It was wet, wet, wet in Copenhagen last night, but it takes more than a little storm to dampen Danish enthusiasm for U2.
A little bit of rain (well, quite a lot actually) failed to dampen spirits in Copenhagen last night. It was the third of U2's three nights in Scandinavia and it lived up to the heights of the earlier two.
But was it wet? Yes it was wet. In fact there was a thunder storm about two hours before the show and it rained pretty heavily during the gig. No wonder Bono changed the lyric in Streets from 'dust clouds' to 'rain clouds'. But, as he also ad-libbed during Beautiful Day, 'The clouds can come, they will soon go away.'
Supermodel Helena Christiansen was here tonight, looking elegant in the rain, along with a clutch of other famous faces - princes and footballers and local rock'n roll stars. (Lars Ulrich, Metallica drummer, as you ask, along with Prince Albert of Monaco, Prince Fred of Denmark and Ronaldo, prince of the football pitch.)
But perhaps the strangest moment was when Bono invited the photographers from the pit up on to the stage during Electric Co. Turns out they were a little shy! Our time in this city has been 24/7 paparazzi - the band got away to Helena Christiansen's beach house at one point and the papers have been covered in stories of supermodels and rock stars. Very Zoo TV. So considering the snappers have been chasing the band half way round Denmark, they seemed remarkably stage-shy last night!
A smidgeon of Boney M ('Brown Girl in the Ring') opened up Elevation with most of Denmark joining in but boy did people really go for it when the lyrics of Beautiful Day got a complete overhaul to reflect tonight's setting.
'See the world in red and white
See the Vikings show their souls tonight
Swimming with Helena and Ali in the sea
On a coast of a beautiful country
See four seasons in one day
The clouds can come they will soon go away
See the bird with the leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colours come out'
The Danish flags were flying proudly all through the audience.
'Well okay, we've really been having a little bit of a good time here in your beautiful city of Copenhagen.'
And we were, regardless of this being the wettest night of the tour. Bono took a moment to explain some comments of Edge about the amount of drink he planned to be taking while staying in Denmark.
'The Edge is not one of us,' explained Bono. 'He comes from the future. We've been drinking a lot of your fruit tea. Beautiful friends and families here, that we've known over the years, out swimming in the sea this morning... Beautiful.'
City of Blinding Lights, Miracle Drug, Sometimes, the night was racing by as Love and Peace arrived with some thoughts about co-existence.
'Not a problem in Copenhagen right?
What about tomorrow?
And next year?
I get the feeling
To CoeXisT might get a little harder...'
As a raging Bullet The Blue Sky set pulses racing, it was literally pouring in Copenhagen and by Miss Sarajevo it was, frankly, torrential. The band were getting pretty wet but they looked great! Bono switched to dry tyres for Pride but his new clothes were soon soaking too. Adam, as usual, seemed to be enjoying himself. Bono told him he loved him, which made him smile even more.
All the cellphones defied the rain and shone out bright during One, which ended with an appropriate snatch of The Beatle's Rain. You forget what it takes to keep a show like this on the road - particularly one in weather like this - and Bono took time out to thanks the crew for being so professional. More than that, they would have to load out after the show: 'They're amazing!'
Hear hear!
