U2 at Wembley Stadium

by David Sheppard

Forum member from coldplaying.com.

Welcome to my review of the show and my 50th gig, which for me is quite a landmark.

At 6pm, The Hours came on. They’re an alright band; decent songs, decent band and they knew how to play. Glasvegas came onto the stage around 7pm, and did a decent 45 minutes set with songs from their first album, the Christmas EP they released last year and some covers. A good sing-along to Daddy’s Gone was the highlight of Glasvegas’ set.

8:30 soon rolled around and to the sound of Space Oddity by David Bowie, U2 came on stage. The stadium went wild as people rushed to get back into the main area to watch the boys kick off into Breathe, then without a break into No Line in the Horizon and again into Get on Your Boots, which sounds so much better live than it does on the album.

The sing-song from Magnificent was nothing compared to the singing for Beautiful Day, and it was a Beautiful day as the sun was setting on the beautiful Saturday, the roof was open on the stadium, allowing more sun to pour in. Without a break, the band went into “Until the End of the World” and straight into New Year’s Day, which I was very happy about because New Year’s Day is one of my favourite U2 songs and the staple of my New Year celebrations.

Another highlight came from I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, where the audience sang the first verse of the song. Being in a crowd of eighty-eight thousand people or so singing along to one of the best anthems ever was pure amazing, and something I won’t forget for a while. Then, the band started City of Blinding Lights just as the lights came on outside the stadium, lighting up the arch. I watched as a wave of camera flashes lit up the stadium making it into a city of blinding lights.

Sunday Bloody Sunday, which is so amazing live, also amazing live was Pride (In the name of love), which got the audience singing along including myself, so beautiful it was.

For the encore, U2 got onto the stage though a trap-door, and went straight into One. The next song was Bad, and with another sing-song the stadium was rocking. Another encore break followed, and the boys came back onto the stage with Bono wearing a funky jacket which fired out red lasers, singing from a microphone hanging down from the claw to sing Ultraviolet (Light My Way), followed by With or Without You and the last song of the night, Moment of Surrender.

The band said thank you and goodbye, and a mass cheer from the audience headed back into the depths of Wembley. Taking my seat on the coach home I was in a happy mood. What a way to celebrate my 50th concert; U2 have gatecrashed my top 5 concerts of all time list.

Thank you and goodnight

Kite

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