Special thanks to our special Vertigo Tour correspondent Simon Vigrow for sharing some photos he took with his cellphone during the show. We’ll have his concert recap soon. Check them out here.

The African Well Fund is pleased to share video shot during their visit to Uganda this fall. This video includes shots of several of the wells built with funds raised during the Bono Birthday Well campaigns - meaning the “thank you” that you hear from the people of Uganda is aimed at you. Check it out:

Special thanks to special Vertigo Tour Correspondent Rob Perry for sending in his report from New Zealand!
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The wet and chilly Friday evening into which my plane touched down in Auckland at 5:00pm was a far cry from the hot, sunny Wellington afternoon that I had left behind me. U2 just don’t know how to pick their venues! I’d missed out on a ticket to tonight’s concert, so I was unhurried. I threw on a raincoat, grabbed an American hotdog and a Fanta and dissolved myself into the thick river of less unhurried people flowing down to Mount Smart Stadium, where I found a very wet but perfect plastic seat just outside the gate. It’s amazing how happy you can be sitting alone outside a gate that everyone else is allowed through, in the cold rain with a soaking wet itchy butt.

Would I have rather been inside? Of course. But there was a quality of excitement about being two hundred metres away that you don’t get being one metre away. It was the musical equivalent of eroticism - the voyeurism that would be ruined by the seeing. When Edge did his guitar riff at the beginning of City of Blinding Lights, the thought “It’s really them!! They’re here!!” was at least as exhilarating for me out here as it was for anyone in there. I don’t have any doubt about that. There’s also something equally exhilarating about seeing the back of the stage suddenly light up and hearing a 45,000-strong crowd roar approval from so far but yet so close.

No ticket lottery for the “ellipse” (”uterus”) area. First in, first served.

In one of the first few songs, perhaps ‘Elevation’, Bono sings a verse from ‘Four Seasons in One Day’, by Neil Finn from New Zealand’s Crowded House, which receives a big cheer. After ‘I Will Follow’, Bono says, “The first place this was a hit was this place.” Big cheer. “Kiwis ahead of the groove.” Bigger cheer.

Something I learnt this weekend is that Bono’s patriotic boosts to his audiences around the world are not just crowd-pleasers. They’re a hundred percent sincere. When he introduced One Tree Hill, you knew what a special place New Zealand held in all of their hearts. For those who don’t know, One Tree Hill was chopped down by a Maori protester a few years ago. I was moved when Bono said, “Sprinkle some seeds up there. Grow some love”, a request which he reiterated at the end during ‘Kite’.

About five songs in, Bono said, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for your patience.” Huge cheer.

And then …… God smiled on me.

A guy came out of the gate and said, “You got a ticket? ”

Thinking he must be a security guard, I defensively said, “No, but I was told I’m allowed to sit here.”

Holding out his ticket, he asked, “You want one?”

“Ughh….ktplrrrrrrrr….”

“You’re welcome. Have a good one.”

” …… YEAH, BABY!!!!!”

I ran in as ‘Love and Peace’ was beginning. I was high up in the stand on Edge’s side. It’s not possible to do justice to that moment in words. The best analogy I can think of is the comparison between a person waking up and seeing the same old sun and trees out the window, and a blind person seeing them for the first time (by which I don’t mean this was my first U2 concert - it was my tenth). Clearly everyone around me had already had their buzz from seeing the stage for the first time half an hour ago, but here was my moment to do the same while somehow not jumping out of my skin at the beautiful redness of the ‘Love and Peace’ lighting. For the stage, I had been expecting ‘Live in Chicago’. I knew it would be bigger, but I had no idea it would be so much better.

I’m anxious to express something subjective here, because this was the moment that awed me and has stayed with me. The stage was shiny and new, and the lights had right angles - not circular and blurry. There was a crispness about it all, right down to Adam’s stunning red shirt. And the video screens up the top left and right were beautiful in quality, not just any old video monitors. It was all so right-angled and crisp.

