Hello everybody!
That's my "short" but circumstantial story of my only meeting with U2-their BERLIN ELEVATION concert.I wrote it for myself to remember one of greatest moments of my life!
ANYONE INTERESTED?HERE IT IS-LIKE IT WAS, LIKE I SAW IT!
P.S.anyone been there too?I can't wait to hear about the concert from your point of view!
P.S.please forgive me all spelling, grammar or other mistakes.I only hope that u'll understand.
Berlin-Walbuhne-29.07.01
SETLIST:
Elevation
Beautiful Day
Until the End of the World
New Year's Day
Kite
Gone
New York
I Will Follow
Sunday Bloody Sunday
In My Life/Stuck in a Moment
In a Little While
Desire
Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
Bad/40
Where the Streets Have No Name
Mysterious Ways
The Fly
Bullet the Blue Sky
With or Without You
One
Wake Up Dead Man
Walk On
At about 17:30 a huge crowd stood in a rain next to Waldbuhne's gate. It was an hour and a half till the official beginning of the U2's concert. Most people didn't have any umbrellas so they had to stand in a rain or (the lucky ones) to hide under the other people's umbrellas. Time passed and at last, at about 18:00 the rain stopped and the Waldbuhne's officers started letting people in. After half an hour I also managed to get in. I found a nice place not far from the heart's right catwalk.
After an hour doing nothing a man from the crew came on stage and said something in German about Taxi and U2 (he actually said that U2 will not cancel the concert because the bad weather (big "YEAH!" from the crowd) and that the warm-up band will not play (another "yeah!" from the crowd) and called on stage some German joker Michael Mittermeier, who, for about half an hour kept playing jokes about U2, Ricky Martin and so on. It must have been very funny, because the crowd enjoyed his act. After he came of the stage the band must have arrived (at last) and the crew started tuning up the instruments. The Goal-U2 concert- was close.
At about 21:30, after The Beatles song "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band", the pre-Elevation music started and the band showed up: Larry, Edge, Adam & Bono. The show started with "Elevation". However Bono's microphone was so silent that he had to do his best to hear his voice through the crowds , that loudly sang along. Whatever, he kept jumping and waving , like he always does.
In The middle of "Beautiful Day" Bono, for the 1st time in the concert, walked the catwalk. When he reached the end of the heart, he slowly took of his blue eyeglasses. During "Until The End Of The World" Bono leaned and kissed The Edge in a cheek. At the end of the song he lied down on the catwalk and grabbed Edge's guitar. Edge "did his best" to play and it sounded not so bad.After Bono let his guitar go played the last real chords of the song.
Before "Kite"(or was it "Beautiful Day" with the 1st words Bono said in a concert: 'Where is the moon?...aah-there is the moon...'), during the break, Bono said:"Hier im Berlin wurde 'Actung Baby' geboren-und das ist auch gut so.(Here, in Berlin "Achtung Baby" was born and that is so very good). He also remembered the time 10 years ago.
'Welcome to the mayor of Berlin and also Michael Mittermeier thanks so much for coming out... 'I'm sorry for the rain and the trouble that the rain may have brought some of you getting here especially the Sohne Mannheims, I'm sorry for that but we're gonna have an extraordinary night tonight.'-Bono said.
And so it proves to be at The Waldbuhne, an outdoor amphitheatre in a forest on the city outskirts, despite the fact that support act Sohne Mannheims had to pull out of the show late in the day and the leading German comedian Michael Mittermeier - who was originally just coming to see the show - stepped in do a half hour warm-up.
There is more praise for the city when Bono introduces New York ('Berlin is the new New York') and then 'our first single!I Will Follow!'-Bono introduced the song.
'Ring those bells Edge, make those bells ring, wrote a love song on two strings, 10 years we walked down these streets with our melodies and our beats, 10 years, the winter was cold, 10 years we made a record that sold, our spirit will never grow old.'-The Singer improvised.
