U2- Twickenham rugby Stadium 18/06/2005

Lucky for me, Welsh David works for Universal Records, who bought out Island Records, who signed U2 and gave me his second ticket to see them.

We had seats on the West side of the stadium. This was truly a blessing as it was 30C and we were in the shade and not having to stand with thousands of people either (the Stadium seats 70,000!)

Twickenham Rugby stadium is only permitted one gig a year, so it felt like a bit of an honour to be there despite the number of people attending (and the other 70K attending the next night!) TRS looks like the sort of place were in the '70s they would have filmed movies set in the future. David dubbed it "Retro Futuristic architecture."

We sat in the industry section surrounded by Universal people, who all seemed to be a great bunch.

We had to suffer through Athlete, who between them couldn't form a whole person with any charisma what-so-ever.

We also have to put up with ridiculous queues for the bars which lacked a)juice b)alcopops c) singles and d) ice. It was-of course- stupidly overpriced. They also ran out of vodka half-way through the show so David and I ended up drinking double Bacardis and lemonade, which were vile.

U2 themselves made up for all of this. It was a fabulously uplifting show. Bono has more X-factor than any performer I have ever seen on stage, and Edge, Adam and Larry aren't far behind.

Hearing 70,000 people sing-a-long with arms in the air to "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" gave me goosebumps. Bono kept his "Save The World" ranting to a minimum, which was both a relief yet disappointing.

As we were in one of the longest days of the year, the sun didn't set til after 9pm and the first half of the show was in broad daylight but slowly the light dimmed large screen that was blank slowly came to life and brought a whole new dimension to the show. It was like a bit of Vegas or Blackpool had been brought to "sexy London" (as Bono called it.)

During "One" the band asked people to pull out their mobile phones to light up the stadium. It a beautiful sight. It looked like a starry night. One is still my favourite song, and U2 still perform it with passion.

It was a very energetic gig, but it wasn't taxing. The only sadness in it was thinking that there aren't any bands younger than U2 that have the same charisma, talent and influence. Is stadium rock coming to an end?

SET-LIST


Vertigo
I Will Follow
Cry / Electric Co.
Elevation
New Year's Day
Beautiful Day
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
Love and Peace
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Running to Standstill
Pride in the Name of Love
Where the Streets have No Name
One

Zoo Station
The Fly
Mysterious Ways
Yahweh
Vertigo

ps. After the show we took a comfy car into town to grab some dinner. As we were going past Knightsbridge towards Hype Park thousands and thousands of women (and some men!) where speed walking past in bras. The bras weren't quite normal. They had been decorated, some with feathers, beads, lettering and even fairly lights. It was the 2005 Moonwalk for breast cancer research. It was truly a marvelous sight and topped off a magical evening.