by Keren Packer

All the pomp and circumstance - and giant mirrorball lemons - were gone. The stage was in the shape of a heart, the pointy end of which was made of two ramps which came out about a third of the way into the standing audience and a few dozen lucky people got to stand in the middle of the heart. There were four huge screens above the stage for the folk who couldn't see, showing the gig in black and white, one screen for each member of the band.

There was a big backdrop which we assumed was going to fall revealing the band behind, but it stayed up and the band were infront of it, having wandered nonchalently onto the stage. This, and some 8 or so smaller screens that dropped from the rafters were used as screens for gorgeous projections, again all black and white. The lights were incredible, so many colours! They had a small video screen, that made a colourful backdrop to the whole thing, but it only just came above larry's drum riser. Very subtle.

They started with Elevation, which they began with the houselights up. I have never been in such a restless crowd before. Most people were on their feet from about 8pm, and they weren't due on for another half hour. When they eventually came on, I have never seen such uproar. It was so cool to be able to see the whole crowd with the band in the middle of it all. Fab. When it all went dark, the lights went bananas.

They played Sunday Bloody Sunday, Mysterious Ways, loads from All That You can't Leave Behind, Until the End of the World... They used Bullet The Blue Sky as a way of having a go at the NRA. They showed a piece of film of Charlton Heston spouting something about how guns are not bad, people are, then showed a montage of gun - related crime, Columbine etc, throughout the whole song, ending on a shot of a tiny little girl unwrapping a gun for her birthday.

They saved Walk On for the last song of the night. They projected the words of the coda at the end of the song onto the front of the arena, or so I thought. I looked around and there were words flying all over the walls, ceiling, the crowd - everywhere. I have never seen anything so beatuiful in my life. This was the third point at which I burst into tears.

All the lads had stupid, wide grins on their faces, they were bantering with eachother, shoving eachother around, Adam kept blowing smoke at Larry, Bono and Edge were having a right laugh. I have never seen a band enjoy a gig so much.

This was easily the best gig I have ever been to. Fantastic. I have run out of Superlatives.

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