph Mullen, Jr.
Also known as	Larry Mullen Jr.
Born	(1961-10-31) 31 October 1961 (age 50)
Origin	Artane, Dublin, Ireland
Genres	Rock, post-punk, alternative rock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, Actor
Instruments	Drums, percussion, vocals, synthesiser
Years active	1976–present
Associated acts	U2 Automatic Baby Passengers
Website	www.u2.com
Notable instruments
Yamaha drums & accessories, Paiste (Signature) cymbals, Pro-Mark drumsticks, and Remo drumheads.

Lawrence Joseph "Larry" Mullen, Jr. (born 31 October 1961) is an Irish musician best known as the drummer for the Irish rock band U2.^[1] He is the founder of U2, which he later described as "'The Larry Mullen Band' for about ten minutes, then Bono walked in and blew any chance I had of being in charge." He has worked on numerous side projects during his career, including a collaboration with Michael Stipe and Mike Mills of R.E.M. to form Automatic Baby in 1993 and working with bandmate Adam Clayton on the re-recording of the theme to Mission: Impossible, in 1996.^[2][3] He and U2 have won many awards, including 22 Grammy awards.^[1]

Life and career[link]

Mullen, the middle child and only son of Larry and Maureen Mullen, was born 31 October 1961 in Artane, Dublin, Ireland. Mullen began drumming in 1970, at the age of 9, under the instruction of Irish drummer Joe Bonnie and, later, Bonnie's daughter Monica.^[1] His mother died in a car accident in November 1978, two years after U2 was founded.^[4]

Before founding U2, Mullen was involved in a Dublin marching band called the Artane Boys Band (now known as the Artane Band), contributing to the martial beats common in Mullen's work, such as the song "Sunday Bloody Sunday".^[4] Mullen founded U2 in the fall of 1976 by placing a now famous notice on the Mount Temple Comprehensive School bulletin board, saying something to the effect of "drummer seeks musicians to form band."^[5] The band, originally consisting of Mullen, Paul "Bono" Hewson, David "The Edge" Evans, his brother Dik Evans, Adam Clayton, and Mullen's friends Ivan McCormick and Peter Martin, was originally known as the "Larry Mullen Band", but the name quickly changed to "Feedback", as that was one of the few musical terms they knew. Soon after the band formed, McCormick and Martin left and the band, by then known as "The Hype", was a 5-piece.^[1][3][4] Just before they won a talent contest in Limerick, Ireland, they changed their name again, for the final time, to U2. This was formally done at a farewell concert for Dik Evans, becoming the 4-piece band they are today.^[3][4]

As U2 grew more popular, Mullen added the "Junior" suffix to his name to stop confusion with his father (also Larry Mullen), who was receiving large tax bills meant for his son.^[1] Mullen is unmarried, but has lived with his girlfriend Ann Acheson for more than 30 years.^[1] They have three children, Aaron Elvis (born 1995), Ava (born 1998), and Ezra^[6] (born 2001).^[1][4] He is the first cousin of Irish actor Conor Mullen.

He is known to be the "brakes of the band",^{[clarification needed]} and prefers to let the other band members take the spotlight at interviews.^[4] Mullen has also played synthesiser or keyboards on several songs, including "United Colours" from 1995's Original Soundtracks 1, an album that Mullen has always disliked.^[4][7] Mullen loves Harley Davidson motorcycles and is a big fan of Elvis Presley. He currently lives in the Howth suburb of Dublin.

Style and techniques[link]

Mullen Jr. playing keyboards

After forming U2, Mullen’s drumming style and techniques began to evolve. In the early days of the band, his contributions to the band were often limited to fills and drum rolls, but he became more involved in the writing of the songs later, particularly in conjunction with Adam Clayton, his partner in the rhythm section, with whom he has collaborated on solo projects.^[4] When the band was first being signed to CBS Records, they refused to sign the band unless Mullen was fired.^[4] He was not, and as a result, his drumming became more integrated into the song structures. Mullen's experience as a teenager in the Artane Boys Band now known as the Artane Band, heavily contributed to the martial beat featured in many of U2's songs, helping to evoke military imagery.

