THANK YOU CHICAGO

'Wherever you are, from the Pride Parade all the way to the 4th of July, the Irish are with you and your families. We are with you. '

Final night in Chicago and what a run it's been. 'The end of an 'incredible ten days' as Bono put it, and surrender was again the big idea, the band surrendering to the 'good people of Chicago', the good people to the good music.

Two songs played only sparingly on the tour to date.

'I try to sing this song

I, I try to get in

But I can't find the door

The door is open

You're standing there, you let me in...'

Gloria was unexpected and breathtaking, only its second performance in ten years. 

Then, later, this, written thirty years on.

'That’s how I know 

And why I need to know that there is no end to love

All I know and all I need to know is there is no end to love..'

California sounded beautiful on the 'e' stage, caught between Mysterious Ways and Ordinary Love, a song Bono introduced like this...

'Ok so this song is a special song to us. I was speaking earlier about the man it was written about, we were blessed in our life to get to know and spend some time with Nelson Mandela. 

'We’ve been working for him as a band since we were 18 yrs old, i think it was 1978 we did our first anti-apartheid show for Nelson Mandela, he was like our  boss, got us into debt cancellation and lots of other stuff. 

'Him and the Arch… Archbishop Tutu these were two great heroes of ours, this is an aside, but it was the Arch’s wedding anniversary yesterday with Leah his missus, 60th wedding anniversary... that's pretty cool. What are the odds of these two men coming from the same neighborhood. That's pretty incredible.  Alright, this song came second at the Oscars...'

Sounded like a winner tonight, but then the whole night sounded like a winner, these five shows. Thank you Chicago...

All the way down to the final song, an ancient song, the one we all left the building singing.

'How long to sing this song...'

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