U2, Camp Nou, Barcelona
Thursday 02 July 2009
Latest in Reviews
On Facebook
Arts & Ents blogs
Too few kids are getting cultural experiences
So half of all parents believe that it isn’t their job to teach their children about history and cul...
Interview with ‘Being Human’ creator Toby Whithouse
The writer behind BBC3’s supernatural comedy-drama ‘Being Human’ speaks to Neela Debnath about serie...
Looking Forward To The Past: A chat with Poker Flat boss Steve Bug
One of the main reasons I became so obsessive with house and techno music was a live DJ set by Germa...
VIEW GALLERY
Nothing, not the sneak preview footage on the band's website, nor the pictures on the front of the Spanish dailies, prepares you for the monstrous sight that welcomes 90,000 rabid U2 fans inside the home of Barcelona FC. The aliens have truly landed on the hallowed turf of the European champions. Envisioned and co-designed by Mark Fisher and Willie Williams, the stage for U2's 360° Tour looks like a spaceship or a supersized version of HG Wells' War of the Worlds tripod Martian fighting machines, with a dash of Catalan visionary architect Antoni Gaudi thrown in. It certainly affords every one of the capacity crowd in Europe's biggest stadium a clear view of the biggest band in the world, returning to the live arena after four years.
Tonight we get Bono the crowd-conducting showman and travelling salesman of the startling opener "Breathe", the first of four consecutive songs from the current album No Line on the Horizon. This is an unprecedented move in stadium rock. That U2 just about pull it off says a lot about their daring and a good-natured audience who join in on the riff of "Get On Your Boots" and the chorus of "Magnificent" and "Beautiful Day". But it's the first night and guitarist the Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr make fierce eye contact as they struggle to lock into the chiming "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", and there are other ring-rusty moments.
Bono dedicates "Angel of Harlem" not to Billie Holiday, who inspired it but Michael Jackson, and ad libs "Man In The Mirror" and "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough", revealing a surprisingly-effective falsetto. The linkup with the astronauts on the International Space Station is the nod in the direction of past U2 extravaganzas like Zooropa and teeters on the edge of the Popmart opening night debacle but, when the stage set comes alive during "City Of Blinding Light" and "Vertigo" shakes Camp Nou to its foundations, no band can touch U2 for life-enhancing spectacle. Bono's militancy informs "Walk On", highlighting the plight of Aung San Suu Kyi. .
Thirty years on, U2 still transcend the limits of stadium rock by taking chances, and succeed where The Who, the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen often play it safe.
UK tour 14-22 August (www.u2.com)
- 1 BANNED: The most controversial films
- 2 Spotify: 1 million plays, £108 return
- 3 Six Grammys, five years off: Adele puts love before career
- 4 Rich art collectors 'know the price of everything – and the value of nothing'
- 5 Adam Riches: A comedian who strikes fear into his audience
- 6 Mona Lisa's 'twin sister' is discovered – 500 years late
- 7 The artist vandalising advertising with poetry
- 1 Spotify: 1 million plays, £108 return
- 2 How Koscielny became prince of the Emirates
- 3 Apple admits it has a human rights problem
- 4 Mark Steel: If religion is 'marginal', I'm the Pope
- 5 No secularism please, we're British
- 6 Lightning kills an entire football team
- 7 Matthew Norman: There's always the Human Rights Act, Trevor
- 8 Special report: The hungry generation
- 9 I was born to be a killer. Every night I see the Devil in my dreams
- 10 Six Grammys, five years off: Adele puts love before career
Free trial of new Independent iPad app
Get your daily dose of the best of British journalism, sponsored by American Airlines
Win a three-week coastal jaunt
Spend three weeks exploring every nook and cranny of gorgeous Atlantic Canada.
Amazing restaurant offers
Three glasses of free champagne and a special menu at 46 top London restaurants.
Latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Day In a Page
How an abortion divided America
Did they all live happily ever after? That's up to you...




Comments