David Howell Evans was born at the Barking Maternity Hospital, in the county of Essex in England, on 8 August 1961. He is the second child of Welsh parents Garvin and Gwenda Evans, who originated in Llanelli, a coastal town in South Wales. Garvin was an engineer who worked for the local electricity board, and then took a job with the electronics company Plessey. The Edge has an elder brother Richard (often called Dik) and a younger sister called Gillian.

Whilst the Evans brothers were at Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin in 1976, they went along to a meeting in response to an advert posted by another pupil, Larry Mullen Jr., on the school's noticeboard seeking musicians to form a new band with him. Among the several other pupils who also responded to the note were Paul Hewson and Adam Clayton. The band went through a number of reformations before becoming known as U2 in March 1978 (Richard Evans having left before this to join another band, leaving his younger brother as the lead guitarist).  Early in the band's career, Evans was given the name 'The Edge' by Bono. According to fan site atU2.com, "The nickname was inspired in the beginning by the sharp features of his face, but it also applied to his sharp mind and the way he always observed things from the edge." However, the origin of the name is disputed and other theories include a description of his guitar playing and his preference for not becoming fully involved and therefore remaining on the edge of things.  U2 began its public performance life in small venues in Dublin in 1977, occasionally playing at other venues elsewhere in Ireland. In December 1979 they performed their first concerts outside Ireland, in London, and in 1980 began extensive touring across the British Isles, developing a following. Their debut album Boy was released in 1980.  In 1981, leading up to the October Tour, Evans came very close to leaving U2 for religious reasons, but he decided to stay. During this period he became involved with a group called Shalom Tigers, in which bandmates Bono and Larry Mullen Jr. were also involved. Shortly after deciding to remain with the band, he wrote a piece of music that later became "Sunday Bloody Sunday".

Answer the following question by taking a quote from the article: What reformations were made?