by eric naulaerts

This was my 3rd U2 concert. At the time the Torhout-Werchter Festival got the same groups on Saturday in Torhout and on Sunday in Werchter. U2 played just before Peter Gabriel and Van Morrison. They came as high on the bill because of their appearance at the same festival in July 1982.

Before the show the 3 white flags were set, but i can't remember whether they used the backdrop with Peter Rowan. From the place where i stood, i couldn't see it well.

The set was stunning: they had played the US for so long and this was one of the first dates after that US tour. I remember they played the masses even more than the year before. Bono also danced with someone of the audience, waved his flags.

Some months later part of the show (as almost all shows of that year from Werchter) were broadcasted by Holland's Radio program "KRO's Rocktempel" at the Hilversum 3 radio. I remember that Bono in an interview some months later in the Dutch magazine Vinyl mentioned that they thought they had to stop because they went to far.

A friend of mine, Filip Van Mierlo, was one of the personal festival roadies and he told me that Bono was drunk at the end of the evening. During the interview with Mark Stakenburg of KRO's Rocktempel along with Jim Kerr (Simple Minds) he must have fallen at least twice. I haven't seen the video of this since 1983 so I can't remeber, but I know that Bono told He and Jim Kerr were about to marry each other.

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