By Dianne Broodryk
No better Valentine’s Day, than this one: I love you and U2!
've been looking forward to the U2 360 degree concert at FNB Stadium in Soweto for months! From the moment the news broke that the legendary Irish rockers have scheduled sunny SA in their world tour, I've been having those little random bursts of excitement in the pit of my belly. Remember, when you were a child, counting the sleeps to Christmas?
On a Saturday late last year, I was first in line at the Computicket counter at my local Checkers, when the ticket sales opened at 9:00 sharp and put my tickets on the fridge with pride (in my house: that's where all important pieces of soon-to-be-used documentation and invites go - the fridge)
I'm not big on Valentine's Day, but seeing U2 live in our own backyard on Valentine's Eve is a fabulously romantic extra. The morning after the concert, actual Valentine's Day, was always going to be a difficult one, what with no prospect of getting sleep after the concert. Pulling an all-nighter was always on the cards, seeing as the concert only started at 9:30 pm (my normal bed-time) with my week starting in the News room at 4:00 am, like every weekday morning.
Transport to the stadium became an issue, when all of the park-and-ride facilities I was interested in were sold out by Friday afternoon. I waited much too long! I ended up spending an hour and a half at the Computicket counter, considering different options and left with a R120 VIP parking ticket - inside the stadium. I'm confident my car would be the safest inside the stadium with all its security and strict entry/exit protocols. Some 500 of these tickets were released to the public on the Thursday before the concert - obviously because all the other options had been sold out. So, I'll be driving my car into that magnificent stadium well before the concert starts ... and out, well after ....eish, logistics! We arranged a sleep-over for my daughter at my sisters' - so she was pretty excited too.
So, why go through all this trouble to see U2 you may ask - not just me, but around 100-thousand other fans too? What makes U2 so special, that professional people and parents turn into teenagers at the prospect of seeing four school friends from Ireland make their noise on a stage at the southern tip of Africa?
I can't speak for the others, but here are a few of my reasons.
U2 was part of my awakening. I started listening to their music at a time when I started to think for myself: about life, love, the world we live in. It was just after the Joshua Tree album and around the Rattle and Hum when I started to understand that our society was pretty divided and not at all fair. U2 sang about this and the Rattle and Hum album was banned in South Africa, especially because of the "Silver and Gold" track. This appealed tremendously to my rebellious streak at the time and asked the same questions as I did. It also appealed to my sense of adventure to sneak a copy from a friend who was overseas and to listen to the banned music: loud and proud on the way to class in my little Fiat. Then there's Sunday Bloody Sunday: still one of my favorite songs of all times. It reminds me of our headbanging-days at the "Fridge", and the metal band concerts my now husband was involved with. Those were carefree days when possibilities, beer and energy were endless. And then there is the fact that U2 has improved with age, as we all hope to be able to do. They're just an all out pro outfit, who make memorable, fantastic music together. Their live shows are spectacular to see: from design, lighting and sound to the songs and performance.
So, here I am ... the morning after the night before ... on Valentine's Monday: was it all worth it?
.... a thousand times YES!
We got home at 1 am ... not bad considering that it took half an hour to get out of the stadium. Then, we also stopped for a sausage roll and a cappuccino at a garage shop because we were famished and sick of the taste of beer. The reason: we couldn't buy anything else - no food, water, cool drink - just beer. No shirts, no caps ... I'm seriously disappointed in stadium management.
The concert started five minutes before the scheduled 9:30 pm and lasted two fleeting hours. Bono was his magnificent self. The Edge was beyond words (his sound was excellent - more so than the rest of the band, including Bono), Larry Mullen jr. sat on his perch and did his thing brilliantly and Adam Clayton wore an extremely gay top. Together, they put up a show that had me in actual tears four times: When our own Hugh Masekela took to the stage in "I still haven't found what I'm looking for", when Bono only said "Madiba" before going into "In the name of love", then when our own Arch, Desmond Tutu addressed the crowd in a pre-recorded bit before "One" - also the name of Bono's effort against diseases like Aids and Malaria - and then at the end when Bono invited all to switch on our phones, to create a milky way for Madiba.
U2 played all the favorites and some new stuff (Beautiful Day, Mysterious Ways, Vertigo, With or Without You), one lucky girl got pulled on stage (like Bono always does) and the "claw" did all sorts of amazing things throughout the performance. It didn't turn 360 like I imagined it would, but it didn't matter - we were on front facing side of the stage, so it was just magnificent. The moon hovered over the Calabash like a guardian angel - hallowed ground as Bono described it - and I felt blessed.
There is a PS to this blog: Bono did not support Julius Malema. He was merely saying that liberation and struggle songs like "shoot the Boer" were part of a country's history, but that it would be dumb to sing it in public. All I want to say about this is: Steve you missed a great show!
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