by jay tomkins

Happy Shoppers at Wembley Stadium
London, 22nd August 1997
Words by Jay Tomkins_Exeter_England.

Thursday 21st August 1997
The four of us (Darren, Kelda, Simon and I) left Exeter for the Reading Festival. We arrived at midday and checked into our hotel. We had gone to Glastonbury in June and it had been mud bath hence the hotel! Anyway, checked in with clothes and two crates of beer and spent the rest of the day on the beers around Reading.

Friday 22nd August
Darren and I left Reading at 10am, catching the train to London, then a quick tube ride to Wembley. On the walk up Wembley Way I had to sell two spare tickets that I had bought for mates who let me down (their loss really). I found a tout who said he would give me £30 for the pair, which I reluctantly accepted. Considering I had paid about £70, I was not happy. He went on to tell me that he could get me the best seats in the house for £50 and that there were loads of spare tickets for the show, but I found this funny as I had heard it was a sell-out.

We walked up the rest of Wembley Way to be met by an ever-swelling sea of fans. We strolled around buying our merchandise, a beer, and some food, then got in line. Most of our time in the line was spent reading a cool fanzine called ‘The Zooropean’, and talking to fans about their experiences. At about 5pm the gates opened and the flood of the stadium began. We headed straight for the pitch to check out the stage and were gob-smacked by the shear size of the video screen and the amazing stage set-up! We watched both support acts from about half way up the pitch. They were both pretty good – Longpigs and Audioweb. With these two out of the way we were both getting very excited and were ready to party with the boys again!

Howie B set the mood upon the decks then the Popmuzik intro kicked things off. The whole stadium got up on its feet and the party was on – straight into a lively version of MoFo. During Last Night on Earth Bono sang “this is not the last night this is the first night at Wembley Stadium” much to the crowds approval. We were in the middle for the first four or five songs before we headed to the back of the pitch (right near the beer stall) for a great view of the whole stadium. The set continued with an amazing back-to-back rendition of New Year’s Day and Pride, then into a beautiful version of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, with All I Want Is You on the end for good measure.

Edge’s karaoke slot was introduced by him saying “This song is not a rebel song…” to which the crowd replied with a cheer thinking he was going to play Sunday Bloody Sunday. Edge smiled and continued “…this is simply an Elvis Presley song!” The whole stadium started to sing along with Edge to Suspicious Minds. I’ve been to Wembley Stadium over 15 times to see bands but this is still the loudest I’ve heard the audience sing.

Bono returned after this wearing his Fidel Castro outfit, and pulled a girl out of the crowd. He took off his hat and placed it on her head. (He had two hats on I think!) He danced with her whilst smoking a cigar and singing Miami, then Edge kicked into Bullet the Blue Sky with some amazing pop-art by Roy Lichtenstein on the video screens.

Where the Streets Have No Name ended the first set in fine style. The 40 foot lemon was rolled out for the encore which started with Discotheque and Bono’s shouts of “C’mon popshoppers!” before he added a snippet of Black Betty. With or Without You ended the first encore beautifully. There was a small break before they launched into Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me during which Bono took on the face and expressions of MacPhisto again.

To close the set we got a passionate version of One, with the first verse of Wake Up Dead Man played at the end. One has special meaning to us, as it was played at a friend’s funeral in December 1995. Andy had died of cancer aged 25.

One hundred and thirty minutes of pure U2 at their best. Being at the back of the stadium we got out quickly and were soon on the train talking non-stop about the show all the way to Reading. Darren and I both came to the conclusion that the songs from Pop sounded better live than they did on the album, but then we knew that U2 rushed to finish it.

Set List
MoFo / I Will Follow / Gone / Even Better Than the Real Thing / Last Night on Earth / Until the End of the World / New Year’s Day / Pride / I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / All I Want is You / Staring at the Sun / Suspicious Minds / Miami / Bullet the Blue Sky / Please / Where the Streets Have No Name

Encore
Lemon / Discotheque / If You Wear that Velvet Dress / With or Without You / Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me / Mysterious Ways / One / Wake Up Dead Man

23rd August 1997
Back at Reading Festival we watched great sets by the Manics, Lemonheads, Travis, Feeder, Dust Junkies, 3 Colours Red, Marilyn Manson, Bush and Metallica. This was a fantastic weekend in more ways than one because not only did we see U2, we met Kylie Minogue, and I kissed my now wife Kelda for the first time- during Marilyn Manson’s set.

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