by Friedhelm Grasser

U2 Pop-Mart Tour Nuernberg Zeppelinfeld 8/18/1997:The Zeppelinfeld is the ground for U2 Popmart ’97 in Nuernberg. It is situated in the south of Nuernberg and for the nazis it was a large meeting area in the third reich.
This large field was the event for big Open Air Concerts back in the seventies like 'The Who', 'AC/DC', Bob Dylan and much more. It was rediscovered in the nineties for acts like 'Dire Straits' and German top act 'Westernhagen' as well.
Possibly it is the best festival ground in Germany. Space for about 80.000 visitors. The huge PopMart stage was set up in front of the wide open stone grandstand. Inside of this building there is a permanent exhibition called 'Fascination and Power'.
It's an explanation of Nuernberg with Nationalsocialism.
About 35.000 fans went out, to see the first U2 concert in Nuernberg.
It began at 7:10 p.m.with the opening act ‘Die Fantastischen Vier"(The Fantastic Four), a very popular Hip Hop -Band in Germany. And like they did in Cologne three weeks before, they were great. The audience was very pleased.
Howie B. started with special DJ-Performing and finished with the U2 opening -Intro Pop Muzik.
At 8:55 p.m. U2 entered the B-Stage, walked down the cat-walk to the main-stage and began to slip into the first song MOFO. From the beginning the sound was powerful and clear and the big screen worked well. But for me it seemed, that Bono had some problems with his voice. After ending I WILL FOLLOW and just before GONE, Bono said: "Fuck the past, we kiss the future.."
The Nuernberg audience did a really fine sing-along during NEW YEARS DAY and PRIDE. STILL HAVEN’T FOUND WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR and ALL I WANT IS YOU from RATTLE & HUM was next. Before the beginning of the wonderful acoustic STARING AT THE SUN Bono asked in german: 'Ich habe eine Frage: Was haltet Ihr davon, die Steintribuehne rosa zu lackieren ?' Translation: ‘What do you think about, to paint the stone grandstand into pink ?'
The setlist was near the same as the setlist in Cologne.
The show ended at 11:00 p.m. with one verse of WAKE UP DEAD MAN. I think it was for the first time, that U2 performed it live.
All in all a great show and a special thanks to Bono for going through this pain.

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