On This Day 22/08/2009 U2

On this day, 22 August 2009, Irish rock band U2 played Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on their 360° Tour with support provided by Glasvegas and The Hours.

Staged in support of the group's 2009 album No Line on the Horizon, the tour visited stadiums from 2009 through 2011. The concerts featured the band playing "in the round" on a circular stage, allowing the audience to surround them on all sides. To accommodate the stage configuration, a large four-legged structure nicknamed "The Claw" was built above the stage, with the sound system and a cylindrical, expanding video screen on top of it.

At 164 feet (50 m) tall, it was the largest stage ever constructed. U2 claimed that the tour would be "the first time a band has toured in stadiums with such a unique and original structure."

Setlist

Space Oddity (David Bowie song) (intro tape)

Breathe

No Line on the Horizon

Get on Your Boots

Magnificent

Beautiful Day

(with "Land of Our Fathers" and "Blackbird" snippets)

Mysterious Ways

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

(with "Stand By Me" snippet)

Stay (Faraway, So Close!)

Unknown Caller

The Unforgettable Fire

City of Blinding Lights

Vertigo

I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight

(remix; with "Two Tribes" snippet)

Sunday Bloody Sunday

(with "Oliver's Army" snippet)

Pride (In the Name of Love)

MLK

Walk On

(with "You'll Never Walk Alone" snippet)

Where the Streets Have No Name

(Desmond Tutu Speech)

One

Bad

(with "40" snippet)

Encore:

Ultraviolet (Light My Way)

With or Without You

Moment of Surrender

Review - Wales Online

U2 at the Millennium Stadium: 'The best gig Cardiff's ever had'

IT was one of the most eagerly anticipated gigs of the year.

And for 70,000 fans, it delivered on every count.

When U2 rolled into Cardiff last night for the last leg of their European 360 Degree Tour, they blew the audience away.

Taking centre stage and most of the audience’s breath away in the Millennium Stadium was the £20m set dubbed The Claw – which towered over the main circular stage.

As the iconic front man Bono emerged last night, clad in black and wearing his trademark sunglasses, the crowd erupted with delight.

The almost capacity 70,000 audience made it a record-breaking attendance for any gig at the stadium, outselling Take That’s 64,000 audience earlier this year.

After opening with Breathe, from the new album No Line on the Horizon, the band treated fans to a mix of their many hits from the last three decades and new songs from their latest CD.

Highlights included Beautiful Day, Mysterious Ways, Vertigo, Pride and One, as well as newer stand out songs, Get On Your Boots, Crazy Tonight and Magnificent.

Homage was also paid to The Edge’s Welsh roots, with Bono confessing to having once had singing lessons from the guitarist’s father, Garvin Evans.

“He told me to look after the consonants and the vowels will look after themselves,” Bono told the crowd, who lapped up his every word.

The Edge, whose family were in the Cardiff crowd, received a rapturous applause simply by saying “Cymru Am Byth”, before the band launched into I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For while the adoring masses sang along.

Of course, no U2 gig would be complete without a political message of democracy and freedom, and this was no exception.

The band dedicated their tracks Walk On and MLK to imprisoned Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu gave an uplifting video message before the song One.

Fans hailed the gig as possibly the greatest spectacle seen in the stadium’s 10 year history.

Martin Howarth, 25, from Swansea, said: “I’ve seen the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the stadium and the Rolling Stones but U2 were much better.

“They get such a mixed crowd because they have been going for so long. Some people knew all the words of the old stuff and others only knew the recent albums.

“You have to give them credit and say they are one of the best live bands in the world.

“I would definitely go back and see them again if they came to Cardiff.”

Lloyd James, 24, from Swansea, said: “It was unbelievable. I have never seen a gig like it before.

“The sound was fantastic and the stage looked immense.

“I’ve been to some pretty special rugby games in the Millennium Stadium before but the atmosphere was something totally different to those.

“It’s the best gig Cardiff’s ever had.”

On this Day 18/08/1993 U2

On this day, 18 August 1993, Irish rock band U2 played Cardiff Arms Park as part of their Zoo TV tour.

Support for the day was provided by Utah Saints and Stereo MCs.

Staged in support of their 1991 album Achtung Baby, the tour visited arenas and stadiums from 1992 to 1993. It was intended to mirror the group's new musical direction on Achtung Baby.

In contrast to U2's austere stage setups from previous tours, the Zoo TV Tour was an elaborately staged multimedia spectacle, satirising television and media oversaturation by attempting to instill "sensory overload" in its audience.