The next song 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' was very warmly excepted by the fans. It has added poignancy tonight, with the show coming not long before Irish and British politicians unveil new political proposals to break the deadlock which has bogged down the peace process in Northern Ireland. 'Today, tonight is a big night for the people of Ireland because tomorrow in the north of Ireland they will have to decide whether to go in peace or back to violence, so tonight we make our song a prayer, a prayer.' Again the song snatches Marley's 'Get Up Stand Up': ' Stand Up for your rights, never ever take a life. No more, no more, no war, no war we're so sick of it, we've had enough.'-Bono sings, closing the song with the request, 'Turn this song into a prayer.'
'In My Life' serves as introduction to 'Stuck In A Moment'. At the end of the song, Edge gets his few minutes of fame singing all alone:'And if the night runs over...etc.' All the crowd very warmly welcomes Edges singing.
Before 'In A Little While', Bono said: 'You alright? Amazing, amazing place, I just want to show you somebody here, just check this..' And so saying he lifts a young woman from the audience who is wearing a Ramones t-shirt. 'You see this is a Ramones t-shirt, now the Ramones were the reason why we started this band, we owe so very much to the Ramones and I want you to know that Joey Ramone became a little bit of a friend before he died a few months back and this next song was the last song he heard in this world and actually he made it a much better song, I don't know how. 'It was a song written about a hangover and he made it into a gospel song and this is a cool t-shirt and I love you.' Then the fan and Bono embrace as he opens the song and then puts her in it: 'I've known her since she was - five minutes ago - but it's been truly a little while.' He walks with the girl all the way to the end of the heart, where they meet The Edge. Then Bono & Edge sings at the microphone and the girl leans to sing too. At the end of the song Bono kisses her hand and cheek and brings her back to the crowd. Then Edge tells Bono some joke and they both split with a smile. Edge comes back to the stage. After a while, when the instruments are carried on the catwalk, Bono starts calling the band to come at the end of the heart:'Wearing No 3, a card carrying genius this is the Edge.'(Edge walks by)'The man who started this band, Larry Mullen Jnr. come on down.'(Larry walks down, trying to hide a smile)'The first manager of U2 on the bass-Adam Clayton.' (Adam goes to Bono by the left side of the trap). Now, when all band is where it had to be, Bono says: 'Any punk rock bands, any hip hop, hard rock, pop, any one here tonight starting out this is for you, a song about blind ambition, it helps the blindness'. And so they start 'Desire' with one guitar, bass, and one small drum for Larry (he beats it with an energy, when it comes to the burden). At the end of the song Bono takes a harmonica and plays it, causing a huge joyful scream in the crowd.
After 'Desire', as Larry's long-time drum-tec Sam O'Sullivan walks up the catwalk with Larry's drum, Bono adds: 'This is Sam O'Sullivan, the legendary Sam O'Sullivan walking off with the drums, a big hand for Sam...'
A big hand is promptly provided.
Larry and Adam walks to the main stage leaving Edge and Bono to play 'Stay(Faraway, So Close!)'. This Song brings Bono back memories of the city they are in tonight. 'We would be wrong not to mention that we had, ten years ago, a very special time in Berlin, in Hansa Studios. 'This is a period when our good friends the Americans reckon we got all weird on them. This is true. But you know if you're four young men from the north side of Dublin you need to get a little weird sometimes and we heard the weird and extraordinary and uplifting records that were being made in Hansa Studios and we thought we should go and become students there so we came to your city to study your rather odd behaviour - because Berliners are just not straight folk right ? - and we like that. We like that very much.'This is a song we started there it was inspired by a Wim Wenders film 'Far Away So Close". After Edge's guitar introduction, that somehow looked VERY familiar to 'Satellite of Love', and the 1st verse, during the words:'You can go anywhere: Miami, New Orleans, London, Belfast and BERLIN"(especially on BERLIN) public shouted the lyrics so loud, that Bono was hardly heard. At the beginning of the final verse Bono started singing: 'Three O'clock in the morning, it's quiet and only Anja's around,' he sings, referring to friend and photographer Anja Grabert who is at the show tonight.
Berliners, needless to say, lap this up, loving U2 as much as U2 love them. They knew every song U2 sang and they sang together with Bono, so loud and so as one, that you could understand and hear all the words so clearly, without mumbling or wheeze!It was really amazing and it sounded like a professional chorus, not like a huge crowd!
