A review by Ben / hia01bac@shef.ac.uk

I know the show was almost three months ago but to be honest it has taken me that long to get over the most kick-ass rock show Gods earth can ever have seen. I am only 21 and have not been able to see many older bands (the ones that did/do real tours, U2, Aerosmith, the Stones at their peak etc) but to those of you that have, does it get any better than this? I have seen them once before in Cardiff OWN 2001, and that was awesome but this show was just perfect. Me and my girlfriend arrived at the park around 11 and sat there all day in 4000 degrees of heat but it was worth and i would have done it all again the next night and paid double. Had really good places, literally at the front of the main section, althought was a little annoyed that the gold section in front of us wasnt fuller or that the main section couldnt have been further forward but never mind that, the show rocked. I thought the setlist was great, despite missing Hook Me Up, the best track on Bounce and Bed of Roses, Jovis best ballad. The balance between old and new, softer and harder was great, and considering the length of the tour and the fact that the crush and OWN tours are still quite recent that band was still fresh and jons voice was so strong. highlights for me were The Distance, in These Arms, Keep the Faith and of course These Days. They nailed it, the timing was perfect for that song. The band has been criticised for underplaying the These Days album, and just as i thought we were going to miss out they played it, and played it so well. even though jons voice was starting to falter it didnt matter by then, playing the song was the important bit. The performance of Lay your hands on me was fantastic also, with the brilliant performance by jon and the 'amen' bit. There were lots of cameras at the show, i hope they make this a DVD for Xmas release. I cant imagine there would be a better show, other than perhaps one in the Giants stadium. just heard that about the new acoustic album, should be great, and with the box set still in the pipeline and (hopefully) a DVD of the Hyde Park gig to come out there is plenty to look forward to.

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