With Bono's stage piece, "Stories of Surrender," airing on AppleTV+ on Friday, it's the perfect time to test your U2 trivia knowledge. Click Answer to see the answer on each question. Note: You'll have to keep track of your score, if you find that necessary. Also, there are some negative interrogative questions, which can be tricky.
The U2 Trivia Quiz
Which is NOT a former name of U2?
SR-71 (another spy plane) was never their name, but Feedback and The Hype were, briefly.
Which is the correct age order, oldest to youngest, of the U2 members?
Adam, 16 March 1960; Bono, 10 May 1960; The Edge, 8 August 1961; Larry, 31 October 1961.
How old was Larry Mullen, Jr when he posted the fateful notice for an audition (held in his parents’ kitchen) for what would become U2?
14 years, 11 months
Which group were Bono and The Edge members of?
They were both in both groups. The former informed their artistic sensibilities, and the latter their spiritual sensibitilities.
For whom has Bono/U2 NOT composed a song?
They have not written a song for Bob Geldof. Granted, for Cash (“The Wanderer”) and King ("When Love Comes to Town"), U2 didn't give away the songs, but performed them with them. Frank Sinatra never recorded the song that Bono wrote for him, "Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad", but Bono and Sinatra did sing a duet of "I've Got You Under My Skin" in 1993. Roy Orbison recorded "She's a Mystery to Me" in 1988 and titled the album containing it "Mystery Girl."
Who has Bono/U2 NOT performed with?
U2 has not performed with Chuck Berry. U2 performed "One" with Mary J. Blige at the 2003 MusiCares; with Green Day to reopen the SuperDome after Hurricane Katrina in 2006; with Luciano Pavarotti in 1995 at the annual Pavarotti & Friends concert in Modena, Italy (Bono, Edge & Eno); with Paul McCartney at Live 8 in July 2005 at Hyde Park in London.
Who has Bono/U2 NOT written with?
Although U2 has recorded and performed with Green Day, they have not co-written anything with Billy Joe Armstrong. Salman Rushdie wrote the words (in a book by the same name) to "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" (see Salman Rushdie and U2); Bob dylan co-wrote "Love Rescue Me"; Brian Eno gets co-credit on several songs on No Line on the Horizon.
Which alter ego has Bono NOT performed as?
The Thin White Duke was one of David Bowie's alter egos, not Bono's. MacPhisto and The Fly are from the Zoo TV tour. The Dalton Brothers were U2 incognito as a pre-opening country act on a few Joshua Tree dates.
Which member of U2 does NOT proclaim to be Christian?
Adam
Which nickname was NOT given among the early U2 cohort?
Master Pelicula Cedarhaven was not a name given among the early U2 cohort (specifically Lypton Village). I made it up.
Who was only briefly a member of the band that would become U2?
Dik is The Edge’s older brother, who briefly played guitar, but was older and too busy at university.
What school did all of U2 attend?
Mount Temple Comprehensive School, where at least one pre-U2 gig took place.
Which Producer has U2 NOT worked with?
Scott Litt has worked with R.E.M., The Replacements, The dB's, among others, but not with U2.
Which conflicted area has U2 (or members) NOT performed in?
The band have never performed in Nicaragua, though Bono has visited there. Bono and Edge secretly traveled to Ukraine and performed in a Kyiv subway station in May of 2022. The band played Sarajevo in 1997 after the siege ended.
Which religious leader has Bono NOT met?
Bono has not met John MacArthur. There’s a smuggled photo of Pope John Paul II wearing Bono’s “Fly” glasses in 1999. In 2002, Bono gave Billy Graham a book of Seamus Heaney poetry, and a poem he wrote himself. Bono has met with Rick Warren several times. In 2016, Fuller Seminary produced a video of Bono in conversation with Eugene Peterson: The Psalms.
Which political leader has Bono NOT worked with?
J. D. Vance
At which College or University was Bono a student?
If you said Harvard or None of the above, you get full credit. As Bono put it in his Harvard commencement address in 2001: “I became a student at Harvard recently, and I came to work with Professor Jeffrey Sachs at the Center for International Development to study the lack of development in third-world economies due to the crushing weight of old debts.” However, Bono was never a full-time student.
Bono's mother, Iris, only saw him sing in performance once, in a school production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. What role did Bono play?