Mullen typically makes heavy use of the floor tom with his right hand, often resulting in a 'tribal' rhythmic style much in evidence on certain U2 records, such as The Unforgettable Fire. Mullen is also known to use 16th notes on his hi-hat and first tom on his drum kit. He also uses tambourine hits in many U2 songs, either replacing or in sync with his snare drum. This style is used to add a layer of foundation and texture towards U2's sound. Notable songs of him using this style are "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" and "Beautiful Day".

During the recording of the album Pop in 1996, Mullen suffered from severe back problems.^[3] Recording was delayed due to surgery. When he left the hospital, he arrived back in the studio to find the rest of the band experimenting more than ever with electronic drum machines, something driven largely by guitarist The Edge's interest in dance and hip-hop music, and, given his weakness after the operation, he relented, allowing The Edge to continue using drum machines, which contributed heavily to the album's electronic feel.^[3]

Mullen has had tendinitis problems throughout his career. As a means to reduce inflammation and pain, he began to use specially designed Pro-Mark drumsticks.^[1] He uses Yamaha drums and Paiste cymbals. He was placed at # 21 in Stylus Magazine's list of the 50 Greatest Rock Drummers.^[9]

Although he occasionally plays keyboards and synthesiser in concerts, Mullen rarely sings during performances. However, he contributed backing vocals to the songs "Numb", "Get On Your Boots", "Moment of Surrender", "Elevation", "Miracle Drug", "Love and Peace or Else", "Unknown Caller", "Zoo Station" (only during Zoo TV Tour) and others. And he occasionally performed a cover version of "Dirty Old Town" on the Zoo TV Tour.

During live performances of "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight", Mullen walks around the stage, contributing to the song with a large djembe strapped around his waist.

Mullen is said to have a preternatural sense of rhythm. Brian Eno recounted that when he was working with Mullen on a U2 album, Mullen kept insisting that the click track was off and lagging behind the tracks that had already been recorded. Eno adjusted it, thinking that he was just humoring Mullen, but later found that Mullen was right and the click track had indeed been off by six milliseconds.^[10]

Solo projects[link]

Mullen has worked on many solo projects in his career, including collaborations with Maria McKee, Nanci Griffith, and U2 producer Daniel Lanois.In 1990 he co-wrote and arranged an official Republic of Ireland soccer team song `Put `em under pressure`. Mullen played drums on many of the songs on the 1995 Emmylou Harris album Wrecking Ball. Mullen, along with bandmate Adam Clayton, recorded the soundtrack to the 1996 movie of Mission: Impossible, including the theme song, whose time signature was changed from the original 5/4 time signature to an easier and more danceable 4/4 time signature.^[2] The "Theme from Mission: Impossible" reached #8 on the U.S. Billboard chart, and was nominated for a Grammy award in the "Best Pop Instrumental Performance" category.^[2][11][12] Mullen worked with producer Daniel Lanois on his album Acadie. Mullen and Clayton also collaborated with Mike Mills and Michael Stipe from R.E.M. to form the one-performance group Automatic Baby, solely for the purpose of performing the song "One" for Bill Clinton's inauguration at MTV's 1993 inaugural ball. The group's name refers to the titles of both bands' latest albums, Achtung Baby and Automatic for the People. He provided 'marimba and inspiration' on Underworld's song "Boy, Boy, Boy" from their 2007 album Oblivion with Bells.

Acting career[link]

Mullen's film debut was in a film by Phil Joanou called Entropy where he played himself alongside bandmate Bono. Mullen appeared as a thief in Man on the Train with co-star Donald Sutherland. Filmed in Orangeville, Ontario Canada, Man on the Train was released in 2011.

Kit configuration[link]

Mullen drumming in 2005.

