U2, Taste and Thin Lizzy are among the artists featured in new music documentary The Irish Rock Story: A Tale of Two Cities.
The co-production between BBC Northern Ireland, BBC Four and RTÉ will air on Monday, March 23, highlighting the 40-year cultural revolution of both Belfast and Dublin’s music scenes.
The programme’s producer Mike Connolly claims the mid-1990s felt like a suitable point to stop when recalling the history of Irish rock.
"The opportunity to tell the history of Irish Rock in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in one hour is a daunting task and there are lots of stories you can tell," he said.
"The danger is that it ends up as a list of players and you have got to bind it together."
He added: "My target was to tell the 40-year history of Irish rock music up to the point where U2 were the biggest band in the world, it has a global profile then and can go wherever it wants after that.
"It is about the creation of Irish rock, from Van Morrison all the way through to U2 and Sinead O'Connor, as well as the transformation of Ireland, north and south, and the role it had in that."
In the documentary O'Connor, Thin Lizzy's Eric Bell, Bob Geldof and former Guns N' Roses lead guitarist Slash contribute their tales to chart the legacy of Ireland’s music scene.
The Irish Rock Story: A Tale of Two Cities will be broadcast on BBC One Northern Ireland on Monday, 23 March at 9pm and will also be available on BBC iPlayer