Blood red crowd, rose red shirt on Adam, beautiful colour screens, shiny metal on Bono’s boots, crisp guitar, ninety-degree angles on the stage lights. New. Crisp. Young. Current. Kick ass.

As a longtime fan, I had been telling less experienced concert-goers throughout the day that it would all look and sound better than they could ever imagine, and that the band was very far from having had its time. It turned out I was preaching what I needed to hear. The last person I was expecting to be surprised by their quality was me, and this was more than a little humbling. To put it crudely, the band had cut the crap and were showing us their willy, and I’m sure I was not alone in expecting it to have shriveled just a little by now. Wrong.

Bono said something in the middle of ‘Love and Peace’ that really moved me. He said, “All the war and terrorism in the world at the moment is just a family feud. That’s all it is.” A family feud. Wow.

On Saturday morning, priority number one was to get the Deluxe edition of ‘18 Singles’ from a record shop. It turns out Canada wasn’t the only country to experience a delay with that one. Universal New Zealand had promised me it would finally be in stores nationwide on Saturday morning at the latest, and I was very happy to find they had stuck to their word.

I walked back to my uncle’s house and kissed my precious Milan DVD goodbye for now before heading down to join the cattle queue at midday. Ended up getting a spot right up beside the stage at the end of Edge’s “arm”. For many people, this would have been their dream. Not for me. I was wishing I was where I had been the night before. Jumping up and down and punching the air looks so romantic until you’re amongst it. I’m more one of those people who likes to, as Bono has said, comment from the back on how good the crowd looks tonight. The beauty of the stage and the entire experience went down the plughole that night. But it was more than worth it to be up close and personal with Bono and Edge.

This night was more light-hearted. More lightweight? Perhaps a little. It was memorable for Bono’s one-liners. Edge was right in saying Bono could have been a stand-up.

A couple of examples:

1. Bono was introducing Sometimes, and was quite genuinely in a serious mood. One of his crew handed him a water bottle. “This song is dedicated to ……” He took a swig. For a completely unrelated reason, a group of people beside him burst out in laughter. “I was going to say something serious, actually”, he tells them with a mock expression of offence. “Azzz uuuusual.” Everyone laughs. He turns around 180 degrees and is suddenly seven years old: “WELL, YOU DON’T LISTEN!!!” Huge laughter throughout the stadium. Then he introduced Sometimes: “If my father were here tonight, there are three things he’d say to me: “Take those f—ing sunglasses off.” Big cheer. “If you’re going to sing a song about me that has a high note in it, don’t f— it up.” Bigger cheer. “And lastly, look after the consonants, and the vowels will look after themselves.”

2. “Is it just my imagination …… or are you folks better looking than the one’s last night?” Massive cheer. [Serious note: we actually needed that. A lot of people that night felt a little bad about possibly being an afterthought following “U2’s long-awaited return to New Zealand” the night before.] “Is The Edge better looking than The Edge from last night?” Big cheer. “Is Adam better looking than the Adam from last night?” Big cheer. “Is Larry …… no, no, I’m not going there.” (Editor’s note: Larry is always better looking.)

To the band’s credit, the setlist had about seven or eight different songs. Desire was sounding good but not great. Then, halfway through, Larry kicked in. Whoa!!! That’s more like it!!! Moral of the story: Desire is not about the guitar. It’s all about the drums.

I can’t express in words what it was like having Edge playing three feet away from me. Anyone has seen a forty-six-year-old man standing just in front of them playing an electric guitar. But this time there were a couple of tiny slight little differences - it was The Edge, and the little ditty that he was strumming was Until The End Of The World.

One thing that really struck me was that during the gruntiest guitar part of UTEOTW, Edge was just gently stroking the fret board. Sometimes his body might be gyrating for visual effect, but I had a realisation at that moment that U2 are in charge of the song-writing and technical brilliance, but the speakers are in charge of kicking arse. That was absolutely amazing to me, because people on the other side of Auckland would have been woken up what these light little strokes that Edge was doing. This gave me two insights. Firstly, U2’s magic and power come from their writing and technical mastery, because anyone can make something loud. And secondly, the band will be no less great when they’re sixty, or if they’re in wheelchairs for that matter.

