U2 – The 360° Broadcast (Godfather Records G.R. 431/432)

CD1: Breathe, No Line On The Horizon, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Beautiful Day/Blackbird, Elevation, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For/Movin On Up, Happy Birthday, Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out of, Unknown Caller, The Unforgettable Fire, City Of Blinding Lights, Vertigo.

CD2: I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight/Reverend Black Grape/Two Tribes, Sunday Bloody Sunday, /Oliver’s Army, Pride, MLK, Walk On/You’ll Never Walk Alone, Where the Streets Have No Name/Gloria, One, Mysterious Ways, Ultra Violet(Light My Way), With Or Without You, Moment Of Surrender.

Bonus Tracks: One with Baaba Maal, Vertigo. Both played acoustically.

This concert is both and FM Broadcast that went out to all of Europe and was also available vie the internet, I assume through U2’s web site. Godfatherecords does present this release for the most part, in excellent stereo quality.

The set list is the same with the emphasis on the album No Line On The Horizon, and songs from the previous three albums. A couple of changes to this shows set list include Elevation, Stuck In A Moment You Can’t get Out Of and Mysterious Ways. Sunday Bloody Sunday is the token classic.  Get On Your Boots and Magnificent are played with raw energy and full of the type of power that can only be captured live.

The man responsible for the design and building of their massive stage is from Sheffield England. His name is Willie Williams, he was obviously at the gig and it was also his birthday.  Bono has the whole stadium sing along to Happy Birthday. (Hope the band paid their royalties!). I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For/Movin On Up and Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get out of, which is Edge’s choice of a song to play, when asked by Bono are the acoustic numbers. I’m dying to know what it is that made Bono want to sing a line from Movin On Up, a theme song from an American TV show from back in the ‘ 70’s.  

U2 has brought back a song or two from the past which haven’t been played much over the years. one song is the Unforgettable Fire. This brings back good memories for me from the ’85 tour. The song envelopes into a really nice rhythmic pace that sounds very crisp, and a lot bigger than just four guys standing on a stage. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight is played in a very disco-ey way, and it would interesting to see if the crowd is dancing around to it. It sounds as if U2 are really getting into playing the beat for them.

Through the 360° tour Bono has been dedicating MLK to an activist under house arrest for the past twenty years in Burma, for the simple reason that she would win a free election in her country, if there ever was one. Her name is Aung San Suu Kyi, and Bono took advantage of the continental broadcast and world wide webcast to talk about her, and let her know that they are thinking of her. Hope she has the internet. From MLK U2 segues into Walk On/You’ll Never Walk Alone, a song that has effectively been used by the band, for moments like this, for inspiration. What would a U2 concert be without these kinds of moments.

Godfatherecords once again comes through with a couple of great bonus tracks. They are taken from a British show called Island Of Life. The songs are One as sung by a Senagalese singer named Baaba Maal, and U2 come out as surprise guests and sing the song with him acoustically, and the go into a great and rare acoustic version of Vertigo. A nice inclusion. This does come in their standard tri-fold with excellent glossy pictures of the band, and even include an insert with more pics and all of the European tour dates. If Godfather can get one show from each of these cities, including Poland, and Croatia, I’m sure collectors would appreciate it.