• Paiste Signature cymbals:
  • 16" power crash
  • 17" power crash
  • 18" power crash
  • 18" full crash
  • 22" power ride
  • 14" heavy hi-hat/sound-edge hi-hat.
• Yamaha Birch Custom Absolute Nouveau drums: (Since the Elevation tour. Previously he used Yamaha's Maple Custom drums in the same sizes).
• On the video of Get On Your Boots, Larry uses a Yamaha Oak Custom, with the same sizes as the Birch Custom
  • 14"x10" rack tom
  • 16"x16" floor toms x2 (one left of the hi-hat, one right of the snare drum for the Vertigo tour). For previous tours, he used an 18"x16" floor tom to the left of the hats.
  • 14"x7" Brady Sheoak Block — primary snare drum on the Vertigo tour. For ZooTV and Elevation tours, he used a 12"x7" Sheoak block snare. For Popmart, a 14"x6.5" Jarrah block primarily. Depending on the gig, he sometimes used a 14"x6.5" Jarrah ply snare instead of the block snare.
  • 24"x16" kick drum. 22"x16" Kick on the b-stage during ZooTV only. He has not used a different kick drum on any tours since then.
  • Pro-mark 5A Japanese oak drumsticks.^[13]

Various other percussion instruments, including LP cowbells.

Awards[link]

Mullen and U2 have won more than 60 awards, including 22 Grammy awards.^[14] At the Grammy awards, the band has won "Best Rock Duo or Group with Vocal" 7 times, "Album of the Year" twice, "Record of the Year" twice, "Song of the Year" twice, and "Best Rock Album" twice.^[14]

See also[link]

• List of drummers
• List of people on stamps of Ireland
• Timeline of U2

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Larry Mullen, Jr.

• U2.com, official U2 site
• Larry Mullen Biography from @U2
• Larry Mullen, Jr. at the Internet Movie Database

The Edge
Background information
Birth name	David Howell Evans
Born	(1961-08-08) 8 August 1961 (age 50) Barking, Essex, England, United Kingdom
Origin	County Dublin, Ireland
Genres	Rock, post-punk, alternative rock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, activist
Instruments	Guitar, vocals, keyboards, piano, bass guitar
Years active	1976–present
Labels	Island, Mercury
Associated acts	U2, Passengers
Website	www.u2.com
Notable instruments
Gibson Explorer Fender Stratocaster Gibson Les Paul Fender Telecaster Gretsch Country Gentleman Gretsch White Falcon Rickenbacker 330/12

David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), more widely known by his stage name The Edge (or just Edge),^[1] is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record. As a guitarist, The Edge has crafted a minimalistic and textural style of playing. His use of a rhythmic delay effect yields a distinctive ambient, chiming sound that has become a signature of U2's music.

The Edge was born in England to a Welsh family, but was raised in Ireland after moving there as an infant. In 1976, at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, he formed U2 with his fellow students and his older brother Dik. Inspired by the ethos of punk rock and its basic arrangements, the group began to write its own material. They eventually became one of the most popular acts in popular music, with successful albums such as 1987's The Joshua Tree and 1991's Achtung Baby. Over the years, The Edge has experimented with various guitar effects and introduced influences from several genres of music into his own style, including American roots music, industrial music, and alternative rock. With U2, The Edge has also played keyboards, co-produced their 1993 record Zooropa, and occasionally contributed lyrics. The Edge met his second and current wife, Morleigh Steinberg, through her collaborations with the band.

As a member of U2 and as an individual, The Edge has campaigned for human rights and philanthropic causes. He co-founded Music Rising, a charity to support musicians affected by Hurricane Katrina. He has collaborated with U2 bandmate Bono on several projects, including songs for Roy Orbison and Tina Turner, and the soundtracks to the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and the Royal Shakespeare Company's London stage adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. In 2011, Rolling Stone magazine placed him at number 38 on its list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

Personal life[link]

The Edge at a U2 concert in Anaheim (2005)

David Howell Evans was born at the Barking Maternity Hospital,^[2] Essex, England to Welsh parents Garvin and Gwenda Evans.^[1] When he was one, his family moved to County Dublin, Ireland where he attended St Andrew's National School. He received piano and guitar lessons and often performed with his brother Dik Evans before they both answered an advertisement posted by Larry Mullen, Jr. at their school, Mount Temple Comprehensive School, seeking musicians to form a band.^[3] The band accepted both of them. This band went through several incarnations before emerging as U2 in March 1978 (Dik Evans left the band just before the name change).^[3] U2 began performing in various venues in Ireland and eventually began developing a following. Their debut album, Boy, was released in 1980.

