by Karl Linder(very, very long)r

What can I say the third elevation show and the best, very emotional if I never see U2 play again live last Saturday with surffice.

Living in Birmingham myself and my six mates started out from Birmingham at 11.00PM on Friday night by coach to Holyhead for the 3.30AM ferry to Dublin.

We arrived at Dublin coach station at 7.30AM and were then left with three hours to "kill" which we did mostly in Burger King watching the rain pour on to O'Connell Street.

Got the coach up to Slain from Parnell Square at 11.00AM and got to Slane at 11.45PM. After a 100 mile walk and 37 security check points we finally arrived in the arena and claimed our spot for the day, just between to the two relay towers on Edges side, near the bar amd the toliets.

The afternoon came and Relish, JJ72 and Kelis came and went, by this time tiredness was starting to kick in as I had not slept for 30 Hours. It was hot so I decided to lay of the beer and just lay there drifting in and out of conscienece.

I was looking forward to Coldplay and so raised myself for them, love the album and they went down well. Really though it felt like listening to the record will check them out agian though if I get the chance, still love Parachutes.

Chill Peppers came on like a hurricane and for a while I though U2 might have to be on top form to blow them away. They played all the favorites, but to be honest as the set went on I thought they had blown their load to early and as the set went on the standard of songs dropped. Still enjoyable though. It was at this time that my two mates, John and Johnny decided they wanted to be the top of any pyramid that was going. John got on top of three I think, I admit that i had to look away as he crashed to the ground in a sea of bodies. Luckily both werre how can I say very relaxed by this stage so no damage was done.

After the Chilli Peppers the excitement started to rise and when Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back In Town" boomed out the PA the atmosphere hotted up. I had seen the band ten days earlier at both NEC shows so when "SGT Pepper" started I new it was time to go nuts. Elevation Influx started and the band walked out, I was expecting the castle to crumble and fall because of all the noise and jumping around by the crowd. I looked at my mate Johnny during "Beautiful Day" and he was just looking round the arena laughing at all the crowd just going mental.

I won't harp on again about "Kite" and " One" just say they were bvery emotional, I have been to hundreds of gigs and never shed a tear like I did at Slane. My highlight was "Bullet The Blue Sky" which had Edges best solo I have heard and "Streets" which just blew me away. At the encore Johnny came up to me and said he was absoulutely blown away by the band. I glad the band lived up to all my hype, a couple of the guys did not even own a U2 record and even found themselves singing along to most of the songs.

The only down side of the weekendw as the journey back to Dublin a four and a half hour wait for a bus in a piss riden country lane, getting very cold and aggitated. When we got into Dublin we sat around Burger King again till we got thrown out before drinking coffee from an all night Spar and reading the newspaper reviews. Got the ferry from Dublin back to Holyhead at 8.45AM and got back to Birmingham at 6.00PM on Sunday.

If you are a U2 fan and are going this Saturday it realy feels like a pilgrimage to the Holy City of Slane. Every U2 fan must do it at least once in a lifetime.

Finally must say thanks to all the guys that went with me, Faithy, John, Johnny, Rick, Angela, and Ian. You were great company and you helped make a great gig into a weekend to remember forever. Also thanks to all the Irish girls and boys we met very hospitable and funny. Sorry for the long review/story/novel.

Return to previous page | Post a Review of this show!