U2 rocks Berlin two decades after 'Achtung Baby'

Published: 19 Jul 09 09:04 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20090719-20683.html

U2 rocked Berlin on Saturday, returning to the German city where almost 20 years ago the Irish band came to reinvent themselves with "Achtung Baby," for many fans their best album.

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"Thank you for coming to our "grosser party," or big party, singer Bono told a crowd of 90,000 people during a two-hour set in the Olympic Stadium built by Hitler in the 1930s. "We wrote many songs here in Berlin."

U2 came in 1990 to get inspiration from a city undergoing profound change in the wake of a peaceful revolution that pulled down the Berlin Wall the previous November and brought an end communist East Germany.

The album that they came up with, "Achtung Baby," marked a new direction both musically and visually for the group, and would go on to sell in huge numbers and receive widespread critical acclaim.

The video for the best-known song, "One," was shot in Berlin with clips of spluttering Trabants, the archetypal Eastern Bloc car that also featured, suspended over the stage, in the high-tech "Zoo TV" world tour that followed.

The current "360" tour taking in 14 European cities before heading to North America includes an enormous spaceship-like structure straddling the stage flashing out graphics and lighting effects and blasting out a wall of sound.

The Berlin concert included a mixture of classic U2 songs like "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Mysterious Ways" as well as new songs from their latest album "No Line On The Horizon."

With Bono a prominent anti-poverty activist, the concert also had a political edge, with a rendition of "Happy Birthday" for Nelson Mandela and a song dedicated to detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"This woman has been under house arrest for the best part of 20 years," Bono said. "I would like to sing her an Irish lullaby."

AFP (news@thelocal.de)

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Your comments about this article:

12:38 July 19, 2009 by beatlebum

The most amazing show, wow. So great to see them here in Berlin, I haven't missed an Irish gig since 1983 and the Berlin show was up there with the best of them. The stage was incredible, a great piece of architecture. Great to see a band I grew up around the corner from, they have come a long way.

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13:57 July 19, 2009 by JeffZ

Band plays gig in town. And it wasn't even sold out. BFD. TheLocal is really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

And Joshua Tree was their best album. Achtung Baby simply marked the start of their pretentious, preachy twunt phase.

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14:30 July 19, 2009 by Jude the Obscure

I was interested. And you clicked on the bugger too.

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23:10 July 20, 2009 by lordkorner

I think any concert that attracts a crowd of 90.000 plus is worth a mention. and as for it not been sold out, just how many tickets do you have to sell to sell out,maybe they should have played at the O2 arena,just so they could sell out!!!.I was there and I was blown away,,,U2, four guys who have been together for over 30 years,no changes in the line up,still producing amazing songs and still performing without the help of backing vocalist or brass section etc...............pure rock pure U2

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23:15 July 20, 2009 by eurobabs

Four days til Croke Park - Can not wait!!!

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01:29 July 21, 2009 by cantenaccio

Joshua Tree was their best album however.

I find Achtung Baby to be the best along with The Unforgettable Fire,it's edgier(no pun intended)and made here at a special point in time.JT is good but it always reminds me of the Americana side to U2,Bono speaking like a Yank ect

Fantastic gig

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06:32 July 21, 2009 by parnell

First part fine. Second part remarkably wrong - Bono has always been a preachy twunt. The best and most creative period of U2 is the trinity from Achtung Baby to Pop.

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14:09 July 21, 2009 by beatlebum

Did you hear U2 gave 5 million to Music Education in Ireland, it was announced today on Irish radio, its a pity other rich rock bands and rich people didn't do things like this, world would be a better place.

Have to admit though, what a gig.

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14:19 July 21, 2009 by SleeplessInMunich

Ach, that is just the money he saved by moving his buisness out of Ireland to avoid paying tax.

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#10

00:59 August 2, 2009 by susiemac

BEGRUDGER

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#11

10:10 November 9, 2009 by berniebird

Doco about Irish in Berlin before/during/after the fall of the wall:

RTE Radio - Pieces of the Wall

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#12

22:52 November 10, 2009 by Jay-cee

if there was another reason for having a wall in berlin,it would be to surround these whores.

BONIO - what a cnut.

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