To escape their reputation for being earnest and overly serious, U2 embraced a more lighthearted and self-deprecating image on tour. Zoo TV and Achtung Baby were central to the group's 1990s reinvention.

The tour's concept was inspired by disparate television programming, coverage of the Gulf War, the desensitising effect of mass media, and "morning zoo" radio shows.

The stages featured dozens of large video screens that showed visual effects, video clips, and flashing text phrases, along with a lighting system partially made of Trabant automobiles.

The shows incorporated channel surfing, prank calls, video confessionals, a belly dancer, and live satellite transmissions with war-torn Sarajevo.

On stage, Bono portrayed several characters he conceived, including the leather-clad egomaniac "The Fly", the greedy televangelist "Mirror Ball Man", and the devilish "MacPhisto".

In contrast to other U2 tours, each of the Zoo TV shows opened with six to eight consecutive new songs before older material was played.

Setlist:

Zoo Station

The Fly

Even Better Than The Real Thing

Mysterious Ways

One / Hear Us Coming (snippet) / Unchained Melody (snippet)

Until the End of the World

New Year's Day

Numb

Babyface

Angel of Harlem

Dancing Queen

Stay (Faraway, So Close!)

Satellite Of Love

Bad / Irish Heartbeat (snippet) / The First Time (snippet)

Bullet the Blue Sky

Running To Stand Still

Where the Streets Have No Name

Pride (In the Name of Love)

encore(s):

Desire / You Make Me Feel So Young (snippet) / Green Green Grass Of Home (snippet)

I Just Called To Say I Love You (snippet) / Ultraviolet (Light My Way) / My Way (snippet)

With or Without You / Shine Like Stars (snippet)

Love Is Blindness

Can't Help Falling In Love

ARCHIVE REVIEW
by Steve Duffy, South Wales Echo

The band too have moved on, as they must. CNN and NBC were the perfect backing for the PVC of Bono as band started with a huge chunk from their previous album Achtung Baby - techno-rock gloss of Even Better Than The Real Thing, The Fly (and with exotic dancer) Mysterious Ways, three tracks which stand with Us2 best.

Normal service was quickly resumed with New Year’s Day, who struck the crowd dumb with his new solo, effort, Numb.

On Babyface, Bono invites a girl up - these days she gets a camcorder rather than a kiss, and promptly zooms in on his crotch.

the band at last leave the technology behind to take to a small stage for semi-acoustic segment - a memorable Angel Of Harlem, an improbably good version of Abba’s Dancing Queen, the excellent Stay (Faraway So Close) from Zooropa and Satellite of Love (with fuzzy image of Lou Reed bearing down).

The crowd are predictably welcoming for the U2 - the anthems’ segment.

The old stadium rock atmosphere is recreated for Bad, although Bullet The Blue Sky is, with out irony, turned into a horrid Nuremberg style rally, to a backdrop of burning crosses turning into swastikas, Bono ending with clenched salute declaring, "We must not let this happen again." Please don’t.

They finish with Where The Streets Have No Name and Pride, and we’re left with a relaxation video of tropical fish.

Bono returns for the encore as MacPhisto - dressed in gold glitter suit, platform shoes, red devil horns and lip gloss for Desire.

Then it’s on the mobile phone to Lady Thatcher.

the band may have matured musically, but not politically - a naive call to the Commons in the summer recess to sing I Just Called To Say I Love You to The Lady (wrong number too), to be told by a telephonist to write in.

We should all write "Capitalism Suck" 100 times on our £10 tour programmes and send them to the band.

It ends wonderfully quietly - Love Is Blindness and a quick impression of Elvis before a simple sign off with I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You.

"Elvis Is Still In The Stadium," were his last words.

Somehow Bono himself never really was.

On this day 22/08/2009 U2

Images may be subject to copyright

On this day, 22 August 2009, Irish rock band U2 played Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on their 360° Tour with support provided by Glasvegas and The Hours.

Staged in support of the group's 2009 album No Line on the Horizon, the tour visited stadiums from 2009 through 2011. The concerts featured the band playing "in the round" on a circular stage, allowing the audience to surround them on all sides. To accommodate the stage configuration, a large four-legged structure nicknamed "The Claw" was built above the stage, with the sound system and a cylindrical, expanding video screen on top of it.

At 164 feet (50 m) tall, it was the largest stage ever constructed. U2 claimed that the tour would be "the first time a band has toured in stadiums with such a unique and original structure."

