U2 Returns to Dublin School Where It All Began, 50 Years On

U2 went back to school on Friday, returning to the Dublin institution where the band took shape half a century ago to play a surprise set for hundreds of students.

The Irish group performed seven songs in the schoolyard of Mount Temple Comprehensive School, closing with an encore of "With or Without You." The 30-minute gig drew not only pupils — some leaning out of classroom windows — but also a crowd that caught word of the event, including a construction crew working several floors up a nearby building with a bird's-eye view of the proceedings.

"We escaped the lab — how's the experiment going for you?" frontman Bono joked, gesturing toward the science classrooms.

The band's origins trace to the school five decades ago, when 14-year-old Larry Mullen pinned a notice to a message board reading: "Drummer seeks musicians to form band." The early lineup, first called Feedback, brought together singer Paul Hewson (now Bono), guitarist David Evans (The Edge), bassist Adam Clayton and Mullen. The name U2 came a couple of years later, and their debut album, "Boy," arrived in 1980, featuring "I Will Follow" — the first song they played for the cheering students on Friday.

The event was less secret than it appeared: a camera crew filmed the performance, international media were present, and 32 students joined the band on stringed instruments for the hit "One." It formed part of a promotional push for U2's new album, "Carnaval De Luz," which includes a duet between Bono and Dolly Parton, who died of cancer last month.

Students screamed, cheered, recorded the moment on their phones and sang along, with some shouting, "I love you Bono!" Bono thanked the audience while noting they had "nowhere else to go."

Introducing "Vertigo" with its signature count-in — "uno, dos, tres, catorce" — he quipped: "If you're taking Spanish lessons, don't take them from me."

Reflecting on his school days, Bono paid tribute to teachers, describing the school as the place where the band learned its "humblest and hardest lesson" — how much they still needed to be taught.

"Part of that started here and the sense was that maybe all we needed was around us, just under our feet — if we could see it in our mates, our wider community that was going to help us get through the next 50 years," he said. "So we want to thank them — and the wider community around this rock 'n' roll high school."