After 'Stay' Edge goes back to the main stage and starts playing 'Bad'. During the part where Bono sings:"dislocation..." and etc. a few times he inserts:'Elevation!", that sounds very nice and is good received by the fans.At the end of "Bad" U2 plays a part from "40"("How long to sing this song?")
Wonderful, as always, begins "Where The Streets Have No Name"- the TVs behind the band turns red and when Edge starts playing, white lights start twinkling and turning, and the other lights-flickering! An amazing view!
Mysterious Ways sounded just like taken from ZooTV tour- with the same beginning, and a protracted end!It felt like it's one of the ZooTV concerts again!At the end of the song Bono spots a fan dressed as MacPhisto and pulls him on stage, singing: 'You walk out into the Waldbuhne the lights go down and everything changes, light and motion, you turn a light on emotion".When Mr.MacPhisto shows up, acting just like the real one, the crowd gets a really bright flashback from 1993.
After "Mysterious ways" Bono walks down the catwalk singing:"Love, we shine like a burning star, we're falling from the sky...tonight" for a few times and "The Fly" begins. However, this time Bono doesn't play guitar, so it's hard even to recognize the song.But as soon as Bono starts singing, the crowd gets used to The New Sound of the song and starts singing along. At the end of it Bono runs to the TV behind the band and "splat's" on it as a fly. Then all lights goes down and the band leaves the stage, only the words "gotta go gotta go" are being played and are giving fans a hope, that it's only a break.
And really, just when this annoying "gotta go..." goes silent, some politician appears on TVs and says a speech. At the end of it it, U2 comes back on stage and starts "Bullet The Blue Sky". During it Bono takes a big lantern and starts playing with it: at first he turns the light to Edge, later-to the crowd and at last- to himself. Bono completely passes the part finishing with the words :"and runs in to the arms of America". Instead of that he talks about war with such shout-out sentences as "That man is a CHICKEN!!! That man is a CHICKEN!!!".
"Bullet The Blue Sky" is followed by "With Or Without You". 'Beautiful, beautiful night, thank you,' says Bono at the end of it, waves, thanks and again with the rest of the band goes of the stage.
The crowd, frightened, that it's all over, starts singing :"How long...to sing this song".They did that during every longer break between the songs, but it never sounded like then!It is ONE voice of the thousands, so loud and so clear! And when U2 comes back to stage-it doesn't stop. It even gets louder! Now the crowd is singing for THEM. It's like saying:"thank you for singing for us! now let us repay you!".U2 only stood there, on the stage, smiling and listened.Bono turned his head at Edge and they smiled to each other with amazement. Even when U2 started playing the 1st chords of "One", the crowd kept singing. Only when Bono started talking it went silent. 'Thank you for giving us a great life!' (I'm sure that most of the crowd thought:"Thank YOU!")'Thank you for following us down the Jubilee road, the drop the debt campaign, the richest countries have squeezed enough out of the poorest countries... 'I was in Genoa last week, it was a shock, it was a war zone, I was ashamed to see politicians hiding behind the high walls... 'I am angry, violence is never right whether it's the protestors or the police, but we can be angry because the world shrinks and more and more people are left with nothing- malaria, we can cure malaria, it's just money, that is violence.Police is violence. Violence-no!(crowd shouts a loud "NO!")VIOLENCE-NO!("NO!")Violence is never right!( the crowd agrees with "YEAH!")Violence is never right!("YEAH!")'.
And then it is "One". "Hear me coming love, hear me call, hear me scratching love, ooh you make me crawl"
After it, bono comes to Edge, tells him something and he starts to play "Wake Up Dead Man" without Adam and Larry. Bono sings the 1st two columns and then turns to Edge and shows to end the song.
Then goes "Walk On", with its lyric of hope scattered far and wide. After it whole U2 shows up for public: Larry, Edge, Bono and Adam stands there all together, one next to another...They wave for the last times and leaves the stage.
The crowd again sings "how long...to sing this song?", but they're not coming back.
Only for a moment they flash behind the stage- they're going out.
The lights light up and "Grace" is being played. That's all. The Elevation finished. People start unwillingly leave Waldbuhne. The crew begins dismantling the stage. It's 11 o'clock (tick tock) and it's time to go home.