Review - Wales Online

U2 at the Millennium Stadium: 'The best gig Cardiff's ever had'

IT was one of the most eagerly anticipated gigs of the year.

And for 70,000 fans, it delivered on every count.

When U2 rolled into Cardiff last night for the last leg of their European 360 Degree Tour, they blew the audience away.

Taking centre stage and most of the audience’s breath away in the Millennium Stadium was the £20m set dubbed The Claw – which towered over the main circular stage.

As the iconic front man Bono emerged last night, clad in black and wearing his trademark sunglasses, the crowd erupted with delight.

The almost capacity 70,000 audience made it a record-breaking attendance for any gig at the stadium, outselling Take That’s 64,000 audience earlier this year.

After opening with Breathe, from the new album No Line on the Horizon, the band treated fans to a mix of their many hits from the last three decades and new songs from their latest CD.

Highlights included Beautiful Day, Mysterious Ways, Vertigo, Pride and One, as well as newer stand out songs, Get On Your Boots, Crazy Tonight and Magnificent.

Homage was also paid to The Edge’s Welsh roots, with Bono confessing to having once had singing lessons from the guitarist’s father, Garvin Evans.

“He told me to look after the consonants and the vowels will look after themselves,” Bono told the crowd, who lapped up his every word.

The Edge, whose family were in the Cardiff crowd, received a rapturous applause simply by saying “Cymru Am Byth”, before the band launched into I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For while the adoring masses sang along.

Of course, no U2 gig would be complete without a political message of democracy and freedom, and this was no exception.

The band dedicated their tracks Walk On and MLK to imprisoned Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu gave an uplifting video message before the song One.

Fans hailed the gig as possibly the greatest spectacle seen in the stadium’s 10 year history.

Martin Howarth, 25, from Swansea, said: “I’ve seen the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the stadium and the Rolling Stones but U2 were much better.

“They get such a mixed crowd because they have been going for so long. Some people knew all the words of the old stuff and others only knew the recent albums.

“You have to give them credit and say they are one of the best live bands in the world.

“I would definitely go back and see them again if they came to Cardiff.”

Lloyd James, 24, from Swansea, said: “It was unbelievable. I have never seen a gig like it before.

“The sound was fantastic and the stage looked immense.

“I’ve been to some pretty special rugby games in the Millennium Stadium before but the atmosphere was something totally different to those.

“It’s the best gig Cardiff’s ever had.”

Setlist

Space Oddity (David Bowie song) (intro tape)

Breathe

No Line on the Horizon

Get on Your Boots

Magnificent

Beautiful Day

(with "Land of Our Fathers" and "Blackbird" snippets)

Mysterious Ways

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

(with "Stand By Me" snippet)

Stay (Faraway, So Close!)

Unknown Caller

The Unforgettable Fire

City of Blinding Lights

Vertigo

I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight

(remix; with "Two Tribes" snippet)

Sunday Bloody Sunday

(with "Oliver's Army" snippet)

Pride (In the Name of Love)

MLK

Walk On

(with "You'll Never Walk Alone" snippet)

Where the Streets Have No Name

(Desmond Tutu Speech)

One

Bad

(with "40" snippet)

Encore:

Ultraviolet (Light My Way)

With or Without You

Moment of Surrender

U2 in numbers

1 One was the third single from the band’s 1991 album, Achtung Baby, and was released in 1992. Tensions almost prompted U2 to break up until the group rallied round writing the single.

2 U2 formed in Dublin, Ireland, on September 25, 1976. The band consists of Bono (vocals and guitar), The Edge (guitar, keyboards, and vocals), Adam Clayton (bass guitar), and Larry Mullen Jr (drums and percussion).

3 Bono’s nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize.

4 Days it took to install the stage, screen, production equipment, lighting rig and speakers for last night’s concert.

8 Number of hours to set up the massive video screen for last night’s Millennium Stadium show.

11 U2’s first single, 11 O’Clock Tick-Tock, was released in May 1980.

12 The cost of the official tour programme is £12.

12 Studio albums: Boy (1980); October (1981); War (1983); The Unforgettable Fire (1984); The Joshua Tree (1987); Rattle and Hum (1988); Achtung Baby (1991); Zooropa (1993); Pop (1997); All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000); How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004); and No Line on the Horizon (2009)

15 European cities the band is visiting with the 360° Tour: Barcelona, Milan, Gothenburg, Zagreb, Amsterdam, Paris, Nice, Dublin, Chorzow, Berlin, Gelsenkirchen, London, Sheffield, Glasgow and Cardiff.

