1980-10-17

Gigant, Apeldoorn, Netherlands

Set List of Show:

Known Set List:

"The Ocean"
"11 O'Clock Tick Tock"
"I Will Follow"
"An Cat Dubh"
"Into the Heart"
"Twilight"
"Out of Control"

Additional Music

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

Show Details:

U2 played a concert in Apeldoorn as part of the mini-tour of The Netherlands and Belgium as part of the first leg of the Boy tour. These were U2’s first concerts in continental Europe. The show in Apeldoorn was played at the Gigant, but not the current location, but the original location on Schoolstraat.

Before the show in Apeldoorn, Island Records press officer Neil Storey who is working with the young band arrives in Apeldoorn with copies of the Boy album. It is the first time that the band see the album in print. In an interview with Record Mirror, the moment is described as: “In the dressing room the band are warm and hospitable, more than eager to break the ice which they do with an abundance of enthusiasm and interest. Neil Storey has brought the first finished copies of ‘Boy’ with him for their inspection and there’s the expected glee at holding the proof of the band’s growth to date.”

Bono is suffering with a cold this evening and has some difficulty finishing the show.

The article in Record Mirror describes the show: “The hall is small and seedy and totally at odds with the Toytown / Legoland ambiance of the neatly pressed town. But as the aching strains of The Edge’s guitar pierces the soft lull of Larry and Adam Clayton’s rhythm patter on ‘The Ocean’ the large adjoining bar is left unpropped. ‘The Ocean’ segues into the latent intent of the intro to ’11 O’Clock Tick Tock’ which explodes into the colour and passion that makes U2 in flight as potent and dramatic as an eagle swooping on its prey. The band play with tension as the bass pins down the flighty skinwork of drummer Larry with the shadowy stabs and prickles of The Edge’s guitar simultaneously dancing and slicing through the throbbing power while the expressive and expansive Bono commands, focuses and embodies the energy. ‘I Will Follow’, a passionate but impressionistic examination of the loss of security, thunders while the Dutch heads nod and bodies succumb to the insistent rhythm. The fluid but latently evil ‘An Cat Dubh’ has the loping bass and forthright rhythm igniting the spiky fretwork of The Edge while Bono calls on and articulates the hidden terror of the temptation and seduction the song speaks of before journeying to the moving ‘Into The Heart’ which is committed without stifling the spark that makes it their most vital composition. The Edge has some problem with his guitar and Bono is forced to attempt some patter to the Dutch audience which wasn’t as smooth as Terry Wogan, or as witty as Les Dawson, but it sufficed. During ‘Twilight’ there is a re-enactment of that hoary old Hollywood scene where the starlet is thrust into the spotlight as the lead actress is ill and the hostile audience are broken down one by one by the natural charm of the newcomer, until they rapturously accept her. The Appledorne crowd need no such bait as one by one they start physically bending, moving and bopping to the music. By the helter skelter effervescence of ‘Out of Control’ they are totally in the grip of the U2 magic. Their applause and appreciation is, at first, muted and restrained but they end up fighting to show the band that a few encores wouldn’t exactly bomb.”

The full set list is not known.

Officially Released Tracks