10 Music Bands Who Had An Extra Member You Never Knew About

7. U2 – Dick Evans (Guitar, 1976–78)

U2 once had five members in their ensemble.

Originally known as ‘Feedback’ and later as ‘The Hype’, guitarist The Edge’s brother Dick Evans also played guitar in the beginning of U2’s history. In March 1978 they changed their name again to U2 (to come across as ambiguous and open to interpretation for fans) and won a talent show in Limerick, Ireland for £500 and studio time to record a demo. Notably missing from the show though was Dick. He’d lost enthusiasm for the band and had started skipping rehearsals.

Dick was older than the rest of the band and was starting to feel out of place as they were leaning towards becoming the four-piece they’re known for being now. Dick quit the band a few days after the contest. He later said, “They became very intense about it and I wasn’t; it was almost a generation-gap type of gulf between us. I just didn’t fit in. I never at any stage thought, ‘Yeah, I want to be in a band and that’s all.’”

So Dick was out. He’d go on to attain his computer science degree and followed it up with an engineering doctorate whilst Bono and the other lads over the next 40 years went on to record ‘The Joshua Tree’, sell more than 150 million records worldwide and became one of the biggest bands in music history.