

The track order was determined by a listener poll on Dave Fanning's radio show. It has been reissued four times since then, but it remains a hard item to track down and wasn't released on CD until 2008 as part of the bonus disc with the reissue of Boy, U2's first album. Three was produced as a 12 inch and subsequently a 7 inch, with an initial run of 1,000 individually numbered copies.

Three, also known as U2 3, is the first release by Irish rock band U2, a three-song EP recorded and released in 1979. " The Saints Are Coming" (ft.Original sound recording made by CBS Inc.ĬBS Records are the exclusive licensees for the UK & Eire." Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own"." Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of"." Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me"." I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".^ 'Kevin Cummins, Britain's Bands in Pictures', B.B.C.^ 'It was the Summer of '79, when the Heat was felt by McGuiness', by Declan Lynch.^ Entry in 'U2 ' website (2018) for the gig at Dublin Stadium, 26 February 1980, with setlist.The band were deeply affected by his death as they felt that it was a senseless waste of human life." A Day Without Me was based, loosely, on the death of Ian Curtis. ^ Letter from Island Records Press Officer Neil Storey, dated 16 October 1980, for sale on eBay 2 March 2018: ".^ Bono addressing the audience before the song's performance, Dublin Stadium, 26 February 1980.It has only been played once since the end of that tour, at an early date of the October Tour on 31 August 1981 ( ). "Things to Make and Do" was the only instrumental played live by U2 until the U2 360° Tour ("Return of the Stingray Guitar"), and it regularly followed " The Electric Co." on the Boy Tour. A live performance of the song from Red Rocks Amphitheatre appears on the concert film U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky. Since then, neither song has been played live, although snippets of "A Day Without Me" have been played on rare occasions. The two songs were linked by a drum segue leading from the end of "I Threw a Brick Through a Window" into "A Day Without Me", and this pairing lasted until April 1985 ( 1985-04). It did not appear on the October Tour until November 1981 ( 1981-11), when it was paired with "I Threw a Brick Through a Window", a song from the newly released October album. On the Boy Tour, it did not have a firmly defined set list position, initially appearing in the main set before moving to the encore. "A Day Without Me" was played live during the first half of the 1980s. The image echoes the Joy Division photoshoot on the Epping Walk Bridge in Hulme, Manchester, that featured in an article of New Musical Express in January 1979. The image on the single's cover, photographed by Susan Byrne, is of a footbridge at Booterstown railway station in South Dublin. The B-side is an instrumental song called "Things to Make and Do." The single release was produced by Steve Lillywhite, and was the first time that he recorded with U2. However, this information was erroneous as the band performed the song in Dublin in February 1980, musically and lyrically unaltered from its release format, a few months before Curtis's death.

Īt the time of the single's release, an Island Records press officer was notifying enquirers who were corresponding with the record label about the band that the song's lyrics were written about the death of Ian Curtis, the frontman/vocalist of the band Joy Division.

The song's lyrics refer to the removal of someone from their habitual social circle, and reflecting on what the world would be like without their presence.
