U2: Zoo TV Live from Sydney (1994)

Director:

David Mallet

Genre:

Documentary | Music

Awards:

1 win

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Bono	...	Singer
Adam Clayton	...	Bass Guitar
Larry Mullen Jr.	...	Drummer
The Edge	...	Guitar

Country:

Australia | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Canada:G (Nova Scotia) | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Trivia:

"This is a song Wim Wenders stole from the Beatles, we're stealing it back"- Bono parodies his own statement from the beginning of 'Rattle & Hum'.

Movie Connections:

Features "Hey Dad..!" (1987)

The benchmark for all stadium concerts

Stadium concerts in Australia were a rarity until the early nineties when the Aussie dollar plummeted and suddenly it was financially viable for big international acts to ship all their steel and speakers over the Pacific. Paul McCartney, Madonna and Michael Jackson all brought their massive stadium shows over, but by far the most exciting and magnificent tour to come was U2 and their Zoo TV tour- which to this day is still a benchmark for all tours to be judged on, including their own subsequent Popmart, Elevation and Vertigo tours.

After humble beginnings in an arena in Lakeland Florida in early 1992, the show evolved and grew into a monster that evolved and matched the continual popularity of their seminal masterpiece, Achtung Baby. U2 had deliberately not played any shows in America since 1987, but with their 're-invented' sound and look they were suddenly the only major draw-card anyone cared about in 1992- box office records were smashed. It was only a matter of time (well, a few months) before the show was let loose on the stadiums across North America and Europe, and everything about the stage show was magnified to the extreme- 36 massive screens, 11 Trabant cars, basically their own traveling satellite TV station.... the days of a big speaker stack and an out-of-sync screen in stadiums were gone.

By the time the tour reached here it was November 1993 (the band had even used a break between the North American and European stadium legs to record the Grammy-winning LP 'Zooropa') it was been tweaked and perfected to be the most perfect of perfect gigs ever recorded. From the opening video sequence the crowd was unbelievably responsive- probably bettered only by the crowd in their recent release 'Live At Slane Castle'. It's interesting to note however that by far the loudest cheer of the night was for when Bono began his usual channel-surfing and happened upon some footage of Richie Richardson being dismissed by Mark Waugh in a recent Australia vs West Indies cricket match!

The show is balanced absolutely magnificently, opening with a barrage of 'new' songs (although Achtung Baby had been released for 25 months by that stage) before switching to the acoustic set and finishing the main set with the absolute classic double punch of 'Where The Streeets Have No Name' and 'Pride'. Interestingly, 'Trying To Throw Your Arms Around The World' which was played between 'Numb' and 'Angel Of Harlem' was omitted from the official release, most likely due to the fact that the girl Bono sprayed champagne over was under-age.

Concert highlights for this humble reviewer? Having watched it at least once a week since i purchased it in 1994, and having just bought the DVD release last week, for me it's still 'Until The End Of The World', a song which just swamps the senses. The Edge has never sounded meaner and dirtier than in 'Dirty Day', and this version is infinitely better than the album version on 'Zooropa'. A special mention to the fantastic guitar solo's in 'Bullet The Blue Sky' and 'Love Is Blindness', the latter being perhaps the finest ending to a concert I have ever seen.