22 Grammy Awards won by the band. Their first was for The Joshua Tree and they are tied with Stevie Wonder as contemporary artists with the most Grammys.

22 The band’s standing in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.

22 Number of songs on the set list at last week’s Wembley gig.

40 Also known as 40 (How Long) is the 10th and final track from War. The song is noted for its live performances, often involving the audience singing along for minutes after the band have left the stage. The lyrics are based on the Bible’s Psalm 40.

52 The highest chart position debut album Boy reached in 1980.

60 Approximate weight, in tons, of the stadium video screen.

90 Minutes taken for the first ticket batch for last night’s concert to sell out after going on sale on March 20

164The height in feet of last night’s set, which was twice as high as the one used by the Rolling Stones when they visited Cardiff in 2006.

180 Number of trucks needed to bring the set into the capital.

360 The 360° Tour features an innovative, wrap-around screens and 360° stage, which should give the audience an unobstructed view from all angles.

360 Estimated number of tour crew members, factoring in drivers and vendors in addition to ground crew.

400 The weight in tons of the set.

1500 Starting price in euros to spend the night in the penthouse suite at the Clarence Hotel in Dublin, owned by Bono and The Edge.

70000 Last night’s estimated attendance was the biggest ever for a gig at the Millennium Stadium, beating the 64,000 who watched Take That earlier this summer.

88000 The crowd U2 played to at Wembley on August 14.

95000 The capacity of the Stade de France in Paris, the largest crowd expected on the European tour.

500000 Number of pixels on the expanding video screen at last night’s Cardiff concert.

20,000,000 The value in pounds of the set on which the mega band performed.

67,000,000 Results when “U2” is typed into Google.

145,000,000 Worldwide album sales.

423,000,000 Band’s combined wealth in pounds sterling, as estimated by the 2009 Sunday Times Rich List.

On this day 18/08/1993 U2

Images may be subject to copyright

On this day, 18 August 1993, Irish rock giants U2 played Cardiff’s Arms Park as part of their Zoo TV Tour. Support for the day was provided by Utah Saints and Stereo MCs.

Staged in support of their 1991 album Achtung Baby, the tour visited arenas and stadiums from 1992 to 1993. It was intended to mirror the group's new musical direction on Achtung Baby.

In contrast to U2's austere stage setups from previous tours, the Zoo TV Tour was an elaborately staged multimedia spectacle, satirising television and media oversaturation by attempting to instill "sensory overload" in its audience.

To escape their reputation for being earnest and overly serious, U2 embraced a more lighthearted and self-deprecating image on tour. Zoo TV and Achtung Baby were central to the group's 1990s reinvention.

The tour's concept was inspired by disparate television programming, coverage of the Gulf War, the desensitising effect of mass media, and "morning zoo" radio shows.

The stages featured dozens of large video screens that showed visual effects, video clips, and flashing text phrases, along with a lighting system partially made of Trabant automobiles.

The shows incorporated channel surfing, prank calls, video confessionals, a belly dancer, and live satellite transmissions with war-torn Sarajevo.

On stage, Bono portrayed several characters he conceived, including the leather-clad egomaniac "The Fly", the greedy televangelist "Mirror Ball Man", and the devilish "MacPhisto".

In contrast to other U2 tours, each of the Zoo TV shows opened with six to eight consecutive new songs before older material was played.

Setlist:

Zoo Station

The Fly

Even Better Than The Real Thing

Mysterious Ways

One / Hear Us Coming (snippet) / Unchained Melody (snippet)

Until the End of the World

New Year's Day

Numb

Babyface

Angel of Harlem

Dancing Queen

Stay (Faraway, So Close!)

Satellite Of Love

Bad / Irish Heartbeat (snippet) / The First Time (snippet)

Bullet the Blue Sky

Running To Stand Still

Where the Streets Have No Name

Pride (In the Name of Love)

Encore(s):

Desire / You Make Me Feel So Young (snippet) / Green Green Grass Of Home (snippet)

I Just Called To Say I Love You (snippet) / Ultraviolet (Light My Way) / My Way (snippet)

With or Without You / Shine Like Stars (snippet)

Love Is Blindness

Can't Help Falling In Love

ARCHIVE REVIEW
by Steve Duffy, South Wales Echo

The band too have moved on, as they must. CNN and NBC were the perfect backing for the PVC of Bono as band started with a huge chunk from their previous album Achtung Baby - techno-rock gloss of Even Better Than The Real Thing, The Fly (and with exotic dancer) Mysterious Ways, three tracks which stand with Us2 best.

