by Alan Ivory

This was the first show of an incredible journey that took me to thirty five gigs on the Zoo TV tour. After seeing the band play in the UK, France and Ireland, the next stop had to be America. 

Before the gig we had met Bono as he got out of the car at the back gate. During which I took quite a few pictures. Including one of a young 10 year old boy with Bono. That boy was David Reeves from New Jersey, who has already posted his own review on this site.

I had met the whole band at BBC Radio One five weeks previously and in the rush had got a picture with Bono and the side of my head. I asked him if I could get another picture with him. With that he grabbed my camera, turned it around, put his arm out and took a picture of us both. One of the first pioneers of the "selfie". I sent this picture into Propaganda and it was published.
Two years later I was to be given a picture of me with Bono that someone else had taken that day, with I received via another fan in Germany.

This show had so much going on, it was too difficult to take it all in. From the moment I first saw the Trabbies hanging from the lighting rig about the stage I knew it was going to be a good night.
Back then, before the internet all I knew about the content of the preceding gigs was what I had seen on MTV Europe. The most memorable bit being Bono telling Kurt Loder, "we might lose some of the pop kids, but we don't need them" after the opening show in Lakeland, Florida.
The barrage of songs from Achtung Baby was definitely one of the highlights. As was seeing the mirrorball Trabbie spinning around above the B stage.
As the tour went on and I saw more shows, I was able to enjoy the spectacle of the shows more.

 

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