Radio Mastersound Blog

by Mark Reed

From where I am standing – looking across the stage on Edge’s side, just behind Bono’s microphone – I can see the other side of the stadium. I can see the security guards in shilouette, watching Bono sing. I can see advertising hoardings.

I can see a word framed in the doorway. The word is “hero”. As U2 are performing “Pride”, I walk around the stadium to see the view. Being a show in 360º, there is a view from everywhere in the building : as Bono sings about time not being linear, this show is meant to be experienced, to be seen, to be felt, and to be heard. You can watch it, you can intellectualise it, you can dance to it, but you must feel it.

The walls of the stadium are lined with quotes from sporting figures, written large on the walls. The word “hero” was just part of a larger axiom : “in every country, a hero is bred.”

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