"Brendan Byrne Arena (Rutherford, NJ) May 16, 1987" - U2

Live Album

Track Listing:

Further Track Listing Information:


This recording also included the following tracks, not listed above:
  • Crowds (00:22) [First Track]
  • Banter (00:45) {After “In God’s Country”]
  • Banter (00:58) [After “The Electric Co.”]
  • Banter (00:28) [After “New Year’s Day”]
  • Banter (00:57) [After “Gloria”]
  • Encore Break (01:52) [After “Bad”]
  • Crowds (00:30) [After “With or Without You”]

Background Information

Wolfgang’s Vault is a private music company established in 2003. The company restores recordings in audio and video format and releases them for streaming or for download. The company also sells music memorabilia. The basis of the collection was the collection of the late Bill Graham, born Wolodia “Wolfgang” Grajonca. Graham was a well known music promoter and at times was the promoter for U2 in the USA. This is not the same Bill Graham who was instrumental in the early days of U2 in Dublin.

In 2002, William Sagan bought Bill Graham’s archive from Clear Channel for an estimated $5 million, and immediately set up “Wolfgang’s Vault”. The website started offering recordings by many artists that Graham had promoted and recorded for sale. Other artists such as U2 were streamed on the site but had no recordings for sale. The issue many had was Sagan wasn’t sharing royalties from the recordings with those who had performed the work. In 2006, a group of musicians headed by the Grateful Dead sued Wolfgang’s Vault. In 2008 a settlement was reached with the Grateful Dead, Carlos Santana, Led Zeppelin, The Doors and the estate of Janis Joplin, and those artists had entered into a licensing agreement pertaining to the sale of merchandise.

The Vault had been streaming U2 recordings, all in video since 2007. On December 4, 2012, an audio performance by U2 was put up on the site and made available for purchase for $5.00. Since that time a number of recordings have been released, including this set from New Jersey in 1987. The day prior to this performance was also a concert in New Jersey and that performance has been released separately. U2 performed five shows in a row in East Rutherford, so far only the two have been released through Concert Vault. The full list of releases is as follows:

  • Paradise (Boston MA) Mar 6, 1981 – Set 2 [Released June 22, 2015]
  • Orpheum Theatre (Boston MA) Nov 14, 1981 [Released June 16, 2015]
  • Brendan Byrne Arena (Rutherford NJ) May 15, 1987 [Released April 3, 2015]
  • Brendan Byrne Arena (Rutherford NJ) May 16, 1987 [Released April 3, 2015]
  • Boston Garden (Boston MA) Sep 17, 1987 [Released August 10, 2013]
  • Boston Garden (Boston MA) Sep 18, 1987 [Released December 4, 2012]
  • Foxboro Stadium (Foxboro MA) Sep 22, 1987 [Released August 10, 2013]
  • Madison Square Garden (New York NY) Sep 28, 1987 [Released March 29, 2013]

This recording has a couple of technical glitches, and both “Pride (In the Name of Love)” and “I Will Follow” are affected and are not complete recordings of the performance. Bono drops in a number of snippets during this concert. This includes “Riders on the Storm” and Van Morrison’s “Gloria” during “Exit”, “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right to Party”, “Light My Fire” and “Break On Through” during “The Electric Co.”, “Love Will Tear Us Apart” during “With or Without You” and “We’ll Meet Again” just before “40”. “With or Without You” also includes the “Shine Like Stars” verse. The release was made up of 27 mp3 files, although a number are just Bono speaking or crowd noise. The mp3s were released in 320kbps quality.

It is unknown what legal agreements U2 may have made with Wolfgang’s Vault, but it is expected that there may be one in place, as they are now offering recordings for sale as opposed to just streaming music as they had in the past. Wolfgang’s Vault has also been known as “The Vault” and “Concert Vault”.

Liner Notes

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