Released 18 August 1980 Genre Rock, post-punk Label Columbia / Island | Format 7" vinyl Length 3:12 Writer(s) U2 | |
"A Day Without Me" is a song by Irish rock band U2, and was released as the lead single from their debut album, Boy, in August 1980. It was the second single the band recorded after signing their contract with Island Records.
Contents
Production
The single release was produced by Steve Lillywhite, and was the first time that he recorded with U2.
The B-side is an instrumental song called "Things to Make and Do."
Cover art
The image on the single's cover, photographed by Susan Byrne, is of a footbridge at Booterstown railway station in South Dublin. On the single's release in England the bridge in the cover art photograph was mistaken in quarters of the musical press as being the Epping Walk Bridge in Hulme, Manchester, which had been used in an iconic photo-shoot of the English band Joy Division, taken by photographer Kevin Cummins for an article in the New Musical Express in January 1979.
Live performances
"A Day Without Me" was played live during the first half of the 1980s. 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. 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. 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). Since then, neither song has been played live, although "A Day Without Me" has been snippeted on rare occasions. 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.
"Things to Make and Do" was the only instrumental ever 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. It has only been played once since the end of that tour, at an early date of the October Tour on 31 August 1981 (1981-08-31).