by Quaesitor

A fantastic night as always - but some nice London focused shoutouts - esp to their early influences from here (which was apparently the 'centre of our world' - well, right - I think Bono was just saying that to be nice. But all the usual suspects: The Clash, Sex Pistols, David Bowie.

Lots of great moments. Particularly struck by Bullet the Blue Sky - with the horrific destruction in Syria the main focus of the visuals. I don't know if he's done this much before (haven't been following too closely) but it was very pwowerful when Bono changed identity fo the one counting out the dollar bills to himself, in the context of a kid grilling him about whether or not he had enough money. An acknowledgment at least of the fact that Bono was rock's highest earner last year?

Other topical touchstones were of course the Refugee Crisis across Europe - with images of people walking the tracks towards the Channel Tunnel particularly poignant. As they have done elsewhere in Europe, it was good to see the Amnesty Refugees Welcome campaign featured.

Bob Geldof in the crowd as was Noel Gallagher, who came up to sing at the end. He seemed quite reticent and unsure, to be honest, but it was powerful to see a closeup of him singing the 3rd verse of Still Haven't Found with what looked like real passion and sincerity.

Oh, and the virtual reality bus was a lot of fun - loved the video - surreal to stand in the middle of the band - and Adam was particularly hilarious with his rather blank 'i'm really concentrating' face.

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