namkcuR
ONE love, blood, life
Saturday, November 27th, 1993.
The VHS wouldn't be released for another six months, but on this evening, twenty years ago next week, U2 took the stage at Sydney Football Stadium - then known as Aussie Stadium - in Sydney, Australia, to perform show #153 of #157 of their ZooTV tour, broadcast worldwide live on pay-per-view and made available commercially twice - the aforementioned VHS release, and the 2006 DVD release - as Zoo TV: Live From Sydney. This show would become one of U2's most legendary moments, among a tour of legendary moments.
Coming into this fifth-to-last show of a tour that had spanned nearly two years, the band was stressed. Those two years had been a whirlwind, during which the band had worked nearly nonstop, using its one long break to write and record the Zooropa album, and by this point, they were tired, and ready for the tour to end. But much additional stress had come upon them starting the night before, going into show #152, the sixth-to-last show, at the same venue. According to U2 At The End Of The World(I will be quoting from it liberally in this post as there are few better sources for information about this tour):
They were also anxious about the upcoming broadcast:
And then, to make matters worse, Adam had fallen off the wagon the night before and was so massively hungover that he couldn't go on - the one and only time in U2's 35-year touring history that any band member has missed a show - and his roadie, Stuart Morgan, had to be drafted to play the gig "on 15 minutes' notice", because the show couldn't be cancelled, as, like the quote above says, it was the only chance for the band and the televisoin crew to rehearse for the next night's shoot.
The gig goes off well enough, though there are some technical difficulties. To quote U2ATEOTW:
After the gig, the band would stay up all night going over the recorded video from that night, frame by frame, to plan the following night's broadcast.
Which brings us to the gig in question. This is a portrait of a band weary and tired from a long tour, anxious about the broadcast, and perhaps tense about their now-returned bassist's missed gig, nearly burnt out, and yet still at the top of their game.
A lot of people say that ZooTV was U2 at the very peak of their powers, at their artistic and creative zenith, and this show and official release make a strong argument for that being the case.
Given the length of the tour, the differences between the indoor shows and the outdoors shows, the switch from Mirrorball Man to Mr. Macphisto on the non-American legs, and the differences in the setlist that occurred on account of rotating some of the classics in later on and incorporating the Zooropa material when that album was released, it is often accurately said that the earliest shows of the tour and the latest shows of the tour were almost like two different tours, and thus, we should've gotten one of the earlier, pre-Zooropa, indoor shows(or an Outside Broadcast show) on VHS/DVD as well, and that if only one show was going to be released, it should've been more representative of the majority of the tour. While I agree that it would be awesome to have an official release of a pre-Zooropa show(indoor or Outside Broadcast), I am glad that the Sydney show is the one we got, because of the Zooropa songs.
Numb was played 33 times ever, including the VMA performance. Stay(Faraway, So Close) still appears in the set to this day, but I believe its 23 ZooTV performances were the only ones that were full-band - even though it was still a part of the acoustic set - whereas on Elevation and 360, B&E performed it alone. And Lemon, Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car, and Dirty Day were each performed 10 times ever - the final ten ZooTV shows, the Zoomerang shows, including Sydney. Aside from Stay, these were the only airings these songs ever got, and may well be the only airings they ever get(though never say never, I think they may have sounchecked Daddy during the Vertigo tour), and to have performances of these songs in official, pristine quality, is an absolute treasure imo.
Now, there's a trade-off, of course. Prior to those last ten shows, full-band Desire and Ultraviolet(Light My Way) had been in the encore for most every show, and Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses had been a regular for the first two legs of the show, and while a performance of Desire was included as a bonus on the Sydney DVD, we still have no official video performances of Horses or Ultraviolet from ZooTV(although decent-quality unofficial video does exist - the whole Stockholm show is available via torrent and on youtube). Still, it's arguably worth it to have those performances of the Zooropa songs in official quality. With those songs in the setlist, this show becomes a great summation of the whole era - the tour and both albums.
In addition the Zooropa songs, this show also contains, official-quality recordings of those legendary ZooTV performances of Bullet The Blue Sky, Running To Stand Still, and Where The Streets Have No Name, Pride with the MLK speech in the middle of it, a video-duet of Satellite Of Love that has become even more poignant with Lou Reed's recent passing, and performances of two Achtung songs that haven't been performed since the end of ZooTV: a beloved and revered rendition of Love Is Blindness with an absolutely heart-wrenching guitar solo(I don't count the one-minute-long version from 2006), and a stellar version of Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World, which, while not included on the VHS or DVD because of the apparently under-aged girl Bono drank with during the song, was part of the original broadcast, right between Numb and Angel Of Harlem, and can be found easily on youtube. I could go on and on. When I was first getting into U2 in 1998 and 1999, this was one of the things that turned me into a full-fledged die-hard. I remember checking the VHS out from a video store(remember those?) and watching it in amazement. It's just a priceless documentation of an incredible tour, and fully deserving of the 1995 Grammy for Best Music Video, Long Form that it won.
