When U2 found what they were looking for

As Bono and co get ready to revisit The Joshua Tree, Ed Power looks back on a classic album that really has stood the test of time

THEY were chilled to the marrow, which is why they all seemed so miserable. “It was freezing and we had to take our coats off so it would at least look like a desert,” reminisced Bono later. “That’s one of the reasons we look so grim.”

He was referring to the iconic cover shot of The Joshua Tree album, in which U2’s singer gazes into the distance and Larry Mullen Jr faces the camera and scowls as though trapped on the worst holiday ever.