{"id":687748,"date":"2026-07-12T14:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T14:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/687748\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T14:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T14:27:11","slug":"the-1987-song-that-shaped-noel-gallagher-into-an-icon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/687748\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1987 song that shaped Noel Gallagher into an icon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Noel<\/p>\n

Credit: Harriet K Bols \/ Big Brother Recordings<\/p>\n

Sun 12 July 2026 12:00, UK <\/p>\n

Whatever you may personally feel about U2\u2019s music, just know that Noel Gallagher<\/a> is among those who recognise their artistry and has come to their defence. <\/p>\n

Not that U2 need ardent defenders, necessarily; their success and resonance over the decades speak for themselves. Yet, where Gallagher has become known for his blatant sharing of his opinions<\/a> on musicians of the past and present, his love for the band has remained constant, dating back to his youth. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t get it,\u201d he once asserted of U2\u2019s discography, \u201cmore fool you\u201d.<\/p>\n

Gallagher even once named the opener to their 1987 album The Joshua Tree, \u2018Where The Streets Have No Name\u2019, as a personal favourite, explaining, \u201cWhen they play it live, [it] still remains one of the greatest moments in rock. The video is amazing; they\u2019re amazing\u201d. <\/p>\n

The music video in question opens with a snippet of another single from The Joshua Tree, \u2018Bullet the Blue Sky\u2019, before voiceovers from radio DJs announce that the band will be filming a video on the rooftop of a liquor store in downtown Los Angeles. Filmed in March 1987, the concept was an homage to The Beatles\u2019 final rooftop concert<\/a>, and shows U2 performing for thousands amidst the police attempting to intervene and eventually shut down the concert. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe objective was to close down the streets,\u201d bassist Adam Clayton later explained to Q magazine in 2010, \u201cIf there\u2019s one thing people in LA hate, it\u2019s streets closing down, and we\u2019ve always felt bands should shake things up. We achieved it because the police stopped us filming. Were we worried about being arrested? Not at the time\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Where The Streets Have No Name\u2019 finds its lyrics from a story about Belfast, Northern Ireland, that Bono once heard, which talked about how what street someone lives on can indicate their religion and income. \u201cI was just trying to sketch a location,\u201d Bono explained to Propaganda 5 in 1987, \u201cMaybe a spiritual location, maybe a romantic location. I was trying to sketch a feeling\u201d. That feeling, then, became one of escape, running to an imagined place where rules and conventions are nonexistent.<\/p>\n

Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n

With Gallagher later becoming one of rock\u2019s most celebrated songwriters, his work, arguably, would not have taken shape in quite the same way if not for Bono\u2019s own songwriting, a catalogue that influenced Gallagher long before the two musicians became personal friends. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I like about U2 is, at the end of The Joshua Tree, they kind of threw it all up in the air, and they came up with the album Achtung Baby<\/a>,\u201d Gallagher continued, referring to U2\u2019s 1991 album.\u00a0\u201cI remember queueing up to buy Achtung Baby the day it came out, outside Our Price Records in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester,\u201d he shared, \u201cAnd when I got it home to play it, I couldn\u2019t believe, I genuinely couldn\u2019t believe, how good it was\u201d, naming \u2018Mysterious Ways\u2019 as \u201ca song that I love to play at home on the acoustic guitar, sometimes\u201d.<\/p>\n

After Achtung Baby\u2019s release, U2 reached yet another level of unprecedented success, diverging into a more experimental side of themselves that paved the way for what they would create throughout the 1990s. As Gallagher surmised, \u201cThese are some of the legends of our time\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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