by Paul Heyworth

Just like with the Elevation Tour four years previous, Manchester would be the start of U2’s UK shows. The venue this time was the newly built City Of Manchester Stadium (home to Manchester City FC). The tickets we had were standing, but due to the crowd size, we stayed towards the back. U2 came on at approx 8.30pm in what was a bright summers evening. Something of a rarity in Manchester. Bono was dressed in a brown coloured leather jacket as apposed to his usual black colour. The Edge and Larry looked, as you would expect, although Adam has clearly not bothered with hair dye on this tour. The opening was pretty high and raw. Vertigo, I Will Follow, Electric Co followed by Elevation, New Years Day and then Beautiful Day. Not a bad 30 mins for an opening show. The most notable part of U2’s set for the 1st hour was the extraordinary daylight. I mean the sky was a beautiful blue and crimson. It was a lovely warm evening, but unfortunately the lights from the huge screens didn’t really have the effect they were meant to. It wasn’t until around 9.30pm when they started the intro for Where The Streets Have No Name that you could actually appreciate the light system. The intro was different from the usual red backdrop. This time there were several moving screens that displayed the flags of Africa. Quite visually stunning. It was from here that the show really began to take a new life. Next up was One’ where Bono spoke to the crowd about the fight for equality and fair trade. Up on the screens was a number, which Bono asked the audience to text with the word STOP. It was quite moving. The encore was a blast back to the Zoo TV Tour. Zoo Station kicked the stadium off into a riot, and before you could get your breath back they launched into The Fly. Now this really was something of an encore. During The Fly, various phrases came up onto the screen. These were similar to those used on the Zoo TV Tour. With Or Without You followed and brought a great response from the crowd. The band came back on again from All Because of You and then a stunning acoustic version of Yahweh. I would say Yahweh was probably the best song of the night. Just beautiful. And that was it. Well almost. They came on again for one month. And they did something I’ve never seen before. They played the 1st song of the night. No kidding! The played Vertigo. Bono, got the crowd going with the ‘hello, hello’. And as the band came in, all the house lights came on for one last huge rave on style celebration. It was some way to end a show. All in all a great night and certainly one of the best concerts I have ever attended. If I could be picky I would say the U2 shows at the MEN Arena (inparticular the 1st night) on the Elevation Tour were better. I just found the Manchester Stadium a bit small and of course the bizarre weather of eternal daylight made the first 1-hour a bit odd looking. My friends went to the second night at the City Of Manchester Stadium and apparently U2 only came on at 9.15pm, and by all accounts it was a cracking show. I still liked the show I went to though, even if it did look like it was in the middle of the afternoon. Lets’ face it. You don’ really get a bad U2 show do you? Rock n’ roll……!!!!!!!!

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