1981-01-23

McMordie Hall, Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Set List of Show:

Main Set:

"The Ocean"
"11 O'Clock Tick Tock"
"An Cat Dubh"
"Into the Heart"
"Another Time, Another Place"
"The Electric Co."
"Things to Make and Do"
"Twilight"
"I Will Follow"

Encore:

"A Day Without Me"
"Out of Control"

Additional Music

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

A Little Night Music

Show Details:

The first show in 1981 saw U2 and Stiff Little Fingers each playing in Belfast (but on two different nights.) The shows are filmed and recorded for the BBC, and have been broadcast on FM Radio and shown on television. The performance shown on TV includes “The Ocean”, “11 O’Clock Tick Tock”, “The Electric Co.” and “Out of Control” and also includes a number of songs from Stiff Little Fingers. The recording is still in use at the BBC, and has recently been shown again for St. Patrick’s Day 2019.

Tickets for both U2’s show and the Stiff Little Fingers show are priced at £2.00. The Stiff Little Fingers show is on the Thursday night, and U2 take the stage on Friday. The concerts are presented by the Student’s Union.

U2 return to the stage after taking a full month off from performing. The show opens with Bono in a white dress shirt with fluffy sleeves, under a fur coat, and wearing a headband. During the show he takes off the coat and headband, and later changing into a sweat shirt for the encore, later stripping that off and finishing “Out of Control” topless. Throughout the show Bono is in the audience, including resting on the audience during “The Electric Co.” and goes out into the crowd again during “Out of Control”. Coming back on the stage during “Out of Control” Bono trips and falls to the ground, picking himself up and continuing to perform.

The full set list for the show from the written list includes “Things to Make and Do” and “Twilight.” Two songs performed as the encore are not included on the written list, “Out of Control” and “A Day Without Me.” “Cry” is listed as a separate track on the set list, but is the usual snippeted version added to the front of “The Electric Co.” which also includes the “Send in the Clowns” snippet.

The broadcasts of this performance on FM Radio have often been partial, edited for time, often leaving out “A Day Without Me” but at least one broadcast over the years has included that song. There have also been broadcasts which leave out “Things to Make and Do” and “Twilight”.

The radio broadcast of this show happened as early as April 14, 1981, and the television broadcast happened as early as August 12, 1981.There may have been broadcasts prior to this.

Officially Released Tracks