Maoilbheannacht
Refugee
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2005
- Messages
- 2,400
U2 played Red Rocks in Denver Colorodo. The date was June 5, 1983. I looked up on Amazon.com and found the following responses from people who were actually at the show:
"This is a wonderful item to add to your collection. It was a walk back in time for me...as I was 18 years old when my girlfriend got tickets for the show at Red Rocks. I was newly introduced to U2 as MTV was running their New Years Day video often. I loved the Edge's driving guitar and Bono's passionate vocals as much as the visuals of snow covered scenery with the band playing and horses breathing in the cold air. As other reviewers have noted, the show's status was confused by foul weather which dwindled the crowd a bit. But the rain and fog was a minimal nuisance as the band took the stage under burning pyres. Bono even took to the ampitheater seats with the large flag and it was the first time I'd witnessed a performer go so confidently through the crowd. No body guards buffered him as I recently saw in Seattle during the How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb tour. I was thrilled that concert promoter Barry Fey offered a second night at the CU events center free with a ticket stub. The Alarm opened for U2 the next night. Nothing I have seen in 23 years since has surpassed that outdoor U2 show. The memory was all the sweeter for the company I kept (that's me and her in matching white 'SPU' sweatshirts). I haven't talked to her in 22 years but if she's out there and reads this, please contact me to reminence. More than documenting my own listening history, this video serves as a historical marker of a band emerging into widespread stardom and celebrity. It deserves to be processed to DVD format."
"The old songs, having been released over 20 years ago, are what was so special about U2 when I was in high school. I grew up in south east Denver and saw U2 first on MTV when I was a volunteer at United Cable Television, the local cable provider. The first video was a live version of I Will Follow followed soon after by the single version of Gloria. It's so weird to think about watching those vids then wondering who the hell these guys were and where they were from. But when I heard they would be playing at the Rainbow Music Hall - my friends and I had to go. I guess growing up in the suburbs had one advantage - we got cable before U2 came to Denver the first time. The Rainbow was general admission and we lined up early in the morning to get close. Sometime during the wait Adam Clayton drove by the line of concert-goers in his rental. He stopped and shook hands and signed a few autographs. He asked why we were lined up 5 hours before the show. His fingernails were painted black and he had that huge cauliflower hairdo and glasses....
The Red Rocks show a year later was different in that a. it was not indoors b. it rained c. it was cold. The word on the radio was that the show was a rainout but the lights for the film were on and I guess we just lined up after a while as we had nothing better to do. We got in and were told the Alarm and Divinyls would not play - which was of particular interest to me - since I hated them both. Barry Fey came out and said something about some rainy Bob Dylan concert and then introduced the band. Oh if Bono could see Barry now. The U2 stage, massive even back then, was above the cameras and audience so Bono could look down on us and the cameras could look up. There was a camera on a dolly covered in a tarp in front of us that kept driving back and forth all afternoon - whenever Edge sat at the piano - and it was a bit of a nuisance. But I figured the footage would be pretty good, and besides, we would get to see them the next night again, only this time indoors, at the CU Events Center. I vividly remember steam rising from Bono's head and arms as a bright light backlit him when he walked out to the center stage. He brought out a white flag and planted it in the crowd. Eventually the flag started to wave back and forth - and Bono - wanting none of this in his film - reached out and steadied it. I don't think anyone has set bonofires on the outposts at Red Rocks since. The set list (which I still have) reads:
Control
Twilight
Cat Dubh
Into The Heart
Surrender
Two Hearts
Seconds
Sunday
Electric Co.
Fall Down
October
New Years Day
Brick
Day
Gloria
------------
P Girl
11 Oclock
Follo
40 40 40"
"It's hard to believe it's been over 20 years since "Blood Red Sky" was filmed. As a couple of other people have posted who were there, it was an amazing event. It felt historic even at the time.
Although the weather is exactly why it's so dramatic with the fog and steam, the entire show was very nearly cancelled because of the conditions. Like one guy mentioned, it was about 35 degrees out at Red Rocks that night, after a full day of cold drizzling rain.
