50th Anniversaries and When I’ll Hit Them

I read an article in the Irish version of The Times about the band U2 being together for 50 years now, dating back to their first gathering as a group in drummer Larry Mullen’s kitchen, on September 25, 1976. They were literal kids then — all of them still in school — and years away from releasing their first recordings, much less becoming the globe-spanning rock icons they would eventually become, and certainly the biggest rock group Ireland ever produced. But all things have to start somewhere, and all the principals of U2 seem to agree that September 25, 1976 is where the band begins. Good for U2, by the way; I’m a fan of the band, so I’m glad they’ve stuck it out as a group. It’s rare to have a rock group of any sort keep all the same members all the way through their run. And they all apparently still mostly like each other! Which is even better. Well done, lads. The band marking 50 years as a band got me thinking of anniversaries of my own, in terms of my own career, and whether…