In 1981, leading up to the October tour, Evans came very close to leaving U2 for religious reasons, but he decided to stay.^[3] During this period, he became involved with a group called Shalom Tigers, in which bandmates Bono and Larry Mullen Jr. were also involved.^[4] Shortly after deciding to remain with the band, he wrote a piece of music that later became "Sunday Bloody Sunday".^[3] The Edge married his high school girlfriend Aislinn O'Sullivan on 12 July 1983.^[5] The couple had three daughters together: Hollie in 1984, Arran in 1985 and Blue Angel in 1989.^[4] The couple separated in 1990, but were unable to get officially divorced because of Irish laws regarding marriage annulment; divorce was legalised in 1995 and the couple were legally divorced in 1996.^[4]

In 1993, The Edge began dating Morleigh Steinberg, a professional dancer and choreographer employed by the band as a belly dancer during the Zoo TV Tour. They had a daughter, Sian (born 1997), and a son, Levi (born 25 October 1999),^[4] before marrying on 22 June 2002.^[4] He appeared in the 2009 music documentary film It Might Get Loud.^[6] The Edge has been criticized for his efforts to build five luxury mansions on a 156 acre plot of land in Malibu, California.^[7] The California Coastal Commission voted 8-4 against the plans, with the project described by the commission's executive director, Peter Douglas, as "In 38 years...one of the three worst projects that I've seen in terms of environmental devastation...It's a contradiction in terms – you can't be serious about being an environmentalist and pick this location."^[7] The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy agreed to remain neutral on the issue following a $1 million donation from The Edge and a commitment from The Edge to designate 100 acres of the land as open space for public footpaths.^[7]

Music style[link]

Guitar playing[link]

As a guitar player, The Edge has a sound typified by a low-key playing style, a chiming, shimmering sound (thanks in part to the sound of VOX AC-30s) that he achieves with extensive use of delay effects and reverb. The feedback delay is often set to a dotted eighth note (3/16 of a measure), and the feedback gain is adjusted until a note played repeats two or three times.^{[citation needed]}

On 1987's The Joshua Tree, The Edge often contributes just a few simple lead lines given depth and richness by an ever-present delay. For example, the introduction to "Where the Streets Have No Name" is simply a repeated six-note arpeggio, broadened by a modulated delay effect. The Edge has said that he views musical notes as "expensive", in that he prefers to play as few notes as possible. He said in 1982 of his style,

"I like a nice ringing sound on guitar, and most of my chords I find two strings and make them ring the same note, so it's almost like a 12-string sound. So for E I might play a B, E, E and B and make it ring. It works very well with the Gibson Explorer. It's funny because the bass end of the Explorer was so awful that I used to stay away from the low strings, and a lot of the chords I played were very trebly, on the first four, or even three strings. I discovered that through using this one area of the fretboard I was developing a very stylized way of doing something that someone else would play in a normal way."^[9]

Many different influences have shaped The Edge's guitar technique.^{[citation needed]} His first guitar was an old acoustic guitar that his mother bought him at a local flea market for only a few pounds; he was nine at the time. He and his brother Dik Evans both experimented with this instrument.^[9] He said in 1982 of this early experimentation, "I suppose the first link in the chain was a visit to the local jumble sale where I purchased a guitar for a pound. That was my first instrument. It was an acoustic guitar and me and my elder brother Dik both played it, plonking away, all very rudimentary stuff, open chords and all that."^[9] The Edge has stated that many of his guitar parts are based around guitar effects. This is especially true from the Achtung Baby era onwards, although much of the band's 1980s material made heavy use of echos.

