1980-07-21
Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland
Set List of Show:
Known Set List: (Incomplete)
- "11 O'Clock Tick Tock"
Additional Music
Snippets of Other Songs Performed by Feedback:
Show Details:
Hot Press presented a week of shows at the Project Arts Centre in 1980. On Monday, July 21st, The Hot Press Readers’ Poll Gig was held at the venue to kick off the week. The show was headlined by The Blades with a special opening act, “Feedback”. Yes, U2 did a bit of a surprise appearance under their old name to help Hot Press celebrate.
In a review for Hot Press, Liam Makey shares, “U2 were the surprise guests, billed under their archaic moniker of Feedback. My original brief was to write them up mock Local-Motions fashion i.e. an interesting four piece, could go far, but they’ll have to get rid of their lead singer etc. The opening bars of “11 O’Clock Tick Tock” put paid to those notions. U2 stormed through a compressed set that was undeniable in its potency, exhilarating in its uncontrived drama. They’re a band who already seem to have arrived at a creative peak yet, unbelievably – and just think about this – their debut album has yet to see the light of day. U2 music draws on great, surging, tides of power that have nothing to do with flash bombast and everything to do with an imaginative perception of dynamics and contrast and more fundamentally, the kind of passion that fuels the best rock ‘n’ roll music. I’m supposed to keep this brief, so for the moment, let’s just say that this 30 minutes of U2 was the most impressive performance I’ve ever seen by an Irish band. Oh, and one other thing, judging by certain remarks I’ve herd passed in recent months, there are few people out their who seem to be suffering under the delusion that Hot Press has “adopted” U2 as the paper’s pet band. To you I say, don’t be silly – go to one of their gigs. Hearing is believing. A hard act to follow and inevitably The Blades were placed in a more realistic perspective, which is less a reflection on any major deficiencies in The Blades, more and affirmation of the burgeoning greatness of U2.”
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