Pre-War

Second time I saw U2. The stage had only one backdrop of the WAR album cover and an atmosphere of 10,000, yet there were only three or four hundred fans there...I was at the front with my arms flung onto the stage. Bono was at his very best. Climbing onto the balcony and nearly falling off Edge's amp on the way back down. A lot of white flag waving and then BANG...Sunday Bloody Sunday for the first time. The best was yet to come...An Cat Dubh simply put you under a spell and 11 O'Clock TT was just amazing. There were no synths, just 1 guitar, 1 bass, 1 drummer and a singer. This gig was one of those where the whole crowd was dripping with sweat and bouncing up and down. U2 won over a lot of new fans on this tour and the album WAR hadn't even been released yet It was in the days when you actually got to meet the band afterwards, if you were daft enough to wait around in the freezing cold. They must have been knackered, yet they had a word for everybody who stayed to meet them (my signed Boy T-shirt is my prize possession. Not because I'm some saddo, but because I can remember that night still...I'll never get to see U2 perform as close to the crowd again). Simply brilliant