by rob tyrone

This was my first ever u2 concert. I had a long wait before they actually came on stage, but when they did it was incredible. After all the parades and other artists they came on at around 10:30pm.

They played "One" and "Pride", personally I hoped they would play a few more songs, but I guess they were a bit low on time. "One" was played with full orchestral backing, and they kind of played around Edge's lead guitar. It sounded very impressive, especially around his solo at the end. It give a bit more fill to the sound. "Pride" was again very well done. The song was just played as normal, but Bono changed verse 3: (Early morning, april 4....) to something that went along the lines of this. I'm not sure exactly how it went.

Saturday evening, June 21st...
Nelson Mandela come to town..
Better listen to what he say..

then In the name of love etc etc

At the point in the song where he usually sings "For the Rev Martin Luther Kng..." he repeated Nelson Mandela come to town, better listen to what he say. However at this stage he had gone backstage and brought Nelson Mandela out to the front. He held his left hand up in the way a referee usually does at the end of a boxing fight, like Nelson Mandela was the champion, ie of freedom in this world.

At the end of the song he introduced Nelson Mandelas speech, and told the audience something like:

This is not just the president of South Africa, but the president of everyone who looks for freedom in this world today.

The set was incredible, I had a great seat, and it was a passionate, emotional ten minutes or so. Nelson Mandelas speech was also really good.

PS Good Luck to all the Special Athletes in the games this week.

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