October

After the third leg of the Boy Tour in February 1981 the band began writing new songs, partly during an extended sound check at First Avenue in Minneapolis. Fire had already been recorded at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas during a break in the tour. In March, in Portland, Oregon, Bono's briefcase of unfinished lyrics was lost backstage. A two-month session at Windmill Lane began in July with the band largely unprepared, and Bono improvised lyrics at the microphone. Lillywhite called the sessions completely chaotic and mad. The briefcase was recovered in October 2004, and Bono called its return an act of grace.

Lillywhite moved Mullen's drums out of the reception stairwell used for Boy and into the studio itself, a change he later said did not work so well. The Edge added piano to I Fall Down, Stranger in a Strange Land, Scarlet and the title song. Tomorrow, a lament for Bono's mother, features uilleann pipes played by Vinnie Kilduff, later of In Tua Nua. Gloria has a Latin chorus, and Is That All? borrows its riff from Cry, an older song the band used as an introduction to The Electric Co. on stage.

Shalom and the near breakup

Bono, the Edge and Mullen belonged to the Shalom Fellowship, a Charismatic Christian group in Dublin, and its meetings sometimes took priority over the sessions. Clayton was not a member and felt alienated. Mullen left Shalom first. The Edge told Bono privately that he wanted to leave U2, and Bono said he did not want to be in a band without him. Paul McGuinness replied that the band had booked a crew and made commitments for the October Tour and was obliged to follow through. Both stayed and later withdrew from Shalom.

Sleeve, release and reception

Bono conceived the title before the song October was written. The cover photograph by Ian Finlay was taken at Grand Canal Dock near Hanover Quay, close to the studio, and the sleeve designer Steve Averill drew on the look of Russian revolutionary posters. Island disliked the cover and the band later regretted it. Fire was released as a single in July 1981 and Gloria in October. The Gloria video, directed by Meiert Avis in the Canal Basin in Dublin, was the first U2 video played on MTV.

Reviews were more mixed than for Boy. Dave McCullough of Sounds wrote that this October would last forever, while Barney Hoskyns of the NME was negative. Jon Pareles of Rolling Stone praised the Edge's guitar, drenched in echo and glory, but found Bono's lyrics silly and clichéd. Neil McCormick of Hot Press called it a musical and spiritual growth. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic later judged that the band tried too hard to move forward. During the October Tour of 1981 and 1982 the band met the photographer Anton Corbijn, and in March 1982 they played 14 dates as support to the J. Geils Band. A remastered edition appeared on 21 July 2008 in standard, deluxe and vinyl formats, with liner notes by Neil McCormick.