Normal service was quickly resumed with New Year’s Day, who struck the crowd dumb with his new solo, effort, Numb.

On Babyface, Bono invites a girl up - these days she gets a camcorder rather than a kiss, and promptly zooms in on his crotch.

the band at last leave the technology behind to take to a small stage for semi-acoustic segment - a memorable Angel Of Harlem, an improbably good version of Abba’s Dancing Queen, the excellent Stay (Faraway So Close) from Zooropa and Satellite of Love (with fuzzy image of Lou Reed bearing down).

The crowd are predictably welcoming for the U2 - the anthems’ segment.

The old stadium rock atmosphere is recreated for Bad, although Bullet The Blue Sky is, with out irony, turned into a horrid Nuremberg style rally, to a backdrop of burning crosses turning into swastikas, Bono ending with clenched salute declaring, "We must not let this happen again." Please don’t.

They finish with Where The Streets Have No Name and Pride, and we’re left with a relaxation video of tropical fish.

Bono returns for the encore as MacPhisto - dressed in gold glitter suit, platform shoes, red devil horns and lip gloss for Desire.

Then it’s on the mobile phone to Lady Thatcher.

the band may have matured musically, but not politically - a naive call to the Commons in the summer recess to sing I Just Called To Say I Love You to The Lady (wrong number too), to be told by a telephonist to write in.

We should all write "Capitalism Suck" 100 times on our £10 tour programmes and send them to the band.

It ends wonderfully quietly - Love Is Blindness and a quick impression of Elvis before a simple sign off with I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You.

"Elvis Is Still In The Stadium," were his last words.

Somehow Bono himself never really was.

On this day 29/06/05

U2

Images may be subject to copyright

On this day, 29 June 2005, Irish supergroup U2 played Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on their Vertigo Tour in support of the group's 2004 album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Support was provided by Starsailor and The Killers.

The tour grossed US$260 million in 110 sold-out concerts in 2005, making it the top-grossing tour of the year.

Review - South Wales Echo

U2 are simply AWESOME!

Awesome for the soul, hard on the voice.

Awesome for the soul, hard on the voice.

That was the U2 effect Bono and the boys had on the 60,000 passionate fans at the Millennium Stadium last night, who left with croaky throats.

It was an emotional and full-blooded performance - from both the biggest band in the world and the throngs gathered to see them, many of whom matched Bono word-for-word with their singing, as the band played a mixture of their old classics and new material from their latest album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.

Backed by an enormous bank of lights with speakers and screens to each side and a stage which snaked out into the crowd at both ends, the overall effect was simple but very evocative as the band stoked their fans into a frenzy of flailing arms and picture mobiles with exuberant renditions of Vertigo, Elevation, Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, Pride (In The Name Of Love) and Where The Streets Have No Name in a two-and-a-quarter-hour set.

As the music world's most vocal lobbyist, it was inevitable that Bono would get political, but his heartfelt messages were pitched just the right side of preachy.

He also had praise for Cardiff's 'beautiful, beautiful' stadium which, he said, 'should make you excited about the future'.

Bono also gave thanks to Wales for giving the world guitarist The Edge (aka Dave Evans), whose Welsh relations were out in force.

Overall, watching U2 made for an inspirational and moving experience. I just need barrels of Lockets now!

Setlist

Vertigo

I Will Follow

The Electric Co. / I Can See For Miles (snippet)

Elevation

New Year's Day

Beautiful Day / Here Comes The Sun (snippet)

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

All I Want Is You

City of Blinding Lights

Miracle Drug

Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own / The Black Hills of Dakota (snippet)

Love and Peace or Else

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Bullet the Blue Sky / The Hands That Built America (snippet) / Please (snippet) / When Johnny Comes Marching Home (snippet)

Running To Stand Still / Happy Birthday (snippet) / Walk On (snippet)

Pride (In the Name of Love)

Where the Streets Have No Name / Dancing With Tears In My Eyes (snippet)

One / Unchained Melody (snippet)

encore(s):

Zoo Station

The Fly

With or Without You

All Because Of You

Yahweh Full band acoustic

Vertigo / See Me, Feel Me (snippet) / If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (snippet)