THE END
That's my "short" but circumstantial story of my only meeting with U2-their BERLIN ELEVATION concert.I wrote it for myself to remember one of greatest moments of my life!ANYONE INTERESTED?HERE IT IS-LIKE IT WAS, LIKE I SAW IT!
P.S.anyone been there too?I can't wait to hear about the concert from your point of view!
P.S.please forgive me all spelling, grammar or other mistakes.I only hope that u'll understand
.Berlin-Walbuhne-29.07.01
SETLIST:
Elevation
Beautiful Day
Until the End of the World
New Year's Day
Kite
Gone
New York
I Will Follow
Sunday Bloody Sunday
In My Life/Stuck in a Moment
In a Little While
Desire
Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
Bad/40
Where the Streets Have No Name
Mysterious Ways
The Fly
Bullet the Blue Sky
With or Without You
One
Wake Up Dead Man
Walk On
At about 17:30 a huge crowd stood in a rain next to Waldbuhne's gate. It was an hour and a half till the official beginning of the U2's concert. Most people didn't have any umbrellas so they had to stand in a rain or (the lucky ones) to hide under the other people's umbrellas. Time passed and at last, at about 18:00 the rain stopped and the Waldbuhne's officers started letting people in. After half an hour I also managed to get in. I found a nice place not far from the heart's right catwalk.
After an hour doing nothing a man from the crew came on stage and said something in German about Taxi and U2 (he actually said that U2 will not cancel the concert because the bad weather (big "YEAH!" from the crowd) and that the warm-up band will not play (another "yeah!" from the crowd) and called on stage some German joker Michael Mittermeier, who, for about half an hour kept playing jokes about U2, Ricky Martin and so on. It must have been very funny, because the crowd enjoyed his act. After he came of the stage the band must have arrived (at last) and the crew started tuning up the instruments. The Goal-U2 concert- was close.
At about 21:30, after The Beatles song "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band", the pre-Elevation music started and the band showed up: Larry, Edge, Adam & Bono. The show started with "Elevation". However Bono's microphone was so silent that he had to do his best to hear his voice through the crowds , that loudly sang along. Whatever, he kept jumping and waving , like he always does.
In The middle of "Beautiful Day" Bono, for the 1st time in the concert, walked the catwalk. When he reached the end of the heart, he slowly took of his blue eyeglasses. During "Until The End Of The World" Bono leaned and kissed The Edge in a cheek. At the end of the song he lied down on the catwalk and grabbed Edge's guitar. Edge "did his best" to play and it sounded not so bad.After Bono let his guitar go played the last real chords of the song.
Before "Kite"(or was it "Beautiful Day" with the 1st words Bono said in a concert: 'Where is the moon?...aah-there is the moon...'), during the break, Bono said:"Hier im Berlin wurde 'Actung Baby' geboren-und das ist auch gut so.(Here, in Berlin "Achtung Baby" was born and that is so very good). He also remembered the time 10 years ago.
'Welcome to the mayor of Berlin and also Michael Mittermeier thanks so much for coming out... 'I'm sorry for the rain and the trouble that the rain may have brought some of you getting here especially the Sohne Mannheims, I'm sorry for that but we're gonna have an extraordinary night tonight.'-Bono said.
And so it proves to be at The Waldbuhne, an outdoor amphitheatre in a forest on the city outskirts, despite the fact that support act Sohne Mannheims had to pull out of the show late in the day and the leading German comedian Michael Mittermeier - who was originally just coming to see the show - stepped in do a half hour warm-up.
There is more praise for the city when Bono introduces New York ('Berlin is the new New York') and then 'our first single!I Will Follow!'-Bono introduced the song.
'Ring those bells Edge, make those bells ring, wrote a love song on two strings, 10 years we walked down these streets with our melodies and our beats, 10 years, the winter was cold, 10 years we made a record that sold, our spirit will never grow old.'-The Singer improvised.
