2011-02-13

FNB Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa

Set List of Show:

Main Set:

  • "Beautiful Day"
  • "I Will Follow"
  • "Get On Your Boots"
  • "Magnificent"
  • "Mysterious Ways"
  • "Elevation"
  • "Until the End of the World"
  • "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
  • "North Star"
  • "Pride (In the Name of Love)"
  • "In a Little While"
  • "Miss Sarajevo"
  • "City Of Blinding Lights"
  • "Vertigo"
  • "I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight"
  • "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
  • "Scarlet"
  • "Walk On"
Encore One:

  • "One"
  • "Where the Streets Have No Name"
Encore Two:

  • "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me"
  • "With or Without You"
  • "Moment of Surrender"

Additional Music

Pre-Recorded Intro Song: "One Day Like This" - Elbow
Pre-Recorded Intro Song: "Get On Your Boots" (Fish Out of Water Remix Gospel Version) - U2 and the Soweto Gospel Choir
Pre-Recorded Exit Song: "Space Oddity" - David Bowie

Snippets of Other Songs Performed by U2:

    "She Loves You" (The Beatles) / "Two Tribes" (Frankie Goes to Hollywood) / "Relax" (Frankie Goes to Hollywood) / "You'll Never Walk Alone" (from Carousel by Rodgers and Hammerstein) / "Amazing Grace" (John Newton and William Walker) / "All You Need is Love" (The Beatles) /

Show Details:

The show is opened by Springbok Nude Girls and Amadou and Mariam. The crowd tonight is record breaking, the largest crowd ever for a sporting or entertainment event in South Africa. The band are playing to 95,000 fans tonight. It’s the first time U2 have performed as a group in South Africa since the conclusion of the PopMart tour in March 1998.

The “Space Oddity” opening has been replaced with a remix of “Get On Your Boots” featuring the Soweto Gospel Choir. U2 enters the stage as it plays over the PA, and then open with “Beautiful Day” instead of the “Stingray Guitar” opening used on the previous two legs. The Soweto Gospel Choir are at the show tonight and are greeted backstage by the band ahead of the show. At this point the mix is being called the “Rainbow People” mix of “Get On Your Boots”, and it was created for the 2010 World Cup. The final non-U2 song before the mix of “Get On Your Boots” was Elbow’s “One Day Like This”.

Hugh Masekala joins U2 onstage for a performance of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”. Masekala is known as the father of South African jazz, and is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, and known for his anti-apartheid song “Soweto Blues”.

The only one of the new songs which makes the set list is “North Star” tonight.

The venue was home to the first big speech by Nelson Mandela after his release from prison, and it hasn’t escaped Bono’s notice that it’s the 21st anniversary of that speech. Bono speaks about Mandela throughout the show, and dedicates “Moment of Surrender” to him. “Pride (In the Name of Love)” features video footage of Mandela speaking on that night. Bono adds a new lyric to “Pride” as well, “February 13, 1990. Words ring out in a Jo’burg sky. Free at last to live your life. The lion of Africa and his pride.”

“Sunday Bloody Sunday” which used to feature images from Iran, now has added elements referring to recent events in Egypt, where president Mubarak has stepped down. “Scarlet” is performed by the band, but Bono doesn’t sing the lyric. Instead he talks throughout the song. The encore break with video footage of Bishop Tutu is met with huge applause, and leads into “One”. The rotational song in the encore is filled by “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” tonight.

“Where the Streets Have No Name” also has new video elements tonight. The African flag opening from the Vertigo tour for the song is revived. That tour had never reached Africa so it is the first time it is seen at home.

Snippets included during the show include “She Loves You” during “Vertigo”, “Two Tribes” and “Relax” in “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight”, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” during “Walk On” and “Amazing Grace” and “All You Need is Love” during “Where the Streets Have No Name”.

Willie Williams met with Bono the day after the show and shared, he “was extremely happy about the gig last night, and the magical Hugh Masekela moment. He was also highly complimentary and full of gratitude that we had managed to pull off all five of the new elements at such ludicrously short notice on a weekend. ‘I actually couldn’t believe it’, he said. ‘Well, do try not to make a habit of it,’ I replied.” Williams also shares in his diary at U2.com, “The opening was fantastic, the cell-phone ‘star-field’ was one of the best of the tour but the high point had to be Hugh Masekela. In the middle of all this big rock sound, his plaintive flugelhorn was intensely moving and you could tell that the audience couldn’t quite believe what they were witnessing.”

A full set list is rehearsed on February 11. Rumours said that both “Kite” and “Mercy” were rehearsed, but neither made the show. The lead up to the show is not without controversy. The South African Roadies Association is threatening to picket the show, alleging racism because U2 are not using their services. U2 issue an explanation that they have a traveling crew of 196 which have travelled with them throughout the tour, and that they have contracted with a local company for their local labour needs, and offering to meet with the representatives of SARA.

Tickets for the show go on sale on October 23, 2010, with a presale for U2.Com members which starts on October 20, 2010.

Related News

Officially Released Tracks

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