U2 they’re like marmite, you either love them or you hate them. For some people they don’t understand how a band like U2 can be so popular or so famous and others just really don’t like Bono. But for the people who have been queueing in the September cold overnight, U2 are one of those bands that manage to create a spectacle that can never be matched by any other band no matter what.
Tonight U2 bring the 360° tour to Paris and with it comes the giant claw – each one being worth £12m each and taking almost three days to set up.
The doors open and eager fans are crushed as they try to fit their tickets through the automatic scanners on the gates. Then it’s a free for all, people running everywhere wanting to get to the places on the barrier that they’ve been hoping for. The Stade de France fills up quickly as darkness falls and Interpol step onto the stage to open up for the Irish mega rockers. It’s a shame that they just really don’t have the umph about them tonight, they just seem really uninterested about being there although to be fair to them, it must be really hard to interact with the crowd when everything feels so far away.
The tension begins to build as Interpol leave the stage and the big giant clock appears on the claw, counting down the minutes until U2 grace us with their presence. Time goes by and that familiar David Bowie song is played. It’s time. And the four Irish geezers enter the stage with a wave and smile. Here we go.
They start with a bit of jamming which is apparently called The return of the stingray guitar and then go straight into Beautiful Day which is a bit of a shock but fits perfectly with the evening and the occasion. Old favourites remain on the setlist such as I Will Follow and Sunday Bloody Sunday which prompt a mass sing along and jig amongst the 80,000 strong crowd. Newer songs off No Line On The Horizon are just as popular as the older songs.
They continue with a lot of upbeat songs such as Magnificent, Mysterious Ways and Elevation before slowing things down a little with classic I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. With a song like that it makes you wonder how anyone can really hate U2. Songs like these don’t grow on trees and hearing the whole stadium of European fans sing it word perfect in English is truly amazing.
Bono and co play Walk On in honor of Aung Sung Suu Kyi who is still currently under house arrest in Burma. It’s such a beautiful song anyway but now it seems to have more meaning and emotion to it.
The two big ones are left for the encore. With or Without You and Where The Streets Have No Name – both from The Joshua Tree album. Probably the best of all the U2 albums with it’s anthemic biggies like these two. There’s something emotional about this one because for every single person in the crowd there is a complately different meaning to these songs – for some they just like them because they are stunning musically and lyrically while for others they remind them of poignant moments in their lives. Tonight’s crowd show how amazing those songs are when they continue the choruses without Bono – they didn’t even need the band onstage!
The night draws to a close with Moment Of Surrender which has closed all of the 360° tour dates. It’s a slow one, calming the audience down and rounding of a magical night in Paris. As Bono hesitantly leaves the stage and says in his perfect French accent ‘ I will never forget tonight’ it’s clear that U2 are still the stadium mega stars to beat and aren’t willing to be pushed off their pedastool too soon.
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