Cardiff 25th July 1987

[Mitchampton]

Reminiscing time!

It's 28 years today since my first U2 gig - The Joshua Tree tour in Wales. Support bands were The Silencers (with a song called 'Bullets and Blue eyes' lol), The Alarm and The Pretenders. Wasn't too impressed with any of them and The Alarm were going on and on about Welsh politics I seem to remember.

Anyway, U2 came on playing Stand By Me and didn't play Streets at all in the set. A big surprise but I didn't miss it. Here's the setlist:

Stand By Me
I Will Follow
Trip Through Your Wires
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, Exodus (snippet)
MLK
The Unforgettable Fire
Exit,Riders On The Storm (snippet), Gloria (Van Morrison) (snippet)
In God's Country
Sunday Bloody Sunday
The Electric Co., Break On Through (snippet)
Help!
Bad
October
The Ballad Of Springhill
New Year's Day
Pride, All You Need Is Love (snippet)

Encore

Bullet The Blue Sky, The Battle Hymn Of The Republic (snippet)
Running To Stand Still
With Or Without You
Party Girl
40

Only 21 songs! So people complaining about short sets these days - take note.

It's difficult to remember much about the gig unfortunately. Edge played Rugby and we got alot of songs as standard that people pine for these days (40, Party Girl, Exit etc). I think (hope) I still have the programme somewhere in its envelope. It was a very hot day and we were high up at the back of the stadium but I still remember having a good view and the sound being pretty good.

Just thought I'd share. Next gig was Zooropa in London.

 

[The Panther]

Not arsed to check the setlists now, but there seems to have been a few stadium gigs around mid-87 when they dropped 'Where the Streets Have No Name' (such as at Paris, the one on the DVD, weirdly). Anyone know what the deal was? It sure sounded unbelievably awesome prior to that. Did Larry suddenly decide the count-in was too hard or something...?

 

[Mitchampton]

No idea why they dropped Streets occasionally - would also be interested to know why.

It's the length of the sets that surprises me. Birmingham on the 3rd June got only 19 songs and 3 of those were covers.

 

[david]

I wonder if the Paris show starting while the sun was still up had something to do with Streets not being played?

 

[Vlaco]

I wonder if the Paris show starting while the sun was still up had something to do with Streets not being played?

Don't think so; on some occasions - summer 1987 - they did play Streets and on some they didn't.

 

[The_acrobat]

You guys wanna see some short shows, check out the 3rd leg of Elevation! 18-19 songs?!?! I saw the South Bend show in person, worst U2 concert I've seen out of 11.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[Mitchampton]

You guys wanna see some short shows, check out the 3rd leg of Elevation! 18-19 songs?!?! I saw the South Bend show in person, worst U2 concert I've seen out of 11.

At least you got Garbage as support!

 

[chrisbougeard]

I was at Cardiff on the 25th and Paris on the 4th July 1987.
Both times they decided NOT to play streets, how unlucky was that!

 

[KEVIN051269]

There were only 2 shows where Streets was played, not as an opener on JT Euro shows. One is tenuous the other in a rather unique setlist. The majority of the shows that started with Stand By Me, Streets was not played at all.

 

[chrisbougeard]

So strange that they didnt play it at all the gigs. My understanding is that they spent the lions share of their recording time on The Joshua Tree working on streets, you would think after all that hard work they would want it out there! Stand by me lacked the power and drama of streets as an opener imo.

 

[Jim]

I wasn't allowed to go at the tender age of 13 but my older brother and lots of my mates did and to this day say that gig was and remains the best they have ever seen. U2 at Cardiff Arms Park in 1987 was the gig of our generation (even though I wasn't there!). I've got some photos of that night let me see if I can post them.

I heard a bootleg of the gig years ago.. Bono said (along these lines), "Edge's old man always said, 'one day, my boy will play Cardiff Arms Park', but he didn't mean rock'n'roll, he mean't rugby! so today, Edge is going to play rugby in Cardiff Arms Park!"... huge roars from the crown as Edge slices a terrible kick into the crowd, "...and it's just as well he plays guitar!" says Bono as the go into Trip through your wires.

God I have a good memory

 

[Jim]

And some years later Bono again talks about Edge's Dad and sings 'Stand By Me' on the same ground.. magic.

 

[Mitchampton]

Stand by me lacked the power and drama of streets as an opener imo.

Someone correct me but I think it was playing over the PA, then the band came on and took it over. Even back then I didn't mind that Streets wasn't played. I like the intro but the rest of it is a one trick pony for me. The Eno-esque intro on the Zoo tour was awesome.

@Jim - that sounds about right for Edge playing Rugby

I think it was my first stadium gig. I'm on there, somewhere at the back. And no video screens!