I was the music editor of the local alt.weekly paper at the time, and had been in on some meetings announcing the filming. Barry Fey, the concert's promoter, had been a very early supporter of U2 and booked them into a small 1400-seat theater in Denver when they first toured the US for "Boy." So they liked Fey and wanted to work with him for this Red Rocks gig.
Unfortunately it got cold in the days before the concert. They actually did officially cancel it -- both The Alarm and U2 agreed to play a second, make-up concert the next day in a local arena (DU, I think, or maybe Regis University). But they decided to do the Red Rocks performance anyway because they'd invested so many thousands of dollars for the shoot -- the pyrotchnics (there are normally no fires atop the dramatic sandstone rocks around the stage!), the camera equipment, the technicians.
I'm sure if the filming hadn't been planned, the performance would have been cancelled in a second. I don't remember if the show as sold out (I kind of doubt it), but in the 9,000-seat amphitheater, only about 3,000 people showed up for the filming. The movie does a great job of making it seem like a full house.
It's to Bono and U2's credit that they came out roaring, and to all music fans' benefit that this performance was caught on camera.
I alternated between the 5th row in the middle and the 2nd row over to stage left, and was in awe of what was going on on the stage. U2 simply took it over and made it their own showcase gig, as if they were playing an audition for entrance into heaven. Everything was (I'm sure) unscripted, including the bit with the flag and bringing the girl on stage. It was all natural, just like the setting.
This was just at the point, as some writers have mentioned, where the band was evolving from cult status to superstardom, and they were just hitting their stride.
One thing, though: their performance was hot, but not hot enough to help you forget the cold -- I froze my butt off that night!
As for why no DVD, I wonder how much of it is because of licensing and ownership rights. I don't even know if TTS, the Denver-based production company that managed the shoot, exists anymore. So I wonder who owns the rights to the film.
Perhaps U2, and maybe they don't want it on DVD ultimately because of the made-for-TV audio and video quality.
I happened to stumble on this series of reviews and I'm glad I stopped to read everyone's comments. It brought back a lot of memories, and made me want to root around my basement for my promotional copy of the film from TTS!"
I think there might be a few more reviews of the show by people who were there in the review section found here at amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/cu...omer-reviews.sort_by=-SubmissionDate&n=404272
"This is a wonderful item to add to your collection. It was a walk back in time for me...as I was 18 years old when my girlfriend got tickets for the show at Red Rocks. I was newly introduced to U2 as MTV was running their New Years Day video often. I loved the Edge's driving guitar and Bono's passionate vocals as much as the visuals of snow covered scenery with the band playing and horses breathing in the cold air. As other reviewers have noted, the show's status was confused by foul weather which dwindled the crowd a bit. But the rain and fog was a minimal nuisance as the band took the stage under burning pyres. Bono even took to the ampitheater seats with the large flag and it was the first time I'd witnessed a performer go so confidently through the crowd. No body guards buffered him as I recently saw in Seattle during the How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb tour. I was thrilled that concert promoter Barry Fey offered a second night at the CU events center free with a ticket stub. The Alarm opened for U2 the next night. Nothing I have seen in 23 years since has surpassed that outdoor U2 show. The memory was all the sweeter for the company I kept (that's me and her in matching white 'SPU' sweatshirts). I haven't talked to her in 22 years but if she's out there and reads this, please contact me to reminence. More than documenting my own listening history, this video serves as a historical marker of a band emerging into widespread stardom and celebrity. It deserves to be processed to DVD format."
"The old songs, having been released over 20 years ago, are what was so special about U2 when I was in high school. I grew up in south east Denver and saw U2 first on MTV when I was a volunteer at United Cable Television, the local cable provider. The first video was a live version of I Will Follow followed soon after by the single version of Gloria. It's so weird to think about watching those vids then wondering who the hell these guys were and where they were from. But when I heard they would be playing at the Rainbow Music Hall - my friends and I had to go. I guess growing up in the suburbs had one advantage - we got cable before U2 came to Denver the first time. The Rainbow was general admission and we lined up early in the morning to get close. Sometime during the wait Adam Clayton drove by the line of concert-goers in his rental. He stopped and shook hands and signed a few autographs. He asked why we were lined up 5 hours before the show. His fingernails were painted black and he had that huge cauliflower hairdo and glasses....
