by Peter

This was my first concert at the "new" Wembley, and the second of the 360 tour.(I attended Paris 2)

I was seated opposite the stage, so very far back. (block 110 if you are interested!)

The band performed as expected, with very few mistakes. Staging, lighting,video etc was to it's usual high standard. The sound however was less than impressive where we were. Bono's vocals and speech were hardly distinguishable from the screeching of Edge's guitar.

The audience were less than enthusiastic in comparison to the Parisien crowd, and seemed more intent on drinking as much beer as possible, and then spending the preverbal "penny" during songs that they didn't like so much. Frequent toilet breaks were "Unknown Caller", "No Line".

Audience participation on "Unknown Caller", where Bono urges the "Oh Oh" chorus to be sung by the crowd fell on deaf ears. Even songs that the crowd usually continue on were ended prematurely, "Pride", "Moment of Surrender", and "Magnificient" for example.

"Walk On" had a different video sequence to accompany it, and was obviously more relevant given the 18 months extended house arrest sentence handed out to the "real" Burmese pro democracy leader earlier this week.

During "With or Without You" Bono also paid hommage to "the beautiful" Eunice Kennedy who passed away earlier on in the week.

Moment of Surrender was dedicated to long time U2 collaborater Brian Eno with the message "Get Well Soon". Perhaps Brian has a bout of Swine Flu which is sweeping the UK at the moment?

I will be going to tonights show at Wembley, so I am hoping for better sound (I will be closer to the stage), and hopefully the audience will be more up for it!

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