This is a strange time for U2. Their latest album, No Line on the Horizon, has by their standards sold weakly; yet on Friday they played to 88,000 people, the greatest number a band has crammed into Wembley.
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Now back to the London Day 1 Show Review
A whopping 88,000 fans lapped up the band's performance on what critics have described as their "mindblowing" Claw stage, which graced Croke Park three weeks ago. The record was previously held by Foo Fighters, who drew crowds of 83,000 last year.
Live Nation said in a statement before last night's show: "The U2 360 shows at Wembley Stadium on August 14 and 15 will see an expected attendance of between 165,000 to 170,000 over the two days with an expected attendance of 88,000 on Friday breaking the previous attendance record at Wembley." Old favourites, including Beautiful Day, Mysterious Ways and With or Without You, were lapped up the crowd.
BAD REVIEWS POURING IN - telegraph.co.uk
After about 25 minutes, though, either the sound improved or my ears got used to it, and the band unfurled two lovely ballads: a huge and hymnal I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For and a gentle acoustic version of Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of. They decently kept to a minimum the songs from the dreary No Line on the Horizon: six, from a setlist of 22.
The older hits (Sunday Bloody Sunday, Pride, a glittering Where the Streets Have No Name) were best, except for One, ruined by Bono, who sang much of it lackadaisically off the beat.
Perhaps he’s performed it so many times it bores him. Well, it doesn’t bore the fans and they’d paid through the nose to hear it. Still, he didn’t overburden us with his politics; just a tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese pro-democracy campaigner, and a cheery video message from Desmond Tutu.
There was a striking scene at the end. Before the final song, Moment of Surrender, Bono ordered the stage lights to be turned off. Suddenly all was a galaxy of mobile phone screens, winking in the dark. U2 can spend what they like on their swanky stage but the most beautiful sight came when we couldn’t see it.
Photo image copyright @2009 AFP/Getty