by Jake Scott

I was not a fan of U2 at this time. Being a massive fan of Queen I queued overnight at the Edinburgh Playhouse with a number of friends to get tickets to what was the biggest gig ever! I had persuaded most of them to go for the sake of seeing things like The Who reforming and for me Queen as I had not been able to afford going all the way to Birmingham on the Works Tour!

The group of us that went to this life changing concert ensured we were on the stadium floor near the front for the opening with status quo. Having eyed up the programme for the day we had decided to spend the day moving from being on the pitch to relaxing in the stands depending who was on stage. We had decided to get up close and personal for the opening and then retire to the bars etc until about Paul Young coming on as we wanted to be at the front for Queen Bowie and the Who. We spent most of the day wondering around various parts of the Stadium as we wre not that bothered about most of the acts until Queen at six. The Boomtown Rats version of I Don't Like Mondays was fabulous, Elvis Costellos Northern English Folk Song so cool and the as we sat in the stand drinking another beer the audience went wild as U2 came on stage! I had not been a fan until they did this amazing version of Sunday Bloody Sunday which had the crowd estatic then BAD was absolutely mesmerisming.

From the start of the sequenced synth and Bono announcing 'We are an Irish Band. We come form Dublin City, it has it's good and it has it's bad. This is a song called bad.' I was almosty instantly converted form someone who had heard of them and wondered what the hype was all about to adoring fan. The charisma of this band, the way they had the audience in the palm of their hands was absolutley amazing and only surpassed by Queen's Performance that day! Had queen not done that show U2 would have been the most outstanding performance of the day and ever....

Bono getting down to the crowd and picking someone out to dance on stage was amazing given the enormity of the the gig and his ab libing of walk on the wildside immediately connected the audience there with everyone in Philadelpia and the entire world. It was at that point I realised the significance of this band. They were definitely special and this was but a snippet of things to come....I wish we had gone down to the front sooner. As Dire Staits performed we moved down to the pitch and I was indeed at the very front for Queen, but I ahd definitely been touched by U2 and knew then they had what it takes to be an outstanding live band.

I am now a huge U2 fan and have seen them on almost every tour since then. With me you are definitley preaching to the converted!

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