1979-12-18

The Venue, Victoria, England, United Kingdom

Set List of Show:

Additional Music

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

Show Details:

With the cancellation of an earlier show at Brunel University, opening for the Photos, U2 seek out another gig, and this show opening for Doll by Doll at The Venue in London is their final show in the UK on this trip. The venue, located on 160 Victoria St. is a live music club owned by Virgin Records.

Unlike other shows on the tour, the audience is more business types, and more interested in the drinks than the music. Chris Westwood in Record Mirror reviews the U2 performance, “‘This is the first time we’ve done cabaret’ announces U-2 singer Bono, endearingly; the expurgation is greeted with self-conscious hum of approving tee-hees. A band at The Venue is like a band on New Faces, or at a Working Men’s Club variety nite; people performing for a studio audience, the people who laugh and clap in all the right places, but never book or fart in public, and like to eat steaks and sip elaborate cocktails while the PA flickers crisply and the ‘group’ do their ‘thing’…U-2 are aware and promiscuous; they’re warm enough, enticing enough to draw people in, yet sufficiently stubborn to deflate a cosy situation when necessary and stick their flag in the painful parts.” The review of the performance is positive, calling Bono “uniquely expressive” and says they get “polite applause flickers at the close of their set…”

Blondie are at this show, at this point, sales wise, the most successful band in Britain. Blondie are reported to have called Bono “a latter-day Walt Disney wizard, conjuring up a magical mixture of style and pretty noise.”

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Officially Released Tracks

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