Remembering The Beginning

01 May 2002
'When we started out,' recalled Adam at the weekend, 'Hot Press was the only place you could get information.'

Speaking at the 25th anniversary awards in Belfast, at which U2 won BestLive Performance and Best Band, Adam recalled that in U2's earliest days,'There were a lot of young writers and people that really cared about music.Dave Fanning was just starting out at pirate radio and it was the verybeginning of this thing of Irish music where people wrote their own songsand performed them as themselves rather than somebody else.

'Bill Graham was a writer at Hot Press. He was a visionary who introduced usto our manager, Paul McGuinness, and I think the dream of everybody whoworked at Hot Press then was one day there would be a room full of talent asvaried and successful as everyone here.

Thank you all very, very much. It's great to be here among such greatcompany. Thank you Hot Press.'

In summing up the awards, Hot Press's own report acknowledges that U2 willbe facing more and more competition for prizes as 'there's moreheavy-hitters waiting in the wings.'

'U2 are no longer Irish music's only option... The fact that Ireland'sbiggest musical export didn't emerge victorious in every section in whichthey were nominated speaks volumes about how the standard and range of Irishmusic has both excelled and broadened in scope in recent years.'

More from Hot Press on their big night at www.hotpress.com

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