Gloria
U2
U2’s 2021 Black Friday Record Store Day release Gloria (40th Anniversary) is a limited‑edition 12‑inch EP celebrating forty years of the single “Gloria,” originally issued in October 1981 as the second single from their album October. Pressed on transparent “sun yellow” 180‑gram vinyl and cut at 45 rpm, the EP is packaged in a full‑colour, high‑gloss gatefold sleeve and includes a large 60×60 cm poster of live photographs spanning the band’s career. It was available exclusively through participating independent record stores on Record Store Day Black Friday, November 26, 2021, with around 7,000 copies designated for the U.S. market and additional stock distributed worldwide.
The release is structured to show how “Gloria” has lived onstage across four decades. Side A pairs the original studio version—an urgent, faith‑soaked post‑punk opener from October—with a live rendition from U2’s LoveTown Tour at Dublin’s Point Depot on December 31, 1989, performed just after midnight as the band crossed into the 1990s. Side B features two previously unreleased recordings: “Gloria” from the Vertigo Tour at Boston’s FleetCenter on May 26, 2005, and from the iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour at London’s O2 Arena on October 29, 2015. Together, these four tracks trace the song’s evolution from its Latin‑chorus, declarative spiritual anthem origins to a durable live staple that Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. have continually reshaped, making the EP a compact, collector‑oriented chronicle of one of U2’s most enduring early songs.
Gloria
U2
U2’s 2021 Black Friday Record Store Day release Gloria (40th Anniversary) is a limited‑edition 12‑inch EP celebrating forty years of the single “Gloria,” originally issued in October 1981 as the second single from their album October. Pressed on transparent “sun yellow” 180‑gram vinyl and cut at 45 rpm, the EP is packaged in a full‑colour, high‑gloss gatefold sleeve and includes a large 60×60 cm poster of live photographs spanning the band’s career. It was available exclusively through participating independent record stores on Record Store Day Black Friday, November 26, 2021, with around 7,000 copies designated for the U.S. market and additional stock distributed worldwide.
The release is structured to show how “Gloria” has lived onstage across four decades. Side A pairs the original studio version—an urgent, faith‑soaked post‑punk opener from October—with a live rendition from U2’s LoveTown Tour at Dublin’s Point Depot on December 31, 1989, performed just after midnight as the band crossed into the 1990s. Side B features two previously unreleased recordings: “Gloria” from the Vertigo Tour at Boston’s FleetCenter on May 26, 2005, and from the iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour at London’s O2 Arena on October 29, 2015. Together, these four tracks trace the song’s evolution from its Latin‑chorus, declarative spiritual anthem origins to a durable live staple that Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. have continually reshaped, making the EP a compact, collector‑oriented chronicle of one of U2’s most enduring early songs.