by dougal55

You know what I want to say, I can say that I attended the gig itself and though the gig was amazing and the visuals were spectacular too. What I wish to do is to share a rather interesting story about the gig itself.

I went to this gig with a friend (Michael Mason, thats you!) who liked U2. I bought the tickets through Propaganda (fan club) and went to the gig with some expectations of another great show! What I got instead was a nice surprise. You see when Ultraviolet was played, there was a video that came on and showed (on all big screens) a woman which I didnt register at first but as soon as she started to use sign language for the song, I recognised her! Let me explain why that is, I am deaf so was actively involved in the deaf community and during that time, I saw and met this woman, Rachel Bastikar (who was spotted by Brian Eno on a deaf programme for Channel 4 so called her to come). She lived in the north of England while I live in London so we both didnt see each other often. So imagine my face of shock and surprise to see her face and sign language during that show! I was agog with excitement and concentrated not on Bono (sorry!) but on Rachel on screen! A few months later, I met Rachel and she told me her rewards for her efforts was this: inclusion of her name on the Zoo TV programme, free tour T shirt and best of all, free tickets to the show! One small problem, she is deaf and is not a fan of U2 but her husband at the time was a big fan so he was more happier than she was to get free tickets!

Finally in closing, I finally met Bono (and all the guys) outside Wembley Stadium following a great show which he signed an autograph but I couldnt think of saying anything which he already heard from many fans through the years. Rather simply I said in these words, "Thanks for showing sign language at the show!" (Rachel was shown again that night!) instead of commenting on how great the whole show was. How strange was that you know?! Needless to say, Bono looked up from signing his autograph and asked if I liked it. I said yes very much. He replied "thats great!" with a big smile and thumbs up. And off he went to the next few fans then into the car to take him home. My apologies for the length of this story but thought after all these years, it deserves to be shared among great U2 fans here.

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