The U2 journey all started late last year when the lads found out that U2 were coming. We formed three teams; Team Alpha (Sam Bartos and me, sleeping overnight outside real groovy where tickets were being sold), team Bravo (the internet ticket team) and team Charlie (the phone ticket team). It was a cold rainy night, but well worth it as both team bravo and Charlie bombed out due to NZ going nuts trying to buy tickets. We got our dirty mittens on 16 tickets, some which were given as gifts, most them of them brought on behalfof mates that now owed us a beer. A very fond memory is of me and Sam B driving home after the all nighter listening to the U2 song "One"... I was getting a bit emo, looked across and saw that Bartos was in exactly the same state. We both blamed it on the lack of sleep.

A couple of months later I was doing some painting work at my parents house when I heard the absolutely gutting news live on the Rock radio station that U2 were postponing "indefinitely" their show. I couldn't believe it, and felt sure that they would not actually come.

As soon as we discover they were returning, the road trip got planned, and we all got as excited as little girls, with DVD screenings of old shows, yarns about set lists etc.

We arrived very early at the gig to get in line, hoping against hope that we would be near the stage. But with forty five thousand other people, we weren't hopeful. But unbelievably we discovered we were one of the first couple of hundred to be there, and so were guaranteed a spot in the eclipse... The American roadie that told us this became an instant legend in our books. The photo below is soon after we discovered that we were going to be close...

But just how close? After waiting for a couple of hours in the holding marquee we walked onto the field, an hour before the rest of the public were allowed in. Seeing the stage for the first time... again... emotional.

We settled down a couple of meters from the front of the stage, completely stoked about how close we were.

Again we settled in for another long wait nervously scanning the sky's as the clouds grew darker... I was gutted (but trying not to show it too much... yeah right) when it started pouring down. I knew that U2 would still play, but I didn't want the spirits to be dampened... (get it, dampened heheheh)


Thankfully it rained a wee bit during Kanye West's set (hip hop is not really my thing), but as he finished, the sky's cleared, and there was nothing to do but wait for the show to really kick in. I was super stoked to see Dallas Schoo (the Edge's guitar tech) in action. What a legend. Then the man himself sneaked on stage with the band and it was game on!!

It is hard to pick highlights from the set, it was incredibly to see literally everyone in the whole stadium going nuts to the songs, an incredible amount of energy and love around the place. "One tree hill" was a special moment, complete with some huge Maori designs on the LCD screens behind the band.

It was an incredibly beautiful night, and as you can tell from the photo of the crew after the gig, we were so stoked. One of the those incredibly memorable moments that will be forever etched in the old hardrive, and probably get bigger and better as the years go on.

Sorry if this sounds like one giant brag, I've just arrived home from Auckland, still stoked from the weekend. I'm presuming that Bono and the lads will be leading worship in heaven, so if you missed out there will be a gig one day that makes Friday night look like a small town pub show.

Labels: U2

This entry was posted by Sam, on Sunday, November 26, 2006. You can leave your response.