So let's discuss, appreciate, and commemorate Zoo TV: Live From Sydney and it's 20th anniversary. I leave you with Mr. Macphisto's farewell speech:
"Look what you've done to me..... you've made me very famous, and I thank you. I know you like your pop stars to be exciting, so I bought these (gestures to his shoes). Now, my time among you is almost at an end; the glory of Zoo TV must ascend and take its place with all the other satellites. Don't fear, for I will be watching you. I leave behind video cameras for each of you. So many listening tonight, I have a list...
People of America, I gave you Bill Clinton—I put him on CNN, NBC, C-SPAN. Too tall to be a despot, but watch him closely. People of Asia, your time is coming—without your tiny transistors, none of this [gestures to Zoo TV stage set] would be possible. People of Europe—when I came among you, you were squabbling like children. Now you're all hooked up to one cable, as close together as stations on a dial. People of the former Soviet Union—I gave you capitalism, so now you can all dream of being as wealthy and glamorous as me. People of Sarajevo, count your blessings... There are people all over the world who have food, heat and security, but they're not on TV like you are. Frank Sinatra, I give you the MTV demographic; Salman Rushdie, I give you decibels. Goodbye "Squidgy," I hope they give you Wales; goodbye Michael ... Goodbye all you neo-nazis, I hope they give you Auschwitz."
and the phone call:
"Around about this time, I often make a telephone call. Some, some...sometimes to the President of the United States. But not, not, not tonight. Tonight I'm, I'm going to call a taxi to take me home. 'Cause I am tired.
Thank you for calling Taxi Services
Hello?
Can you tell me your name and place please
My name is Mr. MacPhisto
I'm looking for a taxi to take me from sydney from -
Oh, I'm so sorry sir, what is your name? Hello?
My name is Mr. Macphisto
What is this, a joke?
Hello, what is your name
Hello?
Show me the way to go home
I'm tired and I want to go to bed
I had a little drink about an hour ago
And it's gone right to my head"
and a couple more images:
The VHS wouldn't be released for another six months, but on this evening, twenty years ago next week, U2 took the stage at Sydney Football Stadium - then known as Aussie Stadium - in Sydney, Australia, to perform show #153 of #157 of their ZooTV tour, broadcast worldwide live on pay-per-view and made available commercially twice - the aforementioned VHS release, and the 2006 DVD release - as Zoo TV: Live From Sydney. This show would become one of U2's most legendary moments, among a tour of legendary moments.
Coming into this fifth-to-last show of a tour that had spanned nearly two years, the band was stressed. Those two years had been a whirlwind, during which the band had worked nearly nonstop, using its one long break to write and record the Zooropa album, and by this point, they were tired, and ready for the tour to end. But much additional stress had come upon them starting the night before, going into show #152, the sixth-to-last show, at the same venue. According to U2 At The End Of The World(I will be quoting from it liberally in this post as there are few better sources for information about this tour):
They were also anxious about the upcoming broadcast:
And then, to make matters worse, Adam had fallen off the wagon the night before and was so massively hungover that he couldn't go on - the one and only time in U2's 35-year touring history that any band member has missed a show - and his roadie, Stuart Morgan, had to be drafted to play the gig "on 15 minutes' notice", because the show couldn't be cancelled, as, like the quote above says, it was the only chance for the band and the televisoin crew to rehearse for the next night's shoot.
The gig goes off well enough, though there are some technical difficulties. To quote U2ATEOTW:
After the gig, the band would stay up all night going over the recorded video from that night, frame by frame, to plan the following night's broadcast.
Which brings us to the gig in question. This is a portrait of a band weary and tired from a long tour, anxious about the broadcast, and perhaps tense about their now-returned bassist's missed gig, nearly burnt out, and yet still at the top of their game.
A lot of people say that ZooTV was U2 at the very peak of their powers, at their artistic and creative zenith, and this show and official release make a strong argument for that being the case.
