Did U2 ever play 8 1/2 hour shows?

[joyfulgirl]

I saw this exchange on another artist's board:

guy #1:

I saw U2 in the mid-80's, just before they became a phenomenon, for $20 floor admission, and they stayed on stage for 8-1/2 hours, playing everything they had mixed with a lot of covers. It was great.

guy #2:

I have to assume that your 8-1/2 hours playing time for U2 is a typo.....NO single band has ever played even close to an EIGHT hour concert!

guy #1:

Not a typo. The concert started at 8 PM, and we filed out of the stadium at about 4:30 AM. It was an awesome show. There were a few breaks along the way, and a lot of just instrumental playing, but it was 8+ hours of U2.

guy #2

Could you please give me venue/city/date info for each of those shows? Especially U2.....i'm interested in live music in general and i'd like to find out the scoop on this show you're talking about. A definite date of when this show was would give me the info to poke around U2 sites to find out details.

guy #1

The U2 one was either 84, 85 or 86 in Colorado. I *think* in Colorado Springs, or thereabouts. I think it was either end of 84 or beginning of 85. I remember it being VERY cold until I got into the crowd. My Auntie SAntina pulled some strings and got me the tix from a girl she went to school with who used to party with Bono. You're kinda into music, so you might know the girl I'm talking about. She was a moderately popular (in Europe) Irish pop star named Dana.

guy #2

Okay.....i'm hunting www.u2tours.com and i've come up with this......

March 17, 1985 / Denver, CO
Tour: Unforgettable Fire - 4th leg
Venue: McNichols Sports Arena
Opening Act(s): Red Rockers

Main Set: 11 O'Clock Tick Tock, I Will Follow, Seconds, MLK, The Unforgettable Fire, Wire, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Electric Co., A Sort Of Homecoming, Bad, October, New Year's Day, Pride
Encore(s): Party Girl, Gloria, 40


That is the ONLY show U2 played anywhere in the state of Colorado in 1984, '85, and '86. They weren't on tour anywhere in '86.
Not only does 16 songs not equal 8 hours (30 minutes per song average), but arenas have union curfews of either 11pm or 11:30pm. Even IF they wanted to play until 4:30am, the arena would have pulled the plug on them hours before that.
I'm afraid that your memory is just a WEE bit hazy on what actually happened that night.

guy #1

Ok, the show I saw wasn't in Denver, so that's not it, I swear it was Colorado Springs, and I don't remember an opening act at all.

The 80's for me were spent stoned pretty much the whole time, probably until '87 or '88, but I know I saw them in Colorado Springs, or somewhere close by.

And that's where it ended. I'd like to clarify this over there.

 

[ThatGuy]

The 80's for me were spent stoned pretty much the whole time, probably until '87 or '88, but I know I saw them in Colorado Springs, or somewhere close by.

I think that's all the clarification you need.

 

[Salome]

I believe Wanderer went to that show

 

[joyfulgirl]

I think that's all the clarification you need.

that was pretty much my take on it

 

[joyfulgirl]

I believe Wanderer went to that show

seriously? you've heard of an 8+ hour U2 show?

 

[Salome]

of course not

8+ songs perhaps

 

[joyfulgirl]

Damn, one of these days I'm going to know how to read a Salome post sans smilies. It's just going to come to me in a vision.

Guy #1 has a lot of credibility on this other forum so that's why I'm trying to get to the bottom of this. He doesn't just make weird stuff up. However, maybe the weed was just too good.

 

[Hewson]

Guy #2: U2 played 8.5 hours...big deal. Back in '79 I saw Springsteen play for 4 days straight, no opening act, no breaks. Clarence Clemons was 270lbs at the start of the show and 195lbs during the encore.

 

[joyfulgirl]

Guy #1: That's nothing. The Dead played in my backyard FOR A WEEK back in '76.

 

[PopFly]

I believe there is an Allman Brothers concert that started sometime in 1996 and is still going on.

 

[Bono's shades]

 

[The Wanderer]

man, those were the good old days salome...

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

at risk of killing this thread, i must mention a duran duran concert that's been going on since 1986...



...oh, it's just that they haven't been important since then.

 

[diamond]

I did not make that show
db9

 

[jezebel]

joy,

can you tell us what forum you saw this on?

sounds more fun than the Springsteen boards

 

[joyfulgirl]

It's the Tori Amos forum--(their version of Lemonade Stand). It's the most active forum I've ever seen, way more active than this one if you can imagine!

Here's the link to the whole thread:

http://www.atforumz.com/showthread.php?threadid=145691

 

[oktobergirl]

at risk of killing this thread, i must mention a duran duran concert that's been going on since 1986...



...oh, it's just that they haven't been important since then.

 

[pinkfloyd]

i think this guy was talking about festival " live aid alike " in 1985-1986 , u2 did a lot of them during that time , and there were some 8+ hours

 

[BrownEyedBoy]

i think guy 2 is a retard.
he looks like hes got nothing better to do than verufying something that no one else would invest as much time as he did on.

 

[joyfulgirl]

i think guy 2 is a retard.
he looks like hes got nothing better to do than verufying something that no one else would invest as much time as he did on.

Guy 2 isn't a retard! You apologize right now because I linked this thread over there earlier! Guy 2 is cool. If there's an 8 1/2 hour U2 show, he wants to know about it, that's all. He's a fan.