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Bono on message as U2 makes triumphant European return
BRUSSELS (AFP) - Irish rock superstars U2 made the first European appearance of their "Vertigo" world tour here, in front of 60,000 enthusiastic fans at the King Baudouin stadium in the Belgian capital.
Opening and closing their set with the song "Vertigo" from their latest album "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb", Bono and his fellow Dubliners played to an ecstatic crowd for two hours.
The stadium erupted after three quarters of an hour when the band embarkjed on one of their biggest hits from the 1980s "Sunday Bloody Sunday".
Bono, as well-known these days as a high-voltage global activist, preached peace in the Middle East in front of a crowd where Muslim crescents, Stars of David and Christian crosses mingled.
He also took the opportunity to repeat his call for an end to African debt, a call which he will help back up at a series of simultaneous concerts around the world next month ahead of a G8 summit in Scotland where the debt topic will be high on the agenda.
"Thousands of people die each day from AIDS, which is unacceptable," he said to great applause.
In the 21st century update of the old rock tradition of matches and cigarette lighters illuminating the night sky, tens of thousands of spectators held the screens of their cell phones aloft, lighting up the stadium.
Tickets for the concert had been snapped up within three hours of going on sale back in January.
On Sunday the four-piece band will be in Germany for their second European concert.
After touring many of Europe's major stadia, the group will go on to the United States in the Autumn.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050610/wl_uk_afp/belgiummusicrocku2_050610233720
BRUSSELS (AFP) - Irish rock superstars U2 made the first European appearance of their "Vertigo" world tour here, in front of 60,000 enthusiastic fans at the King Baudouin stadium in the Belgian capital.
Opening and closing their set with the song "Vertigo" from their latest album "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb", Bono and his fellow Dubliners played to an ecstatic crowd for two hours.
The stadium erupted after three quarters of an hour when the band embarkjed on one of their biggest hits from the 1980s "Sunday Bloody Sunday".
Bono, as well-known these days as a high-voltage global activist, preached peace in the Middle East in front of a crowd where Muslim crescents, Stars of David and Christian crosses mingled.
He also took the opportunity to repeat his call for an end to African debt, a call which he will help back up at a series of simultaneous concerts around the world next month ahead of a G8 summit in Scotland where the debt topic will be high on the agenda.
"Thousands of people die each day from AIDS, which is unacceptable," he said to great applause.
In the 21st century update of the old rock tradition of matches and cigarette lighters illuminating the night sky, tens of thousands of spectators held the screens of their cell phones aloft, lighting up the stadium.
Tickets for the concert had been snapped up within three hours of going on sale back in January.
On Sunday the four-piece band will be in Germany for their second European concert.
After touring many of Europe's major stadia, the group will go on to the United States in the Autumn.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050610/wl_uk_afp/belgiummusicrocku2_050610233720
