U2 at Glastonbury , 24th June 2011

U2 headlined the Glastonbury Festival in the UK tonight and from the opening bars of 'Real Thing' to the closing seconds of Out of Control, it was a rock'n'roll tour de force.

Over an hour and three quarters on stage, the band played 19 songs from eight albums spanning three decades - a blistering show  that set  Glastonbury 2011 alight.

 'Has any other headline band performed so many hits?' asked steelerik on our live feed. 'I doubt it...'

A year after they were due to make their debut here on Worthy Farm, tonight they  finally made it, their first UK festival set since the eighties. By the time they arrived on stage shortly before 10pm, there were tens of thousands of U2 fans who'd made their way to the front of the Pyramid Stage - holding high their flags and banners.

And from the start of 'Real Thing' - accompanied by the premiere of a stunning video specially commissioned  from artist Damien Hirst - and running into four more tracks from Achtung Baby, the band never took their foot off the gas.


'They absolutely nailed it,' tweeted gayleague. 'Hugely enjoyable, they've still got it...'

As well as the live broadcast in the UK and Ireland, there was a global audience following live updates online - at one point Bono, Adam, Achtung Baby, Edge, Larry and Zoo TV were all trending on Twitter.

'I think the guys have just shown glasto wot the last 41 years as been waitin for!!' tweeted Yvonne Murray.

musicabona commented on U2.com:

Shining like burning stars

Starting the show with an emphasis on the outstanding material from "Achtung Baby", U2 delivered a brilliant and very powerful concert. Having watched a videostream, I was overwhelmed by the magical vibe of that festival. Holding numerous flags and singing along, the crowd was very enthusiastic and the band offered many unforgettable highlights. Letting words float during "Beautiful Day", Commander Kelly sent a touching message from outer space. With Bono dedicating his whole vocal and physical energy to the music, "Elevation" was the beginning of U2;s rock section, followed by "Get On Your Boots", which merged into a fiery version of "Vertigo". Bono created another moving moment as he took off his shades when singing the line "Wipe your tears away" from Sunday Bloody Sunday". During "Bad" I saw people wear thick jackets, but despite the bad weather the band heated the atmosphere, allowing the audience to sing a cappella at the end of the song. U2 finished their incredible show in an unexpected manner as they played "Out Of Control", one of their most fervent tracks of their early days...

Setlist 

1. Even Better Than The Real Thing
2. The Fly
3. Mysterious Ways / Independent Women
4. Until The End Of The World
5. One
6. Jerusalem / Where The Streets Have No Name / All You Need Is Love
7. I Will Follow
8. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / Movin’ On Up
9. Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
10. Beautiful Day / Rain
11. Elevation
12. Get On Your Boots / She Loves You
13. Vertigo
14. Sunday Bloody Sunday
15. Bad / Jerusalem
16. Pride
17. With Or Without You / Love Will Tear Us Apart
18. Yellow / Moment Of Surrender
19. Out Of Control

Picture gallery.


www.U2.com 




The Guardian 
www.guardian.co.uk

U2 at Glastonbury 2011 - review

"Look at you!" cries Bono midway through U2's opening song, Even Better Than the Real Thing. "A whole city in the rain." Dreadful weather has a way of focusing the mind. U2's booking has divided festivalgoers since it was first announced, before Bono's back injury forced a postponement. But their healthy back catalogue and formidable showmanship seems well-placed to raise sodden spirits.

Working with an additional video screen, they reach back to the early-90s not just with an opening salvo of songs from Achtung Baby but with the frenetic visual overload of the Zoo TV tour. It finds them at their fiercest and most urgent, The Edge wrenching bolts of noise from his guitar during Until the End of the World. One and Where the Streets Have No Name, usually preserved for the finale of their touring set, follow. It's a lean, combative, frontloaded set calibrated to win the unconverted at their first festival show since the 80s. You can't persuade everyone of course, but it's good to see a band this big taking nothing for granted.

Aside from an a cappella verse of Jerusalem, Bono wisely keeps the Avalon blarney to a minimum. "Could be the leylines," he begins. "Could be the jetlag. But it's a very special feeling being here." He has an instinct for the right gesture. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking for closes with a refrain from Moving on Up by Primal Scream, who are headlining the Other stage. In a flamboyant coup de theatre (Look! We have friends in space!) he enlists an astronaut to recite lyrics during Beautiful Day from the international space station. Other memorable moments are generated by the crowd. They take a whole verse of I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, while a field of flags blowing in the night breeze during Sunday Bloody Sunday intensifies the song's martial feel.

If there's a problem, apart from the wretched weather, it's that the opening sprint is never equalled for energy (and, thanks to the wind, volume), though Beautiful Day, Elevation and Vertigo come close. In the encore, after a glittering With or Without You, the sombre Moment of Surrender feels anticlimactic: a big moment for U2's fanbase but not well-known to anyone else. But they pull it back with a rampaging version of their punky debut single Out of Control, a reminder of when they were unknowns with everything to prove. Thirty years later, on unfamiliar ground, they reach for that fierce hunger and it's that sense of urgency – even a hint of nerves – rather than triumphalism that makes this such a charged and memorable set.