by Gregg

My first concert in a long time away from the front rail - after the recommendations I took the back rail of the inner circle, and it was an unbelievable experience!

Forget what the other idiot said, I was in Moscow as well and in terms of electricity it felt the whole band was really in the mood last night and with the absence of the rain at least for their set it was a great night.

The start was slightly delayed, and I was concerned they may reduce the number of songs, but as the Stadium is in the middle of nowhere I guess there were no sound restrictions and they played on well after midnight!

The set list was to be expected, as the first gig in the country and the appearance of Mothers for me was a nice addition - I had no idea of the relevance as Bono dedicated it to some Turkish bloke, but it was great to finally hear this old song live. When Bono invited the other Turkish bloke onto the Stage to perform his own song, the crowd loved it and so they should - its their first U2 concert, and they got to see another of their heroes live!!

It felt to me as if the crowd, as in Moscow, were of the younger generation a nice thing for U2 - but a shame as most of them haven't done their homework on some of the older songs. I really felt I was the only one belting out Streets with the band!!!

Bono made a reference to getting a 50,000 crowd was more than they could ever have expect in their first gig in Turkey - and maybe he is right, to expect to fill the Staium would be asking too much - it wouldn't be for everyone.

But the Stadium is enormous and anyone would have struggled to totally fill it. But I was 18 in the GA line overnight, and there were 17 fanatical Turks ahead of me - and by the time we moved the queue (4 hours before opening the doors) hundreds more.

The seats had many areas that were unoccupied, maybe some of the tickets were a little expensive for Turks, but please don't scale down the Show!! This has been a Stadium tour in Stadiums - and may we have many more!!!

I must admit, we had to walk about 3km after the Show to find a cab, past lines of gridlocked traffic, so had the Stadium been fuller we might never have got to the Hotel!! :))

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