by The Lucky 5

In anticipation of coming to the 'Home Of Rugby' for the 2nd and final night in London, Me, my 7 year old son, my sister, 13 year old niece and my friend were all suffering with pre concert syndrome. As we all live 8 stops away from Twickenham, we arranged to make use of the lovely summer weather and make our way to the stadium to listen to the show from the outside.

We arrived there around 7pm and after being harassed by robbers charging £350 for a per pair of tickets it was agreed that we were not going to try to get a ticket. We could hear Athelete while we collected our tour merchandise ready for Sunday and we were still behind the speakers.

We all headed towards the North End of the stadium and tried to find a spot where we would be sitting in comfort and above all, have a pretty clear sound of what those lucky 70000 were seeing with their own eyes. We found a great spot between the 2 entrances for the GA's, so we headed to Tescos to stock up on Beer and also some supplies for the children.

As we were walking back to 'our' spot, we could hear 'Wake Up' blasting through the stadium so it was a brisk walk to get sat down (the stewards outside let us use some of the chairs that people had left while queuing. Really nice guys, but more of that later..).

The show kicked in (I'm not going into detail, we all know the set list) and we on our way. The kids walked up and stood by the green gates that surround the stadium hoping to have a better listen. The beer was going down well and the adults were sitting down singing along (oh, if only we had a camp fire!).

Less than an hour into the show. 'Love And Peace' had begun and I was called over by one of the stewards. 'What did he want?' I thought. 'How many of you are there?' he asked. '5' I said and to my absolute shock, he gave me 5 tickets! I was screaming to the rest of them to drop what they eating/drinking and get over to the turnstile 'NOW'. They had twigged by now that we were about to go to a better area to listen to the concert.

By the time we had go into the stadium, 'SBS' had started and we were going absolutely crazy. We wormed our way through the crowd to a place right amongst the masses. Obviously a 7 and 13 year old are not going see a thing, so up they went on me and my friends shoulders to see Vertigo 05 in all its glory.

Even by missing half of the show the feeling amongst ourselves was something that I have never experienced. My son and niece were caught up in what a U2 concert is all about. My niece went to Elevation but was up in the gods looking down on the 'real' fans who just lose themselves when U2 are on stage.

The encore of Zoo Station took me and my sister back to ZOOROPA. My niece was 2 then and she was brought up on Achtung Baby.

Yahweh came on and by now my son was shattered. I told him that Vertigo will be on next (Thanks to you guys I knew this), but he didn't belive me. He heard it 2 hours ago after all. All of a sudden, Larry starts taking out all of his anger on his kit and here we go again! Up he went and the 5 of us were going absolutely crazy for the the last time.

We were shocked that we managed to get in for free. We didn't try and blag our way in like some people loitering outside. We were content with having a nice relaxing Saturday night listening to the greatest band on the planet.

Highlight for me, my son all 7 years of him singing his heart out to the songs that he knew but most of all, holding his finger in the air during 'One' pointing to the star where his nanny now lives.

Thank you U2 for the great show, but most of all to the steward for giving us the tickets which will make us talk about this night for many years to come.

What made it funnier, there were some friends who we had asked if they fancied a night outside Twickenham who could not see the point in listening from there. I can't wait to see their faces!!

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