1979-12-05

Rock Garden, Covent Garden, England

Set List of Show:

Set List:

  • "Concentration Cramp"
  • "Speed of Life"
  • "Shadows and Tall Trees"
  • "Stories for Boys"
  • "The Dream Is Over"
  • "Another Day"
  • "Inside Out"
  • "In Your Hand"
  • "Twilight"
  • "Boy / Girl"
  • "Out of Control"

Additional Music

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

Show Details:

After two shows headlining, U2 return to the opening act for this show. This is the second show where they open for the Dolly Mixture on this trip to London. This is the all girl group that they had opened for on their first performance in London.

This show is held at the Rock Garden in Covent Garden, a sister club to the 101 Club where they had performed a few nights earlier. The ads for this gig published in NME and Time Out do not include a listing for U2. But the gig guide at Time Out dose include them on the listing, as “U-2”. Admission for the show is £1.50. Continuing in a line of errors in magazines, Melody Maker incorrectly lists U2 as V2. V2 are actually another band that is active at the time, a British punk band. The gig guide in Time Out lists “There are mods at Rock Garden,” perhaps a description for Dolly Mixture, but not a great one for U2.

Before the show U2 visit Record Mirror offices which are near the venue, as a thank you for placing them on the cover of the magazine the previous month. This was U2’s first time appearing on the cover of a magazine outside of Ireland. In return for the visit, Record Mirror sends along reporter Alf Martin to review the show.

Besides confirming that the band played “Twilight,” “Shadows and Tall Trees,” “Boy / Girl” and a song that Martin refers to as “Boy Meets Man” he speaks highly of the band, “[the songs] will not only make you stand bolt upright and listen but have you dancing your socks inside out. Bono had heard about our blasé London audiences but he and the rest of U2 changed that tonight. Their confidence, energy, and damn good music got to is all. Even to their manager who bought a couple bottles of champagne for everyone backstage to celebrate. Even the girl behind the bar at the Rock Garden was surprised. She’d worked there two years and had never sold a bottle.”

Martin was so impressed by U2 he returned to see them at the Electric Ballroom three nights later, this time opening for Talking Heads. It was also Martin who mentioned that the band had popped in to visit the offices, “As the Rock Garden is at the back of our office a couple of the lads popped in to thank us. They were surprised how small some of the London venues are. They hadn’t seen the Rock Garden yet.”

The Edge has the plaster off of his hand by this point, and photographs taken at The Rock Garden show him playing without.

Related News

Officially Released Tracks

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