In ‘Sunday’, Bono did something I thought was pretty cool, but I had no way of knowing how original it was - he beckoned for an Irish flag from the front of the crowd, wrapped it around his head, and went behind the stage to get someone (Dallas?) to carefully write “Coexist” on the middle white section.

Bono included a few more lines by Neil Finn, this time from his Split Enz song ‘I Got You’, into one of the last songs, which made the crowd go nuts. He also praised New Zealand in some altered lyrics for Beautiful Day. Bono wore a New Zealand Warriors rugby league team logo on the back of his jacket, which he later swapped for an All Blacks jersey, doing a mock rugby kick into the crowd. Once again, this wasn’t just crowd-pleasing. U2 are rugby fans, and are in awe of the All Blacks. Bono’s All Blacks jersey had a number 7 on the back. Bono took it off to reveal an Irish rugby team jersey underneath. Boos. Then he turned around to show the number 13. Laughs.

In response to the entire night’s loud applause, Bono said, “This is crazy. You’re crazy people. Crazy island folk.”

They were three songs into the second encore now. Surely no more than one song to go. They couldn’t possibly miss out One Tree Hill. And just as I had that thought, the crowd quite loudly began giving verbal expression to it in a “One Tree Hill” chant. I was worried that the band might send the crowd away empty-handed. But then the familiar octaves riff started up. DEAFENING cheer. I and everyone else were moved when Bono announced that Greg Carroll’s family were in the audience tonight, and that the band send them their love.

‘One Tree Hill’, which I had missed visually the previous night, was amazing. After telling us, “Don’t forget about us, now”, Bono adopted a schoolteacher face and said, “Now go home!”, which was received with laughter, but also as a compliment, because he was really saying, “Stop liking us so much and crying out for more all the time!” We wanted them to love us, but also we wanted them to know we loved them too. Bono has a talent for confirming both.

The lucky fan in New Zealand who “caught” the kite Bono released during the song “Kite” has put the item (and the two helium balloons) up for auction. But before your moral compass goes off, Claire Keam says she’s planning to donate proceeds from the auction to charity.

See the auction on Trade Me

The auction is due to close on December 5th.

Special thanks to our Vertigo Tour correspondent, Stephen Dixon, for filing his report! (Grab a tasty beverage…it’s a great read!)
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Phowar! It took them a while to get here, but after The Wait – missing out on Elevation, being at the tail end of the Vertigo tour, and finally the extra year or so between ticket sales and the concert – the boys finally made it to Melbourne. And delivered.

This story starts even before that. I got on the U2 bandwagon after the release of Rattle and Hum, did Lovetown and settled into Joshua-Tree era U2 quite comfortably, but drifted away for a while during the Zooropa and Pop era. I slowly came back with ATYCLB, arriving fully in the midst of the anticipation stretch prior to HTDAAB.

With HTDAAB still on Very High Personal Rotation, the eventual announcement of the Pacific leg of the Vertigo tour is welcomed. The party is decided – my two nieces Dragana and Ivana, who are in the teenage years, and my brother-in-law. The girls discovered U2 in a casual way with Beautiful Day and have since been primed through exposure to a good deal of the back catalogue. =) My brother-in-law is more of a casual fan who cited Zooropa as has favorite era.

Tickets proved to be the first challenge. It’s been a while since I last bought tickets - like early ‘90s. I’ve never done phone ordering (and definitely not internet ordering), just the traditional Queue Outside The Department Store With The Ticket Sales Counter From Early In The Morning thing. For the first show I decide that the progress of technology has to have made this redundant. Get to work early. Log in. Attempt to get on to the website. Fat chance. All I get is the “We Are Overloaded” splash page.

