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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Since 1996 |
Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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U2
360 Tour, Wembley Stadium.
As for many people, my journey with U2 has been a personal one. It started on the Boy tour, when their talent was being talked about by word of mouth. A friend’s brother had recommended them, there were rumours in my regular Christian magazine that their singer had faith, and they had played a midweek gig at our local rock club, Friars Aylesbury, a couple of months beforehand, supporting Rory Gallagher (oh, how I wish I had seen that one!). Friars got them back to play their annual birthday party. It was only a 1,400 seater – not that there were any seats. I found myself a spot in the back corner and danced all night to songs I didn’t know. That was it. The journey began and has never stopped since – although it slowed down during the Pop era. They soon outgrew the local venue, but we would catch them at London’s Hammersmith Odeon. I remember walking out of one gig with “40” still ringing through my head, not talking to anyone, so that I could just keep that magic going deep inside. Then they grew again. On the 1988 Joshua Tree tour it was Wembley Stadium. While I remember that they opened with “Where the Streets have No Name”, my memories of the rest of the show were that the atmosphere had gone. They couldn’t ‘work’ in an arena – especially one in summer, where the lighting never had a chance to kick in. Two decades further on, Wembley Stadium has been re-built and so have U2, who have become masters of the arena, helped enormously by Willie William’s legendary stage and light shows. The tour will probably be remembered for the giant alien-like ‘claw’ that surrounded the stage, bringing excellent sight lines, with screens all round (hence the tour name) and designed to become as much part of the stadium as the stage. My DVDs of the band feature close-ups of fans close to the stage in areas that I had always presumed would be for VIPs, hangers on and people who could afford to pay hundreds of pounds for a ticket. While queuing outside Wembley that afternoon, word spread that the first 2,000 would get to stand between the stage and the walkway that encircled it. It seemed unlikely that we would be in that number, but we were. It was another example of U2’s care that there should always be affordable opportunities for their fans and I was amazed to be in probably the best place in a stadium that was packed with 88,000 people (a record attendance, beating last year’s Foo Fighters gig). Bono was just 10 people in front of me, the walkway jut eight people behind me – and, when the bridges swung round to link them, the band walked across just four people away either side of me. I was surrounded by U2 and closer to them now that I had been that night of their first tour. When they stood on the walkway with the spotlights shining on them from the front, it felt like we were at the back of the stage. I wouldn’t swap it, but being that close did mean sacrificing sound quality. Even with a copy of the set list from an earlier gig, it was sometimes too difficult to tell what was being sung. It was strange, because Elbow’s phenomenal set just before had been completely audible. One national paper said the next day that the sound had problems for the first twenty-five minutes, but even after that, the noise of a very vocal European crowd all round me was so loud that it drowned out much of the band. So I had given up a good sound for pure atmosphere, but what an experience! From our position it was plain how much fun the band was having on stage – you could see it in their eyes, with no need for a screen. That communicated and made it a gig that we didn’t want to end. Opening with “Breathe,” U2 started with a batch of No Line on the Horizon tracks, which the audience greeted like old favourites. The album has a smooth polish, but the songs themselves are intrinsically strong. With such a back catalogue, the rest of the songs were guaranteed to be popular, and included huge anthems such as “Beautiful Day”, “One” and “With or Without You.” The screen was made from tightly joined elements that stretched downwards during the atmospheric “Unforgettable Fire” – probably the least predictable track on the set list, along with “MLK” and “Ultra-Violet” – and stayed down for “City of Blinding Lights.” There were more lights when Bono told the crowd to switch on their phones, so that “right now, we can turn this place into the Milky Way.” Just before the gig, Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi had been sentenced to a further 18 months house arrest. The band’s website offered face masks of her that we were encouraged to wear during “Walk On.” During the gig, Bono called the UK “the most generous country” and the band let Archbishop Desmond Tutu make a screened speech before “One.” One of the most striking things for me was realising just how many of their most popular songs had vocal hooks that didn’t include actual words – plenty of sort of ooh-ooh-ooh bits, which plainly work for the international crowd, whose English may not be that great. Featuring a stellar bunch of anthems that left me hungry for the DVD to come out, this was a night to remember. The arena kings were on fire and having fun, getting close to their audience. They share their faith with the world, but keep it accessible; they remember the world’s pain-struck, but know how to celebrate. What a band! Set list: Breathe / No Line On The Horizon / Get On Your Boots / Magnificent / Beautiful Day / Elevation / I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of / Unknown Caller / The Unforgettable Fire / City Of Blinding Lights / Vertigo / I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight (remix) / Sunday Bloody Sunday / Pride (In The Name Of Love) / MLK / Walk On / Where The Streets Have No Name / One / Mysterious Ways // Encore: Ultra Violet (Light My Way) / With Or Without You / Moment Of Surrender. Derek Walker |
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