How MAB got U2 to U of C

The December issue’s notice regarding MAB (“Major Activities Board lures MTV to campus”) brought back a few pleasant memories. In the article, MAB president Kelly Snow lamented current budget constraints, venturing, “Way back in the day, we had U2. Now it’s ten, 15 times our budget.”

I was fortunate enough to be a member of MAB “back in the day” (circa 1981), when we indeed did bring U2 to campus for a concert. Our ability to do so was a matter of timing.

The agency handling the then-unknown group was eager to book the show--money was not the issue; they were primarily looking to build a fan-base. In contrast, the board members’ major concern, as we sat and listened to our promotional copy of the band’s first album, was whether such “unusual” music would be right for a U of C crowd.

We held the show in the International House auditorium, and the $1 admission fee entitled attendees to all the beer (Augsberger, as I recall) they could drink. At the end of the evening we paid the band in cash...the princely sum of $1,500, virtually all of it in $1 bills.

I still have that promotional album, signed by all the band members before they departed Hyde Park for rock’s pantheon.

Paul L. Sandberg, MBA’82, JD’82
Los Angeles