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Music we're listening to
Monday, November 20, 2006
U2 in Sydney - I was there! (Sort of :)
Ages ago, when I heard that the U2 Sydney concerts were being rescheduled for November, with extra tickets going on sale, I wondered if we might happen to move our Sydney holiday from September to November.
In the end, we did go in September and I found another event to take part in, in November in HK. It was only a few days before the trailwalker that I found the two events were on the same night. I was pretty sure that I was in the right place, and was still getting to hang out with 4 cool people, but part of me wanted to be at the concert.
So, I was pretty excited to find out from Helen when she met us at checkpoint 8 on the trail (we'd walked 80km by then) that her brother Mark was at the concert. And then he phoned! I got to listen to part of Kite, at the end of the final encore, and could make out the words Bono was singing. And someone posted a video of the same moment on YouTube, so it almost feels like I was there...
U2 Kite Sydney 2006-11-10 - You Tube
Mark could hardly hear anything we said, because the concert was so loud, so it made for quite a funny conversation!
The concert included a snippet from 'Love will tear us apart' at the end of 'With or Without You'. I'm not sure why, but I really like Joy Division's version; not too impressed with this U2 recording (not from Sydney):
And a great review from Tom (I think he was there the night before).
Here's a video from the final Sydney night on the 13th, showing U2 in a rare state of confusion. Seems like they didn't practice this one enough, because Bono gets confused with what they're doing. 'Give us a moment' he says, and him, Edge and Adam have a brief chat.
While looking for the setlist, I happened upon this which I'll post for my sister Laura, who's currently studying at Kent Uni in Canterbury:
Last but not least, this is for my dad, who's band also played at the same event in the same year. (I think my dad's band played the same evening, and later on than U2. So, in a way, they were supported by U2!)
Our decidedly humble band Solid Rock played Greenbelt '81 on the Monday afternoon whilst U2 played mainstage the same evening - though as an unscheduled act between other bands. We only just missed playing mainstage, but we were far happier having a prime spot in the huge marquee than be the first act on the mainstage whilst most people were still having their tea. Although Mike saw our gig he missed U2's. As he was only a year old at the time he had very little say in the matter!
Our decidedly humble band Solid Rock played Greenbelt '81 on the Monday afternoon whilst U2 played mainstage the same evening - though as an unscheduled act between other bands.
We only just missed playing mainstage, but we were far happier having a prime spot in the huge marquee than be the first act on the mainstage whilst most people were still having their tea.
Although Mike saw our gig he missed U2's. As he was only a year old at the time he had very little say in the matter!
Chris Tozer - aka UpOver Dad