#106 U2 (+ Rattle and Hum 12-card set)

It's U2 revisited here at #106, just a few posts after we last saw them at card #101. This shot looks like it could be a candid of them sketching out a song at soundcheck or something, maybe something from the Rattle & Hum era. I bet there are U2 superfans out there who could identify the date of the photograph. I'm just glad all four guys fit into frame without much squeezing.

U2 - "Desire"

The band will later return once more in the UK edition, with 4 cards there, 3 of which feature different photos than we got in the US. This black and white shot at #106 is the lone "US exclusive" of the bunch.

I recently watched Bono: Stories of Surrender, a film of Bono's stage show based on his memoir. It touches on his upbringing and how the band formed and that kind of stuff, along with stripped-down performances of a few U2 songs without the other guys.

trailer

Other than that, I don't have much to mention in addition to our previous U2 post. But hey, I've got a 12-card U2 set that I could feature, so let's do that.

Glossy fronts, rounded corners, minimal design elements.. reminiscent of Mothers cards we baseball card collectors are familiar with, but a bit bigger.

Best I can recall, I got this set a few years back in an eBay lot where I was primarily interested in the other part of the lot (MusiCards promos or something? I can't remember), but the oddball U2 set was a nice bonus. I assumed it was something common, but now I'm having trouble finding it on TCDB, or even finding other examples on eBay or COMC.

MusiCard for scale. The backs are identical besides the x/12 numbering up top, all featuring a 1990 calendar in Portuguese, with "U2 Rattle and Hum" at the bottom. So my best guess puts this as a late 1989 promotional release for the Rattle and Hum film/album, specifically for Brazil or Portugal. Or maybe this was a Broder-type unofficial thing? (No copyright is sus.) Weird. Welp, feel free to speak up in the comments if you can shed any light on these Portuguese Rattle & Hum cards, or whatever else you'd like to comment about.

Ha, I was listening to the new Haim album as I was drafting this, and it was a trip when the closing song "Now it's time" came on, as it borrows heavily from U2's "Numb".

Haim - "Now it's time"