August 22, 2001 - London, England - Earl's Court Arena

Fan Review:

Owen Hewitson

Amazing show again. You get the feeling that excellence really does come as standard on this tour. The crowd were a bit more alive than on the 18th, eps. in the heart, and Bono was as mesmerising as ever, and despite his father’s death yesterday, made the occasion more emotional than sombre. The support act were JJ72, despite what you might have heard about Kelis doing another support place, and the lead singer of the band dedicated one of his songs to Bono’s dad, and got a respectful round of applause from the crowd who are usually pretty cold to the support acts. Bono dedicated Kite to his father and made a long speech before about his old man’s last days. He managed to amuse the crowd (who fell very silent when he played the first few chords of the song, knowing he would talk about his father) and told us that he had at times had a rough relationship to his father, recalling how he would ask him if there was anything he needed during his illness and how Bob Hewson told his son to ‘Fuck off’. He spoke about him being tough in that respect, and ended by saying that he had made peace with him before he died. It was a great performance of the song, and it will be the most memorable of the tour so far, i think. During Out Of Control Bono made a very long speech in which he repeated what he told the record company bosses 20-odd years ago. He said something like ‘Here’s our first single Mr. Big Record Company Boss. You listen to it NOW! I’ll wait outside’. Very nice. In My Life was plyed before Stuck and With Or Without You had the Shine like stars ending. The Fly also had a longer intro, not the usual ‘We can have it all’ intro, but there was no sign of the new Aang Suung Sui Kyi video to introduce Bullet. After One, Bono played a song i didn’t recognise, for about a minute on the guitar, by himself. The lyrics, as i can remember them, ended with something like ’ When will i see you again?’ I haven’t heard this song done on tour before but it sounded calming and pretty cool. Usually, when the band lower the pace with songs like WOWY and One, the crowd don’t pick back up for Walk On, but in London tonight they rocked right to the end, which i was very pleased with. Bono’s vox was in great form considering the stresses of the past few days, but i have to say that the night partly belonged to the crowd and there were a few times when Bono let us sing for him. So the European leg is now at an end barring Slane, and they remain without doubt the greatest band in the world. Thankyou for the music.

Images:

All images are © Susanne Kempf