Refresh.

Same.

Refresh.

Same.

No change at the end of the day when I leave work. Even though the tickets sold before 11:00 AM I believe. D’oh.

Second concert announced. Phew! Second chance at tickets. Right: back to the traditional method. Didn’t do the overnight thing, but got up early. Off to the local news agency which has a ticket sales counter. NO queue. Huh? Where’s the queue? “Good morning, sir. U2? Yes, take this numbered ticket. We shall serve you all in order when the tickets go on sale at 9:00 AM. Number 85 in the queue? No. That’s the second book. You’re number 185.” Thank-you. Off to the nearest department store with a ticket sales counter.

This is more like it. A 100-yard queue featuring people with (and in) sleeping bags, chairs and blankets; playing cards, reading books, chatting. I join the queue with others who had missed on tickets for the first show. 8:00 AM: the queue is allowed to move inside and up the escalators to the ticket counter. Some of us take advantage of the fact that the queue snakes through the furniture department. Some keen ones from the front are counting the queue; I’m about 50, apparently. So far so good. Fellow queuers have friends sitting in front of a computer at home. I’m doing this on my own. Since The Goal is general admission, I think I’m in with a chance of getting what I am looking for.

9:00 AM: sales start. We move forward. Lady in front is on the phone to her friend who seems to have got through to the web site, just as we are nearing the counter. She’s able to leave the queue once being certain that friend has indeed got the tickets for her group.

Word in the queue is that A-reserve seating is already sold out. Glad I’m going for general admission, otherwise I’d be sitting a long way back… I have no problem getting my four GA tickets. I finally get them in my hand, and the day begins to return to normal.

The announcement comes…No show…New dates to be advised soon… sometime… In the words of a controversial Australian tennis player: “COME ON!”

Finally the new dates. November 19. Sunday, not Saturday. During Dragana’s exams. Oh, well. We’re not bailing out now…

Finally the day arrives. It’s a hot one. Forecast temperature is into the high 80s. The nominated entrance is on the north side of the Telstra Dome – in the sun. We drive in, find parking and walk around to Gate 7 at around 1:00 PM.

There’s scary notices on the ticket about not bringing cameras. I leave my slightly bulky G3 behind.

The ‘queue’ consists of a number of barricaded bays around the perimeter of the stadium. We are able to get into the fourth bay. Like sheep in a pen. Good enough to get into the front area near the stage, I guess. Now the wait. We’re in the sun, but at least on the east side so we’ll be soon in the shade. So we sit and wait. Talk. Play mobile phone games. Get let out to visit the refreshment stalls and toilets. Should have brought a paper or deck of cards as the more experienced ones have (obviously I forgot the department store queue a year ago).

Amnesty International have a stand near the gate, but it seems to be a bit quiet for them. Perhaps it’s their choice of theme, calling for the release of David Hicks, in Guantanamo Bay after being arrested in Afghanistan in late 2001.

A sound check. Mostly bits of noise, not much that’s decipherable. Just a bit of Sunday Bloody Sunday’s intro.

More waiting. Alternating between sitting and standing on the concrete, seeing trains go past, others sitting, milling, waiting. Two girls walk past with a long banner proclaiming “iwant2work4bono.com”. Not sure of their motives. Maybe I’ll check it out later.

T-shirt sales seem to have gone well. There’s a back catalogue of U2 wear in the crowd as well, some Popmart, Rattle and Hum, and some 2005 Vertigo stuff around. All high credibility stuff before EBay…perhaps less so in 2006. There’s a few Kanye West t-shirts around too – hope they don’t get bored with the main act.

Suddenly everyone’s up and crowding towards the end of the pen closest to the gate. I muse if it’s for real or if someone just scratched themselves in bay one and triggered a reaction. Soon bay three is drained and then in another moment we get the chance to move forward.

