Born on 8 August: David Howell Evans, alias The Edge, guitarist with U2

He was born in 1961 in Barking (London) to Welsh parents, but like his U2 mates, The Edge became Irish at heart.

The birth of the most popular quartet ever to emerge from Dublin was a logical consequence of the times. Four teenagers living in the same neighbourhood and sharing a common passion decided to form a band.

In this case, The Edge responded to an advert posted by drummer Larry Mullen Jr on the door of the very Catholic Mount Temple Comprehensive School. It was on the benches of this school that the four boys of U2 spent their youth. At the age of 12, Paul 'Bono' Henson also met his wife Alison Stewart there. It was also here that the band found graphic designer Steve Averill, who would go on to design their album covers.

The Edge mostly plays a few fairly classic guitars: a Fender Stratocaster, a Gibson Explorer and a Les Paul of the same brand. But he doesn't neglect acoustic guitars. The distinctive sounds he's been honing for years come from digital reverbs, modulations, filters and delays, which he uses in abundance. Instead of the solos so dear to his peers, he prefers sound research and melodic rhythms, which he brings to fruition in the most beautiful way on the 1987 album "The Joshua Tree", with tracks like "With Or Without You", "Mothers Of The Disappeared" and the haunting four-note intro to "Where The Streets Have No Name".

Although he sometimes performed alongside Johnny Cash, Ron Wood, Tina Turner or B.B. King, The Edge was never really tempted by solo adventures. Although he did write the music for the American animated series "The Batman" in the mid-2000s. He did, of course, take part in the "UV Achtung Baby" residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas in 2023 and 2024. He is best remembered for his rendition of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" with Bono in March 2022 in the corridors of the Kyiv metro (Ukraine) as Russian bombs continued to rain down on the country.

And, even more surprisingly, The Edge, who is discreet on the subject but is an avowed churchgoer, played a few notes under Michelangelo's frescoes in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel in September 2015 during a symposium on cancer.

Photo: The Edge with U2 for the presentation of the album "The Joshua Tree" at Zaventem airport (Belgium), 8 July 1987 (© Etienne Tordoir)