Book Soup Event for I Go There With You: The U2 Sites of Southern California (US Festival Chapter)

Описание: Author event at Book Soup in Hollywood, CA on January 18, 2026. Author Brook W. Flagg presented her new book, I Go There With You: The U2 Sites of Southern California, from Significant to Sacred, a comprehensive storytelling of the deep, powerful connection between Southern California and the band U2, formed over almost 50 years as its four members journeyed from innocence to experience. This portion of the discussion focused on U2's performance at the 1983 US Festival, the first American festival of the band's career. The event was at max capacity with 35 to 40 U2 fans in attendance, including the two LA-based co-hosts of the Into the Heart of U2 Podcast, Bill See and Melody Muraca, who participated in the event by retelling the band's "turning point" show at the LA Sports Arena in June 1983.

The book is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G246SK22

Book Description: U2 is a band from the north side of Dublin that became a global phenomenon—and while its four members have traveled the world over for almost fifty years, some of the most critical points on their journey have been in Southern California. The Joshua Tree is the best-known example of U2’s artistic immersion in the Golden State, but the band began drawing inspiration from California’s landscape as early as 1981 during their first arrival in the U.S. for the Boy tour.

From deserts to beaches to urban streets, Southern California features dozens of sites that are both sacred and significant to U2 history. For the first time, these sites are documented and categorized in a single resource to inform and support the Southern California pilgrimages of U2 fans. I Go There With You provides the information U2 fans need before embarking on such a quest, whether individually or in groups. Each site has a story, and this book tells those stories—along with must-have details for trips that require extra planning and foresight.

In addition to essential information on each site’s place in U2 history, author Brook W. Flagg aims to inspire U2’s most devoted followers with anecdotes and scrapbooked images. Just as Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. traveled through Southern California along the road from innocence to experience, their fans can find catharsis and healing by going into the mystic portals of the past—places where, over the decades, U2 found pieces of what they were looking for.