Best Concert Ever: U2 — Zoo TV
From the second row of Wembley Stadium
Growing up I was very lucky from a musical perspective, because I lived in London. Pretty much any major act who was doing a world tour was going to stop in London in at some point, and I soon had an appetite for live music. My first concert was George Michael on the Faith Tour in June 1988; soon after Michael Jackson at Wembley Stadium. Prince. Pet Shop Boys. Paul McCartney singing Beatles songs! Billy Joel. Elton John. Madonna on the Blonde Ambition tour, yes the one with the conical breasts. I went through a run over a few years where all my hard-earned savings were spent on concert tickets, and any of the above had at least some moments that could have qualified for the subject of this article.
But I had to pick one, and while saying it was the best is a matter of debate, it was certainly the most memorable. By 1993 I had just completed my first year of university, where as a student I was keen to highlight the more sophisticated end of my music tastes. When I looked at who was going to playing that summer, one name stood out — U2, on their huge new global tour. And so I broached the subject with my friends:
“Anyone want to go and see U2 at Wembley?” Sure enough they did; credit card in hand I made the call (ah, the days before the internet) and it was confirmed; the tickets were ours.
One August afternoon six of us rocked up to Wembley Stadium; my university friends Jonathan, Becky, Sarah, and Will; myself, and my friend from home, Al. Having been to shows at the stadium a couple of times by this point, I was starting to learn some tricks of the trade.
“Let’s get there by 4pm as that’s when the doors open.”
We did; however, even by 4pm there was a huge queue to get in as people lined up to get down the front. But here’s the quirk of the situation: Jonathan and Becky were physically disabled and were in wheelchairs, which meant that we didn’t have to go in through the main entrance. We could go in through the disabled entrance, which we happily did because there was no queue. 4.01pm and we were in the stadium. Jonathan turned to me:
“We’re going to sit in the disabled section, but you and Al can do down on the pitch if you want, we’ll catch you after.” Okay then.
Al and I turned and ran down the front as quickly as we could. Whilst everyone else was still queuing outside, we were in the second row OF WEMBLEY STADIUM. In all the shows I’ve been to before & after, even indoor ones in tiny one-room venues, never have I got so close to the front. This was going to be good.
There was some early warm-up entertainment with four people dressed with very large U2 heads on walking around geeing up the crowd, and then a support act from the then popular but now forgotten Stereo MCs. The stadium filled up behind us, and finally the music started, the band came on, and Zoo TV began. Bono was there just a few yards away. Adam on the bass wandered out to our side of the stage and just coolly laid down the bass line, whilst we all waved at him to little reaction.
If I am giving the impression that this was a great show merely because of our view, well that was not the case. Whilst our spot added to the event immeasurably, the Zoo TV tour was a ground-breaking spectacle that blew everyone away regardless of where they saw it from. After the success of their hugely popular but broadly conventional Joshua Tree tour, the band had decided to raise the stakes in order to lay their claim to be the best band in the world.
For instance, video projections and special effects may be seen regularly at concerts now, but not over 30 years ago. When the show began a multitude of video screens all around the stage bombarded you with images and slogans on top of the usual pictures of the band. When the lights came up, the spotlights were fixed as headlights in Trabant cars suspended on wires from the roof, inspired by the East German influence on the Achtung Baby album, which the band recorded in Berlin (and as featured heavily in the “One” video). And one of the central video screens was connected to satellite television, allowing Bono to change channels in-between songs whilst commenting on what programs he could find.
These effects impacted so much on the show that it actually played up to a theme: Zoo TV, the idea that television was taking over our lives, and so that we were influenced by soundbites and slogans. Looking back now it feels prescient, but also somewhat quaint against the backdrop of the internet and social media. During show opener Zoo Station the screens were interrupted with interference and static, before morphing into information meltdown as slogans were rapidly blasted at high speed during “The Fly, “and then the satellite TV showed during “Even Better Than The Real Thing.” Sensory overload, whilst rattling through the majority of Achtung Baby right off the bat.
By halfway through the show, after a few of the old classics like “New Year’s Day” had found their way in amongst the newer songs, the band moved from the main hi-tech stage, and decamped to a smaller stage in the centre of the stadium (great for everyone except Al & I; it was further away from us). There the band showed they could play stripped down songs too, acoustically playing “Angel of Harlem,” “Stay (Faraway, So Close),” and somewhat surprisingly having Larry on drums lead the crowd on a singalong with ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.” Then finally Bono sang Lou Reed’s “Satellite of Love,” and again in what was a technology-pushing effect, a video of Reed himself appeared on the screens to sing the song as a duet. Much repeated since, but never seen before.
Back to the main stage then for some anthems in the third portion of the show — “Bad,” “Bullet The Blue Sky,” and “Where The Streets Have No Name.” If you’ve never been one of 80,000 people singing in complete unison then it is an experience to behold. Everyone knew the words to “Pride (In The Name Of Love);” everyone sang. We sang so loud that it was no wonder they had to rebuild Wembley a few years later.
The band said farewell and walked off; during the wait for the encore, the big screens showed videos of fans who had been filmed in a special photo booth positioned in the car park. One guy revealed he was wearing his girlfriend’s underwear, another read a poem he’d written on the train on the way there, and a final one tried to set a world record for the most people shouting “f*ck” at the top of their voices; I’m not sure if it was a record, but if not let’s just say I’d hate to have been there when even more people did it.
The band returned to the stage, with Bono now fully in character as ‘MacPhisto’, a parody of the devil dressed in a gold lame suit, with lipstick on his face and horns on his head, a pop star past his prime and living of old glories. Which made his first song choice inevitable, “Desire.” As part of the act, MacPhisto threw some Zoo TV paper money out into the crowd; I would like to say I caught one, but I was so close to the stage it all went over my head.
Before singing again, on every night of the tour MacPhisto then prank called someone famous, live from the stage, before leading the crowd in a song for them. He called the White House, he called the United Nations (and sang Help), he called Princess Diana, he called Salman Rushdie. On our night he called Graham Taylor; this would mean little to anyone outside the UK, but at the time he was the somewhat hapless manager of the England football team, who was racking up some poor results and rapidly dropping in popularity. We reached Taylor’s — seemingly genuine — voicemail, and sang football anthem “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” Unfortunately, he passed away a few years ago, so quite what he thought of the message I never found out.
More singalong anthems to finish: “With Or Without You,” the newer “Love is Blindness,” and then MacPhisto crooning “Can’t Help Falling In Love,” bringing the concert to a touching but slower climax, compared to the barnstorming finish you might expect in such a stadium show. The band bowed and retreated, whilst the crowd staggered out spent, trying to take in everything that they had just seen. Al & I wandered back to find Jonathan and Becky, wondering if it had all been real.
U2 have continued their boundary-pushing shows ever since — I went again on their Pop Mart tour a few years later where the band exited to the stage from a revolving lemon (really); alas I didn’t get a chance to see their 360 tour, where they build a whole new form of staging called The Claw, which allowed them to put the stage in the centre of stadia rather than at the end.
And I was distraught recently at not being able to go to a recent show at a new venue called the Sphere. When the new fully spherical arena opened in Las Vegas (the clue is in the name), with the interior as one giant video screen, who did they ask to open it? U2. And what show did they do? All of Achtung Baby for its 30th anniversary. Check the show on YouTube, as again it is like nothing you have ever seen. Still they keep pushing the boundaries.
Just between us, I seriously considered flying over just to watch the Sphere show, but it might have meant instant divorce and so I restrained myself. But at least I’ll always have turned on Zoo TV.
