U2, London, 12 June 1987

In the early Summer of 1987, I was in the Air Force, stationed in Sembach, West Germany. I was 19 years old. My uncle was also in the Air Force and stationed at a another base in Stuttgart, West Germany. I didn’t have a car or much money, so my uncle invited me to join him on a holiday in London. While we were there, I saw posters plastered all over the streets for the U2 Joshua Tree Tour. To my delight, I saw that they would be playing two dates at Wembley Stadium while I was in town! I went on a search for tickets and finally found some from a dodgy ticket broker in an office up some stairs from an alley in a bad part of town. I paid too much.

It was the greatest concert I have ever seen. Someday, I might try and describe how I felt as I watched it. I will almost certainly fail.

U2 is currently on a tour commemorating the 30th anniversary of that album. Nicole saw the concert in Houston and we were comparing our experiences. Something inspired me to check the web for photos from that concert I attended in 1987. I was rewarded with something even better – a bootleg recording of the concert on YouTube. I can verify it is authentic. As I listened to it, I was calling out things that I remembered Bono saying – specific things to the crowd, changed lyrics. The joy of seeing that show returned to me.

Sometimes, I question my memories. There have been so many remarkable things that have happened in my life that sometimes I think I have embellished ordinary events even to myself. But I read the YouTube comments (almost never a good idea) and scores of people confirmed my clear memories: the heart shaking opening organ chords from Where the Streets Have No Name, being involuntarily lifted into the air as the crowd began jumping up and down to the beat, Bono spraying water from a fire hose on those of us who had fought to the front and seeing steam rise from the throng, struggling to lift people to their feet before they were crushed by the swaying crowd, my arm cramping while I held my concert shirt tightly against my chest, snippets of Peter Gabriel’s Biko and Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart, and having the concert end with tens of thousands of people still singing the closing song, 40, as we all made our way to the tube and even continued singing in unison on the tube back home.

I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song

It was magical. I will never in my life forget that night.

Self portrait, 1987, with my U2 Joshua Tree concert shirt.

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