by Patrick

Just arrived back in England after last night's concert at the Sportpaleis. I was standing between the tip of the heart and the mixing desk. This was a good performance by the band although sometimes Bono seemed a bit hoarse and the sound in the Sportpaleis let the band down at times. This was my 3rd Elevation concert after the Austrian gigs last week and it fell somewhere in between the 2 Vienna shows, in terms of EUPHORIA. Let's face it, there's no such thing as a poor U2 concert! They played a typical first night in the same city set list and the crowd pleasers were once again I Will Follow, Sunday Bloody Sunday and of course Streets, when the whole arena finally learned how to dance. Bono took 2 small girls from the edge of the heart (about 7 years old) and ran them around the stage, he then sat them down and sung to them during New Year's Day. Nice moment. The acoustic version of Desire was as good as Vienna. The band seemed happy and grateful for the reception of the Belgian crowd. Bono spoke quite a few times with the crowd and also said something in Flemish. Hello to all the people I met from Wales, who were there with the Stereophonics (good support)and waving their Welsh flags around during Streets. And hello to the girls from Amsterdam who we kept banging into. Thanks Antwerp for a great few days. On the subject of tickets, there were plenty available outside from touts but 1600 franc tickets were being sold for between 3000 and 6000 francs. A Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws is reporting today that 10,000 francs was being asked for tickets outside the Sportpaleis. It's a shame as there were may genuine U2 fans in Antwerp desperate for tickets for the show.

See you all in Manchester next Saturday.

Patrick

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