U2's first television appearance as "The Hype"

U2's first television appearance occurred on March 2, 1978, on RTÉ's youth program "Youngline". At this time, the band was still known as "The Hype" and had not yet adopted their iconic name U2. This debut television performance took place just a few weeks before the band would participate in a talent contest in Limerick where they would officially change their name to U2.

During their first television appearance, the band performed an original song called "Street Missions". The performance featured only four members, as Dik Evans (The Edge's brother who was still technically part of the band) was unavailable due to his engineering studies. The lineup included: Bono (Paul Hewson), The Edge (David Evans), Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr.

Larry Mullen Jr. later described the experience in "U2 by U2": "It was like being brought into the cockpit of a plane, having never been in a TV studio before, it was much smaller than I thought it would be. It was white, with lights hanging from the ceiling. There was no audience…We couldn't believe we were going to be on TV."