The Red Rocks show a year later was different in that a. it was not indoors b. it rained c. it was cold. The word on the radio was that the show was a rainout but the lights for the film were on and I guess we just lined up after a while as we had nothing better to do. We got in and were told the Alarm and Divinyls would not play - which was of particular interest to me - since I hated them both. Barry Fey came out and said something about some rainy Bob Dylan concert and then introduced the band. Oh if Bono could see Barry now. The U2 stage, massive even back then, was above the cameras and audience so Bono could look down on us and the cameras could look up. There was a camera on a dolly covered in a tarp in front of us that kept driving back and forth all afternoon - whenever Edge sat at the piano - and it was a bit of a nuisance. But I figured the footage would be pretty good, and besides, we would get to see them the next night again, only this time indoors, at the CU Events Center. I vividly remember steam rising from Bono's head and arms as a bright light backlit him when he walked out to the center stage. He brought out a white flag and planted it in the crowd. Eventually the flag started to wave back and forth - and Bono - wanting none of this in his film - reached out and steadied it. I don't think anyone has set bonofires on the outposts at Red Rocks since. The set list (which I still have) reads:
Control
Twilight
Cat Dubh
Into The Heart
Surrender
Two Hearts
Seconds
Sunday
Electric Co.
Fall Down
October
New Years Day
Brick
Day
Gloria
------------
P Girl
11 Oclock
Follo
40 40 40"
"It's hard to believe it's been over 20 years since "Blood Red Sky" was filmed. As a couple of other people have posted who were there, it was an amazing event. It felt historic even at the time.
Although the weather is exactly why it's so dramatic with the fog and steam, the entire show was very nearly cancelled because of the conditions. Like one guy mentioned, it was about 35 degrees out at Red Rocks that night, after a full day of cold drizzling rain.
I was the music editor of the local alt.weekly paper at the time, and had been in on some meetings announcing the filming. Barry Fey, the concert's promoter, had been a very early supporter of U2 and booked them into a small 1400-seat theater in Denver when they first toured the US for "Boy." So they liked Fey and wanted to work with him for this Red Rocks gig.
Unfortunately it got cold in the days before the concert. They actually did officially cancel it -- both The Alarm and U2 agreed to play a second, make-up concert the next day in a local arena (DU, I think, or maybe Regis University). But they decided to do the Red Rocks performance anyway because they'd invested so many thousands of dollars for the shoot -- the pyrotchnics (there are normally no fires atop the dramatic sandstone rocks around the stage!), the camera equipment, the technicians.
I'm sure if the filming hadn't been planned, the performance would have been cancelled in a second. I don't remember if the show as sold out (I kind of doubt it), but in the 9,000-seat amphitheater, only about 3,000 people showed up for the filming. The movie does a great job of making it seem like a full house.
It's to Bono and U2's credit that they came out roaring, and to all music fans' benefit that this performance was caught on camera.
I alternated between the 5th row in the middle and the 2nd row over to stage left, and was in awe of what was going on on the stage. U2 simply took it over and made it their own showcase gig, as if they were playing an audition for entrance into heaven. Everything was (I'm sure) unscripted, including the bit with the flag and bringing the girl on stage. It was all natural, just like the setting.
This was just at the point, as some writers have mentioned, where the band was evolving from cult status to superstardom, and they were just hitting their stride.
One thing, though: their performance was hot, but not hot enough to help you forget the cold -- I froze my butt off that night!
As for why no DVD, I wonder how much of it is because of licensing and ownership rights. I don't even know if TTS, the Denver-based production company that managed the shoot, exists anymore. So I wonder who owns the rights to the film.
Perhaps U2, and maybe they don't want it on DVD ultimately because of the made-for-TV audio and video quality.
I happened to stumble on this series of reviews and I'm glad I stopped to read everyone's comments. It brought back a lot of memories, and made me want to root around my basement for my promotional copy of the film from TTS!"
I think there might be a few more reviews of the show by people who were there in the review section found here at amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/cu...omer-reviews.sort_by=-SubmissionDate&n=404272