Vocals[link]

The Edge in June 2005

The Edge also supplies the backing vocals for U2. U2's 1983 live album and video release, Under a Blood Red Sky and Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky are good reference points for his singing (as are the live DVDs from the Elevation Tour, U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle and Elevation 2001: Live from Boston). For example, he sings the chorus to "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (Bono harmonizes on the final 'Sunday'). U2 used this tradeoff technique later in "Bullet the Blue Sky" as well. His backing vocals are sometimes in the form of a repeated cry; examples of songs that use this approach include "Beautiful Day", "New Year's Day" and "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)". Another technique he uses in his backing vocals is the falsetto, in songs such as "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of", "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own", "A Man and a Woman", "The Wanderer", live versions of "The Fly", and "Window in the Skies".

The Edge sings the lead vocal on "Van Diemen's Land" and "Numb", the first half of the song "Seconds", dual vocals with Bono in "Discotheque", and the bridge in the song "Miracle Drug".^[4] He also sings the occasional lead vocal in live renditions of other songs (such as "Sunday Bloody Sunday" during the PopMart Tour and "Party Girl" during the Rotterdam Zoo TV show when it was Bono's birthday).^[10] He also plays a solo acoustic version of the song "Love is Blindness" that is featured in the documentary film From the Sky Down.

Other instruments[link]

He has played piano and keyboards on many of the band's songs, including "I Fall Down", "October", "So Cruel", "New Year's Day", "Running to Stand Still", "Miss Sarajevo", "The Hands that Built America", and "Original of the Species" and others. He plays the organ on "Please". In live versions of "New Year's Day", "The Unforgettable Fire", "Your Blue Room", and "Moment of Surrender", he plays both the piano and guitar parts alternately. In most live versions of "Original of the Species," piano is the only instrument played during the song. Although The Edge is the band's lead guitarist, he occasionally plays bass guitar, including the live performances of the song "40" where The Edge and bassist Adam Clayton switch instruments.

Solo recordings[link]

In addition to his regular role within U2, The Edge has also recorded with such artists as Johnny Cash, B. B. King, Tina Turner, Ronnie Wood, Jay-Z, and Rihanna. The Edge connected with Brian Eno and Lanois collaborator Michael Brook (the creator of the infinite guitar, which he regularly uses), working with him on the score to the film Captive (1986). From this soundtrack the song "Heroine", the vocal of which was sung by a young Sinéad O'Connor was released as a single.

He also created the theme song for season one and two of The Batman. He and fellow U2 member, Bono, wrote the lyrics to the theme of the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye. The Edge, along with bandmate Bono, recently composed a musical adaptation of Spider-Man. On May 25, 2011, a single titled Rise Above 1: Reeve Carney Featuring Bono and The Edge was released digitally.^[11] The music video was released on July 28, 2011.^[12]

Musical equipment[link]

Edge's 1964 Vox AC30 on stage in Foxborough for the U2 360° Tour.

The Edge plays electric guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, piano, bass guitar (on "40" and "Race Against Time") and lap steel guitar. Compared to many lead guitarists, The Edge is known for using many more guitars during a show. According to his guitar tech Dallas Schoo, a typical lead guitarist uses four or five different guitars in one night, whereas The Edge takes 45 on the road, and uses 17 to 19 in one 2.5-hour concert. He is estimated to have more than 200 guitars in the studio.^{[citation needed]}

Philanthropy[link]

In 2005, The Edge along with Bob Ezrin and Henry Juszkiewicz co-founded Music Rising, a charity that helped provide replacement instruments for those that were lost in Hurricane Katrina. The instruments were originally only replaced for professional musicians but they soon realized the community churches and schools needed instruments as well. The charity's slogan is "Rebuilding the Gulf Region note by note" and has so far helped over a hundred musicians who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. The Edge also serves on the board of the Angiogenesis Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to improving global health by advancing angiogenesis-based medicine, diets, and lifestyle.^[13]

See also[link]

• Timeline of U2
• List of people on stamps of Ireland

References[link]

Footnotes

Bibliography

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (October 2011)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Edge

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Edge

• U2.com, official U2 site
• Music Rising
• The Edge at the Internet Movie Database
• The Edge – Album Credits
• A Study of The Edge's Guitar Delay
• The Edge: 'It's all about the vision'
• Food Bank For New York City public service announcement
• Comment on the mathematical analysis of The Edge's guitar sound