by Michael West

London 1 Review

We had seats for tonight's show so didn't get to the arena until about 8pm. Clearly, this meant that we missed Kelis yet again - for those that don't know of her, this is most definitely a GOOD thing! We went over to take a look at our seats and were pleasantly surprised - pretty high up but level with the tip of the heart on Adam's side. I think it was about 8.30pm when "Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher" came over the PA. This was a good twenty minutes earlier than any of the previous four UK shows. They played Radiohead's "Creep" before "Sgt. Peppers" but as the band came onstage to play Elevation many people had yet to take their position for the show. Seems like the earlier start caught many people unawares and this was a mildly inauspicious start to the evening.

Bono is strutting around the stage like he owns the place, and I have to say he has the best stage presence of any performer I have ever seen. He holds every person in the palm of his hand from the minute he steps on stage until the moment he leaves it. His strut wasn't quite as pronounced as the first Manchester show, where one could quite possibly think that the man had the largest genitals this planet has ever witnessed! Towards the end of the song he sings "Do you believe in me!? MEEEE!?" before the band crash back in once again. Beautiful Day is equally as well performed. Tonight is the first time I was able to make out that at the end of the song Bono sings "Another SOUL leaves the world… its my old man". Until The End Of The World kicks into life and as the lights flash around the arena I can just about make out Bono shaking with his arms flailing in the air as thought he's being electrocuted (watch the start of your ZooTV Sydney video to understand exactly what I'm describing). I have to say that we had a fantastic viewpoint for this particular song, loving every second of the Bono/Edge fight at the climax. Tonight's version was one of only two occasions on this UK tour where Bono slips in the "Is this rock and roll!?" line. Always a big live favourite of mine but nothing could compete to watching the nigh-on perfect Manchester 2 version from inside the heart.

New Years Day begins and the crowd create a very big pop! If you've read any of my previous show reviews you'll know I'm not exactly the World's Biggest Fan of this song but I have to say that I really did enjoy tonight's performance. Probably the best version of this song that I saw out of all my shows. About halfway through the song, with Bono at the tip of the heart, I noticed a girl stretching as hard as she could to reach out and touch the B-man himself. She ends up getting pushed/carried for a few moments before finally making it onto the tip itself! Her efforts are rewarded with a tender embrace before being lowered back down into the fervent throng beneath her. Bono looks up towards us as he makes his way back to the main stage and opens his arms as if to say "What can I say!?" with a big grin on his face. Brilliant moment.

Kite came next, preceded by a fairly lengthy speech from Bono. He spoke about how the last time they were in London for Popmart they played one of their greatest shows (I can concur with this wholeheartedly! Really was a spellbinding concert!). He made a reference to his father having a tenor voice - it was the second night here when Bono first commented that Bob had said "Imagine where you'd have got in life if you had a voice like mine!" which the band absolutely loved. Like in Birmingham, he sang "The last of the OPERA stars" line. This was a superb performance, as always. I personally think that this song is the best live out of the ATYCLB material. A consistently sublimely performed tune. During the second verse, obviously thinking about how close his father was to passing away, his voice faltered as though he was on the verge of tears. I have to say that tonight's show saw Bono's voice at its peak for the UK shows. I personally thought that it was absolutely superb from start to finish. With all the concerns about the supposedly fragile state of his vocal chords, apart from Birmingham 1, I think that Bono's vox has been perhaps the biggest highlight and surprise of this tour.

I love Gone but from my position the mix was far too muddy for tonight's performance. To be frank this was arguably the weakest song of the night. Paled in comparison to the sheer intensity and urgency of the Manchester 2 version where he kicked the mic stand into the heart midway through the song. Edge had to change his guitar towards the end of the song and this hardly helped the momentum that needed to be built for the uptempo climax. On a more positive note, Bono's falsetto part of this song was nigh-on perfect - absolutely nailed! New York was excellent with Bono really belting out the vocals! Looking down at the crowd on the floor, they appeared slightly disinterested early on with this number but soon got into it and were really rocking away. I Will Follow was a storming version with the crowd absolutely loving it! Before the "Your Eyes" section Bono began a diatribe about a variety of venues in London such as Earls Court, Hammersmith etc - however, he was quite blatantly reeling off all these names from a sheet of paper by his feet. Quite a comedy moment I thought. Looks like making it appear spontaneous really is the hard part :-) Sunday Bloody Sunday really got the crowd pumping and received probably the biggest reaction of the night thus far in. We got Get Up/Stand Up tonight and also a little speech by Bono about the "tiny fucking minds" that bombed Omagh.

