Initial releases included cassette and 12-inch vinyl formats. The album was released on Octoin a variety of formats. On the cassette in some regions, the same castle is seen in the background from almost the same angle, yet now the band are seen in the foreground of the image all looking to the left. The version used on the vinyl and CD features the castle in the background with members of the band seen in front of the castle in the distance. There are two widely used covers which are used for the album. After seeing the suggestions, Paul McGuinness immediately reached out to Averill to design the cover instead using the photographs by Corbijn as a starting point. The story has been told that the band met with an art director at Island Records contemplating using their services for the design of the cover. The cover of “The Unforgettable Fire” was designed by Steve Averill, who had worked on all of the previous album covers. The castle shown on the back cover and the label of the release was Carrigogunnell Castle, located near the village of Clarina. The front cover shows Moydrum Castle, just outside of Athlone. After the album recording was finished, the band travelled through Ireland with photographer Anton Corbijn over a couple of days looking for photo opportunities. The album was released just eight weeks later on Octoin Europe, and the following day in North America. Recording finished at Windmill on August 5th, 1984. The band struggled to finish up songs in the studio, and some songs today still sound incomplete. On June 6th, after a month of work in the castle the band and Eno and Lanois would return to the studio at Windmill Lane to continue work on the album. The 30-minute program was also released in 1985 on VHS as “The Unforgettable Fire Collection” along with videos from the album. The recording sessions at the Castle were filmed by Barry Devlin for an eventual documentary that aired on RTÉ-TV about the recording sessions. The band and crew, and producers all stayed in the castle, and recording took place around the clock when inspiration hit. Bono entered these sessions having composed a number of songs including “Pride (In the Name of Love)”, “The Unforgettable Fire” and “A Sort of Homecoming”. Slane Castle is located in the town of Slane and has been the family home for the Conyngham family since the 18th Century. The band took up residence in the castle until June 5th to work on ideas, and to start roughing out material for the album. It was that the band started to record at Slane Castle. The title of the album, “The Unforgettable Fire” is a reference to an art exhibit about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima Japan during World War II, that the band had seen while on the War tour. Conny Plank, who had produced Kraftwerk, had also been considered but ruled out as a producer. The band continued to request his services, and he finally said yes, revealing later that he planned to have his partner, Danny Lanois do most of the work on the release. Eno had been approached in 1983 about working with the band, when they were seeking a producer for the “War” album, but he turned down the invitation. In April of 1984, U2 announced that Brian Eno would be producing the album instead. After doing three albums with U2, Lillywhite was adamant that he was not producing a fourth U2 album. “The Unforgettable Fire” was the fourth studio album released by U2.
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