Written by Brian O’Connell, it is available on pre-sale in hardback, from the Hot Press online shop, now…Hot Press has announced the publication of Becoming U2 by Brian O’Connell. The competition took place in Limerick, on March 18, 1978 – and U2 took home the first prize of £500, plus the opportunity to test for a recording contract. And yet very little was known – or has been written – about it," Brian O’Connell says. Brian O’Connell has identified and spoken to the key participants in the band competition that launched U2. In Becoming U2, Brian O’Connell also charts what happened to the best of those musicians in the aftermath – and discovers what they are up to almost 50 years later.