The next song 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' was very warmly excepted by the fans. It has added poignancy tonight, with the show coming not long before Irish and British politicians unveil new political proposals to break the deadlock which has bogged down the peace process in Northern Ireland. 'Today, tonight is a big night for the people of Ireland because tomorrow in the north of Ireland they will have to decide whether to go in peace or back to violence, so tonight we make our song a prayer, a prayer.' Again the song snatches Marley's 'Get Up Stand Up': ' Stand Up for your rights, never ever take a life. No more, no more, no war, no war we're so sick of it, we've had enough.'-Bono sings, closing the song with the request, 'Turn this song into a prayer.'
'In My Life' serves as introduction to 'Stuck In A Moment'. At the end of the song, Edge gets his few minutes of fame singing all alone:'And if the night runs over...etc.' All the crowd very warmly welcomes Edges singing.
Before 'In A Little While', Bono said: 'You alright? Amazing, amazing place, I just want to show you somebody here, just check this..' And so saying he lifts a young woman from the audience who is wearing a Ramones t-shirt. 'You see this is a Ramones t-shirt, now the Ramones were the reason why we started this band, we owe so very much to the Ramones and I want you to know that Joey Ramone became a little bit of a friend before he died a few months back and this next song was the last song he heard in this world and actually he made it a much better song, I don't know how. 'It was a song written about a hangover and he made it into a gospel song and this is a cool t-shirt and I love you.' Then the fan and Bono embrace as he opens the song and then puts her in it: 'I've known her since she was - five minutes ago - but it's been truly a little while.' He walks with the girl all the way to the end of the heart, where they meet The Edge. Then Bono & Edge sings at the microphone and the girl leans to sing too. At the end of the song Bono kisses her hand and cheek and brings her back to the crowd. Then Edge tells Bono some joke and they both split with a smile. Edge comes back to the stage. After a while, when the instruments are carried on the catwalk, Bono starts calling the band to come at the end of the heart:'Wearing No 3, a card carrying genius this is the Edge.'(Edge walks by)'The man who started this band, Larry Mullen Jnr. come on down.'(Larry walks down, trying to hide a smile)'The first manager of U2 on the bass-Adam Clayton.' (Adam goes to Bono by the left side of the trap). Now, when all band is where it had to be, Bono says: 'Any punk rock bands, any hip hop, hard rock, pop, any one here tonight starting out this is for you, a song about blind ambition, it helps the blindness'. And so they start 'Desire' with one guitar, bass, and one small drum for Larry (he beats it with an energy, when it comes to the burden). At the end of the song Bono takes a harmonica and plays it, causing a huge joyful scream in the crowd.
After 'Desire', as Larry's long-time drum-tec Sam O'Sullivan walks up the catwalk with Larry's drum, Bono adds: 'This is Sam O'Sullivan, the legendary Sam O'Sullivan walking off with the drums, a big hand for Sam...'
A big hand is promptly provided.
Larry and Adam walks to the main stage leaving Edge and Bono to play 'Stay(Faraway, So Close!)'. This Song brings Bono back memories of the city they are in tonight. 'We would be wrong not to mention that we had, ten years ago, a very special time in Berlin, in Hansa Studios. 'This is a period when our good friends the Americans reckon we got all weird on them. This is true. But you know if you're four young men from the north side of Dublin you need to get a little weird sometimes and we heard the weird and extraordinary and uplifting records that were being made in Hansa Studios and we thought we should go and become students there so we came to your city to study your rather odd behaviour - because Berliners are just not straight folk right ? - and we like that. We like that very much.'This is a song we started there it was inspired by a Wim Wenders film 'Far Away So Close". After Edge's guitar introduction, that somehow looked VERY familiar to 'Satellite of Love', and the 1st verse, during the words:'You can go anywhere: Miami, New Orleans, London, Belfast and BERLIN"(especially on BERLIN) public shouted the lyrics so loud, that Bono was hardly heard. At the beginning of the final verse Bono started singing: 'Three O'clock in the morning, it's quiet and only Anja's around,' he sings, referring to friend and photographer Anja Grabert who is at the show tonight.
Berliners, needless to say, lap this up, loving U2 as much as U2 love them. They knew every song U2 sang and they sang together with Bono, so loud and so as one, that you could understand and hear all the words so clearly, without mumbling or wheeze!It was really amazing and it sounded like a professional chorus, not like a huge crowd!