Good fun keeping the party together in all this… The security guards tell us to remove bottle caps from all bottles (so Bono won’t slip on one?) and have bags opened for inspection. Since I’m traveling light all I have to do is toss my cap. Might as well toss the bottle too, since I’ve drained my last water. Nobody seems to care about cameras.

Even though we’re bay four, there are other bays on the other side of the gate that were created after we arrived. So we’re more like bay eight, then. Anyhow, let’s try to get a decent spot near the stage. Hand over whole ticket (where’s my memento? “We’ll give you back one as you leave” Yeah, right.) .Run – oh, security guard, fast walk a bit – run, etcetera across to the front with everyone else. Keep close track of young nieces. Despite their jeans being a little too tight for a fast walk.

We end up between the two runways that lead to the B stages. Not right at the front, but just a few yards back and virtually in front of Edge’s domain on the stage. We don’t have the light curtain here, but the rear is a screen made of a large array of lights in blocks, while the HTDAAB theme of red on black strips and targets is a strong feature of the staging.

It’s now around 5:00 PM. So we still wait. A group nearby start a drinking game. A security guard is happy to take time-out at this early stage to watch with interest. We note the new apartment tower that gets to see into the stadium and wonder what the sound shall be like up there. My nieces glance around and spot a Tom Cruise look-alike. Well, I suppose there’s a resemblance… They take photos from afar on their mobiles before Ivana gets up the gumption to ask for a photo with him.

A briefing about how there is a minute chance of one of the girls being called on stage sometime by Bono, so be prepared to accept the invitation should it happen. More alternating between standing and sitting to balance the strain on legs and posterior. A breeze blows a few times, but otherwise the person density is adding to warmth of the evening.

Getting out for refreshments and relief involves working back through the crowd around the B stage peninsula, getting a dotty stamp on your neck, getting someone else’s ticket back form a security guard at the edge of the area and the anticipation of having to get back inside to your party again later. Brother-in-law looks after sustenance and Goes-Beyond-The-Call, bypassing the food stands inside the stadium and heading back towards the railway station for some Subway. Beats hot chips with tomato sauce. People are buying beer and Coke in open cups and bottled water – with bottle caps. Keep them away from Bono, fellas…

The stage has a row of seats and mikes. Kanye West will not be working alone, but has, in addition to a pair of backing singers and DJ, a string section featuring a harp, cellos, and violins all played by ladies wearing various black dresses and red rectangles across their eyes.

At the appointed time the support act begins. The reaction is somewhat mixed. Some get into it, some try and some don’t bother. Certainly there is a lack of familiarity with the material for a large part of the crowd. Being unfamiliar with the lyrics, I find the sound is not clear enough to help. Although he does seem to have a fixation with rectums. He gets the best reaction with a song (is that the right word for this genre?) that includes a snippet of Sweat Dreams by the Eurythmics. At this point, many more join in to sing along. He expresses appreciation for getting the chance to tour with U2. Fair enough, too.

Then is The Transformation. Lots of activity to rearrange the stage for the main act. And nothing dropped as far as I could see. An average-looking Mexican wave is eventually kick-started in the crowd after a lot of effort and a game of crowd beach ball happens towards the centre of the general admission area. Technicians make sure everything is right. Two kids get to pose on stage with guitars and receive a warm welcome.

At around 9:00 PM the main act begins. Bono enters via the right B-stage with an Australian flag draped around his neck. His jacket’s lining also has the flag theme going, although he has to show us both sides as if to prove it’s not just left over from the English leg of the tour.

As with other shows on the Australian leg, City of Blinding Lights opens the set, followed by Vertigo. Seeing it live gives a fresh perspective to the lyrics, such as:

…As the boys play rock and roll,
They know that they can’t dance,
At least they know.

I never thought of that as biographical until now.

Snippets of other songs are included, although as with Kanye West, not all are decipherable to these ears. He still hasn’t forgotten his meeting with Kylie, though. Spinning Around gets a brief run following Elevation.

