"Fields of Hope: Fighting Against Famine" - Various Artists
Compilation Album
U2 Related Content:
Full Track Listing:
- Storm in My Heart – Dolores Keane
- In the Air – Atlan Castles
- Irish Heartbeat – Van Morrison & The Chieftains
- Everything Around Me Is Changing – Sinead Lohan
- Ae Fond Kiss – Mary Black
- Lead Me Upstairs – David Gray
- Staring at the Sun (Live) – U2
- Ode to Billy Joe – Sinead O’Connor
- Ceolfidh Me – Maire Brennan
- Lovely Young One – Christy Moore
- Butlers – Donal Lunny & Coolfin
- Dreaming My Dreams – The Cranberries
- Rooftop Lullaby – Jack L
- Runaway – The Corrs
Background Information
Dara Records was an Irish label who put this compilation album together of Irish favorites singing live. The album contained a number of live tracks from popular Irish Artists including U2, The Cranberries, Sinead O’Connor and The Corrs. The album was put together as a fundraising effort for the Gorta Society. This group is Ireland’s oldest running international development organization, and Gorta means hunger in the Irish Language, and the organization has long been involved in famine fundraising, agricultural development projects and more, worldwide.
The song contributed by U2 to the project is a live recording of “Staring at the Sun” taken from their Mexico City performance on December 3, 1997. This is also the performance captured on the PopMart DVD, as well as on the recordings Hasta La Vista Baby and the Columbian promo “En Vivo”. Like the recording on “En Vivo” this version is recorded louder than the version found on Hasta La Vista Baby. But this track is unique, as it features a longer fade in than the version on “En Vivo” fading in over 3.9 seconds before the music starts where the version on “En Vivo” fades in in about 0.5s. The song also fades out for longer. (Hasta La Vista Baby being part of a continuous live recording neither fades in nor out.)
The credits of the CD thank Shane @ Pulse for Mastering, Replitek Ireland for Manufacturing and Greg at GSB Printers. The CD was sponsored by Ericcsons, TV3, and Goodbody Stokbrokers. All of the tracks were donated to the project. There is no identification of where the live tracks were recorded, but we were able to compare and positively identify that this was the performance from Mexico City.