U 2 MAN & BOY

The story behind an iconic album sleeve By Peter Robinson

To millions of people around the world, Peter Rowen will always be the child whose mournful face stares out of the covers of four releases by rock giants U2. Now, 30 years since Peter became the iconic image of the band’s debut album, Boy, he is a 35- year-old father-of-one who’s about to get married for the second time. Appropriately, he is a successful photographer.

But such is the fascination for all things U2- related that, although Peter has kept a low-profile in the intervening decades, he still attracts attention to this day.

“After I photographed a wedding last year, the bride said to me ‘Someone told us you were the kid on the U2 records… this is incredible… my husband is a huge fan!’ On another occasion a girl said ‘Do you know that the boy on the U2 record sleeves has the same name as you?’

“It does come up all the time. I’ve received emails from people who have been a bit stalker-like and weird and haven’t left me alone. Not long ago a 15- year old girl from Japan wrote saying ‘I think you’re a very cute boy’ and so forth. But I don’t take any of it too seriously.”

Having said that, Peter adds: “When I first found out, only a few years ago, that I was the only person ever to …

by Peter Robinson
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