For those of us who have not closely studied all of the lyrics in detail, it is interesting to hear some of them more clearly than what is on the studio album. So It’s “Your in the mud”, not “You can educate my mind” in Elevation! (Editor’s note: Bono sometimes makes up lyrics…so the album version may indeed be correct - just that Bongolese set in and he decided to shake it up a little bit.)

The set continues with a good mix of songs from most albums although Pop again seems to be the orphan, along with October. I Will Follow is absent tonight, though.

The boys make good use of the B-stages as they play their rock and roll. Our position near the front means we end up turning to the rear to see what they are doing behind us on many occasions. Our spot at the axis of the catwalk is probably the next best thing to being up against the barriers with in reach of Adams guitar, Bono’s hand, and etcetera.

The First Time makes a welcome (to this listener) appearance. New Year’s Day is not sighted. So a few changes to what may have been expected. But it’s all good. Bono proves he’s not a tenor by singing the Pavarotti bit of Miss Sarajevo in a different key, but well.

The two concert newbies are having a fabulous time, soaking in the atmosphere and the experience. Swinging to the music. Is it bad that my nieces’ first concert experience is U2 at close range? Nothing else will ever be as good!

The surrounding crowd seems to mostly have a good handle on U2’s back catalogue, and even The Saints Are Coming has a surprisingly good number singing along.

The boys are definitely starting to look a little older now. Being close to the stage allowed us to get a good look at their faces. And, sorry girls, I think it’s even starting to affect Larry. (Author ducks airborne tomatoes.) I’m just glad the music’s as good as it’s ever been! (Author ducks airborne tomatoes from a different set of readers.) (Editor’s note: I’ve got a case of tomatoes I’m sending your way - oh, wait…can’t ship ‘em through customs - you live another day tomato free, Stephen!)

The two encores don’t seem to be a surprise. Bono’s choice of lady-from-the-crowd is surprised and quite a bit shy about getting up on stage with him for Mysterious Ways, but she warms to the role and gets through it okay. Sorry nieces, you didn’t make it up there this time!

The launching of the kite during Kite had us wondering whose backyard it would land in before it dipped back into the stadium a few minutes later. Perhaps an extra helium balloon would have helped. What I want to know is, who scored the kite?

As someone who had reviewed the setlist of the shows in the other Australian cities, the biggest surprise came at the end when Edge starts chiming the introduction to Bad. There’s a rousing reception – and a snippet of “40“ has us all singing in the time-honored fashion.

Gaffe (or pun?) of the night ends up going to Edge, who, after stoically enduring a few minor technical glitches during the show and Bono’s comments about being pedantic about getting everything right, says good night to all of us Sydney-siders to the bemused looks of his colleagues.

Attempts by the crowd to revive “40” after the boys had left the stage were going well, until drowned out by the Go-Between’s Streets of Your Town making its final appearance on the Australian leg of the tour, as the signal to say it’s all over, go home to bed (as Bono had suggested during the last encore…). It’s impossible for us all to compete with that…

So after nearly a year of waiting (or nearly a decade, depending on how you look at it), U2’s last concert on Australian soil is over. What a night!

When did you say you’re coming back again, boys?

Bono, Kanye West and other celebrities are featured in the new “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” video, which you can watch here. (Thx Shary)

The Edge

Originally uploaded by atu2.

The PR people pushing HBO’s upcoming “Off the Record” premiere were kind enough to share with us a half-dozen photos related to the show, including this one of Edge that I would call “dreamy” if I were a girl.

Other shots include Bono and Edge during the interview, plus Bono, Edge, and Dave Stewart in a studio portrait.

You’ll find all six in @U2’s Flickr Group.

The Australian radio station Triple M 105.1 FM has temporarily changed their name to ‘U2 FM’ in honor of the Vertigo Tour and the new release of U2 18 Singles next week. @U2 reader Dave tells us that “Nothing but U2 songs have been played. Nobody knows how long it will stay U2 FM.”

An all-U2 radio station that will last indefinitely?! Sounds like heaven to me.