After 'Stay' Edge goes back to the main stage and starts playing 'Bad'. During the part where Bono sings:"dislocation..." and etc. a few times he inserts:'Elevation!", that sounds very nice and is good received by the fans.At the end of "Bad" U2 plays a part from "40"("How long to sing this song?")
Wonderful, as always, begins "Where The Streets Have No Name"- the TVs behind the band turns red and when Edge starts playing, white lights start twinkling and turning, and the other lights-flickering! An amazing view!
Mysterious Ways sounded just like taken from ZooTV tour- with the same beginning, and a protracted end!It felt like it's one of the ZooTV concerts again!At the end of the song Bono spots a fan dressed as MacPhisto and pulls him on stage, singing: 'You walk out into the Waldbuhne the lights go down and everything changes, light and motion, you turn a light on emotion".When Mr.MacPhisto shows up, acting just like the real one, the crowd gets a really bright flashback from 1993.
After "Mysterious ways" Bono walks down the catwalk singing:"Love, we shine like a burning star, we're falling from the sky...tonight" for a few times and "The Fly" begins. However, this time Bono doesn't play guitar, so it's hard even to recognize the song.But as soon as Bono starts singing, the crowd gets used to The New Sound of the song and starts singing along. At the end of it Bono runs to the TV behind the band and "splat's" on it as a fly. Then all lights goes down and the band leaves the stage, only the words "gotta go gotta go" are being played and are giving fans a hope, that it's only a break.
And really, just when this annoying "gotta go..." goes silent, some politician appears on TVs and says a speech. At the end of it it, U2 comes back on stage and starts "Bullet The Blue Sky". During it Bono takes a big lantern and starts playing with it: at first he turns the light to Edge, later-to the crowd and at last- to himself. Bono completely passes the part finishing with the words :"and runs in to the arms of America". Instead of that he talks about war with such shout-out sentences as "That man is a CHICKEN!!! That man is a CHICKEN!!!".
"Bullet The Blue Sky" is followed by "With Or Without You". 'Beautiful, beautiful night, thank you,' says Bono at the end of it, waves, thanks and again with the rest of the band goes of the stage.
The crowd, frightened, that it's all over, starts singing :"How long...to sing this song".They did that during every longer break between the songs, but it never sounded like then!It is ONE voice of the thousands, so loud and so clear! And when U2 comes back to stage-it doesn't stop. It even gets louder! Now the crowd is singing for THEM. It's like saying:"thank you for singing for us! now let us repay you!".U2 only stood there, on the stage, smiling and listened.Bono turned his head at Edge and they smiled to each other with amazement. Even when U2 started playing the 1st chords of "One", the crowd kept singing. Only when Bono started talking it went silent. 'Thank you for giving us a great life!' (I'm sure that most of the crowd thought:"Thank YOU!")'Thank you for following us down the Jubilee road, the drop the debt campaign, the richest countries have squeezed enough out of the poorest countries... 'I was in Genoa last week, it was a shock, it was a war zone, I was ashamed to see politicians hiding behind the high walls... 'I am angry, violence is never right whether it's the protestors or the police, but we can be angry because the world shrinks and more and more people are left with nothing- malaria, we can cure malaria, it's just money, that is violence.Police is violence. Violence-no!(crowd shouts a loud "NO!")VIOLENCE-NO!("NO!")Violence is never right!( the crowd agrees with "YEAH!")Violence is never right!("YEAH!")'.
And then it is "One". "Hear me coming love, hear me call, hear me scratching love, ooh you make me crawl"
After it, bono comes to Edge, tells him something and he starts to play "Wake Up Dead Man" without Adam and Larry. Bono sings the 1st two columns and then turns to Edge and shows to end the song.
Then goes "Walk On", with its lyric of hope scattered far and wide. After it whole U2 shows up for public: Larry, Edge, Bono and Adam stands there all together, one next to another...They wave for the last times and leaves the stage.
The crowd again sings "how long...to sing this song?", but they're not coming back.
Only for a moment they flash behind the stage- they're going out.
The lights light up and "Grace" is being played. That's all. The Elevation finished. People start unwillingly leave Waldbuhne. The crew begins dismantling the stage. It's 11 o'clock (tick tock) and it's time to go home.
THE END