Wake Up Dead Man was beautiful as always, only to be spoilt by the miserable, cheerless bastards around us! One problem all night was the incredibly sad people who took every available opportunity to sit down and have a good chat whenever a slower song arrived. ENJOY THE SHOW YOU FUCKING IDIOTS!! Jesus Christ… the best band in the world in fantastic form and some folk are more interested in discussing the best time to leave to beat the rush. Pathetic. The only other quibble with this show was that the mix had a touch too much echo for my personal tastes, plus Edge's guitar was too quiet from our position. You'd have thought they'd have sorted it out by the fourth show in the same venue but apparently not! For whatever reason I found Stuck In A Moment to be a bit plodding tonight but Bono's falsettos were fantastic throughout. In A Little While was lovely and again Bono sounded awesome! We got the usual pre-song rap about Joey Ramone. I think it was at the end of this number where Bono was reminiscing about the old times, when Edge apparently slept bolt upright as a means of balancing his huge brain! I think Bono's exact words were "it's a balance thing", delivered with that impish smirk of his. Desire was nothing more than a standard version. I think they really need to either drop this song or play it TRUE full band. A hard, electric reworking in a similar mode to the ZooTV versions wouldn’t go amiss in my eyes.

I thought Stay was absolutely beautiful and felt a few tears at this point. There was a funny moment before they started this one when Bono clamped his hand over his mouth to physically stop himself from "introing" it to death which he has a tendency to do! Naturally, he let the crowd take over the "… LONDON, Belfast and Berlin" line. This went into Bad and tonight's version was STUNNING! Absolutely without a doubt the best version I heard on this tour. Longer tonight than it normally is, with a deliciously extended "Isolation… revelation" part. Felt more tears at the first "Let it goooo" part. Streets was fantastic as per usual. I could literally feel a river of shivers traverse up and down my spine as Edge's guitar soared over Larry's insistent drumming and Adam's pounding bass. Bono changed one line to sing "Reach out… and touch your face again" - another reference to his father perhaps. Mysterious Ways has been a highlight of this tour for me, a song that I enjoy much more than I assumed I would do. Tonight's version was superb, with Bono leaning his head back and shaking the mic quickly across his mouth and wailing as it neared its conclusion. Words just cannot describe the majesty of The Fly!!! This was another nigh-on faultless performance and just about pipped Manchester 1 as the best version I have heard.

Bullet The Blue Sky featured the 5 Nations Introduction. I think it was tonight that my damaged brain finally realised that this intro guaranteed the "European" climax to the song with Bono's diatribe about "Outside… UK!! E.U!! E.U!!". Obviously, with the Heston introduction this brings about the "American" climax featuring Mark Chapman. I personally think the latter version stuffs its predecessor out of sight, being longer, more passionate and also more captivating to watch. With Or Without You was a very standard version (as it has been virtually every single time since '93). It ended with Love Will Tear Us Apart which succeeds only in bringing the song down as opposed to a roaring and soaring climax. One was preceded with the speech about Africa and Human Rights and dedicated to Liam Gallagher who was in the audience tonight (and later commented that he was blown away by the show - "one of the best I've ever seen"). This was a superb version, with Edge's slightly extended guitar solo now in every night. I am pretty sure that Bono repeated "Live forever!" twice at the very end of this song, a nod towards Liam as this is an Oasis song. Walk On was very good indeed with the "Hallelujah's". Tonight's version was perhaps the best of the tour thus far, with Bono repeatedly chanting "I am nothing" and "Music… it's magic!" at the end. A walk around the heart by the band followed and that was show number 5 for me done and dusted!

I thought Bono's voice was the best of the tour but the show was let down marginally by poor acoustics and the miserable bastards sitting around me. Third in the pecking order at this stage behind Manchester 1 and Birmingham 2!

Mike

paul.west3@virgin.net

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