Pharaoh. Says Bono “It was really the part of an Elvis impersonator, so that’s
what I did. Dressed up as Elvis, I curled my lip and brought the house down. Iris
laughed and laughed and laughed. She seemed surprised that I could sing, that I
was musical, which is odd because I’d hinted at it often enough.”
Which recording studio was NOT used by U2?
U2 has recorded in all of the above. Abbey Road: "Window in the Sky";
Electric Lady Studios: Songs of Innocence;
Sun Studio: "When Loves Comes to Town";
Compass Point Studio: "Fire";
Slane Castle, The Unforgettable Fire
If you missed the Facebook and Instagram invitations to my SurveyMonkey quiz, here's a chance to take almost the same quiz directly on my Blog. You can comment on it, and we'll trust you to tell us how many you got right.
Who said it?
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: The only proof
he needed for the existence of God was music."
John Lennon
Kurt Vonnegut
Pete Townshend (The Who)
Stephen Colbert
Kurt Vonnegut, in A Man without a Country, Kurt Vonnegut, 2005, p. 66
"I don't profess to be a practicing Christian although I think Christ was
what he was and anybody who says something great about Him, I believe."
Elvis Presley
Bono (U2)
Elton John
John Lennon
John Lennon, quoted in The Gospel According to the Beatles, by Steve Turner, p. 37
"The background of our music is a spiritual-blues thing... we're making our
music into electric church music - a new kind of Bible you carry in your
hearts, one that will give you a physical feeling. We try to make our music so
loose and hard-hitting so it hits your soul hard enough to make it open.
[Rock] is more than music, it's like church, like a foundation for the lost or
potentially lost... we're trying to save the kids, to create a buffer between
young and old. Our music is shock therapy to make them realize a little more
of what their goals should be. We want them to realize that our music is just
as spiritual as going to church. The soul must rule, not money or drugs. You
should rule yourself and give God a chance..."
Bob Dylan
Sly Stone
Jimi Hendrix
Carlos Santana
Jimi Hendrix, quoted in Crosstown Traffic, by Charles Shaar Murray, p. 161
"My first love would be spiritual music."
Michael W. Smith
Elvis Presley
George Harrison
Billy Preston
Elvis Presley, quoted in Hungry for Heaven, Steve Turner, p. 17
"Music has always been religious. Music is a passion and a vehicle for the
understanding of why we are here. It's a remembering of the past and of
ritual."
Jon Anderson (Yes)
Carlos Santana
Timothy Leary
Twila Paris
Jon Anderson, quoted in Hungry for Heaven, Steve Turner, p. 114
"I think art can lead you to God. I think that's the purpose of everything.
If it's not doing that, what's it doing? It's leading you the other way. It's
certainly not leading you nowhere."
Bob Dylan
T-Bone Burnett
Ian McCulloch (Echo & the Bunnymen)
Johnny Cash
Bob Dylan, quoted in Hungry for Heaven, Steve Turner, p. 159
"Christianity has survived Christians for over two thousand years now,
which from my point of view is evidence that maybe something is going on
there."
Bob Dylan
T-Bone Burnett
Bono (U2)
Tim Robbins
T-Bone Burnett, quoted in Hungry for Heaven, Steve Turner, p. 159
"Everything else can wait, but the search for God cannot wait."
Bono (U2)
George Harrison
Rick Warren
Carlos Santana
George Harrison, quoted in The Gospel According to the Beatles, by Steve Turner, p. 173
"Here I was, a young man, and suddenly my dream came true, which was to
become a successful musician. Actually, successful far beyond my expectations.
You hand a young guy everything this world says is success and what is
supposed to be fulfilling. We were very well off financially; we had our pick
of the girls; we had Porsches, yachts, and all that kind of stuff. Then you
find that that’s really not it."
Kerry Livgren (Kansas)
Mac Powell (Third Day)
Pete Townshend (The Who)
John Lennon
Kerry Livgren, quoted in ModernGuitars magazine, July 26 2006.
"The more I would try to sing about the universe destroying me, the
universe being dark and mysterious, the more I sounded like I was worth
listening to. It's strange. It's like, the guy who'll get up there in front of
people and not be afraid of humiliation is the most powerful guy in the room.
The more insignificant I thought I was, the more significant I think I
sounded. The more I admitted I was helpless, the more powerful I became."
Mac Powell (Third Day)
Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips)
Jon Anderson (Yes)
Chris Martin (Coldplay)
Wayne Coyne, quoted in Rolling Stone, July 13, 2006.