Given the length of the tour, the differences between the indoor shows and the outdoors shows, the switch from Mirrorball Man to Mr. Macphisto on the non-American legs, and the differences in the setlist that occurred on account of rotating some of the classics in later on and incorporating the Zooropa material when that album was released, it is often accurately said that the earliest shows of the tour and the latest shows of the tour were almost like two different tours, and thus, we should've gotten one of the earlier, pre-Zooropa, indoor shows(or an Outside Broadcast show) on VHS/DVD as well, and that if only one show was going to be released, it should've been more representative of the majority of the tour. While I agree that it would be awesome to have an official release of a pre-Zooropa show(indoor or Outside Broadcast), I am glad that the Sydney show is the one we got, because of the Zooropa songs.
Numb was played 33 times ever, including the VMA performance. Stay(Faraway, So Close) still appears in the set to this day, but I believe its 23 ZooTV performances were the only ones that were full-band - even though it was still a part of the acoustic set - whereas on Elevation and 360, B&E performed it alone. And Lemon, Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car, and Dirty Day were each performed 10 times ever - the final ten ZooTV shows, the Zoomerang shows, including Sydney. Aside from Stay, these were the only airings these songs ever got, and may well be the only airings they ever get(though never say never, I think they may have sounchecked Daddy during the Vertigo tour), and to have performances of these songs in official, pristine quality, is an absolute treasure imo.
Now, there's a trade-off, of course. Prior to those last ten shows, full-band Desire and Ultraviolet(Light My Way) had been in the encore for most every show, and Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses had been a regular for the first two legs of the show, and while a performance of Desire was included as a bonus on the Sydney DVD, we still have no official video performances of Horses or Ultraviolet from ZooTV(although decent-quality unofficial video does exist - the whole Stockholm show is available via torrent and on youtube). Still, it's arguably worth it to have those performances of the Zooropa songs in official quality. With those songs in the setlist, this show becomes a great summation of the whole era - the tour and both albums.
In addition the Zooropa songs, this show also contains, official-quality recordings of those legendary ZooTV performances of Bullet The Blue Sky, Running To Stand Still, and Where The Streets Have No Name, Pride with the MLK speech in the middle of it, a video-duet of Satellite Of Love that has become even more poignant with Lou Reed's recent passing, and performances of two Achtung songs that haven't been performed since the end of ZooTV: a beloved and revered rendition of Love Is Blindness with an absolutely heart-wrenching guitar solo(I don't count the one-minute-long version from 2006), and a stellar version of Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World, which, while not included on the VHS or DVD because of the apparently under-aged girl Bono drank with during the song, was part of the original broadcast, right between Numb and Angel Of Harlem, and can be found easily on youtube. I could go on and on. When I was first getting into U2 in 1998 and 1999, this was one of the things that turned me into a full-fledged die-hard. I remember checking the VHS out from a video store(remember those?) and watching it in amazement. It's just a priceless documentation of an incredible tour, and fully deserving of the 1995 Grammy for Best Music Video, Long Form that it won.
So let's discuss, appreciate, and commemorate Zoo TV: Live From Sydney and it's 20th anniversary. I leave you with Mr. Macphisto's farewell speech:
"Look what you've done to me..... you've made me very famous, and I thank you. I know you like your pop stars to be exciting, so I bought these (gestures to his shoes). Now, my time among you is almost at an end; the glory of Zoo TV must ascend and take its place with all the other satellites. Don't fear, for I will be watching you. I leave behind video cameras for each of you. So many listening tonight, I have a list...
People of America, I gave you Bill Clinton—I put him on CNN, NBC, C-SPAN. Too tall to be a despot, but watch him closely. People of Asia, your time is coming—without your tiny transistors, none of this [gestures to Zoo TV stage set] would be possible. People of Europe—when I came among you, you were squabbling like children. Now you're all hooked up to one cable, as close together as stations on a dial. People of the former Soviet Union—I gave you capitalism, so now you can all dream of being as wealthy and glamorous as me. People of Sarajevo, count your blessings... There are people all over the world who have food, heat and security, but they're not on TV like you are. Frank Sinatra, I give you the MTV demographic; Salman Rushdie, I give you decibels. Goodbye "Squidgy," I hope they give you Wales; goodbye Michael ... Goodbye all you neo-nazis, I hope they give you Auschwitz."
and the phone call:
"Around about this time, I often make a telephone call. Some, some...sometimes to the President of the United States. But not, not, not tonight. Tonight I'm, I'm going to call a taxi to take me home. 'Cause I am tired.
Thank you for calling Taxi Services
Hello?
Can you tell me your name and place please
My name is Mr. MacPhisto
I'm looking for a taxi to take me from sydney from -
Oh, I'm so sorry sir, what is your name? Hello?
My name is Mr. Macphisto
What is this, a joke?
Hello, what is your name
Hello?
Show me the way to go home
I'm tired and I want to go to bed
I had a little drink about an hour ago
And it's gone right to my head"
and a couple more images:
