U2 Elevation 2001, MAY 30th
Notes and Numbers from U2's Stop in Detroit (In No Particular Order)
* Bono sang the first verse of The Beatles' In My Life as an introduction to Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of. 'Thank you, thanks a lot, thanks for coming out,' says Bono at the end of this song. 'Someone here owes me a pizza.' It was here in Detroit way back in ZooTV days that the singer ordered 10,000 pizzas from the stage.
* This was the first time on Elevation 2001 that all four members of the band played Desire together.
* Some fans are getting cheeky: one fan-sign tonight reads Adam Streak For Us.
* Edge wears is wearing burgundy tonight, his No. 7 t-shirt.
* 'I still can't play guitar,' explains Bono during I Will Follow. 'How the hell did I get this far ? Came to Detroit 20 years ago, how could I tell where it might go ?
'All the pizzas were for a few friends wanted to see how the night would end.
'I want to be with my man...
I know you want my soul...
I'm on the mend..
Detroit city I'm home, Detroit City,
Detroit city I'm home,
Detroit City...on my mind, don't you stray now...'
* 'When we were 15 and 16,' explains the singer at the beginning of In A Little While, 'The band that got us into wanting to be a band was called The Ramones. Recently I got to meet Joey Ramone. He did an extraordinary thing to this song, he turned a song about a hangover into a gospel song, that's what he did to this song. 'This is the last song that Joey Ramone was played to when he passed away. This has a Detroit kind of feel to it...'
Edge sings the last lines to the song and Bono hugs him, 'I'd like to introduce you to The Edge,' he says, and Detroit is delighted to be introduced.
* 'Larry Mullen on drums, come on down here.' insists Bono on vocals to a deafening response from the audience. 'Adam Clayton, come on down here.. on the bass guitar...' U2, at the tip of the heart catwalk, perform Desire which becomes Gloria circa Van Morrison.
* It is time for Stay, a song written in Berlin in another century, another
age: 'A really exciting time, we were discovering lots of stuff and experimenting with our music. It's the bit in the book where it says we went all arty on you, it might be true. You know when you're floating out there, you find things you bring back home when you're out there in the cosmos.' If anybody minded previously, they are not here in Detroit, not least when the lyric changes at the end as in 'London, Belfast, Detroit City..'
* No, don't tell them that.
'A few weeks back I met a righteous man who marched with Martin Luther King back in the civil rights days,' recalls Bono, getting ready to wind up Pride (In The Name Of Love). 'An extraordinary man whose name was Andrew Young. He said to me, 'You know we can't really be free whilst our brothers and sisters are living in slavery in Africa, slavery not to the slave traders, but slavery to our nations, the money we pushed on them which we now demand off them whilst they struggle to get off their knees.
'It's not right and we can do something about it, 'cos we''re loud, we'll take to the streets if that''s what we've got to do, we'll call the congressmen, we'll call the senators. You tell them Bono's gonna get really mad at them. No, don't tell them that, tell them that all men are created equal under God, tell them that.'
* Bullet becomes With or Without You becomes The Fly becomes One and this show is climbing towards its peak. 'Thank you. I'd like to thank PJ Harvey for opening the show. Our whole security team are from Detroit City, they make it safe for the people that come to the show, not the band...we don't need any protection. You think Im really safe, eh? This is One.'
*Walk On is dedicated to the people who work for Amnesty International.
