[Jim Bon Jovi]

going to be a fairly short review on account of it not really being worth much more.

I'm not a major fan of u2 but i can still appreciate there stuff n thus got myself a ticket in a brilliant seat though i'd have prepared standing.

interpol and Black rebel motorcycle club supported. Kinda weak as far as other bands that have been doing the tour IMO. you can piss on hampden from my mates bird's garden so we just stayed there and turned a nice shade of red until u2 were close to coming on.

I've heard people saying the sound was bad in the manchester gigs and considering it;'s a stadium i wasn't too surprised but IMO the sound was diabolical.

it pretty much consisted of: top line melody with Bono singing (which you made out words here and there), the bass not actually wehat it was playing just that there was bass frequencies in there, same with the drtums, you got the beat but that was about it and the guitars just kinda made up the background. the only thing you could really make out consistently was the backing tracks.

they were tight but as i said, the sound pretty much ruined the thing for me. Bands having bad sound days at festivals when they barely get a soundcheck usually sound much better than this.

when they played the hits the place was bouncing, myself included. the other stuff, not so much.

Bonon wasn't as bad as i expected with regards to his preaching, he made a coupla comments about making poverty history and I had to kinda laugh when he said "6000 people a day die of mosquito bites in the world" i was thinking 60,000 people a day pay you n co 50 quid and up to sing, i dont even want to imagine how much that stage cost and the edge's gear cost upwards of 20 grand at least. don't preach to me about how we should help the poor boy.

when singing sunday bloody sunday they had co-exist come up on the screens with the crescent moon of Islam making the C, the star of David making the X and the cross making the T and it was just tacky IMO. surely someone turned round n thought, listen that just looks stupid bono mate. or maybe that's just me.

in the end. a good gig, not a great one, doesn't make my top 10 by a long shot and definetely not worth the money but it was OK n now i've seen them I don't need to bother again.

I feel the exact same about REM, you should see them just to see n say you have but that;s about it.