U2 returned to Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin on Friday, exactly 50 years after drummer Larry Mullen Jr. pinned a handwritten note on the school noticeboard in September 1976 seeking musicians to form a band.

Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Mullen performed a career-spanning set in the schoolyard for approximately 1,000 students and staff, at the same spot where the band first played together.

The set included "I Will Follow", "Vertigo", "Beautiful Day", "Out of Control" — their debut single — "With or Without You", and "One" accompanied by 32 young string musicians from Music Generation, one representing each county on the island of Ireland.

The band debuted "Silencio", the lead single from their newly announced 16th studio album "Carnaval De Luz", due out 13 November via Island Records. Produced by Jacknife Lee, it is the band's first album of new material in nine years.

Later that evening, U2 gave a surprise performance from the balcony of Bewley's on Grafton Street in Dublin, drawing thousands of fans. The homecoming sets up a busy autumn for the band as the album release approaches.