The Edge

The delay-drenched sound painter behind U2's soaring anthems

David Howell Evans, known to the world as The Edge, was born in Barking, Essex, to Welsh parents, and moved with his family to Dublin as a young child. In 1976, while a student at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, he answered a notice posted by drummer Larry Mullen Jr. seeking musicians. Along with his older brother Dik, Paul Hewson, soon known as Bono, and bassist Adam Clayton, he began playing in the band that would become U2. Dik soon left, and the remaining four have stayed together ever since.

U2's debut album Boy arrived in 1980, followed by October and War, and The Edge quickly developed a distinctive approach, using echo units to turn simple parts into glittering, rhythmic cascades. The band's performance at Live Aid in 1985 and the atmospheric The Unforgettable Fire, produced with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, raised their profile further. The Joshua Tree in 1987 made them global superstars, with Where the Streets Have No Name and Bullet the Blue Sky showing his range from shimmering delay to snarling noise.

After Rattle and Hum, U2 reinvented themselves in Berlin with Achtung Baby in 1991, and The Edge embraced distortion, industrial textures and more aggressive riffing. The spectacular ZOO TV tour followed, along with experiments on Zooropa, where he sang lead on Numb, and Pop. The band returned to a cleaner, anthemic sound with All That You Can't Leave Behind and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, both multi-Grammy successes, and U2 entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.

In 2005 The Edge co-founded Music Rising to replace instruments lost by musicians in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and in 2008 he appeared alongside Jimmy Page and Jack White in the documentary It Might Get Loud. U2's 360 tour became one of the highest-grossing tours ever, and he co-wrote the music for the Broadway show Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark with Bono. In 2023 U2 opened the Sphere in Las Vegas with a residency built around Achtung Baby, a showcase for his inventive live sound design.

The 10 greatest The Edge solos

1. 1
   Bullet the Blue Sky

   U2 · solo by The Edge · 1987
2. 2
   Where the Streets Have No Name

   U2 · solo by The Edge · 1987
3. 3
   Love Is Blindness

   U2 · solo by The Edge · 1991
4. 4
   Until the End of the World

   U2 · solo by The Edge · 1991
5. 5
   The Fly

   U2 · solo by The Edge · 1991
6. 6
   Bad

   U2 · solo by The Edge · 1984
7. 7
   I Will Follow

   U2 · solo by The Edge · 1980
8. 8
   Pride (In the Name of Love)

   U2 · solo by The Edge · 1984
9. 9
   Even Better Than the Real Thing

   U2 · solo by The Edge · 1991
10. 10
    Vertigo

    U2 · solo by The Edge · 2004

The sound

The Edge is less a soloist than a sound architect. His trademark is rhythmic delay, typically set to a dotted-eighth-note timing so that each picked note echoes into a pulsing, cascading pattern far bigger than what his hands are playing. He favors spare, ringing voicings with open strings and harmonics, often avoiding the third of a chord to keep things open and ambiguous. Over the years he has built an enormous effects rig to sculpt textures, from chiming clean tones to fuzz, octave and ring-modulated noise, always in service of mood, space and the song's emotional lift.

• Gibson Explorer (guitar) A 1976 model bought in New York as a teenager, heard on many early U2 records.
• Fender Stratocaster (guitar) A long-time staple for chiming clean parts across U2's career.
• Gibson Les Paul (guitar) Prominent from the late 1980s and Achtung Baby era for thicker, dirtier tones.
• Infinite Guitar (guitar) A sustain prototype by Michael Brook, used for the endless notes on With or Without You.
• Vox AC30 (amp) The chiming, bright amplifier at the heart of his sound since the early years.
• Electro-Harmonix Memory Man (effect) The analog delay that helped him discover his echo-based style in the early days.
• Korg SDD-3000 (effect) A digital delay closely associated with his classic 1980s tone.

Covers

• Helter Skelter, originally by The Beatles A raw live opener that Bono famously framed as reclaiming the song.
• All Along the Watchtower, originally by Bob Dylan A spontaneous, loose live take with ringing, urgent guitar.
• Night and Day, originally by Cole Porter A moody, electronic-tinged reinvention that hinted at the Achtung Baby direction.
• Fortunate Son, originally by Creedence Clearwater Revival A gritty, straightforward rock treatment.
• Paint It Black, originally by The Rolling Stones A dark, atmospheric version with textured guitar.
• Everlasting Love, originally by Robert Knight A breezy, affectionate take on a 1960s soul-pop classic.

Timeline

• 1961 Born David Howell Evans in Barking, Essex
• 1976 Answers Larry Mullen Jr.'s notice at Mount Temple; U2 forms
• 1980 U2 release debut album Boy
• 1985 Performs with U2 at Live Aid
• 1987 The Joshua Tree makes U2 global superstars
• 1991 Achtung Baby reinvents the band's sound
• 2005 Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; co-founds Music Rising
• 2008 Appears in It Might Get Loud with Jimmy Page and Jack White
• 2009 U2 launch the record-breaking 360 tour
• 2023 U2 open the Sphere in Las Vegas

Facts

1. He was born in England to Welsh parents and raised in Dublin.
2. His older brother Dik Evans played in the earliest version of U2 and later joined the Virgin Prunes.
3. He sang lead vocals on the U2 song Numb.
4. His famous delay sound often uses a dotted-eighth-note repeat that makes simple parts sound complex.
5. He co-founded Music Rising to help musicians who lost instruments to Hurricane Katrina.
6. He appeared with Jimmy Page and Jack White in the 2008 documentary It Might Get Loud.
7. The sustained notes on With or Without You came from the Infinite Guitar prototype.
8. With Bono he co-wrote the music for the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.
9. He and Bono wrote the James Bond theme GoldenEye for Tina Turner.
10. U2 were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.